Korinth

Every times humans know the important of this place: Who comes from land to Peloponnes, has to go through, also they, who did not like to ship around. Little disadvantage: Greece is very endangered region. Here is the european and afrikan plate. This does not know the korinthian, but they had to feel it.

In 9. cnt. b. Chr. here were the Dorian, made much trade and had a big fleet. 200 jears later they were a big colonialpower in Adria. They produced herself - earthern ware artistic painted - and they founded: "The corinthik capitell" a better art from a war ship with three rows of rowers or "corinthik ore", a special metal eloy.

Korinthos flowering-time was in the 5th cht. b. Chr. In the meantime Athen with its port has growned up to an dangerous business rival. A diplomatic intervention in Sparta has no effect. The war of Peloponnese started at 431 and ended 404 b. Chr. Finally Athen capitulated, but the contrahents were bleeding.
So it was easy für King Philipp II. of Makedonia to conquer Korinth. 223 b. Chr. he has to hand over the town to the Romans.

The Korinthians defended on the roman government and this was their ruin. The romans destroyed the town and murdered or enslaved their inhabitants.
On the other side the romans reaktivated this important business place under Julius Cäsar 44 b. Chr. Korith has a flowering-time again, its inhabitants enjoyed pomp and high-life as well as the girls in the temple of Aphrodite.
Then the GoGoths and the Slavs felt in. 521 a. Chr. an earthquake destroyed, what the wild men hadn't destroyed.

The Romans came back unter emperor Justinian and rebuilded Korinth. But they couldn't live in piece. 1204 the Franconians came and besieged the town for six years. To have it comfortable, the built a castle Penteskouphi on the hill on the west side of Korinth.

In the year of 1395 the town came back to the Byzantines. They sold it 1400 to the Johanniters. 1458 it was turkish, 1678 - 1715 the Venetians. 1822 it was liberated by Greece.

Korith lived in piece from conquerors, but the earth was not peaceable. 1858 the town was completely destroyed, built again; 1928 and 1981 there were earthquakes again and large parts of the town were destroyed again. So the buildings of Korinth are modern. Historical buildings have disappered.

Old-Korinth (Arhea Korinthos)

The little town is near the Hill Akrokorinth, 575 m high and beneath the historical area. It has many nice tavernas, but it seems to be full if some busses with tourists came in. Also in this town you have higher prices if you are near the old stones.

Ancient Korinth

For 6,- Euro you get a folder with the map of the ancient town and your ticket. You can go where you want. There are no isolated areas.
In the moments I walk around, I am no sure if I go on a way or through a sleeping room. It is hard to imagine the old culture because of the many many stones. Only the big shopping-street and the temple of Apollo you can restore in your brain.

But there are little hightlights! Heads of pillars are laying in the sand, you can look at the stone-masons work very near. Or the little rosettes. On other places you can only see them in the museum.

Or the man without head, he must stay there since a couple of hundred years, always looking at the same field in the plain. You find letters in marmor, pieces of pillars, stones over stones - each peace a part of this culture, in its undocumented position no more part of the historical picture and free to be destroyed by weather and time.

In front of the historical area there is a little pariking place. To imagine the crowd in the main-season is easier, if busses pour out the tourists and the place seems to be an ant-hill.

clic, to enlarge:

Akrokorinth

Around the castle celebrations secured by a three-way wall ring with three gates there are some legends.

Jason left its girlfriend Medea, because he loves Glauke, the daughter of king Kreon. When the wedding was fixed, Medea reflecting upon revenge, simulated friendship and sent Glauke a magnificent, but cursed wedding dress. When the bride put it on, it came up in flames. In order to delete the fire, Glauke jumped into the well , which carries her name name since this day.

The best fastened castle on a rock needs water supply. This recognized also Sisyphos, the legendary founder of Korinth. One day he saw, when the nymph Ägina was raped by the God father Zeus. Sisyphos planed to profit from its knowledge and offered the furious father of the girl (Asopos, river God) to tell him the name of the evil man if he would let rise a source on castle rock. Asopos accepted the trade. Peirene source gushes still today.

Zeus was sour, because Sisyphos told this and activated Thanatos its colleague, responsibly for the death of the mortal ones. Sisyphos overwhelmed personalliesied death, put it in chains and left it in castle-reads out scorches. This insolence of a mortal one enraged the God crowd. War God of acre made itself on the way and released Thanatos, which took now the second approach, in order to bring Sisyphos in Hades realm, which failed again. Sisyphos delivered the spoon, but it its wife had instructed not to omit it to bestatten and any dead cult. As it Hades, which God of the dead realm, met, was this in the wahrsten sense of the word "blindly before rage" and sent it back to its wife to bury in order to assign these, it according to all required rules. Sisyphos turned back on its castle, did nothing from what had laid him on Hades, but enjoyed of its long life together with its good, obedient woman. Sometime at the high age also its time had run off on ground connection. But when punishment for its disobedienceness it became from the Gods thundered to up-heave into all eternity a stone on the Akropolis. But, if it nearly above is, the stone each time gets a push and both balls the slope down there - a genuine Sisyphos work.

Back to the facts. The temple on the summit which is cosecrated for the goddess Aphrodite. She was responsible for beauty, love and sexualitaet. Particularly the last point had done it to the old Korinthern! Up to 1.000 priest inside ("Hierodulen") animated in the bloom time of the city this temple and served their goddess, by practicing to love. They must have been very good in their subject, because innumerable Pilger flowed daily into the city and accepted the cumbersome way on the castle up, in order to be able to be spoiled from the temple maids and it "victims", a sperm outpour, to give.

The temple of the Aphrodite was covered in Byzantine time with a small church.
Around 50 n. Chr. preached apostle Paulus in Korinth, which luesterne driving, as God admiration, a thorn was camouflaged in the eye. It wrote its famous "letters to the Korinther", which impressed humans however not much. As if some indignant Jews the Paulus before the pro consul Gallio pulled and it accused to entice the people to a God admiration which would offend against the law, declined the judge uninterested and meant, the quarrellers should their discrepances nevertheless among themselves constitute.

"the castle fortress of Akrokorinth was connected by an enormous townwall with the port fortress Lechaion (Leheo). From Lechaion a long, paved road led antique Agora (market) on those, between were colonades and shops. On the Agora, on which the political and economic life took place, also temples stood beside shop rows and administration buildings, from which the most impressive Appollon temple is (a dorischer column resounding temple from that 6. Jht. v. Chr., with cultivations from that 1. Jht. A.D.), which is with its great columns worked from a piece despite the large destruction one of the greatest Monuments doric architecture. In the northwest of the Agora are still remainders of a theatre (4th Jht. before Chr.) to see and a Roman Odeums."
Alto Korinth removed asphalted approach road of the 3 km out signed. Di -So 8 - 19 o'clock.

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