Carian Mythology

The mythology carian – lycian describes the myths, legends, stories from the region of Caria and Lycia in Anatolia.

Caria (in Greek ancient Καρία / Karía) is a historical region in southwestern Asia Minor, located between Lycia to the east, Pisidia to the northeast, Lydia to the north, and the Aegean Sea to the southwest. It corresponds to the current region of Bodrum in the south-west of Turkey.

The Greeks Ionians and Dorians colonized the west and joined the Carian population to form Greek-dominated states there. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being of minoan, while he reports that the Carians themselves maintained that they were continentals Anatolians intensely engaged in navigation and were akin to Mysians and to Lydians.

The Carians spoke Carian, a native Anatolian language closely related to Luwian. The Leleges, which may be an earlier name for the Carians, were also closely associated with the Carians.

The earliest known inhabitants of the region of Lycia were the Solymoi (or Solymi), also known as the Solymians, who possibly spoke a Semitic language. Later in prehistory, another people, known as the Milyae (or Milyans) migrated to the same region; they spoke an Anatolian (Indo-European) language known as Milyan and the region was known as Milyas.

The term land of Lukka (sometimes lands of Luqqa), in texts in the language Hittite of the second millennium BC. AD, is a collective term for the states formed by the Lukka people in southwestern Anatolia (today's Turkey). The Lukka were never subjugated in the long term by the Hittites, who generally viewed them as hostile. It is commonly believed that the Bronze Age toponym Lukka is related to Lycia of classical antiquity (8th century BC to 5th century AD).