TEARS OF BYBLIS

We don’t know if you like legends? If you love it, you will be saddened by what we will tell. The legend from Herodotus is as follows:

He became the twins of the Carian King Miletus, son of Apollo. The man is called Kaunos and the girl is called Byblis. the twins grow up together and fall in love with each other. This secret love is revealed when their baby is born. The king, very angry, expels his son from his country. He goes with those who love him and establishes the city that bears his name, opposite the present Dalyan, on the Lydian border.

What happened to Byblis? Here is sad. Byblis, who was very upset about the insults he saw and being separated from his beloved brother, shed tears until his springs dry and eventually jumped off a rock and killed him. According to the legend, the channels resembling a labyrinth in Dalyan consisted of Byblis’s tears.

The Roman Historian and Poet Ovidius reports this event differently. According to Azra Erhat, who told us from Ovidus, the legend about the foundation of Kaunos is as follows:

Byblis falls in love with Kaunos. Byblis expresses his feelings by writing a letter to Kaunos. Kaunos, on the other hand, meets Byblis’s feelings with anger and disgust. Not wanting to see his twin again, Kaunos leaves his father’s country with those who love him. He came to Kaunos and found the city that was named after him. Byblis, on the other hand, wants to put an end to his life because of his unrequited love, and throws him over a high rock. But the Nymphs (nymphs) pity Byblis and turn him into a fountain. The tears of Byblis turn into a river, the ages stop.

That is how sad is the foundation story of Kaunos.