The people of Helos refused to submit to these terms, in consequence of which their town was destroyed by the Spartans.[32] The Homeric Catalogue mentions some other places in Laconia, as _Bryseae_ and _Messe_, of which afterwards not a trace occurs, and which may have been destroyed at that time. Many towns probably perished before the Spartans were masters of one-fourth of the whole country. The geographical relations of Laconia are likewise extremely obscure; but I have very little doubt that if a person were without bias and carefully to distinguish the different periods, he might arrive at more satisfactory results than have as yet been gained. The name LACEDAEMON was, in antiquity, not applied to the city but to the country, especially the valley of the Eurotas. In the Catalogue, it is clearly distinguished from Sparta. Οἳ δ’ εἶχον κοίλην Λακεδαίμονα κητώεσσαν Φᾶρίν τε Σπάρτην τε— The Alexandrian grammarians rightly say that the κοίλη Λακεδαίμων refers to the valley of Lacedaemon, just like κοίλη Ἦλις. Sparta, on the other hand, always remained the proper name of the city, and it is only in later writers, such as Polybius, that Lacedaemon is used as the name of the city; wherever it occurs in this sense in earlier authors, it must be regarded as an exception to the rule. The middle of the south of Peloponnesus, from Arcadia downwards, is formed by Mount TAYGETUS (now Pentedactylon), which ends in Cape Taenarus. This mountain, as I have already observed, is the seat of frequent volcanic commotions. Porphyry, the stone of which it consists, is found most commonly in volcanic mountains; the green serpentine, likewise peculiar to Taygetus, is found there in great masses, whence we meet in Roman poets with the expressions, _metalla Taygeti_, _metalla Laconica_, _virides lapides Taygeti_; _Taygeti virent metalla_. Mount Taygetus is full of caverns; the most important are those near Taenarus (now Cape Matapan), whence the legend that the entrance to the lower world was there. Just as this mountain runs between the rivers Pamisus and Eurotas, so another runs between the Eurotas and the Argolic Gulf; the latter is of no less importance, though lower than Taygetus, and terminates in Cape Malea. Taygetus is wild, and large tracts on its top are incapable of cultivation; but in its lower parts it has fertile valleys. The valley of the Eurotas (now Vasilipotamos), is broad and beautiful, and the river itself, both in length and depth, is the most important in all Peloponnesus.