Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/321

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HISTORY OF THE CARIANS. 305 and authentic monuments of its existence is that of the supreme god, honoured not only within the territory of Mylasa, but on many a point of Caria, where sanctuaries, each the centre of a local confederation, were in high repute as late as Roman times. 1 Of the different names used by epigraphic texts to designate this deity, who seems to have been endowed everywhere with pretty much the same character, two are specially deserving our attention, namely, 'Ocroycus, an epithet applied to the Carian Zeus, and which certainly covers a word of the ancient native idiom ; 2 and the title of Z^oTrocreiSwi/, which again and again occurs in the inscriptions of Mylasa. 3 The term seems to indicate that the great deity of the Carians was both god of heaven and of the sea. Thus, at certain seasons, the paving-stones of the temple at Mylasa were supposed to be washed by sea waves, although a distance of eighty stadia (twelve kilometres) separated it from its seaport. 4 Nothing of the kind has been discovered in Lydia ; nevertheless, in the time of the Mermnadae, she had annexed to her dominions the whole of the western coast. These conquests, however, had come too late to effect any permanent influence on her religious and social condition. Her gods, as those of Phrygia, dwelt on lofty summits and in gloomy forests ; they were indifferent to storms, which they did nothing to raise or quell, and the worshippers that frequented their shrines were ploughmen, horsemen, artisans, and caravan- traders. collected by Sir C. Newton (A History of Discoveries at Cnidus, Ifalicarnassus, and Branchida, ch. 24, and Appendix, torn. ii. pp. 780-803), as also those published by the syndicate of the French School at Athens, brought back from a recent visit to Caria (Bull, de corr. hell., torn. v. pp. 185-191 ; torn. xi. pp. 3-30, 145-162). The Hecates under notice had her "mysteries," a fact which suggests ceremonies akin to those that distinguished the Phrygian cult. We should like to hear some- thing more about the " key pageant " (xXetSos irofjLTnj, or dywyjf), which, from the sacred precincts, repaired to the neighbouring town of Idrias, subsequently called Stratonice, amidst an immense concourse of people (Bull., xi. p. 47). 1 Within the territory of Mylasa alone were three temples in honour of Zeus, i.e. one to Zeus Carios, common to Carians, Lydians, and Mysians ; another to Zeus Osogos, and the third to Zeus Stratios, also called Labrandeus, from the name of the mountain crest, where it rose about midway between Mylasa and Alabanda (Strabo, XIV. ii. 23). With regard to Zeus Panamaros, the tutelar deity of Idrias, see Deschamps and Cousin, Bulletin, xi. pp. 373-391 ; xii. pp. 82-104. a Osogos is sometimes met with in an undeclined form, as oo-oywa, and at other times we find it inflected. Consult Waddington's Commentary, No. 361, Part v. ; Voy. Arche. of Le Bas ; and Bulletin, xii. pp. 13-14. 8 Bceckh, C. i. gr., No. 2700 ; Le Bas, Voy. Arche., Part i. No. 361. 4 Pausanias, VIII. x. 4. x