Lycia
（
Λυκία). A small district on the south side of Asia Minor,
between Caria and Pamphylia. According to tradition, the most ancient name of the country was
Milyas, and the earliest inhabitants were called Milyae, and afterwards Solymi; subsequently
the Termilae, from Crete, settled in the country; and lastly, the Athenian Lycus, the son of
Pandion, fled from his brother Aegeus to Lycia, and gave his name to the country. Homer, who
gives Lycia a prominent place in the
Iliad, represents its chieftains, Glaucus
and Sarpedon, as descended from the royal family of Argos (Aeolids). He speaks of the Solymi
as a warlike race, inhabiting the mountains, against whom the Greek hero Bellerophontes is
sent to fight by his relative the king of Lycia. Besides the legend of Bellerophon and the
Chimaera, Lycia is the scene of another popular Greek story, that of the Harpies and the
daughters of Pandareos; and memorials of both are preserved on the Lycian monuments now in the
British Museum. On the whole, it is clear that Lycia was colonized by the Greeks at a very
early period, and that its historical inhabitants were Greeks, though with a mixture of native
blood. The earlier names were preserved in the district in the north of the country called
Milyas, and in the mountains called Solyma. The Lycians always kept the reputation they have
in Homer as brave warriors. They and the Cilicians were the only people west of the Halys whom
Croesus did not conquer, and they were the last who resisted the Persians. The principal
rivers are the Xanthus (Echen-Chai) and the Limyrus. The principal cities were Xanthus,
Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Mira, and Tlos. Since 1840 much has been done in the way of exploration and excavation among the ruined cities of Lycia, especially by Sir
Charles Fellows, who in 1846 brought back the remarkable sculptures now in the Lycian Room at
the British Museum. The linguistic affinities of the Lycian language are as yet not certainly
determined. See Savelsberg,
Beiträge zur Erklärung der
lykischen Sprache (1875-78). The few Lycian inscriptions are collected in the
Corpus Inscript. Lyc. of Schmidt
(1868). See
Treuber,
Geschichte der Lykier (1887).
