Ancient Corinth

Corinth (Greek: Κόρινθος Korinthos; Doric Greek: Ϙόρινθος; Latin: Corinthus) was a city-state (polis) on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta. The modern city of Corinth is located approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northeast of the ancient ruins. Since 1896, systematic archaeological investigations of the Corinth Excavations by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens have revealed large parts of the ancient city.

For Christians, Corinth is well known from the two letters of Saint Paul in the New Testament, First and Second Corinthians. Corinth is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as part of Paul's missionary travels. In addition, the second book of Pausanias' Description of Greece is devoted to Corinth.

Ancient Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities of Greece, with a population of 90,000 in 400 BC. The Romans demolished Corinth in 146 BC, built a new city in its place in 44 BC, and later made it the provincial capital of Greece.

Quotes

• Ποῦ τὸ περίβλεπτον κάλλος σέο, Δωρὶ Κόρινθε;
  ποῦ στεφάναι πύργων, ποῦ τὰ πάλαι κτέανα,
  ποῦ νηοὶ μακάρων, ποῦ δώματα, ποῦ δὲ δάμαρτες
  Σισύφιαι, λαῶν θ᾽ αἱ ποτε μυριάδες;
  οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδ᾽ ἴχνος, πολυκάμμορε, σεῖο λέλειπται,
  πάντα δὲ συμμάρψας ἐξέφαγεν πόλεμος.
  μοῦναι ἀπόρθητοι Νηρηίδες, Ὠκεανοῖο
  κοῦραι, σῶν ἀχέων μίμνομεν ἁλκυόνες.
  
  • Antipater of Sidon, Anthologia Graeca, IX, 151
    • Where is thy celebrated beauty, Doric Corinth? Where are the battlements of thy towers and thy ancient possessions? Where are the temples of the immortals, the houses and the matrons of the town of Sisyphus, and her myriads of people? Not even a trace is left of thee, most unhappy of towns, but war has seized on and devoured everything. We alone, the Nereids, Ocean’s daughters, remain inviolate, and lament, like halcyons, thy sorrows.
      • W. R. Paton, Greek Anthology, III, p. 78
    • Where has thy grandeur, Corinth, shrunk from sight,
      Thy ancient treasures, and thy rampart's height,
      Thy godlike fanes and palaces—Oh where
      Thy mighty myriads and majestic fair?
      Relentless war has pour'd around thy wall,
      And hardly spared the traces of thy fall.
      [We nymphs of Ocean deathless yet remain,
      And sad and silent sorrow near thy plain.]
      • Edward Dodwell, A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece (1819), p. 192; final couplet added by Robert Bland, "The Nereids of Corinth Lament its Destruction", Collections from the Greek Anthology (1813), p. 119
    • Where are thy splendours, Dorian Corinth, where
        Thy crested turrets, thy ancestral goods,
      The temples of the blest, the dwellings fair,
        The high-born dames, the myriad multitudes?
      There's not a trace of thee, sad doom'd one, left,
      By rav'ning war at once of all bereft.
      We, the sad Nereids, offspring of the surge,
      Alone are spared, to chaunt thy halcyon dirge.
      • Henry Wellesley, "On the Destruction of Corinth", Anthologia Polyglotta (1849), p. 421
    • Where, Corinth, are thy glories now,
      Thy ancient wealth, thy castled brow,
      Thy solemn fanes, thy halls of state,
      Thy high-born dames, thy crowded gate?
      There's not a ruin left to tell,
      Where Corinth stood, how Corinth fell.
      The Nereids of thy double sea
      Alone remain to wail for thee.
      • Goldwin Smith, "Threnody upon the Ruins of Corinth", in R. W. Browne, A History of Greece (1847), p. 396
    • Where is thy splendour now, thy crown of towers,
        Thy beauty visible to all men's eyes,
        The gold and silver of thy treasuries,
      Thy temples of blest gods, thy woven bowers
      Where long-stoled ladies walked in tranquil hours,
        Thy multitudes like stars that crowd the skies?
        All, all are gone. Thy desolation lies
      Bare to the night. The elemental powers
      Resume their empire: on this lonely shore
        Thy deathless Nereids, daughters of the sea,
        Wailing 'mid broken stones unceasingly,
      Like halcyons when the restless south winds roar,
      Sing the sad story of thy woes of yore:
        These plunging waves are all that's left to thee.
      • J. A. Symonds Jr., "Solemn Lament over Corinth", Sketches in Italy and Greece (1874), p. 177
    • Where is thy beauty, Dorian Corinth, where
        The crown of towers, which of old was thine?
      The halls once crowded by the brave and fair,
        The throng which flocked to many a gorgeous shrine?
      Thy beauty's wrecked. It ne'er can rise again,
        'Tis wasted by the stern, relentless foe,
      And only we, the Nymphs from out the main,
        Abide, like halcyons, wailing o'er thy woe.
      • Evelyn Baring, "Corinth", Paraphrases and Translations (1902), p. 125
    • Where, Corinth, is the glory of thy keep,
      The ancient wealth, the turret-circled steep?
      Where are thy fanes, thy homes? Where all thy wives?
      Where do the myriads of thy people sleep?
      Of all thy pride no sign is left to-day:
      All has war taken, all consumed away.
      Only the halcyons, Ocean's Nêreïd brood,
      Unravished yet, to weep thy downfall stay.
      • Walter Leaf, "The Ruins of Corinth", Quatrains from the Greek (1919), p. 12

• Τὸν μέγαν Ἀκροκόρινθον Ἀχαιικὸν, Ἑλλάδος ἄστρον,
  καὶ διπλῆν Ἰσθμοῦ σύνδρομον ἠιόνα
  Λεύκιος ἐστυφέλιξε: δοριπτοίητα δὲ νεκρῶν
  ὀστέα σωρευθεὶς εἷς ἐπέχει σκόπελος.
  τοὺς δὲ δόμον Πριάμοιο πυρὶ πρήσαντας Ἀχαιοὺς
  ἀκλαύστους κτερέων νόσφισαν Αἰνεάδαι.
  • Polystratus, Anthological Graeca, VII, 297
    • Lucius has smitten sore the great Achaean Acrocorinth, the star of Hellas, and the twin parallel shores of the Isthmus. One heap of stones covers the bones of those slain in the rout; and the sons of Aeneas left unwept and unhallowed by funeral rites the Achaeans who burnt the house of Priam.
      • W. R. Paton, Greek Anthology, Vol. 2 (1917), p. 163
      • Note: Lucius is Mummius, who sacked Corinth in 146 BC
    • Achæan Acrocorinth, the bright star
        Of Hellas with its narrow Isthmian bound,
        Lucius o’ercame; in one enormous mound
      Piling the dead, conspicuous from afar.
      Thus, to the Greeks denying funeral fires,
        Have great Æneas’ later progeny
        Performed high Jove’s retributive decree,
      And well avenged the city of their sires.
      • J. H. Merivale, "On the Destruction of Corinth", Collections from the Greek Anthology, new ed. (1833), p. 193