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Notes on the Lycian Alphabet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

W. Arkwright
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Extract

On page 68 of the Jahreshefte of the Austrian Archaeological Institute for 1899, Band II., I discussed the value of the letter Χ, and with considerable hesitation decided in favour of Schmidt's opinion that it represents θ. The conclusion was based on the only direct evidence available, namely the rendering of the Persian Mithrapata by the Lycian ΜΕΧΡΡΓΡΤΡ. This was greatly discounted by the fact that Mithrapata is also rendered by Mizrppata (T.A.M. 64), and that Mithra appears also in Lycian Mizretije (84) and the Cilician Μισραιος, which rather suggested that the letter was a sibilant closely akin to the Lycian z. It now appears certain that the last conclusion is correct.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 35 , November 1915 , pp. 100 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1915

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References

1 Hill, , British Museum Catalogue, Lycia, p. xxix.Google Scholar

2 Op. cit. xl.; see below.

3 Inventaire Waddington 2878 and 2872. The same type and symbol appear on Six, Monnaies Lyciennes, 118, where should be read for or .

4 B.M.Cat. p. 10.

5 Waddington, , Voyage en Asie-Mineure, p. 89.Google Scholar

6 References giving a number only are to Tituli Asiae Minoris, vol. i.

7 It is necessary to exclude districts which were joined to Lycia at various dates for administrative purposes, as Milyas (really Phrygian, Arrian, Anabasis, i. 24, 5), part of Cibyratis (Strabo, p. 631; Lycian was not one of the languages spoken at Cibyra, ibid.), part of Caria (J.H.S. xv. 95; a Carian inscription exists in this distriot). In Sundwall, Die einhcimischen Namen der Lykier, names from all these districts, and even from the territory of the Pisidian Lagbe, are quoted as Lycian.

8 Names quoted without a reference will be found in the index to Sundwall, op. cit., a work involving great research, excellently carried out.

9 Sura, in Lycia, Reisen ii. 83Google Scholar; Aezani in Phrygia, C.I.G. 3837 (add.); cf. Tomaschek, , Die alten Thraker, ii. 13.Google Scholar No genuine native words in Lycia begin with B.

10 In Southern Phrygia, and especially in Lycaonia, where Phrygian was probably spoken, a good number of compound proper names of the older native or Lycian type survived, but in their transmission through Phrygian mouths they often underwent modifications according to Phrygian phonetic laws. Παναθιατις is an instance; θιατις is for Τατις (Phrygia), feminine from Τατας whence also Θαθεας and Θαθοις (Isauria), just as Θιουθιους (Phrygia: Kretschmer, , Einleitung, p. 301)Google Scholar, also Θουθους (Lycaonia), is from Τουτης Τοττης Compare the Southern Phrygian towns Τυρσα or Θυρσα and Τετθα or Θετθα Compare also the Thracian κενθος and -κεντιος -κυθης and Cuties (Tomaschek, , Die alten Thraker, ii. pp. 46 and 51)Google Scholar, etc, In all these cases θ- or θι- arises from τj-, as in Messapian-Illyrian Βαλεθας on a coin of Baletium: also Blalθihi, from Blatties, Blattius (Deecke, , Rheinisches Museum, vol. xxxvii, p. 386)Google Scholar, *Lasoθes from *Lasoties (p. 391), etc., etc.

11 In Cilicia, where the names generally follow the same laws as in Lycia, θ is remarkably rare, and the very few exceptions seem all to be Phrygian. For instance, in the great Corycian inscription J.H.S. xv. pp. 243 seqq.) θ is only found in the Phrygian-Thracian Βιθυς.

12 It must not be supposed that either this letter or the Lycian Ι are phonetic equivalents of the Greek ζ, which is a double letter, and in Asia Minor arises out of δ. The transcription ζ is merely proposed in conformity with z, used in T.A.M.for reasons of typographical convenience.

13 This dialect occurs only on the western and part of the northern side of the Xanthian stele (44, c and d), and on a sarcophagus at Antiphellus (55); see T.A.M. i. p. 45.

14 See Bugge, , Lykische Studien, ii. 102.Google Scholar The identity of *masai (Lycian 2) with mahãi (Lycian 1) is proved by a comparison of 44 d, 14, trqqiz seb(e) uwedriz: mlat·: masaiz, with 88, 6, trqqas se mãhãi huwedri. So also esetesi (44 d, 12)=ehetehi (ib. b, 48); sladi (44 d, 63)=hladi(111, 5), etc. Only one word is written with h, possibly by error (44 c, 54).

15 This declinable adjectival suffix is commonly termed the ‘genitive’ by scholars who have written on Lycian, and their example will here be followed merely for convenience.

16 As atlasi(44 d, 17)=atlahi (36, 7, etc.); esetesi=ehetehi; arppakus (44 c, 57)=arppakuh (44 a, 30); kuprllese (44d, 11)=kuprlleh (44a, 31); kerigasa (44d, 8)=kerigahe(44a, 10). See Bugge, op. cit. i. 67.

17 44c, 54, kãzbi: tuminesi.

18 In 82, read: uhube: cerζζis habudah tideimi, Οσσυβας of Cerζζi, son of Habuda. The upper and lower extremities of the s are legible on the cast. The tomb is at Candyba. The association with Candyba in the other passages quoted suggests that the two cities were near together.

19 44 b, 49, arñna: tuminehi: cerζζi :kãcbi. Cf. 44 b, 54, tuminehija: cumezija: kãcbija: cumezija, which words are closely preceded by arñna, and followed by cerζζi.

20 44 a, 42, zagaba—ẽtri: tuminehi:—pttara. Zagaba seems to have been connected at one time with Antiphellus. Possibly the upper tuminehi was mentioned in 44 b, 6, cbihu:: tu[minehi: hr]zzi: cbihu: kãcbi: cbihu—; cerζζi is mentioned two lines further on.

21 This is proved by the derived adjective tuminehija, and by the associated names of cities which are not in the genitive.

22 It does not seem possible to identify tuminehi with the Τύμηνα (γατ. lec. Τύμηννα), κώμη Λυκίας of Stephanus, which should certainly be *tumẽne, or *tumẽῆne. Nor is it likely that the league coinage with Τυ- can belong to this village; it should be given either to Tymnissus or Tyberissus.

23 Here also the suffix is formative, as is proved by the ethnic telebehihe on coins.

24 This form, which approaches nearest to the Lycian, is found on coins as well as in inscriptions. Telmissus in Caria was called Τελεμισσός by Aristophanes (St. Byz. s.v.).

25 As Πυριβάτης for Purihimeti in a bilingual inscription (25), zagama for zagaba on coins, and the above-mentioned Σίμηνα for ζίρᾶη[α] also Βλαῦνδος for Μλαῦνδος, Λαιρβηνος and Λαιρμηνος in Phrygia (Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics, i. 133).

26 Coinage of the dynasts erbbina and ddenewele belongs to this city, as well as that with its own name, forming a comparatively large series (Brit. Mus. Cat. Lycia, p. xl.). The letters er in the Carian alphabet appear on a coin of erbbina.

27 Sundwall, , who adheres to the older theory, maintains, p. 162Google Scholar, that demes could coin money, but his argument is based on a mis-apprehension. He quotes generally Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics, i. chapter 3, but the references there are to the δῆμος of the Ephesians (p. 107, note 6) and the δῆμος of Hierapolis (p. 109), which have no more analogy to the Τηλέφιος δῆμος than the δῆμος of Athens has to the δῆμος of Ceramicus. At the same time it is quite probable that Telephus either was, or was identified with, a native hero of Asia Minor, or that his worship was carried there at a very early date. If so, the town of Telebehi, as well as the deme of Patara, probably derived its name from him, on the analogy of other local names mentioned in the next note. This would account for the appearance of his father Heracles on its coins.

28 The name is derived from Τούβερις a native hero, brother of Termeris (St. Byz. s.v. ῎γλαμοι). Men seem to have been named after him *tuburi, genitive tuburiz (44 c, 53, 57, etc.), dative probably tubure (69, 2). Other names of towns are derived from gods or heroes, with the same suffix, as Νανεσσός (from the goddess Nana), ΚολυΒρασσός (from the hero ΚυλάΒρας, F.H.G. iv. 428); also from personal proper names, as Τυμνισσός from Τύμνης Σαβα λασσός from ΣαΒάλας and many others. So with other suffixes: Καδυανδα from Καδουας Κυδραρα from Κυδρης, ᾿Αρσαδα from ᾿Αρσας etc., etc. This formation with a suffix from personal proper names, divine or human, seems to be usual, if not invariable, in the case of towns in Lycian and the allied languages.

29 44 b, 62, sberide. In 107, 1, s(e) ladᾶi should be read.

30 Fot example, in the part, of the Xanthian stele written in Lycian 1, apart from proper names, it is only found in one word after e, and in one word (probably from the same stem) after a.

31 This conservatism in personal names is not constant; thus from the common noun hlmmi is formed hlmmidewe as well as the archaic slmmewe It sometimes happens that later Greek inscriptions preserve the older form, where the Lycian inscriptions give the newer; as ΟσσυΒας compared with uhube, Οσετας with uhetẽi.

32 Zu den karischen Inschriften, Klio, vol. xi. pp. 464 seqq.

33 Einleitung, p. 382. I have followed Sayce's transliteration as given in vol. ix. of T.S.B.A. for convenience of reference. Some slight alterations adopted in vol. xxviii, do not affect the present argument.

34 Op. cit. p. 466.

35 The supposed final k in Sayce, IX. iv. 25, is probably the first letter of a different (Phoenician) graffito. There is nothing to show that the word ending in -g in Sayce, T.S.B.A. XVII. i. 1, is a genitive, while that in IX. iv. 11 appears from comparison with 20 to be incomplete: it is also improbable that the letter is really g. In IX. ii. 3, the base of a bronze Apis bears three inscriptions written by three different men, since the two in Carian are not alike in lettering and the proper name in the hieroglyphic does not recur in either. Therefore mavaäen is Apis, and avnokhhe is the dedicator's name in the nominative. It is very doubtful if the letter h is a correct transliteration.

36 Op. cit. p. 466, and Die einheimischen Namen, p. 38.

37 A termination in -hk is very extraordinary in Lycian, where no final consonants are permissible except -s and -h: moreover c, of which k is a variant, cannot follow another consonant.

38 An accusative would only be possible in the dedication of a statue, but this is a rock-tomb. The genitive of tideimi would be *tideimehi; therefore there can be no question of the dropping of a final -h, such as sometimes occurs in proper names (in 61, 127, 145, and 5), and may possibly be found here in armpa

39 Dr. Sundwall does not deny that the word tideimi as it stands in the text is inconsistent with his theory, but he once more has recourse to emendation: ‘wohl aus Versehen hat man es unterlassen auch die Apposition tideimi zu decliniren,’ (Die einheimischen Namen der Lykier, p. 38).

40 For tuburi (=ΤουΒερις) see above, p. 14, note 1. Personal proper names may make a dative in -α and -e, as some other substantives do: they do not appear to make a dative in -i. More usually -e is suffixed, joined by the letter -j-, so that the typical dative of personal names is in α-j-e or e-j-e. So also their genitive is very rarely in -ahi (*-ehi) as in common nouns, but normally either in -ah, -eh (by apocope for -ahi, -ehi),or -e is suffixed, making -ah-e, -eh-e. This -esuffix, added to the genitive and dative singular, is not a case-ending, but a distinguishing mark of personal proper names, in Which alone it is found.

41 The only common characteristic of the words which it follows is that they are all personal proper names. It might therefore be analogous to the suffix -e mentioned in the preceding note. Since however a termination in -hk seems impossible, it is more probably a detached symbol, originally perhaps an initial or abbreviation, indicating the rank or position of the person named, on the analogy of George R., etc.

42 Kretschmer's contention (Einleitung, p. 380) that there was a Carian genitive in -he is of course not inconsistent with the derivation of the similar Lycian suffix from an earlier -se. I incline, however, to believe that the Carian letter which is rendered by h is really a a t.