LYCAONIA. - An inland region of Asia Minor, consisting of a vast plateau (1000 m above sea level), bounded to the east by the mountains of Phrygia and Isauria, to the south by the Taurus and to the north-east by Cappadocia. The territory, dotted with salt lakes, steppe-like and arid, was always sparsely inhabited. The region did not at first have political autonomy, but was attached in whole or in part to the neighboring provinces. Paul and Barnabas, on their first missionary journey, took refuge there, having been driven out of Pisidian Antioch (Act. 13, 51-52), and evangelized its principal centers: Iconium (Act. 14, 1-6), Lystra and Derbe (ibid. 14, 6). The population, uncultured and polytheistic, although knowing the Greek language, continued to speak Lycaonian (ibid. 14, 8-12), an ancient Anatolian language, of which some fragments of inscriptions have survived.
Old legends about native divinities, whom the Greeks assimilated to Zeus and Hermes and the Romans to Jupiter and Mercury, and about their relations with men, were very widespread in L. The Phrygian legend of the two spouses Philemon and Baucis, who, because they had received in their hut Zeus and Hermes appearing in human form, were rewarded by being changed into immortal and divine trees (Ovid, Metam., VIII, 621-725), explains the state of mind of the inhabitants in the treatment used toward Paul and Barnabas (Act. 14, 8-12). On the second missionary journey Paul, accompanied by Silas, visited the Churches founded, confirming their firm faith and their continual increase (Act. 16, 1-4).
V. LISTRA.