KONTOPOREIA
Corinthia, Greece.
One of
the most important passes leading S from the Corinthia
(Polyb. 16.16.4-5). Ptolemy Euergetes recorded that he
drank from a spring “colder than snow” at the top of
the pass although his soldiers were afraid of being frozen
if they drank from it (Ptol. apud Athenaeus:
FGrH 234
F6). The road through the pass, which connected Argolis and the Corinthia, was evidently steep in parts since
the
Κοντοπορεῖα (“staff-road”) implies that a walking staff
would be useful.
The Kontoporeia has been identified by most commentators as the pass of Haghionorion which leads S from
ancient Tenea, but that route is in no part steep. The
Kontoporeia is more likely the track that ascends a narrow
gorge under the walls of the Frankish castle of Haghios
Vasileios to the W of the pass of Hagionorion. At the
top of the pass is the spring of Kephalari whose copious
waters are cold even in midsummer. Near the spring is
a polygonal tower and the ruined walls of what was
probably a small military station or border post in the
5th-4th c. B.C. The route S descends from the spring to
Mycenae and the Argive plain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Geiger,
RE XI (1922) 1343-44, s.v.
Kontoporeia; J. R. Wiseman,
The Land of the Ancient
Corinthians (forthcoming).
J. R. WISEMAN
