Phara
Coordinates: 38 ° 5 ′ 52 ″ N , 21 ° 43 ′ 26 ″ E
Phara ( Greek Φαρά , also Φαραί Pharai ) is an ancient Greek city in western Achaia on the left bank of the Peiros (today Kamenitsa) near the present-day villages of Pharai and Prevedos. Pharai was an important place in the Mycenaean era . According to Herodotus it belonged to the twelve old cities of the Achaia and to the core of the new Achaean covenant . The city was founded in 14 BC. Incorporated into the territory of the newly founded colony of Patrai by Emperor Augustus . Today there are still extensive ruins of Pharai.
Pausanias tells of an oracle on the Agora of Pharai: There was a marble image of Hermes there , in front of it a marble hearth with bronze lamps. Anyone who wanted an oracle would come in the evening, light incense on the stove, pour oil into the lamps and whisper the question in the god's ear. Then you covered your ears and left. When you left the market square, you took your hands off your ears. The first words you then heard were the oracle.
literature
- Yves Lafond: Pharaoh. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 737-737.