BOOK IV — Messenia (Part 2)

At Mothone is a temple of Athene _the Goddess of Winds_, Diomede they say dedicated the statue of the goddess and gave her that title, for violent winds and unseasonable used to blow over the place and do much harm, but after Diomede prayed to Athene, no trouble from winds ever came to them thenceforward. There is also a temple of Artemis here, and some water mixed with pitch in a well, in appearance very like Cyzicenian ointment. Water indeed can assume every colour and smell. The bluest I have ever seen is at Thermopylæ, not all the water but that which flows into the swimming-bath which the people of the place call the women’s Pots. And reddish water very like blood is seen in the land of the Hebrews near Joppa: the water is very near the sea, and the tradition about the spring is that Perseus, after killing the sea monster to whom the daughter of Cepheus was exposed, washed away the blood there. And black water welling up from springs I have seen at Astyra which is opposite Lesbos, the warm baths are in a village called Atarneus, which was given to the Chians by the Medes as a reward for giving up to them the suppliant Pactyas the Lydian. This water is black: and not far from a town across the river Anio the Romans have some white water: and when one bathes in it it is at first cold and makes one shudder, but if one stays in it a little time it is hot as fire. All these wonderful springs I have myself seen, and those of lesser wonder I purposely pass over, for to find water salt and rough to the palate is no great wonder. But there are two very remarkable kinds of water: one at Caria in the plain called White, near a village called Dascylus, warm and sweeter to drink than milk: and the other Herodotus describes as a spring of bitter water discharging itself into the river Hypanis. How then shall we refuse to credit that warm water is found at Dicæarchia among the Tyrrhenians, so hot that in a few years it melts the lead through which it flows?

CHAPTER XXXVI.

From Mothone to the promontory of Coryphasium is about 100 stades, and near it is Pylos, which was founded by Pylos, the son of Cleson, who brought from Megaris the Leleges who then occupied Megaris. But he did not enjoy it long, being turned out by Neleus and the Pelasgians of Iolcus. And he went away to the neighbouring country and occupied Pylos in Elis. And king Neleus advanced Pylos to such renown that Homer in his Iliad calls it the city of Neleus. There is a temple there of Athene called Coryphasia, and a house called Nestor’s house, in which is a painting of Nestor, and there is his tomb inside the city, and at a little distance from Pylos is (they say) the tomb of Thrasymedes. And there is a cave inside the city, which they say was the stall of the oxen of Nestor and still earlier of Neleus. The breed of these oxen would be Thessalian, of the herd of Iphiclus the father of Protesilaus, for Neleus asked them as wedding presents from the wooers of his daughter, and it was on their account that Melampus to gratify his brother Bias went to Thessalia, and was bound by the herdsmen of Iphiclus, but eventually by answering the questions which Iphiclus put obtained these oxen as a reward. The men of that day were anxious to amass wealth in the shape of herds of horses and oxen, for not only did Neleus desire for his own the oxen of Iphiclus, but Eurystheus ordered Hercules, in consequence of the fame of those oxen in Spain, to drive off the herd that belonged to Geryon. And Eryx, who was at that time king in Sicily, was manifestly so keenly in love with the oxen from Erythea, that when he wrestled with Hercules he staked his kingdom against them. And Homer in the Iliad has represented Iphidimas, the son of Antenor, giving 100 oxen as the first wedding present to his father in law. All this confirms my theory that the men of those days were especially fond of oxen. And the oxen of Neleus grazed I imagine mostly over the borders, for the district of Pylos is mostly sandy, and unable to afford sufficient pasture. My authority is Homer who, whenever he mentions Nestor, always calls him the king of sandy Pylos.

Before the harbour is the island Sphacteria, situated very much as Rhenea is in reference to the harbour of Delos. It seems the destiny of both men and places to be for a while unknown and then to come to renown. Such was the case with Caphareus, a promontory in Eubœa, by a storm which came there upon the Greeks returning with Agamemnon from Ilium. So too with Psyttalea off Salamis, where we know the Medes perished in great numbers. So too the reverses of the Lacedæmonians at Sphacteria made the place world-famed. And the Athenians erected a brazen statue of Victory in their Acropolis as a record of their success at Sphacteria.

And as you go in the direction of Cyparissiæ from Pylos there is a spring under the city close to the sea. They say the water welled up in consequence of Dionysus striking the ground with his thyrsus, and so they call the spring Dionysus’ spring. There are also at Cyparissiæ temples of Apollo and Cyparissian Athene. And at the place called Aulon there is a temple of Æsculapius, and a statue of Aulonian Æsculapius. From this place the river Neda, till it falls into the sea, is the boundary between Messenia and Elis.

FOOTNOTES:

Odyssey, xxi. 18.

Odyssey, xxi. 15, 16.

_Ibid._ iii. 488, 489.

Iliad, ii. 729.

This seems strange. Ingeniosissime διακόψας Corayus. Siebelis defends the text. “Sacerdos, quo majus esset miraculum, videtur dixisse, eum se advolvisse igni, eique admovisse vincula, usque dum solverentur.”

Reading ἤμυνεν.

Hymn to Demeter, lines 417, 418, 420.

See Hom. Il. ix. 122; xxiii. 267.

Iliad, ii. 594-600.

Crow in Greek is _Corone_. Hence the Paronomasia.

That is, _crested lark_. The explanation of this title is given somewhat lower down.

_Puteoli_ is the Latin name.

Iliad, xi. 682.

Iliad, xi. 244.