Lydians

“ In Lydia the original race and their language held their own. The Lydians were a non-Aryan people speaking a non-Aryan speech, of which at the present time only a few words are known. Their capital city was Sardis. ”

“ The Lydians were a mixed people, formed, it is thought, by the mingling, in prehistoric times, of Aryan tribes that crossed the Aegean from Europe, with the original non-Aryan population of the country. ”

“ The manners, too, and customs of the Lydians, did not differ essentially from those of the Greeks; and the princes of Lydia, like the sovereigns of Persia, being accustomed to employ Phœnician or Egyptian sailors, the colony of Lydians, which settled in Italy, might thus contain a mixture of such people, and present those appearances which have led some antiquarians to consider the Etruscans as Phœnicians or Egyptians, while others have regarded them as Greeks. ”

“ And when the Lydians had arrived at the places to which they had been sent and had dedicated the votive offerings, they inquired of the Oracles and said: "Croesus, king of the Lydians and of other nations, considering that these are the only true Oracles among men, presents to you 57 gifts such as your revelations deserve, and asks you again now whether he shall march against the Persians, and if so, whether he shall join with himself any army of men as allies." ”

“ Cyme, Phocæa, Smyrna, Colophon, Ephesus. Priene, Myus, and Miletus were on the land of the Carians." M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, book 4, chapter 17. "On the basis of a population related to the Phrygians and Armenians arose the nation of the Lydians, which through its original ancestor, Lud, would appear in Eastern tradition also to be reckoned as a member of the Semitic family. As long as we remain unacquainted with the spoken and written language of the Lydians, it will be impossible to define with any accuracy the mixture of peoples which here took place. ”

“ Phrygian cheese and salt-provisions, Lydian unguents, [405] carpets and colored shoes, acquired notoriety. Both Phrygians and Lydians are noticed by Greek authors subsequent to the establishment of the Persian empire as a people timid, submissive, industrious, and useful as slaves,—an attribute not ascribed to the Mysians, [406] who are usually described as brave and hardy mountaineers, difficult to hold in subjection: nor even true respecting the Lydians, during the earlier times anterior to the complete overthrow of Crœsus by Cyrus; for they were then esteemed for their warlike prowess. ”

“ All the daughters of the common people of Lydia ply the trade of prostitutes, to collect dowries, till they can get themselves husbands; and they offer themselves in marriage. Now this tomb has a circumference of six furlongs and a third, and its breadth is above two furlongs; and there is a great lake hard by the tomb, which, say the Lydians, is fed by ever-flowing springs; it is called the Gygaean lake. Such then is this tomb.
94. The customs of the Lydians are like those of the Greeks, save that they make prostitutes of their female children. ”

“ These he placed before the army, then followed the infantry, and after them the Persian horse. He bade them not to slay Crœsus, even though he should seek to defend himself when taken captive. When the battle broke out, the Lydian horses were alarmed at the sight and smell of the camels, and turned, and so the hopes of Crœsus were destroyed. Yet the Lydians did not lose their courage; they sprang from their horses and met the Persians on foot. ”

“ The Lydians, a people of undeniable genius, seem to have built upon an indigenous foundation a composite civilization, made up largely of elements drawn from foreign lands. Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt all contributed to its formation; and the influence of the Greek of the Asian coast and of Europe is unmistakable, especially in the last years of its independent existence. It was, indeed, in the main a “civilization of intercourse,” due to the important trading relations of the kingdom with the various nations which lay within its reach. ”

“ The statement is on the whole borne out by the few Lydian, Mysian and Carian words that have been preserved, as well as by the general character of the civilization prevailing among the three nations. The race was probably a mixed one, consisting of aborigines and Aryan immigrants. It was characterized by industry and a commercial spirit, and, before the Persian conquest, by bravery. The religion of the Lydians resembled that of the other civilized nations of Asia Minor. It was a nature worship, which at times became wild and sensuous. ”

“ The Lydians appear to have been a people, like the Egyptians, of nearly immemorial civilisation, and, like the Asiatic tribes who fought for the Trojans, to have had a common origin with the Greeks themselves, and to have differed little from them in manners and customs. ”

“ Miletus, Myus, and Priene commanded the mouth of the Mæander; Ephesus and Colophon the [Pg 428] mouth of the Cayster; Phocæa and Cyme the mouth of the Hermus. An active prince on the throne of Lydia could not endure that the Greeks should remain in possession of the coast, which they had taken from the Lydians, and keep the Lydians for ever cut off from the sea. The new dynasty must attempt to recover the losses which their predecessors had been unable to prevent. ”

“ But Clearchus, in the fourth book of his Lives, says—"The Lydians, out of luxury, made parks; and having planted them like gardens, made them very shady, thinking it a refinement in luxury if the sun never touched them with its rays at all; and at last they carried their insolence to such a height, that they used to collect other men's wives and maidens into a place that, [Pg 827] from this conduct, got the name of Hagneon, and there ravished them. And at last, having become utterly effeminate, they lived wholly like women instead of like men ”

“ These were Media, Lydia, and Babylon. The capital of Lydia was Sardis. According to Herodotus, the first king of Lydia was Manes. In the semi-mythic period of Lydian history rose the great dynasty of the [Greek: Heraclidæ] , which reigned for 505 years, numbering twenty-two kings—B.C. 1229 to B.C. 745. The Lydians are said by Herodotus to have colonized Tyrrhenia, in the Italic peninsula, and to have extended their conquests into Syria, where they founded Ascalon in the territory later known as Palestine. ”

“ The first is the large prehistoric city extending over the hill and plateau. The second is the historic Ilium in its three phases of primitive Æolic occupation of the Acropolis, the Macedonian city, and the Roman Ilium.
The immediate neighbours of Troy were the Lydians, whom history makes the forefathers of the ancient Etruscans. [630] Herodotus (i. 94) tells the tale of Tyrrhenus and his emigration, which, however, differs from the account of Xanthus Lydius preserved by Nicolaus of Damascus. In the ‘Iliad’ (ii. 864) , the Lydians appear only as Mæonians. ”

“ He took Mithrines with him, treating him with honour; and granted the Sardians and other Lydians the privilege of enjoying the ancient laws of Lydia, and permitted them to be free. He then ascended into the citadel, which was garrisoned by the Persians. ”

“ Herodotus tells us that Crœsus bade the Lydians sacrifice from their own stores on that occasion; hence the great sacrifice, the gold of which Crœsus dedicated to the god of Miletus and Delphi, was a national offering, which Crœsus presented to Sandon. We have already shown that the Greeks recognised in the sun-god of the Lydians their own Apollo and Hercules, while the Lydians found their solar deity in the Apollo of the Greeks. ”

“ They dissolved the old material civilization of Cushite and Turanian origin. What passion for vast conquests! "These rugged tribes, devoted to their chiefs, led by Cyrus from their herds and hunting-grounds to startle the pampered Lydians with their spare diet and clothing of skins; living on what they could get, strangers to wine and wassail, schooled in manly exercises, cleanly even to superstition, loyal to age and filial duties; with a manly pride of personal independence that held a debt the next worst thing to a lie ”

“ The Lydians were a civilised people who first coined gold (Herod. i. 94) and stamped silver (ibid.) ; [631] their name will ever be connected with music. With them twelve was a sacred number; it formed the perfect Amphictyony of the Ionians, and it survived in the Confederacy of Etruscan cities (Livy, v. 33) . Finally, the tomb of Alyattes [632] is apparently a prototype of the Etruscan sepulchres; and the peculiarity of these ‘homes of the dead’ suggests direct derivation from Egypt rather than coincidental resemblance. ”

“ Having called attention to the more important nations, the Tyrians, the Carthaginians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, some other peoples who, in the ancient history of the world, played an important part, as maritime or naval states, require to be noticed, but more briefly.
Among these are the following: Lydia, Ionia, Caria, Phrygia, Sinope, Cilicia, and Scythia.
Lydia.
To take first Lydia. There can be no doubt that [Pg 40] the Persians deemed the conquest of Lydia one of the most important of their achievements, in the erroneous belief that the Lydians were a great naval power. ”

“ In the earlier part of our story, during the latter rule of Assyria in the farther East and the subsequent rule of the Medes and the Babylonians in her room, intercourse had been carried on almost entirely by intermediaries, among whom (if something must be allowed to the Cilicians) the Lydians were undoubtedly the most active. In the later part of the story it will be seen that the intermediaries have vanished; the barriers are down; the East has itself come to the West and intercourse is immediate and direct. ”

“ Lydians — their music and instruments. — They and their capital Sardis unknown to Homer. — Early Lydian kings. — Kandaulês and Gygês. — The Mermnad dynasty succeeds to the Herakleid. — Legend of Gygês in Plato. — Feminine influence running through the legends of Asia Minor. — Distribution of Lydia into two parts — Lydia and Torrhêbia. — Proceedings of Gygês. — His son and successor Ardys. — Assyrians and Medes. — First Median king — Dêïokês. — His history composed of Grecian materials, not Oriental. — Phraortês — Kyaxarês. — Siege of Nineveh — invasion of the Scythians and Cimmerians. ”

“ Candaules was the last of the Heraclidæ; and Gyges the first, and Crœsus the last, of the Mermnadæ. The Lydians were great warriors in the reign of the Mermnadæ. They invented the art of coining gold and silver, and were the first who exhibited public sports, &c. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 6; bk. 3, ch. 90; bk. 7, ch. 74.—Strabo, bks. 2, 5, & 13.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Justin, bk. 13, ch. 4.――A mistress of Horace, &c., bk. 1, ode 8.
Lydias, a river of Macedonia. ”

“ Lydian kings held responsible for the weather and the crops, i. 366, v. 183;
their divinity, v. 182 sqq.;
traced their descent from Ninus and Hercules, ix. 391
Lydians celebrate a festival of Dionysus in spring, vii. 15
Lydus, Joannes, on Phrygian rites at Rome, v. 266 n. 2;
on the expulsion of Mamurius Veturius, ix. 229 n. 1
Lyell, Sir Charles, on hot springs, v. 213 n. 4;
on volcanic phenomena in Syria and Palestine, v. 222 n. 1
Lying-in women, widespread fear of, iii. ”

“ Looking anxiously from the window, Lydia saw her husband hurrying to the house. On entering he cried,
"Lydia, Lydia, pray as you never prayed before. Our beloved Prophet is taken prisoner! The wretch who decoyed him out has betray his Prophet, his religion and his God! Listen to those awful sounds! May the God of Israel hold their lives as in His hand. My wife, these are bitter days."
"Newel, I am full of weakness."
"Do not go outside the house, for prowlers are around and will injure you if they find you in their power. I must go now, my girl. ”

“ The subjugation of Babylonia to the Persian authority has already been narrated (see p. 60) . We will now tell how Cyrus gained the kingdom of Lydia.
[Illustration: KINGDOMS OF LYDIA, MEDIA, AND BABYLONIA. C. B.C. 550]
Lydia was a country in the western part of Asia Minor. It was a land highly favored by nature. It embraced two rich river valleys,—the plains of the Hermus and the Cayster,—which, from the mountains inland, slope gently to the island-dotted Aegean. ”

“ Lydia's father looked at her, long and meditatively. He was pretty well discouraged about the probability of ever getting a clear title to the land through Kent or Marshall. And the longer he looked at Lydia, the more his mind reverted to New England, to old tales of the farm on which he and his ancestors had been bred.
"A man with three hundred and twenty acres of land is a power in the community," he said, suddenly.
"Oh, yes, Dad!" cried Lydia.
"You never know what a feeling of independence is," said Lizzie, "till you own land and raise wheat."
Amos stared out the door into the darkness. ”

“ The sun shines low through the trellis and breaks, rosy, against my glass; he glances and trembles golden among thy locks, O Lydia. Among the blackness of thy locks, O snowy Lydia, a pallid rose languishes, and a gentle sudden sadness tempers the fires of love in my heart. Tell me: why does the sea down there send up mysterious groanings under the flaming evening? What songs, O Lydia, do those pines sing to each other? See with what desire those hills stretch out their arms to the setting sun: the shadow grows and embraces them: it seems as though they were begging the last kiss, O Lydia. ”