Web www.albaspectrum.com

Jewelry, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Gemstones, Diamonds - popular articles

Asia Minor And Its History And Legends From 1200 B.C. To 700 B.C.

Legends are usually just that, legends. However, some legends have more truth than you might know. Contrary to popular belief King Midas was real, but Midas’ touch wasn’t gold. In fact, the legend was based around a naturally occurring alloy of silver and gold combined. The alloy, widely used in ancient jewelry, was called electrum and was sourced in the Anatolian city-state of Phrygia under King Midas during the 7th century B.C.

Phrygian history in the Asian Minor region of Anatolia, now known as Turkey, started after King Priam of Troy’s defeat at the hands of Agamemnon’s Greek army. After Agamemnon’s Greek forces withdrew, Troy was absorbed into the Hittite empire. One hundred years later in 1200 B.C., the great walls of Troy, the northern-most Hittite outpost of Asia-Minor fell again, this time to the Phrygians.

By 1190 B.C. the Phrygians, a race of people originating from southern Europe, definitively ended the Hittite reign of Anatolia with the sacking of the Hittite capital Hattusas. The Phrygians eventually penetrated as far south as the Assyrian border to the east of Anatolia, and by the 8th Century B.C. had created the political state of Phrygia in western Anatolia. The Phrygian state's capital Gordian, said to be named after a poor peasant farmer called Gordias, was located slightly southwest of what is now modern Ankara in Turkey.

According to Phrygian legend, the farmer Gordias was appointed King by the gods. In tribute to them, he tied up his ox-cart outside the temple, as a reminder to all not to forget the nobility of humble origins. As decades gave way to centuries, another legend grew around the bound cart. According to the oracle of Gordian, only the rightful ‘King of Asia’ could unravel the ‘Gordian Knot’ that tied the cart up. In the winter of 333 B.C., an army of Macedonian mercenaries led by a young man called Alexander came to Gordian. As had many before him, Alexander rose to the undefeated challenge, but instead of trying to untie it with his hands Alexander took his sword and slashed the knot in two…that Alexander became ‘Alexander The Great’.

Today, the saying ‘Cutting the Gordian Knot’ is an expression meaning to solve a difficult problem with a bold solution. However, this is not the most famous of Phrygian legends. 400 years before Alexander, King Gordias, having had no heir to succeed him had adopted a son who came to the throne in 725 B.C. This king’s tale is one of the first and most famous legends on the perils of wealth:

According to classical mythology Dionysus, or Bacchus as the Romans knew him, was the Olympian god of wine. Unsurprisingly popular, he was especially venerated in the Asian Minor city-state of Phrygia where he held a cult status. Dionysus, son of Zeus, was followed by a group of satyrs, half human half goat-like figures. One day Silenus, the eldest of the satyrs, and also Dionysus' tutor, drunk himself into a paralytic stupor and passed out in the King of Phrygia’s rose garden. The Phrygian ruler, who took great pride in his roses, was no less than King Midas. After finding Silenus, Midas treated the inebriated satyr and nursed him back to good health.

Dionysus, in gratitude for saving Silenius’ life, asked what King Midas wanted in return. After some consideration Midas asked that everything he touched should turn to gold. Granted with his wish Midas amused himself by touching everything around him, watching it turn to gold. However, his gift soon manifested itself as a burden when he found that even the food he touched turned to gold. Dying of hunger he asked his daughter to feed him, but in the process of feeding the ailing King, she too turned to gold. Consumed with grief Midas pleaded that the gift, turned curse, be lifted. Taking pity on Midas, Dionysus instructed that if the King washed in the Paktolos River that flowed through the kingdom, he would be cured. Midas did as he was told, but in cleansing himself of the spell the King caused the Paktolos River to become laden with precious metals.

One of the first parables created on the evils of excessive wealth, the ‘Midas Touch’ is the stuff of legend. However, neither King Midas nor his bounty of precious metals is myth. King Midas ruled over Phrygia during the 7th Century B.C. until he committed suicide when Gordian fell to the Cimmerian invasions. Up until then, under Midas, the Phrygian city-state witnessed both a golden and silver age.

Phrygia's wealth of gold and silver was due to the Paktolos River, which also ran through the neighboring city-state of Lydia. The Paktolos, still flowing in Anatolia today, was laden with a naturally occurring precious metal called electrum: an alloy of gold and silver. Enriching the economies of both Phrygia and the neighboring kingdom of Lydia, the Paktolos River’s bounty of precious metals ensured that the two regions became the most coveted areas of Anatolia and the known civilized world.

In 696 B.C., Cimmerian attacks and eventual sacking of Gordian ended Midas’ rule of Phrygia. Having occupied Phrygia, and assumed its wealth of gold and silver, the barbaric Cimmerians from the area now known as Crimea, continued to invade Anatolia. Finally in 620 B.C., they pushed into the neighboring city-state of Lydia, but were defeated by the superior strength of the Lydian army. Phrygia’s wealth of gold, silver and electrum was then absorbed into the Lydian empire where it would be forged into a radical concept that would change the world forever…The first organized monetary system.

Read Silver Jewelry History That Became Legend Part II – Jason And The Fleece

Read Silver Jewelry History That Became Legend Part III – The Lydian Trite

Copyright © SilverShake Corporation. All Rights Reserved.