then most honourably and advantageously improved, we seem to recognize a reflection over the ruins of Lycia, of the same genial lustre, that in the pages of poet and historian beams for ever, around its heroic and historic fame. Τέλος. HARPAGUS THE MEDE. SWILLIAMS ARPAGUS is a personage who deserves some atten HA tion; a son of Harpagus is named, both in Greek and Lycian, on the inscribed stele of Xanthus, and the presumption is strong that this was at least a descendant of the lieutenant of Cyrus, considering how much it was in accordance with the Persian system, for the conqueror of a province to become its military governor or satrap, and under favourable circumstances to transmit his authority to his family and Zonaras states that Cyrus committed Lycia to a satrap. There is much also in the question of his origin, that leads directly to our purpose, the illustration of the border relations of Greek and Barbarian. For how came a Median prince (Harpagus is called by Herodotus a kinsman of Astyages) by a Greek name, and a name so remarkable as Harpagus? That the name was genuine Greek, is strongly argued by the agreement of the orthography of Lycian inscriptions; and though it were merely a Hellenized form of a Barbaric name similar in sound, that was really borne by the Mede, still the rarity of such transformations, which must be distinguished from mere changes of termination, argues that when it did take place it was invited, as in the example of Pasargada, Hellenized as Persepolis, by a corresponding similarity in significance. This significance in the present case is very remarkable; it bears close reference to a far-branching mythology of the Asian Greeks. The story of the daughters of Pandarus, is only one of the many mythi, prevalent at an early date in Asia Minor, which symbolize the great annual alternation of Nature by various figures of violent ravishment (aprayn) of youth and beauty, by supernatural powers. This is the significance of the daughters of Niobe, falling by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis; Chloris the youngest spared alone, emblem of the surviving germ of Nature, "The youthful promise of reviving years," the analogue of the Pharmaceia of the Athenian story, and the fifth and remaining child on the Harpy Tomb.† In the title "Harpy" of this mythus we have the root of the name "Harpagus;" but it occurs more strikingly and with a formular frequency, in connection with another widely diffused mythus of the same purport, that of Ganymede, which is deeply interwoven with the mythology of + Panofka-on Harpy Monument. Archæol. Zeitung. |