Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CORINTHIAN SAINTS AND SINNERS
Roman Corinth's reputation for wealth, fuelled by its trading access to luxury goods, was soon
equalled by its appetite for
earthly pleasures
- including sex. Corinthian women were
renowned for their beauty and much sought after as
hetairai
(courtesans); over a thousand
sacred prostitutes served a temple to Aphrodite/Venus, on the acropolis of Acrocorinth.
St Paul
stayed in Corinth for eighteen months in 51-52 AD, though his attempts to reform the citizens'
ways were met with rioting - tribulations recorded in his two
letters to the Corinthians
.
2
with Rome to the west, and Syria and Egypt to the east. The city endured until
rocked by two major
earthquakes
, in 375 and 521, which brought down the
Roman buildings and again depopulated the site until a brief Byzantine revival in
the eleventh century.
The excavations
Daily: summer 8am-7.30pm; winter 8am-5pm • €6
Entering from the north, you are in the
Roman agora
, an enormous marketplace
flanked by the substantial foundations of a huge
stoa
, once a structure of several storeys,
with 33 shops on the ground floor. Opposite the
stoa
is a
bema
, a marble platform used
for public announcements. At the far end are remains of a
basilica
, while the area
behind the
bema
is strewn with the remnants of numerous Roman administrative
buildings. Back across the agora, hidden in a swirl of broken marble and shattered
architecture, there's a fascinating trace of the Greek city - a grille-covered
sacred spring
,
at the base of a narrow flight of steps.
More substantial is the elaborate Roman
Fountain of Peirene
, which stands below the
level of the agora, to the side of a wide, excavated stretch of the marble-paved
Lechaion
Way
- the main approach to the city. The fountain house was, like many of Athens'
Roman public buildings, the gift of the wealthy Athenian and friend of Emperor
Hadrian, Herodes Atticus. Water still flows through the underground cisterns and
supplies the modern village.
The real focus of the ancient site, though, is a rare survival from the Classical Greek
era, the fifth-century BC
Temple of Apollo
, whose seven austere Doric columns stand
slightly above the level of the forum, flanked by foundations of another marketplace
and baths. Over to the west is the site
museum
(same hours as site; included in site
admission), housing a large collection of domestic pieces, some good Greek and
Roman mosaics from nearby, a frieze depicting some of the labours of Hercules, and a
good number of Roman statues.
A number of miscellaneous smaller excavations surround the main site. To the west,
just across the road from the enclosing wire, there are outlines of two
theatres
: a
Roman
odeion
(endowed by Herodes Atticus) and a larger Greek theatre, used by the
Romans for gladiatorial battles. To the north are the inaccessible but visible remains of
an
Asklepion
(dedicated to the god of healing).
Acrocorinth
Summer daily 8am-7pm; winter Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • Free
Rising almost sheer above the lower town and the fertile plains, the medieval fortress of
Acrocorinth
is sited on an imposing mass of rock, still largely encircled by 2km of wall.
Despite the long, 4km climb (nearly an hour's broiling walk) - or a ten-minute drive
up from Ancient Corinth - a visit is unreservedly recommended. Looking down over
the Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Kórinthos, you get a real sense of its strategic
importance. Amid the extensive remains is a jumble of chapels, mosques, houses and
battlements, erected in turn by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Frankish crusaders,
Venetians and Turks.
