Ancient history from the monuments: Greek cities & islands of Asia MinorVaux, W. S. W. (William Sandys Wright)
History
Ancient history from the monuments: Greek cities & islands of Asia Minor
Vaux, W. S. W. (William Sandys Wright)
Greeks -- Turkey; Turkey -- History
In concluding these notes on Xanthus, we may allude to some casts from a
tomb at Pinara, hard by, carved on the face of the solid rock. Sir
Charles Fellows states that, in the centre of this city, there rises a
round rocky cliff, speckled all over with tombs, many of them being only
oblong holes, and quite inaccessible. One cast gives the representation
of a walled city with tombs, towers, gates, and walls; the battlements,
on the whole, much resembling the town shown on the “Trophy monument.”
Another cast gives the interior of the portico of a rock tomb at Tlos,
with Bellerophon, one of the heroes of Lycia, triumphing over the
Chimæra.
It only remains for us to notice the famous _Inscribed Stele_, the
longest inscription yet met with in the Lycian character, and containing
a notice of a son of Harpagus, and the names of several Lycian towns. On
the north side, between the lines of Lycian characters, is a Greek
inscription in twelve hexameter lines,[65] the first from an epigram of
Simonides (B.C. 556), and a notice of the achievements of this son of
Harpagus. The whole inscription consists of about 250 lines.
Footnote 65:
Colonel Leake (Trans. of the Roy. Soc. of Literature, vol. ii. 1844)
has given a translation of the twelve lines in Greek, showing that
this monument was erected by a certain Datis, called a son of
Harpagus. It states that he had gained the highest honours in the
Carian games, and had slain “in one day seven heavy-armed soldiers,
men of Arcadia.” The epigram of Simonides (Anthol. Brunck. vol. i. p.
134) commemorates the battles at Cyprus and on the Eurymedon, B.C.
470. Another conjecture is that the son of Harpagus was called Sparsis
(Leake, ibid. p. 32). Colonel Leake thinks the date of the inscription
not earlier than B.C. 400.
Over the other towns of LYCIA, TELMESSUS, PATARA, PINARA, MYRA, TLOS,
and ANTIPHELLUS, it is not necessary for us to dwell at any great
length, the more so that they were not, historically, of great
importance, and are to us only interesting for the remains of art still
visible on the spot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account