Elis, Or Elea, in ancient Greece, a division of the Peloponnesus, extending along the Ionian sea from the promontory of Araxus to the river Neda; greatest breadth about 35 m., from the promontory of Chelonatas to the foot of Mt. Erymanthus, where the boundaries of Elis, Arcadia, and Achaia come together; area, about 1,000 sq. m. It contained the western slopes of the Achaian and Arcadian mountains, Erymanthus, Pholoe, and Lycaeus; and though its surface was for the most part uneven, it had many valleys and hillsides of great fertility. Its principal rivers were the Alpheus (now Ruphia) and the Peneus (Gas-tuni). The whole territory included three districts: Elis, in its narrower sense, or Hollow Elis; Pisatis, separated from the first by a branch of the Pholoe mountains; and Triphylia, lying S. of the Alpheus. Of these, Hollow Elis, so called from its being a vale set in a circle of mountains, was the most northern and the most fertile. Here, and nowhere else in Greece, grew the fine flax called byssus. At the time of the Doric invasion, Oxylus led the Heraclidae south by the more difficult way of Arcadia, lest they should see and be attracted by the richness of this plain.

Hollow Elis contained three cities, Elis, its port Cyl-lene, and Pylos. These were unwalled, and protected only by the sanctity of the country; for by the common law of Greece Elis was a sacred state and inviolable, on account of its possession of the temple of the Olympian Zeus on the banks of the Alpheus. This sacred character of Elis was, however, disregarded during the Peloponnesian war by the Athenians. Afterward King Agis of Sparta pressed across the Larissus to attack Elis, but on the first attempt fled, alarmed by an earthquake; and he failed in a subsequent attack. Pisatis, which was the lower valley of the Alpheus, had eight cities, two of which, Pisa and Salmone, are celebrated in the legends of OEnomaus, Pelops, and Salmoneus. In this district was Olympia, the seat of the most famous of the Greek games, and the quadrennial scene of the most splendid of Greek assemblages. From the time of the Doric invasion there was hostility between the proper Eleans and the Pisatians, caused by the claim of the former to direct the Olympic games. This jealousy gave rise to several wars.

The Eleans, finally victorious in the 52d Olympiad, destroyed the city of Pisa. Tryphylia, the smallest and the southern division of Elis, was separated from Messenia by the Neda, and was fertile only in the interior. Here was Mt. Minthe, the highest in Elis, one of the seats of the worship of Hades. The Eleans took part in the Trojan, Peloponnesian, and the other general Grecian wars, and were constantly in strife with some one of their neighbors. They retained the celebration of their renowned Olympic games till A. D. 394, when the festival was abolished by the emperor Theodosius. Two years later the country was laid waste with fire and sword by Alaric. Again in the middle ages Elis became of some importance in the hands of French adventurers, and subsequently of the Venetians. But the memory of its ancient religious character, and traditions of its cultivation and large and active population, give to it its only modern interest. Its two northern divisions now form part of the nomarchy of Achaia and Elis, and Triphylia of that of Messenia.