Listed 1 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "KYFAS Ancient city ZARAKAS".
ta Kuphanta. A town on the eastern coast of Laconia, belonging to
the Eleuthero-Lacones. It was in ruins in the time of Pausanias, but from the
notice of it in other writers, it was evidently at one period a place of some
importance. Pausanias describes it as situated 6 stadia from Zarax, and 10 stadia
inland; and Ptolemy speaks separately of the porttown and city. Pausanias adds
that Cyphanta contained a temple of Asclepius, called Stethaeum, and a fountain
issuing from a rock, said to have been produced by a blow of the lance of Atalante.
The numbers in Pausanias, however, cannot be correct. At the distance of 6 stadia
from Zarax (Hieraka), there is no site for a town or a harbour; and it is scarcely
conceivable that, on this rocky and little-frequented coast, there would be two
towns so close to one another. Moreover Pausanias says that the distance from
Prasiae to Cyphanta is 200 stadia; whereas the real distance from Prasiae (Tyro)
to Zarax (Hieraka) is more than 300 stadia. In addition to this Ptolemy places
Cyphanta considerably further north than Zarax; and it is not till reaching Cyparissi
that there is any place with a harbour and a fountain. Accordingly, we may here
place Cyphanta, changing with Boblaye the very improbable number in Pausanias
hex pou stadia, into hekaton stadia. Cyparissi is as nearly as possible 100 stadia
from Hieraka, and 200 stadia from Tyro.
In his Morea, Leake placed Cyphanta at Cyparissi; but in his Peloponnesiaca,
he supposes its site to have been further north at Lenidhi. If we are right in
identifying Prasiae with Tyro, this position for Cyphanta would be at once inadmissible;
but Leake, we think erroneously, places Prasiae also further north, at St. Andrew
in the Cynuria.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
