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[1] After the fight about the cattle between the sons of Aphareus and their cousins the Dioskouroi, when Lynkeus was killed by Polydeukes and Idas met his doom from the lightning, the house of Aphareus was bereft of all male descendants, and the kingdom of Messenia passed to Nestor the son of Neleus, including all the part ruled formerly by Idas, but not that subject to the sons of Asklepios.
[2] For they say that the sons of Asklepios who went to Troy were Messenians, Asklepios being the son of Arsinoe, daughter of Leukippos, not the son of Coronis, and they call a desolate spot in Messenia by the name Tricca and quote the lines of Homer,
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in which Nestor tends Makhaon kindly, when he has been wounded by the arrow. He would not have shown such readiness except to a neighbor and king of a kindred people. But the surest warrant for their account of the Asclepiadae is that they point to a tomb of Makhaon in Gerenia and to the sanctuary of his sons at Pharai.
[3] After the conclusion of the Trojan war and the death of Nestor after his return home, the Dorian expedition and return of the Herakleidai, which took place two generations later, drove the descendants of Nestor from Messenia. This has already formed a part of my account of Tisamenus.
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I will only add the following: When the Dorians assigned Argos to Temenus, Kresphontes asked them for the land of Messenia, in that he was older than Aristodemos.
[4] Aristodemos was now dead, but Kresphontes was vigorously opposed by Theras the son of Autesion, who was of Theban origin and fourth in descent from Polyneikes the son of Oedipus. He was at that time guardian of the sons of Aristodemos, being their uncle on the mother’s side, Aristodemos having married a daughter of Autesion, called Argeia. Kresphontes, wishing to obtain Messenia as his portion at all costs, approached Temenus, and having suborned him pretended to leave the decision to the lot.
[5] Temenus put the lots of the children of Aristodemos and of Kresphontes into a jar containing water, the terms being that the party whose lot came up first should be the first to choose a portion of the country. Temenus had caused both lots to be made of clay, but for the sons of Aristodemos sun-dried, for Kresphontes baked with fire. So the lot of the sons of Aristodemos was dissolved, and Kresphontes, winning in this way, chose Messenia.
[6] The common people of the old Messenians were not dispossessed by the Dorians, but agreed to be ruled by Kresphontes and to divide the land with the Dorians. They were induced to give way to them in this by the suspicion which they felt for their rulers, as the Neleidai were originally of Iolcos. Kresphontes took to wife Merope the daughter of Kypselos, then king of the Arcadians, by whom with other children was born to him Aipytos his youngest.
[7] He had the palace, which he and his children were to occupy, built in Stenyclerus. Originally Perieres and the other kings dwelled at Andania, but when Aphareus founded Arene, he and his sons settled there. In the time of Nestor and his descendants the palace was at Pylos, but Kresphontes ordained that the king should live in Stenyclerus. As his government for the most part was directed in favor of the people, the rich rebelled and killed Kresphontes and all his sons except Aipytos.
[8] He was still a boy and being brought up by Kypselos, and was the sole survivor of his house. When he reached manhood, he was brought back by the Arcadians to Messene, the other Dorian kings, the sons of Aristodemos and Isthmios, the son of Temenus, helping to restore him. On becoming king, Aipytos punished his father’s murderers and all who had been accessories to the crime. By winning the Messenian nobles to his side by deference, and all who were of the people by gifts, he attained to such honor that his descendants were given the name of Aipytidai instead of Herakleidai.
[9] Glaukos, his son and successor, was content to imitate his father in all other matters, both publicly and in his treatment of individuals, but attained to greater piety. For the precinct of Zeus on the summit of Ithome, having been consecrated by Polycaon and Messene, had hitherto received no honor among the Dorians, and it was Glaukos who established this worship among them and he was the first to sacrifice to Makhaon the son of Asklepios in Gerenia, and to assign to Messene, the daughter of Triopas, the honors customarily paid to heroes.
[10] Isthmios the son of Glaukos built a shrine also to Gorgasus and Nikomakhos which is in Pharai. Isthmios had a son Dotadas, who constructed the harbor at Mothone, though Messenia contained others. Sybotas the son of Dotadas established the annual sacrifice by the king to the river Pamisus and also the offering to the hero Eurytos the son of Melaneus at Oechalia before the mysteries of the great Goddesses, which were still held at Andania.
Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .