[CentOS] Forbidden: You don't have permission to access /phpMyAdmin/ on this server.

Environment:
- CentOS 5.1,
- Apache 2.2.3
- php 5.1.6
- phpMyAdmin 2.11.6
- MySQL 5.0.22

Brand new system, brand new installation of all the above products.
All looks well, but when I try to connect to phpMyAdmin, I get an
error:  "Forbidden: You don't have permission to access /phpMyAdmin/
on this server".

I'll forgo all the paths I followed trying to get this to work and cut
to the "solution":  I renamed the phpMyAdmin directory to pma, copied
all files in the pma directory to a new phpMyAdmin  (FWIIW, using 'cp
-pr'),  and voilà, problem vanished.  (I cannot explain why I even
tried that.)

My first idea was that maybe the copy somehow resolved some issue at
the directory level, but when I output an 'ls -laR' of the two
directories to two files, 'diff' shows both files to be identical
(apart from the timestamps on . and .. directories).  The pma and
phpMyAdmin directories reside in the same documentroot, have the same
ownership, and the same permissions.

This must be about the weirdest experience in my professional career.
If anyone can shed a light on this, it'd be most welcome.  I still
have the original (malfunctioning) directory on the system to bounce
ideas off if anyone has any inspiration (system will go live this
weekend).

Kind regards,

Herta
-- 
"Life on Earth may be expensive,
 but it comes with a free ride around the Sun."