The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 05 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 05 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M97) Now a deity of almost precisely the same type figures prominently in
the celebrated group of Hittite sculptures which is carved on the rocks at
Boghaz-Keui in North-Western Cappadocia. The village of Boghaz-Keui, that
is, “the village of the defile,” stands at the mouth of a deep, narrow,
and picturesque gorge in a wild upland valley, shut in by rugged mountains
of grey limestone. The houses are built on the lower slopes of the hills,
and a stream issuing from the gorge flows past them to join the Halys,
which is distant about ten hours’ journey to the west. Immediately above
the modern village a great ancient city, enclosed by massive fortification
walls, rose on the rough broken ground of the mountainside, culminating in
two citadels perched on the tops of precipitous crags. The walls are still
standing in many places to a height of twelve feet or more. They are about
fourteen feet thick and consist of an outer and inner facing built of
large blocks with a core of rubble between them. On the outer side they
are strengthened at intervals of about a hundred feet by projecting towers
or buttresses, which seem designed rather as architectural supports than
as military defences. The masonry, composed of large stones laid in
roughly parallel courses, resembles in style that of the walls of Mycenae,
with which it may be contemporary; and the celebrated Lion-gate at Mycenae
has its counterpart in the southern gate of Boghaz-Keui, which is flanked
by a pair of colossal stone lions executed in the best style of Hittite
art. The eastern gate is adorned on its inner side with the figure of a
Hittite warrior or Amazon carved in high relief. A dense undergrowth of
stunted oak coppice now covers much of the site. The ruins of a large
palace or temple, built of enormous blocks of stone, occupy a terrace in a
commanding situation within the circuit of the walls. This vast city, some
four or five miles in circumference, appears to have been the ancient
Pteria, which Croesus, king of Lydia, captured in his war with Cyrus. It
was probably the capital of a powerful Hittite empire before the Phrygians
made their way from Europe into the interior of Asia Minor and established
a rival state to the west of the Halys.(407)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account