Where does the Phrygian cap really come from?

What is the origin of the Phrygian cap? You surely know this cap; you've seen. it in depictions of the French. Revolution, whether on Marianne or the. sans-culottes. But do you know exactly. where it comes from? Well, its history. begins long before 1789. It owes its. name to Phrygia. What is that exactly? It is a region in Asia Minor, in. present-day Turkey. In antiquity, the. inhabitants of this region wore a cap, a felt cap with a folded tip, recognizable in many frescoes and. sculptures. In fact, this headgear was.

quickly associated in the Greco-Roman. imagination with Eastern peoples, and. gods and heroes from the East were. often depicted wearing it. But the true. symbolic shift happened in Rome. In the. Roman Republic, a very similar cap. called the pileus was given to freed. slaves. Receiving this cap simply meant. gaining one's freedom. So the pileus, and by extension the Phrygian cap, became anchored very early on, as you. can see, in the idea of emancipation.

and liberty. Then, this ancient memory. resurfaced in the 18th century. There, Enlightenment thinkers and French. revolutionaries, very fond of classical. references, reclaimed this symbol. And. that is why, during the French. Revolution, the Phrygian cap became the. emblem of liberty won against tyranny. The sans-culottes wore it proudly, and. Marianne, who is the allegory of the. Republic, is almost always depicted. wearing this red cap. By the way, why. red? Well, this color is inherited from.

the revolution itself. It refers, unfortunately, to blood shed, to. courage, but also to fraternity between. citizens. And this red cap quickly. became a sign of political rallying, to. the point of being worn in processions, painted on walls, and brandished on. pikes. What happened to it afterward? Well, in the 19th century, its. symbolism became universal. We find. this cap on the coats of arms of many. newly independent Latin American. countries, from Argentina to Cuba. And. there, everywhere, it represents once.

again liberty, the break from. oppression, and the birth of a nation. Amen.