This is a strong town on the west coast of the Morea on the Gulf of
Zoncheo, with an excellent harbour, recently distinguished by the fleet
of the pacha of Egypt being blockaded there by admiral sir E.
Codrington.
It is affirmed that this was the ancient Pylus, where the eloquent and
venerable Nestor reigned. At the siege of Troy, according to Homer, he
moderated the wrath of Achilles, the pride of Agamemnon, the impetuosity
of Ajax, and the rash courage of Diomedes. In the first book of the
Iliad he is represented as interposing between the two first-mentioned
chiefs:
To calm their passions with the words of age
Slow from his seat arose the _Pylian_ sage,
Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill’d.
Words sweet as honey from his lips distill’d.[405]
It appears to have been also called Coryphasion, from the promontory on
which it was erected. It was built by Pylus, at the head of a colony
from Megara. The founder was dispossessed of it by Neleus, and fled
into Elis, where he dwelt in a small town, also called Pylos. There was
likewise a third town of the same name, and they respectively claimed
the honour of having given birth to Nestor. The Pylos at Elis seems, in
the opinion of the learned, to have won the palm. Pindar, however,
assigns it to the town now called Navarino.
[405] Bourn’s Gazetteer.
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