Apollo and the Archaic temple at Corinth

Hesperia, Summer, 2004 by Nancy Bookidis, Ronald S. Stroud

Another reference to Apollo at Corinth is found in Pausanias 2.3.3, where he mentions a statue of the god next to the Fountain of Peirene. A nearby peribolos (Fig. 1:F), on the east side of the Lechaion Road, in which Pausanias saw a painting of Odysseus and the suitors may also have been consecrated to Apollo, although there seems to be nothing in the archaeological record to associate it with this god. We note also that Pausanias does not refer to a temple in this precinct in the Roman period. (17)

The only other temple dedicated to Apollo mentioned at Corinth by Pausanias cannot be related to the Archaic structure on Temple Hill, for it was outside the city walls on the road from Corinth to Sikyon and lay in burned ruins at the time of his visit. The relevant passage (2.5.5) reads as follows:

   [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]

   Going from Corinth, not along the inland road, but on the one
   leading to Sikyon there is a burned temple not far from the city on
   the left side of the road. Certainly there have been a number of
   other wars in the region of the Corinthia and understandably
   houses and sanctuaries outside the city wall have been put to the
   flame. This temple, however, they say was that of Apollo and that
   Pyrrhos the son of Achilles burned it down. At a later time, I heard
   another version to the following effect, that the Corinthians
   constructed the temple for Olympian Zeus and that a sudden and
   unexpected fire destroyed it.

We turn now to potentially relevant literary evidence for Apollo in the Greek city of Corinth that may be useful in identifying the Archaic temple. The earliest belongs to the reign of Periander, 626/5-586/5 B.C. As part of his struggle against his rebellious son, Lykophron, the tyrant issued a proclamation recorded by Herodotos 3.52 as follows: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. "Finally Periander issued a proclamation to the effect that whoever either should receive him [Lykophron] in their houses or converse with him should be liable to a fine consecrated to Apollo, and in fact he stated the sum." Later, when Periander himself conversed with his son, the latter reminded his father that he [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], "had incurred the fine consecrated to the god by entering into conversation with him." The relevance of this passage for our present purposes was aptly noted by Heinrich Stein in his commentary to Herodotos: "Strafgelder flossen entweder in die Staatskasse oder, wie hier, in dem Tempelschatz einer Gottheit." (18) Apart from the "folk-tale" elements of this story, we believe that it is safe to infer that contemporary with Periander there was a depository for fines consecrated to Apollo at Corinth and that its most probable location was in a temple of this god. (19)

Further evidence for the importance and, indeed, for the size and location of the temple and sanctuary of Apollo at Corinth is found in Plutarch, Aratos 40. (20) In 225/4 B.C. the Corinthian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], in anger at Aratos, the general of the Achaian League and commander of the garrison on Acrocorinth: