How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
By the side of these bas-reliefs, the visitor cannot
fail to remark the tomb of a Satrap of Lycia from Xanthus. From the
fact of horses being clearly traceable among the figures sculptured
upon this interesting relic, Sir Charles Fellows christened it the
Horse Tomb, and by this appellation it is popularly known. Its strange
shape, with its highly decorated roof and plain base, makes it an
object of curiosity to most visitors. It appears to be of the time of
the Persian dominion in Lycia, and was, as two inscriptions record,
erected by the satrap Paiafa. Upon the roof are groups of fighting
warriors, and at each side are figures in chariots and four. Sphinxes
occur in the lower sculptures, and on the north side below, is a mixed
combat of foot and horse soldiers; and the Satrap Paiafa himself,
attended by four figures, is here represented. The roof is drained by
water-spouts in the shape of lion's heads. The visitor, having now
examined the two most remarkable remains of Lycian tombs in the room,
should rapidly notice the fragments of sepulchres placed here and
there, but legibly numbered. First, let him remark (17-21), a frieze
conjectured to be from a tomb found inserted in the wall of the
Acropolis of Xanthus. Here he will find in bas-relief a procession
consisting of a horse and horseman, priest and priestesses with wands,
an armed female figure, and two chariots, with youthful charioteers
and old men. A triangular fragment of a tomb will next occupy his
attention (23); this has distinct vestiges of colour, and represents a
male and female figure separated by an Ionic column, surmounted by an
harpy, and other fragments in the immediate neighbourhood; (24-27)
have representations of the Sphinx, with a woman's head, wings, and
the body of a lion, as the daughter of the Chimaera, from the Xanthian
Acropolis. A curious relic is the _Soros_, discovered placed on the
top of one of the Xanthian pillar tombs. Here, amongst the
bas-reliefs, the visitor will notice a man stabbing an erect lion; a
lion playing with its young; and a figure on horseback followed by a
pedestrian; and on the next fragment (32), a lioness is again
represented fondling her progeny. The roof of a tomb (143), closely
resembling that which covers the Horse Tomb, is worth observing. It is
part of the tomb of an individual named Merewe, from Xanthus, and the
scenes represented include that of an entertainment, divinities, and
sphinxes, warlike encounters, and on the sides Bellerophon attacking
the Chimaera. Those casts marked (145-149), may next engage the
visitor's attention. They were taken from a tomb carved in solid rock
at Pinara, and include the frieze, upon which warriors are carved
leading captives, the walls representing a walled city, and the
Gorgons' heads which decorated the extremities of the dentals. The
three next casts that demand particular remark (150-152), were taken
from the decorations of a rock tomb at Cadyanda. To the learned these
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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