THE LYKIANS

Throughout antiquity, the people of the mountainous land of Lykia retained a distinct identity and a unique style of funerary architecture.

The Greeks called the people Lykians, supposedly after Lykos, the exiled son of King Pandion of Athens. The Lykians, however, called themselves Termilai in texts written in Lykian, a language which is even today only partially understood. It uses an alphabet of 29 characters, some of them borrowed from Greek.

Despite heroic Lykian resistance at Xanthos, the Persians under their general Harpagos overran Lykia in 546-5 BC. From 468 BC, however, the Lykians were absorbed into the Athenian empire. From the end of the 5th century BC Lykia once again came within the Persian orbit.

Under the Persians, the Lykian cities were ruled by local dynasts whose monumental tombs commemorated their aristocratic status and their success in war. No such tombs survive from the period of Athenian control, but the monuments of the later Persian period reflect the influence of contemporary Greek design and suggest the presence of Greek sculptors.

Base of a pillar tomb (about 400BC) inscribed with Lykian texts, including the name Arbinas, probably the occupant of the Nereid Monument tomb.
Drawing by G. Scharf.

THE NEREID MONUMENT

This gallery contains the Nereid Monument, the largest and finest of the Lykian tombs found at Xanthos, south-west Turkey. It is named after the figures of Nereids, daughters of the sea-god Nereus, placed between the columns.

The Monument reflects Greek and Persian influences on Lykian culture. Following Persian practice, Lykian nobles were buried in tombs raised on a high podium; here the form is that of a Greek temple. Others include pillar tombs (the 'Harpy Tomb', Room 15) and gothic-arched sarcophagi (the Payava tomb, Room 20).

The Nereid Monument, built around 390-380 BC, is the first known example of a temple tomb, the greatest of which was the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos (Room 12).

Above the base of the podium were three courses of marble blocks, the upper two being carved with reliefs. These were topped by a peristyle of Ionic columns, four on the short sides and six on the long, surrounding the cella, which housed limestone dining couches for feasting in the afterlife. This reconstruction of one side of the Nereid Monument dates from 1967-69. The placement of the sculptures is uncertain.

The ruined podium of the Nereid Monument at Xanthos.

Drawing by G. Scharf