to comprehend what is intended by the turret, unless it be the superior receptacle, or soros itself. At the same time we learn, from this inscription, that Greek tombs were not always exclusively appropriated to the interment of a single body, although such strict injunction is sometimes made, by inscriptions upon them, against the admission of any other corpse, than of the person first buried ;* but that, sometimes, they answered all the purposes of a modern family vault. ΕΛΕΝΗ Η ΚΑΙ Μ Η Σ Σ Ι ΣΤΟ ΜΝΗ ΤΗΝ ΕΝ ΕΘΑΨΕΝ ΑΠΟΛ ΚΑΙ ΕΛΕΝΗΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΑΦΦΙ ΤΑΤΟΗΝΤΑΦΗΝΑΙΑΥΤΗΝ ΒΗΣ ΕΣΤΩ ΘΕΟΙΣ ΚΑΤΑ ΟΦΕΙΛΕΤΩΤΕΛ ΜΗΣ ΣΕΝΩΔΗ IE "Helen, who was also Aphion, the daughter of Jason the son of Diogenes, a woman of Telmessus, constructed this mo nument for herself, and late in life has buried herself therein and to Apollonides, her own son; and to Helen who is likewise called Apphion, her own granddaughter; but to nobody else be it allowed to be deposited in the turret, after that she herself is therein entombed. But if any person presume to put any person therein, let him be devoted to the infernal gods, and let him yearly pay to the treasury of the Telmessensianfifteen drachms."+ *See particularly the inscription copied at Erkessykeuy, in the plain of Troy, as found on a soros brought from Alexandria Troas, of which a translation is given in the sixth chapter of this volume. -Nine shillings and eight pence farthing. Other sepulchres, of the same form, although not quite so large, consist only of two masses of stone; one for the body or chest of the sores, and the other for its operculum; and, to increase the wonder excited by the skill and labour manifested in their construction, they have been almost miraculously raised to the surrounding heights, and there left standing upon the projections and crags of the rocks, which the casualties of nature presented for their reception. One of them exhibits a bas-relief; and by the left side of this, an inscription, but so nearly obliterated, that we could recover only a few of the letters. The relief represents a female figure seated, to whom some one is presenting an infant. Four other figures, two male and two female, follow the person who carries the child. These again are succeeded by a train of attendants. This subject is common in Greece. It is similar to that described by Dr. Chandler at Sigeum,* and exhibits the presentation of a new born babe to the tutelar deity, on the fifth day after its birth. It is not quite so clear for what purpose this subject was introduced upon a sepulchral monument, unless it were erected in memory of one who died in childbed. The only letters distinct were the following: AH PA TAKAAA... ΟΝΙΟΣ ΔΙΟΙΝΗ ΝΤΔΙΟΝ...... Upon the opposite side of this soros, toward the mountain, I found also a part of another inscription: ΓΕΛΗΤΟ....ΔΛΟΑΣΚ...Α... ΚΝ... ΟΣΙ This tomb consists of two entire stones, standing upon a lofty rock. difficult of access. One stone, being hollowed, affords a receptacle for the body; the other supplies its ponderous covering. Near this is another tomb, with a simple bas-relief, but not of less massive materials, nor less elevated in its situation. The practice of adorning the soros is not of a date so remote as the chaster style observed in sepulchres of Macedonia, and in Travels in Asia Minor, p. 36. See also a plate in the Ionian Antiquities ornament. others left by the Ptolemies of Egypt. In its original form it preserves a simplicity and grandeur not to be aided by any The purest model was afforded by the granite soros, in the chamber of the greater pyramid, when it was covered by a simple slab. During the first ages of their introduction, they were destitute even of inscriptions. The maguitude of the work spoke for itself; and it was believed posterity needed no other information.† In later times, when the reliques of the dead became sources of superstition, and sloth or avarice had rendered them subservient to mercenary purposes, it was necessary that inscriptions should often not only record the origin of the tomb, but also testify the miracles it wrought, or the mysteries it concealed. Hence those numberless writings at the monument of Memoon, and the long catalogue of hieroglyphic characters with which the priests of Alexandria had inscribed the soros containing the consecrated remains of the founder of their city. It is quite inconceivable by what art the people of Telmessus were enabled to raise such everlasting monuments of their piety for the dead. The soros of which I am now writing stands upon the top of a rock, towering among the ruins and other sepulchres of the city: it consists, like the former, of two pieces of stone. It has, for its foundation, a mass so solid, that even the earthquakes, to which the country has been liable, have not, in the smallest degree, altered its position. Again passing the tomb of Helen, and proceeding a little farther toward the east, we came to the remains of a monu ment, which I should have believed to have been the famous cenotaph erected by Artemisia in honour of her husband, from its conformity to the accounts given of that work, if Strabo had not assigned for it a different situation.‡ Hard by, upon a block of marble, we noticed the following inscription, perhaps referring to this building. The stone seemed as if it had been *The classical taste of Poussin did not suffer this model to escape his notice, when be painted the celebrated picture of the flight into Egypt. The Holy Family are there delineated by the side of an ancient tomb, consisting of the soros, with its simple covering, destitute of any ornament whatsoever. In that picture, all is repose, grandeur, and sublimity, in the highest degree. The account given by Diodorus of the sepulchre of Osymandyas, [Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 57. ed. Wessel. Amst. 1746.] affording one of the oldest inscriptions of this nature, proves how fully the ancients relied upon the perpetuity of their memory by the greatness of their sepulchres. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝΟΣΥΜΑΝΔΥΑΣΕΙΜΙ ΕΙΔΕΤΙΣΕΙΔΕΝΑΙ ΒΟΥΛΕΤΑΙ ΠΗΛΙΚΟΣΕΙΜΙ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΥ ΚΕΙΜΑΙΝΙΚΑ ΤΩΤΙΤΩΝΕΜΩΝΕΡΓΩΝ. I am Osymandyas, King of Kings! If any o would know how great I am, and where I lie, let him surpass any of my works." Strabon. Geog, lib. xiv. p. 938. Ed. Oxon. * placed over the entrance of some edifice. It purports that a person of the name of "Sammias, constructed the monument for himself, his wife Auxesis, daughter of Naneis, his family, and descendants;" and concludes with the usual prohibition concerning its exclusive appropriation, and the fine to be levied in consequence of its violation, to be paid to the senate. ΣΑΜΜΙΑΣ ΚΑΤΕΣΚΕΥΑΣΕΝΤΟΜΝΗΜΕΙΟΝΕΑΥΤΩΚΑΙ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΙΑΥΤΟΥΑΥΞΗΣΕΙΝΑΝΗΙΔΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΙΣΤΕΚΝΟΙΣ That a building equal in colossal size to this should have been erected for any private individual, seems improbable. That it could not have been one of the public edifices used by the Telmessensians, is evident, because it did not admit light, and further, that its origin was sepulchral, may also be inferred from the circumstance of its situation in the midst of tombs. Its form is quadrangular, and I believe perfectly square. It consists of enormous blocks of stone, placed together without cement. Strength seems all the architect aimed at in its formation. It bears every trace of having sustained some enormous obelisk, or pyramid, to which it supplied a basement. Viewing it externally, it has the appearance of a solid cube; but having effected a passage to the interior of the pile, by means of chasms opened. by earthquakes, we found an arch upon every side. Between these, the intervening spaces, being the upper corners of the building, were each of one entire stone, of incredible size, scooped within, so as to form, by their junction upward, a dome. Upon the outside of the pile the arches were walled up, to give additional strength to the work, and better enable it to sustain the immense weight it was designed to bear. All the ground before it, toward the sea, had been levelled, and was formerly covered by masonry, now only visible in a few remaining traces. We afterward ascended the cliffs, for the purpose of examining more accurately what are deemed, and with reason, the greatest curiosities of Macri; the tombs cut out of the solid rock, in the precipices toward the sea. The labour here be *This name occurs in an inscription published by.Maffei; Epist. 18. Gall, Antigu See also Oderici Inscript. p. 368. stowed has been immense; and the work is very beautiful. Some of these are more adorned than others, having, as was before stated, a kind of portico, with pillars in frout. In those that were almost plain, the hewn stone was as smooth as if the artist had been employed upon wood, or any other soft substance. The exterior form of almost every one of them cannot, perhaps, be better described, than by comparing them with a familiar article of household furniture, to which they have great resemblance: namely, those book cases, with glass doors, seen upon bureaus, surmounted by ornamental rail work over the front and sides. A small rectangular opening, scarcely large enough to pass through, admitted us to the interior of some of these tombs, where we found a square chamber, with one or more receptacles for dead bodies, shaped like baths, upon the sides of the apartment, and neatly chiselled in the body of the rock. The mouths of these sepulchres had been originally closed by square slabs of stone, exactly adapted to grooves cut for their reception; and so nicely adjusted. that, when the work was finished, the place of entrance might not be observed. Of similar construction were the sepulchres of the Jews in Palestine; and particularly that in which our Saviour was buried, as will be more fully shown in the sequel.* Inscriptivus appeared upon several of them, but written in so many different characters, and with such various marks of time, that it is impossible to assign any precise period for the age of their common origin. Upon some of them were letters of no remote date, as may be proved from the names they served to express, and the manner wherein they were written; and close to these, were others of Phoenician workmanship. In proof of this, I shall here insert two inscriptions, copied from tombs adjoining each other; both being hewn out of the same rock, and to all appearance by the same people. Upon the first appeared, ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΥΚΛΑΥΔΙ ΟΥΠΕΡΓΑΜΟΥ "And laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a store unto the door of the sepulchre." Mark, xv. 46. |
