Corinth

Ephyra, Helios and the Divine Dispute

Homer does not call the city Corinth when he tells its oldest stories. In Iliad Book 6 the Lycian Glaucus describes his ancestry to Diomedes and places it in "Ephyre, in a corner of horse-rearing Argos". There, he says, lived Sisyphus, "craftiest of men". Sisyphus fathered Glaucus, and Glaucus fathered Bellerophon. Later Greeks took Ephyra to be the old name of Corinth.

Corinth also had its own story of a quarrel between gods, a counterpart to Athens' contest. Pausanias reports that Poseidon and Helios both claimed the land, and the hundred-handed Briareos arbitrated. Poseidon received the Isthmus, and Helios received the heights of Acrocorinth. Helios later handed the citadel to Aphrodite. That explains why Aphrodite had her temple on the summit and Poseidon had his great sanctuary at Isthmia. According to the poet Eumelus, Helios gave the lowland to his son Aeëtes. Aeëtes left for Colchis, and that is how his daughter Medea came to inherit a claim to Corinth.

Why Sisyphus Was Punished

Sisyphus' trickery is well known, but the Corinthians had a specific story about what led to his downfall. When Zeus carried off Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus, Sisyphus told the father who had taken her. His price was a spring of water on Acrocorinth, and Pausanias identifies it with the upper Peirene behind Aphrodite's temple. That betrayal of Zeus is the reason often given for his death and his punishment. Sisyphus was also credited with founding the Isthmian Games, as funeral games for the boy Melicertes. Melicertes' mother Ino had leapt into the sea with him, and a dolphin carried his body to the Isthmus, where he was worshipped as the sea-god Palaemon. Athenian tradition, reported by Plutarch, claimed instead that Theseus founded or refounded the games in honour of Poseidon. The Isthmus was also where Theseus killed the robber Sinis, who tore travellers apart by bending pine trees. For more, see the myth of Sisyphus.

A second Glaucus, Sisyphus' son, met a grim end of his own. He was said to feed his mares on human flesh, or to keep them from breeding so they would run faster. At the funeral games of Pelias they tore him apart.

Medea in Corinth: The Versions Before Euripides

Euripides' Medea (431 BC) fixed the image of a mother who kills her own children for revenge, but older Corinthian tradition told the story differently. Pausanias records that Medea held the throne of Corinth by inheritance. In that account she hid her children in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia, hoping to make them immortal, and her hopes were disappointed. Another version, also in Pausanias, says the Corinthians stoned the children to death because of the gifts they had carried to the princess. After that, Corinthian babies began to die, until the city atoned with yearly sacrifices. Later writers add that seven boys and seven girls served for a year in Hera's sanctuary as part of the atonement. Later commentators even claimed that the Corinthians paid Euripides to shift the blame onto Medea. That is a gossipy story with no solid evidence, but it shows that ancient readers knew the child-murder was not the only version. See Medea.

Corinth is also where Oedipus was raised. In Sophocles, the shepherd hands the infant from Thebes to King Polybus and Queen Merope, and he grows up believing they are his parents. A Corinthian messenger's arrival in Oedipus Tyrannus sets off the final revelation.

Cult, Bellerophon's Bridle and a Persistent Myth

Pindar's Olympian 13, written for a Corinthian victor, gives the classic version of Bellerophon's taming of Pegasus. Athena appears to him in a dream with a golden bridle, and he sacrifices to her as Athena Hippia. Corinth had a temple of Athena Chalinitis, "of the Bridle", in memory of the gift. The Archaic temple of Apollo, built around 540 BC, still has seven of its monolithic columns standing.

A common claim is that the temple of Aphrodite on Acrocorinth kept more than a thousand sacred prostitutes. The idea comes mainly from Strabo, writing centuries after the fact, and many modern historians doubt that such an institution ever existed on that scale. The Greek verb korinthiazesthai, "to act the Corinthian", did mean to fornicate, and Corinth's reputation for luxury was real. Strabo's specific numbers are another matter.

Ancient sources

• Homer, Iliad 6.144–211 — Glaucus traces his lineage from Sisyphus of Ephyre to Bellerophon and tells of Bellerophon's adventures in Lycia.
• Pindar, Olympian 13 — Pindar praises Corinth and tells how Athena gave Bellerophon the golden bridle to tame Pegasus by the spring of Peirene.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.1–2.5 — Pausanias covers the arbitration of Briareos, the cult of Melicertes, Medea's children and Hera Akraia, the Athena Chalinitis temple, and Sisyphus and the spring.
• Euripides, Medea — The tragedy in which Medea kills Creon's daughter and her own children in Corinth.
• Strabo, Geography 8.6 — Strabo describes Corinth's position on the Isthmus, Acrocorinth, the Peirene spring, and his much-debated claim about temple servants of Aphrodite.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Corinth in Greek mythology?

Sisyphus is the founder most often named, and Homer places him at Ephyra, which later Greeks identified with Corinth. Some writers name a hero Corinthus, a son of Zeus, as the city's eponym.

Did Medea really kill her children in every version?

No. Earlier Corinthian traditions had the children die by accident while Medea tried to make them immortal, or had the Corinthians kill them. Euripides' play made Medea the killer, and his version became the best known.

Why does Pegasus appear on Corinthian coins?

Bellerophon was a Corinthian hero, and the city believed he caught Pegasus at its Peirene spring. The winged horse became Corinth's civic emblem on its silver coinage.

What were the Isthmian Games?

They were one of the four great Panhellenic festivals, held every two years at Poseidon's sanctuary on the Isthmus. Myth said they were founded for Melicertes-Palaemon, by Sisyphus or by Theseus.

Books to read next

• Edith Hamilton, Mythology
• Stephen Fry, Mythos
• Robert Graves, The Greek Myths

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