From Mothone to the promontory of Coryphasium is about 100 stades, and near it is Pylos, which was founded by Pylos, the son of Cleson, who brought from Megaris the Leleges who then occupied Megaris. But he did not enjoy it long, being turned out by Neleus and the Pelasgians of Iolcus. And he went away to the neighbouring country and occupied Pylos in Elis. And king Neleus advanced Pylos to such renown that Homer in his Iliad calls it the city of Neleus.[65] There is a temple there of Athene called Coryphasia, and a house called Nestor’s house, in which is a painting of Nestor, and there is his tomb inside the city, and at a little distance from Pylos is (they say) the tomb of Thrasymedes. And there is a cave inside the city, which they say was the stall of the oxen of Nestor and still earlier of Neleus. The breed of these oxen would be Thessalian, of the herd of Iphiclus the father of Protesilaus, for Neleus asked them as wedding presents from the wooers of his daughter, and it was on their account that Melampus to gratify his brother Bias went to Thessalia, and was bound by the herdsmen of Iphiclus, but eventually by answering the questions which Iphiclus put obtained these oxen as a reward. The men of that day were anxious to amass wealth in the shape of herds of horses and oxen, for not only did Neleus desire for his own the oxen of Iphiclus, but Eurystheus ordered Hercules, in consequence of the fame of those oxen in Spain, to drive off the herd that belonged to Geryon. And Eryx, who was at that time king in Sicily, was manifestly so keenly in love with the oxen from Erythea, that when he wrestled with Hercules he staked his kingdom against them. And Homer in the Iliad has represented Iphidimas, the son of Antenor, giving 100 oxen as the first wedding present to his father in law.[66] All this confirms my theory that the men of those days were especially fond of oxen. And the oxen of Neleus grazed I imagine mostly over the borders, for the district of Pylos is mostly sandy, and unable to afford sufficient pasture. My authority is Homer who, whenever he mentions Nestor, always calls him the king of sandy Pylos. Before the harbour is the island Sphacteria, situated very much as Rhenea is in reference to the harbour of Delos. It seems the destiny of both men and places to be for a while unknown and then to come to renown. Such was the case with Caphareus, a promontory in Eubœa, by a storm which came there upon the Greeks returning with Agamemnon from Ilium. So too with Psyttalea off Salamis, where we know the Medes perished in great numbers. So too the reverses of the Lacedæmonians at Sphacteria made the place world-famed. And the Athenians erected a brazen statue of Victory in their Acropolis as a record of their success at Sphacteria.