Geography

​Contiguous to Methone is Acritas, the beginning of the Messenian Gulf; they also call it Asinaeon after Asine, the first small town in the gulf, homonymous with the town in Hermionis. Now this beginning is on the west side of the gulf, while on the east are the so-called Thyrides, bordering on the present Laconica near Cinaethium and Taenarum. Between them, starting from Thyrides, is Oetylus, which some call Boitylus; then Leuctrum, a colony of the Leuctra in Boeotia; then Cardamyle is situated on a steep rock; then Pherae, bordering on Thuria and Gerenoi, from which place they say Nestor was called Gerenian because he was saved there, as we have said before. In Gerenia is shown a temple of Triccaean Asclepius, a copy of the one in Thessalian Tricca. Pelops is said to have founded Leuctrum, Charadra, and Thalamae, which are now called Boeotoi, having given his sister Niobe in marriage to Amphion and having brought some people from Boeotia. Near Pherae the Nedon flows out, running through Laconica, which is different from the Neda; it has a famous temple of Athena Nedusia. In Poiaessa too there is a temple of Athena Nedusia, named after a certain place Nedon, from which they say Teleclus founded Poiaessa, Echeiae, and Tragium.

​Of the seven cities offered to Achilles, we have already spoken of Cardamyle, Pherae, and Pedasus. As for Enope, some say it is Pellana, others a place near Cardamyle, and others Gerenia. Hire is shown along the mountain near Megalopolis in Arcadia as one goes towards Andania, which we said was called Oechalia by the poet. Others say that the present Mesola is so called, extending down to the gulf between Taygetus and Messenia. Aepeia is now called Thuria, which we said bordered on Pharae; it is situated on a high hill, whence also its name. From Thuria comes also the Thuriate Gulf, in which was a small town named Rhium opposite Taenarum. As for Antheia, some say it is Thuria itself, and Aepeia is Methone; others say it is Asine, which of the Messenian cities lies in the middle and is most appropriately called “with deep meadows,” near which is the city of Corone on the sea, and some say that this too was called Pedasus by the poet. “and all are near the sea,” Cardamyle is on the sea itself, while Pharae is five stadia away, having a summer anchorage; and the others have unequal distances from the sea.

​Near Corone, about the middle of the gulf, the river Pamisus empties, having this city on the right and those next in order, of which the furthest to the west are Pylos and Cyparissia, and Erana is in the middle of these, which some have incorrectly thought to be Arene of old. On the left it has Thuria and Pharae. It is the largest of the rivers within the Isthmus, although it flows no more than a hundred stadia from its sources, yet it runs with abundant water through the Messenian plain and the so-called Macaria; and the river is fifty stadia distant from the present city of the Messenians. There is also another Pamisus, a small torrent flowing near the Laconian Leuctrum, concerning which the Messenians had a dispute with the Lacedaemonians in the time of Philip; but we have already spoken of the Pamisus which some named Amathus.