Manto
Exile and spring
Exiled from Thebes, Manto marries the Cretan Rhacius and settles in the valley. The sacred spring is her legacy.
Legends
Mythology
A seer exiled from Thebes comes to Ionia at the god's command; an oracle is born where history and legend intertwine.
The origin of the name Klaros
The origin of the name Klaros is still debated today. Ancient sources put forward three main explanations. According to one account, the name comes from the sacred spring born of the tears of the homesick seer Manto. The Colophonian writer Nicander instead links it to the word “kleros” (lot, share): in this account Zeus divides the universe here with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. A third view traces the name to Klaros, a beloved of Apollo. None of these explanations is certain — the name of Klaros still keeps its secret.
Apollo's most famous oracle
The most famous oracle given at Klaros concerns the founding of Smyrna. In the story related by Pausanias, after Alexander the Great took Smyrna he fell asleep on Mount Pagos. In his dream the goddesses Nemesis told him to found a city where he lay sleeping. To have the dream interpreted, Alexander sent his general Lysimachus to Klaros. The god answered: “Three, even four times happier shall be those who dwell on Pagos, beyond the sacred Meles stream.” And so New Smyrna was founded on Pagos. This is also known as the first personal consultation ever made to Klaros.
The tears of Manto
Legend says that Manto, daughter of the seer Teiresias, sailed to Ionia at Apollo's command after the fall of Thebes. In the valley where she settled, the sacred spring was said to rise from her tears.
Her son Mopsus became the first and most famous seer of Klaros. The saying “more certain than Mopsus” expresses the faith placed in his unerring prophecies down the ages.
Founding legend
Three names, one tradition of prophecy
Manto, Mopsus and the defeated seer Calchas.
Mopsus
The unerring seer
Manto's son Mopsus, famed for the accuracy of his prophecies, founds a hereditary priesthood.
Calchas
The contest
The Trojan War seer Calchas cannot tell the number of fruit on the fig tree at Klaros; when Mopsus answers correctly, Calchas — unable to bear defeat — dies of grief.
18 CE
Apollo does not always bring good news — Germanicus
The imperial heir Germanicus consulted Klaros in person in 18 CE; Apollo foretold him a grim fate — and the oracle came true.
After the Trojan War
The duel of two seers — Mopsus and Calchas
Returning from Troy, the famous Achaean seer Calchas comes to Klaros to face a greater diviner. It is he who loses the riddle — and cannot bear defeat.
c. 1220–1170 BCE
From legend to history — Mopsus
With Manto's son Mopsus, prophecy passes from woman to man and the sanctuary attains its true fame. And Mopsus is no mere legend: a stone inscription writes him into history.
Founding myth · 13th c. BCE
The tears of an exile — Manto
When Thebes fell, Manto — daughter of the captured seer Teiresias — was sent to Ionia at Apollo's command and became the founder of the sanctuary: thus Klaros was born.
The oracle rite
The Voice of Apollo
The ritual beginning by torchlight after sunset, the underground labyrinth and the sacred spring.
Torchlight
The night rite
According to Pausanias, on days dedicated to Hecate-Artemis for the giving of oracles, a mysterious rite was held after sunset in the flickering light of torches.
Adyton
Descent into darkness
While those seeking an oracle waited in the antechamber, only the seer (thespiode) descended into the narrow, vaulted underground passages.
Sacred spring
Drinking the water
According to Pliny, the seer who drank from the sacred spring gained the power of prophecy, but paid for it with years of his life.
The seer as Apollo’s spokesman
Beyond ordinary consciousness
As Iamblichus records, at the moment of prophecy the seer passed beyond his ordinary consciousness. He spoke unaware of what was happening around him, and these words were believed to be conveyed by Apollo through him.
The statue of Homer, antiquity's most famous poet, stands at Klaros.
The statue of Homer — author of the Iliad and the Odyssey — was found during the excavations at Klaros, and is now displayed in a special, Trojan-War-themed area at the Izmir Culture and Arts Factory.
