Apollo and the Archaic temple at Corinth

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

   [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]

   Pray, Kyton, that your gifts give as much delight to the divine son
   of Leto, prytanis of the fair-dancing agora, as the praise you have
   from foreigners and those who dwell in Corinth, lord of delights,
   by reason of your crowns.

In his detailed study of this poem, D. L. Page (23) rejected the attribution to Simonides, dated it in "the Hellenistic period, not early within it," pronounced the name Kyton "novel and unconvincing," and defended the integrity of the text in line 4 and the above translation of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. (24) While recognizing problems with the date, attribution, and text of this poem, we nevertheless believe that the following inferences can be drawn. The epigram was most likely intended as an inscription to accompany gifts to Apollo at Corinth dedicated by a victor who had won crowns in the games that had brought him praise from both foreigners and his [fellow] Corinthians. Page aptly remarked that "the distinction between foreigners and residents in Corinth is particularly well suited to the occasion of the [Isthmian] Games." Moreover, Apollo's epithet "prytanis of the fair-dancing agora" is especially appropriate at Corinth since the chief magistrate and probably the eponymous annual official, under the Bacchiadai at least, was the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. (25) The appropriateness of Apollo's presidency over dances in the agora becomes greater if the shrine where this inscription was meant to be displayed was itself in or near the agora. In Pausanias's time the forum was certainly to the south and below Temple Hill, but the location of the agora of Greek Corinth is uncertain. No clear evidence for it has been found beneath the Roman forum. Williams has therefore proposed that it was not beneath the Roman forum but lay to the northeast of Temple Hill. (26) We suggest that it is likely that the agora of the Greek city lay close to its central and dominating Doric temple. On the other hand, Page's attempt to identify the sanctuary in the poem with the temple to Klarian Apollo mentioned by Pausanias (2.2.8) in the Roman forum is improbable on chronological grounds. There is no evidence, literary or archaeological, to suggest that this temple was earlier than the Roman period. For the famous prize aryballos depicting a dancing competition found on Temple Hill, see below, page 413.

A final piece of literary evidence for Apollo comes from Hesychios, Latte 265, s.v. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. We do not know how this passage can be associated with any of the attested shrines of Apollo at Corinth.

Accordingly, we think it much more likely that the sanctuary of Apollo described in the Greek Anthology 6.212 was that of Herodotos 3.52, Plutarch, Aratos 40, and Pausanias 2.3.6, located just outside the northwest corner of the Roman forum. It seems to have been the most important shrine of this deity in central Corinth. Its temple perhaps contained a sacred treasury. It was an appropriate place for dedications of a prominent winner of crowns. Finally, the size and location of the temenos on Temple Hill satisfy the topographical requirements of the episode described in Plutarch's Life of Aratos. (27)