science

Letoon trilingual

Letoon trilingual is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Letoon trilingual rather than just read about it. In short: The Letoon trilingual, or Xanthos trilingual, is an inscription in three languages: standard Lycian or Lycian A, Greek, and Aramaic covering the faces of a four-sided stone stele called the Letoon Trilingual Stele, discovered in 1973 during the archeological exploration of the Letoon temple complex (devoted to the goddess Leto), near Xanthos, ancient Lycia, in present-day Turkey. It was created when Lycia was under…

Key takeaways

Letoon trilingual belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Letoon trilingual to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Letoon trilingual from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Letoon trilingual, or Xanthos trilingual, is an inscription in three languages: standard Lycian or Lycian A, Greek, and Aramaic covering the faces of a four-sided stone stele called the Letoon Trilingual Stele, discovered in 1973 during the archeological exploration of the Letoon temple complex (devoted to the goddess Leto), near Xanthos, ancient Lycia, in present-day Turkey. It was created when Lycia was under the sway of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The inscription is a public record of a decree authorizing the establishment of a cult, with references to the deities, and provisions for officers in the new cult. The Lycian requires 41 lines; the Greek, 35 and the Aramaic, 27. They are not word-for-word translations, but each contains some information not present in the others. The Aramaic is somewhat condensed. Although the use of the term "Letoon" with regard to the inscription and the stele is unequivocal, there is no standard name for either. Xanthos trilingual is sometimes used, which is to be distinguished from the Xanthos bilingual, meaning the Xanthos stele. However, sometimes Xanthos stele is used of the Letoon trilingual stele as well as for the tomb at Xanthos. Moreover, the term Xanthos trilingual (Lycian A, Lycian B, Greek) is sometimes used of the tomb at Xanthos. In the latter two cases only the context can provide clues as to which stele is meant. The Aramaic inscription is known as KAI 319.

Find site

The Lētōon was a temple complex about 4 kilometers (2 mi) south of Xanthus, capital of ancient Lycia. The complex dates to as early as the 7th century BC and must have been a center for the Lycian League. In it were three temples to Lētō, Artemis and Apollō. The stele was found near the temple of Apollo. It has been removed to the museum at Fethiye. The entire site is currently under several inches of water.

Date of the inscription

The first five lines of the Aramaic version mention that the inscription was made in the first year of the reign of the Persian king, Artaxerxes, but does not say which Artaxerxes:

In the month Siwan, year 1 of King Artaxerxes. In the fortress of Arñna (Xanthos). Pixodarus, son of Katomno (Hecatomnus), the satrap who is in Karka (Caria) and Termmila (Lycia).... If the king in question was Artaxerxes III Ochus, the date of the inscription would be the first year of his reign, hence 358 BC. But Hecatomnus is thought to have ruled from c. 395 to 377 BC and Pixodarus, son of Hecatomnus, was satrap of Caria and Lycia no earlier than 341/340. Therefore, the Persian king most likely was Artaxerxes IV Arses, son of Artaxerxes III, who took his father's name on coming to power. In that case the trilingual is dated to the first year of Artaxerxes IV, that is 337/336 BC.

Summary of the text Lines 1-5 of the Lycian text date the inscription to the government of Pixodaros. Lines 5-8: the Xanthians introduce a cult for two gods, "the Kaunian Ruler and King Arkesimas". Lines 9-11: a certain Simias is made priest, his priestship will be hereditary. Lines 12-20: definition of the territory owned by the temple, and of the salary to be awarded to the priest. Lines 20-24: on behalf of the temple a new tax is instituted, to be levied when a slave is liberated. Lines 24-30: the revenues thereof shall be spent on sacrifices at regular times. Lines 30-36: the citizens of Xanthos and the territory of Xanthos vow to execute faithfully those regulations.

Sample of the Lycian text

Below is a transliteration of a sample of lines with an English translation:

References

Notes

Bibliography Bryce, Trevor R. (1986). The Lycians - Volume I: The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 87-7289-023-1.

Further reading Simon, Zsolt (2024). "Anatolian Theonyms in the Aramaic Version of the Letoon Trilingual". In Szilvia Sövegjártó; Márton Vér (eds.). Exploring Multilingualism and Multiscriptism in Written Artefacts. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 331–346. doi:10.1515/9783111380544-012. ISBN 978-3-11-138054-4.

External links

Melchert, Craig H. (2000). "The Trilingual Inscription of Letoon: Lycian Version" (PDF). Achemenet. Retrieved 2017-04-04.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Letoon trilingual

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Letoon trilingual claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Letoon trilingual before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Letoon trilingual ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Letoon trilingual

In research: Letoon trilingual appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Letoon trilingual in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Letoon trilingual is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 archaeological discoveries, 1973 in Turkey, 4th-century BC inscriptions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Letoon trilingual outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Letoon trilingual in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Letoon trilingual means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Letoon trilingual out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Letoon trilingual in simple terms?

Why does Letoon trilingual matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Letoon trilingual?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Letoon trilingual.