Kitap 8
3.1
At the present time the whole of the seaboard that lies between the countries of the Achaeans and the Messenians, and extends inland to the Arcadian districts of Pholoë, of the Azanes, and of the Parrhasians, is called the Eleian country. But in early times this country was divided into several domains; and afterwards into two—that of the Epeians and that under the rule of Nestor the son of Neleus; just as Homer, too, states, when he calls the land of the Epeians by the name of “Elis” (“andsc. “the ship.” passed goodly Elis, where the Epeians hold sway”Hom. Od. 15.298), and the land under the rule of Nestor, “Pylus,” through which, he says, the Alpheius flows (“of the Alpheius, that floweth in wide stream through the land of the Pylians”Hom. Il. 5.545). Of course Homer also knew of Pylus as a city (“and they reached Pylus, the well-built city of Nestor”Hom. Od. 3.4), but the Alpheius does not flow through the city, nor past it either; in fact, another river flows past it, a river which some call “Pamisus” and others “Amathus” (whence, apparently, the epithet “Emathoëis” which has been applied to this Pylus), but the Alpheius flows through the Pylian country.
