PINARA
PINARA (
τὰ Πίναπα: Eth.
Πιναρεύς).
1.
A large city of Lycia, at the foot of Mount Cragus, and not far from the western bank of the river Xanthus, where the Lycian hero Pandarus was worshipped. (Strab. 14.665;
Steph. B. sub voce Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 1.24;
Plin. Nat. 5.28;
Ptol. 5.3.5; Hierocl. p. 684.)
This city, though it is not often mentioned by ancient writers, appears, from its vast and beautiful ruins, to have been, as Strabo asserts, one of the largest towns of the country.
According to the Lycian history of Menecrates, quoted by Stephanus Byz. (s. v.
Ἀρτύμνησος), the town was a colony of Xanthus, and originally bore the name of Artymnesus, afterwards changed into Pinara, which, in the Lycian language, signified a round hill, the town being situated on such an eminence. Its ruins were discovered by Sir Charles Fellows, near the modern village of
Minara. “From amidst the ancient city,” he says (
Lycia, p. 139), “rises a singular round rocky cliff (the pinara of the Lycians), literally specked all over with tombs.” Beneath this cliff lie the ruins of the extensive and splendid city.
The theatre is in a very perfect state; all the seats are remaining, with the slanting sides towards the proscenium, as well as several of its doorways.
The walls and several of the buildings are of the Cyclopian style, with massive gateways, formed of three immense stones.
The tombs are innumerable, and the inscriptions are in the Lycian characters, but Greek also occurs often on the same tombs. Some of these rock-tombs are adorned with fine and rich sculptures. (See the plate in Fellows facing p. 141.)
2.
A town of Cilicia (
Plin. Nat. 5.22), perhaps the same as the one mentioned by Ptolemy (
5.15.12) as situated in Pieria, a district of Syria; though it should be observed that Pliny (
5.19) mentions the Pinaritae as a people in Coelesyria. [
L.S]
