ARAXA
(Ören) Lycia, Turkey.
At the N end
of the Xanthus valley. Nothing is recorded of its foundation, no Lycian inscriptions have been found on the site,
and its Lycian name is not known. An inscription at
Sidyma (
TAM II. 1.174) mentions a local legend that
Leto bore Apollo and Artemis at Araxa. All that is
known of the city's history is contained in an inscription
found at Ören in 1946 (
JHS [1949] 46, no. 11 =
SEG
XVIII 570): At an uncertain date in the 2d c. B.C., hostilities broke out between Araxa and Bubon and again
later between Araxa and Cibyra; in both cases Araxa
appealed to the Lycian League, of which she was a member, whereas Bubon and Cibyra at that time were not.
Some time afterwards Araxa was instrumental in securing the admission of her neighbor Orloanda (otherwise
unknown) to the Lycian League. In general the inscription shows Araxa functioning as a full and active member of the League. No coinage is known; the former attribution of a single specimen of the time of Hadrian is
now discredited. In Byzantine times the bishop of Araxa
ranked fourth under the metropolitan of Myra.
The ruins are not extensive. The acropolis hill is immediately above the village; it is precipitous on the SE,
but is quite low. A little below the summit are remains
of a “cyclopean” wall of very large blocks with a superficial area up to 3 sq. m, in some cases drafted at the
edges; most conspicuous is a massive tower over 9 m
wide. In the village is a stretch of polygonal wall 9 m
long and still 3 m high.
A kilometer or so to the W of the village is a group
of a dozen rock-cut tombs at the base of a rocky hillock;
most of these are of Lycian house type, but they are not
inscribed. One, evidently later, has two antae decorated
with rosettes and nondescript capitals, an architrave, a
row of dentils, and a curiously naked pediment lacking
the usual raking cornices. By the river, close to the village, are a number of gable-shaped sarcophagus lids with
inscribed panels.
A little to the N of Ören is an exceedingly abundant
spring which, though not the actual source of the
Xanthos river, supplies the greater part of its stream.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Fellows,
Lycia (1840) 123-27;
T.A.B. Spratt & E. Forbes,
Travels in Lycia (1847) I
38-40;
TAM II.2 (1930) 259.
G. E. BEAN
