POROS  , or PoRO (" the

Ford "), an island off the east coast of the Morea, separated at its western extremity by only a narrow channel from the mainland at Troezen, and consisting of a mass of limestone rock and of a mass of trachyte connected by a slight sandy isthmus . The town looks down on the beautiful harbour between the island and the mainland on the south . The ancient Calauria, with which Poros is identified, was given, according to the myth, by Apollo to Poseidon in exchange for Delos; and it became in historic times famous for a temple of the sea-god, which formed the centre of an amphictyony of seven maritime states—Hermione, Epidaurus, Aegina, Athens, Prasiae, Na.uplia, and Orchomenus . Here Demosthenes took sanctuary with " gracious Poseidon," and, when this threatened to fail him, sought death . The building was of Doric architecture and lay on a ridge of the hill commanding a fine view of Athens and the Saronic Gulf, near the middle of the limestone part of the island . The site was excavated in 1894, and traces of a sacred agora with porticoes and other buildings, as well as the temple, have been found . In the neighbourhood of Poros-Calauria are two small islands, the more westerly of which contains the ruins of a small temple, and is probably the ancient Sphaeria or Hiera mentioned by Pausanias as the seat of a temple of Athena Apaturia . The English, French, and Russian plenipotentiaries met at Poros in 1828 to discuss the basis of the Greek government . See Chandler, Travels; Leake, Morea; Le Bas, Voyage archeologique; Curtius, Peloponnesos; Pouillon-Boblaye, Recherches; Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland; Rangabe ' Ein Ausflug nach Poros," in Deutsche Revue (1883); and S . Wide, in Mitteilungen d. deutsch . Inst . Athen .

(1895), vol. xx .