Messa or Messe (Ancient Greek: Μέσση) was one of the nine cities of ancient Laconia enumerated in the Catalogue of Ships, in the Iliad by Homer, who gives it the epithet of πολυτρήρων, 'abounding in pigeons'.[1] Strabo says that the position of Messa was unknown;[2] but Pausanias mentions a town and harbour named Messa,[3] which is identified by most modern scholars with the Homeric town. This Messa is situated on the western coast of Mani, between Hippola and Oetylus; and the cliffs in the neighbourhood are said to abound in wild pigeons.[4]

Its site is located near the modern Cape Tigani.[5][6]

References

  1. ↑ Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.502.
  2. ↑ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii. p. 364. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  3. ↑ Pausanias (1918). "25.9". Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
  4. ↑ William Martin Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 286.
  5. ↑ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 58, and directory notes accompanying.
  6. ↑ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Messa". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

36°31′55″N 22°22′52″E / 36.531845°N 22.38113°E / 36.531845; 22.38113


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