Heroon of Trysa
Trysa, Lycia, Turkey
~380 BCE
The Heroon is a set of four walls, decorated with reliefs of Greek and Lycian heroic tales. Â The walls originally stood on a mountain peak in southern Turkey, a bit northeast of the island of Rhodes, and enclosed the burial site of a Lycian hero prince-a hero being a leader capable of supernatural deeds
The walls average 9 feet in height, and 66 by 78 feet in length and are decorated with two rows of reliefs, one above the other. Â Nearly 85 percent of the frieze reliefs survived the centuries.
The Heroon is one of the most important relief monuments of classical art. Â Unique to this work and little known is that Lycian heroic episodes are intertwined with similar Greek stories in the depictions. Â For example, the story of Bellerophon, the Corinthian hero, who refused the advances of the wife of King Proetus of Argos. Â An angry Proetus (who questioned Bellerophon's innocence) sent him to his father-in-law Iobates in Lycia who then gave him a dangerous mission-to kill the Chimera.
