This essay presents a votive inscription with the inventory number M2033 held in the Halûk Perk Museum collection. Acquired in 2007, this inscription was recorded to have come from Fethiye township of Mu?la province. The votive inscription mentions that some one called Aphia made an offering to “Meter Tymeneia”. Like the Syrian-Anatolian Kubaba known to have been venerated since the third millennium B.C. and the Lydian Kuvava, the Phrygian Mountain Goddess (Matar Kubeleja) was worshiped under the name of Kybele in the later periods. The cult of the Phrygian goddess spread as of the Archaic period and she is often mentioned in cultic documents with local epiclesis, e.g. Meter Oreia (“Mountain Goddess”). The votive inscription studied here contains another epiclesis of the Mother Goddess: The epiclesis of ???????? here can be corrected as ????????{?} due to iotasismus. A document bearing evidence for another variation of the epiclesis ???????? is known from Philomelium (Ilg?n) in eastern Phrygia. The epiclesis of the goddess here is ????????. This epiclesis must be linked with Mount ????????? mentioned as a mountain in Phrygia by Step. Byz. Eth. 640, 22. Another document is the inscription on the votive statuette of the Hellenistic period from Pisidian Antioch (Eyu?pler, west of Yalvaç). The inscription reads ????? ??????|?? ????? and the goddess with her polos is depicted seated between two lions. The third inscription mentioning the goddess is the one from Fethiye, Mu?la, which constitutes the scope of the present study.
In Antiquity, Fethiye was part of Lycia. In this case, it could be considered that the goddess received this epiclesis in Lycia as well or that an immigrant from outside could have venerated her. However, in line 58 of the alliance treaty between Rome and Lycia made in 46 B.C. and published by Mitchell 2005, 167 ff., it is stated that a site called ?????? in Lycia was left to the Lycians. Furthermore, Step. Byz. Eth. 640, 24; 641, 5 mentions a village called Tymena in Lycia. Based on the above-mentioned alliance inscription and information in Step. Byz. Eth. 640, 24; 641, 58. Mitchell 2005, 225 ff.; 2006, 485 claims that the Tymena settlement can be localised in the northern borders of Mount Masa where there are numerous water sources located south–southwest of Oinoanda. In case the comment by Mitchell holds correct, then the epiclesis of ???????? presented here can be linked with this toponym in Lycia.
The inscription is translated as follows:
Aphia, the daughter of Polio, (offered) as votive for Meter Tymenaia