Page 78 - Sarpedon’dan Keykubad’a Bir Zamanlar Antalya

The Sad End of Skylakeus of Tlos
Comrade of Glaukos, brave-hearted Skylakeus of Tlos. The
great spear warrior who fought against the Achaeans in Troy
with the Lycian soldiers. Although he was deified on the orders
of Apollo after his death, none of this was enough to change his
sad end.
The great spear warrior Skylakeus, the companion of the
hero Glaukos, becomes the sole survivor of the Lycian army.
Realizing that Troy had fallen, the warrior from Tlos is tired and
sets off to return to his country, Lycia. Reaching his hometown
after a long journey, a large group of women and children from
Tlos, who heard that Skylakeus had arrived, began to wait for his
soldiers at the entrance of the city. As soon as they arrive, Sky-
lakeus begins to tell how the Lycian soldiers died. However, the
women and children of Tlos are very surprised and angry at this
situation. They cannot understand how Skylakeus has returned
without dying for his homeland struggle in which all the other
Lycian men were martyred.
Because they are so conservative that the people of Tlos;
Just like their neighbors the Xanthians, each of them must either
live together or die. After this, the women and children, who can-
not control their anger, start to stone Skylakeus by stoning him
in a circle, right in front of the legendary hero Bellerophon Rock
Tomb in the north of their acropolis. They throw so many stones
at the poor man that Skylakeus dies on the spot. Afterwards,
they built a tomb right where he died from the stones thrown
and deified the heroes who fought in Troy on the order of Apollo
by performing rituals. However, none of these were enough to
change the sad ending of Skylakeus (Erhat 1996; Korkut 2015).
Excavations in the city of Tlos are carried out by Prof. Dr.
Taner Korkut from Akdeniz Üniversity Archaeology Department.

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