94.The monument known as the Harpy Tomb was discovered by Fellows among the ruins of Xanthos on April 19, 1838. It was more carefully examined and published by him in 1840 (Lycia, p. 170, and plate), and was brought to England in the spring of 1842. The tomb was described by Fellows in the following terms:—"The Harpy Tomb consisted of a square shaft in one block, weighing about eighty tons, its height seventeen feet, placed upon a base rising on one side six feet from the ground, on the other but little above the present level of the earth. Around the sides of the top of the shaft were ranged the bas-reliefs in white marble about three feet three inches high; upon these rested a capstone, apparently a series of stones, one projecting over the other; but these are cut in one block, probably fifteen to twenty tons in weight. Within the top of the shaft was hollowed out a chamber, which, with the bas-relief sides was seven feet six inches high, and seven feet square." (Fellows, Xanthian Marbles, p. 21; Asia Minor, p. 438.) For views of this tomb see the drawing by Scharf here reproduced ([pl. iii.]); also Mon. dell' Inst., iv., pl. 2; Benndorf, Reisen in Lykien, i., pl. 26. In Christian times, the tomb was made the cell of some Stylites, or dweller on a column. Traces of painting and monograms were found on the interior of the chamber. (Fellows, Xanthian Marbles, p. 21; Birch, Archæologia, xxx., p. 186.)
1.West Side.—This relief is divided into two unequal parts by a small doorway which formed the entrance to the tomb. This doorway may have been filled up with a slab of stone, resembling a funeral stelè, and the idea thus suggested was further carried out by the sculpture above of a cow giving suck to a calf. (Compare the tomb on the second frieze of the Xanthian Nereid Monument, Mon. dell' Inst., x., pl. 16, fig. 161.)
On the left of the entrance is an enthroned female figure. She is large and dignified, and is heavily draped. The left hand is raised, the right hand is extended and holds a bowl; she is adorned with stephanè and bracelets. The arm of the chair terminates in a ram's head, and is supported by a seated Sphinx. On the right is a second enthroned female figure of equal dignity. She is adorned with a stephanè and bracelets. With a graceful, if affected gesture of the right hand she holds up a pomegranate flower, and in the left hand she holds a pomegranate fruit. The back of the throne terminates in a swan's head, and the arm terminates in the head of a ram.
Three maidens, who are nearly alike, except in the attitudes of the hands, approach this figure. The first raises her mantle and chiton with the left and right hands respectively. The second has a pomegranate flower in her left hand, and a pomegranate fruit in her right hand. The third holds up an egg with her right hand, and holds the drapery in her left hand.
2.North Side.—An old man, draped and bearded, is seated on a chair to left; with the left hand he holds a spear, with the right hand he receives a crested helmet which is offered to him by a young warrior, who stands before him. The warrior has a short chiton, and leather cuirass, sheathed sword, greaves, and a large shield, which he supports with the left hand. Beneath the chair is a small bear.
At each side of this group, but disconnected from it, are figures commonly known as Harpies. They are represented as beings with the head, breasts and arms of maidens, while the lower part of the body is that of a bird conventionally rendered. It terminates in oval form with a spreading tail and bird's talons attached. Long wings spring from behind the shoulders and under the arms. Each creature wears a stephanè and chiton (see [below]). In their arms and talons each gently carries a diminutive draped female figure, that makes a gesture, as of affection.
At the right corner of the relief a draped figure crouches on the ground in an attitude of deep grief, and looks up to the flying figure above.
3.East Side.—A venerable bearded man is seated on a throne, to the right. He has a sceptre in the left hand, and holds up a flower in the right hand. The arm of the throne is supported by a Triton. Before him is a diminutive figure of a boy offering a cock.
Behind the enthroned figure are two draped male figures, standing to right. The first holds a pomegranate fruit in the left hand, and a doubtful object in the right hand. The second, who is bearded, holds a portion of his drapery with the left hand; with his right hand he holds his beard.
On the right of the relief is a youth, accompanied by a dog. He holds a stick with curved handle in his left hand, and has an uncertain object in his right hand. Part of it was made of metal, attached by a rivet. It may perhaps have been a kylix with a tall stem.
4.South Side.—A male figure, not bearded, is seated on a throne to right. He has a sceptre resting on his right shoulder. In the left hand he holds a pomegranate fruit, and in the right hand an apple. Before him stands a male (?) figure, holding a dove in the left hand by the wings, and having the right hand raised in a gesture of adoration. On each side of the main group, but disconnected from it, are the winged figures with their burdens as already described. With certain differences of detail, chiefly in the positions of the arms of the figures carried, these groups are nearly similar to those of the north side.
Drapery, &c.—All the figures on this tomb, except the "Harpies," the diminutive figures connected with them, and the warrior, are draped in chiton, and himation or peplos. The figures borne by the "Harpies" and the figure crouching in grief wear long chitons only. The "Harpies" wear chitons, of which the sleeves alone are indicated. All the principal figures wear shoes or sandals, so far as the feet are preserved, with the exception of the second figure behind the throne on the east side. The women on the west side, and the seated figure on the south side wear shoes with pointed toes. The remaining figures wear sandals only. All the figures on the east side had metal taeniae or stephanae, the holes for the attachment of the metal being still visible. The youth on the east side, as already stated, held a metal object in his hand.
Colouring.—The following indications of colour can be traced. The ground of the reliefs was bright blue. Part of the colour remains round the profile of the youth on the east side, and under the right wrist of the first figure behind the throne on this side. Birch (Archæologia, xxx., p. 192) states that he has seen scarlet on the crest of the helmet, and Scharf (Mus. of Class. Antiq., i., p. 252) that there were "traces of red in the hollow of the shields and upon sandals." Elsewhere the colour must be inferred from the inequalities of the surface of the marble, due to the unequal protecting powers of the different colours. There was an egg and tongue pattern on the lower moulding, and a maeander pattern on parts of the upper moulding. On the west side the chair of the figure on the right was painted with palmette ornament. On the east side there was also a palmette pattern on the side of the throne.
Interpretations.—The interpretations of this monument, that have been proposed, may be divided into three groups—
(1.) According to the first commentators, the subject represented was the rape of the daughters of Pandareos, king of Lycia, by the Harpies (Homer, Od. xx., l. 66. Gibson, in Fellows, Lycia, p. 171; Birch, Archæologia, xxx., p. 185.) The objections to this view are that the subject is an improbable one for representation on a tomb, that the "Harpies" evidently stand in a kindly relation towards the persons whom they carry, and that the reliefs do not agree well with the literary form of the myth. It is also doubtful whether the "Harpies" were imagined with bird-bodies at the period of these sculptures. (Furtwaengler, Arch. Zeit., 1882, p. 204.)
(2.) In the second group of theories, the enthroned figures are deities of the lower world to whom the souls of the dead pay reverence. On the west side are Demeter (left), and Persephonè (right), and three worshippers who carry symbols of life and birth, as the egg and the pomegranate. The door of the tomb signifies death, while the cow and calf, immediately above, suggest the renewal of life. The three seated figures remaining, are, according to this system, either Zeus (south), Poseidon (east), and Hades (north), (Braun, Annali dell' Inst., 1844, p. 151), or Zeus viewed under a triple aspect (Curtius, Arch. Zeit., 1855, p. 10). The symbolic system has been most elaborately worked out by Curtius (loc. cit., and Arch. Zeit., 1869, p. 10). Thus he regards the "Harpies'" bodies as intended for eggs, and so symbolical of life. This view is untenable, as the bodies are of the form usually given to birds in early art (Conze, Arch. Zeit., 1869, p. 78).
(3.) In the third and most recent group of theories, the seated figures are not deities, but heroified personages, buried in the tomb, to whom offerings are made by members of their family. (Milchhoefer, Arch. Zeit., 1881, p. 53; Wolters, p. 75.) This view is supported by analogies found elsewhere (cf. p. 299), while it avoids the difficulty of supposing deities to be represented on a tomb. But no parallel has been adduced for such a scene as a young warrior giving his arms to the figure of an heroified ancestor; moreover the dignity and adornments of the enthroned figures seem most appropriate to deities.
On the whole it seems best to suppose that we have on this tomb scenes connected with death, though we cannot attempt, for want of knowledge of Lycian mythology, to assign names to the personages represented. Maidens make offerings to female deities, and men to male deities. On the east side a boy makes an offering, on the north side a young warrior gives up his armour, and on the south side a man offers a bird. Kindly winged beings bear away the souls of the dead, and the crouching figure on the north side suggests the grief of the survivors. (Cf. Brunn, Sitzungsber. d. k. bayer. Akad. Phil. hist. Cl., 1872, p. 523, who points out the succession of ages among the figures, but does not consider the idea of death to be implied in the central groups of the north, east, and south sides.)
Style and Period.—In the Harpy Tomb we have a fine example of the work by the Ionian School of Asia Minor, whose chief characteristic is a certain voluptuous fulness of form, and languor of expression, contrasted with the muscular vigour of the Doric sculpture, and the delicate refinement characteristic of a part of the early Attic work (cf. Brunn, loc. cit., p. 205, and Rayet, Monuments, No. 13). It is uncertain whether the tomb is later than the Persian conquest of Xanthos (545 b.c.). It has a remarkable resemblance to the tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae as described by Arrian (vi., 29) and Strabo (xv., 3, 7), although the force of the parallel is rather diminished if Fergusson (Nineveh and Persepolis, p. 215) has correctly identified the tomb. The Harpy reliefs are usually assigned to the close of the sixth century; but a comparison with the sculptures of Ephesus points to a date nearer 550 b.c.
The Harpy tomb is of marble. The reliefs measure 3 feet 4½ inches in height; 8 feet 2 inches in length on the east and west sides; 7 feet 6 inches on the north and south sides. Fellows, Lycia, p. 170, and pl.; Birch, Archæologia, XXX., p. 185; Braun, Annali dell' Inst., 1844, p. 133; Mon. dell' Inst., IV., pl. 3; Rhein. Mus., N.F., III., 1845, p. 481; Curtius, Arch. Zeit., 1855, p. 2, pl. 73; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd edit., I., p. 171; Murray, I., p. 116, pl. 3, and figs. 22-25; Rayet, Monuments, Nos. 13-16; Mitchell, p. 187, fig. 88 (west and south sides); Wolters, Nos. 127-130.
95.Fragment of relief, with parts of two female figures, draped and having sandals, moving to the right in a dance. The relief appears to have been on the face of a lintel, panelled on its lower side.—Xanthos.
Limestone; height, 1 foot 3½ inches. Prachov, pl. 6b, fig. i.; Murray (2nd ed.), I., p. 125.
96-98.The following sculptures illustrate the way in which the simplicity of an archaic statue is sometimes preserved in later sculptures serving an architectonic purpose:—
96.Torso of female figure, wearing a long dress with diploïdion, falling in flat surfaces with few folds. The left leg is advanced, the right hand gathered up a part of the drapery. The head and arms are wanting.—Xanthos.
Marble; height, 4 feet ¼ inch. Prachov, pl. 2, fig. 5.