Ephyra
- another name for Corinth, Plin. 4, 4, 5, § 11; Ov. M. 2, 240; 7, 391; Stat. S. 2, 2, 34; so named, according to the myth, after a sea-nymph, Ephyre, Verg. G. 4, 343; Hyg. Fab. 275.—
- II Derivv.
- A Ĕphyrēïus, a, um, adj., Ephyrean, Corinthian: aera, Verg. G. 2, 464; cf. Corinthus, II. A. 6.—
- B Ĕphyraeus or Ĕphyrēus, a, um, adj., the same: litus, Stat. Th. 6, 253: moenia, i. e. of Syracuse (a colony of Corinth), Sil. 14, 180; cf. ib. 52; also Dyrrachium (founded by the Corinthian Corcyraeans), Luc. 6, 17.—
- C Ĕphyrēïădes, ae, m., an Ephyrean, Corinthian, Stat. Th. 6, 652.—
- D Ĕphyrēïas, ădis, f., adj., Ephyrean, Corinthian: puellae, Claud. Bell. Get. 629.
- 1. oude naam v. Corinthe; — adj. Ephyraeus en Ephyrēius, a, um Corinthisch, uit Corinthe;
- 2. (Verg.) een zeenimf.
E´PHYRA(Ἐφύρη), the name of several ancient. cities in Greece. Meineke (ad Steph. B. p. 275) connects the word with ἐφοράω, and others suppose it to be equivalent to Ἐχυρά (Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. 2. p. 593); but the meaning of the word can only be a matter of conjecture.
E´PHYRA(Ἐφύρη).
1.The ancient name of Corinth. [CORINTHUS]
2.A town of Elis, situated upon the river Selleeis, and the ancient capital of Augeias, whom Hercules. conquered. (Hom. Il. 2.659, 15.531: see below, No. 4.) Strabo describes Ephyra as distant 120 stadia, from Elis, on the road to Lasion, and says that on its site or near it was built the town of Oenoë or Boeonoa. (Strab. 8. p. 338, where, for the corrupt κειμένη τῆ ἐπιθαλασσίωνα, we ought to read, with Meineke, κειμένη τ ἐπὶ Λασίωνα..) Stephanus also speaks of an Ephyra between Pylos and Elis, Pylos being the town at the junction of the Ladon and the Peneius. (Steph. B. s. v. Ἐφύρα.) From these two accounts there can be little doubt that the Ladon, the chief tributary of the Peneius, is the Selleeis, which Strabo describes as rising in Mount Pholoë. Curtius places Ephyra near the modern village of Klisurawhich lies on the Ladon, about 120 stadia from Elis, by way of Pylos. Leake supposes, with much less probability, that the Selleeis is the Peneius, and that Ephyra was the more ancient name of Elis. (Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. 1. p. 39, seq.; Leake, Morea, vol. i. pp. 6, 7.)
3.A village of Sicyonia, mentioned by Strabo, along with the river Selleeis, as situated near Sicyon. Ross conjectures that some ruins situated upon a hill about 20 minutes south-east of Sulirepresent the Sicyonian Ephyra. (Strab. 8. p. 338; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 56.)
4.A town of Thesprotia in Epeirus, afterwards called CICHYRUSaccording 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. 1.46; Strab. 7. 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 Fanári: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 (1.259, 2.328) The Ephyri, mentioned in a passage of the Iliad (13.301), were supposed by Pausanias to be the inhabitants of the Thesprotian town (Paus. 9.36.3); but Strabo maintained that the poet referred to the Thessalian Ephyra (Strab. 9. p. 442). Some commentators even supposed the Ephyra on the Selleeis (Hom. Il. 2.659, 15.531) to be the Thesprotian town, but Strabo expressly maintains that Homer alludes in these passages to the Eleian town. [No. 2.] (Strab. 7. p. 328,; comp. 8. p. 338.) Pausanias represents Cichyrus as the capital of the ancient kings of Thesprotia, where Theseus and Peirithous were thrown into chains by Aïdoneus; and its celebrity in the most ancient times may also be inferred from a passage of Pindar. (Paus. 1.17.4; Pind. N. 7.55.) (Leake, Northern Greece. vol. 3. p. 7, vol. iv. pp. 53, 175.)
5.A town of Thessaly, afterwards called Cranon or Crannon. [CRANON]
6.A town of the Agraei in Aetolia, of uncertain site. (Strab. 8. p. 338,.)
7.An island in the Argolic gulf, supposed by Leake to be Spétzia. (Plin. Nat. 4.12. s, 19.; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 294.)
(Ἐφύρα). (1) The ancient name of Corinth; whence Ephyreius is used as equivalent to Corinthian. See Corinthus.
(2) A town in Thessaly, afterwards called Cranon.
(3) A town in Epirus, afterwards called Cichyrus.
In Elis of Thesprotia, 800 m 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. Philippson, RE 6, 1 (1907) 20, No. 7; id. & E. Kirsten, Die Griechischen Landschaften II, 1 (1956) 104, 106, 242, 280; S. Dakaris, Ἀνασκαφικαί ἔρευναι εἰς τήν Ὁμηρικήν Ἐφύραν καί τό Νεκυομαντεῖον τῆς ἀρχαίας Θεσπρωτίας (1958) 107-13; id., “Das Taubenorakel von Dodona und das Totenorakel bei Ephyra,” AntK (1963) Beih. 1, 35-54MP; id., Θεσπρωτία (1972) 62-63, 74, 80, 95, 133-34, 199-200; N.G.L. Hammond, Epirus (1967) 369, 372, 379, 393, 478, 483.
S. DAKARIS- first dwelt in Corinth: Paus. 2.1.1
- founded by Sisyphus: Apollod. 1.9.2
- in Thesprotia, captured by Herakles: Apollod. 2.7.5