Phrygian cap

“ Almost the only fact which we know as to the history of Phrygia is that recorded by Strabo [67] , who tells of a Phrygian king Midas, who, when his kingdom was devastated about B.C. 680 by an invasion of the Cimmerians, committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood. After the Cimmerians had retired, the kingdom of the Lydians arose to a great height of power and splendour, but that of the Phrygians did not fully recover, remaining a dependency of Lydia.
The Midas of the Midas Tomb can scarcely be the monarch who fell in the darkest hour of his country’s history. ”

“ He was a man of fine proportions and in the prime of life, and his strength was slowly ebbing away in horrible and feverish torture. The Galli as they passed spat on him, but Onesimus stayed behind. The wretch was not only living, though in extreme agony, but would probably continue to live for two days more, unless the wolves got at him or the magistrates thought fit to send their lictors to end his life by two blows of a ponderous mallet in order to save the trouble of having the cross watched. It was no base curiosity which made the Phrygian linger by that spectacle of shame and anguish. ”

“ This elided tone was probably the Lichanos of the Phrygian scale ( [Greek: harmonia] ) , or f, if we take the octave from d to d ́ on the white keys of the piano. The Phrygian was naturally the scale used by Olympus, whose home was Phrygia, but he is also said to have introduced this ‘enharmonic’ type of melody into the Dorian mode. When the full octachord came into consideration (originally the scale was limited to seven [Pg 113] notes) the omission of the upper tone of the higher semi-tone interval (from b to c) followed as a matter of course. ”

“ In a note to this Mr Mead quotes from The Life of Isidorus: "I fell asleep and in a vision Attis seemed to appear to me, and on behalf of the Mother of gods to initiate me into the feast called Hilario, a mystery which discloses the way of our salvation from Hades." Throughout the document reference is continually made to the Phrygians and their doctrine of Man. The Eleusinian Mysteries are then treated of as subsequent to the Phrygian, "after the Phrygians, the Athenians," but the teaching is represented as being essentially identical. ”

“ This is not felt as a difficulty with all the species. Thus the so-called Dorian octave e-e is in the Enharmonic genus e e* f a b b* c e, a scale which may be regarded as the Diatonic with g and d omitted, and the semitones divided. But the Phrygian d-d cannot pass in any such way into the Enharmonic Phrygian c e e* f a b b* c, which answers rather to the Diatonic scale of the species c-c (the Lydian) . The scholars who connect the ancient Modes with the species generally confine themselves to octaves of the Diatonic genus. ”

“ But on the other side we have the repeated complaints [Pg 62] of Aristoxenus that the earlier theorists confined themselves to Enharmonic octave scales. We have also the circumstance that the writer or compiler of the pseudo-Euclidean treatise, who is our earliest authority for the names of the species, gives these names for the Enharmonic genus only. Here, once more, we feel the difference between theory and practice. To a theorist there is no great difficulty in the terms Diatonic Phrygian and Enharmonic Phrygian meaning essentially different things. ”

“ And as there are seven possible species of the Octave, we obtain seven different Systems or scales. From these assumptions it follows, as Ptolemy shows in some detail, that any greater number of keys is useless. If a key is an octave higher than another, it is superfluous because it gives us a mere repetition of the same intervals [29] .
[Pg 79]
If we interpose a key between (e.g.) the Hypo-dorian and the Hypo-phrygian, it must give us over again either the Hypo-dorian or the Hypo-phrygian scale [30] . ”

“ But Herbert Greyson, speaking up, said:
"Good people, prevent the escape of those men until we hear what this young lady has to say! that we may judge whether to let them go or to take them before a magistrate."
The people flew to the doors and windows and secured them, and then surrounded the two Le Noirs, who found themselves prisoners.
"Now, Capitola, tell us how it is that you are here!" said Herbert Greyson.
"Well, that elder man," said Cap, "is the guardian of a young heiress who was betrothed to a worthy young man, one Doctor Traverse Rocke." ”

“ I had often on the earth drawn a smile from my friends by showing them Cape Heraclides with a telescope, and calling their attention to the fact that the outline of the peak terminating the cape was such as to present a remarkable resemblance to a human face, unmistakably a feminine countenance, seen in profile, and possessing no small degree of beauty. To my astonishment, this curious human semblance still remained when we had approached so close to the moon that the mountains forming the cape filled nearly the whole field of view of the window from which I was watching it. ”

“ Now, that music can heal diseases, Theophrastus asserts in his treatise on Enthusiasm, where he says that men with diseases in the loins become free from pain if any one plays a Phrygian air opposite to the part affected. And the Phrygians are the first people who invented and employed the harmony which goes by their name; owing to which circumstance it is that the flute-players among the Greeks have usually Phrygian and servile-sounding names, such as Sambas in Alcman, and Adon, and Telus. ”

“ This cap has part of its curves—those behind the head approximating too closely to the curve of the skull: in fact, at the hinder part it is a skull-cap; whereas, the other part of the curves in front are too much in opposition to the outline of the face: they bend over and form an unpleasant contrast with the nose and chin: they are deficient in the shade or visor, and there is not one man in a thousand whose face they suit. All fancy-caps with whalebone, falling tops, angular projections, &c., are utterly abominate ”

“ You shall go, and you shall win."
"But how am I to get there, so great a distance? and how am I to support myself when there? and what am I to do if I were to get there?"
"Listen," said the Phooka. "The clothes you have assumed have magic powers. The cap is the cap of intellect, and makes you see clearly and determine correctly. When in doubt, state the case in your own mind; when [Pg 162] you have come to what you should do, the cap will bind itself tightly to your head. The jerkin is the jerkin of strength. While you wear it you will have four times the strength of other men. ”

“ Hypophrygian, [5] Hypolydian, and Hypomixolydian, [6] Modes. On the other hand, it was indispensable that the numbers of the Modes should be entirely changed; the Phrygian becoming the Third Mode, instead of the Second; the Lydian, the Fifth; and the Mixolydian, the Seventh: the Second, Fourth, Sixth, and Eighth places, being reserved for the newer Plagal forms. ”

“ As she stood up, the picture she made—her face, half in glow half in shadow, the vivid life of her contrasting with the golden ruins of the walls—wrought with such ardour upon my imagination, that I felt that, if I failed in that moment to take advantage of the creative impulse its beauty awoke in me, I deserved to be writ down for ever more the emasculate cypher of her strictures. So very quietly I got out the block, pencils, and a handful of coloured crayons which I made it my constant practice to carry about with me.
“Fifine,” I said, “don’t move: stand just as you are. ”

“ Mazin now said to himself, "This cap can become nobody but me, to whom it will be most advantageous in the object of my expedition. Perhaps it may conduct me to my wife and children, and I may obtain from its possession all I wish. It is certainly one of the wonders of the world and rarities of the age, not to be found among the riches of kings of the present day." When he had ruminated thus, he said, "I am acquainted with the properties of the cap, what are those of the drum?" ”

“ He took a second "swig" at the brandy bottle and then went into his place of concealment to wait events.
That same hour Capitola was her uncle's partner in a prolonged game of chess. It was near eleven o'clock before Cap, heartily tired of the battle, permitted herself to be beaten in order to get to bed.
With a satisfied chuckle, Old Hurricane arose from his seat, lighted two bed-chamber lamps, gave one to Capitola, took the other himself, and started off for his room, followed by Cap as far as the head of the first flight of stairs, where she bade him good night. ”

“ Certainly Edwin Percy was as opposite in character to John Stone, as they both were to Capitola, yet great was the relative attraction among the three. Cap impartially divided her kind offices as hostess between them.
John Stone joined Old Hurricane in many a hard day's hunt, and Capitola was often of the party.
Edwin Percy spent many hours on the luxurious lounge in the parlor, where Cap was careful to place a stand with chocolate, cigars, wax matches and his favorite books. ”

“ But the Paphlagonians and Phrygians are prone to neither of these vices; nor are the sports of the circus and theatrical exhibitions in much estimation among them even to the present day. And for this reason, it seems to me, these people, as well as others of the same character, so readily assented to the letters then written by Novatus. Fornication and adultery are regarded among them as the grossest enormities: and it is well known that there is no race of men on the face of the earth who more rigidly govern their passions in this respect than the Phrygians and Paphlagonians. ”

“ It was actually so. Strewed all about the ground, with little alleys of commerce dividing the groups, was an infinite confusion of pottery—jugs, dishes, cooking utensils, and what not; and, pervading it, a number of picturesque figures, swarthy of face, hot-dyed of dress and neckerchief, the whole constituting a sort of gypsies’ fair. Fifine stood as if dumbstricken.
“Perhaps now,” I said, “the clue of memory taken up will lead you back to your birthplace?” ”

“ Her eyes might dream slumberous; but in their depths was an exulting spark that confessed their vivid wakefulness. And she cried out once with rapture when there passed close by the windows of the running train a characteristic little procession—a shepherd boy, driving a flock of twenty or so sheep, each individual member of which wore a favour of crimson ribbon knotted into the wool above his withers.
“O, how pretty!” cried Fifine. “We are in Arcady, Felix—and—and I will never eat mutton again.”
“Arcady it may be,” said I: “but, if so, Arcady has its wolves. ”

“ All immense, all significant, all spectral despite its ponderous actuality; teeming with the infinite dust and debris of bygone story; ruins like rocks and rocks like ruins, one indistinguishable confusion and torrent of stone. Long ago from the floor of the little church they had unearthed the body of some beautiful unknown châtelaine. She had golden hair, like the maid of Pornic, that stretched down on either side to her feet. It was all that survived from the desecration, and it was deposited in Mistral’s museum at Arles. Fifine had seen it there; and, of course, Carabas. ”

“ Always they, like the gods of Greece, endeared themselves to humanity by possessing some little, or big, human weakness. And Freya is none the less lovable to the descendants of her worshippers because she possessed the so-called "feminine weakness" of love of dress. Jewels, too, she loved, and knowing the wondrous skill of the dwarfs in fashioning exquisite ornaments, she broke off a piece of gold from the statue of Odin, her husband, and gave it to them to make into a necklace—the marvellous jewelled necklace Brisingamen, that in time to come was possessed by Beowulf. ”

“ I enjoyed myself, I confess it; there was something exhilarating in this contact with the fresh clean North in a fervid land, and Clarice, as a fair young Englishwoman, did her country and me, I felt, the most gratifying credit. We went back to lunch at the Hôtel, to recruit against fresh exertions, and started off again without having seen anything of Fifine. That did not disturb me, but rather otherwise; I had had quite enough of her for the time being, and her presence in the room would have been nothing but an embarrassment. ”

“ As we turned under the archway in the Rue de Fleurus, we left behind us the memory of a quiet little moon rising over the towers of Notre Dame.
Madame Crussol appeared to greet us as we passed the conciergerie.
“Ah! So you are back,” she said. “It is a time ill-chosen for those who would seek Paris for its comfort and its safety. You had better have remained with your savages in the south.”
Her manner was severe, if her utterance was cryptic. But I was confident in her secret regard for me; and I believe she had always a soft place in her heart for Fifine. ”

“ The multiplicity of forms under which essentially the same divinity presents itself in history and in popular belief may be illustrated by the mother-goddess of the Teutons. As Freyja she is the female counterpart of Freyr; as Nerthus of Freyr’s northern doublet, Njordr. When Wodan largely absorbs the elemental functions, she becomes his wife, as Frîja or Frigg. Through her association with the heaven-gods, she is herself a heaven-as well as an earth-goddess [366] , the Eostre of Bede [367] , as well as the Erce of the Anglo-Saxon ploughing charm [368] . ”