CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION AND SOURCES

The Lycians in the Classical and post-Classical tradition

No territory of Anatolia, no autochthonous region of Asia Minor apart from the Troad, was so closely connected with Greece in mythology as Lycia. Its magnificent scenery, with mmmtains rising to heights of over 10,000 feet (3000 metres), with its lakes, woods and forests, its rocky coast indented with creeks and sprinkled with islands, its superb ruins of two dozen cities, could hardly reflect more splendidly, even today, the ancient link that held them together. 1 The Lycians are amongst the most enigmatic peoples of antiquity. There can be few nations of the ancient world of whom so much is spoken, yet so little fully understood. Few scholars of antiquity will not come across the Lycians at one point or another. In the nineteenth century, Lycia was seen primarily as part of the Greek world (hence the coins held by the British Museum are published as Greek coins,2 and the sculpture recovered from Xanthos is held by the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities), though Sir Charles Fellows, who had come principally in search of Greek cities,3 already perceived the Lycians as a race apart.4 In more recent times, the Lycians have tended to be seen as a part of the Near East, and there often seems a perception amongst Greek historians that Lycian affairs were merely tangential to events in the Aegean.' In fact, the Lycians were an important part of both the Greek and the Near Eastern worlds, since they lived at the point where the two cultures intermingled, and at an important strategic juncture between east and west (pp. 31-33). The Lycian culture was neither exclusively Hellenized, nor exclusively Oriental, but a mixture of both, with a number of elements that were entirely Lycian. For this reason, if for no other, they are worthy of study. The Greek goddess Leto was supposed to have fled to Lycia after giving

1 Brewster 1993: 57. 2 Hill 1897. 3 Nonrum 1988: 102. 4 Note the quotes from Fellows' journals (Fellows 1839: 228-29 [= Fellows 1852: 170]; Fellows 1852: 335) atNonrum 1988: 114, 121. ' A notable excepticn to this is Homblower 1982. 2 CHAPTERONE birth to Apollo and Artemis. The earliest extant reference to this is in the second-century A.D. writer Antoninus Liberalis (Met. 35.1), but he cites the fourth-century writer Menecrates of Xanthos (F 2.1; p. 5). Another legend would have Apollo and Artemis actually born in Lycia (p. 197). Homer describes Apollo as Lykegenes (JI. 4.101, 119), possibly to be inter• preted as 'born in Lycia' (p. 198), and the association of Apollo with Lycia was known to Bacchylides (12.147-48) and Sophocles; the latter also asso• ciates Artemis with Lycia (OT 202-08). 6 The Lycians and their leaders are mentioned repeatedly in the Jliad,7 in passages much studied for other purposes, 8 where they are the most promi• nent and fiercest of the allies of Troy-ironic when they were furthest-re• moved of Troy's supporters. 9 Homer also links Lycia, possibly for the first time, with the myth ofBellerophon (6.155-97; pp. 210-11). Later, Proiteus is stated to have regained his throne of Tiryns with the help of troops sup• plied by his Lycian father (Apollod. Bibi. 2.2.1), whilst Strabo (8.6.11 [373]) says that the Cyclopes who built Tiryns' walls came from Lycia. 10 The earliest historical reference to the Lycians is probably to be found in the Late Bronze Age. In numerous records (Hittite and others) refer• ences are found to an ethnic grouping called the Lukka who seem to have lived somewhere in south-western Anatolia. Archaeological evidence for this period in Lycia itself is, however, generally lacking, and it is not until the early centuries of the first millennium that significant physical remains are found (p. 28). But if it is correct that the Lukka were the ancestors of the Lycians (p. 26) then it seems the people whom Homer sought to hon• our11 were genuinely important in the Aegean Bronze Age. Nevertheless, in the Classical period the Lycians were becoming highly Hellenized, 12 and beginning to be perceived as such by Greeks, though the historian Ephorus (F 162 ap. Str. 14.5.23 [678]) and Menander (Aspis 23- 26) in the fourth century may still list the Lycians amongst the 'barbarian' peoples (pp. 22-23). Many of the most famous 'Greek' monuments in the possession of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the Brit-

6 For a full discus.sicn ofthis matter, see pp. 197-200. 7 E.g. Hom. fl. 2.876-77; 5.628-98; 6.119-236; 7.13-16; 8.173; 9.286; 12.101-04, 307-471; 13.150; 14.426; 15.485-86; 16.419-683; 17.140-287; references are given by Bryce 1986: 220- 21, thougii they need some correcticn. On Homer and the Lycians, see now Mellink 1995a: 33- 34. 8 Note e.g. the selecticn of fl. 12.307-30 as an important source passage in Crawford, Whitwead 1983: 36-37 no. 5A 9 Bryce 1995: 1161. 10 See Graves 1960: I, 31 n. 1. Tue legend appears to be alluded to en Lycian coinage, of an llllcertain dynast (Babelcn 1907), of Ekuwemi (Babelcn 1907: 189-92) and of Mutlei (Babelcn 1907: 191-94). 11 Hiller 1993: 110. 12 Bryce 1986: 203; Brewster 1993: 59-60.