”2)3 the Pylus in question, the Lepreatic Pylus in Triphylia and Pisatis, and a third, the Messenian Pylus near Coryphasium,4 the inhabitants of each try to show that the Pylus in their own country is "emathoëis"5 and declare that it is the native place of Nestor. However, most of the more recent writers, both historians and poets, say that Nestor was a Messenian, thus adding their support to the Pylus which has been preserved down to their own times. But the writers who follow the words of Homer more closely say that the Pylus of Nestor is the Pylus through whose territory the Alpheius flows. And the Alpheius flows through Pisatis and Triphylia. However, the writers from Coele Elis have not only supported their own Pylus with a similar zeal, but have also attached to it tokens of recognition,6 pointing out a place called Gerenus, a river called Geron, and another river called Geranius, and then confidently asserting that Homer's epithet for Nestor, "Gerenian," was derived from these. But the Messenians have done the selfsame thing, and their argument appears at least more plausible; for they say that their own Gerena is better known, and that it was once a populous place. Such, then, is the present state of affairs as regards Coele Elis.
1 Scollis Mountain (see 8. 3. 10); now Santameriotiko.
2 Anon.
3 A proverb. See Stephanus Byz. s.v. Κορυφάσιον, and Eustathius ad Od. 1.93
4 Gosselin identifies Coryphasium with the Navarino of today. So Frazer, note on Paus. 4.36.1
5 The Homeric epithet of Pylus, translated "sandy"; but see 8. 3. 14.
6 As mothers who exposed their infants hung tokens about their necks, hoping that thus their parentage would be discovered.
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