Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

5
A Sense of Space: Landscape and Geography
The Isthmos of Corinth stretches on one side down to the sea at Kenchreai,
and on the other to the sea at Lechaion, and this is what makes the land
inside [i.e. in the Peloponnese] mainland. He who tried to turn the Peloponnese
into an island gave up before he had dug through the Isthmos. And the
place from where they began to dig can still be seen, but they never advanced
into the rock. Thus the Peloponnese is still mainland, as it is by nature. 1
(Paus. 2.1.5)
This is Pausanias’ description of one of the most remarkable geographical
features in the area covered by the Periegesis. In antiquity the Isthmos of
Corinth was seen as a significant boundary between two distinct parts of
Greece, 2 and in Pausanias’ Periegesis it marks the point where the text
embarks on the seven books which deal with the Peloponnese. There is no
introduction to this major section of the work, and an overview of the
peninsula’s regional divisions is offered only much later, at the beginning
of Book VIII. 3 Pausanias apparently did not find it necessary to focus on
the special geographical situation of Corinth (Fig. 6). He does say that the
Isthmos is bounded by the sea in two places, but the covert reference to
Nero’s failed canal project is the only reminder of the fact that this narrow
stretch of land separated two gulfs which were several days’ dangerous sea
voyage apart. Instead Pausanias refers to Kenchreai and Lechaion, the
Corinthian ports which are introduced properly only a few paragraphs
later. Even in this context it is not explained that one harbour faces
towards the Corinthian Gulf and the Adriatic while the other offered
access to the Saronic Gulf and Aegean, and we are never told explicitly
which harbour lies on which side of the Isthmos. 4 Every educated Greek
would know about the unique location of Corinth and the almost proverbial
wealth that it had once brought to the city. 5 It is quite possible that in
describing such a famous region Pausanias was keen to avoid anything
that might seem commonplace to an informed reader.
We can see a slightly more methodical approach in Strabo’s Geography,
written about 180 years earlier. Strabo based most of his work on secondhand
information, but he did know Corinth from personal experience,
which means the two authors are, for once, on a level playing field. 6
The coast begins on one side at Lechaion, and on the other at Kenchreai, a
village with a harbour about seventy stadia from the city. The latter is used
by those from Asia, and Lechaion serves those from Italy. … The shore
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