PEPHNUS(Πέφνος, Paus.; Πεφνόν, Steph. B.), a town of Laconia, on the eastern coast of the Messenian gulf, distant 20 stadia from Thalamae. In; front of. it was an island of the same name, which Pausanias describes as not larger than a great rock, in which stood, in the open air, brazen statues of the Dioscuri, a foot high. There was a tradition, that the Dioscuri were born in this island, The island is at the mouth of the river Miléa, which is the minor Pamisus of Strabo (8. p. 361). In the island, there are two ancient tombs, which are called those of the Dioscuri. The Messenians said that their territories originally extended as far as Pephnus. [MESSENIA345a.] (Paus. 3.26. § § 2,3; Gell, Itiner. of the Morea, p. 238; Leake, Morea, vol. 1. p. 330, Peloponnesiacá, p. 178; Boblaye, Récherches, &c. p. 93 ; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. pp. 283, 284.)