15. In the country which from this time forth obtained the name of MESSENIA,(376) Pylos was before the Doric migration the most important town, whither the family of the Nelidæ had retired from the Triphylian territory.(377) The Dorians under Cresphontes(378) at first seated themselves in the opposite part of the country, at Stenyclarus, in the midland region; they must however have soon pressed so closely upon Pylos, that part of the inhabitants was forced to emigrate. For that many of the noble families, both at Athens and in Asia Minor, came originally from Pylos, is placed out of doubt by the agreement of many national and family traditions; and it is equally certain that they did not leave Peloponnesus long before the Ionic migration. Mimnermus, the most ancient witness to this fact, says that the founders of his native city Colophon came from the Nelean Pylos;(379) _i.e._, he calls Andræmon, the founder of Colophon, a Pylian; where it almost seems that the poet meant a direct migration from that place. Pylos however (though it is generally considered to have been in the possession of the Dorians from this epoch) probably remained for some time an independent town, with a limited territory; even in the second Messenian war some Nestoridæ went as allies to the Messenians;(380) and, after the defeat of the Messenians, the Pylians and the Methonæans were able to harbour them for a considerable time.(381)
16. Of the internal condition of Messenia we cannot even know so much as of that of Laconia, since, at the cessation of its political existence, its monuments, and even its inhabitants, perished; and thus all means of perpetuating a knowledge of its former state were entirely lost. Yet, setting aside the accounts of Ephorus, there remain some very simple circumstances from which we may form an idea of the condition of the country. It is related, that when Cresphontes was treacherously assassinated, the Arcadians, in conjunction with the kings of Sparta and Ceisus king of Argos, re-established in his place his son Æpytus,(382) who had been brought up with Cypselus the Arcadian, the father of his mother Merope,(383) and who rendered himself so celebrated, that all his descendants were called Æpytidæ. The name of Æpytus is evidently connected with Æpytis, a district on the frontiers of Arcadia and Messenia, near the ancient Andania, the earliest seat of civilization and religious worship in the country. The names of his descendants, Glaucus, Isthmius, Dotades, Sybotas (swine-herd), Phintas (or Φιλητὴς), are in remarkable contrast with those of the Lacedæmonian kings, as Eurysthenes (widely-ruling), Procles (the renowned), Agis (the general), Soüs (the violent), Echestratus (the general), Eurypon (the widely-reigning), Labotas (shepherd of the people), and so forth; for, whilst the latter signify powerful warrior princes, there sounds in the former something peaceable and pastoral. What Pausanias relates of these Messenian princes refers almost exclusively to a peaceful office—viz., the establishment of festivals; the gods also to whom they were consecrated agree with the same general character. Glaucus and Isthmius, we are told, established or promoted the worship of Æsculapius at Gerenia and Pharæ: Sybotas joined to the ancient worship of the great gods at Andania the funeral sacrifices of the hero Eurytus, brought over from the Thessalian to the Messenian Œchalia; and others in the same manner. In fact this Cabirian worship of Demeter at Andania, allied to that prevalent in Attica at Eleusis and Phyla, was one of the most ancient in Peloponnesus, and at that time flourished in Messenia;(384) whereas, according to Herodotus, the Dorians everywhere exterminated the ancient rites of Demeter.(385) Hence also the mystical consecration of Andania was discontinued as long as Messenia was governed by the Spartans, and it fell into oblivion, until many centuries afterwards Epaminondas solemnly re-established it, either from the mere recollection of the inhabitants, or, if the account be true, upon the authority of an inscription on a tin plate found in a brazen urn, containing some obscure words referring to ancient mystic ceremonies.(386)