4. Then follows the Saronic Gulf; some call it a Pontus or sea, others a Porus or passage, whence it is also termed the Saronic pelagos or deep. The whole of the passage, or Porus, extending from the Hermionic Sea, and the sea about the Isthmus (of Corinth) to the Myrtoan and Cretan Seas, has this name.
To the Saronic Gulf belong Epidaurus,[171] and the island in front of it, Ægina; then Cenchreæ, the naval station of the Corinthians towards the eastern parts; then Schœnus,[172] a harbour at the distance of 45 stadia by sea; from Maleæ the whole number of stadia is about 1800.
At Schœnus is the Diolcus, or place where they draw the vessels across the Isthmus: it is the narrowest part of it. Near Schœnus is the temple of the Isthmian Neptune. At present, however, I shall not proceed with the description of these places, for they are not situated within the Argive territory, but resume the account of those which it contains.
5. And first, we may observe how frequently Argos is mentioned by the poet, both by itself and with the epithet designating it as Achæan Argos, Argos Jasum, Argos Hippium, or Hippoboton, or Pelasgicum. The city, too, is called Argos,
“Argos and Sparta”—[173]
those who occupied Argos
“and Tiryns;”[174]
and Peloponnesus is called Argos,
“at our house in Argos,”[175]
for the city could not be called his house; and he calls the whole of Greece, Argos, for he calls all Argives, as he calls them Danai, and Achæans.