282 
pli^^t's katueal htstoet 
[Book ly. 
CHAP. 7. MESSENIA. 
Furtlier soutli is the Grulf of Cyparissus, with the city of 
Cyparissa^ on its shores, the line of which is seventy-two 
miles in length. Then, the towns of Pylos^ and Methone^, 
the place where Helos stood, the Promontory of Acritas'', 
the Asinsean Grulf, which takes its name from the town of 
Asine^, and the Coronean, so called from Corone ; which gulfs 
terminate at the Promontory of Taenarum^. These are all in 
the country of Messenia, which has eighteen mountains, and 
the river Pamisus'' also. In the interior are Messene^, Ithome, 
(Echalia, Arene^, Pteleon, Thryon, Dorion^^, and Zancle^^, 
all of them known to fame at different periods. The margin 
of this gulf measures eighty miles, the distance across being 
thirty. 
^ This city survived through the middle ages, when it was called 
Arkadia. In 1525 it was destroyed by the Turks, and whe:a rebuilt 
resumed nearly its ancient name as Cyparissia, by wliich it is now called. 
The bay or gulf is called the Grulf of Arkadia. 
2 Messenian Pylos probably stood on the site of the modern 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 Palajo Kastro, near the modern town of 
Modon. The site of Messenian Helos, so called from its position in the 
marshes, to eXos, is now unknown. 
4 Now Capo Grallo. 
^ It stood on the western side of the Messenian Grulf, which from 
it was called the Asinsean Gulf. Grrisso, or, according to some, laratcha, 
occupies its site. Koroni however is most probably the spot where it 
stood, the inhabitants of ancient Corone having removed to it. Petalidlii 
stands on the site of Corone. A small portion of the Messenian Grulf 
was probably called the Coronean. 
^ Now Cape Matapan. " Now the Pyrnatza. 
^ 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 Yourcano. 
^ It is supposed that in ancient times it occupied the site of the 
more modern Samos or Samia in TriphyHa. The modern Sareni is 
thought to occupy its site. 
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. 
Nothing seems to be known of this place ; but it is not improbable 
that it gave its name to the place so called ia Sicily, originally a Mes- 
senian colony. 
