Location information

Taphiae

  Taphiae and more anciently Teleboides, a number of small islands off the western coast of Greece, between Leucas and Acarnania (Plin. iv. 12. s. 19), also called the islands of the Taphii or Teleboae (Taphion, Teleboon nesoi, Strab. x. p. 459), who are frequently mentioned in the Homeric poems as pirates. (Od. xv. 427, xvi. 426.) When Athena visited Telemachus at Ithaca, she assumed the form of Mentes, the leader of the Taphians. (Od. i. 105.) The Taphians or Teleboans are celebrated in the legend of Amphitryon, and are said to have been subdued by this hero. (Herod. v. 59; Apollod. ii. 4. § § 6, 7; Strab. l. c.; Plaut. Amph. i. 1; Dict. of Biog. art. Amphitryon.) The principal island is called Taphos (Taphos) by Homer (Od. i. 417), and by later writers Taphius, Taphiussa, or Taphias (Taphious, Taphioussa, Taphias, Strab. l. e.; Plin. l. c.; Steph. B. s. v. Taphos), now Meganisi. The next largest island of the Taphii was Carnus, now Kalamo. (Scylax, p. 13; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 16; Dodwell, vol. i. p. 60.) Stephanus B. mentions a town in Cephallenia, named Taphus, represented by the modern Tafio, where many ancient sepulchres are found. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 67.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...