The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 31

The same axe is also found on the remains of Carian altars. The Greeks even maintain that the G.o.d was named after this axe, that his national name was Labrandeus, and that in Lydian and Carian _labrys_ meant a battle-axe. Plutarch says:--a.r.s.elis, the Carian of Mylasa, marched to the aid of Candaules, king of Lydia (he ruled about the year 700 B.C.), and afterwards he left the sacred axe of the kings of Lydia to the G.o.d of Labranda.[848] This giving up of the battle-axe to the G.o.d of the battle-axe allows us to suppose that the G.o.d of Mylasa is meant by the Carian of Mylasa; and that a.r.s.elis may have been the name or attribute of this G.o.d--a supposition which is changed into a certainty by the fact that in Semitic languages, Chars-el means "axe of El," "axe of G.o.d."[849] Beside this warrior Zeus, a warlike Aphrodite was also wors.h.i.+pped at Mylasa,[850] and if Strabo calls the G.o.ddess of Lena Hecate, the reason of the name may be the death-bringing power of the G.o.ddess Astarte-Ashera. The sacred fish who were to be found in a pool at Mylasa, with gold rings round the neck, would then be evidence of the bountiful, increase-giving side of the nature of this G.o.ddess.[851]

East of the Carians, on the south coast, in the valley of the Xanthus, were the settlements of the Lycians. The range of Taurus, which here rises to a height of 10,000 feet, sinks down in fields of snow and Alpine pastures to the course of the Xanthus. The sides of this valley, Mounts Kragus and Anti-Kragus, are beautifully wooded, and traversed by sounding rills. The view extends from the upper course of the river over the luxuriant vegetation of the plain down to the sea.

Herodotus tells us that this district was once known as Milyas, and that the Lycians, who were originally called Termilians, immigrated from Crete. Sarpedon and Minos contended for the throne, and as Minos got the upper hand, Sarpedon went with the Termilians to Asia, and took possession of Milyas. Afterwards Lycus, the son of the Attic king Pandion, when driven out by his brother Aegeus, came to Sarpedon, and from him the Termilians got the name of Lycians. Their laws were Cretan and Carian. They wore hats adorned with feathers, goat skins round their shoulders, sickle-shaped swords and daggers, coats of mail, greaves, bows, and arrows of reeds. They were named after the mother, and not after the father, and spoke of the mothers of their mothers as their ancestors. The son of a free woman and a slave was free and pa.s.sed for a well-born man; but if a free man, even the first among them, begot children with a foreign woman or a concubine, these were outlaws.[852]

Heraclides of Pontus extends these statements so far as to a.s.sert that the Lycians from ancient times had been under the dominion of their wives; Nicolaus, of Damascus tells us that the daughters of the Lycians, and not the sons, took the inheritance.[853]

In the Homeric poems, Proetus, king of Argos, sends Bellerophontes of Ephyra (Corinth) to the king of the Lycians, to be put to death. The king bade him slay the Chimaera, a monster which was a lion in front, a goat in the middle part, and a dragon behind, and when he succeeded in this he sent him to fight against the Solymi and the Amazons. But afterwards he gave him half his kingdom and his daughter, who bore him Hippolochus and Laodameia. The son of Hippolochus was Glaucus, and the son of Laodameia was Sarpedon, the chieftains who led the Lycians to the aid of the Trojans.

Beside the supposed immigration of the Lycians from Crete and the poetry of Homer we know nothing of the history of the Lycians beyond the fact that they did not submit to the army of Cyrus without a most obstinate resistance. And even under the supremacy of the Persians the Lycians managed their internal affairs independently. They formed a federation which was in existence at Strabo's time, and then included twenty-three places. Each city was represented at the a.s.sembly; the six larger cities had three votes each, the next largest had two, and the smaller cities had one.[854]

The name Milyas, which, according to Herodotus, was borne by the valley of the Xanthus, clung even in later times to the spur under the ridge of Mount Taurus, which runs out eastward towards Mount Solyma. Hence the Lycians could easily be represented as in conflict with the Solymi. The name Chimaera is given to a high mountain valley on Mount Kragus.[855] If the Greeks call the inhabitants of the valley of the Xanthus Lycians, the name has not arisen among them from the supposed Lycus, the brother of aegeus, but rather from the Grecian G.o.d of light, Apollo Lyceus.

According to the mythus of the Greeks, Apollo Bellerophontes (who was wors.h.i.+pped at Corinth), dashes down from his cloud-horse and with his crown of rays breaks through the thick clouds which obscure the sun; he overcomes Bellerus, the spirit of darkness. In the mind of the Greeks, Lycia was free from the clouds of winter; and, as a fact, the climate of the valley of the Xanthus is excellent. Into this bright land, therefore, the G.o.d was thought to have marched when he had become a hero; here he overcame the Chimaera, the creature of mist and cloud. The Greeks went still further in this conception. The east, the land of sunrise, was in itself the land of light, of the G.o.d of light, Lyceus.

The G.o.d of light was thought to pa.s.s the winter in the brighter east, in the home of the sun. When the Greek colonists had settled on the western coasts of Asia Minor, they regarded the valley of the Xanthus as the eastern land of light, they gave it this name, and supposed that Apollo pa.s.sed the winter in Lycia, and gave oracles during the six winter months at Patara in Lycia.[856] In spite of the eastern situation and the climate of Lycia, this idea would hardly have taken root had not the Lycians at Patara, and probably at other places in Lycia, wors.h.i.+pped a G.o.d in whom the Greeks could recognise their own G.o.d of light. The Homeric poems place the Lycians in the closest connection with the Teucrians. There is a Xanthus in Lycia and in the Troad, and the name Tros seems to be identical with the name of the Lycian city of Tlos, which lies high up in the valley of the Xanthus under Taurus. In any case, from this close combination of the Teucrians and Lycians in Homer, we may conclude that with the Greeks of the coast the Lycians pa.s.sed for a tribe who had already been for a long time in possession of their settlements. None but native Asiatic tribes could be represented as fighting beside the native Teucrians as their closest confederates.

The Lycians developed a peculiar civilisation and a peculiar art, of which numerous monuments, and many of them accompanied by inscriptions, have come down to us. The alphabet in these inscriptions closely resembles the Greek. With the aid of some inscriptions written in the Greek and Lycian languages, scholars have succeeded in fixing the value of the Lycian letters--of which there are ten for vowels and diphthongs, and twenty for consonants.[857] By this means we have become acquainted with the name by which the Lycians called themselves. They were not merely called Termilians, as Herodotus supposed, in the most ancient times, but even in their own inscriptions they call themselves Tramele.

The city which the Greeks calls Xanthus is in the language of the Tramele, Arna; the city of Patara is Pttarazu; Pegasa is Begssere.[858]

In fixing the character of the Lycian language, it was at first supposed that the Lycians might have been a branch of the Phrygians, who had forced their way over the Taurus to the south coast--an a.s.sumption which seems to be supported by the fact that the Lycian monuments resemble the Phrygian in plan and style; and that the Lycians, like the Phrygians, loved to excavate walls of rock and that in Lycia, as in Phrygia, the influence of the Greeks was felt at an early time. But the Lycian idiom, so far as the remains of it have been examined at present, was distinctly different from the Phrygian language. While some of our scholars find in the Lycian language words and inflexions allied to the Albanian, _i.e._ to the remains of the language of the ancient Illyrians, others are more inclined to place the Lycian in close connection with the Iranian languages.[859] In either case the Lycians, like the Armenians and Phrygians, belong to the Indo-Germanic stock, and not only the Armenians and Phrygians, but along with them the forefathers of the Lycians came into Asia Minor from the north-east.

The Lycians were settled in a region of strong natural boundaries, and of a very defined and picturesque form. The position of their land, protected as it was by strong natural boundaries, secured for them a more undisturbed development than was possible to the other tribes of Asia Minor. Their cities and towers, Xanthus, Ph.e.l.lus, Myra, Telmissus, Patara, Pinara, and Tlos were surrounded by strong walls of Cyclopian architecture, and the splendid remains are evidence of great skill in masonry. The n.o.ble ruins of Xanthus, not far from the mouth of the river of the same name, still proclaim, even at a distance, the ancient metropolis of the Lycians. How far back the monuments of Lycia extend cannot be determined as yet. The oldest of which the date can be fixed go back to the reign of Darius II., the Itariayush of Lycian inscriptions. The reliefs exhibit the Chimaera, as described in Homer; and they repeatedly exhibit a lion slaying a bull.[860] The Lycians themselves are represented in long garments, just as in works of Greek art; and even to this day the peasants on the Xanthus are to be seen in the caftan.[861] Pictures of battles, of agricultural and pastoral occupations are frequent on the monuments; but so far as the inscriptions have been deciphered at present, they afford no single instance in support of the statement of Herodotus that the Lycians were not named after the father, but after the mother.[862] The most important remains are the tombs, which are evidence of the great industry and care which the Lycians devoted to the repose and memory of the dead. A considerable number of these tombs lie within the walls of the city, and are surrounded by the ruins of other buildings. Hence the dwellings of the dead and of the living were not separated among the Lycians. Besides sarcophagi, made of blocks brought for the purpose, we also find detached rocks, which are changed into great sarcophagi, rocky peaks transformed into sepulchres, and extensive walls of rock, in which grave-chambers have been cut. The face of the rocky wall, thus hollowed out for tombs, is provided with facades which rise up in rich variety to the number of many thousands, over and alongside of each other, sometimes advancing, sometimes receding, according to the nature of the rock. The style of these tombs, which is for the most part very delicate and slender, is an imitation of a kind of wooden structure, which must have been common in Lycia in ancient times, and the simplest forms of which are still in use among the peasants of the region which corresponds to Lycia;[863] sometimes the structure is simpler, at others more complicated, and the effect is strengthened by delicate and luxuriant ornamentation. The faces of the rock-tombs sometimes end with a flat framework of beams, at others with a gable in low relief. The detached sepulchres exhibit the same imitation of a wooden building.

Many of these sepulchres are obviously intended for three corpses; in the single chamber included in them are generally found two stone benches in the sides and at the back a receptacle for a corpse in a recess.[864] The detached sarcophagi are the most numerous. On a sub-structure, or immediately on the ground, stands a long stone coffin, closed by a high ma.s.sive cover, the section of which exhibits a Gothic pointed arch. On these sarcophagi also the ornamentation is almost always rich, and carried out with neatness even to the smallest detail.

Beside the sarcophagi we also find pillars and obelisks among the ruins.

The tympana, friezes, and surfaces of all these monuments are covered with reliefs, which represent with much truth and liveliness the life of animals as well as the life of men. Evident remains of colouring on all the monuments show us that a layer of lively and even startling colours was laid upon these buildings. The reliefs also were painted, and some are treated almost as pictures. The inscriptions upon the tombs prove that the Lycians erected these tombs in their lifetime for themselves, wives, and children, and that this was done by several families in common; they invoke the anger of a G.o.ddess Phate--whom the Greeks call Leto--on those who might dare to violate them. From the nature and solidity of these tombs and sarcophagi, it is clear that the Lycians were almost at as much trouble to give a secure resting-place to their dead as the Egyptians were to give rest to their mummies, while the ornaments show that the Lycians must have regarded the life after death as a state of peaceful repose; the sculptures on the tombs invariably represent friendly scenes of family life, of occupation in the country, of social life or festal enjoyment. We see mothers with their children, carriage journeys, riders, processions, banquets, and feasts, and finally battle-pieces, in which the combatants are partly armed as Lycians and partly as Greeks. Nothing, not even in the pictures of battles, reminds us of the horrors of death, or of a judgment in the under world. The monuments of Lycia prove that the supremacy of the Persians did not interrupt the progress of Lycian art. But the creations of the later period enable us to see that Greek art, in her bloom, obtained and exercised the strongest influence over the Lycians. The most beautiful monument of Lycia, the tomb of Harpagus, the Persian satrap, which belongs to the first half of the fourth century, exhibits a preponderance of Greek forms.

FOOTNOTES:

[688] Strabo, pp. 525, 530, 532, 559.

[689] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte der B. Akad.," 1869, s. 238.

[690] Kiepert, _loc. cit._ s. 239.

[691] Von Gutschmid, "Sachs. Gesell. d. W." 1876, p. 5, _seqq._

[692] Mos. Chor. 1, 10-22.

[693] Mos. Chor. 1, 23-30.

[694] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte der B. Akad.," 1869, s. 222.

[695] Kiepert, _loc. cit._ s. 236.

[696] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte der B. Akad.," 1869, s. 226.

[697] Jer. li. 27; Ezek. xxvii. 14; x.x.xviii. 6.

[698] Moses Chor. c. 24-30, in Le Vaillant's translation.

[699] Anab. 4, 5.

[700] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch.," 2, 64, 79; Menant, "Annal.," pp. 49, 64, 73, 82.

[701] G. Smith, "Zeit. fur. aegypt. Sprache," 1869, s. 9-13, 98.

[702] Oppert, "Inscript. des Sargonid.," p. 22, _et seq._, 37; "Inscript. de DurSarkayan", pp. 14, 21. G. Rawlinson, "Monarchies," 2, 188. According to Oppert's reading the two G.o.ds of Arsissa were called Haldia and Bagabarta.

[703] Joseph. "Antiq.," 1, 3, 6; Kiepert, "Monatsberichte der B. Akad.,"

1869, s. 236.

[704] G. Smith, "a.s.surb.," 61, 75, 84 _seqq._

[705] Botta, "Monum. de Ninive," 2, pl. 140, 141.

[706] Lenormant, "Lettr. a.s.syr." 1, 121, 142, reads Belitdur and Menuas Hincks read Niriduris and Kinuas.

[707] Mordtmann, "Zeit. d. d. M. G.," 26, 484 ff.

[708] Herod. 7, 73; 8, 138.

[709] Strabo, p. 471.

[710] Herod. 7, 75; Thucyd. 4, 75; Xenoph. "Anab." 6, 4, 2; Strabo, p.

541, 542.

[711] Otto Abel, "Makedonien," s. 57 ff.

[712] La.s.sen, "Zeit. d. d. M. G.," 10, 369 ff.

[713] Herod. 2, 2.

[714] Justin, "Hist.," 11, 7; Plut. "Alex.," c. 18; Arrian, "Anab.," 2, 3; Steph. Byzant, [Greek: Gordieion]; Pausan. 1, 4, 5.

[715] Aristoph. "Plut.," 287; Ovid, "Metamorph.," 11, 146.

[716] Arist. "Pol." 8, 55.

[717] Diod. 3, 59.

[718] Herod. 7, 26; Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 2, 8.

[719] Fragm. 128, ed. Muller.

[720] A communication from Kiepert.

[721] Pollux, 9, 83; Heracl. Pont. Fragm. 11, ed. Muller.

[722] Euseb. "Chron." 2, 82, ed. Schone.

[723] [Plato, "Phaedr." 264 D. (Jowett.)]