Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "FARAS Ancient city THERAPNES".
or Pharis, afterwards called Pharae (Phare, Pharis, Pharai). A town
of Laconia in the Spartan plain, situated upon the road from Amyclae to the sea.
(Paus. iii. 20. § 3.) It was mentioned in the Iliad (ii. 582), and was one of
the ancient Achaean towns. It maintained its independence till the reign of Teleclus,
king of Sparta; and, after its conquest, continued to be a Lacedaemonian town
under the name of Pharae. (Paus. iii. 2. § 6.) It was said to have been plundered
by Aristomenes in the Second Messenian War. (Paus. iv. 16. § 8.) It is also mentioned
in a corrupt passage of Strabo (viii. p. 364), and by other ancient writers. (Lycophr.
552; Stat. Theb. iv. 226; Steph. B. s. v. Pharis.)
Pharis has been rightly placed at the deserted village of Bafio, which
lies south of the site of Amyclae, and contains an ancient Treasury, like those
of Mycenae and Orchomenus, which is in accordance with Pharis having been one
of the old Achaean cities before the Dorian conquest. It is surprising that the
French Commission have given no description or drawing of this remarkable monument.
The only account we possess of it, is by Mulre, who observes that it is, like
that of Mycenae, a tumulus, with an interior vault, entered by a door on one side,
the access to which was pierced horizontally through the slope of the hill. Its
situation, on the summit of a knoll, itself of rather conical form, while it increases
the apparent size of the tumulus, adds much to its general loftiness and grandeur
of effect. The roof of the vault, with the greater part of its material, is now
gone, its shape being represented by a round cavity or crater on the summit of
the tumulus. The doorway is still entire. It is 6 feet wide at its upper and narrower
part. The stone lintel is 15 feet in length. The vault itself was probably between
30 and 40 feet in diameter. Mure adds: Menelaus is said to have been buried at
Amyclae. This may, therefore, have been the royal vault of the Spartan branch,
as the Mycenaean monument was of the Argive branch of the Atridan family. But
even if we suppose the monument to have been a sepulchre, and not a treasury,
it stood at the distance of 4 or 5 miles from Amyclae, if this town is placed
at Aghia Kyriaki, and more than 2 miles, even if placed, according to the French
Commission, at Sklavokhori. In addition to this, Menelaus, according to other
accounts, was buried at Therapne. (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 246; Leake,
Morea, vol. iii. p. 3, Peloponnesiaca, p. 354; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii.
p. 248.)
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
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