Study tour notes for Corinth
Aug. 3rd, 2012 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbI admit it, I am skipping bits of Delphi. I can't quite wrangle it well enough on my own to blog it, and in consequence I'm going to be working from someone else's really well prepared notes.
Corinth
So I'm moving on to Corinth. More specifically, to Old Corinth, Palaio-Korinthos, for the site of the modern town of Korinthos (Nea Korinthos) is located on the shoreline of the Corinthian Gulf as a result of an earthquake in 1858, which caused significant damage to the town then on the site of Old Corinth. The modern town is five miles away, on the shore, adjacent to Lechaion, the site that was Old Corinth's port in antiquity.
The town itself lies approximately 100m above sea level. The Akrokorinth, which you can see rising above us, is over 500m above sea level - 575m at its highest point, I believe. In antiquity it was the acropolis of ancient city, and through the medieval period and into the Ottoman it was built into one of the most impressive fortresses in the Morea (the Morea being was the Peleponnese was known as in the middle ages and under the Ottomans). The Franks began the fortification, during their short-lived medieval dominance in the Morea; the Turks maintained the walls after they took over the Corinthia in 1498, and the Hospitaller Knights of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta briefly - in 1612 - controlled the area around. The Venetians came in in 1687, and the Turks kicked the Venetians out again in 1715. And that's the later history of Corinth, until the Greek war of independence, when the Akrokorinth was used as a fortress by the combatants.
Early occupation and potted history
- Occupied continuously since the 5th millennium.
- Colonies at Corcyra and Syracuse (ca.734).
- 8th century ruled by the tyrants the Baccidae, who were overthrown in the mid 7th by the tyrant Kypselos. An account in Herodotos details the mythological history here. Ruled by Kypselos, Periander and Psammeticus before being overthrown by a moderate oligarchy in 6th century.
- Proto-Corinthian pottery – evidence for trade in the Geometric and Archaic periods as far away as northern Italy (the Etruscans) before being over-taken by Attica as a pottery producer.
- During the Persian Wars the city served as a sort of Greek headquarters.
- 434 BC: war between Corinth and Corcyra, which was one of the causes of the Peloponnesian war: Corinth supported the Syracusans against Sicily.
- 338 BC: garrisoned by the Macedonians who were not expelled until 224 when Corinth became part of the Achaean League
- 146BC: the Achaean league was defeated by the Romans and the defences of Corinth were razed to the ground.
- The site of Old Corinth remained unoccupied until 44BC when Julius Caesar planted a colony of veterans on the site. It then became the capital of the Roman province of Achaia.
- It was enhanced by Hadrian with an aqueduct from Lake Stymphalos and by Herodes Atticus, whose benefactions are everywhere in Greece.
The epithet of Corinth in antiquity was "well-watered," "Corinth of the many springs." This is because it is abundantly provided with sources of fresh water, most of which rise on Akrokorinth and in Classical and Roman fed fountains in the heart of the polis.
Excavations were begun by the ASCSA in 1896 and have continued to the present day. The current director of the ASCSA excavations is Dr Guy Saunders. Most of the standing remains here are Roman in date, as the Greek city was sacked by Lucius Mummius at the end of the Achaean War. Corinth was until that time a major commercial power, which probably had much to do with how vengeful the Romans were willing to be. (Suffer no rivals.) Roman settlement and land apportionment has been identified as well in the plain below and on the slopes of the Akrokorinth.
Corinth is the site at which Euripides set his Medea.
The site
The Odeion: Roman construction, resembles in plan the odeion at Pompeii. Held c.3000 spectators. Built towards the end of 1st C. CE, reconstructed in ca. 175 by Herodes Atticus; destroyed by fire and restored in 225CE as an arena by cutting away the lowest seats.
The Theatre: founded in 5th C. BC. The cavea of the Greek period is well preserved because it was filled in with earth to produce a steeper rake before the rebuilding of the seating by the Romans. Wall paintings of gladiatorial scenes were found on the late Roman barrier around the arena but are no longer preserved. In the orchestra several levels of pavement can be distinguished. To the east of the scenae frons is a paved area, where an inscription on a paving block records that Erastus (possibly the Erastus known to St. Paul in Romans XVI 23) laid the pavement at his own expense in return of the aedileship.
North of the Theatre is the Asklepeion, founded in the 4th C BC. The road that leads down past the theatre probably continued past the Asklepeion also, exiting through a gate in the city wall. Near the Asklepieion, according to Pausanias, was a gymnasium and a temple of Zeus. Due to modern occupation this area, apart from the Asklepieion and the so-called Lerna Spring site beside it, has not been excavated.
To the west of the Theatre lies a Roman villa and potters' quarter.
On entering the modern archaelogical park:
Immediately to your left is the Fountain of Glauke (Pausanias II,3,6) Roman alterations, the decay of the roof in medieval times and an earthquake in 1928 have all but obliterated its porticoed façade and three draw basins. The reservoir was fed by a small conduit from the base of Akrokorinth and had a storage capacity of 64,000 litres. Go have a look - carefully.
Temple C: east of the Glauke fountain was a early temple, possibly the Temple of Hera Akraia set in a colonnaded precinct.
Temple E: lies to the right just past the museum. It dates to the early imperial period, and may be either a Capitoleum or Temple of Octavia. Parts of the entablature are displayed on the platform. South of Temple E, part of the Roman decumanus has been exposed. In the SE part of the temple temenos, immediately S of the museum, a Frankish court can be seen with a church at the N end and partly colonnaded structures on the W and E.
Temple of Apollo: one of the oldest temples in Greece. And the iconic temple of Corinth, appearing in the first watercolour paintings and sketches of 18th century travellers in Greece. Doric in order, with aperistyle of 38 columns (6 x 15) each with 20 flutes. Four of these columns were removed by the Turkish owner in 1830. The shafts are monoliths, c. 7m high and 1.8m in diameter at the base, of rough limestone. They were coated in stucco and later restored with Roman plaster. The naos had two unequal chambers separated by a wall with a portico at either end. Two rows of internal columns supported the roof. In the SW corner of the pronaos was found a rectangular strong-box lined with waterproof cement. There are also slight remains of an earlier 7th C temple, just discernible under the the stylobate and slightly offset.
The North Market: is partly covered by the road outside the archaeological park, lying N of the Temple of Apollo. It consisted of a rectangular peristyle surrounded by shops. Some mosaic pavements survive. It was rebuilt and used in the Byzantine period. Earlier a Greek bath house stood on the site. Extending to the west from this was the long north stoa. A gold necklace and 51 gold staters of Philip and Alexander were found here.
The Agora: lies south of the Temple of Apollo. What is visible today is a Roman market-place 210 x 90m. The Greek and Hellenistic agora may have been elsewhere since no earlier buildings of importance have been found below the area of the Roman market. On the west side is a row of shops fronted by a colonnade with an inscription on the entablature relating to a repair after 375 CE.
To the west of the Agora were six small Roman temples. From Pausanias these have been identified from S to N as the Temple of Venus Fortuna, the Pantheon, two temples erected by Commodus perhaps to Hercules and Poseidon, the Babbius monument, which was a rotunda on eight Corinthian Columns on a square concrete base, the Temple(?) of Clarian Apollo and a Temple of Hermes (see Hesperia 44).
The south side of the Forum/Agora is closed by the South Stoa, the largest classical secular building in Greece, which dates originally to the 4th C. BC. It was rebuilt at some point before 146 BC. Facing the Forum was a double colonnade with 71 Doric columns in front of 34 Ionic columns. In its original form it was divided into a row of 33 shops each with another room behind - much like the Stoa of Attalos in Athens. All but two of the front compartments had a well supplied from the water system which connected to the Peirene Fountain. It is thought from the number of cups recovered that the shops served chiefly as places of refreshment. A second floor may have served as night quarters. The stoa in its rebuilt form is believed to have been intended as a hostelry to house delegates to the "Panhellenic Union" which Philip of Macedon convened at Corinth. In 1 CEthe rear half was demolished to make way for Roman administrative buildings; the colonnades remained.
The Roman administrative buildings begin near the west end of the South Stoa, where a square hall may be the Office of the Duovirs, who oversaw markets and weights. This was later encroached on by a bathhouse, which has a well-preserved hypocaust. Towards the centre of the South Stoa two shops retained their function in the Roman period – finds included a well-preserved head of Serpis and the remains of a cash box. The date of the coins indicates a destruction event about 267 CE, possibly due to the Herulian incursion into Greece. In the centre is the Bouleterion (council chamber).
Through the centre of the South Stoa, a paved road led south. To the east is a marble fountain.
The next section of the South Stoa became the forecourt to the Roman period South Basilica. This was adorned with imperial statues.
Next door is a structure probably comprising offices for the Roman Governor, with an antechamber, floors of marble veneer and the base of a statue inscribed to a procurator of the Emperor Trajan. The third hall in from the east end was probably the office of the Agonothetes, the officials who directed the games at Isthmia. Here there is a mosaic of a victorious athlete standing before the goddess of Good Fortune (Eutychia). Two mosaics of Dionysius lie farther south.
In front of the South Stoa is a Greek wall which cuttings suggest may have had as many as 100 statues on it. These statues were probably carried off in the 146 BC sack. The building south east, to the right of the South Stoa, had a marble Ionic colonnade. It was rebuilt three times and may have been the tabularium - the archive - of the Roman colony. In front of it is a prominent circular statue base.
The east end of the Forum/Agora is closed by the Julian Basilica, a basilica of the Augustan period. Four imperial portrait statues were found here. The lower level of paving in front of this building dates to the pre-sack, Greek period.
Parallel to this building and partly underlying its projecting entrance porch is the starting line of a race course preserved for its entire length of 18m, with places for 16 contestants. An earlier stating line lies beneath it. A curving wall to the south may have supported a judges' grandstand. These remains may be connected with the Hellotia, a Corinthian festival mentioned in Pindar's 13th Olympian Ode.
A line of buildings split the Agora in two. Its central feature was a Bema, a monumental rostrum upon which Roman officials appeared before the public. A later Christian church was built above its ruins.
To the right and left of the Bena extended shops, replaced in the later period by a flight of steps running the whole length of the agora. Opposite the Bema, to the north, stood the Captives Façade, an elaborate two storey structure of Parian marble. The lower storey consisted of Corinthian columns. The upper storey had at least four caryatids of barbarian captives.
Adjoining this is the triglyph wall, a low terrace wall decorated with a triglyph frieze. It was originally painted. It bore tripods and statues. Of the two openings for stairways which divide the wall into three sections, one leads down to the Sacred Spring. The Sacred Spring, which had two bronze lion head spouts in the 5th C. BC (one now in the museum) was originally in the open air. It was transformed into an underground chamber when the surrounding ground level was raised. It seems to have run dry at some point, and was unknown to the Romans.
On the terrace to the N of the triglyph wall, and connected to it by a tunnel, was a small oracular shrine. The tunnel was entered by a secret door disguised as a metope between the triglyphs. It probably housed the oracle – a priest who pronounced through a small hole below the floor of the shrine. The whole of this area was sacred and public access to it was forbidden.
To the NW we find the NW shops – 15 in all (3rd C. CE). The central shop with an intact stone vault forms the most conspicuous element of the Forum/Agora. Behind this is the Northwest Stoa with Doric exterior and Ionic interior columns. Beside the Captives Façade is the Propylaia, the gateway to the Agora. Originally this was a long shallow building in poros limestone, with a large central arch and two smaller ones on each side. It was replaced in the 1st C. CE by a Roman triumphal arch in marble surmounted by two gilt bronze chariots bearing Helios and his son, Phaeton. Little remains beyond the foundations of the later arch and a portion of the façade of the earlier one. The Lechaion road (named for the port) led along here to the N gate of the city.
To the right is the Fountain of Peirene, one of two fountains to bear that name. The other one is up on the Akrokorinth. The water is stored in four long reservoirs fed by a transverse supply tunnel, hidden by a fountain house which has a façade with six arches, from which the water flows into a basin in the open air. The fountain house underwent several changes over time.
In front of the reservoir are three draw basins immediately behind the six arches of the arcade. In front of this arcade was built the front wall of the draw basins, which formed a parapet over which the water could be drawn in jars. After this, the clear space in front of the draw basins was divided into the present six chambers. Later (3rd C BC) Ionic columns were erected on the old parapet of the draw basins, which ceased to be accessible. When Corinth was rebuilt by the Romans the old façade was masked by a new two storey poros façade – the present series of stone arches with engaged Doric columns which supported a second storey of engaged Ionic columns. This was continued around, enclosing a court of 15m square. At the same time the open air fountain was built in the courtyard.
In the 2nd C CE the court was remodelled (probably by Herodes Atticus) to the form which exists today, with massive vaulted apses on three sides. About the same time the arched openings of the façade were narrowed so as to allow blind arches between each of them, giving 11 arches instead of six. The front walls of the chambers were reinforced and the side walls decorated with paintings of fish swimming in dark blue water (best preserved in chamber 4).
Finally in early Byzantine times a row of columns was built across the façade and alterations were made to the court. An iron pipe now taps the fountain for the villagers' use. You may see it near the church, I believe.
Immediately to the North is the Peribolos of Apollo, an open court 32m by 23.5m, surrounded by a marble Ionic colonnade upon a stylobate of Akrokorinthian limestone. The foundations in the centre may have supported the bronze statue of Apollo mentioned by Pausanias. A dye works occupied the NE quarter in the 5th C BC.
On the west side, by the Lechaion road, are the foundations of a small Greek temple of the 4th C BC. This was replaced by an open shrine in which a covered statue faced its altar across a pebbled pavement. On the SE side the apse of this peribolos is cut by one of the Apses of the Peirene court. At the base of the steps leading down to the Peirene are draw basins from the earliest water system, from the Archaic period. Beyond the Peribolos, to the north, are the baths of Eurykles, dated to Imperial era. To the south is a public latrine with some seats in situ. The west side of the Lechaion road is largely taken up with the foundations of a 1st C BC basilica. This was later rebuilt in marble on a larger scale and with a façade opening onto the agora. To the north of this and beside the site exit is a Roman market.
/end notes, partially cribbed.
Corinth
So I'm moving on to Corinth. More specifically, to Old Corinth, Palaio-Korinthos, for the site of the modern town of Korinthos (Nea Korinthos) is located on the shoreline of the Corinthian Gulf as a result of an earthquake in 1858, which caused significant damage to the town then on the site of Old Corinth. The modern town is five miles away, on the shore, adjacent to Lechaion, the site that was Old Corinth's port in antiquity.
The town itself lies approximately 100m above sea level. The Akrokorinth, which you can see rising above us, is over 500m above sea level - 575m at its highest point, I believe. In antiquity it was the acropolis of ancient city, and through the medieval period and into the Ottoman it was built into one of the most impressive fortresses in the Morea (the Morea being was the Peleponnese was known as in the middle ages and under the Ottomans). The Franks began the fortification, during their short-lived medieval dominance in the Morea; the Turks maintained the walls after they took over the Corinthia in 1498, and the Hospitaller Knights of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta briefly - in 1612 - controlled the area around. The Venetians came in in 1687, and the Turks kicked the Venetians out again in 1715. And that's the later history of Corinth, until the Greek war of independence, when the Akrokorinth was used as a fortress by the combatants.
Early occupation and potted history
- Occupied continuously since the 5th millennium.
- Colonies at Corcyra and Syracuse (ca.734).
- 8th century ruled by the tyrants the Baccidae, who were overthrown in the mid 7th by the tyrant Kypselos. An account in Herodotos details the mythological history here. Ruled by Kypselos, Periander and Psammeticus before being overthrown by a moderate oligarchy in 6th century.
- Proto-Corinthian pottery – evidence for trade in the Geometric and Archaic periods as far away as northern Italy (the Etruscans) before being over-taken by Attica as a pottery producer.
- During the Persian Wars the city served as a sort of Greek headquarters.
- 434 BC: war between Corinth and Corcyra, which was one of the causes of the Peloponnesian war: Corinth supported the Syracusans against Sicily.
- 338 BC: garrisoned by the Macedonians who were not expelled until 224 when Corinth became part of the Achaean League
- 146BC: the Achaean league was defeated by the Romans and the defences of Corinth were razed to the ground.
- The site of Old Corinth remained unoccupied until 44BC when Julius Caesar planted a colony of veterans on the site. It then became the capital of the Roman province of Achaia.
- It was enhanced by Hadrian with an aqueduct from Lake Stymphalos and by Herodes Atticus, whose benefactions are everywhere in Greece.
The epithet of Corinth in antiquity was "well-watered," "Corinth of the many springs." This is because it is abundantly provided with sources of fresh water, most of which rise on Akrokorinth and in Classical and Roman fed fountains in the heart of the polis.
Excavations were begun by the ASCSA in 1896 and have continued to the present day. The current director of the ASCSA excavations is Dr Guy Saunders. Most of the standing remains here are Roman in date, as the Greek city was sacked by Lucius Mummius at the end of the Achaean War. Corinth was until that time a major commercial power, which probably had much to do with how vengeful the Romans were willing to be. (Suffer no rivals.) Roman settlement and land apportionment has been identified as well in the plain below and on the slopes of the Akrokorinth.
Corinth is the site at which Euripides set his Medea.
The site
The Odeion: Roman construction, resembles in plan the odeion at Pompeii. Held c.3000 spectators. Built towards the end of 1st C. CE, reconstructed in ca. 175 by Herodes Atticus; destroyed by fire and restored in 225CE as an arena by cutting away the lowest seats.
The Theatre: founded in 5th C. BC. The cavea of the Greek period is well preserved because it was filled in with earth to produce a steeper rake before the rebuilding of the seating by the Romans. Wall paintings of gladiatorial scenes were found on the late Roman barrier around the arena but are no longer preserved. In the orchestra several levels of pavement can be distinguished. To the east of the scenae frons is a paved area, where an inscription on a paving block records that Erastus (possibly the Erastus known to St. Paul in Romans XVI 23) laid the pavement at his own expense in return of the aedileship.
North of the Theatre is the Asklepeion, founded in the 4th C BC. The road that leads down past the theatre probably continued past the Asklepeion also, exiting through a gate in the city wall. Near the Asklepieion, according to Pausanias, was a gymnasium and a temple of Zeus. Due to modern occupation this area, apart from the Asklepieion and the so-called Lerna Spring site beside it, has not been excavated.
To the west of the Theatre lies a Roman villa and potters' quarter.
On entering the modern archaelogical park:
Immediately to your left is the Fountain of Glauke (Pausanias II,3,6) Roman alterations, the decay of the roof in medieval times and an earthquake in 1928 have all but obliterated its porticoed façade and three draw basins. The reservoir was fed by a small conduit from the base of Akrokorinth and had a storage capacity of 64,000 litres. Go have a look - carefully.
Temple C: east of the Glauke fountain was a early temple, possibly the Temple of Hera Akraia set in a colonnaded precinct.
Temple E: lies to the right just past the museum. It dates to the early imperial period, and may be either a Capitoleum or Temple of Octavia. Parts of the entablature are displayed on the platform. South of Temple E, part of the Roman decumanus has been exposed. In the SE part of the temple temenos, immediately S of the museum, a Frankish court can be seen with a church at the N end and partly colonnaded structures on the W and E.
Temple of Apollo: one of the oldest temples in Greece. And the iconic temple of Corinth, appearing in the first watercolour paintings and sketches of 18th century travellers in Greece. Doric in order, with aperistyle of 38 columns (6 x 15) each with 20 flutes. Four of these columns were removed by the Turkish owner in 1830. The shafts are monoliths, c. 7m high and 1.8m in diameter at the base, of rough limestone. They were coated in stucco and later restored with Roman plaster. The naos had two unequal chambers separated by a wall with a portico at either end. Two rows of internal columns supported the roof. In the SW corner of the pronaos was found a rectangular strong-box lined with waterproof cement. There are also slight remains of an earlier 7th C temple, just discernible under the the stylobate and slightly offset.
The North Market: is partly covered by the road outside the archaeological park, lying N of the Temple of Apollo. It consisted of a rectangular peristyle surrounded by shops. Some mosaic pavements survive. It was rebuilt and used in the Byzantine period. Earlier a Greek bath house stood on the site. Extending to the west from this was the long north stoa. A gold necklace and 51 gold staters of Philip and Alexander were found here.
The Agora: lies south of the Temple of Apollo. What is visible today is a Roman market-place 210 x 90m. The Greek and Hellenistic agora may have been elsewhere since no earlier buildings of importance have been found below the area of the Roman market. On the west side is a row of shops fronted by a colonnade with an inscription on the entablature relating to a repair after 375 CE.
To the west of the Agora were six small Roman temples. From Pausanias these have been identified from S to N as the Temple of Venus Fortuna, the Pantheon, two temples erected by Commodus perhaps to Hercules and Poseidon, the Babbius monument, which was a rotunda on eight Corinthian Columns on a square concrete base, the Temple(?) of Clarian Apollo and a Temple of Hermes (see Hesperia 44).
The south side of the Forum/Agora is closed by the South Stoa, the largest classical secular building in Greece, which dates originally to the 4th C. BC. It was rebuilt at some point before 146 BC. Facing the Forum was a double colonnade with 71 Doric columns in front of 34 Ionic columns. In its original form it was divided into a row of 33 shops each with another room behind - much like the Stoa of Attalos in Athens. All but two of the front compartments had a well supplied from the water system which connected to the Peirene Fountain. It is thought from the number of cups recovered that the shops served chiefly as places of refreshment. A second floor may have served as night quarters. The stoa in its rebuilt form is believed to have been intended as a hostelry to house delegates to the "Panhellenic Union" which Philip of Macedon convened at Corinth. In 1 CEthe rear half was demolished to make way for Roman administrative buildings; the colonnades remained.
The Roman administrative buildings begin near the west end of the South Stoa, where a square hall may be the Office of the Duovirs, who oversaw markets and weights. This was later encroached on by a bathhouse, which has a well-preserved hypocaust. Towards the centre of the South Stoa two shops retained their function in the Roman period – finds included a well-preserved head of Serpis and the remains of a cash box. The date of the coins indicates a destruction event about 267 CE, possibly due to the Herulian incursion into Greece. In the centre is the Bouleterion (council chamber).
Through the centre of the South Stoa, a paved road led south. To the east is a marble fountain.
The next section of the South Stoa became the forecourt to the Roman period South Basilica. This was adorned with imperial statues.
Next door is a structure probably comprising offices for the Roman Governor, with an antechamber, floors of marble veneer and the base of a statue inscribed to a procurator of the Emperor Trajan. The third hall in from the east end was probably the office of the Agonothetes, the officials who directed the games at Isthmia. Here there is a mosaic of a victorious athlete standing before the goddess of Good Fortune (Eutychia). Two mosaics of Dionysius lie farther south.
In front of the South Stoa is a Greek wall which cuttings suggest may have had as many as 100 statues on it. These statues were probably carried off in the 146 BC sack. The building south east, to the right of the South Stoa, had a marble Ionic colonnade. It was rebuilt three times and may have been the tabularium - the archive - of the Roman colony. In front of it is a prominent circular statue base.
The east end of the Forum/Agora is closed by the Julian Basilica, a basilica of the Augustan period. Four imperial portrait statues were found here. The lower level of paving in front of this building dates to the pre-sack, Greek period.
Parallel to this building and partly underlying its projecting entrance porch is the starting line of a race course preserved for its entire length of 18m, with places for 16 contestants. An earlier stating line lies beneath it. A curving wall to the south may have supported a judges' grandstand. These remains may be connected with the Hellotia, a Corinthian festival mentioned in Pindar's 13th Olympian Ode.
A line of buildings split the Agora in two. Its central feature was a Bema, a monumental rostrum upon which Roman officials appeared before the public. A later Christian church was built above its ruins.
To the right and left of the Bena extended shops, replaced in the later period by a flight of steps running the whole length of the agora. Opposite the Bema, to the north, stood the Captives Façade, an elaborate two storey structure of Parian marble. The lower storey consisted of Corinthian columns. The upper storey had at least four caryatids of barbarian captives.
Adjoining this is the triglyph wall, a low terrace wall decorated with a triglyph frieze. It was originally painted. It bore tripods and statues. Of the two openings for stairways which divide the wall into three sections, one leads down to the Sacred Spring. The Sacred Spring, which had two bronze lion head spouts in the 5th C. BC (one now in the museum) was originally in the open air. It was transformed into an underground chamber when the surrounding ground level was raised. It seems to have run dry at some point, and was unknown to the Romans.
On the terrace to the N of the triglyph wall, and connected to it by a tunnel, was a small oracular shrine. The tunnel was entered by a secret door disguised as a metope between the triglyphs. It probably housed the oracle – a priest who pronounced through a small hole below the floor of the shrine. The whole of this area was sacred and public access to it was forbidden.
To the NW we find the NW shops – 15 in all (3rd C. CE). The central shop with an intact stone vault forms the most conspicuous element of the Forum/Agora. Behind this is the Northwest Stoa with Doric exterior and Ionic interior columns. Beside the Captives Façade is the Propylaia, the gateway to the Agora. Originally this was a long shallow building in poros limestone, with a large central arch and two smaller ones on each side. It was replaced in the 1st C. CE by a Roman triumphal arch in marble surmounted by two gilt bronze chariots bearing Helios and his son, Phaeton. Little remains beyond the foundations of the later arch and a portion of the façade of the earlier one. The Lechaion road (named for the port) led along here to the N gate of the city.
To the right is the Fountain of Peirene, one of two fountains to bear that name. The other one is up on the Akrokorinth. The water is stored in four long reservoirs fed by a transverse supply tunnel, hidden by a fountain house which has a façade with six arches, from which the water flows into a basin in the open air. The fountain house underwent several changes over time.
In front of the reservoir are three draw basins immediately behind the six arches of the arcade. In front of this arcade was built the front wall of the draw basins, which formed a parapet over which the water could be drawn in jars. After this, the clear space in front of the draw basins was divided into the present six chambers. Later (3rd C BC) Ionic columns were erected on the old parapet of the draw basins, which ceased to be accessible. When Corinth was rebuilt by the Romans the old façade was masked by a new two storey poros façade – the present series of stone arches with engaged Doric columns which supported a second storey of engaged Ionic columns. This was continued around, enclosing a court of 15m square. At the same time the open air fountain was built in the courtyard.
In the 2nd C CE the court was remodelled (probably by Herodes Atticus) to the form which exists today, with massive vaulted apses on three sides. About the same time the arched openings of the façade were narrowed so as to allow blind arches between each of them, giving 11 arches instead of six. The front walls of the chambers were reinforced and the side walls decorated with paintings of fish swimming in dark blue water (best preserved in chamber 4).
Finally in early Byzantine times a row of columns was built across the façade and alterations were made to the court. An iron pipe now taps the fountain for the villagers' use. You may see it near the church, I believe.
Immediately to the North is the Peribolos of Apollo, an open court 32m by 23.5m, surrounded by a marble Ionic colonnade upon a stylobate of Akrokorinthian limestone. The foundations in the centre may have supported the bronze statue of Apollo mentioned by Pausanias. A dye works occupied the NE quarter in the 5th C BC.
On the west side, by the Lechaion road, are the foundations of a small Greek temple of the 4th C BC. This was replaced by an open shrine in which a covered statue faced its altar across a pebbled pavement. On the SE side the apse of this peribolos is cut by one of the Apses of the Peirene court. At the base of the steps leading down to the Peirene are draw basins from the earliest water system, from the Archaic period. Beyond the Peribolos, to the north, are the baths of Eurykles, dated to Imperial era. To the south is a public latrine with some seats in situ. The west side of the Lechaion road is largely taken up with the foundations of a 1st C BC basilica. This was later rebuilt in marble on a larger scale and with a façade opening onto the agora. To the north of this and beside the site exit is a Roman market.
/end notes, partially cribbed.
