Claros (Greek: Κλάρος, Klaros; Latin: Clarus) was an ancient Greek sanctuary on the coast of Ionia. It contained a temple and oracle of Apollo, honored here as Apollo Clarius. It was located on the territory of Colophon, one of the twelve Ionic cities, twelve kilometers to the north. The coastal city Notion lay two kilometers to the south. The ruins of the sanctuary are now found north of the modern town Ahmetbeyli in the Menderes district of Izmir Province, Turkey. The Temple of Apollo at Claros was a very important center of prophecy as in Delphi and Didyma. The oldest information about this sacred site goes back to the sixth and seventh centuries BC. through the Homeric Hymns. A sacred cave near the Temple of Apollo, which was an important place both in the Hellenistic and Roman eras, points to the existence of a Cybele cult in earlier periods here. Games called the Claria were held at Claros every fifth year in honor of Apollo. The founding myth of Claros connects the city with the myth of the Epigoni who conquered Thebes.[2] The two seers Teiresias and his daughter Manto became their captives along with other Thebans. The Epigoni sent them to Delphi to honor Apollo, but Teiresias died on the journey. At Delphi, Manto was commanded by Apollo to sail to Ionia with the remaining Thebans to found a colony there. When they arrived at the site where Claros would be founded later, they were seized by armed Cretans under Rhacius, the Cretan settler of Caria. After learning from Manto who they were and why they had come, Rhacius married her and allowed the Thebans to found Claros. Their heir was the seer Mopsus.[3] Thus the origin of the oracle at Clarus was remembered by Greeks of the Classical period as Minoan-Mycenean in origin. Archaeological investigations lend support to the myth. Intensely settled Mycenaean sites have been identified at Colophon, at Ephesus to the south and numerous other nearby sites. Miletus had a historical Minoan settlement, discovered in 1995/96 by the German school. In Claros itself, deep exploratory trenches dug between the altar and the temple façade, revealed Protogeometric pottery of the 10th century BC, attesting to the presence hinted at in myth.[citation needed] According to mythology the Greek seer Calchas, a participant in the Trojan War, died at Claros. He challenged Mopsus to see who had the greatest skill in divination, but lost and died of grief
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 21:41:13 +0000