Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/698

 682 pylenf: t-lie place of meeting of the Amphictyonic Council [Delhi, p. 767, b.] PYLE'NE (UvA-qvri: Eth. IIuArji/ios), an ancient town of Aetolia, between the Achelous and the I<>enus, mentioned in tlie Homeric catalogue of the Grecian ships, is placed by Phny on the Corinthian gulf. It would therefore seem to have existed in later times ; although Strabo says that the Aeolians, having re- moved Pylene higher up, changed its name into Proschium. The site of Pylene is uncertain. (Horn. //. ii. 639 ; Plin. iv. 3 ; scopulosa Pylene, Stat. Theh. iv. 102; Steph. B. s. v.) PYLON (nuAwv), a town on the Via Egnatia, being the frontier town of Illyria and Macedonia. (Strab. vii. p. 323.) It is not mentioned in the Itineraries. PYLO'KUS, a town in Crete, S. of Gortyn, now Plck-a. (Plin. iv. 12. s. 20; Pashley, Ci-ete, vol. i. p. 29.5.) PYLUS (YlvKos: Eth. UvAios), the name of three towns on the western coast of Peloponnesus. 1. A town in hollow Elis, described by Pausanias as situated upon the mountain road leading from Elis'to Olympia, .and at the place where the Ladnn flows into the Peneius (vi. 22. § 5). Strabo, in a corrupt passage, assigns to it the same situation, and places it in the neighbourhood of Scollium or Mt. Scollis (^fifTu^h Tov Tlrivetov Kal tov 2iiJ€v- Tos fKSoArjs [read Kal ttjs tov SeAA^ei'Tos e'^- §oA7Js] nuAos wkHto, Strab. viii. p. 338). Pausa- nias (J., c.) .says that it was 80 stadia from Elis. Uiodorus (xiv. 17) give.s 70 stadia as the distance, and Pliny (iv. 5. s. 6) 12 Roman miles. According to the previous description, Pylus should probably be identified with the ruins at^4(/?-d/«"(i^o-MorJ, situated on a commanding position in the angle formed by the junction of the Peneius and Ladon. Tliis site is distant 7 geographical miles from Elis, which suffi- ciently agrees with the 80 stadia of Pausaniiis. Leake, however, places Pylus further S., at the ruins at Kulogli, mainly on the ground that they are not so tar removed from the road between Elis and Olympia. But the fact of the ruins at Ayrdpidho-JcMri being at the junction of the Peneius and Ladon seems de- cisive in favour of that position ; and we may sup- pi)se that a road ran up the valley of the Peneius to the junction of the two rivers, and then took a bend to the right into the valley of the Ladon. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 228, Peloponnesiaca, p. 219 ; Boblaye, Recherches, ifc. p. 122 ; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 39.) The Elei.an Pylus is said to have been built by the Pylon, son of Clesan of Megara, who founded the Messenian Pylus, and who, upon being expelled from the latter place by Peleus, settled at the Eleian Pylos. (Pans. iv. 36. § l,vi.22.§ 5.) Pylus was said tohave been destroyed by Hercules, and to have been afterwards restored by the Eleians ; but the story of its destruction by Hercules more properly belongs to the Messenian Pylus. Its inhabitants asserted that it was the town which Homer had in view when he asserted that the Alpheius flowed through their territory ('AA^twu, oar' ivpv pe'ei XlvXicev Sia •yodn)^, II. v. 545). On the position of the Homeric Pylus^ we shall speak presently ; and we only observe here, that this claim was admitted by Pausanias (vi. 22. § 6), though its absurdity had been previously pointed out by Strabo (viii. p. 350, seq.). Like the other Eleian towns, Pylus is rarely mentioned in history. In is. C. 402 it was taken by the Spartans, in their invasion of the territory of Elis (Died. xiv. 17); and in b. c. 366 PYLUS. it is mentioned as the place where the democratical exiles from Elis planted themselves in order to carrv on war against the latter city. (Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 16.) Pausanias saw only the ruins of Pylus (vi. 22. § 5), and it would appear to have been deserted long previously. 2. A town in Triphylia, mentioned only by Strabo, and surnamed by him Tpi^uAia/crfy, 'ApKaSiKds, and AeTTpeaTiKds. He describes it as situated 30 stadia from the sea, on the rivers Mamathus and Arcadicus, west of the mountain Minthe and north of Lepreuni (viii. p. 344). Upon the conquest of the Triphyliaa towns by the Eleians, Pylus was annexed to Lepreum (viii. p. 355 ; comp. pp. 339, 343, 344). Leake observes that the village Tjorhadji, on the western extremity of Mount Minthe, at the fork of two branches of the river of A i S'ldhero, seems to agree in every respect with Strabo's description of this town. (^Peloponnesiaca, p. 109.) 3. A town in Messenia, situated upon the pro- montory Coryphasium, which forms the northern termination of the bay of Nuvarino. According to Thucydides it was distant 400 stadia from Sparta (Thuc. iv. 3), and according to Pausanias (v. 36. § 1) 100 stadia from Methone. It was one of the last places which held out against the Spartans in the Second Messenian War, upon the conclusion of which the inhabitants emigrated to Cyllene, and from thence, with the other Messenians, to Sicily. (Pans, iv. 18. § 1, iv. 23. § 1.) From that time its name never occurs in histoiy till the seventh year of the Peloponnesian War, b. c. 424, when Demosthenes, the Athenian commander, erected a fort upon the promontory, which was then uninhabited and called by the Spartans Coryph.asium (Kopvcpaciov'), though it was known by the Athenians to be the site of the ancient Pylus. (Thuc. iv. 3.) The erection of this fort led to one of the most memorable events in the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides has given a minute account of the topography of the district, which, though clear and consistent with itself, does not co- incide, in all points, with the existing locality. Thucydides describes the harbour, of which the pro- montory Coryphasium formed the northern termina- tion, as fronted and protected by the island Sphac- teria, which stretched along the coast, leaving only two narrow entrances to the harbour, — the one at the northern end, opposite to Coryphasium, being only wide enough to admit two triremes abreast, and the other at the southern end wide enough for eight or nine triremes. The island was about 15 stadia in width, covered with wood, uninhabited and untrodden. (Thuc. iv. 8.) Pausanias also says that the island iSphacteria lies before the harbour of Pylus like Kheneia before the anchorage of Delos (v. 36. § 6). It is almost certain that the fortress erected by the Athenians stood on the site of the ruins of a fortress of the middle ages, called Paleo-Avarino, which has been changed into Navarino by the habit of using the accusative case, « is rhv 'ASaptvov, and by attaching the final v of the article to the sub- stantive. The distances of 400 stadia from Sparta and 100 stadia from Methone, given respectively by Thucydides and Pausanias, are the correct distances of Old Navarino from those two ancient sites. (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 191.) Sphacteria (2(/>a/f- TTjpi'o) is now called Sphayia, a name which it also bore in antiquity. (S^ayi'a, Strab. viii. p. 359 ; Plat. Menex. p. 242; al ^(payiai, Xen. Hell. vi. 2. § 31 ; tres Sphagiae, Plin. iv. 12. s. 25.) The fol- lowing description will be rendered clearer by the