PYLUS, in Ancient Geography, a town of Elis; its ruins to be seen on the road from Olympia to Elis, (Pausanias); situated between the mouths of the Pencus and Selles, near Mount Scollis, (Strabo). Built by Pylus of Megara, and destroyed by Hercules, (Pausanias). Another Pylus in Triphylia, (Strabo); by which the Alpheus runs, (Pausanias); on the confines of Arcadia, and not in Arcadia itself, (id.).—A third in Messenia, (Strabo, Ptolemy); situated at the foot of Mount Ægalæus on the sea coast, over-against the island Sphæra or Sphacteria: built by Pylus, and settled by a colony of Leleges from Megara; but thence expelled by Neleus and the Pelasgi, and therefore called Nelea, (Homer.) A sandy territory. The royal residence of Neleus, and of Nestor his son: the more ancient and more excellent Pylus; whence the proverb Pylus ante Pylum (Aristophanes, Plutarch), used when we want to repress the arrogance and pride of any one: said to be afterwards called Coryphasium. It made a figure in the Peloponnesian war; for being rebuilt by the Athenians, it proved of great benefit to them for the space of 15 years, and of much annoyance to the Lacedæmonians, (Thucydides). All the three Pyls were subject to Nestor, (Strabo).