Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/693

 C0R1NTHU& hy natnM to be a fipreat maritime power. Stimding upon a narrow uthmus between two important soaSf at A time when all navigation was performed by ooasUiig vesaeb, and it was difficult aiid dangeroos to convey goods ronnd the Peloponnesus, Corinth became the highway of ancient commerce. In con- sequence of its position it formed by fu the most direct communication between the two ]Nrincipal Grecian seas, uniting the lonixm and Siciliau seas on the one hand, with tlio Aegaean, tlie Hellespont, and the Poiitus on the other. It thus became the emporium of the trade between the East and the West. The position of Corinth is well described by Cicero (de Leg, Agr. ii. 32) : — " Erat posita in angustiis atque in &ucibus Graeciae sic, ut terr& tlaustra locorum teneret, et duo inaria, maxime naiispifcioni diversa, paene oonjungeret, quum per- tenui ^nrimine separentur." Het;ce also Euripides (Troad. 1097) describes Corinth, as Hlwopov Kopv- ^Ay "JaQfuoVy A*ik vvKas n4owos Ixoviriv ISpoi ; and Horace (Carm^L.7) speaks of ^^bimaria Co- rinthi moenia." II. HisTO«x« The favourable pontion of Cornftib for commerce could not have escaped the notice ef the Phoeni- cians, who had settlements on other p«rtB of the Grecian coast There can be little doubt that a Phoenician colony at an early period took pones- sion oi the Acrocorinthus. If there were no other evidence for this fact, it would have been sufficiently proved by the Oriental character of the worship of Aphrodite in this city, of which a further account is given below. But in addition to this, the recollection of the early Phoenician settlement was perpetuated by the Corinthian mountain called Phoenicaeum (^o:Wi(aioy, Ephor. ap. SUph. B. s. v.), and by the worship of the Phoenician Athena {^otvUeri ^ 'AO^va 4if KopiK^fr, Tzetzes, ad Lgcophr. 658.) Thucydldes mentions (iv. 42) Aeolians as the inhabitants of Corinth at the time of the Dorian invasion; but there can be no doubt that lonians also formed a considerable part rf the popukdon in the earliest times, since lonians were in possession of the coasts on either side of the Isthmus, and on the Isthmus itself was the most revered seat of Poseidon, the chief deity of the Ionic race. Still the earliest rulers of Corinth are uniformly represented as Aeolians. The founder of this dynasty was Sisy- phus, whose cunning and love of gain may typify the commercial enterprise of the early maritime popu- lation, who overreached the simple inhabitants of the interior. Under the sway of Ssyphus and his descendants Corinth became one of the richest and most powerful cities in Greece. Sisyphus had two sons, Glaucus and Omytion. From Glaucns sprang the celebrated hero Bellerophon, who was worshipped with heroic honours at Corinth, and whose expldts were a favouiite subject among the Corinthians down to the latest times. Hence we constantiy find upon the coins of Corinth and her colonies the figure of the winged horse Pegasus, which Belle- Tophoo caught at the fountain of Peirene on the Acrocorinthus. Belleroph(m, as is well known, settled in Lycia ; and the descendants of Omytion (continued to rule at Corinth till the overthrow of tbe Sisyphid dynasty by the conquering Dorians. The most ancient name of the dty was Ef^yra (*£^^/>i}). At what time it exchanged tins name fot that of Corinth is unknown. MtiUer, relying ofoo a passage of VeUeius Paterculns (i 3) sup- COBIKTHUa 675 poses that it rooeived the name of Corinth upon occasion of the Dorian conquest; but Homer uses :^ both nam es indis criminately. ('E^^piy, It vi. 152,
 * «I0; kopii^o$,ir. 07 u, xiu. 664.) According to the

Corinthians themselves Corinthus, from whom the city derived its name, was a son of 2>us ; but the epic poet Eumelus, one of the Corinthian Raochiadae, gave a less exalted origin to the eponymous hero. This poet carried up the liistory of his native place to a still earlier period than the rule of the Sisy- phids. Acc<Niding to the legend, related by him, the gods Poseidon and Helios (the Sun) con- tended for the possession of the Corinthian land. By the award of Briareos Poseidtni obtained the Isthmcis ; and Helios the mck, afterwards called the Acroc(xinthu8, and then Ephyra, from Ephyra, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and the primitive inhabitant of the country. Helios had two sons Ae^tes and Aloeus : to the former he gave Ephyra, to the latter Asopia (Sicyon). Aeetes, going to Colchis, left his country under the government of Bunas, aspn of Hermes; upon whose death Epopeus, the son of Aloeus, obtained Ephyra as well as Asopia. Marathon, the son of Epopeus, who had left the country during his lifetime, returned at his death, and divided his territory between his sons Corinthus and Sicyon, from whom the two towns obtained their names. Corinthus dying without children, the Corinthians invited Medea from lolcos, as the daughter of AeStes ; and thus her husband Jason obtained the sovereignty of Corinth. Medea after- wards returned to lolcos, leaving the throne to Sis^^us, with whom she is said to have been in love, f Pans. L 1. § 2, i. 3. § 10 ; Schol. ad Find, 01. xiiL 74.) Upon this legend Mr. Grote justiy remarks, that " the incidents in it are imagined and arranged with a view to the supremacy of Medea; the emigratiou of Aeetes, and the conditions* under which he tramferred his sceptre being so laid out as to confiBr upon Medea an hereditary title to the throne. .... We may consider the legend of Medea as having been originally quite independent of that of Sisyphus, but fitlad on to it, in seeming chrono- logical sequence, so aa to satisfy the feelings of those Aeolids of Corinth who passed for his descendants." (^Hist. ofGreece^ vol. 1. p. 165, seq.) The first reaUy histoiical fact in the history of Corinth is its conquest by the Dorians. It is said that this conquest was not effected till the gene- ration after the return of the Heracleidae into Pelo" ponnesus. When the Heracleidae were on the point of crossing over from Naupactus, Hippotes, also a descendant of Hercules, but not through Hyllus, slew the prophet Camus, in consequence rf which he was buushed for ten years, and not allowed to take part in the enterprise. His son Aletes, who derivexl his name from his long wanderings, was afterwards the leader of the Dorian conquerors of Corinth, and the first Dorian king of the city. (Pans. ii. 4. § 3.) It appeara from the account of Thucydides (iv. 42) that the Dorian invaders took possesion of the hill called Solygeius, near the Saronic gulf, from wh^^ they carried on war against tbe Aeolian inhabitants of Corinth till th^ reduced the city. The Dorians, though the ruling dasi, appear to have fbnned only a small proportion of the popu- lation of Corinth. The non Dorian inhabitants must have hem admitted at an early period to the citizenship ; since we find mention of dght Co- rinthjan tribes (n^o hmit^ Phot., Saidas), whonas i'* A -90-