Fellows, Charles: Travels and researches in Asia Minor, more particularly in the province of Lycia (London, 1852)

398

LTCIA.

which arise from considering the many remains we have
found in this highly interesting province. History assists
us little in our investigation of the remains of the middle
ages, in connection with the inhabitants of Lycia. Of its
earliest people we have more correct information from the
poems of Homer and the works of Herodotus ; each author
almost claims this district as his native country, and both
seem to have been well acquainted with the poetic legends
of its first inhabitants. They tell of Europa's visit, and of
her sons possessing the country; and some of the most
beautiful parts of the Iliad recount the history of the Lycian
heroes, Sarpedon and Grlaucus. The exploits of Bellerophon,
and the tale of the children of king Pandarus, are related at
length; whilst the Chimsera and the natural peculiarities and
beauty and fertility of the country are frequently extolled.

I am inclined to consider almost all the works I have
termed Lycian as belonging to this age and that imme-
diately subsequent; many of the peculiar sarcophagi and
obelisk-monuments, and much of the rock-architecture, the
sculptures, and the language, as also the coins, belong to this
period. JSTone of these represent any subject which can be
called Byzantine, Roman, or even connected with the known
history of Greece; the subjects are mythological, historical,
or domestic scenes ; the history representing the earliest le-
gends and the renowned feats of the time of the Trojan war.
The nearest parallel to the domestic scenes appears to be in
the Etruscan paintings. The coins to which I refer have
upon them Bellerophon, Pegasus, the Sphinx, Pan, and the
wild beasts of the country; and on their reverse a triquetra,
an unexplained but very ancient symbol, intermixed with
the early language of the country.

Herodotus mentions the destruction of the Lycians about
the year 550 b.c.# Probably about that period, and after-

* Croesus, whose reign commenced 562 B.C., succeeded in conquering the
whole of the province of Asia Minor, excepting Lycia and Cilicia, which

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