LABRANDA
LABRANDA (
τὰ Λάβρανδα or
Λάβραυνδα), a village in the west of Caria, about 60 stadia from the town of Mylasa, to which the village belonged, and with which it was connected by a road called the sacred. Labranda was situated in the mountains, and was celebrated for its sanctuary of Zeus Stratios, to which processions went along the sacred road from Mylasa. Herodotus describes (5.119) the sanctuary as an extensive grove of plane trees, within which a body of Carians, in their war against the Persians, retreated for safety. Strabo (
xiv. p.659) speaks of an ancient temple with a
ξόανον of Zeus Stratios, who was also surnamed “Labrandenus” or. “Labrandeus.” Aelian (
Ael. NA 12.30), who states that the temple of Labranda was 70 stadia from Mylasa, relates that a spring of clear water, within the sanctuary, contained fishes, with golden necklaces and rings. Chandler (
Antiq. of Ionia, pt. 1. 100.4, and
Asia Minor, 100.58) was the first who stated his belief, that the ruins at
Iakli, south of
Kizeljik, consisting of a theatre and a ruined temple of the Ionian order, of which 16 columns, with the entablature, were then still standing, were those of ancient Labranda and of the temple of Zeus Stratios. But Choiseul Gouffier, Barbié du Bocage, and Leako (
Asia Minor, p. 232), agree in thinking that these ruins belong to Euromus rather than Labranda. Their view is supported by the fact that the ruins of the temple have nothing very ancient about them, but rather show that they belong to a structure of the Roman period.
The remains of Labranda must be looked for in the hills to the north-east of Mylasa. Sir C. Fellows (
Journal, p. 261), apparently not knowing what had been done by his predecessors, unhesitatingly speaks of the ruins at
Iakli as those of Labranda, and gives an engraving of the remains of the temple under the name of the “Temple at Labranda.”
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L.S]
