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CHAP. 7.—MESSENIA.

Further south is the Gulf of Cyparissus, with the city of Cyparissa1 on its shores, the line of which is seventy-two miles in length. Then, the towns of Pylos2 and Methone3, the place where Helos stood, the Promontory of Acritas4, the Asinæan Gulf, which takes its name from the town of Asine5, and the Coronean, so called from Corone; which gulfs terminate at the Promontory of Tanarum6. These are all in the country of Messenia, which has eighteen mountains, and the river Pamisus7 also. In the interior are Messene8, Ithome, Œchalia, Arene9, Pteleon, Thryon, Dorion10, and Zancle11, all of them known to fame at different periods. The margin of this gulf measures eighty miles, the distance across being thirty.

1 This city survived through the middle ages, when it was called Arkadia. In 1525 it was destroyed by the Turks, and when rebuilt resumed nearly its ancient name as Cyparissia, by which it is now called. The bay or gulf is called the Gulf of Arkadia.

2 Messenian Pylos probably stood on the site of the modem Erana; Pouqueville says however that it is still called Pilo, and other writers place it at Zonchio. It stood on the modern Bay of Navarino.

3 Its site was at the spot called Palæo Kastro, near the modern town of Modon. The site of Messenian Helos, so called from its position in the marshes, τὸ ἕλος, is now unknown.

4 Now Capo Gallo.

5 It stood on the western side of the Messenian Gulf, which from it was called the Asinæan Gulf. Grisso, or, according to some, Iaratcha, occupies its site. Koroni however is most probably the spot where it stood, the inhabitants of ancient Corone having removed to it. Petalidhi stands on the site of Corone. A small portion of the Messenian Gulf was probably called the Coronean.

6 Now Cape Matapan.

7 Now the Pyrnatza.

8 Its ruins, which are extensive, are to be seen in the vicinity of the modern village of Mavromati. Ithome was the citadel of Messene, on a mountain of the same name, now called Vourcano.

9 It is supposed that in ancient times it occupied the site of the more modern Samos or Samia in Triphylia. The modern Sareni is thought to occupy its site.

10 Dorion or Dorium, the spot where, according to Homer, the Muses punished Thamyris with blindness, is supposed to have been situate on the modern plain of Sulima.

11 Nothing seems to be known of this place; but it is not improbable that it gave its name to the place so called in Sicily, originally a Messenian colony.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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