Strabo, Geography, Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator), 8.6.22

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[22] Lechaeum is the commencement of the coast on one side; and on the other, Cenchreae, a village with a harbour, distant from the city about 70 stadia. The latter serves for the trade with Asia, and Lechaeum for that with Italy.

Lechaeum is situated below the city, and is not well inhabited. There are long walls of about 12 stadia in length, stretching on each side of the road towards Lechaeum. The sea-shore, extending hence to Pagae in Megaris, is washed by the Corinthian Gulf. It is curved, and forms the Diolcus, or the passage along which vessels are drawn over the Isthmus to the opposite coast at Schoenus near Cenchreae.

Between Lechaeum and Pagae, anciently, there was the oracle of the Acraean Juno, and Olmiae, the promontory that forms the gulf, on which are situated Oenoe, and Page; the former is a fortress of the Megarians; and Oenoe is a fortress of the Corinthians.

Next to Cenchreae¹ is Schoenus, where is the narrow part of the Diolcus, then Crommyonia. In front of this coast lies the Saronic Gulf, and the Eleusiniac, which is almost the same, and continuous with the Hermionic. Upon the Isthmus is the temple of the Isthmian Neptune, shaded above with a grove of pine trees, where the Corinthians celebrated the Isthmian games.

Crommyon² is a village of the Corinthian district, and formerly belonging to that of Megaris, where is laid the scene of the fable of the Crommyonian sow, which, it is said, was the dam of the Calydonian boar, and, according to tradition, the: destruction of this sow was one of the labours of Theseus.

Tenea is a village of the Corinthian territory, where there was a temple of Apollo Teneates. It is said that Archias, who equipped a colony for Syracuse, was accompanied by a great number of settlers from this place; and that this settlement afterwards flourished more than any others, and at length had an independent form of government of its own. When they revolted from the Corinthians, they attached themselves to the Romans, and continued to subsist when Corinth was destroyed.

An answer of an oracle is circulated, which was returned to an Asiatic, who inquired whether it was better to migrate to Corinth;

Corinth is prosperous, but I would belong to Tenea;

which last word was perverted by some through ignorance, and altered to Tegea. Here, it is said, Polybus brought up Oedipus.

There seems to be some affinity between the Tenedii and these people, through Tennus, the son of Cycnus, according to Aristotle; the similarity, too, of the divine honours paid by both to Apollo affords no slight proof of this relationship.³

Geography. Strabo. Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator). London. 1854-1857.

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Current edition Perseus

Geography (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 8.6.22 focus

[22] ἀρχὴ δὲ τῆς παραλίας ἑκατέρας τῆς μὲν τὸ Λέχαιον τῆς δὲ Κεγχρεαὶ κώμη καὶ λιμὴν ἀπέχων τῆς πόλεως ὅσον ἑβδομήκοντα σταδίους· τούτῳ μὲν οὖν χρῶνται πρὸς τοὺς ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς Ἰταλίας τῷ Λεχαίῳ. τὸ δὲ Λέχαιον ὑποπέπτωκε τῇ πόλει κατοικίαν ἔχον οὐ πολλήν· σκέλη δὲ καθείλκυσται σταδίων περὶ δώδεκα ἑκατέρωθεν τῆς ὁδοῦ τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ Λέχαιον. ἐντεῦθεν δὲ παρεκτείνουσα ἡ ᾐὼν μέχρι Παγῶν τῆς Μεγαρίδος κλύζεται μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ Κορινθιακοῦ κόλπου, κοίλη δʼ ἐστὶ καὶ ποιεῖ τὸν δίολκον πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν ᾐόνα τὴν κατὰ Σχοινοῦντα πλησίον ὄντα τῶν Κεγχρεῶν. ἐν δὲ τῷ μεταξὺ τοῦ Λεχαίου καὶ Παγῶν τὸ τῆς Ἀκραίας μαντεῖον Ἥρας ὑπῆρχε τὸ παλαιόν, καὶ αἱ Ὀλμιαὶ τὸ ποιοῦν ἀκρωτήριον τὸν κόλπον ἐν ᾧ ἥ τε Οἰνόη καὶ Παγαί, τὸ μὲν τῶν Μεγαρέων φρούριον ἡ δὲ Οἰνόη τῶν Κορινθίων. ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν Κεγχρεῶν ὁ Σχοινοῦς, καθʼ ὃν τὸ στενὸν τοῦ διόλκου· ἔπειθʼ ἡ Κρομμυωνία. πρόκειται δὲ τῆς ᾐόνος ταύτης ὅ τε Σαρωνικὸς κόλπος καὶ ὁ Ἐλευσινιακός, τρόπον τινὰ ὁ αὐτὸς ὤν, συνεχὴς τῷ Ἑρμιονικῷ. ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ Ἰσθμῷ καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἰσθμίου Ποσειδῶνος ἱερὸν ἄλσει πιτυώδει συνηρεφές, ὅπου τὸν ἀγῶνα τῶν Ἰσθμίων Κορίνθιοι συνετέλουν. ἡ δὲ Κρομμυὼν ἔστι κώμη τῆς Κορινθίας, πρότερον δὲ τῆς Μεγαρίδος, ἐν ᾗ μυθεύουσι τὰ περὶ τὴν Κρομμυωνίαν ὗν, ἣν μητέρα τοῦ Καλυδωνίου κάπρου φασί· καὶ τῶν Θησέως ἄθλων ἕνα τοῦτον παραδιδόασι τὴν τῆς ὑὸς ταύτης ἐξαίρεσιν. καὶ ἡ Τενέα δʼ ἐστὶ κώμη τῆς Κορινθίας, ἐν ᾗ τοῦ Τενεάτου Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερόν· λέγεται δὲ καὶ Ἀρχίᾳ τῷ στείλαντι τὴν εἰς Συρακούσας ἀποικίαν τοὺς πλείστους τῶν ἐποίκων ἐντεῦθεν συνεπακολουθῆσαι, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εὐθηνεῖν μάλιστα τῶν ἄλλων τὴν κατοικίαν ταύτην, τὰ δʼ ὕστατα καὶ καθʼ αὑτοὺς πολιτεύεσθαι, προσθέσθαι τε τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ἀποστάντας Κορινθίων καὶ κατασκαφείσης τῆς πόλεως συμμεῖναι. φέρεται δὲ καὶ χρησμὸς ὁ δοθείς τινι τῶν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας ἐρωτῶντι εἰ λῷον εἴη μετοικεῖν εἰς Κόρινθον

εὐδαίμων ὁ Κόρινθος, ἐγὼ δʼ εἴην Τενεάτης.

ὅπερ κατʼ ἄγνοιάν τινες παρατρέπουσιν ἐγὼ δʼ εἴην Τεγεάτης. λέγεται δʼ ἐνταῦθα ἐκθρέψαι Πόλυβος τὸν Οἰδίπουν. δοκεῖ δὲ καὶ συγγένειά τις εἶναι Τενεδίοις πρὸς τούτους ἀπὸ Τέννου τοῦ Κύκνου, καθάπερ εἴρηκεν Ἀριστοτέλης· καὶ ἡ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος δὲ τιμὴ παρʼ ἀμφοτέροις ὁμοία οὖσα δίδωσιν οὐ μικρὰ σημεῖα.

Translations (1)

Geography (Books 6-14) Perseus (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 3-6. Jones, Horace Leonard, translator. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924-1929 (printing).) — 8.6.22 focus

[22] The beginning of the seaboard on the two sides is, on the one side, Lechaeum, and, on the other, Cenchreae, a village and a harbor distant about seventy stadia from Corinth. Now this latter they use for the trade from Asia, but Lechaeum for that from Italy. Lechaeum lies beneath the city, and does not contain many residences; but long walls about twelve stadia in length have been built on both sides of the road that leads to Lechaeum. The shore that extends from here to Pagae in Megaris is washed by the Corinthian Gulf; it is concave, and with the shore on the other side, at Schoenus, which is near Cenchreae, it forms the “Diolcus.”¹ In the interval between Lechaeum and Pagae there used to be, in early times, the oracle of the Acraean Hera; and here, too, is Olmiae, the promontory that forms the gulf in which are situated Oenoe and Pagae, the latter a stronghold of the Megarians and Oenoe of the Corinthians. From Cenchreae one comes to Schoenus, where is the narrow part of the isthmus, I mean the “Diolcus”; and then one comes to Crommyonia. Off this shore lie the Saronic and Eleusinian Gulfs, which in a way are the same, and border on the Hermionic Gulf. On the Isthmus is also the temple of the Isthmian Poseidon, in the shade of a grove of pinetrees, where the Corinthians used to celebrate the Isthmian Games. Crommyon is a village in Corinthia, though in earlier times it was in Megaris; and in it is laid the scene of the myth of the Crommyonian sow, which, it is said, was the mother of the Caledonian boar; and, according to tradition, the destruction of this sow was one of the labors of Theseus. Tenea, also, is in Corinthia, and in it is a temple of the Teneatan Apollo; and it is said that most of the colonists who accompanied Archias, the leader of the colonists to Syracuse, set out from there, and that afterwards Tenea prospered more than the other settlements, and finally even had a government of its own, and, revolting from the Corinthians, joined the Romans, and endured after the destruction of Corinth. And mention is also made of an oracle that was given to a certain man from Asia,² who enquired whether it was better to change his home to Corinth:

“Blest is Corinth, but Tenea for me.”

But in ignorance some pervert this as follows: “but Tegea for me!” And it is said that Polybus reared Oedipus here. And it seems, also, that there is a kinship between the peoples of Tenedos and Tenea, through Tennes³ the son of Cycnus, as Aristotle says;⁴ and the similarity in the worship of Apollo among the two peoples affords strong indications of such kinship.

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. The remains of an ancient place at the distance of about a mile after crossing the Erasinus, (Kephalari,) are probably those of Cenchreae Smith.

2. Crommyon was distant 120 stadia from Corinth, (Thuc. iv. 45,) and appears to have therefore occupied the site of the ruins near the chapel of St. Theodorus. The village of Kineta, which many modern travellers suppose to correspond to Crommyon, is much farther from Corinth than 120 stadia. Smith.

3. According to Pausanias, the Teneates derive their origin from the Trojans taken captive at the island of Tenedos. On their arrival in Peloponnesus, Tenea was assigned to them as a habitation by Agamemnon.

Strabo Geography 8.6.22

Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator)

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