Labraunda

In Antiquity, Labraunda (alternatively Labranda Λάβρανδα) in the mountains near the coast of Caria in Asia Minor was held sacred by Carians and Mysians alike. The site amid its sacred plane trees was enriched in the Hellenistic style by the Hecatomnid dynasty of Mausolus, satrap of Persia (c. 377-352 BCE), for whom it was the ancestral sacred shrine. The prosperity of a rapidly hellenised Caria occurred in the fourth century BCE. Remains of Hellenistic houses and streets can still be traced, and there are numerous inscriptions. The cult icon here was a local Zeus Labraundos (Ζεὺς Λάβρανδος), a standing Zeus with the tall lotus-tipped scepter upright in his left hand and the double-headed axe, the labrys, over his right shoulder. The cult statue was the gift of the founder of the dynasty, Hecatomnus himself, recorded in a surviving inscription.