Roman Corinth
After Mummius’s conflagration of Corinth, some structures and a small population of primarily lower class Greeks remained.11 Under Julius Caesar it was repopulated in 44 BCE as a Roman colony. Surviving Greek buildings were reused, such as the South Stoa, the theatre, the Peirene and Glauke fountains, and the Isthmian games were reinstated.12 According to Benjamin Millis, the population included Greek freedman, provincials, and Roman freeborn; the amount of veterans was insignificant. The repopulated city was neither completely Greek nor Roman but a hybrid culture.13 It was comprised of both colonist citizens and foreigners, and its governance, typical of Roman colonial cities, consisted of two magistrates (duoviri) who appointed councilors (decuriones). In addition, two aediles were in charge of edifices, street maintenance, and commercial affairs. The most honored position was the agonothetes, the president over the games.14 Corinth prospered especially as a service city that provided cultural, educational, religious, and judicial activities.15 Cicero called this large, thriving city the “light of all Greece” (Leg. man. 5) and Diodorus Siculus the “bright star of Hellas” (Bib. hist. 32.27.1).
Its civic reputation, along with many erections and inscriptions attesting to human pride, may warrant Corinth as “a city where public boasting and self-promotion had become an art form.”16 Although the lingua franca of the time was Greek, and Latin was the elite language of Rome, the majority of inscriptions in Corinth are written in Latin prior to the second century CE.17 This doubtless suggests the influence of both Roman and high society in Corinth. While Roman ideology was surely pervasive in Corinth, legends attached to art and ancient structures provided its inhabitants with a sense of continuity with the older Greek city. Elite magistrates with Greek names uncovered in the city suggest not only that Greeks were becoming more like Romans, but that “Corinth was becoming more Greek.”18
Unpoliced private cults flourished in the area enabling Greek and foreign religions to continue without harassment.19 Some of the religious sites in or near the city included those venerating Aphrodite, Poseidon, Apollo, Demeter and Kore, and Asclepius. The various deities associated with the twenty-six sacred locations in Corinth described by Pausanius complement Paul’s words to the Corinthians that there are “gods many and lords many” (1 Cor 8:5).20 The imperial cult was also strongly present with Julio-Claudian portraits on the east side of the forum, an altar to Divus (divine) Julius Caesar, and a statue of Divus Augustus Caesar in the middle of the forum.21 Acts 18:4 also locates a Jewish synagogue in the city during Paul’s visit. An inscription identifying the “Synagogue of the Hebrews” was excavated in the city (CIJ I§718). Certain scholars have dated it in a time frame compatible with Acts, but its origin may be much later.22 Philo, in any case, confirms a Jewish community living in first-century Corinth (Legat. 281).
Corinthian Mythology
Although the Corinthians boasted of their origin in the hero Corinthus as the son of Zeus, other Greeks did not believe this familial tie.23 Ephyra, daughter of the sea Titan, Oceanus, was said to dwell first in Corinth. Some prominent mythological stories about Corinthians are as follows.
The crafty king Sisyphus was one of Corinth’s earliest rulers. Zeus punishes him for exposing one of Zeus’s illicit affairs. He sends Thanatos (death) to take Sisyphus’s life, but the king binds up this deity until Ares, god of war, frees Thanatos so that he could accomplish his mission. The dead Sisyphus then tricks Hades, god of the underworld, into letting him return to life temporarily so that he could arrange his own funeral proceedings. But he never returns to Hades and lives to a ripe old age. After he dies again, Sisyphus’s punishment is to roll a boulder perpetually up a hill only to have it roll back down again once he gets near the top. A temple was built for him on the Acrocorinth.24
Another myth centers on a boy named Melikertes whom Sisyphus finds; he was brought to shore by a dolphin, a scene minted on Corinthian tessera coins.25 Sisyphus buries him on the Isthmus and in his honor establishes the Isthmian games (Pausanius Descr. 2.1.3). In one version of the story, Melikertes’s mother Ino jumps into the sea with him to escape a deadly pursuit. She becomes the goddess Leukothea and he Palaimon, a marine god. At the games his funerary rites seem to be reenacted, and Roman colonists built a sanctuary for him.26
The hero Bellerophon, grandson of Sisyphus, tames the winged horse Pegasus after consulting a wise seer in Corinth who has him seek Athena at her temple for assistance. When he accidentally kills his brother, he stays in Argos with king Proetus and rejects queen Anteia’s amorous advances. She then accuses him of attempted rape. The king sends him away with a sealed letter to king Iobates of Lycia requesting to kill him. This king refuses; he opens the letter after entertaining his guest and he fears such an act as a host would spark Zeus’s wrath. Instead, he sends Bellerophon to do dangerous tasks, one of which is to kill Chimaera the monstrous lion-goat-serpent, which he succeeds in doing with Pegasus’s help. In later years he becomes arrogant, attempting to ride Pegasus up to Olympus to live among the immortals, but Pegasus throws off his rider, and Bellerophon becomes hated by the gods.27 The fountain-spring of Peirene in Corinth, enduring to Roman times, was considered sacred and commemorated the place where this hero tamed Pegasus.28 Bellerophon’s battle with Chimaera appears in Corinthian art,29 and Corinthian coins with images of Pegasos connect the Greek myth in solidarity with the new Roman colony.30
Another popular myth centers on King Oedipus. Oedipus has been raised as the son of a royal couple in Corinth after his real parents, King Laius and Queen Jacosta of Thebes, fear an oracle that their infant son would eventually kill Laius. The king gives his servant the child to dispose of him, but the servant gives him to a Corinthian herdsman, who gives him to the Corinthian couple. When he grows up, Oedipus learns from the Oracle at Delphi that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Fate and tragedy take place as he leaves Corinth for Thebes to avoid fulfilling the prophecy. On the way, he quarrels with a man on the road and kills him, not knowing it is his father Laius. After delivering the Thebans from the monstrous Sphynx, the people make Oedipus their king and marry him to the widowed Queen Jacosta, who is secretly his mother. The prophet Tiresias reveals Oedipus as the king’s murderer and predicts calamity. Eventually, after the incestuous couple finds out the truth, Jacosta hangs herself and Oedipus blinds himself with his mother’s brooches (Sophocles, Oed. Rex).31
A final myth we will mention is the tragedy of Medea. Being warned by prophecy against his nephew Jason, Pelias, the usurper of Iolcus, sends him with the Argonauts to retrieve a golden fleece in Colchis. Aphrodite and Cupid protect Jason by having Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, fall in love with Jason. With the help of Medea’s