XANTHIAN MARBLES, the designation given to a collection of architectural and sepulchral remains, from their having been chiefly found in the city of Xanthus in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. [Leas, in GEOG. DIP., C01. 638.] They were for the most part obtaiued by Sir Charles Fellows, during researches conducted at the expense of the British government in the years 1842-46, and are now deposited in the Lycian gallery of the British Museum.
The Xanthian marbles comprise sculptural remains which are believed to range in date from the conquest of Xanthus by the Persians, n.c. 545, to the period of the Byzantine empire, and vary considerably therefore in character and value. The oldest and most important aro the rilievi from what is known as the Harpy Tomb, which stood near the theatre at Xanthus. This tomb was found almost entire, and consisted of a solid rectangular shaft 17 feet high, surmounted by a small chamber. The friezes on the sides of this pedestal exhibit so much refinement of feeling, combined with an almost austere purity of style, that it may be doubted whether they do not belong to a period antecedent to the Persian invasion, and are not the work con sequently of the descendants of the Grecian colonists, before their taste was vitiated by Persian influence. The date usually assigned to them is about 500 D.C.
The tomb has acquired its name from four figures of similar design on the four extremities of its north and south sides, which resemble the Harpy of the ancients. The head is that of a female, the breast is exposed, and the body, which terminates with the trunk, has wings and a tail like a pigeon's; from under the wings comes a bird's claw, clasping the legs of a child, which is carried in the bosom of the figure. They are all flying upwards and outwards from the rniddle of each group, and are carrying off female children. There was no inscription on the tomb, which, from the flying figures carrying off the children,' is supposed to allude to the story of Pandarus, king of Lycia ; these figures being the harpies carrying away the daughters of Pandarus. (Homer, Odyssey,' b. xx.) Besides these there are seated figures, probably deities, and other personages from the Greek mythology. The figures are about three feet high, and the four compartments, about nine feet in length, form the top of the tomb, and are elevated about twenty feet above the ground upon a square shaft or pedestal of gray stone, and roofed with two flat stones of a similar material ; the bas-reliefs are in white marble.
Close to this tomb stood another similar tomb of the same dimen sions, entirely covered with Lycian characters. These Xanthian tombs extend over several miles of country.
Another extremely interesting series consists of a broad and a narrow frieze, and various architectural members of a remarkable Ionic struc ture, the purpose of which is not determined, but of which there are in the room an excellent model, according to the restoration proposed by Sir C. Fellows, under whose direction it was made, and a picture showing the appearance of the spot prior to the excavations. The friezes represent contests between the heavily-armed Greek soldiers and more lightly equipped Asiatics; the siege of a city, and a sally of the besieged ; and a Persian satrap receiving a deputation. The subject referred to is usually considered to be the conquest of Lycia by tho Persians under liarpagus, and the building to have been the tomb of Harpagus, or a memorial to his honour, and to have been erected in the 4th century, D.C. By some, however, the bas-reliefs are supposed to represent the suppression of the revolt of the Lycians, n.c. 3S7. Be that as it may, the sculptures are thoroughly Persian in character, and both in subject and style recal to the memory similar subjects among the Assyrian rilievi. Another series of bas-reliefs, part of the tomb of one Paiafa, a satrap of Lycia, has representations of warriors fighting, while on each side of the tomb was an armed figure in a quadriga. Other slabs, statues, and sculptured fragments, of a more or leas debased style, carry down the illustrations of Lycian art to the period mentioned above.
(Fellows' Journal, ; Account of Discoveries in Lycia ; Account of the Ionic Trophy Monument excavated at Xonthus ; and Essay on Mc Relative Dates of the Lycian Monuments in the British Museum ; Scharf, Observations on the Sculptures seen on the Monuments of Ancient Lycie; Gerhard, Zeitung,1845; OsiCial Synopsis of British Museum.)