By Athena Lucero
At first glance downtown Corinth's concrete landscape surprised me. Where, I wondered, were all the ruins of ancient Corinth? It was, after all, the largest, wealthiest and most powerful city-state during antiquity. Well, this turned out to be the story behind the modern city located 50 miles southwest of Athens.
Corinth, or Korinthos in Greek, was destroyed more than once. Each time, the problem-solving Corinthians rebuilt their city. Starting with the Romans in 146 B.C., Gen. Lucius Mummius leveled Corinth because it refused to shut down the Achaian League, a federation of Greek city-states that was led by Corinth. Suffice it to say, this was the move that began Rome's dominance in Greece.
Fast-forward to 1858, when a devastating earthquake rocked Corinth. The city was rebuilt again — but this time as "New Corinth" on the coast of the Corinthian Gulf a few miles from the ancient city. It didn't stop there. Another tremor hit in 1928, and a massive fire in 1933 burned it to the ground.
Now that is staying power! Today Corinth, with more than 30,000 inhabitants, is the thriving capital of Corinthia, a large regional unit of Greece comprised of six municipalities. And with what remains of the Temple of Apollo and the Acrocorinth — Corinth's acropolis, a monolithic rock towering 1,886 feet over the city (the Fountain of Peirene from the legend of Pegasus is here) — it stands as a testament to its former life as the capital of Roman Greece.
On the way to the ancient city, my fellow travelers and I stopped at the old bridge above the famous Corinth Canal on the Isthmus of Corinth, another example of Corinthian ingenuity, and an engineering wonder for its time. The precursor to the canal, though, was the "Diolkos," an ancient invention, explained our Greek guide Panagis Germenis, as we stood above the narrow waterway — only 70 feet wide. A paved trackway, the Diolkos put Corinth on course to become an important commercial hub. With two major ports, it became the richest city in the ancient world — thanks to its commanding location on the isthmus, the small land mass that connected the Peloponnese Peninsula to mainland Greece as well as the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Sea.
"Ships were pulled out of the sea on one side," explained Germenis, "... and dragged on the Diolkos all the way to the sea on the other side. Boats no longer had to sail the long and dangerous route around the Peloponnese."
But it was in the seventh century that the popular King Periander, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, envisioned a canal through the isthmus.
"It was his dream," said Germenis, "...but they couldn't overcome the mechanical difficulties because they didn't have the science or the tools at the time." Much later, Julius Caesar, who had refounded Corinth as a Roman colony in 44 B.C., was keen on the canal, too, but the Roman dictator was assassinated the same year.
Not all was lost for the canal, however. It became a reality in 1893, when a French company completed the project. The four-mile-long canal slices through the earth, and its sheer cliff walls are a remarkable sight. But too narrow for modern ships, the canal's main use today is for tour and recreational boats.
With Corinth's devastating events throughout history, it's a surprise anything was left of the Temple of Apollo that was built around 540 B.C. atop the area's highest point with views of the ancient city and the massive gulf below. Its imposing columns still dominate the landscape by day and at night when, since 2013, the temple lights up after dark.
The archaeological site at the Temple of Apollo also includes remains of the agora, ancient Corinth's once-bustling marketplace where Paul the Apostle delivered his message of Christ to the Corinthians. It was in Corinth that the traveling missionary wrote to the people his words of wisdom and encouragement known as the Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul — considered to be the earliest writings of the church.
From the majestic ruins we strolled along the walkway to the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth established in 1931 and most recently renovated in July 2016. Designed with a lovely courtyard, the facility is not large, but its rich collections of items found around the ancient city paint the fantastic story of Corinth from its various periods in history — Prehistoric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Excavations here have been conducted by the American School of Classical Studies since 1896 and continue today.
The museum's collections include statuary, children's toys, statuettes (small figurines) that were a profitable business in Corinth, tiled works and the famous Corinthian black-figure pottery (think silhouette) seen in museums around the world. The unique style of these pottery paintings by skilled artists depicted daily life in Corinth that ultimately helped archaeologists to understand the culture of early Greek civilization.
And the "Holy Grail" of it all, we had the extraordinary chance to view the centerpiece of the museum — the twin Kouroi, a pair of life-size nude male statues carved in marble that had been stolen from the museum (along with almost 250 other antiquities) in the late l990s and recovered in May 2010 just before they were to be sold off for $10 million. Each Kouroi, common during the Archaic period, represented male youth usually of noble status and was often dedicated to the gods. After extensive restoration the pair was unveiled for the first time in July 2016.
I could not have asked for a more intriguing introduction to Greece. The next time I walk among the modern buildings of (new) Corinth, it won't be a mystery. But surrounded by relics from its glory days during antiquity, Corinth will always hold a mystique.
WHEN YOU GO
To learn more about Corinth, visit www.visitgreece.gr.
My accommodation was Hotel Ephira, www.ephirahotel.gr.
Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth: www.ancientcorinth.net
Athena Lucero is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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