Mount_Kyllini Mount_Kyllini

Mount Kyllini - Definition and Overview

Mount KyllĂ­ni or Mount Cyllene (Greek: Κυλλήνη, sometimes in modern times Mount Ziria), is a mountain on the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece. It rises to 2374 m (7789 ft) above sea level, and is located near the border between the historic regions of Arcadia and Achaea, in the northeast of Arcadia.

In Greek mythology, Hermes was born in a sacred cave on the mountain, and so Cyllenius is a frequent epithet of his. The Homeric Hymn Hymn to Pan recalled that "Hermes ... came to Arkadia ... there where his sacred place is as god of Kyllene. For there, though a god, he used to tend curly-fleeced sheep." In ancient times there was a temple and statue dedicated to him on the mountain's summit.

Cyllene or Kyllene herself was a mountain nymph (an oread) who had taken for her consort Pelasges in the most ancient times that Greek mythographers could recall.

There was a port in Elis in Antiquity named Cyllene near the mouth of the River Alpheus, where the traveller Pausanias noted the image of Hermes, "most devoutly worshipped by the inhabitants, is merely the male member upright on the pedestal." Several nearby modern places are also named Kyllini.

Cyllene is the name given to an Indo-Pacific genus of snails (Gastropoda).

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