Library Notes
June 12, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Last week we talked about Athens, the Acropolis, the Parthenon that stands on top of it and Mars Hill where Paul preached.
This week we’ll travel to Ancient Corinth, passing through various small towns, such as Piraeus and Mycenae. These led us into the Peloponnesus area, which is "the southernmost part of the Balkan peninsula, the largest peninsula in Greece, with an area of 21,439 square kilometres. It is linked to central Greece across an isthmus at whose narrowest point (6 k.) the Corinth Canal was constructed between 1882 and 1893 by French and Greek engineers at the narrowest point of the isthmus. This impressive work of engineering, which is crossed by a bridge, as you leave Attica and enter the Peloponeese, joined the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs. (This Isthmus shortened ships voyages by 185 nautical miles.) The decision to build a canal in this spot had been taken many times in antiquity – by Periander, tyrant of Corinth, by Demetrius Poliorcetes, by Julius Casesar, by Nero, by Hadrian and by Herodes Atticus – and in 67AD Nero went so far as to inaugurate the project by cutting the first sod with a golden pick. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the canal was actually completed."
"The Peloponnese (literally, ‘island of Pelops’) takes its name from Pelops, a mythical hero who was a descendant of Tantalus. According to tradition, Pelops succeeded in gaining control over the area when he defeated King Oenomaus of Pisa, a city in Eleia, in a chariot race and won the hand in marriage of Oenomaus’ daughter Hippoddameia. In one version of the myth, this was how the Olympic Games began."
"The oldest human settlements in the Peloponnese date back to the Neolithic period, with the presence of the first Greeks confirmed as having begun around 2000 BC."
We traveled beside the Iconian Sea, for many miles, through many small towns, with ancient ruins everywhere you looked in some places.
We entered the city of Petria, beside the Gulf by the same name. The tour bus stopped to let those who wished to take off their shoes and wade, do so. Pansy did not choose to wade, but, boy, it sure gave an opportunity to pick up Greek rocks! Just like a seashore, it was there, and I took advantage of it to collect some rocks for me and some rocks for Cheyenne. We, he and I, share a common interest in rocks!
Everybody who needed to, put their shoes back on their wet, sandy, feet, and we continued on our journey. That journey then took us beside the Gulf of Corinth and finally led us into that ancient place.
Corinth, the city where Paul again preached. The city where the church was located to which Paul wrote. The First and Second Corinthian letters were written to the church in this ancient city, where only ruins remain today. A few columns remain standing and may broken ruins scattered over a wide area, now mark the place where stood the church that Paul addressed in these letters in about AD 59-60.
Copying again from my "Greece" book, let’s read a little of the ancient history of this ancient place.
"Corinth was inhabited for the first time in the Neolithic period, somewhere round about the end of the fifth millenium BC." Now, skipping over some of the history of several rulers, let us pick up around the time that Julius Caesar comes into the picture. "The forces of Achaea were overcome by the Roman general Leucius Mommius, who in 146 BC looted and devastated Corinth. It was not until a century later that is reconstruction was ordered by Julius Caesar. In the first century AD, Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaea, and in the second century it was endowed with fine buildings by the Emperor Hadrian and Herodes Atticus. Between the Byzantine period and the 19th century, Corinth was frequently raided and invaded: by the Heruli, the Goths, the Normans, the Crusaders, the Franks, the Venetians and, in 1459, the Turks. It was liberated immediately after the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1821 (from Turkey) and laid claim, unsuccessfully, to the right to be capital of the new state. In 1858, Corinth was flattened by a major earthquake and moved to a new site closer to the Isthmus. This new city was again struck by earthquake, and rebuilt in 1929.
The remains of ancient Corinth – as rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 BC – lie not far from the modern city." Many, many remains may be found of various temples that stood in the area. There is the Roman temple of Hera Acraea, whose cult had established itself in the area in the Greek era. On the east side of Sikyon road, on a piece of higher ground, stand the seven surviving columns of the temple of Apollo. This temple was built around 540 BC to replace an earlier temple of the 7th century.
"There are remains of six small Roman temples on a podium: the Ionic temple of Fortuna and Venus, the Pantheon in the Corinthian order, two temples probably dedicated to Heracles and Poseidon, the single-winged circular temple of Apollo Clarius and a temple of Hermes.
In the market square per se were the central shops on either side of the bema or rostrum from which the Corinthians could be addressed. It was to this rostrum that the Apostle Paul was led to be tried by Gallius, the Roman governor, when the Apostle visited Corinth in 51 AD. An early Christian basilica was later constructed on the site. "
Now, lookee here what has happened! I have given you so much history of this marvelous place that we are out of room. That means that we will not even talk about a book this week. Let us just consider this our history lesson for the week and be happy. Well – how long has it been since some of you had a history lesson, I ask? Many, many years I am sure, but you can’t say that now!!!