Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/150

140 in 1875, the reader must be referred to the special article. Triphylia stretches south from the Alpheus to the Neda, which forms the boundary towards Messenia. Of the nine towns mentioned by Polybius, only two attained to any considerable inﬂuence—— Lepreus and Macistus, which gave the names of Lepreatis and Macistia to the southern and northern halves of Triphylia. The former was the seat of a strongly in- dependent population, and Continued to take every opportunity of resisting the supremacy of the Eleans. In the time of Pausanius it was in a very decadent condition, and possessed only a poor brick-built temple of Demeter ; but considerable remains of its outer walls are still in existence near the village of Strovitzi, on a part of the Minthe range.

1em

, the chief city in the above country, was situated on the river Peneus, just where it passes from the mountainous district of Acrorea into the champaign below. According to native tradition, it was originally founded by Oxylus, the leader of the 1Etolians, whose statue stood in the market-place. In it received a great extension by the incorporation, or “ synoikismos,” of various small hamlets, whose inhabitants took up their abode in the city. Up to this date it only occupied the ridge of the bill now called Kalascopi, to the south of the l’eneus, but after- wards it spread out in several suburbs, and even to the other side of the stream. As all the athletes who intended to take part in the Olympic games were obliged to undergo a month’s training in the city, its gymnasiums were among its principal institutions. They were three in number—the “ Xystos,” with its pillared galleries, its avenues of plane- trees, its plethrion or wrestling—place, its altars to Hercules, to Eros and Anteros, to Demeter and Cora, and its cenotaph of Achilles ; the “ Tetragonon,” appropriated to the lighter exercises, and adorned with a statue of Zeus; and the “Maltho,” in the interior of which was a hall or council chamber called Lalichmion after its founder. Among the other objects of interest were the temple of Artemis l’hilomirax ; the Hellanodicaeum, or ofﬁce of the Hellano— dicasts ; the Corcyrean Hall, a building in the Dorian style with two facades, built of spoils from Corcyra; a temple of Apollo Acesius,‘ a temple of Silenus; an ancient struc- ture supported on oaken pillars and reputed to be the burial place of Oxylus ; the building where the sixteen women of Elis were wont to weave a robe for the statue of Here. at Olympia; and the shrine of Dionysus, whose festival, the Thyia, was yearly celebrated in the neighbour- hood. The history of the town is closely identiﬁed with that of the country. In it was occupied by Agis, king of Sparta. The acropolis was fortiﬁed in by Telesphorus, the admiral of Antigonus, but it was shortly afterwards dismantled by Philemon, another of his generals. A view of the site is given by Stanhope.

1em  ELISHA (literally, is deliverance, LXX., [Greek]; N.T., Eliseus), the disciple and successor of Elijah, was the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, which lay in the valley of the Jordan. He was called to the prophetic ofﬁce in the manner already related (see ), some time before the death of Ahab, and he survived until the reign of J oash. His oﬂicial career thus appears to have extended over a period of nearly sixty years. The relation between Elijah and Elisha was of a par- ticularly close kind, and may be compared with that between Moses and Joshua or David and Solomon. The one is the complement of the other; the resemblances, and still more the marked contrast between the character and activity of each, qualiﬁed both together for the common discharge of one great work by “diversity of operation." The difference between them is much more striking than the resemblance. Elijah is the prophet of the wilderness, rugged and austere; Elisha is the prophet of civilized life, of the city and the court, with the dress, manners, and appearance of “ other grave citizens.” Elijah is the messenger of vengeance—sudden, ﬁerce, and overwhelming ; Elisha is the messenger of mercy and restoration. Elijah’s miracles, with few exceptions, are works of wrath and destruction ; Elisha’s miracles, with but one notable exception, are works of beneﬁcence and healing. Elijah is the “prophet as ﬁre ” (Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 1), an abnormal agent working for ext-optional ends; Elisha is the “holy man of God which passeth by us continually,” mixing in the common life of the people, and promoting the advance- ment of the kingdom of God in its ordinary channels of mercy, righteousness, and peace. Though the duration of Elisha’s career, with the approximate dates of its beginning and end, can be ﬁxed, it is impossible to settle a detailed chronology of his life. In most of the events narrated no further indication of time is given than by the words “ the king of Israel,” the name