Diolkos
placeA paved trackway across the Isthmus of Corinth used to transport ships overland, functioning as an ancient railway for nearly 700 years.
The Myth
The Diolkos was a stone-paved road built across the 6-kilometre Isthmus of Corinth around 600 BC by the tyrant Periander. Ships or their cargoes were loaded onto wheeled vehicles (holkoi) and dragged across grooved tracks cut into the limestone pavement. This allowed merchants and navies to avoid the dangerous 400-kilometre voyage around the Peloponnese. Corinth's wealth derived from controlling both ports — Lechaeum on the Gulf of Corinth and Cenchreae on the Saronic Gulf — and the Diolkos was the link between them. Poseidon, lord of the sea, was Corinth's patron deity, and the Isthmian Games at his nearby sanctuary celebrated the maritime culture the Diolkos served. The trackway was used continuously from the 7th century BC into the 1st century AD. Augustus transported warships across it during the Actium campaign. Remains of the grooved pavement are still visible at the western end near the modern canal.
Parents
Periander (builder)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Diolkos was a railway 2,200 years before Stephenson's Rocket. Grooved stone tracks, wheeled vehicles, a fixed route — it meets every definition of a rail transport system except using steam power. When engineers planned the Corinth Canal in the 19th century, they were solving the same problem Periander tackled in 600 BC. The canal, finally completed in 1893, replaced the world's oldest railway with the world's narrowest major shipping canal.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Corinth
placeCorinth was a wealthy trading city on the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece to the...
Isthmian Games
conceptOne of the four Panhellenic Games held at Corinth every two years in honour of Poseidon, with...
Poseidon
godLord of the seas and brother of Zeus. Poseidon's moods shaped the oceans — calm seas for those who...
Poseidon (Earth-Shaker)
godPoseidon was the god of the sea and earthquakes whose moods determined whether sailors lived or...
Poseidon Hippios
godAn epithet of Poseidon as lord of horses, reflecting his role as creator of the first horse and...
Ship of Theseus
conceptThe paradox of identity: the Athenians preserved Theseus's ship by replacing rotting planks until...
Acheron
placeThe Acheron was the River of Woe in the underworld, which the dead had to cross — in some...
Aeaea (Isle of Circe)
placeThe mythical island home of the enchantress Circe, where Odysseus's men were transformed into swine...
Arcadia
placeArcadia was both a real mountainous region in the central Peloponnese and an idealised landscape of...
Argo (Ship)
placeThe Argo was the ship built by Argus for Jason's quest — the first long-voyage ship in Greek myth,...
Athens
placeAthens was the city sacred to Athena, birthplace of democracy, philosophy, drama, and Western...
Cape Sounion
placeThe dramatic headland at the southern tip of Attica crowned by the Temple of Poseidon, where Aegeus...