Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/34

 26 STRABO. CASATJB. 351. these places are to the south of Eleia, first Pheae, then Chalcis, then Cruni, then the Triphylian Pylus, and the Samicum. In sailing then to the south from the Eleian Pylus this would be the course. In sailing to the north, where Ithaca lies, all these places are left behind, but they must sail along Eleia itself, and before, although he says after, sun-set. Again, on the other side, if any one should suppose the Messenian Pylus and the Coryphasium to be the commencement of the voyage after leaving the country of Nestor, the distance would be great, and would occupy more time. For the distance only to the Triphylian Pylus and the Samian Poseidium is 400 stadia, and the voyage would not be along Cruni, and Chalcis, and Phe^e, the names of obscure places and rivers, or rather of streams, but first along the Neda, then Acidon, next Alpheius, and the places and countries lying between these rivers, and lastly, if we must mention them, along the former, because the voyage was along the former places and rivers also. 28. Besides, Nestor's account of the war between the Pylians and Eleians, which he relates to Patroclus, agrees with our arguments, if any one examines the lines. For he says there, that Hercules laid waste Pylus, and that all the youth were exterminated ; that out of twelve sons of Neleus, he himself alone survived, and was a very young man, and that the Epeii, despising Neleus on account of his old age and destitute state, treated the Pylians with haughtiness and insult. Nestor therefore, in order to avenge this wrong, collected as large a body of his people as he was able, made an inroad into Eleia, and carried away a large quantity of booty ; " Fifty herds of oxen, as many flocks of sheep, As many herds of swine," ' and as many flocks of goats, an hundred and fifty brood mares, bay-coloured, most of which had foals, and "these," he says, " We drove away to Pylus, belonging to Neleus, By night towards the city;" 2 so that the capture of the booty, and the flight of those who came to the assistance of people who were robbed, hap- pened in the day-time, when, he says, he slew Itamon ; and they returned by night, so that they arrived by night at the 1 II. xi.677. 2 II. xi. 681.