LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Academy · Biography & Mythology

Messene

Μεσσήνη

(Μεσσήνη), a daughter of Triopas, and wife of Polycaon, whom she induced to take possession of the country which was called after her, Messenia. She is also said to have introduced there the worship of Zeus and the mysteries of the great goddess of Eleusis. In the town of Messene she was honoured with a temple and heroic worship. (Paus. 4.1. §§ 2, &c., 3.6, 27.4, 31.9.)

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.