Location information

Sanctuary of Apollo Clarious (Oracle)

KLAROS (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
The people of Colophon suppose that the sanctuary at Clarus, and the oracle, were founded in the remotest antiquity.

Perseus: Pausanias, Description of Greece, Achaia
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=...

Oracle of Claros. This was situated north of Miletus, near Colophon. It was said to have been founded by Cretans under Rhacius, who were joined afterwards by a Theban colony sent out under the auspices of the Delphic oracle, at an extremely early date. Manto, daughter of Tiresias, was among the Thebans; she married Rhacius, and their son was the prophet Mopsus, from whom the prophets of Claros may have traced their descent; but this is doubtful, (Pansan. vii. 3, § § 1, 2.) In later times, the prophets were generally taken from Miletus (Tac. Ann. ii. 54). The oracle at Claros had its centre in a cave with a beautiful clear pool in it, near a sacred wood, in which, it was said, there were no serpents (Aelian, Hist. Anim. x. 49). We hear but little of this oracle in early times: Alexander was said to have been encouraged by it in a design he had of rebuilding Smyrna (Pausan. vii. 5, § 1). A prophet, who drank the sacred water, was the revealer of the divine will (Tac. l. c.) and pronounced oracles in verse, answering the questioner without even having heard the question. The cynic philosopher Oenomaus of Gadara (in the 2nd century A.D.) was, however, by no means impressed with the truthfulness of the replies (Oenom. ap. Euseb. Praep. Evang. v. 2). Germanicus consulted this oracle, which was said to have prophesied his death (Tac. l. c.); it was sometimes consulted by letter (Ovid, Fast. i. 20); and it was patronised by Apollonius of Tyana (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iv. 1) and Alexander of Abonotichos (Lucian, Pseudom. 29). Inscriptions prove that its fame extended even to Britain. Porphyry (ad Aneb. p. 3) and Iamblichus (Myst. iii. 11) speak of it, but after that time it is unmentioned.

This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...