31 Sackville St.
Novr. 17. 1840
Dear Sir
I return Mr. Sharpe’s<1> notes with many thanks – Here are a few additional remarks that occurred to me.
History of Xanthus.<2> Diodorus Siculus, <3> lib. 20. relates that Ptolemy K. of Egypt took the city, then held by Antigonus, <4> B. C. 298. But it seems that Brutus<5> put the finishing stroke, by burning the city & massacring the inhabitants.
Name of Lycians. Mr Sharpe conjectures if I mistake him not that TPXMEΛΤ means [Greek] the native name of the Lycians. I find on a coin in Mionnet vol. 3 p. 446<6> (which he attributes to Aspendus<7> without any proof) the inscription TAXXEΛE but if we read M for X it becomes TAXMEΛE or Themele which appears to be the same word – Have you noticed the name on any coin?
Bellerophon and Sarpedon<8> were certainly worshipped as gods in Lycia & Celicia – But I also find that Pandarus was particularly worshipped at Pinaror<9> which give a particular property to the bas relief you discovered representing the story of the daughters of Pandarus.
Xanthus was certainly named Sirbe.
The name of Hecatomnus appears on one of your bas reliefs. Perhaps this is no other than the King of Caria, the father of the celebrated Artemesia. <10>
Believe me Dear sir Yours very truly
H. F. Talbot
PS. I am just going out of Town, but if I can be of any service, I shall be most happy to assist you. My address is Lacock Abbey, Chippenham. If you would like me to throw these hasty remarks and what others may occur, into the form of a note to be added to you appendix, I would willingly do so, but I suppose all discussion on the Lycian language is precluded by the want of types to express the characters.
Notes:
1. Daniel Sharpe (1806-1856), FRS, American born geologist and philologist, active in England.
2. City in ancient Lycia, now Kinik, in Antalya, Turkey.
3. Sicilian-born Greek Historian, fl. 60-30 BC.
4. Antigonus II Gonatas (319–239 BC), Macedonian king.
5. Marcus Junius Brutus Cæpio (c. 85-42), Roman politician, most famous for his murderer of Julius Caesar.
6. Théodore Edme Mionnet, Description de Médailles antiques grecques et romaines (Paris, 1807-1837), 15 vols.
7. Or Aspendos (Greek Άσπενδος), a Greco-Roman city in Turkey’s Antalya province.
8. Bellerophon was the mortal hero who slew the Chimera. The Lycian king Sarpedon, a son of Zeus, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War .
9. The Trojan aristocrat in Homer’s Illiad; Pinara was a substantial Lycian city, near Mount Cragus.
10. Hecatomnus, 4th c. BC; Artemesia I (fl. 480 BC), who commanded five ships in the Battle of Salamis.