The eliyAna, spirits of water
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The eliyAna (πππππππ) are named only in the Letoon trilingual where they are invoked alongside Eni and her children (βsey Eni : qlahi : ebiyehi pNtrENni : se tideime : sey eliyAnaβ) as disciplinary agents against anyone who might violate the trilingualβs inscription. The eliyAna were water spirits that were perhaps not too dissimilar to the naiads and water nymphs of Greek religion. This is supported by their equasion with the Ξ½ΟΞΌΟΞ±ΞΉ/nymphs in the Greek portion of the trilingual,1 and the the Luwian root of their name, ali-h3on- βhaving water.β2 The eliyAnaβs presence in the Letoon furthers the theory that early cult functions around Xanthos were centered around a spring sanctuary, and that Eni (and later Leto) shared cultic functions with the eliyAna at the Letoon.3
Aside from the epigrahic corpus, the eliyAna also appear in Lycian sculpture. The Nereid monument, a sculpted tomb built in the early fourth century BCE by the Lycian dynast erbbinas (ππππππππ), contains several sculptures of female figures with sea cretures at their base. Scholars have usually identified these figures as Greek nereids, usually because of the ionic style of the monument as a whole.4 However, Thurstan Robinson has argued that while these figures may resemble nereids, the lack of certain iconographic features suggests that these figures may be eliyAna.4 If this is the case, then the Nereid monument (or the eliyAna monument) is another example of a native Lycian deity portrayed in a Greek style.
Notes
1 Bryce (1986) 179
2 Mlechert (2004) 13
3 Larson (2001) 210
4 Thurstan (1995) 358
Sources
Bryce, Trevor R. The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources, vol. 1, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 1986.
Larson, Jennifer. Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore. Oxford University Press, 2001. pages 209β210.
Melchert, Craig. A Dictionary of the Lycian Language, Beech Stave Press, 2004.
Thurstan, Robinson. βThe Nereid Monument at Xanthos or the EliyΓ£na monument at ArΓ±na.β Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 4, issue 3, 3 Nov. 1995.