Ethnic Identities, Borderlands, and Hybridity 117Curty 1995: 162–3). A very explicit example working in the other direction, that is, from
a Greek city to an originally non-Greek one, involves an appeal from Kytenion in Doris
in Greece to the Xanthians in Lycia. Begging for financial assistance after an earthquake,
fire, and invasion, the citizens of Kytenion, as the Xanthians say in their reply, “summon
us to recall the relationship that exists with them...for Leto, who was the founder of our
city, gave birth to Artemis and Apollo among us; and from Apollo and Koronis, daughter
of Phlegyos from Doris, was born Asklepios, in Doris”; the Kytenians went on to provide
additional evidence of the relationship through Homeric heroes and other connections
(Curty 1995: 183–91 no. 75).
Xanthos, and the Lycians generally, offer food for thought. Xanthos hosted a renowned
sanctuary of Leto and competed with Delos for the honor of being the birthplace of her
twins. However, Xanthos was a Lycian city, a member of the Lycian federation. The
Lycians clearly had their own ethnic identity that went back well beyond the arrival of
Greeks along the Lycian coast; this identity was expressed in their language, which was
used (unlike most other indigenous, pre-Greek languages in Asia Minor) to inscribe pub-
lic and private texts in the fifth and fourth centuriesBCE(see Bryce, this volume). How-
ever, Greek-derived practices penetrated the Lycian world, at the latest from the days in
the fifth century when the Athenians claimed sovereignty over some of the coastal Lycian
cities. A Lycian contingent fought, on the Trojan side, in the Trojan war, and Homer
accorded their leader a vignette of death (Hom.,Il. 16.419–505; cf. 2.963–964). A
Lycian expansionist drive in the fourth century occurred under the leadership of a dynast
named Perikles. And the Lycians quite early came to use Greek as well as Lycian for
their inscriptions, most famously in the so-called Trilingual Inscription of the Letoon,
set up in Aramaic (the ruling language of the Persian Empire, at that time sovereign over
Lycia), Lycian, and Greek. A chamber tomb of archaic date found in northern Lycia
contained wall paintings with Greek and Lycian mythological elements (Mellink 1998,
especially 57–64), reminiscent of the mixed markers found in tombs in Apulia (see the
text that follows).
Hybridity and Syncretism
Syncretism has a long history in the study of Greco-Roman religion. In its clearest form,
syncretism is precisely hybridization: the bringing together of two or more religious tra-
ditions or practices to create something quite new. It is not simply the introduction of
new gods, although such actions may lead to syncretism. For instance, the introduc-
tion in the late fifth centuryBCEof the worship of Asklepeios to Athens brought a
new god, but he enjoyed an impeccable Greek ancestry; his novelty required no adjust-
ments in self-ascription. Sarapis, who was established in Athens in the Hellenistic period,
was a different matter; he was indeed a “foreign god,” whose presence on Attic soil
provoked some anxiety. However, his worshippers, at least initially, were not good Athe-
nians but foreigners. Sarapis’ arrival on Delos, well-known thanks to a detailed inscrip-
tion, was the result of a private action, but eventually he was incorporated into the
sacred landscape of the island, enjoying a prominent sanctuary, several temples, and
a wealth of dedications (Moyer 2011: 142–207). None of this is syncretism in the
classical sense.