§4.1.1Μεσσηνίοις δὲ πρὸς τὴν σφετέραν τὴν ἀπονεμηθεῖσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐς τὸ Λακωνικὸν ὅροι κατὰ τὴν Γερηνίαν εἰσὶν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἡ ὀνομαζομένη Χοίριος νάπη.
For the Messenians, the boundary with respect to their own territory assigned to them by the Emperor to be part of Laconia is what is called in our time the Choerius glen, near Gerenia.
ταύτην τὴν χώραν ἔρημον οὖσαν οὕτω σχεῖν τοὺς πρώτους λέγουσιν οἰκήτορας·
They say that the first settlers obtained this land, which was then uninhabited, in the following manner.
ἀποθανόντος Λέλεγος, ὃς ἐβασίλευεν ἐν τῇ νῦν Λακωνικῇ, τότε δὲ ἀπʼ ἐκείνου Λελεγίᾳ καλουμένῃ, Μύλης μὲν πρεσβύτερος ὢν τῶν παίδων ἔσχε τὴν ἀρχήν, Πολυκάων δὲ νεώτερός τε ἦν ἡλικίᾳ καὶ διʼ αὐτὸ ἰδιώτης, ἐς ὃ Μεσσήνην τὴν Τριόπα τοῦ Φόρβαντος ἔλαβε γυναῖκα ἐξ Ἄργους.
When Lelex died—who was king in what is now Laconia, but was then called Lelegia after him—Myles, being the elder of his sons, took the rule, while Polycaon was younger in age and on that account a private citizen, until he took as his wife Messene, the daughter of Triopas the son of Phorbas, from Argos.
§4.1.2φρονοῦσα δὲ ἡ Μεσσήνη διὰ τὸν πατέρα, ἀξιώματι καὶ δυνάμει τῶν τότε προέχοντα Ἑλλήνων, οὐκ ἠξίου τὸν ἄνδρα ἰδιωτεύειν.
But Messene, being proud on account of her father, who surpassed the Greeks of that time in reputation and power, did not think it right that her husband should remain a private citizen.
ἀθροίσαντες δὲ ἔκ τε Ἄργους δύναμιν καὶ ἐκ Λακεδαίμονος ἀφίκοντο ἐς ταύτην τὴν χώραν, καὶ συμπάσῃ μὲν ἐτέθη τῇ γῇ Μεσσήνη τὸ ὄνομα ἀπὸ τῆς Πολυκάονος γυναικός, πόλεις δὲ ἄλλαι τε ἐκτίσθησαν καὶ—ἔνθα τὰ βασίλεια κατεσκευάσθη σφίσιν—Ἀνδανία.
Having gathered a force both from Argos and from Lacedaemon, they came to this country, and the name Messene was given to the whole land after the wife of Polycaon, and other cities were founded, and especially Andania, where their palace was built.
§4.1.3πρὸ δὲ τῆς μάχης, ἣν Θηβαῖοι πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους ἐμαχέσαντο ἐν Λεύκτροις, καὶ τοῦ οἰκισμοῦ Μεσσήνης τῆς ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ὑπὸ τῇ Ἰθώμῃ, πόλιν οὐδεμίαν πω κληθῆναι πρότερον δοκῶ Μεσσήνην· εἰκάζω δὲ οὐχ ἥκιστα Ὁμήρου τοῖς ἔπεσιν.
But before the battle which the Thebans fought against the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, and the founding of the Messene of our day under Mount Ithome, I believe that no city before that time had yet been called Messene; and I infer this not least from the poems of Homer.
ἐν μὲν γὰρ καταλόγῳ τῶν ἐς Ἴλιον ἀφικομένων Πύλον καὶ Ἀρήνην καὶ ἄλλας καταλέγων οὐδεμίαν πόλιν Μεσσήνην ἐκάλεσεν· ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ δὲ δηλοῖ μὲν καὶ ἐν τῷδε ἔθνος καὶ οὐ πόλιν τοὺς Μεσσηνίους ὄντας,
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μῆλα γὰρ ἐξ Ἰθάκης Μεσσήνιοι ἄνδρες ἄειραν,
" §4.1.4σαφέστερον δὲ ἔτι περὶ τοῦ τόξου λέγων τοῦ Ἰφίτου
"
τὼ δʼ ἐν Μεσσήνῃ ξυμβλήτην ἀλλήλοιιν
οἴκῳ ἐν Ὀρτιλόχοιο. "
τοῦ γὰρ Ὀρτιλόχου τὸν οἶκον ἐν τῇ Μεσσήνῃ πόλισμα εἴρηκε τὰς Φηράς, καὶ τόδε ἐξηγήσατο αὐτὸς ἐν Πεισιστράτου παρὰ Μενέλαον ἀποδημίᾳ· "
ἐς Φηρὰς δʼ ἵκοντο Διοκλῆος ποτὶ δῶμα,
υἱέος Ὀρτιλόχοιο. " §4.1.5πρῶτοι δʼ οὖν βασιλεύουσιν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ ταύτῃ Πολυκάων τε ὁ Λέλεγος καὶ Μεσσήνη γυνὴ τοῦ Πολυκάονος.
For in the catalogue of those who came to Ilium, though listing Pylos and Arene and others, he called no city Messene; and in the Odyssey he shows, in this passage also, that the Messenians are a nation and not a city: "For Messenian men carried off sheep from Ithaca," and still more clearly when speaking of the bow of Iphitus: "These two met one another in Messene, in the house of Ortilochus." For he has called Pherae, a town, the home of Ortilochus in Messene, and he explained this himself in the journey of Pisistratus to Menelaus: "And they came to Pherae, to the house of Diocles, the son of Ortilochus." Now, the first to reign in this country were Polycaon, the son of Lelex, and Messene, the wife of Polycaon.
παρὰ ταύτην τὴν Μεσσήνην τὰ ὄργια κομίζων τῶν Μεγάλων θεῶν Καύκων ἦλθεν ἐξ Ἐλευσῖνος ὁ Κελαινοῦ τοῦ Φλύου.
To this Messene came Caucon from Eleusis, the son of Celaenus, the son of Phlyus, bringing the rites of the Great Goddesses.
Φλῦον δὲ αὐτὸν Ἀθηναῖοι λέγουσι παῖδα εἶναι Γῆς· ὁμολογεῖ δέ σφισι καὶ ὕμνος Μουσαίου Λυκομίδαις ποιηθεὶς ἐς Δήμητρα.
The Athenians say that this Phlyus was a son of Ge (Earth); and a hymn of Musaeus composed for the Lycomidae to Demeter agrees with them.
§4.1.6τὴν δὲ τελετὴν τῶν Μεγάλων θεῶν Λύκος ὁ Πανδίονος πολλοῖς ἔτεσιν ὕστερον Καύκωνος προήγαγεν ἐς πλέον τιμῆς· καὶ Λύκου δρυμὸν ἔτι ὀνομάζουσιν ἔνθα ἐκάθηρε τοὺς μύστας. καὶ ὅτι μὲν δρυμός ἐστιν ἐν τῇ γῇ ταύτῃ Λύκου καλούμενος, Ῥιανῷ τῷ Κρητί ἐστι πεποιημένον
"
πάρ τε τρηχὺν Ἐλαιὸν ὑπὲρ δρυμόν τε Λύκοιο· " §4.1.7ὡς δὲ ὁ Πανδίονος οὗτος ἦν Λύκος, δηλοῖ τὰ ἐπὶ τῇ εἰκόνι ἔπη τῇ Μεθάπου.
The initiation of the Great Goddesses Lycus, the son of Pandion, many years after Caucon, advanced to higher honor; and they still call the place where he purified the initiates "the Oak-coppice of Lycus." And that there is an Oak-coppice called Lycus' in this land is composed by Rhianus the Cretan: "By rugged Elaeum and above the Oak-coppice of Lycus;" and that this Lycus was the son of Pandion is shown by the verses on the image of Methapus.
μετεκόσμησε γὰρ καὶ Μέθαπος τῆς τελετῆς ἔστιν ἅ· ὁ δὲ Μέθαπος γένος μὲν ἦν Ἀθηναῖος, τελεστὴς δὲ καὶ ὀργίων παντοίων συνθέτης.
For Methapus also rearranged some parts of the initiation; this Methapus was an Athenian by birth, a performer of initiations and a compiler of all kinds of rites.
οὗτος καὶ Θηβαίοις τῶν Καβείρων τὴν τελετὴν κατεστήσατο, ἀνέθηκε δὲ καὶ ἐς τὸ κλίσιον τὸ Λυκομιδῶν εἰκόνα ἔχουσαν ἐπίγραμμα ἄλλα τε λέγον καὶ ὅσα ἡμῖν ἐς πίστιν συντελεῖ τοῦ λόγου· §4.1.8"
ἥγνισα δʼ Ἑρμείαο δόμους σεμνῆς τε κέλευθα
Δάματρος καὶ πρωτογόνου Κούρας, ὅθι φασὶ
Μεσσήνην θεῖναι Μεγάλαισι θεαῖσιν ἀγῶνα
Φλυάδεω κλεινοῖο γόνου Καυκωνιάδαο.
He also established the initiation of the Cabeiri for the Thebans, and dedicated in the chapel of the Lycomidae an image which has an inscription stating, among other things, what contributes to the credibility of our account: "I purified the homes of Hermes and the paths of holy Demeter and of the first-born Core, where they say Messene established the contest for the Great Goddesses, by the guidance of the son of famous Phlyus, the descendant of Caucon.
θαύμασα δʼ ὡς σύμπαντα Λύκος Πανδιόνιος φὼς
Ἀτθίδος ἱερὰ ἔργα παρʼ Ἀνδανίῃ θέτο κεδνῇ. " §4.1.9τοῦτο τὸ ἐπίγραμμα δηλοῖ μὲν ὡς παρὰ τὴν Μεσσήνην ἀφίκοιτο ὁ Καύκων ἀπόγονος ὢν Φλύου, δηλοῖ δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐς τὸν Λύκον τά τε ἄλλα καὶ ὡς ἡ τελετὴ τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἦν ἐν Ἀνδανίᾳ.
And I marveled how Lycus, the son of Pandion, an Athenian hero, established all the sacred rites of Attica in precious Andania." This inscription shows that Caucon, being a descendant of Phlyus, came to Messene, and it also shows concerning Lycus, among other things, that the initiation was anciently at Andania.
καί μοι καὶ τοῦτο εἰκὸς ἐφαίνετο, τὴν Μεσσήνην μὴ ἑτέρωθι, ἀλλὰ ἔνθα αὐτή τε καὶ Πολυκάων ᾤκουν, καταστήσασθαι τὴν τελετήν.
And to me this also seemed likely, that Messene established the initiation not elsewhere, but where she herself and Polycaon dwelt.