The Carians.—The language of the Carians and the Caunians was the same; since Herodotus writes—The Caunian nation has either adapted itself to the Carian tongue, or the Carian to Caunian.
2. On the other hand, the worship of the national Eponymus was different. The Lydians and Mysians share in the worship of the Carian Jove. These do so. As many, however, of different nations (ἔθνος) as have become identical in language with the Carians do not do so.
And here comes a difficulty—one part of the facts connects, the other disconnects the Carians from the Lycians. The language goes one way, the customs another.
But this is not the only complication introduced by the Carian family. The whole question of their origin is difficult, and that of their affinities is equally so. It was from the islands to the continent, rather than from the continent to the islands, that the Carians spread themselves; and they did this as subjects of Minos, and under the name of Leleges. As long as the system of Minos lasted, these Carian Leleges paid no tribute; but furnished, when occasion required, ships and sailors instead. And this they did effectually, inasmuch as the Carian was one of the most powerful nations of its day, and, besides that, ingenious in warlike contrivances. Of such contrivances three were adopted by the Greeks, and recognised as the original invention of the Carians. The first of these was the crest for the helmet; the second, the device for the shield; the third, the handle for the shield. Before the Carians introduced this last improvement, the fighting-man hung his buckler by a leathern thong, either on his neck or his left shoulder. Such was the first stage in the history of Carian Leleges, who were insular rather than continental, and Lelegian rather than Carian. It lasted for many years after the death of Minos; but ended in their being wholly ejected from the islands, and exclusively limited to the continent, by the Dorians and Ionians of Greece.
This would connect the—
- 1. Carians with the aboriginal islanders of the Ægean—these being Leleges.
- 2. Also with the Caunians.
- 3. Also with the Lycians. Unfortunately, the evidence is not unqualified. It is complicated by—
The native tradition.—The Carian race is not insular, but aboriginal to the continent; bearing from the earliest times the name it bears at the present time. As a proof of this, the worship of the Carian Jupiter is common to two other, unequivocally continental nations—the Lydians and the Mysians. All three have a share in a temple at Mylasa, and each of the three is descended from one of three brothers—Car, Lydus, or [Mysus]—the respective eponymi of Caria, Lydia, and Mysia.
All this is not written for the sake of any inference; but to illustrate the difficulties of the subject. A new series of facts must now be added—or rather two new ones.
- 1. There are special statements in the classics that the Phrygian, Armenian, and Thracian languages were the same.
- 2. One of the three languages of the arrow-headed inscriptions has yet to be identified with any existing tongue.
The reader is in possession of a fair amount of complications. They can easily be increased.