Phrygian Cap

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Phrygian Cap

Hargrave Jennings, in his book The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries (1870), argued for the common ancestry of the Phrygian Cap, which is the classic cap of the god Mithra; the sacrificial cap; and the miter. The Mithraic or Phrygian Cap is the origin of the priestly miter in all faiths. The Phrygian Cap was worn by the priest in sacrifice. When worn by a male, it had its crest, comb, or point set jutting forward; when worn by a female, the same prominent part of the cap is in reverse, or on the nape of the neck, as in the instance of the Amazon's helmet, displayed in antique sculptures, or that of the goddess Athena.

According to Jennings, the peak of caps or hats (the term "cocked hat" is a case in point) all refer to the same idea. This point had a sanctifying meaning afterward attributed to it, when it was called the christa, crista, or crest, which signifies a triumphal top or tuft. The Grenadier Cap and the loose black Hussar Cap derive remotely from the same sacred Mithraic bonnet, or high pyramidal cap.

The Phrygian Cap comes from the highest antiquity. It is displayed on the head of the figure sacrificing in the celebrated sculpture it Mithraic Sacrifice (or the Mythical Sacrifice) in the British Museum, London. This loose cap, with the point protruding, gives the original form from which all helmets or defensive headpieces, whether Greek or not, derive.

When a Phrygian Cap, or Symbolizing Cap, is bloodred, it stands for the cap of liberty, a revolutionary symbol; in another way, it is even a civic or incorporated badge. It marks the needle of the obelisk, the crown or tip of the phallus, whether human or representative. It may have had its origin in the rite of circumcision. The real meaning of the bonnet rouge or cap of liberty is obscure, but it has always been regarded as a most important hieroglyph or figure. It signifies the supernatural simultaneous sacrifice and triumph. It has descended from the time of Abraham, and it is supposed to be an emblem of the strange mythic rite of the circumcision preputii.

The Phrygian Cap stands as the sign of the Enlightened. The heroic figures in most Gnostic gems have caps of this kind. The sacrificer in the sculptured group of the Mithraic Sacrifice, among the marbles in the British Museum, has a Phrygian Cap on his head. He performs the act of striking the bull with a dagger, which is the office of the immolating priest. The bonnet conique is the miter of the Doge of Venice. Cinteotl, a Mexican god of sacrifice, wears such a cap made from the thigh-skin of a sacrificed virgin. This headdress is shaped like a cock's comb. The Scotch Glengarry cap also seems, upon examination, to be "cocked."

Besides the "bonnet rouge," the Pope's miter and other miters or conical head-coverings derive their names from the terms "Mithradic," or "Mithraic," and the origin of the whole class of names is Mittra, or Mithra.