MA´LEA
MA´LEA (
Μαλέα,
Thuc. 3.4,
6; Xen.
Hell. 1.6. §§ 26, 27;
Μαλία,
Strab. xiii. p.617;
Μανία,
Ptol. 5.2; see Schol.
ad Aristoph. Ran. p. 33), the southernmost point of the island of
LESBOS reckoned by Strabo to be 70 stadia distant from Mytilene, 560 stadia from Cape Sigrium, and 340 from Methymna. Immediately opposite, on the mainland, were the point of
CANE and the islands of
ARGINUSAE [see those articles].
The modern name of Males is
Zeitoun Bouroun, or
Cape St. Mary, and it is a high and conspicuous point at sea. Xenophon says (
l.c.) that the fleet of Callicratidas occupied this station before the sea-fight off Arginusae.
There is some obscurity in Xenophon's topography in reference to this place; and the Malea of Thucydides (
l.c.) can hardly have been
C. St. Mary, unless there is some error in his relation.
He says distinctly (100.4.), that Malea lay to the north of Mytilene, and (100.6.) that the Athenians had their market there, while besieging the city.
The first statement is inconsistent with the position of
Cape St. Mary, and the second with its distance from Mytilene. Possibly the Malea of Thucydides had some connection with the sanctuary of Apollo Maloeis. (See the notes of Arnold and Poppo, and Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. iii. p. 173.)
[
J.S.H]
