Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "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.
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
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