Parerga to the Stadiasmus Patarensis (5): RT 59 and Daseia of Bonda

The road between Myra and Limyra (STR 59) was not built along the coast, but in the arduous Masikytos terrain, as the coast was marked by rugged cliffs. Another consideration for this choice of route was probably the important settlements on the Bonda massif. Consequently, in Antiquity goods would be shipped from Myra to Limyra by sea. A decree of the people of Myra from Roman imperial times mentions, in east-to-west sequence, three moorings for freight ships, lying within the territory of Myra: Daseia, Stoma tēs Limnes and Andriake. While Stoma has been firmly identified as the entry to the lagoon to the east of Myra and Andriake as the famous port to the south of it, the location and importance of Daseia within the topography of Lycia have to date remained obscure. In this article the author proposes that the meaning of the word Daseia be understood not from the vegetative, but from the geomorphological character of the tongue of land of Bonda, whose coastline shows very many twists and turns. In this sense, Daseia means, in Lycia's toponymy, a coastal territory with numerous bays.