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Updated: July 25, 2025
The reason why they did not transport their goods the whole passage by sea, may be found in their ignorance and fears: their inexperienced mariners and frail ships could not succeed in doubling Cape Malea in Laconia; off which, and between it and Crete, the sea was frequently very boisterous.
All the south part of Laconia was encompassed by the sea, and on the east and north-east was the Argelic Bay: on its coasts were a great number of capes, the most celebrated of which were those of Malea and Tanara; they were also furnished with a great number of sea-port towns and commodious harbours.
The whole fleet of 150 sail then proceeded to the small islands of Arginusae, near the coast of Asia, and facing Malea, the south-eastern cape of Lesbos. Callicratidas, who went out to meet them, took up his station at the latter point, leaving a squadron of 50 ships to maintain the blockade of Mytilene.
I will send you food and wine: but your ship must not stay here, for it is foul with sin, and foul with sin its crew. And the heroes prayed her, but in vain, and cried, 'Cleanse us from our guilt! But she sent them away, and said, 'Go on to Malea, and there you may be cleansed, and return home.
The most difficult and dangerous part of this navigation consisted in doubling Cape Malea. The most convenient and frequented sea-ports in Laconia were Trinassus and Acria, situated on each side the mouth of the Eurotas; and Gythium, not far from Trinassus, at the mouth of a small river on the Laconic Gulf.
The autumnal equinox now approached, and the Euboean gulf, called Coela, is reckoned dangerous by mariners. Choosing, therefore, to remove thence before the winter storms came on, they returned to Piraeus, from whence they had set out for the campaign. Apustius, leaving there thirty ships, sailed by Malea to Corcyra.
Archelaus, the greatest of his generals, was master of all the sea with his navy, and was subjugating the Cyclades and all the other islands east of Malea, and had already taken Eubœa, while with his army, advancing from Athens as his starting-point, he was gaining over all the nations of Greece as far north as Thessaly, and had only sustained a slight check near Chæroneia.
But now I will tell thee, King, and tell the Princes and Captains and Councillors of the Phæacians, the tale of my wanderings. 'The wind bore my ships from the coast of Troy, and with our white sails hoisted we came to the cape that is called Malea. Now if we had been able to double this cape we should soon have come to our own country, all unhurt.
Their territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of olives, extended to the Cape of Malea: they accepted a chief or prince from the Byzantine prætor, and a light tribute of four hundred pieces of gold was the badge of their immunity, rather than of their dependence. The freemen of Laconia assumed the character of Romans, and long adhered to the religion of the Greeks.
But scarcely had he done so when the Centaurs caught the perfume of the rare old wine, and, armed with stones and pine clubs, surrounded the cave of Pholus. The first who tried to force their way in Hercules drove back with brands he seized from the fire. The rest he pursued with bow and arrow, driving them back to Malea, where lived the good Centaur, Chiron, Hercules' old friend.
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