Word: phrygia
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...pick-and-shovel brigades have invaded Gibeon, where once the sun stood still for Joshua; painstakingly they have probed for the ruins of Gordion, capital of Phrygia, where poor King Midas saw his concubines turn to gold at his touch. The city of Ephesus, sacred to the goddess Artemis, and Aphrodisias, sacred to Aphrodite, are yielding their age-old secrets. The remnants of Hatra, destroyed long ago by the Persians, have been recovered from the debris of centuries. Samarra is being excavated-that lovely capital of Abbasside caliphs, who ruled over the Near East during Europe's dark ages...
...WALLS OF HEAVEN, by Robert McLaughlin (381 pp.; Simon & Schuster; $4.95), is set in Phrygia, a small phantom country in the Middle East that is startlingly like Lebanon. For Novelist McLaughlin (The Notion of Sin), the resemblance is pure convenience. What interests him is his own proposition that today only the world's small countries produce the "hero-leaders" in the classic mold. In Phrygia, passions are still politics, feuds are more important than primaries, and the bitterness of centuries can clash in the exchange of a glance...
...Phrygia's hero-leader is dedicated, urbane and devout Mario Neroun, who carried his country to freedom and is now desperately trying to hold together its evenly divided factions. A footloose American historian. Wade Hendrix, finds himself deep in intrigue both of the political and the boudoir variety-Neroun has a lovely mistress named Poppy, who is a considerable trial to the dictator's Christian conscience. The characters represent every racial and religious faction-Yonarus, the fanatic chief of police who is also the secret head of the Christian terrorist organization; U.N. Ambassador Othoe, Poppy's aging...
Midas was no legend. Generations of kings bearing his name reigned over Phrygia from the great city of Gordium,* now a desert waste 70 miles southwest of Turkey's Ankara. Two years ago an archaeological expedition mounted by the University of Pennsylvania, scratching the Gordian ground, broke through to tombs, closed up eight centuries before Christ. One contained the bones of Midas' line. Also found in the tombs were a four-poster bed (bearing a five-ft.-three-skeleton), inlaid screens and tables, riding gear, weapons and quantities of bronze objects, from giant caldrons ornamented with winged figures...
...leading shrines are on my book. They know I handle the right stuff. Buy it myself in Arabls, ship it myself. Besides, they all like dealing with me because I'm reverent, see. Whatever it is they worship--monkeys, snakes; I've seen some pretty queer goings-on in Phrygia, I can tell you--I always respect religion. It's my bread and butter...