Prasiae or Prasiai (Ancient Greek: Πρασιαί),[1][2][3] or Prasia (Πρασία),[4][5] also known as Brasiae or Brasiai (Βρασιαί),[6] was a town on the eastern coast of ancient Laconia, described by Pausanias as the farthest of the Eleuthero-Laconian places on this part of the coast, and as distant 200 stadia by sea from Cyphanta.[6] The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax speaks of it as a city and a harbour.[4]

Name of the city

The name of the town was derived by the inhabitants from the noise of the waves (Βράζειν). Pausanias relates a story, found nowhere else in Greece, that Semele, after giving birth to her son by Zeus, was discovered by Cadmus and put with Dionysus into a chest, which was washed up by the waves at Prasiae. Semele, who was no longer alive when found, received a splendid funeral, but the Prasiaeans brought up Dionysus and changed the name of their town from Oreiatae or Oreiatai (Ὀρειάταί) to Brasiae.[7][lower-alpha 1]

Later history

It was an important Spartan naval base during the Peloponnesian War. It was burnt by the Athenians in the second year of the Peloponnesian War, 430 BCE.[1][3] Also in 414 BCE, the Athenians, in conjunction with the Argives, ravaged the coast near Prasiae.[10] In the Macedonian period Prasiae, with other Laconian towns on this coast, passed into the hands of the Argives;[11] whence Strabo calls it one of the Argive towns,[2] though in another passage he says that it belonged at an earlier period to the Lacedaemonians.[12] It was restored to Laconia by Augustus, who made it one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns.[13] Among the curiosities of Prasiae Pausanias mentions a cave where Ino nursed Dionysus; a temple of Asclepius and another of Achilles, and a small promontory upon which stood four brazen figures not more than a foot in height.[14]

Modern location

It is located near Paralio Leonidi.[15][16]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ It has been suggested, however, that this tale borrowed motifs from the story of Danae and Perseus.[8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 2.56.
  2. 1 2 Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii p. 368. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  3. 1 2 Aristophanes, Pac. 242
  4. 1 2 Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax p. 17
  5. ↑ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 3.17.10.
  6. 1 2 Pausanias (1918). "24.3". Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
  7. ↑ Pausanias (1918). "24.3". Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.-4.
  8. ↑ Larson, Jennifer. Greek Heroine Cults. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. pp. 94-95.
  9. ↑ Guettel Cole, Susan. "Under the Open Sky: Imagining the Dionysian Landscape". In: Human Development in Sacred Landscapes: Between Ritual Tradition, Creativity and Emotionality. V&R Unipress. 2015. p. 65. ISBN 978-3-7370-0252-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737002523.61
  10. ↑ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 6.105.
  11. ↑ Polybius. The Histories. Vol. 4.36.
  12. ↑ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii. p. 374. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  13. ↑ Pausanias (1918). "21.7". Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., 3.24.3
  14. ↑ Pausanias (1918). "24.4". Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.-5
  15. ↑ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
  16. ↑ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 58, and directory notes accompanying.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Prasiae". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

37°08′56″N 22°52′55″E / 37.149°N 22.882°E / 37.149; 22.882


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