Prasiae

For the deme of ancient Attica, see Prasiae (Attica).

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][a]

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]