Listed 15 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "FANARI Municipality PREVEZA" .
KICHYROS (Ancient city) EPIRUS
Ephyra, Ephyre (Ephure) Cichyrus. A town of Thesprotia
in Epeirus, afterwards called
Cichyrus according to Strabo. Thucydides describes it as situated in the district
Elaeatis in Thesprotia, away
from the sea; and it further appears from his account, compared with that of Strabo,
that it stood not far from the discharge of the Acheron
and the Acherusian lake into
the port called Glycys Limen
(Thuc. i. 46; Strab. vii. p. 324). It is placed by Leake and other modern travellers
at a church, formerly a monastery of St. John, distant 3 or 4 miles direct from
Porto Fanari: the church stands on remains of Hellenic walls of polygonal masonry.
The Thesprotian Ephyra appears to be the town mentioned in two passages
of the Odyssey (i. 259, ii. 328). The Ephyri, mentioned in a passage of the Iliad
(xiii. 301), were supposed by Pausanias to be the inhabitants of the Thesprotian
town (Paus. ix. 36.3); but Strabo maintained that the poet referred to the Thessalian
Ephyra (Strab. ix. p. 442). Some commentators even supposed the Ephyra on
the Selleeis (Hom. Il. ii. 659, xv. 531) to be the Thesprotian town, but Strabo
expressly maintains that Homer alludes in these passages to the Eleian
town (Strab. vii. p. 328,; comp. viii. p. 338). Pausanias represents Cichyrus
as the capital of the ancient kings of Thesprotia,
where Theseus and Peirithous were thrown into chains by Aidoneus; and its celebrity
in the most ancient times may also be inferred from a passage of Pindar. (Paus.
i. 17. 4; Pind. Nem. vii. 55.) (Leake, Northern Greece. vol. iii. p. 7, vol. iv.
pp. 53, 175.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PANDOSIA (Ancient city) THESPROTIA
Eth. Pandosieus. An ancient colony of Elis (Dem. Halonnes. p. 84, Reiske), and
a town of the Cassopaei in the district of Thesprotia in Epirus, situated upon
the river Acheron. It is probably represented by the rocky height of Kastri, on
the summit of which are the walls of an acropolis, while those of the city descend
the slopes on either side.
VATIES (Ancient city) PREVEZA
Batiai. A town of Thesprotia in Epeirus, mentioned along with Elateia, and situated
in the interior in the neighbourhood of Pandosia.
PANDOSIA (Ancient city) THESPROTIA
A town of Epirus, in the district Thesprotia, on the river Acheron.
PANDOSIA (Ancient city) THESPROTIA
Pandosia was the most important colony of the Heleioi in Cassopaea
(region bordered by the Amvrakikos
bay, the Ionian Sea and the rivers Acheron
and Louros) and was
established in the 7th century BC. The ancient settlement is located on the hill
Kastri, which dominates the plain of Acheron, at the site where today is the homonymous
village, between Kanalaki and the Nekromanteio.
Pandosia was built on a naturally fortified position, protected by
the river Acheron (northern side) and the
lake Acherousia (southern side). The city was fortified by walls dating back
to the first half of the 4th century BC. The perimeter of the walls of the classic
period is 1,460 m and encloses an area of 130,000 m2. It was strengthened by 22
rectangular towers. Two gates are preserved on the eastern side, and a probable
third one to the northwest.
Philippos II, king of Macedonia, seized Pandosia and offered it (along
with the other Heleian colonies of Epirus) to the Epirotes, in 343/2 BC. With
the settlement of the nearby Thesprotoi, the town was expanded to the eastern
slopes and was enclosed by a new polygonal wall, of which parts are today preserved
on the northern and northeastern side.
The town was destroyed by the Romans in 167 BC; the latter allowed
later the reconstruction of a part of the walls on the top of the hill (167 -
148 BC). The decline of the settlement was probably due to the establishment of
Nikopolis and the settlement of the nearby habitants in it.
This text is cited March 2004 from the Municipality of Fanari URL below
KICHYROS (Ancient city) EPIRUS
ELATRIA (Ancient city) EPIRUS
A colony of Elis (D.7.32). Late 6th c. pottery has been found. The
hill is fortified with a circuit wall ca. 1800 m long; tombs have yielded bronze
mirror-disks.
N.G.L. Hammond, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KICHYROS (Ancient city) EPIRUS
Ephyra. In Elis of Thesprotia, 800m N of the junction of the Kok(k)ytos river
with the Acheron, 4.5 km E of the bay of Ammoudia where ancient Glykys Limen (Strabo
7.7.5) or Eleas Limen (Ps. Skylax 30; Ptol. 3.14.5) were located, and into which
the Acheron flows. Thucydides (1.46.4) says that near the Cheimerion promontory
(modern Glossa) which shelters the bay on the N there is a harbor, and above it
lies a city away from the sea in the Eleatic district of Thesprotia, Ephyra by
name. Near it is the outlet into the sea of the Acherusian Lake. Strabo (7.7.5)
gives the same information and adds that in his time Ephyra was called Kichyros.
Neoptolemos landed at Ephyra on his return from Troy (Pind. Nem. 7.37-39)
and Odysseus came there later to get poison for his arrows (Od. 1 .259f). Theseus
and Perithoos came to snatch away Persephone, the wife of Aidoneus the king of
Ephyra. These were none other than Persephone and Hades, the gods of the underworld,
who had a shrine and an oracle at Ephyra (Paus. 1.17.4-5, 9.36.3; Plut. Theseus
31.35).
The site of Ephyra is confirmed by the excavation of the ancient oracle
of the dead on the hill of Agios Ioannis near the village of Mesopotamos, 150
m N of the junction of the Kok(k)ytos with the Acheron. The remains of three ancient
wall circuits are preserved, 600 m farther N, on the limestone hill of Xylokastro
(elev. 83 m). The outer one, surrounding an area of 4.2 ha, is cyclopean; its
circumference is 1120 m and one gate in the S side is 2.3 m wide.
The central sanctuary building of the oracle of the dead is surrounded
by a very thick (3.3 m) polygonal wall. The building is divided into three sections,
a central aisle without divisions (beneath which is a great vaulted crypt), and
two side sections each divided into three rooms. The walls stand to a height of
3.5 m; they show damage from a fire that destroyed the sanctuary and buried the
offerings. In the side rooms were great piles of wheat and barley, pithoi which
had contained cereals and liquid, perhaps honey. Various iron implements such
as plows, shovels, and sickles were also found. In the first room on the left
were two busts of Persephone in terracotta (ht. 0.2 m). The first room to the
right contained eight pithoi around the walls, many vases, and much carbonized
grain. The second room contained piles of bowls, overturned amphorae, a marble
basin, and again much carbonized grain. In one of the corridors outside were traces
of pyres and of pits with the bones of sacrificed animals--sheep and goats, bulls,
and a few pigs.
The existing monumental remains date from Hellenistic times, but the
location of the sanctuary and the types of sacrifices attested by the remains
correspond closely with Homer's description (Od. 10.508ff; 11.24ff; cf. Paus.
1.17.5).
The finds within the acropolis, chiefly sherds of local pottery of
the Bronze Age and Mycenaean sherds of LH III A-B, together with the worship of
the pre-Hellenic chthonic goddess Persephone and the local name (Kichyros), indicate
that a native settlement of the Bronze Age was resettled in the 14th c. B.C. by
colonists most probably from the W Peloponnese.
After the surrender of the Elean colonies in Kassopaia to Philip II
of Macedon in 343-342 B.C. (Dem. 7.32) and their subjection to the Thesprotians,
Ephyra appears to have reverted to its pre-Hellenic name, Kichyros, which had
been kept alive in some neighboring Thesprotian settlement (Kichyros, the former
Ephyra: Strab. 7.7.5, 8.3.5). Some finds, chiefly pottery of the 1st c. B.C.,
confirm the statement of Pausanias (1.17.5) that Kichyros was in existence in
his time.
S. Dakaris, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MESSOPOTAMO (Village) PREVEZA
A site in Thesprotia lying E of the promontory known as Cheimerion,
downstream from the confluence of the Acheron and Kokytos rivers and N of the
Acherusian marshes. The hill of Xylocastro with the Chapel of Haghios Joannis
Prodromos (18th c.) on top of it dominates the village to the N, which is also
called Ephura (Thuc. 1.46). In excavations carried out from 1958 to 1961, the
nekyomanteion or oracle of the dead, which was famous in antiquity, was uncovered.
Legend has it that Theseus and Herakles passed this way on their descent to Hades
and that here Odysseus also passed to consult the prophet Tiresias.
In the historic period, Periander, tyrant of Corinth (early 6th c.),
who had killed his wife Melissa (Hdt. 3.50), nevertheless wanted to find out from
her where she had placed a certain sum of money when she was alive. He twice sent
to consult Melissa's shade (Hdt. 5.92, end).
Strabo says that already in his day the appearance of the landscape
had changed owing to the alluvial deposits of the Acheron (7.7.7), but the hill
of Xylocastro had preserved the sanctuary almost intact. It consists of a rectangular
temenos with an entrance to the N, bounded by a polygonal wall (3.2 m high and
3.3 m thick) measuring 62.4 x 46.3 m. Inside the temenos is a central monument,
square in plan (21.8 x 21.3 m) which, in turn, encloses the nekyomanteion proper.
This is a central building (15.3 x 4.4 m) with walls 1 m thick standing more than
3 m above ground. The middle bay was erected over a crypt whose roof was supported
by arches on pillars; there was no entrance. This apparently was the House of
Hades, Aidos doma. The way into the rooms lay along a kind of corridor in the
form of a maze, no doubt illustrating the wanderings of the soul in Erebus. The
consultant, after first undergoing incubation and purification, reached the sanctuary
proper where he made his offerings; traces of these have been found (cereals,
carbonized chick peas, small bowls, etc.). Figurines of Persephone (3d c.) ca.
22 cm high can be taken to confirm the purpose of the sanctuary, which still confronts
the visitor with the sinister image of death. It is not known how the souls appeared
to the consultant and were able to converse with him.
The complex was probably destroyed in 168 in the Roman invasion; indeed,
the objects found on the site match this date (second half of the 2d c.). Pausanias
(1.17.5) says that Homer must have seen the place, and that the Kokytos was a
dismal stream.
Y. Bequignon, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PANDOSIA (Ancient city) THESPROTIA
A colony of Elis (D.7.32) on a crag above the Acheron gorge in Epeiros.
The circuit wall, ca. 1050 m long, has strong towers, probably a later addition.
The site controls the entry from Cassopaea in the S to the upper valley of the
Acheron river. A famous oracular utterance of Dodona associated three-hilled Pandosia
with the Acheron (Strab. 6.1.5); it issued coinage for a short time.
N.G.L. Hammond, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
VATIES (Ancient city) PREVEZA
Probably a colony of Elis (Strab. 7.7.5 and FGrH 115 [Theopompos]
F 206). A limestone outcrop is ringed with a circuit wall ca. 2100 m long. Gateways
and towers are visible.
N.G.L. Hammond, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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