Herodotus - The Histories.pdf

178 V Herodotus
present day were, in those times, called Solymi. So
long as Sarpedon reigned, his followers kept the
name which they brought with them from Crete,
and were called Termilae, as the Lycians still are
by those who live in their neighbourhood. But
after Lycus, the son of Pandion, banished from
Athens by his brother Aegeus had found a refuge
with Sarpedon in the country of these Termilae,
they came, in course of time, to be called from
him Lycians. Their customs are partly Cretan,
partly Carian. They have, however, one singular
custom in which they differ from every other
nation in the world. They take the mother’s and
not the father’s name. Ask a Lycian who he is, and
he answers by giving his own name, that of his
mother, and so on in the female line. Moreover, if
a free woman marry a man who is a slave, their
children are full citizens; but if a free man marry
a foreign woman, or live with a concubine, even
though he be the first person in the State, the children
forfeit all the rights of citizenship.
Of these nations, the Carians submitted to
Harpagus without performing any brilliant