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Phrygian cap

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This article is about Liberty Cap headgear. For more terms with the same name, seeLiberty cap (disambiguation).
This article is about the headgear. For the medical term, seePhrygian cap (anatomy).

Dacianprisoner withPhrygiancap, Roman statue from the 2nd century.

ThePhrygian cap(/ˈfrɪdʒ(iː)ən/ⓘFRIJ-(ee)-ən) also known asThracian cap[1][2][3]andLiberty capis a softconicalcapwith the apex bent over, associated inantiquitywith several peoples in Eastern Europe,Anatoliaand Asia. The Phrygian cap was worn byThracians,Dacians,Persians,Medes,Scythians,Trojans,AmazonsandPhrygiansafter whom it's named.[4]The oldest known depiction of the Phrygian cap is fromPersepolisinIran.

Although Phrygian caps did not originally function as liberty caps, they came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty first in theAmerican Revolutionand then in theFrench Revolution,[5]particularly as a symbol ofjacobinism(in which context it has been also called ajacobin cap). The original cap of liberty was the Romanpileus,the felt cap of emancipated slaves of ancient Rome, which was an attribute ofLibertas,the Roman goddess of liberty. In the 16th century, the Roman iconography of liberty was revived in emblem books and numismatic handbooks where the figure of Libertas is usually depicted with apileus.[6]The most extensive use of headgear as a symbol of freedom in the first two centuries after the revival of the Roman iconography was made in the Netherlands, where the cap of liberty was adopted in the form of a contemporary hat.[7]In the 18th century, the traditional liberty cap was widely used in English prints, and from 1789 also in French prints; by the early 1790s, it was regularly used in the Phrygian form.

It is used in the coat of arms of certain republics or of republican state institutions in the place where otherwise a crown would be used (in the heraldry of monarchies). It thus came to be identified as a symbol of republican government. A number of national personifications, in particular France'sMarianne,are commonly depicted wearing the Phrygian cap. Scientists pointed to the cultural and historical relationship of the Phrygian cap with thekurkhars—the national female headdress of theIngush people.[8]The protagonists of the Belgian comic seriesThe Smurfswear white phrygian caps.

In antiquity

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In the Iranian world

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AParthian(right) wearing a Phrygian cap, 203 AD

What came to be labelled as the Phrygian cap was originally used by several Iranian peoples, including theScythians,theMedes,and thePersians.From the reports of the ancient Greeks, it appears that the Iranian variant also was a soft headdress and called atiara.

The Greeks identified one variant with their eastern neighbors and labeled it the "Phrygian cap", although it was actually worn by nearly all Iranian tribes, from theCappadocians(Old PersianKatpatuka) in the west to theSakas(OPers.Sakā) in the northeast. This and other variants can be observed in the reliefs at Persepolis. All seem to have been made of soft material with long flaps over the ears and the neck, but the form of the top varies. The famous "upright (orthē) tiara "was worn by the king. Members of the Median upper class wore high, crested tiaras.[9]

In the early Hellenistic world

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Attis
Attis
Ganymede
Ganymede
Paris of Troy
Paris of Troy
Mithras, Sol Invictus
Mithras

By the 4th century BC (earlyHellenistic period), the Phrygian cap was associated withPhrygianAttis,the consort ofCybele,the cult of which had by then become hellenized. The cap appears in depictions of the mythological kingsMidasandRhesus of Thrace,the legendary bardOrpheusand other Thraco-Phrygians portrayed in Greekvase-paintingsand sculpture.[10]Such images predate the earliest surviving literary references to the cap.[citation needed]

Orpheus
Orpheus
Penthesilea
Penthesilea
Rhesus of Thrace
Rhesus(Top-Left)
Thracian Horseman
ThracianHorseman

By extension, the Phrygian cap also came to be applied to several other non-Greek-speaking peoples ( "barbarians"in the classical sense). Most notable of these extended senses of" Phrygian "were theTrojansand other westernAnatolianpeoples, who in Greek perception were synonymous with the Phrygians, and whose heroesParis,Aeneas,andGanymedewere all regularly depicted with a Phrygian cap. Other Greek earthenware of antiquity also depictAmazonsand so-called "Scythian" archers with Phrygian caps. Although these are military depictions, the headgear is distinguished from "Phrygian helmets"by long ear flaps, and the figures are also identified as" barbarians "by their trousers. The headgear also appears in 2nd-century BCBoeotianTanagra figurinesof an effeminateEros,and in various 1st-century BC statuary of theCommagene,in eastern Anatolia. Greek representations ofThraciansalso regularly appear with Phrygian caps, most notablyBendis,the Thracian goddess of the Moon and the hunt, andOrpheus,a legendary Thracian poet and musician.[citation needed]

While the Phrygian cap was of wool or soft leather, in pre-Hellenistic times the Greeks had already developed a military helmet that had a similarly characteristic flipped-over tip. These so-called "Phrygian helmets"(named in modern times after the cap) were usually of bronze and in prominent use in Thrace, Dacia, Magna Graecia, and the rest of the Hellenistic world from the 5th century BC up to Roman times. Due to their superficial similarity, the cap and helmet are often difficult to distinguish in Greek art (especially inblack-figureorred-figureearthenware) unless the headgear is identified as a soft flexible cap by long earflaps or a long neck flap. Also confusingly similar are the depictions of the helmets used by cavalry and light infantry (cf.Peltastsof Thrace andPaeonia), whose headgear – aside from the traditionalalopekiscaps of fox skin – also included stiff leather helmets in imitation of the bronze ones.[citation needed]

In the Roman world

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Daciansculpture with Phrygian Cap

The Greek concept passed to the Romans in its extended sense, and thus encompassed not only to Phrygians or Trojans (which the Romans also generally associated with the term "Phrygian" ), but also the other near-neighbours of the Greeks. OnTrajan's Column,which commemoratedTrajan's epic warswith theDacians(101–102 and 105–106 AD), the Phrygian cap adorns the heads of Dacian warriors. The prisoner, accompanying Trajan in the monumental, three meter tall statue of Trajan in the ancient city ofLaodicea,is wearing a Phrygian cap. Parthians appear with Phrygian caps in the 2nd-centuryArch of Septimius Severus,which commemorates Roman victories over theParthian Empire.Likewise with Phrygians caps, but forGauls,appear in 2nd-century friezes built into the 4th-centuryArch of Constantine.[citation needed]

The Phrygian cap reappears in figures related to the first to fourth century religion ofMithraism.Thisastrology-centricRoman mystery cult(cultus) projected itself withpseudo-Orientaltrappings (known asperseriein scholarship) in order to distinguish itself from both traditional Roman religion and from the other mystery cults. In the artwork of the cult (e.g. in the so-called "tauroctony"cult images), the figures of the god Mithras as well as those of his helpersCautes and Cautopatesare routinely depicted with a Phrygian cap. The function of the Phrygian cap in the cult are unknown, but it is conventionally identified as an accessory of itsperserie.[citation needed]

Early Christianart (and continuing well into theMiddle Ages) build on the same Greco-Roman perceptions of (Pseudo-)Zoroasterand his "Magi"as experts in the arts of astrology andmagic,and routinely depict the "three wise men"(that followastar) with Phrygian caps.[11]

As a symbol of liberty

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TheDutch Maidencarries her cap of liberty on a pole, and it is not of the Phrygian form. 1660

From Phrygian to liberty cap

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In lateRepublican Rome,a soft felt cap called thepileusserved as a symbol of freemen (i.e. non-slaves) and was symbolically given to slaves uponmanumission,thereby granting them not only their personal liberty, but alsolibertas –freedom as citizens, with the right to vote (if male). Following theassassination of Julius Caesarin 44 BCE,Brutusand his co-conspirators instrumentalized this symbolism of thepileusto signify the end of Caesar'sdictatorshipand a return to the (Roman) republican system.[12]

These Roman associations of thepileuswith liberty andrepublicanismwere carried forward to the 18th century, until when the pileus was confused with the Phrygian cap, then becoming a symbol of those values in the wake of Medieval Italian uses of the Phrygian cap, most notably inVenice.[13]

In Venice, the Phrygian cap was used by theDogeinstead of a crown as a symbol of Republican liberty, from the Middle Ages until 1797. The symbol of Libertas as a female figure holding the Phrygian cap upon a spear appeared in the 1500’s in the Apotheosis of Venice, a major painting by Paolo Veronese in the Ducal palace, iconography that would later be reused in French and American art and coinage.

France'sbonnet rouge

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Main article:Symbolism in the French Revolution § Liberty cap
French revolutionaries wearingbonnets rougesandtricolorcockades
In this 1793 cartoon byJames Gillray,who was deeply hostile to the French Revolution, a Phrygian cap substitutes forScyllaatop the dangerous "Rock of Democracy", asBritannia's boat (theConstitution) navigatesbetween Scylla's rock and Charybdis,the "Whirlpool of Arbitrary-Power", pursued by Scylla's "dogs":Sheridan,Fox,andPriestley,depicted assharks.[14]

In revolutionary France

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In 1675, the anti-tax and anti-nobilityStamp-Paper revolterupted inBrittanyand north-western France, where it became known as thebonnets rougesuprising after the blue or red caps worn by the insurgents. Although the insurgents are not known to have preferred any particular style of cap, the name and color stuck as a symbol of revolt against the nobility and establishment.Robespierrewould later object to the color, but was ignored.

The use of a Phrygian-style cap as a symbol ofrevolutionary Franceis first documented in May 1790, at a festival inTroyesadorning a statue representing the nation, and atLyon,on a lance carried by the goddessLibertas.[15]To this day the national allegory of France,Marianne,is shown wearing a red Phrygian cap.[16]

By wearing thebonnet rougeandsans-culottes( "without silk breeches" ), the Parisian working class made their revolutionary ardor and plebeian solidarity immediately recognizable. By mid-1791, these mocking fashion statements included thebonnet rougeas Parisian hairstyle, proclaimed by the Marquis de Villette (12 July 1791) as "the civic crown of the free man and French regeneration." On 15 July 1792, seeking to suppress the frivolity,François Christophe Kellermann,1st Duc de Valmy, published an essay in which the Duke sought to establish thebonnet rougeas a sacred symbol that could only be worn by those with merit. The symbolic hairstyle became a rallying point and a way to mock the elaborate wigs of the aristocrats and the red caps of the bishops. On 6 November 1793, theParis city councildeclared it the official hairstyle of all its members.

Thebonnet rougeon a spear was proposed as a component of the national seal on 22 September 1792 during the third session of theNational Convention.Following a suggestion by Gaan Coulon, the Convention decreed that convicts would not be permitted to wear the red cap, as it was consecrated as the badge of citizenship and freedom. In 1792, whenLouis XVIwas induced to sign a constitution, popular prints of the king were doctored to show him wearing thebonnet rouge.[17]The bust ofVoltairewas crowned with the red bonnet of liberty after a performance of hisBrutusat theComédie-Françaisein March 1792.

During the period of theReign of Terror(September 1793 – July 1794), the cap was adopted defensively even by those who might be denounced as moderates or aristocrats and were especially keen to advertise their adherence to the new regime. The caps were often knitted by women known astricoteuses,who sat beside theguillotineduring public executions in Paris and supposedly continued knitting in between executions.[18][failed verification]The spire ofStrasbourg Cathedralwas crowned with abonnet rougein order to prevent it from being torn down in 1794.

During the Restoration

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In 1814, theActe de déchéance de l'Empereurdecision formally deposed theBonapartesandrestored the Bourbonregime, who in turn proscribed thebonnet rouge,La MarseillaiseandBastille Daycelebrations. The symbols reappeared briefly in March–July 1815 during "Napoleon's Hundred Days",but were immediately suppressed again following the second restoration ofLouis XVIIIon 8 July 1815.

The symbols resurfaced again during theJuly Revolutionof 1830, after which they were reinstated by the liberalJuly MonarchyofLouis Philippe I,and the revolutionary symbols—anthem, holiday, andbonnet rouge—became "constituent parts of a national heritage consecrated by the state and embraced by the public."[19]

In modern France

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20centimeswithMarianneon obverse
Obverse:Marianne wearing the Phrygian cap of liberty. Reverse:Face value and French motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité".
This coin was minted from 1962 to 2001.

The republican associations with thebonnet rougewere adopted as thename and emblemof a French satirical republican and anarchist periodical published between 1913 and 1922 byMiguel Almereydathat targeted theAction française,a royalist, counter-revolutionary movement on the extreme right.

The anti-tax associations with thebonnet rougewere revived in October 2013, when a French tax-protest movement called theBonnets Rougesused the red revolution-era Phrygian cap as a protest symbol. By means of large demonstrations and direct action, which included the destruction of many highway tax portals, the movement successfully forced the French government to rescind the tax.

In the United Kingdom

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In the 18th century, the cap was often used in English political prints as an attribute ofLiberty.[20]In Blackburn, England, on 5 July 1819, female reformers such asAlice Kitchenattended their first reform meeting and presented the chair John Knight with a "most beautiful Cap of Liberty, made of scarlet silk or satin, lined with green, with a serpentined gold lace, terminating with a rich gold tassel.[21]

In Revolutionary America

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A Phrygian cap on theSeal of the U.S. Senate
The 1783Libertas Americanamedal, initiated and designed byBenjamin Franklin,honors theAmerican Revolutionand depicts the goddess of Liberty carrying a Phrygian cap

In the years just prior to theRevolutionary War,Americans copied or emulated some of those prints in an attempt to visually defend their "rights as Englishmen".[20]Later, the symbol of republicanism and anti-monarchical sentiment appeared in the United States as the headgear ofColumbia,[22]who in turn was visualized as a goddess-like female national personification of the United States and ofLibertyherself. The cap reappears in association with Columbia in the early years of the republic, for example, on the obverse of the 1785Immune Columbiapattern coin, which shows the goddess with a helmet seated on a globe holding in a right hand a furled U.S. flag topped by the liberty cap.[22]

Starting in 1793, U.S. coinage frequently showed Columbia/Liberty wearing the cap. The anti-federalist movement likewise instrumentalized the figure, as in a cartoon from 1796 in which Columbia is overwhelmed by a huge American eagle holding aLiberty Poleunder its wings.[22]The cap's last appearance on circulating coinage was theWalking Liberty Half Dollar,which was minted through 1947 (and reused on the currentbullionAmerican Silver Eagle).

TheU.S. Armyhas, since 1778, used a "War Office Seal"in which the motto" This We'll Defend "is displayed directly over a Phrygian cap on an upturnedsword.It also appears on the state flags ofWest VirginiaandIdaho[23](as part of their official seals),New Jersey,andNew York,as well as the official seal of theUnited States Senate,the state ofIowa,the state ofNorth Carolina(as well as the arms of itsSenate,[24]) and on the reverse side of both theSeal of Pennsylvaniaand theSeal of Virginia.

In 1854, when sculptorThomas Crawfordwas preparing models for sculpture for theUnited States Capitol,then-Secretary of WarJefferson Davisinsisted that a Phrygian cap not be included on aStatue of Freedom,on the grounds that "American liberty is original and not the liberty of the freed slave". The cap was not included in the final bronze version that is now in the building.[25]

In Latin America and Haiti

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Many of theanti-colonial revolutions in Latin Americawere heavily inspired by the imagery and slogans of theAmericanandFrench Revolutions.As a result, the cap has appeared on thecoats of armsof many Latin American nations. Thecoat of arms of Haitiincludes a Phrygian cap to commemorate that country'sfoundation by rebellious slaves.

The cap had also been displayed on certain Mexican coins (most notably the old 8-realescoin) through the late 19th century into the mid-20th century. Today, it is featured on thecoats of armsornational flagsof Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Republica Dominicana, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Paraguay.

The Phrygian cap in Latin American and Haitian coats of arms and flags


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In the Belgian comic franchiseThe Smurfs,the eponymous Smurfs are typically depicted wearing Phrygian-like caps.[26]

Announced in November 2022, the official mascots of Paris 2024OlympicandParalympic Games,namedThe Phryges,were based on the cap.[27]

See also

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References

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  1. ^Tsiafaki, Despoina. "Ancient Thrace and the Thracians through Athenian eyes."Thracia21 (2016): 261-282.
  2. ^Herodotus,6.45 and 7.73, "Thus fared the fleet; and meanwhile Mardonios and the land-army while encamping in Macedonia were attacked in the night by theBrygianThracians,and many of them were slain by the Brygians and Mardonios himself was wounded. ";" Now thePhrygians,as the Macedonians say, used to be calledBrigiansduring the time that they were natives of Europe and dwelt with theMacedonians;but after they had changed into Asia, with their country they changed also their name and were called Phrygians. The Armenians were armed just like the Phrygians, being settlers from the Phrygians. "
  3. ^Strabo,7.3.2, "Now the Greeks used to suppose that the Getae were Thracians; and the Getae lived on either side the Ister, as did also the Mysi, these also being Thracians and identical with the people who are now called Moesi; from these Mysi sprang also the Mysi who now live between the Lydians and the Phrygians and Trojans. And the Phrygians themselves areBrigians,a Thracian tribe, as are also theMygdonians,theBebricians,theMedobithynians,theBithynians,and theThynians,and, I think, also theMariandynians.These peoples, to be sure, have all utterly quitted Europe, but the Mysi have remained there. AndPoseidoniusseems to me to be correct in his conjecture thatHomerdesignates the Mysi in Europe (I mean those in Thrace) when he says, "But back he turned his shining eyes, and looked far away towards the land of the horse-tending Thracians, and of the Mysi, hand-to‑hand fighters" for surely, if one should take Homer to mean the Mysi in Asia, the statement would not hang together. "
  4. ^"Phrygian cap | Definition, History, & Facts".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved11 November2020.
  5. ^Richard Wrigley, "Transformations of a revolutionary emblem: The Liberty Cap in the French Revolution,French History11(2) 1997, p. 132.
  6. ^Carol Louise Janson, "The Birth of Dutch Liberty. Origins of the Pictorial Imagery", Diss. phil. University of Minnesota 1982 (microfilm), p. 35.
  7. ^ibd. p. 98.
  8. ^Semyonov 1959.
  9. ^Calmeyer, Peter (15 December 1993)."CROWN i. In the Median and Achaemenid periods".Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  10. ^Lynn E. Roller, "The Legend of Midas",Classical Antiquity,2.2 (October 1983:299–313) p. 305.
  11. ^Appell, Johann Wilhelm (1872).Monuments of Early Christian Art: Sculptures and Catacomb Paintings: Illustrative Notes, Collected in Order to Promote the Reproduction of Remains of Art Belonging to the Early Centuries of the Christian Era.G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode. pp. 15–17, 22, 27–29, 54–55.
  12. ^Cf. Appian, Civil Wars 2:119: "The murderers wished to make a speech in the Senate, but as nobody remained there they wrapped their togas around their left arms to serve as shields, and, with swords still reeking with blood, ran, crying out that they had slain a king and tyrant. One of them bore a cap on the end of a spear as a symbol of freedom, and exhorted the people to restore the government of their fathers and recall the memory of the elder Brutus and of those who took the oath together against ancient kings."
  13. ^Korshak, Yvonne (1987), "The Liberty Cap as a Revolutionary Symbol in America and France",Smithsonian Studies in American Art,1(2): 52–69,doi:10.1086/424051.
  14. ^"Britannia between Scylla & Charybdis. or..."Library of Congress.Retrieved7 January2019.
  15. ^Albert Mathiez,Les Origines des cultures révolutionnaires, 1789–1792(Paris 1904:34).
  16. ^Richard Wrigley, "Transformations of a revolutionary emblem: The Liberty Cap in the French Revolution,French History11(2) 1997:131–169.
  17. ^Jennifer Harris, "The Red Cap of Liberty: A Study of Dress Worn by French Revolutionary Partisans 1789-94"Eighteenth-Century Studies14.3 (Spring 1981:283–312), fig. 1. Most of the details that follow are drawn from here.
  18. ^Harden, J. David (1995), "Liberty caps and liberty trees",Past and Present(146): 66–102,doi:10.1093/past/146.1.66.
  19. ^Philip G. Nord (1995).The Republican Moment: Struggles for Democracy in Nineteenth-Century France.President & Fellows of Harvard College.
  20. ^abZeiler, Frank (2014).Visuelle Rechtsverteidigung im Nordamerikakonflikt. Ein Beitrag zur Rezeption der englischen Freiheits- und Verfassungssymbolik in nordamerikanischen Druckgraphiken der Jahre 1765–1783, Signa Ivris, Vol. 13 (2014), pp. 315-346(in German). Vol. 13.doi:10.6094/UNIFR/11157.ISBN9783941226326.
  21. ^Kitchener, Caitlin (2022)."Sisters of the Earth: The Landscapes, Radical Identities and Performances of Female Reformers in 1819".Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies.45(1): 77–93.doi:10.1111/1754-0208.12778.ISSN1754-0208.S2CID246984311.
  22. ^abcMcClung Fleming, E. (1968), "Symbols of the United States: From Indian Queen to Uncle Sam",Frontiers of American Culture,Purdue Research Foundation, pp. 1–25,at pp. 12, 15–16.
  23. ^"Seal of Idaho".State Symbols USA.12 September 2014.Retrieved30 May2020.
  24. ^"Senate of North Carolina",College of Arms Newsletter, No. 8 (March 2006),London:College of Arms,retrieved13 January2008
  25. ^Gale, Robert L. (1964),Thomas Crawford: American Sculptor,University of Pittsburgh Press,Pittsburgh,p. 124.
  26. ^Tzvetkova, Juliana (12 October 2017).Pop Culture in Europe.ABC-CLIO. p. 65.ISBN978-1-4408-4466-9.
  27. ^"Meet Olympic Phryge and Paralympic Phryge: The story of the Paris 2024 mascots".14 November 2022.Retrieved14 November2022.

Bibliography

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Russian sources

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Look upPhrygian capin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Media related toPhrygian capsat Wikimedia Commons

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