Defining Lydia
The endonym Śfard (the name the Lydians called themselves) survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire: the satrapy of Sparda (Old Persian), Aramaic Saparda, Babylonian Sapardu, Elamitic Išbarda. These in the Greek tradition are associated with Sardis, the capital city of Gyges, constructed in the 7th century BC.
The cultural ancestors appear to have been associated with or part of the Luwian political entity of Arzawa; yet Lydian is not part of the Luwian subgroup (as is Carian and Lycian).
An Etruscan and Lydian connection has been a long-standing subject of conjecture. The Greek historian Herodotus stated that the Etruscans came from Lydia, repeated in Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid, and Etruscan-like language was found on the Lemnos stele. However, recent decipherment of Lydian and its classification as an Anatolian language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were possibly not even in the same language family. Nevertheless, a recent genetic study of likely Etruscan descendants in Tuscany found strong similarities with individuals in western Anatolia.
Read more about this topic: Lydia
Famous quotes containing the words defining and/or lydia:
“Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“You must never throw away things that are worth good money.”
—Abraham Polonsky, U.S. screenwriter, Frank Butler, and Helen Deutsch. Mitchell Leisen. Lydia (Marlene Dietrich)