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DERVENAKIA (Settlement) NEMEA
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 Kontoporeia ("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.
J. R. Wiseman, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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