View source for Pyrasus

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'''Pyrasus''' or '''Pyrasos''' ({{langx|grc|Πύρασος}}<ref name=Strabo>{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.435}}</ref> or Πύρρασος<ref>{{Cite Stephanus|''s.v.''}}</ref>) was a town and [[polis]] (city-state) of [[Achaea Phthiotis|Phthiotis]] in [[ancient Thessaly]],<ref name=Poleis>{{cite book|author= Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen |title= An inventory of archaic and classical poleis|year= 2004|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|location=New York|isbn= 0-19-814099-1|chapter= Thessaly and Adjacent Regions|page= 716}}</ref> mentioned by [[Homer]] along with [[Phylace (Thessaly)|Phylace]] and [[Iton (Thessaly)|Iton]] as ruled by [[Protesilaus]], in the [[Catalogue of Ships]] in the ''[[Iliad]]'', and described by him as "Πύρρασον ἀνθεμόεντα, Δήμητρος τέμενος" (Pyrasus having a temple of [[Demeter]])<ref>{{Cite Iliad|2.695}}</ref> Pyrasus was situated on the [[Pagasaean Gulf]], at the distance of 20 [[stadion (unit)|stadia]] from [[Phthiotic Thebes]], and possessed a good harbour.<ref>εὐλίμενος, {{Cite Strabo|ix. p.435}}</ref> It had disappeared in the time of [[Strabo]] ({{fl.}} early first century&nbsp;CE), the town having moved to a nearby site, called [[Demetrium]] or Demetrion (Δημήτριον), derived from the temple of Demeter, spoken of by Homer, and which Strabo describes as distant two stadia from Pyrasus.<ref name=Strabo/>
At the beginning of the [[Peloponnesian War]], it was one of the cities of Thessaly that supplied aid to the [[ancient Athens|Athenians]].<ref>{{Cite Thucydides|2.22}}</ref>
At the end of the 4th century&nbsp;BCE, it was united ([[synoecism]]) with the neighboring cities of [[Phylace (Thessaly)|Phylace]] and Phthiotic Thebes to form a [[polis]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Stählin|first= Friedrich|title= Das hellenische Tessalien|language= German|year= 1924|place= Stuttgart|page=174}}</ref> The new conurbation took the name of Phthiotic Thebes, and became the main city of the Achaean Phthiotis League until it joined the [[Aetolian League]] at the end of the 3rd century BCE.<ref name=PrincetonThebes>{{cite encyclopedia | url =https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0006%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D4%3Aentry%3Dphthiotic-thebes | title = PHTHIOTIC THEBES Achaia Phthiotis, Greece | author = T.S. MacKay | encyclopedia = The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. | publisher =  Princeton University Press | year = 1976 | access-date = 20 September 2015}}</ref> Professor John Grainger of the [[University of Birmingham]] concluded, from evidence relating to the election of men from Thebes to office in the Aetolian League, that the city became a member of the League in the 220s BCE.<ref>John D. Grainger, ''The League of the Aitolians'' (p.239), Brill (1999) {{ISBN|90-04-10911-0}}</ref>
Until the construction of [[Demetrias]] by [[Demetrius Poliorcetes]], it was the main port of the [[Pagasetic Gulf]].<ref name=PrincetonThebes/> It was destroyed in 217&nbsp;BCE by the army of [[Philip V of Macedon]],<ref>Homero, ''Ilíada'', edición de José García Blanco y Luis M. Macía Aparicio p.85, nota complementaria, Madrid: CSIC, 1991. {{in lang|es}}</ref> and its inhabitants were enslaved and the city became a Macedonian colony.<ref>{{Cite book|first = Getzel M.|last= Cohen|title=The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor|year= 1995|publisher= [[University of California Press]]|isbn= 0-520-08329-6|page=118}}</ref>
The site of Pyrasus is within the limits of [[Nea Anchialos]].<ref>{{Cite DARE|22747}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Barrington|55}}</ref> The only excavation that took place on the hill of Magoula, the ancient [[acropolis]], southeast of Nea Anchialos, shows that the place was inhabited since the [[Neolithic]] (sixth millennium&nbsp;BCE) by fishermen and farmers. Stählin found a [[circumvallation|walled circuit]] covered by [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] remains near the top of the hill, and other walls similar at its foot.<ref>{{cite book |last= Stählin|first= Friedrich|title= Das hellenische Tessalien|language= German|year= 1924|place= Stuttgart|pages=170–173}}</ref> Archaeological remains are scarce and the city is barely known in historical times. An arm of a large statue, which came to light in 1965, was attributed to Demeter. Possibly the most important finding is a small fragment of an old [[epigraphy|epigraph]], discovered in the remains of the great Basilica D with the name Pyrasus, which confirms the location of the town.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DGRG|title=Pyrasus}}
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Thessaly]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Greece]]
[[Category:Locations in the Iliad]]
[[Category:Neolithic settlements in Thessaly]]
[[Category:Thessalian city-states]]
[[Category:Achaea Phthiotis]]
[[Category:Cities in ancient Greece]]
{{AncientThessaly-geo-stub}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Thessaly]]