T. R.

BRYCE

A Recently Discovered Cult in Lycii1

The Lycian sanctuary of the goddess Let0 lies on the west bank of the
Xanthos River in southwestern Asia Minor, about 4 km south of the
city of Xanthos. In 1950 excavation work was begun on the site by a
French archaeological team under the direction of Pierre Demargne.
Prior to this time, the only substantial remains visible within the
sanctuary precincts were those of a large Roman theatre, and what
were apparently the foundations of a temple? However, in thme course of
their excavations, which are still in pr~gress,~ the French have brought
to light several temples of Hellenistic date, a Roman nymphaeum
datable to the reign of Hadrian, an early Christian church, and the
remains of what appears to be a sixth-century BC cult building. In
1973 during excavation work on one of the Hellenistic temples an
inscribed limestone stele 1.35 m high was uncovered bearing a text
inscribed in three languages-Lycian, Greek, and Aramaic? The
inscription refers to the establishment of a cult in honour of two deities,
designated as the Lord of Kaunos and Ar . . azuma,” the appointment
of a priest to the cult, regulations for the cult’s maintenance, and threats
of divine retribution for violation of these regulations. This information
is provided at length in the Lycian and Greek versions of the text
(which run along closely parallel lines except for a few variations in
detail), while the Aramaic version is expressed in a terser, more concise

1. The following abbreviations are used in this article: A&--Archiv OrientLlni, Prague;
BSL-Bulletin de la Soci6t.5 de Linguistique de Paris; CRAI-Compte,: rendus des
Seances de YAcadkmie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris; JHS-Journal of
Hellenic Studies; JNES-Journal of Near Eastern . Studies, Chicago; RA-Revue
Archboloaque, Pans; SEG-Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden; TAM
11-Tituli A s h Minorib: Tituli Lyciae linguis Graeca et Latina conscripti, Kalinka? E.
(ed.), Vienna 192044; TL-Tituli Asiae Minoris: Tituli Lyciae lingua Lycia conscrapti,
Kalinka, E. (ed.), Vienna 1901.
2. An early descriphon of the site appears in Benndorf, 0. and Niemann, G, Reisen
irn Siidwestlichen Kleinasien. Band I Reisen in Lykien und Karien, Vienna 1884, pp.
118-24.
3. The current director of excavations is Professor H. Metzger. For progress reports
of work on the site, see Metzger, H., Fouilles du Lefoon de Xanthos, RA, N.S. 1966.
pp. 101-12;1970, pp. 307-22; 1974, pp. 313-40.
4. See Metzger, H., La stde trilingue rkemment ddcouverte au Letoon de Xanthos,
CRAI, 1974, pp. 82ff.
5. In the name of the second of the two deities a rare Lycian letter appears, which
is normally doubled after the letter r. Unfortunately the phonetic value of this letter
is quite uncertain. In the Greek version of the inscription the deity’s name is written
A rkesimas.

T. R. Bryce is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of

Queensland.

115
116 J O U R N A L OF R E L I G I O U S H I S T O R Y

form? and is t o be understood as the official sanction for the cult

given by the Carian satrap P i ~ o d a r o s . ~
The inscription has k e n dated by the French scholar Dupont-Sommer
to June or July of the year 358 BC, in view of the opening words of the
Aramaic version which read: ‘In the month of Siwan of the year 1 of
the King Artaxerxes’. Dupont-Sommer assumes that the reference is
to Artaxerxes I11 Ochus who came to power in 358 BC.8 But this
dating raises an historical problem, since the inscription clearly indicates
that Pixodaros was satrap of Caria at the date of composition. Now in
the past it has been assumed on the basis of a passage in Diodoros that
Pixodaros did not become satrap of Caria until 341/40 BC. According
to the information which Diodoros provides, Pixodaros came to power
after ousting his sister Ada, widow of Idrieus, and was thus the fifth
of the Hecatomnid line to hold this position.9 If we accept Dupont-
Sommer’s dating of the Lycian trilingual, then it would appear that
Pixodaros held satrapal office seventeen or eighteen years earlier than
the date traditionally assigned to him. Dupont-Sommer attempts to
overcome this problem by suggesting that in 358 BC Mausolos may have
fallen temporarily out of favour with Artaxerxes 111, and that his place
was taken briefly by his younger brother Pixodaros; consequently
Pixodaros’ career as satrap from 341/40 onwards may have been the
second time he had held this position.
Obviously this explanation is very much open to question. An
alternative proposal has in fact recently been made by E. Badian, who
suggests that the Artaxerxes of the Aramaic text is Arses, son and
successor of Artaxerxes 111, who may well, like his predecessors, have
adopted the regnal name at his accession.’* This proposal would have
the effect of lowering the date of the trilingual to 337/36 BC, the
year when Arses came to power, and would thus avoid the awkward
juggling with Pixodaros made necessary by the earlier dating, since
337/36 BC is precisely the period when Pixodaros is attested satrap
of Caria. Badian’s suggestion has a great deal to recommend it, and is
certainly more compatible with the existing documentary evidence than
the explanation offered by Dupont-Sommer. Yet at this stage it may be
wise to suspend final judgement on the dating question until all argu-

6. The Lycian version is 41 lines long, the Greek version 35, and the Aramaic version
27.
7. Aramaic was used widely throughout the Persian empire as a type of international
language of diplomacy, thus corresponding to some extent to the use of Akkadian
in the Late Bronze Age period. It was the language of officialdom and bureaucracy,
and thus commonly used in administrative documents, although no other instances of
the use of this language in Lycia have yet been discovered. Cf. the comments of
A. Dupont-Sommer in CRAI, 1974, p. 133.
8. Dupont-Sommer, CRAI, 1974, pp. 139-40.
9. Diodoros Sikulos XVI, 74. 2. The most recent treatment of the Hecatomnid suc-
cession appears in Bockisch, ‘Die Karer und ihre Dynasten’, Klio 51, 1969, pp. 117 f .
cited also by Metzger, CRAI, 1974, p. 86, n. 2.
10. Radian, E., ‘A Document of Artaxerxes IV?’ in Greece and the Eastern Mediter-
ranean in Ancient History and Prehistory, Kinzl, K. H. (ed.), de Gruyter, Berlin, 1977,
pp. pO.50. B. Bosworth comes to substantially the same conclusion in his (forth-
coming) commentary on Arrian’s Anabasis, Book I.
 LYCIAN CULT 117

ments relating to it have been put forward and given further

consideration.ll
From a philological viewpoint, the discovery of the trilingual inscrip-
tion has given a welcome boost to the study of the indigenous language
of Lycia. At present there are approximately 170 known inscriptions
in the Lycian language, the majority of which are sepulchral texts
appearing on the rock tombs and sarcophaguses and generally contain-
ing instructions relating to the family burials for which most Lycian
tombs provided. In addition to these, there are a small number of
dedicatory inscriptions and official decrees, and most important of all,
a 255 line inscription appearing on a stele in Xanthos.12 This stele gives
the genealogy of one of the late fifth-century Xanthian dynasits, a record
of his military exploits, and what appears to be a lengthy account of
religious observances and practices at Xanthos.13 Unfortunately our
understanding of the content of the Lycian inscriptions is very limited.
The sepulchral texts contain many problematical passages, 1he decrees
and dedicatory inscriptions are largely unintelligible, and the 255 line
inscription from Xanthos has, with the exception of a few short passages
and phrases, defied all attempts at elucidation.
The problems posed by the Lycian inscriptions have in fact engaged
the attention of numerous scholars since early in the nineteenth century,
but it was only in the last two decades of the century that any significant
progress began to be made. From the 1880s onwards, a series of Lycian
studies was produced by the scholars of the so-called ‘Scandinavian
School’ who, using the combinatory method, made important headway
in translating the inscriptions.14 Yet it was not until the mid-1940s that
any clear ideas were formulated on the language group to which Lycian
belonged. In 1945, the Danish scholar H. Pedersen demonstrated that
Lycian was a member of the Hittite language group,15 and several years
later his conclusions were taken a stage further by F. Tritsch who
proved that Lycian was much more closely related to Luwian than it
was to Hittite.l“. In more recent years the relationship between Lycian
and Luwian has been closely analysed by the French scholar

11. The later dating is, I believe, also supported by E. Badian in an article to
appear in the forthcoming Schachermeyer Festschrift.
12. The corpus of inscriptions in the Lycian language appeared first in TL. The
inscriptions were re-edited by J. Friedrich in Kleinasiatische Sprachdcnkmaler, de
Gruyter, Berlin, 1932, pp: 52-88. Since the publication of Friedrich’s work, approxi-
mately twenty more inscriptions have been discovered; these are soon to be published
collectively by the German scholar G. Neumann.
13: For a brief description of the Xanthos stele (TL 44 a-d), see Deeters in Pauly-
Wissowa Real-Encyclopadie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Stuttgart, Bd.
XIII, 2,’p. 2285.
14. The most notable contribution was that of the Danish scholar V. Thomsen in
Etudes lyciennes f, Copenhagen, 1899. Thomsen’s conclusions on the syntactical
structure and vocabulary of Lycian coincide markedly with the findings of philologists
in recent times.
15. Pedersen, H., Lykisch und Hittitisch, ,Copenhagen, 1945.
16. Tritsch, F. J., ‘Lycian, Luwian and Hittite’, A 0 18. 1-2, 1950, pp. ,494-518. The
Luwians were a Deople of Indo-European stock who had mobablv settled in the western
half of Asia M h o f some centuries -before the arrival df the sb-called Hittites.
118 J O U R N A L OF R E L I G I O U S HISTORY

E. Laroche,” and a description of Lycian grammar has been written by

the Dutch scholar Ph. Houwink ten Cate.18
Even so, the Lycian language has remained to a large extent
unintelligible. There are several reasons for this, but the main problem
can be stated in one word-vocabulary. In spite of the most exhaustive
comparative studies by French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Russian
scholars, relatively few Lycian words are known to have cognates or
counterparts in Luwian, or in any other language for that matter. Indeed
until recently, many scholars felt compelled to acknowledge that little
more could be done with Lycian until some new bilingual inscriptions
were discovered. A handful of bilinguals in Lycian and Greek have long
been a part of the Lycian corpus,ls and these have provided translations
for a number of Lycian words. But to date the bilinguals have been
far too short to make any major contribution to an understanding of
the Lycian language as a whole.
Consequently the discovery of the trilingual inscription at the Letoon
in 1973 sparked off considerable interest and enthusiasm amongst Near
Eastern philologists. In some respects, however, the inscription has
proved a little disappointing. While it has certainly provided a number
of important new Lycian words, it throws little light on many of the
longstanding and most puzzling lexical problems posed by the language.
Indeed at first reading it appears to do little more than confirm several
of the ingenious guesses made by the scholars of the ‘Scandinavian
School’ some eighty years ago. On the other hand, a more detailed
study of the text makes it clear that the trilingual does provide a
number of important new insights into the Lycian language, besides
adding sign3icantly to our knowledge of Lycian society in general and
Lycian religious practices in particular.
The full text of the trilingual, with French translations and com-
mentaries, appears in the Comptes rendus des st!unees de I’Acaddmie des
Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (Paris) for the year 1974 (pp. 82-93,
115-25, 132-49), and I shall confine myself in this paper to translating
into English the Lycian version of the inscription. This translation needs
to be treated with some caution. While for the most part the Lycian
and Greek versions run closely parallel, as noted above, there are
several divergences between these versions, and a number of places where
the interpretation of the Lycian is questionable. Wherever appropriate
I have indicated the doubtful passages or words in my translation by
the use of question marks, the number of question marks in each case
denoting the degree of uncertainty to be attached to the suggestions I
have made.
17. Especially in his series of articles entitled Comparaison du Louvite et du lycien
appearing BSL 53 1957-58, pp. 159-97; 55, 1960 pp. 155-85; 62, 1%7, PP. 46-64.
18. Houwink ten’ Cate, Ph. H. J., The Luwiin Population Groups of Lycia and
Cilicia Aspera during the Hellenistic Period, Brill, Leiden, 1965. For a‘ concise
description of the ma.u~ features of the Lycian language, see Neumann, G., Lykisch’
in Altkleimsiatische Sprrrchen, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abtlg. I Bd. 11, Bnll,
Leiden, 1969, pp. 358-96.
19. Viz. TL, 6, 23, 25, 45, 56, 65, 117.
 LYCIAN CULT 119

A suggested translation of the Lycian version reads as follows:

1-9: When Pigesere (=Pixodaros),20 son of Katamla
(=Hekatomnos), was satrap of Trmmisa (ZLycia) ( 1-2) 21
and appointed Iera and Natrbbiy6mi22 commissioneirs for the
Trmmili (CLycians) , and Erttimeli as governor23 of m n a
(=Xanthos) (2-5), the citizens and ‘associated people’ of
Ariina dedicated and established (??)” an altar for the lord
.
of Kaunos and for the lord Ar . azuma (5-9).
9-18: And they made Eseimiya ( a i m i a s ) , son of Qiituraha,
priest for these gods, and (subsequently) whoever succeeds
Eseimiya (9-1 1) ; and they gave to him/ them exemption from
property dues (11-12); and there the townspeople and
‘associated people’ set aside (?) property belonging to the
town (12-14); (and) they resumed (??) (the land) which
Khesiitedi and Pigrii till (14-15); and whatever is erected
and attached (?) there (will become the property ?) of the
Lord of Kaunos and Ar . . azuma ( 16-18 ) .
18-22: And Ariina will give yearly 223 (??) adas (as) payment and
will be liable (?) khddazas (??); (and) all who are sub-
sequently (?) enfranchised there will give shekels (i.e. one
shekel apiece ?).
22-25: And they furkher made all that is inscribed (?) on this stele
sacred to the Lord of Kaunos and to Ar . . azuma.
25-30: (And from) whatever tribute (??) is gathered (???) here
medetewe (?) one will duly make sacrifice monthly with a
victim, and yearly with an ox to the Lord of Kaunmi, and to
Ar . . azuma (25-29); (and) Seimiya (is the one who) will

20. The Lycian form Pigesere is linguistically remote from the Greek e uivalent
Pixodaros. However, it seems not unlikely that Pigesere stems from the originaft Canan
form of the name, whatever that may have been (see Laroche, CRAI, 1974, . 120).
21. It has long been known that the Lycians referred to themselves in 8 e i r own
language as Trmmili, and line 1 of the trilingual provides the information that they
called their country Trfimisa. This seems to tie, i n . with the tradition. recorded by
Herodotus that Lycia was settled by a group of unrmgrants called T e d a e , although
according to Herodotus these immigrants came originally from Minoaen Crete under the
leadership of Sarpedon (Histories I, 173). It should be noted that the adjectival SU&
-ili in Trkmili is Anatolian in origin. As Professor Mtsch has suggested to me, if
Herodotus is in fact right in attributing a Cretan origin to the Termilae, then at least
one of the languages spoken in Crete probably had Anatolian connections. (Cf. the
theories put forward by G. Huxley in Crete and the Luwians, Vincent Baxter Press,
Oxford, 1961.)
22. The Lycian proper name NatrbbiyZmi is equivalent to Apollodotos in the Greek
text. The termination -bbiyZmi (= -piyZmi) is cognate with the Lycian verb piye-
(LUWIn piia-) -‘give’. T h i s in turn suggests a close correspondence between p i y h i
and k t o s , the second element in the Greek proper name, which probably enables
us to identify piyZmi as a past participle passive form (cf. Laroche, CRAI, 1974, p.
121). Similarly in an unpublished sepulchral inscription we find the proper name
MahanapiyZmi. Mahana- corresponds to Luwian maiima- meaning ‘god’(see Laroche,
Dictionnaire de la langue louvite, Paris, 1959, pp. 69-70), so that MahanzpiyZmi means
‘god given’ and is thus an exact equivalent of the Greek proper name Theodotos.
23. ‘commissioners’ and ‘governor’ are tentative translations of the Lycian terms
pddZnehfiml and asakhlam respectively, corresponding to the Greek terms archontas
and epime12tZn. Whenever such technical or quasi-technical terms occur, the Lycian-
Greek equivalents can only be regarded as fairly general approximations which should
not be too precisely. equated.
24. The corresp?ndmg Greek passage reads ‘the Xanthians and the peiioikoi decided
to establish . . . . A similar interpretation, should perhaps be applied to the Lycian
passage, although from a, syntacbcal viewpoint this seems to me very difiicult. I would
therefore tentatively favour the interpretation that I have proposed.
120 J O U R N A L OF R E L I G I O U S HISTORY

make sacrifice, and (subsequently) whoever succeeds Seimiya

(29-30).
30-35: And the townspeople of Ariina and the ‘associated people’ of
Ariina made an oath for these regulations (30-32), and they
set up all these regulations that are inscribed (?) on this stele
(32-34); and furthermore one will not remove (i.e. erase?
alter?) anything herewithin (pertaining) either to these gods
or to this priest (34-35).
36-40 Whoever rmoves (i.e. erases? alters?) anything will be
answerable before these gods and the pfitr2fini25mother of this
sanctuary and her children and the nymphs.26
40-41 : Unintelligible.
The first of the two deities to whom the cult is dedicated is referred
to initially in the Lycian text in lines 8-9: khiitawdi khbiddiini, which
I have translated as ‘the Lord of Kaunos’, corresponding to Busileus
Kaunios in the Greek version. As Metzger has pointed out, the same
deity is very likely referred to in two Hellenistic decrees from the Carian
city of Kaunos which make mention of a Basileus ho theos, and in a
dedicatory inscription from the island of Kos, where the words
BasileGs Kauniou occur.27 The Lycian word k&n“emaia, connected with
Luwian hanfawafa?* occurs a number of times elsewhere in the Lycian
inscriptions, apparently in reference to a high ranking military or
civilian In the trilingual, however, it is used in reference to a
god, qualified in this instance by khbiddiini. This latter word is equiva-
lent to the Greek ethnic Kaunios--‘belonging to Kaunos’, and must
therefore be the Lycian ethnic of the town Kaunos. -%ni is a common
ethnic suffix in Lycian, and we can deduce from this that the Lycian
word for Kaunos is khbide.
This information is extremely welcome, since it has a direct bearing
on one of the problematical passages in the 255 line Xanthos stele:
utina : sttati : sttala : Eti : maliyahi : pddiiti ddew6 zkhkhazii neu
ne : mkeweh : mmi : se khbide sttati me : sttala : &ti : qlahibiyehi :
se mal[i-Iyahi : se [mlertemehi : se kchfltawatehi : khbidiiihi
(TL 44.c.5-9)
‘Otanes will erect a stele in honour of (?) the ternenos (?) of
Maliya in the presence of (??) the warriors neu ne : meseweh : &mi :
and Kaunos will erect a stele in honour of (?) (the temenos ?) of this
sanctuary, and of IMaliya, and of Artemis, and of the Lord of Kaunos.’
It is clear from this passage that the ‘Lord of Kaunos’ was not in fact
newly introduced into Lycia under Pixodaros, since he was already
established at Xanthos at least by the end of the fifth century BC, the

25. pEtrZ5nd is an ethnic term with (I believe) regional connotations, designating the
area or district in which the goddess held sway.
26. The Lycian word for ‘nymphs’ is eliycina. This is the only known occurrence of
this word in the Lycian language.
27. See Metzger, CRAI, 1974, p. 89.
28. See Laroche, Dictionnuire de In langue Zouvite, p. 40, and Neumann, Lykisch, p.
378.
29. E.g. TL, 43, 61, 64, 67, 77, 103, 132.
 LYCIAN CULT 121

period when the Xanthos stele inscription was The

apparent revival of his cult in the area during the fourth century BC
may well be a matter of some significance, as we shall1 presently
consider.3l For the moment, it is noteworthy that in the Xanthos stele,
the Kaunian deity seems to have been associated with the goddesses
Maliya and Artemis. The former goddess had cult centres in various
parts of Lycia,32 although she apparently enjoyed special prominence at
Xanthos, and was perhaps the chief deity of the city in pre-Hellenistic
times. In all probability she was in origin an early Anatoliari goddess33
who came to be identified in the first millennium BC with the Greek
goddess Athene.34 The frequency with which she appears on the coin
issues of Xanthos suggests that she was held in particular esteem in this
city, and the appearance of the Lord of Kaunos within her temenos
at Xanthos may well indicate close cultural and/or political ties between
the neighbouring areas of western Lycia and southern Caria at the end
of the fifth century.
In the trilingual inscription, the Lord of Kaunos is coupled with the
deity A r . . azuma (Greek Arkesimas). This deity is complelely new to
us, and at this stage it is impossible to say whether his/her association
with the Kaunian god is of any particular significance.
The bodies responsible for establishing and maintaining the cult of
the two deities are referred to in the Lycian text as arus se-y-
epewitlriwnZi which I have translated as ‘the citizens and associated
people (of Xanthos)’. As Laroche has pointed out, the Lycian word
arus is almost certainly related to Hittite wawu-, a word which basically
means ‘free’, and is connected with ma which refers primarily to a per-
son of noble birth, and by extension to one possessing political rights.35
Hence Lycian arus may be regarded as an essentially legal term
indicating citizenship status.
The precise relationship between arus and epewZtIfimZi (translated
as ‘associated people’) is not altogether clear, although it seems likely
that the latter term, corresponding to perioikoi in the Greek text, refers
to the unenfranchised population of the area. Unfortunately very little
can at present be deduced about the population components of the
Lycian cities up to the Hellenistic period. There may, for instance, have
been a slave element of sorts in the population, but the Lycian word for

30. See the comments of Houwink ten Cate, Luwian Population Groups, p. 5 , n. 9.
31. SIX below pp. 125-7.
32. She is referred to in TL, 75 and 80 (inscriptions from central Lycia), and also
in TL, 149 and 150 (inscriptions from Rhodiapolis in eastern Lycia).
33. Her name provides the root of many personal and place names in Hittite and
other Anatolian texts of the second and first millennia BC; see Barnett, R. D.,
Mklanges Mansel, Ankara, 1974, pp. 900-1, and the references cited therein.
34. The identification is confirmed by a double-headed vase dated to the first half
of the fourth century BC and now in the British Museum. Details of the vase were
first published by D. E. Strong in the British Museum Quarterly, 28, 1964, pp. 95 ff.,
and more recently a comprehensive description has been published by 11. D. Barnett
in Mklanges Munsel, pp. 893-900. The high top of the vessel is decorated with a
scene depicting the judgement of Paris. Three figures appear in the scene-Athene,
Aphrodite, and Paris-with their names inscribed next to them in Lycian characters.
35. Laroche, CRAI, 1974, p. 123.
122 J O U R N A L OF R E L I G I O U S H I S T O R Y

slave is not known, so this remains an imponderable factor. On the

other hand, there was almost certainly a substantial number of metics
in the population, perhaps largely of Greek origin, and I think it most
likely that metics were the chief component of the epewktlmmki
category.
In line 9 and following, various provisions are made for the main-
tenance of the newly established cult, beginning with the appointment
of (E)seimiya ( d i m i a s ) as priest. The Lycian word for priest in this
context is kumuzu, a word which occurs several times elsewhere in the
Lycian inscriptions as an office held by various tomb Several
cognates of k u m u also occur in the trilingual; e.g. kumeziyi?-‘altar’
(line 7), kumehi-‘(sacrificial) victim’ (line 27). and the verb
kumezi--‘to sacrifice’ (line 26 and 29).3? These terms are all concerned
with the act of sacrifice, and this may well indicate the primary function
of the official bearing the title kumuzu-a sacrificer, that is to say, a
priest appointed specifically for the task of making sacrifice on behalf
of the community. This in fact seems to be made clear from lines 29-30:
‘(and) Seimiya (is the one who) will make sacrifice, and (subsequently)
whoever follows Seimiya’. It would appear from the Greek version
(lines 9-11) that the office was to be an hereditary one, to be held in
perpetuity by members of Simias’ family line. Whether or not the posi-
tion was a salaried one is unclear. But at all events its incumbent was
apparently entitled to exemption from property dues.
From line 12 onwards, we are obliged to rely rather heavily on the
Greek text to make much sense of the Lycian. We learn that a certain
area is to be set aside in connection with the cult-land worked by
Khesiitedi and Pigrei, and probably situated somewhere in the low-lying
plain outside the city of Xanthos. Its purpose seems to have been
essentially to provide revenue to meet expenses connected with the cult.
The Lycian word for the land so reserved is hrriwnadu (line 14) corres-
ponding to ugros in the Greek text (line 14), although I think it likely
that the Lycian term had a more specialized technical sense than the
Greek ugros suggests. We may note in passing that in one of the
sepulchral texts (TL 84) the word hrmmii occurs (perhaps a singular
form of hrrizmadu) in a context which is very largely obscure. However
the passage does contain several words connected with the rite of
sacrifice (e.g. kumezeiti, kumehi, and kumazu) and when considered in
relation to hrriumj within the context of a sepulchral inscription, it may
provide evidence of some form of funeral cult organized for the tomb
occupants, perhaps along the lines of the cult in honour of the two
deities referred to in the

36. E.g. TL, 49 and 111. In the latter case the tomb owner is designated as the
‘Driest of Trzzuba-’-a deitv mentioned in connection with uenalties for tomb
iiolation.
37. The three Lycian terms correspond respectively to bijrnon, rhuein and hiereion
in the Greek text.
38. There are oocasional references in the Greek sepulchral inscriptions of Lycia
to a funerary cult which involved making sacrifices at the tomb at certain specified
periods of the year; for example, in an inscription published by H. A. Chmerod and
 LYCIAN CULT 123

The trilingual indicates that the revenue for the newly established cult
is to come from three sources-the produce of the land referred to in
line 14, a yearly tribute from the citizens of Xanthos, and a small pay-
ment to be made by newly enfranchised citizens. The contribution to be
made by the city of Xanthos amounts to the sum of 1~100Lycian
adas, which is equivalent to 1+ Greek minus, as indicated by both the
Greek and Aramaic versions of the inscription. In order to ciilculate the
exact ratio between the Lycian ada and the Greek mina, we need of

that 22+ is a more likely fig~re.3~

-
course to know what value is to be assigned to the Lycian numeral
1~100.Laroche tentatively suggests h l O O 124 but my awn view is
Admittedly this may seem a rather
improbable amount to stipulate, unless we assume that it is the result
of a conversion of the Greek figure into Lycian terms. On this basis,
we can calculate that there were 15 adas to the mina. The L,ycian word
sikhlas for ‘shekels’ corresponds to duo drachmas in the Greek text-
the amount to be paid presumably by all newly enfranchised citizens for
the upkeep of the cult. Clearly the Lycian shekel was wortlh only one,
or at the most two drachmas. The revenue coming from the monetary
payments must in fact have been an almost insignificantly small
amount-perhaps little more than a token gesture to foirmalize the
responsibility undertaken by the Xanthians in connection with the cult.
In all probability the cult involved no great monetary outlay, the major
item of expense perhaps being the recurring sacrifices ref’erred to in
lines 25-30.
Lines 30-34refer to the oaths taken by the Xanthians to uphold the
regulations inscribed on the stele. Then follows a statement in which a
certain act is prohibited in connection with the stele. The Lycian verb
signifying this act is khttadi (lines 34-35) which is preceded by the
negative ne, and corresponds to the Greek rnetakinZsein.4° Clearly some
form of removal is in question, and I have suggested in my translation
that the reference is quite literally to the erasure or altera.tion of the
regulations appearing on the stele. We do have a few parallels amongst
the Greek inscriptions of Lycia where the erasure of an inscription, or
additions to it, are specifically referred to as But it is
perhaps more appropriate to regard this type of prohibition as a reflec-

E. S. G. Robinson (JHS, 34, 1914, p. 5, n. 10). The tomb owner indicatm that a cock
and a fowl are to be sacrificed twice a year, once before the harvest and once before
the vintage. No indication is given as to who is responsible for making: the sacrifice,
although a vague promise of reward is held out to the person undertaking this
responsibility and a vague threat of retribution to the person who neglects it (cf. also
TAM, I1 637, 1-5).
39. This suggestion was made to me by Professor Tritsch, on the assumption that
1 = 1, 0 = 10, and perhaps A = f. If we then read the numeral in retrograde
fashion, it is possible to arrive at the figure 22f.
40. The mecise significance of the Greek verb in this context is discussed bv Metzeer.
- I

CRAI, 19j4, p. 90:

41. E.g. TAM, 11, 247. 8, 357. 9-12, 622. 3-4, 797. 11-13, SEG, VI, 765. References
to the erasure of an inscription as a tomb violation occur elsewhere amongst the
Greek inscriptions from western Asia Minor; see the examples given by G. Hirschfeld
from Kyzikos, Ephesos, Aphrodisias in Ueber die griechischen Grabschriften, welche
Geldstrafen anordnen, Koenigsberger Studien I, 1887, p. 132.
124 J O U R N A L OF R E L I G I O U S H I S T O R Y

tion of a longstanding Anatolian practice of investing formal documents

with a sacrosanct character. For instance, the Hittite treaties which were
drawn up by various Hittite kings with their vassal rulers were ratified
by the gods of the Hittite homeland as well as by those of the vassal
state. Consequently violation of the terms of the treaty rendered the
violator liable to the punishment of the deities who had been invoked;
and falsification of the treaty was classified as a capital
In the case of the trilingual, any person found guilty of erasing/
altering any of the regulations appearing on the stele will be liable to
the wrath both of the deities to whom the cult is dedicated, as well
as to Leto, her children, and the nymphs. Let0 is by far the most pro-
minent of the deities figuring in the Lycian inscriptions, but is never
referred to by name in these inscriptions. She is always designated either
as Zni qlahi ehbiyehi-‘mother of this ~anctuary’?~ or 2ni mahmahi-
‘mother of the gods’.44 In fact, prior to the discovery of the trilingual,
it was only through a bilingual text (TL 56) that we were able to con-
firm the identification of this goddess with Leto.
Leto’s initial association, according to legendary tradition, with the
sanctuary which bears her name is recorded by several ancient writers,
including O ~ i d Antoninus
,~~ LiberalisP and S e r v i ~ s . ~The
? tradition
relates that Let0 came to Lycia with her children Apollo and Artemis
as a refugee from the wrath of Hera. On her arrival in the country she
paused at a spring to quench her thirst and to bathe her children. But
her intrusion met with considerable hostility and abuse from the local
peasants who tried to drive her away, and were immediately turned into
frogs for their discourtesy. The story can be traced back at least to
the fourth century BC since Antoninus Liberalis cites the fourth-century
writers Menekrates of Xanthos and Nikander of Kolophon as his
sources. There can be little doubt, however, that Leto’s cult centre on
the Xanthos River dates to a much earlier period than
Ovid is quite explicit in attributing the origin of the sanctuary to
the Greek newcomer, although it is more likely that the Letoon was
first associated with the cult of an early Anatolian goddess, with whom
Let0 came to be identified under Greek influence.49We should probably
think primarily in terms of an identification with the Luwian anniS
rnaS3majSiS-‘mother of the gods’-an exact philological equivalent of
the Lycian Zni m a h ~ n a h i .The
~ ~ Luwian goddess may well have been
42. See Pirenne, J., La politique d‘expansron hittite, envisagee d travers les trait&
de vassalit6 et de protectorat, AO, 18, 1-2, p. 380.
43. TL, 26, 56, 65(?), 94, 102, 110, 112, 131, 145.
44. TL, 134.
45. Metamorphoses, VI, 316-381.
46. Metamorphoses, XXXV.
47. Commentary on Vergil‘s Georgics, I, 378.
48. An interesting tradition recorded by Stephanus Byzantinus may indicate that the
cult of Let0 in Lycia was partly absorbed by, and perhaps partly took over from an
indigenous cult already established in the area (see Steph. Byz., S.V. Syessu).
49. Cf. the comments made above concerning the identification of Maliya with the
Greek goddess Athene.
50. Laroche was the first to point out that Oni mahanuhi represents letter for letter
the Luwian annii maiianaSSrS (BSL, 5 3 , 1957-8, p. 190). Cf. Houwink ten Cate,
Luwian Populatron Groups, p. 203.
 LYCIAN CULT 125

brought into Lycia some time after 1200 BC by the Late Elronze Age
Lukka people who very likely formed one of the major population
components of the first-millennium Lycian civilization. In her attributes
and functions, the Luwian goddess was to some extent identifiable with
the Sun Goddess of Arinna, the chief female deity in the Hittite
pantheon, and it may be significant that the Late Bronze Age place
name Arinna reappears in the form Ariina, the Lycian name for the city
of Xanthos.61
At all events, the cult of the goddess Leto, or the goddess with whom
she was identified, was widespread throughout Lycia. Yet she was not
thought of strictly as the goddess of a national cult, but rather as a local
goddess, attached to a particular district or associated with a particular
sanctuary. On the other hand, her sanctuary at the Letoon was a reli-
gious focal point for the whole of the country, and this in turn may have
given some coherence to her local cults in the various districts of Lycia.
The reasons for the establishment of the new cult referred to in the
trilingual are far from certain. Nevertheless a consideration of the
institution within the general context of Lycian affairs of the fourth
century BC may help to throw some light on the question.
For much of the fifth century, the city of Xanthos (where the
Kaunian deity makes his first Lycian appearance) had been under the
control of a series of pro-Persian dynasts. Admittedly at some point
during the middle decades of this century Lycia had become a member
of the Athenian League.52 But in all probability her association with
Athens was a desultory one, and very likely all links had been severed
by the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.53 In the last quarter of the
century, the Xanthian dynast Kherei emphatically reasserted Lycia’s
ties with Persia,54 and probably established a close relationship with
the neighbouring communities of Caria. Almost certainly there were
strong ethnic links between the populations of Caria and Lycia, and the
presence of the Kaunian deity at Xanthos at the end of the fifth century
may reflect a conscious effort to forge closer links between Xanthos
and Kaunos in particuIar.

51. Arinna was also the name of one of the Late Bronze Age communities lying in
or near Lukka territory )(see my article The Lukka Problem--and a Possible Solution,
JNES, 33 1974, pp. 400-1). It may well have had direct ethnic links with the first-
millenuiu& city of Ariina/Xanthos, without necessarily being identical with it as J.
Garstang and 0.R. Gurney have suggested (The Geography of the lfittite Empire,
Occasional Publications of the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara No. 5,
London 1959, pp. 81-2).
52. Lycia figures in the Athenian Tribute Lists for the year 446/45 BC, in which the
annual contribution of the ‘Lycians and their synteleis’ is assessed at ten talents
(Meritt, Wade-Gery, McGregor, Athenian Tribute Lists, Harvard University Press,
1939, I, 334).
53. This assumption is supported in part by the negative: fact that the Lycians are
missing from the detailed list of league members provided by Thucydides for the period
when the Peloponnesian war began (11. 9. 4 ) .
54. This conclusion is based on information contained in the Xanthos stele which
seems to indicate that the author of the inscription was an ally, if not a vassal,
of the Ionian satrap Tissaphernes, that he participated in the suppression of the revolt
of Amorges, and that he was apparently in close touch with Darius and Artaxerxes.
KherZi is generally assumed to be the author of the Xanthos stele inscription, although
this attribution has recently been disputed by J. Bouquet in CRAI, 1975, pp. 138 ff.
126 JOURNAL O F RELIGIOUS H I S T O R Y

During the fifth century the Xanthian dynasts had acted as a unifying
influence throughout Lycia, but Kherei was probably the last of the
Lycian dynasts whose power was actually based at Xanthos. His
political successor was a man called Erbbina whose power base lay in
the far west of the country at Telmessos (modern Fethiye) near the
Carian border.65 Erbbina seems to have maintained reasonable control
over the western half of the country (i.e. from the Xanthos Valley west-
wards), although recently discovered inscriptions from the Letoon
suggest that his authority was seriously challenged by uprisings in
several Lycian towns, including Xanthos, and that he was obliged more
than once to resort to military force to re-establish his control!6
In the eastern half of the country, events took a rather different turn.
While Erbbina and his successors in western Lycia faithfully maintained
their Persian allegiance, a new anti-Persian element seems to have
emerged in eastern Lycia early in the fourth century. In c.390 BC a man
called Perikle came to power in Limyra, and in subsequent years he
extended his power westwardsF7 eventually defeating the last of the pro-
Persian dynasts at Telmessosss and thereby bringing the whole of the
country under his control.
The conquests of Perikle meant on the one hand the effective end
for the time being of Persian authority in Lycia, and on the other a
temporary reunification of the country under a form of military dictator-
ship. At the time of the satrap rebellion Lycia was quite free of any
form of foreign control and is listed by Diodoros amongst the coastal
peoples who participated in the r e b e l l i ~ n However,
.~~ after the defeat
of the rebels in c.360 BC, Persian authority was reimposed throughout
southwestern Asia Minor, and at least part of Lycia seems to have been
handed over to the Carian satrap Mausolos, perhaps as a reward for his
betrayal of the satraps’ cause.6o
It was at this point that prior to our discovery of the trilingual our
knowledge of the course of events in Lycia up to the time of Alexander
the Great came to an abrupt end, except for a very fragmentary decree
issued by Pixodaros at Xanthos (TL 45). Now whether we accept 358
or 337/6 BC as the date of the trilingual, it seems likely that the
inscription reflects something of the new administrative arrangements

5 5 . This assumption rests largely on numismatic evidence. So far as we can determine,

the coin issues of Erbbina came exclusively from Telmessos. A comprehensive account
of Erbbina’s coinage is shortly to be published by 0.Morkholm and J. Zahle in
Acta Archaeologica.
56. The inscriptions are dealt with by J. Bousquet in CRAI, 1975, pp. 141-8.
57. Perikle’s supreme command is acknowledged in sepulchral inscriptions not only
at Limyra (TL, 103 and 132), but also further west at Timiusa (TL, 67) and Arneae
(TL, 83), and as far north as Choma (as indicated by a recently discovered inscription
in the area, provisionally classified by Neumann as N 314).
58. A man designated in one of the inscriptions as ‘Arttumpara the Mede’. His defeat
at the hands of PerikIe is referred to in TL, 104 b, and can probably be tied in with
a fragment from Theopompos which refers to Perikle’s conquest of Telmessos (Jacoby,
Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, 70, F115, no. 103. 17).
59. Diodmos Sikulos, XV 90. 3.
60. The anecdote recorded in pseudo-Aristotle, Oeconomica, 11, 1348a, provides
indirect evidence of Mausolos’ authority over Lycia (details given by Treuber, O.,
Geschichre der Lykier, Stuttgart, 1887, pp. 104-5).
 LYCIAN CULT 127

made for Lycia after the restoration of Persian authority irt the area.
The trilingual indicates that Xanthos was placed under the direction of
an asakhluza (civil governor? the office was perhaps a newly created
one), while two other persons were appointed as pddenehmmi(s)
(‘commissioners’). The precise significance of these terms is quite un-
certain, but it does seem clear that satrapal control of Lycia was hence-
forth intended to be much more direct than in the past, and that there
was to be no return to the relatively laissez-faire system of local dynastic
rule; and it can perhaps be inferred that Xanthos itself was once more
restored to the prominent position it had enjoyed during the fifth
century?l
Very likely the establishment of the cult of the Lord of Kaunos and
Ar . . azuma at the Letoon was not without political signifcance. As
Dupont-Sommer points out, the Persians attached much importance to
the regulation of the religious activities of their subjects in the interests
of good order and Yet as we have seen, the cult of the deity
designated as the Lord of Kaunos had already been introduced into
Lycia in the fifth century. And so this religious institution referred to
in the trilingual was in effect a reassertion of a Lycian-Carian link which
was already established in Xanthos during the hey-day of‘ the city’s
power and influence. This reassertion may well have been politically
motivated. It seems not unlikely that the Xanthian dynasts had done
much to strengthen the image of cultural unity between their country
and Caria at a time when Xanthos was also a highly effecthe centre of
Persian influence in Lycia. After the satrap rebellion, Caria and Lycia
were united under the control of the Carian satrap. And it may well be
that the promotion, or reintroduction, of old cultural ties tetween the
two countries was seen as a useful means of reinforcing the more recent
political unity.

61. Xanthos seems to have undergone a temporary eclipse in Lycian affairs early in
the fourth century BC.
62. Dupont-Sommer, CRAI, 1974, pp. 141-2.