Yet even here we observed some antiquities, and among these a marble altar, on which a female figure was represented, with the extraordinary symbols of two hands figured in bas-relief, as if cut off and placed by her, with this inscription: CHAP. VIII. ΕΙΡΗΝΗΧΑΙΡΕ Near the same place was also the capital of an Ionic pilaster; having the architect's name, Hermolycus, so engraven upon it as not to be discerned when the building, to which it belonged, was perfect; the letters being inscribed behind the capital, where the stone was intended to be placed against a wall; and thus written: ΕΡΧΟΛΥΚΟΥ Not being able to discover any other antiquities within the town, we passed through it, towards the east'; and here found ample employment, in the midst of the sepulchres of the Telmessensians. Some of these have been delineated, but without accuracy or effect, in the work of Monsieur de Choiseul Gouffier 2. They are the sepulchres to which allusion (1) The remains of Genoese and of Venetian buildings cover all the coast near the town. We found here, in full bloom, that exceedingly rare plant the Aristolochia Maurorum. It is badly represented in Tournefort's Travels, tom. ii. p. 79. The singular colour of the flower, and also its brown leaves, made me at first doubt whether it were an animal or a plant. It grows also near the ruins of the Theatre. (2) Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce. This has been stated for the purpose of contradicting a Note published in the English edition of Savary's Letters on Greece, p. 49. Lond. 1788. 2 I where VOL. II. CHAP. VIII. Sepulchres of the Telmessensians. allusion was made in a former volume, when discussing the subject of the origin of temples'. It was there stated, that the most antient heathen structures, for offerings to the Gods, were always either tombs themselves, or they were built where tombs had been. Hence the first temples of Athens, Paphos, and Miletus; and hence the terms used by the most antient writers in their signification of a temple. Hence also the sepulchral origin and subsequent consecration of the Pyramids of Egypt. But since Mr. Bryant, alluding to the tombs of Persepolis, maintained that they were temples ab origine, as distinguished from places of burial, it will be right to shew, that those of Telmessus, corresponding exactly with the Persepolitan monuments, so that one might be confounded with the other, have upon them inscriptions denoting explicitly and fully the purposes of their construction. The Tombs of Telmessus are of two kinds; both visible from the sea at a considerable distance. The first, and the more extraordinary, are sepulchres hewn in the face of perpendicular rocks. Wherever the side of a mountain presented an almost inaccessible steep, there the antient workmen where it is said, that "these antient monuments are delineated with great minuteness and accuracy in the Voyage Pittoresque." If the Reader attempt to form his judgment of the Ruins of Telmessus from that work, he will not obtain any notion adequate to their grandeur, or even to the truth of their appearance. Neither is the Author of this work able to supply, by drawings, what is wanted for better information. Want of time, of talents, and of health, precluded the possibility of supplying more or better designs than those whence the Engravings for this Chapter were taken. (1) "Journey along the frontier of Circassia." See Part I. chap. XVII. p. 399. of the second edition. appearance, workmen seem to have bestowed their principal labour. In • such situations are seen excavated chambers, worked with such marvellous art as to exhibit open façades, porticoes with Ionic columns, gates and doors beautifully sculptured, on which are carved the representations as of embossed ironwork, bolts, and hinges. Yet every such whatever number of parts may compose it, proves, upon examination, to consist of one stone. The columns, broken at their bases, remain suspended by their capitals; being, in fact, a part of the architrave and cornice they seem to support, and therefore are sustained by them and by the contiguous mass of rock above, to which they all belong. These are the sepulchres resembling those of Persepolis. The other kind of tomb found at Telmessus is the true Grecian Soros, the Sarcophagus of the Romans. Of this sort there are several, but of a size and grandeur far exceeding any thing of the kind elsewhere, standing, in some instances, upon the craggy pinnacles of lofty precipitous rocks. It is as difficult to determine how they were there placed, as it would be to devise means for taking them down; of such magnitude are the single stones whereof each Soros separately consists. Nearer to the shore, and in lesselevated situations, appear other tombs, of the same nature, and of still greater size: these are formed of more than one stone; and almost all, of whatsoever size or form, exhibit inscriptions. CHAP. VIII. The (2) A similar style of workmanship may be observed in the stupendous Indian temples, as they are beautifully delineated by Mr. Daniel. CHAP. VIII. The largest of those near the shore, situated in a valley between the mountains and the sea, is composed of five immense masses of stone; four being used for the sides, and one for the lid or cover. A small opening, shaped like a door, in the side facing the harbour, is barely large enough to allow a passage for the human body. Examining its interior by means of the aperture here afforded, we perceived another small square-opening in the floor of this vast Soros, which seemed to communicate with an inferior vault. Such cavities might be observed in all the sepulchres of Telmessus, excepting those cut in the rocks; as if the bodies of the dead had been placed in the lower receptacle, while the Soros above answered the purpose of a cenotaph; for, wherever the ground had been sufficiently cleared around them, there appeared, beneath the Soros, a vault'. Almost all these tombs have been ransacked; but I suspect that the one to which reference. is now made has not yet been opened. Gipsies, who were encamped in great numbers among the Ruins, had used somet of the vaults, or lower receptacles, as sheds for their goats. A question is here suggested, which it may be possible to answer. Whence originated the distinction, observed in the Telmessensian sepulchres, between the tombs having a Persepolitan character, and the cenotaphs exhibiting the most antient form of the Greek Soros? The first seem evidently (1) Such a mode of interment is still exhibited in all our English cemeteries. It is a practice we derived from the Romans; and the form of their Sarcophagus may yet be noticed in almost every church-yard of our island. |