MELAENEAE
MELAENEAE or
MELAENAE (
Μελαινεαί, Paus.;
Μελαιναί, Rhian. ap.
Steph. B. sub voce: Eth.
Μελαινεύς), a town of Arcadia, in the territory of Heraea, and on the road from Heraea to Megalopolis.
It was distant 40 stadia from Buphagium. Pausanias says that it was founded by Melaeneus, the son of Lycaon, but that it was deserted in his time and overflowed with water.
The ruins of Melaeneae lie 4 or 5 miles eastward of Heraea, between the villages
Kökora and
Kakoréos, where are the remains
[p. 2.318]of a Roman bath, which has also been a church, and is sometimes used as such, though it is said to be generally inundated, even in the dry season, which is in conformity with the account of Pausanias. The Peutinger Table specifies Melaeneae as distant 12 miles from Olympia; but it does not mention Heraea, though a much more important place, and one which continued to exist long after Heraea: moreover, the distance of 12 miles applies to Heraea, and not to Melaeneae. (
Paus. 8.26.8, comp. 5.7.1, 8.3.3;
Steph. B. sub voce Plin. Nat. 4.6. s. 10; Leake,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 231; Boblaye,
Récherches, &c. p. 159; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 356.)
