THA´LAMAE
THA´LAMAE (
Θαλάμαι).
1.
A town of Elis, situated above Pylos on the frontiers of Achaia, and in the rocky recesses of Mount Scollis, probably near the modern village of
Sandaméri, at the head of a narrow valley.
It was here that the Eleians took refuge with their property and flocks, when their country was invaded by Philip in B.C. 219. (
Xen. Hell. 8.4. 26;
Plb. 4.75; Leake,
Morea, vol. ii. p. 204;,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 220; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 38.)
2.
(Also
Θαλάμη, Ptol. 3.16.22: Eth.
Θαλαμάτας), a town of Laconia, distant 80 stadia north of, Oetylus, and 20 stadia from Pephnus. (
Paus. 3.26. § § 1, 2.) Pephnus was on the coast, on the eastern side of the Messenian gulf, and Thalamae was situated inland, probably at or near
Platza, upon the river
Miléa, the minor Pamisus of Strabo (
viii. p.361). Ptolemy (
l.c.) also calls it one of the inland towns of Laconia. Theopompus called Thalamae a Messenian town (
Steph. B. sub voce Θαλάμαι), and we know that the Messenians said that their territory originally extended as far as the minor Pamisus. [
LACONIA p. 114b.] Thalamae was said to have been founded by Pelops, and was called in the time of Strabo the Boeotian Thalamae, as if it had received a Boeotian colony. (
Strab. viii. p.360.) Thalamae is mentioned by Polybius (
16.16).
It was subsequently one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns. (
Paus. 3.21.7.)
In the territory of Thalamae, on the road to Oetylus was a temple and oracle of Ino or Pasiphaë, in which the future was revealed to those that slept in the temple. Even the Spartan kings sometimes slept in the temple for this purpose.
The temple probably stood upon the promontory
Trachéla, where there are some ancient remains. (
Paus. 3.26.1;
Plut. Agis 9; Cic.
de Divin. 1.43; Hermann,
Gottesd. Alterth. § 41. 7.) (Leake,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 178; Boblaye,
Recherches, &c. p. 92; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 284.)
