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Bible Dictionaries
Myra
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Μύρα, a neut. plur.; often written Μύρρα, as in B)
Myra was ‘a city of Lycia’ (Acts 27:5), situated on a hill 2½ miles from the sea (Strabo, XIV. iii. 7), and the name often included the seaport of Andriaca. In the time of the Ptolemys, Myra shared with other Lycian towns the benefits of a great maritime traffic which was developed between Egypt and Asia Minor; and when Rome became mistress of the world, the conditions of navigation in the Mediterranean made Myra a place of growing importance. The corn-ships of Alexandria, which brought food to the population of Rome, were in the habit of sailing due north to Lycia, making Myra a place of call, and then proceeding westward. This long route was the shortest in the end. Instead of sailing straight for Italy, and, in doing so, contending with the westerly winds which prevail in the Eastern Mediterranean during the summer months, it was better seamanship to make for the S. W. of Asia Minor, and then get under the protection of the south coast of Crete. When, therefore, the centurion who brought St. Paul from Caesarea found an Alexandrian corn-ship in the harbour of Myra, about to continue her course to Italy, this was no surprising occurrence. It was not an unlucky event which made a disastrous change in his plans, as T. Lewin suggests (The Life and Epistles of St. Paul3, 1875, ii. 187). It was exactly what he had expected. Before he began his voyage he no doubt calculated on being able to trans-ship into one of the vessels of that great fleet of corn-ships which linked the names of Alexandria and Myra in the common talk of all men of the sea.
St. Nicholas, one of the bishops of Myra, became the patron saint of Levantine sailors. Myra was still an important city in the Middle Ages, being known as the portus Adriatici maris when ‘the Adriatic’ included the whole Levant.
Both Myra, which is now called Dembre, and Andriaca have some interesting ruins.
Literature.-W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, London, 1895, p. 298 f.; E. Petersen and F. v. Luschan, Reisen in Lykien, Milyas und Kibyratis, Vienna, 1889.
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Myra'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/m/myra.html. 1906-1918.
