The Phrygians (Phruges or Phryges) were an ancient Indo-European people, initially dwelling in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges (Briges), changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont.

From tribal and village beginnings, the state of Phrygia arose in the 8th century BC with its capital at Gordium. During this period, the Phrygians extended eastward and encroached upon the kingdom of Urartu, the descendants of the Hurrians, a former rival of the Hittites.

Meanwhile the Phrygian Kingdom was overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders c. 690 BC, then briefly conquered by its neighbor Lydia, before it passed successively into the Persian Empire of Cyrus and the empire of Alexander and his successors, was taken by the Attalids of Pergamon, and eventually became part of the Roman Empire. The last mentions of the language date to the 5th century AD and it was likely extinct by the 7th century AD.^[1]

Culture[link]

The Phrygian goddess Cybele with her attributes

It was the "Great Mother", Cybele, as the Greeks and Romans knew her, who was originally worshiped in the mountains of Phrygia, where she was known as "Mountain Mother". In her typical Phrygian form, she wears a long belted dress, a polos (a high cylindrical headdress), and a veil covering the whole body. The later version of Cybele was established by a pupil of Phidias, the sculptor Agoracritus, and became the image most widely adopted by Cybele's expanding following, both in the Aegean world and at Rome. It shows her humanized though still enthroned, her hand resting on an attendant lion and the other holding the tympanon, a circular frame drum, similar to a tambourine.

The Phrygians also venerated Sabazios, the sky and father-god depicted on horseback. Although the Greeks associated Sabazios with Zeus, representations of him, even at Roman times, show him as a horseman god. His conflicts with the indigenous Mother Goddess, whose creature was the Lunar Bull, may be surmised in the way that Sabazios' horse places a hoof on the head of a bull, in a Roman relief at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Part (about 70%) of Phrygian inscription in 'Midas City'.

Phrygia developed an advanced Bronze Age culture. The earliest traditions of Greek music derived from Phrygia, transmitted through the Greek colonies in Anatolia, and included the Phrygian mode, which was considered to be the warlike mode in ancient Greek music. Phrygian Midas, the king of the "golden touch", was tutored in music by Orpheus himself, according to the myth. Another musical invention that came from Phrygia was the aulos, a reed instrument with two pipes. Marsyas, the satyr who first formed the instrument using the hollowed antler of a stag, was a Phrygian follower of Cybele. He unwisely competed in music with the Olympian Apollo and inevitably lost, whereupon Apollo flayed Marsyas alive and provocatively hung his skin on Cybele's own sacred tree, a pine.

While some consider the Phrygians part of a wider "Thraco-Phrygian" group, other linguists dismiss this hypothesis since Thracian (and hence Daco-Thracian) seem to belong to the Satem group of Indo-European languages, while Phrygian shared several similarities with other Indo-European languages of the Centum group (Latin, the Anatolian languages). Of all the Indo-European languages, Phrygian seems to have been most closely linked to Greek, suggesting that the two languages belonged to the same dialectal subgroup of early Indo-European.^[2][3]A conventional date of c. 1180 BC is often used, at the very end of the Hittite empire.

Phrygia retained a separate cultural identity. Classical Greek iconography identifies the Trojan Paris as non-Greek by his Phrygian cap, which was worn by Mithras and survived into modern imagery as the "Liberty cap" of the American and French revolutionaries. The Phrygians spoke an Indo-European language. (See Phrygian language.) Although the Phrygians adopted the alphabet originated by the Phoenicians, only a few dozen inscriptions in the Phrygian language have been found, primarily funereal, and so much of what is thought to be known of Phrygia is second-hand information from Greek sources.

Mythic past[link]

The name of the earliest known mythical king was Nannacus (aka Annacus).^[4] This king resided at Iconium, the most eastern city of the kingdom of Phrygia at that time; and after his death, at the age of 300 years, a great flood overwhelmed the country, as had been foretold by an ancient oracle. The next king mentioned in extant classical sources was called Manis or Masdes. According to Plutarch, because of his splendid exploits, great things were called "manic" in Phrygia.^[5] Thereafter the kingdom of Phrygia seems to have become fragmented among various kings. One of the kings was Tantalus who ruled over the north western region of Phrygia around Mount Sipylus. Tantalus was endlessly punished in Tartarus, because he allegedly killed his son Pelops and sacrificially offered him to the Olympians, a reference to the suppression of human sacrifice. Tantalus was also falsely accused of stealing from the lotteries he had invented. In the mythic age before the Trojan war, during a time of an interregnum, Gordius (or Gordias), a Phrygian farmer, became king, fulfilling an oracular prophecy. The kingless Phrygians had turned for guidance to the oracle of Sabazios ("Zeus" to the Greeks) at Telmissus, in the part of Phrygia that later became part of Galatia. They had been instructed by the oracle to acclaim as their king the first man who rode up to the god's temple in a cart. That man was Gordias (Gordios, Gordius), a farmer, who dedicated the ox-cart in question, tied to its shaft with the "Gordian Knot". Gordias refounded a capital at Gordium in west central Anatolia, situated on the old trackway through the heart of Anatolia that became Darius's Persian "Royal Road" from Pessinus to Ancyra, and not far from the River Sangarius.

Later mythic kings of Phrygia were alternately named Gordias and Midas. Myths surround the first king Midas.^[6] connecting him with a mythological tale concerning Attis.^[7] This shadowy figure resided at Pessinus and attempted to marry his daughter to the young Attis in spite of the opposition of his lover Agdestis and his mother, the goddess Cybele. When Agdestis and/or Cybele appear and cast madness upon the members of the wedding feast. Midas is said to have died in the ensuing chaos.

The famous king Midas was said to be a son of the kind Gordius mentioned above. He is said to have associated himself with Silenus and other satyrs and with Dionysus, who granted him the famous "golden touch". The "golden touch" literally meant that "whatever was backed by Phrygian gold and skills would become prosperous."

Man in Phrygian costume, Hellenistic period (3rd–1st century BC), Cyprus

The mythic Midas of Thrace, accompanied by a band of his people, traveled to Asia Minor to wash away the taint of his unwelcome "golden touch" in the river Pactolus. Leaving the gold in the river's sands, Midas found himself in Phrygia, where he was adopted by the childless king Gordias and taken under the protection of Cybele. Acting as the visible representative of Cybele, and under her authority, it would seem, a Phrygian king could designate his successor.

According to the Iliad, the Phrygians were Trojan allies during the Trojan War. The Phrygia of Homer's Iliad appears to be located in the area that embraced the Ascanian lake and the northern flow of the Sangarius river and so was much more limited in extent than classical Phrygia. Homer's Iliad also includes a reminiscence by the Trojan king Priam, who had in his youth come to aid the Phrygians against the Amazons (Iliad 3.189). During this episode (a generation before the Trojan War), the Phrygians were said to be led by Otreus and Mygdon. Both appear to be little more than eponyms: there was a place named Otrea on the Ascanian Lake, in the vicinity of the later Nicaea; and the Mygdones were a people of Asia Minor, who resided near Lake Dascylitis (there was also a Mygdonia in Macedonia). During the Trojan War, the Phrygians sent forces to aid Troy, led by Ascanius and Phorcys, the sons of Aretaon. Asius, son of Dymas and brother of Hecabe, is another Phrygian noble who fought before Troy. Quintus Smyrnaeus mentions another Phrygian prince, named Coroebus, son of Mygdon, who fought and died at Troy; he had sued for the hand of the Trojan princess Cassandra in marriage. King Priam's wife Hecabe is usually said to be of Phrygian birth, as a daughter of King Dymas.

The Phrygian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Phrygia.

According to Herodotus,^[8] Herodotus), the Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus II had two children raised in isolation in order to find the original language. The children were reported to have uttered bekos which is Phrygian for "bread", so Psammetichus admitted that the Phrygians were a nation older than the Egyptians.

Josephus claimed the Phrygians were founded by the biblical figure Togarmah, grandson of Japheth and son of Gomer: "and Thrugramma the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians".

History[link]

Migration[link]

Tomb at Midas City (6th century BC), near Eskişehir

After the collapse of the Hittite Empire at the beginning of the 12th century BC, the political vacuum in central/western Anatolia was filled by a wave of Indo-European migrants and "Sea Peoples", including the Phrygians, who established their kingdom with a capital eventually at Gordium. It is presently unknown whether the Phrygians were actively involved in the collapse of the Hittite capital Hattusa or whether they simply moved into the vacuum left by the collapse of Hittite hegemony. The so called Handmade Knobbed Ware was found by archaeologists at sites from this period in Western Anatolia. According to Greek mythographers,^[9] the first Phrygian Midas had been king of the Moschi (Mushki), also known as Bryges (Brigi) in the western part of archaic Thrace.

Though the migration theory is still defended by many modern historians, most archaeologists have abandoned the migration hypothesis as the origin of the Phrygians due to a lack substantial archeological evidence, with the migration theory resting only on the accounts of Herodotus and Xanthus^[10]

8th to 7th centuries[link]

Detail from a reconstruction of a Phrygian building at Pararli, Turkey, 7th–6th Centuries BC; Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara. A griffin, sphinx and two centaurs are shown.

Assyrian sources from the 8th century BC speak of a king Mita of the Mushki, identified with king Midas of Phrygia. An Assyrian inscription records Mita as an ally of Sargon of Assyria in 709 BC. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears in the 8th century BC. The Phrygians founded a powerful kingdom which lasted until the Lydian ascendancy (7th century BC). Under kings alternately named Gordias and Midas, the independent Phrygian kingdom of the 8th and 7th centuries BC maintained close trade contacts with her neighbours in the east and the Greeks in the west. Phrygia seems to have been able to co-exist with whatever power was dominant in eastern Anatolia at the time.

The invasion of Anatolia in the late 8th century BC to early 7th century BC by the Cimmerians was to prove fatal to independent Phrygia. Cimmerian pressure and attacks culminated in the suicide of its last king, Midas, according to legend. Gordium fell to the Cimmerians in 696 BC and was sacked and burnt, as reported much later by Herodotus.

A series of digs have opened Gordium as one of Turkey's most revealing archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of Gordion around 675 BC. A tomb of the Midas period, popularly identified as the "Tomb of Midas" revealed a wooden structure deeply buried under a vast tumulus, containing grave goods, a coffin, furniture, and food offerings (Archaeological Museum, Ankara). The Gordium site contains a considerable later building program, perhaps by Alyattes, the Lydian king, in the 6th century BC.

Minor Phrygian kingdoms continued to exist after the end of the Phrygian empire, and the Phrygian art and culture continued to flourish. Cimmerian people stayed in Anatolia but do not appear to have created a kingdom of their own. The Lydians repulsed the Cimmerians in the 620s, and Phrygia was subsumed into a short-lived Lydian empire. The eastern part of the former Phrygian empire fell into the hands of the Medes in 585 BC.

Croesus' Lydian Empire[link]

Phrygian costumes

Under the proverbially rich King Croesus (reigned 560–546 BC), Phrygia remained part of the Lydian empire that extended east to the Halys River. There may be an echo of strife with Lydia and perhaps a veiled reference to royal hostages, in the legend of the twice-unlucky Adrastus, the son of a King Gordias with the queen, Eurynome. He accidentally killed his brother and exiled himself to Lydia, where King Croesus welcomed him. Once again, Adrastus accidentally killed Croesus' son and then committed suicide.

Post-State History[link]

Location of Phrygia in Anatolia

Lydian Croesus was conquered by Cyrus in 546 BC, and Phrygia passed under Persian dominion. After Darius became Persian Emperor in 521 BC, he remade the ancient trade route into the Persian "Royal Road" and instituted administrative reforms that included setting up satrapies. The capital of the Phrygian satrapy was established at Dascylion.

Under Persian rule, the Phrygians seem to have lost their intellectual acuity and independence. Phrygians became stereotyped among later Greeks and the Romans as passive and dull. Phrygians remained subjects to the Hellenistic kingdoms that ruled the area and later to the Roman Empire, but the Phrygians retained their culture and their language until it became extinct in the 5th Century.

See also[link]

References and notes[link]

Brian Tichy
Tichy in concert in 2006 Photo: Charles Jischke
Background information
Born	(1968-08-18) August 18, 1968 (age 43) Denville, New Jersey United States
Genres	Hard rock, heavy metal, New Wave
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Drums, percussion, guitar, bass, vocals
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Sanctuary
Associated acts	Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Ozzy Osbourne, Seether, Velvet Revolver, Foreigner, Pride & Glory, Glenn Hughes, Sass Jordan, Slash's Snakepit, Lynch Mob
Website	www.briantichy.com

Brian Tichy (born on August 18, 1968 in Denville, New Jersey) is an American musician, best known as having been drummer for Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Foreigner, and Ozzy Osbourne. He has been the drummer of Whitesnake since 2010. Tichy began playing drums at age eight and started playing guitar at age 12. His earliest influences include Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Van Halen.

Career[link]

After attending Berklee College of Music from 1986 until 1990, Tichy has toured/recorded with a multitude of artists including Billy Idol, Ozzy Osbourne, Seether, Velvet Revolver, Foreigner, Pride & Glory, Glenn Hughes, Sass Jordan, Slash's Snakepit and most recently Whitesnake

Brian also played the New Jersey club scene in the late 1980s early 1990s with a great grunge cover band called "Aluminum Jew" along with Jeff Steele Zugale on Vocals/Guitar, Chris Durante on Guitar and Steve Witschel on Bass.

Ball[link]

While Brian has primarily toured and recorded with others playing drums, he has fronted his own band (BALL) in which he sings and plays guitar. Due to the untimely demise of his record label (Time Bomb Recordings), Ball’s American Aggression CD never was formally released. Ball did manage to release a CD, The Grand Human Disaster Scenario (only in Japan) in May, 1999. This CD contains what were essentially the demos that led to the record deal with Time Bomb at the end of 1999. His increasing role as co-songwriter with Billy Idol that started at the end of 2003 limited his time to focus on Ball.

Billy Idol[link]

The Idol/Tichy writing partnership sparked the recording of Billy Idol's first CD since 1993. Devil's Playground (Sanctuary Records) was recorded in 2004 and contained 8 Idol/Tichy tracks. The CD was released in March 2005 and they toured for the remainder of the year.

While writing in 2006 for a follow up Idol CD, Brian and Billy recorded a Christmas album. This was done on their own, in Idol and Tichy's rehearsal studio with Tichy performing drums, guitar, and bass, as well as engineering and co-producing. Happy Holidays by Billy Idol was released in November, 2006 through Best Buy and in Europe.

Foreigner[link]

Brian joined Foreigner in 1998 and remained until 2000. He rejoined briefly in 2007 substituting for Jason Bonham. He then returned from 2008 until 2010, recording the album Can't Slow Down. He returned for one show in summer 2011, substituting for Mark Schulman, who had recently lost his father.

Recent projects[link]

Brian toured with Foreigner through spring 2009 and recently completed a multi-year involvement with Billy Idol. Brian was also involved with drum sessions, writing with Derek Sherinian, writing music for television and film via MasterSource Music Catalog, as well as filling in on drums for Seether in April 2007 while Seether drummer John Humphrey was unavailable. He has also recently filled in for Foreigner drummer Jason Bonham who has been with them for a couple years. Tichy has also just finished recording drums for European female metal singer Marya Roxx with producer Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Journey, Dream Theater, Black Crowes) which included Derek Sherinian (Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen), Paul Crook (Meat Loaf, Anthrax) and Scott Metaxes (Nuclear Assault). On September 25, 2010 Brian organized, produced and played in the drummer tribute "Bonzo, The Groove Remains the Same", celebrating the 25th anniversary of the death of John Henry Bonham, legendary drummer for Led Zeppelin. Over 25 of the best Rock and Roll drummers performing today came together and played their favorite Zeppelin tunes, including Jason Bonham. Brian surprised them all by having an exact replica of the John Bonham drum kit for all to play, complete with a giant gong and tympani. Brians own group, "The Moby Dicks" made up the house band during the tribute, as each drummer took their turn on the legendary drum kit. Video's of the event can be found on Youtube. Brian is currently touring with Whitesnake. In 2011, Tichy formed S.U.N. (Something Unto Nothing) as guitarist, with vocalist Sass Jordan, bassist Michael Devin, and drummer Tommy Stewart. Marty O'Brien replaced bassist Devin in 2012.

Whitesnake[link]

Brian was announced as the new drummer for Whitesnake on June 18, 2010.^[1]

Speed bag[link]

Brian became a speed bag enthusiast while on tour with Foreigner and quickly got with some of the best speed baggers around to learn and increase his own skills. During the 2009-2010 tour with Foreigner, Brain hung several speed bag wall units inside the bands equipment truck and created the infamous "Speed Bag Truck", hosting area speed bag enthusiasts from various areas when the band played in their town. Some of the best speed bag talent in the U.S. joined Brian in the truck before concerts, punching away. Soon after, he began promoting his own punching skills via his YouTube^[2] videos for both physical fitness, and also as a musical instrument. He always planned to incorporate the speed bag into his drumkit, which was first unvieled during his appearance on "That Metal Show" on VH-1 classic, in April 2012, using a UBS1 freestanding floor frame from Balazboxing. This is the first known inclusion of a speed bag by a professional drummer as a rhythm instrument in a major public appearance, and should be noted as an important date in speed bag history.^[3]

Gear[link]

• Natal drums, pedals and hardware
• Paiste cymbals
• Remo drum heads
• Vater sticks
• LP Percussiion
• Gibson Les Paul and SGs guitars
• Dean ML guitars
• Marshall JCM 800s and Peavey 5150 amplification
• Dunlop pics, wah's and effects

Discography/Touring[link]

With Billy Idol

• 2005: Devil's Playground
• 2006: Live Billy Idol DVD - TBD
• 2006: Happy Holidays Billy Idol Co-produced, recorded, engineered and mixed by Tichy and Idol. All

instruments performed by Tichy except keys by Derek Sherinian

• 2008: The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself
• Touring drummer since 2001; US, Europe, Canada

With Derek Sherinian

• 2003: Black Utopia
• 2004: Mythology
• 2006: Blood of the Snake
• 2009: Molecular Heinosity

With Kenny Wayne Shepherd

• 2004: The Place You're In

With Ball

• 1999: Grand Human Disaster Scenario (Japan only)
• 2000: American Aggression (Only available through BrianTichy.com)
• 2001: A Study in Persistence (Only available through BrianTichy.com)
• 2003: Bleed Defeat (Only available through BrianTichy.com)

With Gilby Clarke

• 1998: Rubber
• 2002: Swag
• 2007: Gilby Clarke; Best Of
• Various years of touring US

With Vinnie Moore

• 1996: Out of Nowhere
• Toured '91 and '92, opened 10 shows for Rush

With Ana Sidel

• 2005: "A Solas..."
• (8 tracks) recorded

With Nicklebag:

• 1996: 12 Hits & A Bump
• 1997: Mas Feedback
• Japan and US touring

With Stevie Salas

• 1993: Presents: The Electric Pow Wow
• 1994: Back From The Living
• 1996: Anthology 1987-1994
• 1997: Le Bootleg (Live In Paris)
• 1997: Seoul Power
• 1998: The Sometimes Almost Never Was
• 2001: Shapeshifter (The Fall And Rise Of Stevie No Wonder)
• Various years of touring Japan and Europe

With Pride & Glory

• 1994: Pride & Glory
• Toured US, Europe, Japan

With B'z

• 2000: "Juice"
• 2000: Eleven
• 2003: Big Machine

With TMG

• 2004: TMG I

With Sass Jordan

• 1994: Rats and Summer Tour

With Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades

• 2007: Shaw/Blades: "Influences" (8 tracks) recorded in 2004

With Jack Blades

• 2010/TBD: 1/2 of drums on forthcoming solo album

For MasterSource Music Catalog:

• Since 2000: Chief rock songwriter. MasterSource gets music placed in TV and movies. Tichy's include;

Law And Order, CSI, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Supergroup, The Osbournes, Punk'd, Pimp My Ride, and countless others.

Other projects

• 1991: China Rain – Bed of Nails
• 1992: RawHead - Flounder
• 1994: Guitar's Practicing Musicians, Vol. 3 (Pride & Glory - "The Wizard")
• 1997: Return of the Comet – Tribute to Ace Frehley; "Rip It Out", all instruments and vox...
• 1998: Taisuke - Heavy Pop
• 1999: Shameless - Backstreet Anthems - Produced by Gilby Clarke feat. Alexx Michael, Steve Summers, Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick
• 2000: Shameless - Queen 4 A Day - Produced by Keri Kelli & Gilby Clarke feat. Alexx Michael, Steve Summers, Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick
• 2001: Sweet Emotion – The Songs of Aerosmith Tribute
• 2004: Richie Kotzen – Shapes of Things to Come (Bonus Track)
• 2005: Iron Maiden Tribute: "Numbers From The Beast"; Run To The Hills with Michael Schenker and Tony Franklin
• 2006: The Beatles Tribute: "Butchering The Beatles"; "Tomorrow Never Knows" with Billy idol, Steve Stevens and Blasko
• 2006: Marco Mendoza: Live For Tomorrow (3 tracks)
• 2007: Maarja: Produced by Kevin Shirley (Zeppelin, Maiden) featuring Derek Sherinian, Paul Crook and Scott Metaxes
• 2009: Ace Frehley: Anomaly - "Fox on the Run"
• September 25, 2010: Produced "Bonzo, The Groove Remains the Same", 1st ever tribute to John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin.
• 2011: Steven Tyler - "(It) Feels So Good"

Other artists Tichy has toured with:

• 1995: Slash's Snakepit (1995 World Tour)
• 1998-2000: Foreigner
• 2000: Ozzy Osbourne (Ozzfest 2000)
• 2001: Glenn Hughes
• 2005: Velvet Revolver (3 weeks fill in for Matt Sorum due to hand injury)
• 2006-2007: Foreigner (fill-in dates for current Foreigner drummer Jason Bonham)
• 2007: Seether (one month fill in for festivals)
• 2010: The Guess Who (fill in)

References[link]

1. ^ "WHITESNAKE Parts Ways With DUFFY, FRAZIER; New Drummer Announced". Roadrunnerrecords.com. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=141791. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
2. ^ Tichy, Brian, BAGIFIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, http://www.youtube.com/user/spinsmashpop 
3. ^ "Speed baggin'", Modern Drummer, September, http://www.moderndrummer.com/updatefull/200001779/Brian%20Tichy 

External links[link]

• The official Brian Tichy website
• Brian Tichy interview for the Russian website about Whitesnake
• 2012 Audio Interview with Brian Tichy from Podcast "I'd Hit That"

Emrah Yucel (born 1968) is an award-winning designer of feature film and television posters^[1][2] and president of the Turkish Film Festival.^[3] He has designed posters for films such as What Women Want, 28 Days, Kill Bill and Frida. He was educated in Ankara, Turkey at Hacettepe and Bilkent universities. In 1995 he moved to New York City.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Emrah Yucel at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Yucel, BAK Magazine

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