THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? 207
Peloponnesus, but also from Attica. Thus it would appear that
by the time of the Dorian conquest the true Mycenean pottery
had already given place to the Dipylon style, and from this we
may infer that the Achean domination was a period of
decadence in art. Accordingly those who like Agapenor and
Teucer settled in Cyprus during that period would have
brought with them only late forms of Mycenean culture. Now
there was no reason why the Mycenean culture should suffer
either rapid decadence or complete extinction in any part of
the Greek world where it was already established, provided that
such a region had not either actually been conquered by the
Dorians, or had not suffered much in the seething turmoil
created by that conquest among
of Greece.
all the states of the mainland
Cyprus enjoyed these favourable conditions, for there is not
a scrap of evidence that the Dorians, or any of those inhabitants
of the mainland disj)ossessed by them, hail ever got any foothold
in that island.
The art of Cyprus therefore suffered no violent cataclysm,
as did that of Argolis, and the Troad, a region which owing to
its great fertility, as Strabo says, was always
liable to fresh
invasion and conipiest. We need not tlieii be surprise(l if in
into the classical times.
Cyprus the Mycenean art survives right
Indeed the Mycenean style continues to be seen in
Cypriote pottery of the late period, not only in
also in the declaration with })arallel
bands and rosettes.
the connnon
the shaj)es, Init
Finally, we m;iy dismiss as futile any argument r'.'specting
the date of the contents oi' the acroj)olis graves of Mycenae, and
that of the Mycenean period on the mainland of Greece generallv,
found in
which is based on the late date of Mycenean ()bjects
Cyprus.
LvciA.
We pointed out that though hui'illy
more than one v two
fragmiMits of Mycenean ])ottery had come to li^^ht in Lycia, yet
it like Caria su))])lied engi-aved stones which ha\c been coninionlv
desi'niateil Hittite, and which bear s\nilt'>ls closclv
208 WHO WERE THE MAKERS ?
analogous to the characters found on Mycenean gems and
pottery from the mainland and islands of Greece ; next, that
the Lycian alphabet, in addition to the usual letters of the
Greek alphabet, contained symbols closely resembling the characters
found on the so-called Hittite seals, the whorls from
Troy, the Cypriote syllabary, and engraved stones and pottery
of the Mycenean period from the mainland and islands of
Greece ;
and finally, that the sculpture and architecture of
Lycia exhibit a striking similarity to those of Mycenean Greece.
That the Lycians were closely akin to the older inhabitants
of Greece is rendered probable not only by the connection
between Lycia and Peloponnesus alread}- adverted to, but also
by the strong tradition handed down by Herodotus and Strabo
that they had passed to Asia from Crete. The former' narrates
that " the Lycians are in good truth anciently from Crete ;
which island, in former days, was wholly peopled with barbarians.
A quarrel arising there between the two sons of
Europa, Sarpedon and Minos, as to which of them should be
king, Minos, whose party prevailed, drove Sarpedon and his
followers into banishment. The exiles sailed to Asia, and
landed on the Milyan territoiy. Milyas was the ancient name
of the country now inhabited by the :
Lycians the Milyae of
the present day were in those times called Solymi. As long
as Sarpedon reigned his followers bore the name that 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, 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."
Strabo ])ractically agrees with Herodotus, for he says that
"those who assert that the Lycians were first called Solymi,
b\it later Tei'uiilae, from those who aceoni])anied Sarpedon fi-om
Crete, and afterwards Lycians from Lycus, the son of Pandion,
who on his expulsion from his home had been received by
Sar]e(lon and given a shai-e in his sovereignty,
1
I. 173 ;
cf. VII. It2.
are not in