Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Phrygians: Herodotos and Tertullian on the legend of Psammetichos about the first people and language (fifth century BCE on),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified November 15, 2026, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=23356.
Ancient authors: Herodotos of Halikarnassos (late fifth century BCE), Inquiries, or Histories 2.2 (link); Tertullian (late second century CE), To the Peoples / Ad Nationes 1.8 (link; link to Latin).
Comments: Competition between ethnic groups in antiquity could be less than subtle, as this legend preserved by both Herodotos and Tertullian illustrates. One method was to tell stories about who was the first people or, not much different, which language came first or who invented the alphabet. Pliny the Elder gathers competing views regarding who was the first to invent writing or the alphabet, for instance (Natural History 7.192 – link).
For Herodotos, the Egyptians were a very old people, but here he tells a tale about the Phrygians being even older. He even has the Egyptians having to admit this situation. When a Greek tells such tales, then we are once again dealing with the trope of wise “barbarians.” However, the story may well have circulated in other settings before Herodotos gave his spin on it. Tertullian repeats the same legend in slightly different form, perhaps drawing on Herodotos but maybe not.
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Herodotos
(Histories 2.2) Now before Psammetichos became king of Egypt [ca. 644 BCE], the Egyptians believed that they were the oldest people on earth. But ever since Psammetichos became king and wished to find out which people were the oldest, they have believed that the Phrygians were older than Egyptians, and that Phrygians were therefore older than everybody else. Psammetichos, who was unable to discover by inquiry what people came first, devised a plan whereby he took two newborn children from among the common people and gave them to a shepherd to bring up among his flocks. Psammetichos commanded that no one should speak any word that these children could hear. The two children were to stay by themselves in a lonely hut. At the appropriate time, the shepherd was to bring goats and give the children their milk and do anything else that was needed.
Psammetichos did this and gave this order because he wantd to hear what words would first come out of the children’s mouths when they were past the age of unintelligable babbling. Psammetichos received is wish, because when the shepherd had done as he was ordered for two years, one day as the shepherd opened the door and entered both the children ran to him, stretching out their hands and calling “bekos!” When the shepherd first heard this, he said nothing about it. Instead, coming often and taking careful note, he kept hearing this same word until finally he told his master about this. After being commanded to do so, the shepherd brought the children into the king’s presence. Psammetichos listened to them himself and investigated what language this word bekos came from. He found out it was a Phrygian word meaning “bread.” Reasoning from this fact, the Egyptians admitted that the Phrygians were older than the Egyptians. This is the story which I heard from the priests of Hephaistos’ [i.e. Ptah’s] temple at Memphis.
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Tertullian
(To the Peoples / Ad Nationes 8) Psammetichos thought that he had made an ingenious discovery of primeval man. They say he removed certain new-born infants from all human interaction and entrusted them to a nurse, whom he had previously deprived of her tongue. Psammetichos did this in order that, being completely isolated from the sound of any human voice, they might form their speech without hearing it. By deriving their speech from themselves alone, this might indicate the very first people, whose speech was determined by nature. Their first utterance was “bekkos,” a word which means “bread” in the language of Phrygia. Therefore, the Phrygians are supposed to be the first people (genos).
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Source of the translations: A. D. Godley, Herodotus, 4 volumes, LCL (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920-25); Peter Holmes, trans., “To the Nations (Ad Nationes),” in The Writings of Tertullian, Vol. I, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Christian Library 11 (T&T Clark, 1869), public domain, adapted by Harland.