BABYLON AND PERSIA

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 1 93character and figure decorations of which betraya late and thoroughly Greek period of art. (Seeill. 21 and 22.) It is easy to see that these differ¬ences cover a span of many centuries ; nor canone help surmising that each particular rock-tombmay have been a conscious imitation of the deceased'sown dwelling.This original variety of sepulchralmonuments -found imitators not only among theGreeks, but among the Persians.(See further on.Chap. XIIL) Some of these monuments standisolated, presenting copies of entire wooden houses,not facades only (see ill. 18, left side), or assuming theform of towers.Such is the famous tower-shapedmonument at Xanthus, in Lycia ;it rises above thegraves, which, though rock-hewn, have been clearedby cutting away and removing the blocks immedi¬ately surrounding them ; and the four sides are cov¬ered Avith sculptures referring to the fate of the soulafter death. The winged death-goddesses, the Har¬pies, carry the soul away in the shape of a new-bornchild, and above the opening of the grave-Chamberwe see the sacred cow, the emblem of life-givingnature, a grateful and consoling reminder. (Seeill. 23.) Some few of the isolated tombs represent asarcophagus (the model being, like the houses, evi¬dently of wood.) The sculptured lid shows fourhandles, in the shape of lion heads. (See ill. 24.)**It seems scarcely credible that a certain style of building .shouldendure in the same locality through thousands of years ; yet that suchis the case in Lycia, is proved by ill. 25, 26, and 27, representingrural and excessively rude constructions, but of a character unmis¬takably identical with that of the -^dwellings reproduced in theearlier rock-tombs.^