Bouphagion
A town situated, according to Pausanias, at the sources of the Bouphagos river. It has long been identified with a fortified hill site, commanding the road from the plain of Elis to the plain of Megalopolis, near the springs of Papadaes. There are remains of inner and outer circuits, with both rectangular and round towers, and gates protected by flanking walls. The masonry, of local grayblue limestone, is well fitted, of coursed rectangular or trapezoidal blocks with the exception of a few large, unshaped stones; it has been dated late 4th or early 3d c. B.C. by comparison with similar work (a few large blocks remaining from the archaic period) in the S fort at Gortys. A triglyph, a limestone column drum, and a few scraps of wall are the only traces of other structures.
Not far away at Haghios Nikolaos is another small fort overlooking the same route; it lies W of Gortys above the village of Vlachorafti at the highest point of the range. There seem to be remains of two circuit walls with towers. The masonry is generally similar to that at Palaiokastro.
A third fort in the same area overlooks Gortys and Haghios Nikolaos and commands one of the few routes to E Arkadia. Natural outcroppings were supplemented with large unshaped blocks, two or three courses of which are preserved in several places. There is a cross wall at the narrowest point and a projecting rectangular tower. The remains, with the exception of three cut limestone blocks, appear to be from the archaic period, as does an inscribed stele found at the foot of the slope.
BIBLIOGRAPHYPaus. 5.7.1, 8.26.8, 8.27.17; W. L. Leake, Morea (1830) II 67f, 92; J. G. Frazer, Paus. Des. Gr. (1898) IV 303; P. Charneux & R. Ginouves in BCH 80 (1956) 522fPI.
M. H. MC ALLISTER