PEPHNUS
PEPHNUS (
Πέφνος, Paus.;
Πεφνόν,
Steph. B. sub voce a town of Laconia, on the eastern coast of the Messenian gulf, distant 20 stadia from Thalamae. In; front of. it was an island of the same name, which Pausanias describes as not larger than a great rock, in which stood, in the open air, brazen statues of the Dioscuri, a foot high.
There was a tradition, that the Dioscuri were born in this island, The island is at the mouth of the river
Miléa, which is the minor Pamisus of Strabo (
viii. p.361).
In the island, there are two ancient tombs, which are called those of the Dioscuri. The Messenians said that their territories originally extended as far as Pephnus. [
MESSENIA p. 345a.] (
Paus. 3.26. § § 2,3; Gell,
Itiner. of the Morea, p. 238; Leake,
Morea, vol. i. p. 330,
Peloponnesiacá, p. 178; Boblaye,
Récherches, &c. p. 93 ; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. pp. 283, 284.)
