The Phrygian cap or Liberty cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, worn by the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia in antiquity.

From Antiquity to the Normans

In vase-paintings and other Greek art, the Phrygian cap serves to identify the Trojan hero Paris as non-Greek; Roman poets habitually use the epithet "Phrygian" to mean Trojan. The Phrygian cap can also be seen on the Trajan's Column carvings, worn by the Dacians, and on the Arch of Septimius Severus worn by the Parthians. The Macedonian, Thracian, Dacian and 12th century Norman military helmets had a forward peaked top design resembling the Phrygian cap.

The Phrygian cap is worn by the syncretic Hellenistic and Roman, though originally Persian, saviour god Mithras. The same soft cap is seen worn by an attendant in the murals of a late 4th century Thracian tomb at Kazanlak, Bulgaria (illustrated). The Phrygian cap was worn during the Roman Empire by former slaves who had been emancipated by their master and whose descendants were therefore considered citizens of the Empire. This usage is often considered the root of its meaning as a symbol of liberty. In Byzantium, Anatolian Phrygia lay to the east of Constantinople, and thus in 6th-century Ravenna, part of the Eastern Empire, the three Magi wear Phrygian caps, as generic "easterners" (illustration, left),

Revolutionary Icon

During the 18th century, the red Phrygian cap evolved into a symbol of freedom, held aloft on a Liberty Pole during the American Revolutionary War. It was also adopted during the French Revolution, and to this day the national emblem of France, Marianne, is shown wearing a Phrygian cap. The cap was also incorporated into the symbol of the late 18th century Irish revolutionary organisation the Society of the United Irishmen.

American symbolism

Many of the anti-colonial revolutions in North and South America were heavily inspired by the imagery and slogans of the French Revolution. As a result, the cap has appeared on the coat of arms of many Latin American nations. An effigy of "Liberty" was shown holding the Liberty Pole and Phrygian cap on some early United States of America coinage (pictured right). It also appears on the State flag of West Virginia, New Jersey and New York, as well as the official seals of the United States Army and the United States Senate. The cap had also been displayed on certain Mexican coins (most notably the old 8 Reales coin) through the late 19th century into the mid 20th century. Today, it is featured of the coats of arms or national flags of Nicaragua, El Salvador Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba.

The Phrygian cap is familiar to some as the headgear of the Smurfs.

Caps The seal of Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, also contains a Liberty Cap. The college, endowed by Founding Father John Dickinson at the behest of Benjamin Rush, was the first to be chartered in the new Republic.

Washington Irving also propounded the surprise of his famous protagonist, Rip Van Winkle, by adding to the details of Rip's newly post-revolutionary village a "tall naked poll, with something on it that looked like a red night cap..."

Medical Term

The Phrygian cap is also a term used for an anatomical variant of the gallbladder seen in 1-6% of patients who have ultrasound exams or contrast studies of their gallbladders. It is caused by a fold or division at the point where the tip of the gallbladder (the head) joins the main part of the gallbladder (the body).

Phrygische Mütze | Gorro frigio | Friga ĉapo | Bonnet phrygien | Cappello frigio | フリジア帽 | Frygische muts | Czapka frygijska (czapka wolności) | Barrete frígio | Frihetsmössa