Geography

​There are several accounts concerning the Kaukones; for they say that they are an Arcadian nation, like the Pelasgian, and wandering in another way, just like that one. At any rate, the poet records them as having arrived as allies also for the Trojans, but from where he does not say; they seem, however, to be from Paphlagonia; for there they designate certain Kaukoniatans bordering on the Mariandynians, who themselves are also Paphlagonians. We shall mention them further when the writing turns to that place. But for now, regarding the Kaukones in Triphylia, this too must be recorded in addition. For some say that the whole of what is now Elis, from Messenia as far as Dyme, was called Kaukonia; at any rate, Antimachus addresses them all as both Epeians and Kaukones. But others say that they did not occupy the whole, but lived divided into two parts, some near Messenia in Triphylia, and others near Dyme in Bouprasia and hollow Elis; Aristotle knows them as settled especially there. And indeed, the last statement agrees better with what is said by Homer, and the question previously investigated receives a solution. For Nestor is supposed to inhabit the Triphylian Pylos, and the parts to the south and the east (these are those adjoining Messenia and Laconia) are under him, and the Kaukones hold them, so that for those traveling from Pylos to Lacedaemon the road is necessarily through the Kaukones. But the temple of Samian Poseidon and the anchorage near it, into which Telemachos was brought, inclines towards the west and the north. If, therefore, the Kaukones live only here, the poet’s account is not preserved. For Athena, according to Sotades, commands Nestor to send Telemachos to Lacedaemon with a chariot and his son into the parts towards the east; while she herself says she will walk to the ship to spend the night, towards the west and backwards, “but at dawn to the great-hearted Kaukones” to go for the debt, again forwards. What then is the way? For it was open to Nestor to say, “But the Kaukones are under me and on the way for those traveling to Lacedaemon; so why do you not journey with Telemachos and his company, but withdraw backwards?” At the same time, it was natural for one traveling for the recovery of a debt of by no means a small amount, as she says, to people who are under Nestor, to ask some assistance from him if any unfairness should occur (as is usual) regarding the contract; but this did not happen. If, therefore, the Kaukones lived only here, these absurdities would occur; but if some of them were divided also into the places of Elis near Dyme, Athena would be speaking of her journey thither, and neither her going down to the ship would any longer have anything inconsistent, nor the separation from the company, the road being in the opposite direction. In a similar manner, the matters in dispute concerning Pylos would also obtain their proper decision if we go over a little more of the chorography as far as the Messenian Pylos.

​And certain of the people in Triphylia who occupied the mountains around Lepreion and Makistos, which extend down to the sea near the Samian Poseidion, were called Paroreatai.