3.

Among the places enumerated by Homer in the Catalogue of the Ships, Messa, they say, is no longer to be found; and that Messoa is not a part of Laconia, but a part of Sparta itself, as was the Limnæum near Thornax. Some understand [Pg 42]
[CAS. 364] Messē to be a contraction of Messene, for it is said that this was a part of Laconia. [They allege as examples from the poet, the words “cri,” and “do,” and “maps,”135 and this passage also;

“The horses were yoked by Automedon and Alcimus,”136

instead of Alcimedon. And the words of Hesiod, who uses βρῖ for βριθὺ and βριαρὸν; and Sophocles and Io, who have ῥᾳ for ῥᾴδιον; and Epicharmus, λῖ for λίαν, and Συρακὼ for Συράκουσαι; Empedocles also has ὂψ for ὄψις (μία γίγνεται ἀμφοτέρων ὄψ or ὄψις); and Antimachus, Δήμητρός τοι Ἐλευσινίης ἱερὴ ὄψ, and ἄλφι for ἄλφιτον; Euphorion has ἧλ for ἧλος; Philetes has δμωίδες εἰς ταλάρους λευκὸν ἄγουσιν ἔρι for ἔριον; Aratus, εἰς ἄνεμον δὲ τὰ πηδά for τὰ πηδάλια; Simmias, Dodo for Dodona.]137

Of the rest of the places mentioned by the poet, some are extinct; of others traces remain, and of others the names are changed, as Augeiæ into Ægææ: [the city] of that name in Locris exists no longer. With respect to Las, the Dioscuri are said to have taken it by siege formerly, whence they had the name of Lapersæ, (Destroyers of Las,) and Sophocles says somewhere, “by the two Lapersæ, by Eurotas, by the gods in Argos and Sparta.”