Ancient Art and Architecture in Context Vol. 2 sample

Histories of Peirene: A Corinthian Fountain in Three Millennia Betsey A. Robinson

HISTORIES OF PEIRENE

The author and Paul Scotton after a tour of Peirene, August 2006

A CORINTHIAN FOUNTAIN IN THREE MILLENNIA

About the Author Betsey A. Robinson is Associate Professor of Art History and of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her research and teaching interests include Greek and Roman architecture and art, ancient cities and sanctuaries, landscapes and natural history. Professor Robinson has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She was a Junior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (1999–2000), and Oscar Broneer Fellow at the American Academy in Rome (2001–2002).

Ancient Art and Architecture in Context Published with the support of the Getty Foundation, this series demonstrates, through case studies of specific artifacts and monuments, that aesthetic study, contextual investigation, and technical examination are complementary tools in the quest to retrieve meaning from the past. By combining archaeological and art historical approaches within a contextual framework, the books in this series exemplify true interdisciplinary research and lead to a richer understanding of antiquity.

Jacket Illustrations Front: Detail of a fish on west wall of Chamber VI; view of triconch court Photos ASCSA Back: Interior view of Chamber IV Photo ASCSA

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The Peirene Fountain as described by its first excavator, Rufus B. Richardson, is “the most famous fountain of Greece.” Here is a retrospective of a wellspring of Western civilization, distinguished by its long history, service to a great ancient city, and early identification as the site where Pegasus landed and was tamed by the hero Bellerophon. Spanning three millennia and touching a fourth, Peirene developed from a nameless spring to a renowned source of inspiration, from a busy landmark in Classical Corinth to a quiet churchyard and cemetery in the Byzantine era, and finally from free-flowing Ottoman fountains back to the streams of the source within a living ruin. These histories of Peirene as a spring and as a fountain, and of its watery imagery, form a rich cultural narrative whose interrelations and meanings are best appreciated when studied together. The author deftly describes the evolution of the Fountain of Peirene framed against the underlying landscape and its ancient, medieval, and modern settlement, viewed from the perspective of Corinthian culture and spheres of interaction.

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Contents List of Illustrations and tables ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction xix

Part I. The Spring and Its Legacy ONE

Peirene Today and Yesterday: Anatomy and Physiology 3 The Springhouse and Its Court 7 Water Catchment and Delivery 11 Canalization and Drainage 17 Water Chemistry and Microbiology 18 Acrocorinthian Peirene: Impressions and Connections 20 The Saturated Landscape: Ancient Hydrology 23

Two

The Storied Spring: Peirene in Pictures and Poetry 27 Seminal Source, Lachrymose Origins 30 The Mythical Place of Peirene 32 Visual Narratives and Allegory 35 Tapping the Streams of the Source 44 To Drink of Peirene 55 The View from the “City of Peirene” 59 Late Antique Continuity 62

THREE

Great and Fearful Days: The Rediscovery of Peirene 65 Mundus Subterraneus 68 The Excavation 70 Archaeological Method 74 From Excavation to Interpretation 77 The Evolving Archaeological Landscape 80 Ominous Signs 82

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contents FOUR

A Corinthian Hydra: The Labors of Bert Hodge Hill 85 Radical Cures 88 Plumbers All 95 The End of an Era 99 Lately the Director: “One-Boy Excavation” 100 Mudmen Again 107 Anemone Days 112 The Long-Awaited Publication 116

Part II. Biography of the Fountain FIVE

Beginnings: Hellenic and Hellenistic Peirene 123 No Vestige of a Beginning 127 Archaic Horizons 131 Puzzling Remains East of Peirene 134 Classical Developments 143 Hellenistic Floruit 145 Denouement and Destruction 148

SIX

Corinthian Grotesque: The Cyclopean Fountain 151 From Structure to Sculpture 153 Cyclopean or Merely Grotesque? 156 The Art of the Cave 159 The Model Grotto 166 Pomp and Circumstantial Evidence: Corinth’s Nymphaeum 170

The Genius of Place and Master: Romanizing Peirene 175 Cultural and Historical Context 178 A New Facade for Peirene 181 An Urban Reserve: The Poros Court 185 The Hypaithros Krene 188 Civic-Minded Architecture 189 Parallels for Peirene’s Renaissance 194 The Broader View 201

SEVEN

EIGHT

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High Roman Style: The Marble Court 205 Local Benefaction, Imperial Context 207 Sospes’s Elegant Ensemble 210 Peopling Peirene: Sculpture and Decorative Furnishings 215 Interiors: Faux-Marbles and Piscina Paintings 219

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contents NINE

A Pendant for Peirene: The Scylla of Corinth 233 Setting the Stage 237 Iconographic Comparanda and Reconstruction 239 The Monster and Her Milieu: Victims, Patrons, Viewers 245

TEN

Palace for the People: The Triconch Court 251 Architecture: Form and Fabrics 254 Reexamining the Stratigraphic Record 259 Tightening the Frame: More Dating Considerations 263 Corinth, A.d. 200–400: Catastrophes, Responses, Recovery 265 Styles of the Times 269 Cultural Contexts 274 “These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruin” 275 In Their Element: Portraits and Polytheism 281

ELEVEN

The Ruin of a Beautiful Thing 285 Historical Overview 286 Christian Conversions? 288 Purifying Peirene 289 The Peirene Cemetery 293 A Chapel at the Life-Giving Spring 295 An Archaeological Dark Age: Walls and Water Channels 298 Glimmers of the Past 301 Toward a Reunion of Traditions 304 No Prospect of an End 309

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POSTSCRIPT Adventures in Underland 311 “Alice in Underland” by Sterling Dow 312 “Pausanias’ Second Visit to Corinth: New Translation by O. Broneer” 315

Appendix 1: Summary Chronological Table 317 Appendix 2: Early Corinthian Pottery Sequence 318 Appendix 3: Summary of Phases of Peirene 319 Appendix 4: Abbreviations of corinth excavations material 320 Notes 321 References 361 Illustration Credits 381 Index 382 Plates

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Illustrations Figures frontispiece. Peirene: Interior view of Chamber IV, backed by Basin C and Reservoir 3 1. Peirene: View of the triconch court and spring facade 2. Peirene: West entrance in 1898 and approximately a century later 3. Peirene: General view of the spring facade, with Acrocorinth in the background 4. Peirene: View through eastern entrance into the triconch court 5. Peirene: View of spring facade, showing arches of Chambers I–III and remains of columns 6. Peirene: View of Chamber I 7. Peirene: Interior view of Chamber I 8. Peirene: Interior view of Chamber IV 9. Peirene: View west from Basin C across Basins A and B 10. Peirene: View south into Reservoir 3 11. Peirene: East supply tunnel, east–west sections 12. Peirene: West supply tunnel, east–west section 13. Peirene: East supply tunnel 14. Peirene: Forward cross-tunnel 15. Peirene: View south to fork between south-central supply tunnel and southwest supply tunnel 16. Peirene: View of Manhole A 17. Peirene: Views of Manhole G 18. Peirene: View north in south-central supply tunnel 19. Peirene: Unexplored subsidiary tunnel south of Manhole H 20. Peirene: Niche, perhaps a shrine, in southwest supply tunnel 21. Peirene: South Stoa aqueduct, looking west from tunnel at Manhole J 22. Peirene: South Stoa aqueduct, looking east from tunnel at Manhole J 23. Upper Peirene: View north under screen of reused elements 24. Middle Protocorinthian II aryballos showing Pegasus, Bellerophon, and the Chimaera 25. The taming of Pegasus, fragment of an Apulian red-figure bell krater 26. Landscape with Pegasus, Bellerophon, and Athena at Peirene, wall painting from Pompeii, House of Virnius Modestus 27. The taming of Pegasus at the grotto of Peirene, wall painting from Pompeii, House of L. Vetutius Placidus 28. Bellerophon waters Pegasus before the grotto of Peirene, relief from Rome 29. Bellerophon waters Pegasus, relief on Megiste Casket

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list of illustrations 30. Bellerophon tames the rearing Pegasus, with the Chimaera below, fragment of a sarcophagus from Patras 31. Bellerophon waters Pegasus as the nymph Peirene observes, short end of a sarcophagus from the Tyre Necropolis 32. Bellerophon waters Pegasus beside two Peirene nymphs, as Eros, Pan, and another female observe, on a sarcophagus in Algiers 33. Allegory of Peirene and the Isthmian Games on silver cup from the Berthouville Treasure 34. Corinth AE, P. Tadius Chilo and C. Julius Nicephorus, 43–42 B.c., obverse: Bellerophon struggles with Pegasus 35. Corinth AE, variations on the taming of Pegasus, showing horse and hero straining in opposite directions 36. Corinth AE, reverse images from Corinthian issues of Caracalla depicting the taming of Pegasus 37. Corinth AE, Hadrian, reverse: Peirene reclines, holding water reed 38. Corinth AE, reverse images from Antonine and Severan issues depicting Peirene 39. Corinth AE, reverse images depicting Pegasus in the Corinthian landscape 40. Corinth AE, Septimius Severus, reverse: nymph Peirene and sea monster Scylla 41. Corinth AE, Septimius Severus, reverse: armed Aphrodite on Acrocorinth; water flows from arch between recumbent male figures 42. Drawing of glass phiale with Pegasus and Bellerophon by Upper and Lower Peirene 43. Peirene: 1898 sketch plan of subterranean components 44. Peirene: Spring facade and court on or about June 4, 1898 45. Peirene: North apse on or about May 30, 1898 46. Peirene: Court and spring facade from the north, ca. June 12, 1898 47. Peirene: North apse from the south, ca. June 7, 1898 48. Peirene: Spring facade, court, and round pool from the north, probably April 10, 1899 49. Peirene: Spring facade and round pool, ca. May 10, 1899 50. Peirene: Byzantine chapel in the course of destruction, June 1898 51. I-62, statue base naming Regilla, found in Peirene in 1899 52. Peirene: Spring facade, November 1911, with Tsellios House above 53. Peirene: Work in the north apse in 1909 54. Peirene: “Mudmen” pose in front of Chambers I and II, on or about July 6, 1909 55. Peirene: Workmen pose in front of the west apse, July 1910 56. Peirene: Workmen and one woman clear mud from Peirene, July 7, 1909 57. Peirene: Interior view from west across Basins A–C, July 10, 1909 58. Peirene: Emerson Swift and Carl W. Blegen pose outside Chamber VI, June 8, 1913 59. Peirene: Facade showing Chamber III retrofitted as excavation darkroom, on or about April 18, 1914 60. Hill’s American Red Cross identification card, 1918 61. Ancient Corinth: Village plateia with American-built fountain, 1934 or 1935 62. Undated photograph of the middle-aged Hill at Peirene, probably 1930s 63. Materials of the archaeologist: cardstock packaging and flattened boxes 64. Peirene: Dam in the west supply tunnel 65. Statue of a bronze cow near Peirene 66. “Peirene in the Hellenistic Period” 67. “Peirene: Perspective, Period of Herodes Atticus”

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43 43 44 56 59 60 60 61 61 61 62 62 63 69 71 71 73 73 74 75 77 79 87 89 90 90 92 93 95 96 97 98 101 102 104 106 106 106

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list of illustrations

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68. Peirene, east side: views of Cyclopean Fountain 125 69. Baths of Aphrodite 128 70. Peirene and Peribolos of Apollo: Plan of early features 129 71. Peirene, east side: Cyclopean Fountain, reservoirs, footed basin, and pre-stoa foundations 135 72. Peirene, east side: Exterior wall of east apse of Peirene, stylobate of Hexastyle Stoa, and other pre-stoa foundations 137 73. Peirene, east side: Views of Cyclopean Fountain and east cistern 138 74. Peirene, east side: East cistern and water channel with early wall, base of light structure, and basin rim 139 75. Peirene, east side: Footed tub and overlying cobblestone pavement of Hexastyle Stoa terrace; stoa steps and stylobate 139 76. Votive loops, or koulouria 142 77. Peirene, east side: Elevation of Hexastyle Stoa 143 78. Peirene: Restored north elevation of springhouse 146 79. Peirene: Ionic screen over inner parapet 149 80. Peirene, east side: Cyclopean Fountain 154 81. Cyclopean Fountain: Detail of basin and parapet 154 82. Cyclopean Fountain: North wall 155 83. Cyclopean Fountain: Details of superstructure on north side 156 84. Mycenae: Hidden Cistern 157 85. Tiryns: Intramural galleries 157 86. Argive Heraion: Early Iron Age “Cyclopean” terrace wall 158 87. Delos: Cynthian Grotto 158 88. Protoargive vase fragment showing blinding of Polyphemus 160 89. Protocorinthian skyphos depicting Heracles before the grotto of Pholus 161 90. Corinthian column krater depicting the Monster of Troy 161 91. Votive terracotta plaque from Penteskouphia, showing laborers in a quarry 162 92. Vari, Attica: Cave interior, with carving of Archedemus of Thera and stalactites 164 93. Relief from the Vari cave 165 94. Locri Epizefiri: Terracotta model of nymphaeum from the Caruso Grotto 167 95. Locri Epizefiri: Terracotta model of nymphaeum from the Caruso Grotto 167 96. Locri Epizefiri: Terracotta model of nymphaeum from the Caruso Grotto 167 97. Peirene spring facade 176 98. Corinth: Foundations of the Northeast Stoas I and II, in 1936 181 99. Peirene: Spring facade, reconstruction 182 100. Peirene: Spring facade, watercolor rendering with hypothetical polychromy 183 101. Peirene: Sketch perspective of the poros court 185 102. Stylized rocky base of poros stone found in or near Peirene 187 103. Rome: Theater of Marcellus 191 104. Rome: Forum Romanum, the Tabularium 191 105. Wall painting of rustic grotto from the cubiculum in the villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale 198 106. Castel Gandolfo: Doric Nymphaeum 199 107. Rome: Via degli Annibaldi nymphaeum 199 108. Corinth: Fountain of Poseidon/Neptune 201 109. Dedicatory inscription of Antonius Sospes and family 208

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list of illustrations 110. Peirene: Marble ornamentation, detail of reconstruction 210 111. Peirene: Northeast corner of triconch court 211 112. Peirene: Northeast corner of triconch court, details 212 113. Fragments of marble arches and spandrels 213 114. S-55: Female portrait statue 216 115. S-54: Female nude statue (Aphrodite or a nymph) 216 116. S-1024: Statue of shell-bearing nymph 216 117. Fragment of marble basin found in the area of Peirene 217 118. Peirene: South end of hypaithros krene 217 119. Fragment of decorative water stair 217 120. Fragments of inscribed balustrade reinserted into baluster 218 121. Inscribed balustrade fragments 218 122. Peirene: Reconstruction of piscina paintings 220 123. Peirene: Reconstruction of chamber and paintings 220 124. Peirene: Details of a fish, perhaps a piper, on west wall of Chamber VI 221 125. Peirene: Chamber I, reconstruction of yellow-painted design 222 126. Peirene: Chamber I, east wall, current state 222 127. Peirene: Chamber III, west wall, reconstruction of piscina painting 225 128. Peirene: Chamber III, west wall, current state 225 129. Peirene: Chamber III, east wall, reconstruction 226 130. Peirene: Chamber III, east wall, current state 226 131. Peirene: Chamber IV, west wall, reconstruction 227 132. Peirene: Chamber IV, west wall, current state 227 133. Peirene: Chamber IV, east wall 228 134. Piscina painting from Villa of Diomedes, Pompeii 229 135. Battle between octopus, eel, and spiny lobster, fragment of a wall painting from a building by the Tiber, Rome 230 136. Corinth AE, reverse images from Antonine and Severan issues depicting a statuary group of Scylla 234 137. Corinth AE, reverse images from issues showing Scylla on rocky base, with one arm raised, the other extended over dogs and basin, with arches above/behind 235 138. Corinth AE, Caracalla, reverse: forum of Corinth, showing temple, stoas, and Tritons rampant 236 139. Scylla with Odysseus’s ship, reconstruction of colossal group from Sperlonga 241 140. Scylla on rocky base, with dogs eating sailors, from Scenic Canal, Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli 243 141. Scylla fountain statue, lower torso with seaweed skirt and three dog protomes 245 142. Peirene: Aerial view of triconch court and adjacent structures 253 143. Peirene: West apse, southern niche 255 144. Peirene: East apse, construction details 256 145. I-24[G]: Epistyle-frieze block from Peirene 258 146. Room E6″, photomosaic of east face of apse (west wall of room) 261 147. Room E6″, north wall (E5-E6-E7/E8) with blocked doorway 261 148. Calibration of strata preserved in external face of east apse wall with those documented in 1910 excavation records 261 149. Comparative triconch plans, examples from the western Mediterranean 271 150. Comparative triconch plan, examples from the eastern Mediterranean 272

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list of illustrations 151. Peirene: Triconch court, sectional reconstruction 152. Peirene: Remains of the outlooker screen 153. Peirene: Outlooker in situ between Chambers IV and V 154. Peirene: Foundation of outlooker in situ between Chambers V and VI 155. Peirene: Foundation of outlooker in situ between Chambers I and II 156. Peirene: Epistyle-frieze block recut as outlooker, now on threshold of east apse 157. Peirene: Epistyle-frieze block recut as outlooker, now on threshold of north apse 158. Peirene: Sketch reconstruction of the outlooker screen 159. S-920: Portrait of a priest 160. S-909: Male portrait head 161. S-919: Male portrait head, with cross carved in forehead 162. S-986: Late Antique portrait of an unknown woman 163. S-1454: “Hadrian” portrait 164. S-2771: Julius Caesar portrait 165. Peirene: View of east side of triconch court 166. Peirene, east side: Marble channel through Peribolos apse 167. Peirene: Sketch reconstruction of Byzantine chapel in court 168. Peirene: Traces of Byzantine chapel above Chambers I and II 169. Peirene: Chamber IV, showing green cipollino column inserted above ancient parapet 170. Peirene: Court in 1899, with the north end of the Frankish wall 171. Northeast of Peirene: Widow’s Channel outside the triconch court 172. The Veroli Casket, with Pegasus and Bellerophon 173. “Corinth: Acrocorinth and the Palace of the Bey” 174. View of Ancient Corinth, from Finden’s Landscape and Portrait Illustrations to the Life and Works of Lord Byron, 1834 175. “Street in Corinth,” with Acrocorinth in the background 176. “View of Corinth near the Palace of the Bey, from a Sketch by Baron Haller” 177. View of fountains, from A. Blouet, Expédition scientifique de Morée: Architecture, sculptures, inscriptions, et vues, Paris 1838 178. Caricature of Bert Hodge Hill

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273 277 277 278 278 278 278 280 283 283 283 284 284 284 290 290 296 297 298 299 301 303 305 306 307 308 310 313

Plates 1. Classical Corinth: Second half of 5th century B.c.

2. Roman Corinth: 3rd century A.d.

3. Peirene and Cyclopean Fountain: Pre-Roman phases 4. Roman Peirene: Rectangular Court and adjacent structures 5. Late Antique Peirene: Triconch court and adjacent structures 6. Byzantine–Ottoman Peirene: Graves, tombs, chapel, and late aqueducts 7. Peirene: Elevation of spring facade and section through hypaithros krene 8. Peirene: View to south, across hypaithros krene to Spring Facade 9. Peirene: Elevation of west side of court 10. Peirene: View of west apse from the east across hypaithros krene 11. Peirene: Elevation of east side of court and section through Chamber IV

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list of illustrations 12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

Peirene: View of east apse from the west across hypaithros krene Peirene: Elevation of north side of court and section through west and east apses Peirene: View of hypaithros krene and north apse from the south Cyclopean Fountain Cyclopean Fountain and north side of approach Cyclopean Fountain and south side of approach Detail of plan from American School Excavations at Old Corinth, 1898

A. B. C. D.

Ancient Corinth: Locations of springs and fountains Peirene: State plan Peirene: Plan of surface constructions and subterranean components Peirene underland: Plan of tunnel system and relationship to excavated features

Tables Table 1: Hardness of Water (mg/l CaCO3) Sampled from Corinthian Springs and Lake Stymphalus Table 2: Concentrations of Minerals Present in Peirene Water

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Part II

Biography of the Fountain

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CHAPTER five

Beginnings: Hellenic and Hellenistic Peirene

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I

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n his last excavations at Corinth, Bert Hodge Hill returned to the apse of the Peribolos of Apollo, directly east of the triconch court, and opened a series of small trenches with the help of a few trusted assistants. Working throughout the spring of 1941 and through the German defeat of Greece, they dug even as enemy warplanes circled overhead and sometimes drove them for cover. Unfortunately, it was the context material from these excavations that was irreparably disordered when the workroom in the Corinth Museum was ransacked that summer, and thereafter Hill turned his attentions elsewhere.

Only a few mentions of the 1940–1941 results were added to the manuscript that would become Corinth I.6: The Springs, and with the loss of the relevant notebooks after Hill’s death, the very existence of such records was forgotten. Their rediscovery in 2003 provoked the reopening of this cold case. What was so important that Hill and his men would risk their lives to understand it? In this small area, Hill hoped to find the solutions to persistent chronological problems, and he also sought a better understanding of the Cyclopean Fountain, a peculiar little monument resembling a grotto, which long shared Peirene’s water. Here he had supervised excavations from 1908 to 1911, but, as was all too common in those years, that work had been undertaken largely in response to village water problems.

The Cyclopean Fountain lies some 20 m to the north of the main Peirene fountain­ house (see Pls. B, 3). Viewed from the west between the walls of its approach, its remains consist of a shallow water basin and little more than a suggestion of its former megalithic vault (Pl. 15). Elderkin excavated the western end of the approach in 1908, but limited his work to the area immediately over the Peirene drain, with the sole objective of freeing it from debris.1 He discovered at least one of the mortar-encrusted walls of the dromos, figured here in Plates 16 and 17; the fill over the drain included Roman-era inscriptions, fragments of the marble order of the Peribolos of Apollo, and Late Antique heads indicating Late Antique or Early Byzantine excavation and refilling.2 Work resumed in the area in 1910, exposing what seemed to be a “big Greek tank,” actually just the space between the two walls of the approach, before encountering the Cyclopean Fountain itself, which was transected by the Widow’s Channel (one of the modern village aqueducts) and its two medieval predecessors (see Fig. 68 to compare the situation immediately after excavation and today).3 The fill was Late Antique or Early Byzantine throughout (including a granite column and Roman tiles), but no more sculpture or other remarkable finds were recorded.4 Because water seeped slowly but constantly into the pool and the area in front of it (as it still does), Hill later cut a drain through the clay bedrock of the dromos to the Peirene drain; a motley assortment of cover slabs still marks its course (best seen on Pl. 15:d).5 South of the Cyclopean Fountain, within the Peribolos apse, excavations by C. Ash­ ton Sanborn in 1910 and 1911 uncovered a confusing patchwork of medieval walls over­ lying well-preserved Roman structures, the foundations of the Hexastyle Stoa, and the earlier cistern into which the stoa’s foundations were laid. Farther south, in Room E6, Sanborn found stratified deposits preserving important evidence for understanding the Roman-period history of the area.6 Below the earliest Roman levels, Sanborn uncovered tantalizing evidence of pre-Roman activity, and perhaps its end, represented by a burnt stratum that one is tempted to associate with Mummius’s destruction of Corinth in 146 B.c.

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Figure 68. Peirene, east side: (top) view of Cyclopean Fountain from the west, immediately after excavation; the Widow’s Channel still cuts through the (damaged) south side; (bottom) recent view, from a slightly different angle

This lay over an earthen fill containing pieces of molded relief bowls (Megarian ware), dishes and a miniature lamp, a grotesque mask, a terracotta relief and figurines, and several plain loops of baked clay.7 In deeper deposits in the very southwest corner of the room, the excavators found more terracotta loops together with red-figure vase fragments.8 The loops are of considerable interest, for they abound in this area but have been found only occasionally elsewhere in the Peribolos of Apollo, and rarely beyond, with the exception of the Potters’ Quarter.

The belief that crucial data still lay within pockets of undisturbed fill drew Hill back to the area in the winter and spring of 1940–1941. In particular, he sought a better

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chapter five understanding of two important structures in the area, the Hexastyle Stoa and the Cyclopean Fountain, which he believed to be among the earliest structures to be built near Peirene. A quarter-century after Hill’s last efforts, Charles K. Williams II oversaw the systematic excavation of small patches of undisturbed ancient contexts in the Peribolos of Apollo. Attempts to dig immediately north of the Cyclopean Fountain were thwarted when the fill there was found to be as hard as rock, probably calcified by limey water seeping out of the late aqueducts over the centuries.9 To the south, however, work supervised by Hardy Hansen within the walls of the Hexastyle Stoa not only provided the evidence for redating the stoa to the second half of the 5th century B.c. but shed light on the earlier use of the area, with finds suggesting the possibility of religious observances at the site.10 That such a compact area was subject to so many attempts reflects the difficulties of working there, and even the combined excavations have produced relatively little stratigraphic evidence. There are two reasons for this. First, this area was heavily overbuilt from the 5th century B.c. to the 10th century A.d., and later structures remain significant obstacles to viewing or reconstructing earlier features. A related issue is that although the Cyclopean Fountain and its walled approach were certainly filled in and covered by the Early Roman period, they were cleared out and made to serve as an open cistern in the 5th and 6th centuries A.d., so that any earlier stratified deposits were removed.11 Second, the operations of 1908 and 1910 were effectively rescue excavations, in which the archaeological work was driven—and severely compromised—by the need to replace the Widow’s Channel with a pipeline in short order.

In this chapter, the first to turn to the archaeology of Peirene, my purpose is to review the structural history of the fountain that served Corinth, from the earliest known human interventions in the area of the spring in the Iron Age through the Hellenistic period, and to integrate previously unpublished evidence, old and new. Plate 3 shows the complex of structures that had accumulated around Peirene by the mid-2nd century B.c. The plan’s seven discrete phases and clear lines belie an archaeological record that is both extremely complicated and appallingly fragmentary, from the combined effects of continued use, rebuilding, overbuilding, tunneling, and digging. In this part of Peirene’s history, Hill’s chronology remains fundamental;12 however, more recent excavations have gradually illuminated pre-Roman Corinth, casting reflected light on Peirene as well. The results of those efforts, as well as further archaeological, architectural, and art-historical research, are therefore used to fine-tune Hill’s observations, to expand upon his conclusions, and to add further layers of understanding.

The Cyclopean Fountain is structurally and hydraulically intertwined with Peirene, so its developmental phases are presented alongside those of Peirene proper in the primary historical and constructional narrative of this chapter. The smaller fountain today consists of a little basin sheltered by a rocky canopy (now largely destroyed) and an approach, the walls of which are clearly pastiches of numerous eras, through which a ramp eventually led down to the basin in its last centuries of use (Pls. 16, 17). A more detailed examination of its design and an exploration of its purpose and meaning for Corinth will follow in the next chapter.

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No Vestige of a Beginning Excavations in and around the south end of the Peirene Valley have produced signs of human presence in the Neolithic and Early Helladic periods, as well as significant building and landscaping activity from the Protogeometric period forward.13 Neolithic deposits have been found in several areas around Temple Hill, the Forum Hollow, and the Peirene Valley, particularly in the northwest corner of the Peribolos of Apollo.14 To the published examples should be added the discovery of Neolithic pottery fragments, obsidian blades, and flint chips deep under the west apse of the triconch court.15 Early Helladic pottery has a similar—and similarly spotty—distribution. The archaeologically attested populations were likely drawn to the area by two natural streams that flowed from the springs that would become the Sacred Spring and Peirene near the head of the valley (Pl. A:1, 2).16 Just as it does today, the presence of water would have fostered the growth of plants and trees, supporting a lush green space amidst the sparser coverage of the area at large.

Notably lacking is any significant concentration of Middle or Late Helladic material in this area, but evidence of a renewed human presence comes with the Iron Age.17 The Protogeometric and Geometric periods brought scattered settlements in the area of the Corinth Excavations, inaugurating three millennia of continuous occupation.18 Among the earliest large-scale projects in the area was the construction of walls to channel the waters of the Sacred Spring and Peirene through the valley in the Middle Geometric II period, that is, in the first half of the 8th century B.c.19 A connection has been hypothesized between this and another drain that runs diagonally southwest–northeast through the Forum Hollow.20 Interventions at the springs and other efforts to reshape the natural landscape, together with increased building and burials in the Late Geometric and Protocorinthian periods, likely reflect the evolution of a more centralized urban and ruling structure in the middle of the 8th century B.c., a date corresponding to the historical rise of the Bacchiads (Diod.

Sic. 7.9).21 Two major projects have been assigned to the second half of the century, both dated by Late Geometric context pottery. Just south of the Sacred Spring, a megalithic wall was built to support a low terrace and to protect that source from overburden.22 A dirt roadbed was laid out between the two springs, connecting the Peirene Valley and the Forum Hollow.23 Let us now turn to Peirene itself.

Geomorphological models have important implications for Peirene’s history, but some imagination is needed to visualize the stages in which the scarp and the high ground around it were dramatically cut back in the first centuries of human reoccupation. At the time of the earliest interventions, the Peirene escarpment and spring must have been somewhat north of their present location, with the edge of the upper terrace following a different line, tending closer to north than its present northeast–southwest cut. Chris Hayward has shown that until vast quarrying operations began in the 7th century B.c., the Peirene Valley was a narrower, north–south declivity with relatively steep sides—the sharp rise of Temple Hill on the west and, on the east, a bluff of perhaps five meters in height.24 To the west, the Sacred Spring emerged from a low scarp between the Forum Hollow and the Peirene Valley, probably flowing around +74.15 m. Peirene, meanwhile, originated at a slightly lower level, about +73.35 m, from the face of a taller cliff to the east.25 A passable gradient seems to have existed between the two sources, formalized with a roadway from the Late Geometric period.26

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chapter five

Figure 69. The Baths of Aphrodite: (top) 1960 excavation view; (bottom, left and right) recent views of the sheltered recess below the capstone

The stages by which the south end of the valley was transformed can be understood by analogy to other springs along Corinth’s terraces. Henry S. Robinson wrestled with a similar situation in his studies of the so-called Baths of Aphrodite (Fig. 69) and penned a fitting description: The Corinthians early learned to exploit this natural supply [of water] by cutting back the clay to form a projecting ledge of conglomerate from which water dripped constantly and by digging tunnels into the clay from the exposed scarp. The tunnels in general extended southward, following the natural slope of the terrain up toward Acrocorinth.

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As the clay was dug away to create the overhanging shelf needed at the spring, a variety of natural causes tended to weaken the shelf and bring about its collapse; the most serious causes were probably earthquake and the penetration of the rock by tree-roots. When such collapses occurred, the fallen rock was removed, if possible, and more clay was dug out in order to recreate the shelf of conglomerate overhead.27

Hayward has pointed out that such human interventions merely amplified or accelerated the normal process by which such Pleistocene deposits were undermined. Such a progression has the regrettable effect of erasing all evidence of itself, indeed, leaving “no vestige of a beginning,” to borrow a well-known phrase from James Hutton.28 The resulting uncertainties are difficult to overcome. Nonetheless, by combining the observations of Robinson with the efforts of Williams and Hayward to establish the early-1st-millennium B.c. topography, and further integrating data from unpublished excavation records, we might envision a scene like what I have sketched out in Figure 70.29 In this hypothetical reconstruction, the scarp curves north from a point near the west end of the present spring facade toward the northeast door of the triconch court. A broad cavelike recess is hollowed out into the marl underneath, extending between the later supply tunnels (their paths here extended to reveal potential locations of early fissures or veins from which water escaped from the Peirene aquifer, soon to be—if not already—extended and regularized).

Further excavations would have undermined the capstone, gradually leading to collapses or necessitating periodic trimming and ultimately causing the southward migration of the scarp. Readers who have difficulty imagining such an alien landscape might reflect on Hayward’s estimate that at least three million cubic meters of building stone were extracted from the oolitic limestone quarries of the Corinthia, including those on and around Temple Hill, in the 1st millennium B.c.30 Here assigned to Greek Phase 1, the earliest structure in the im­ mediate environs of Peirene is the Early Protocorinthian Wall N1 (Pl. 3:N1) somewhat east of the road and stream, built around the turn of the 7th century B.c. or thereafter.31 Partially excavated in 1930, again in 1966, and then covered again, the western portion consists of six large conglomerate blocks, all of which are at least 0.5 m high, with two exceeding a meter in length. They are laid in two uneven, loosely jointed courses reaching a total height of about 1.5 m, +70.44 m to +71.89 m as surveyed, and despite the coarse building material, the north faces of

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Figure 70. Peirene and Peribolos of Apollo: Sketch plan showing elevations of excavation-attested bedrock horizons, hypothetical early-1stmillennium B.c. contours, and the locations of early structures. B. A. Robinson

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chapter five the blocks are smooth and show traces of tooling.32 That the north face of the wall was well finished and set to line indicates that it was meant to be seen. The wall was reinforced with the addition of a block course on its north side in the 7th century B.c., by which time the ground there had risen nearly to the level of the original blocks’ tops, with a pebbly fill probably washed in from above.33 Emerging again in the open area west of the Cyclopean Fountain, Wall N1, or at least its lower course, forms the northern boundary of the corridor leading to the fountain (the subject of Pl. 16, but also visible in Pl. 15:D, where its massive blocks cut diagonally across the lower left quadrant). Three blocks of the Early Protocorinthian wall can be recognized, their southern faces entirely unworked and irregular; they rest on or just above sterile clay or a colluvial fill in which little to no material culture is visible.34 It is instructive to compare its much-later pendant, the southern wall of the approach, which consists of regular-coursed masonry above a conglomerate foundation (Pl. 17).

Due west, two other walls of similar orientation (Walls N2 and N3) likely defined a southwest–northeast terrace and a drain in the same early period (see Pl. 3:N2, N3 for locations; they are outlined in Pl. B). Unfortunately, they lie among and under the foundations of a Roman-period room exactly north of the north apse of Peirene, and they were excavated with little notice in 1899.35 Subsequent exploration showed that the more easterly of the two, Wall N2, is of massive blocks like those of Wall N1, but no significant evidence of date or function came to light; the best estimate is of Protocorinthian work because of the similar depth, form, and orientation.36 These walls seem to be among the earliest preserved remains related to surface drainage, thereby reflecting incipient control over the landscape.

Wall N1 is explained as a north-facing retaining wall against the eastern rise of the Peirene Valley, which here must have been quite steep, if not a cliff.37 Indeed, the conglomerate boulders were probably used very close to the places where they fell away from the escarpment, with only their fronts planed down for viewing. If the line of the east supply tunnel were extended northward, it would intersect Wall N1 near its west end, and the location of this intersection is used as the eastern limit of the hypothetical cave in Figure 70, which, again, is envisioned as a relatively shallow undercutting, much like the Baths of Aphrodite today.

A still closer parallel may be found among the earliest attested efforts to augment the flow at the Sacred Spring in the Early Protocorinthian period. They included the excavation of a water-collection chamber, the so-called southern cavern, the laying of a stone floor, and the construction of a poros wall.38 It is a reasonable assumption that Peirene’s veins were also tapped in this period, if not before. Unfortunately, rock-cut channels are extremely difficult to date; only occasionally can they be slotted into relative phasing schemes, and in only a few cases do they preserve details that provide insight through comparison to other examples. Peirene’s earliest history, therefore, remains in the realm of hypothesis.

Sometime between the early 7th and the late 6th century B.c., the higher ground south of Wall N1 was quarried away, leaving behind a freestanding line of stones (Pl. 16).

The tables turned: with the construction of the Cyclopean Fountain, the leftover blocks would remain in place, becoming a dividing line between the higher ground of the area that would later become the Peribolos of Apollo and the lower-level mall between Peirene and its satellite, the Cyclopean Spring, which long stood around +70.35 m.39

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Archaic Horizons The crowning achievement of the Protocorinthian period was the erection of the monumental stone temple on Temple Hill, a watershed in the history of Greek architecture.40 Robin Rhodes reconstructs Corinth’s early-7th-century temple with socles and architraves of stone, massive timber-framed walls, and no colonnades. Its hipped roof was covered with large, interlocking tiles, all burnished to a near-glossy surface before firing and slipped in contrasting colors. Rhodes attributes the temple’s revolutionary design to two factors: first was the Corinthians’ discovery of a gold mine of building material under their feet, oolitic limestone that is soft enough to be worked as easily as wood yet very strong in compression; second was the invention of the terracotta-tile roof.41 Indeed, the temple was a triumph for Corinthian architects and coroplasts alike.

And perhaps more impressive than the buildings that were beginning to rise were the major quarrying operations on three fronts: for poros building stone, for the clay used in tile and vase production, and for water, as seen at the Sacred Spring.

Historians, ancient and modern, foreground two ruling families in the early history of Corinth, the aristocratic Bacchiads and the Cypselid tyrants. The Bacchiads may well have been responsible for the 7th-century temple, but while the Cypselids have been assumed to have developed Corinth’s fortifications, ports, and other sites, as well as patronizing the Isthmian Games, the excavation of Corinth has offered up little corroborative evidence for either group’s direct investment in the physical plant.42 If the death of Periander in 587 B.c. and the Corinthians’ ouster of his successor, Psammetichus, several years later led to changes in building activity, the archaeological record is silent. Rather, a general disaster of the second quarter of the 6th century seems to have damaged many buildings in the area, including the Protocorinthian temple, prompting extensive rebuilding according to new designs.43 The second half of the 6th century B.c. saw intensive work anchored by the Archaic Temple on Temple Hill (ca. 560–540).44 I maintain Williams’s position that before the establishment of the Roman Forum, the Forum Hollow was not Corinth’s agora but an area occupied by sacred sites and groves, while the agora still remains to be located, likely north of Temple Hill and Peirene.45 The later-6th-century B.c. residents of Corinth seem to have invested heavily in pious foundations, and, as Nancy Bookidis has emphasized, the cults in this area appear to have been of very local character.46 Thucydides describes a seemingly similar landscape around Athenian Callirhoë, a spring in the Ilissus Valley surrounded by a constellation of rustic shrines honoring Pan, Acheloüs, and the nymphs, where brides drew water for their prenuptial baths (2.15.3–6).47 In recognizing the Mousga valley as the ancient Platanistas, north of the theater at Sparta, Sanders also has set Spartan athletics, weddings, and other festivals in a comparable setting.48 At Corinth the sanctuary of the Sacred Spring was monumentalized in the late 6th or early 5th century B.c. A substantial springhouse was built, largely freestanding, with only its west wall tucked under the conglomerate capstone (see Pls. 1, D). Facing east away from the scarp, it consisted of a large reservoir fronted by a deep drawbasin at the east, all sheltered by a peaked roof and a tristyle-in-antis facade.49 Here the water came from the so-called southern cavern and another rock-cut feature to its north. Concurrently, but less conspicuously, the aquifer also was tapped with a longer tunnel extending some 20 m farther south, from which water was carried past the fountainhouse in two hidden channels,

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chapter five destined for use in the Peirene Valley to the north.50 In the same period, an apsidal shrine or temple was built north of the springhouse.51 Its facade also seems to have been tristylein-antis with piers supporting a Doric entablature, a formal repetition that would have reinforced the ritual connections between the two buildings at the Sacred Spring.52 The final report on the Sacred Spring sanctuary has yet to be written, and proposals for its honoree have been many, though most agree upon a chthonic deity or deities. The area in front of the springhouse and the apsidal temple seems to have become the site of cult activity that apparently employed water and oil in its rites.53 Scholars first proposed the worship of Dionysus or Apollo at the site, but more convincing interpretations have named Kotyto, one of the daughters of Timandrus killed in the Dorian invasion of Corinth; suggestions have been made that ritual footraces took place on the nearby racecourse in the Forum Hollow in honor of her sister Hellotis, perhaps syncretized with Athena even

by Pindar’s time (Ol. 13.82).54 Sanders has recently hypothesized, rather, that the honoree was Artemis or an aspect of that goddess with chthonic and watery associations.55 As shown in Plate 1, the first racecourse was laid out by the end of the 6th century B.c., and the erection of trophy tripods probably began soon thereafter beside the Sacred Spring.56 Near the racecourse a rectangular enclosure, the Heroön of the Crossroads, was built in the second or third quarter of the 6th century B.c. over a set of earlier graves, and two other sanctuaries, the Underground Shrine and the Stele Shrine, were built deeper in the Forum Hollow.57 To the north of Peirene, an industrial complex identified as a dye works was established by about 550; while it was not until the third quarter of the 5th century that a reservoir was added, the installation seems to have been predicated on the availability of water in the Peirene Valley, whether from the Sacred Spring or Peirene.58 Let us return to Peirene and consider the earliest features preserved at the site of the present springhouse. Here they are gathered together in Greek Phase 2; however, few can be dated absolutely or interlinked. For the evidence of Greek Phase 2A, we shall return to the Cyclopean Fountain to the north in due time; however, the earliest preserved remains at Peirene proper are slightly later. In their earliest phases, the water-catchment tunnels would have been simple affairs, created as water was tapped—or, effectively, quarried— from the aquiferous rock. The earliest preserved segments of Peirene’s tunnels are already more developed, with shelf channels carved into the walls to carry clean water well above floor level (Figs. 11, 12), a characteristic shared by two early structures of the Sacred Spring complex.59 In the west supply tunnel, shelf channels certainly existed in at least two successive phases (see Fig. 12 for one, “e”), delivering water to two corresponding cuttings in the west face of Wall E, just west of Chamber I, and the earliest surviving built structure at Peirene, though even this wall incorporates reused blocks, hinting at prior, unrepresented phases (see Pl. 3:E).60 Each of the cuttings in Wall E would have fed spouts mounted in the wall’s east face, which would have debouched into basins on the ground (then at about +71.00 m) from which visitors could dip water.61 The orientation of Wall E, angling somewhat west of the north axis of all later phases, indicates that the building to which it belonged was oriented differently (in part or in its entirety) from the developed fountainhouse. Moreover, when the wall was built, the line of the Peirene scarp must have passed close to its present north end, though it still may have swung to the north thereafter.62 This is to say that the trimming of the Peirene scarp was already well underway

by Greek Phase 2B, the period to which Wall E is here assigned.

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The east supply tunnel approaches the Peirene scarp from the southeast (Pls. C, D). At the cliff ’s edge, its water passed from rock-cut to built channels leading to points farther north and northeast through much of Peirene’s human history. The earliest segment of the tunnel approaches the present fountainhouse on a straight course of 15.30 m from the south-southeast, with a shelf channel (a) in its east wall, which would have delivered water at about +72.85 m (Fig. 11).63 In a secondary phase, the tunnel was lengthened by several meters along the original south-southeast trajectory, then turned east-northeast at a right angle, to dead end after just 6 meters. A new shelf channel (b) was carved into the south and west walls of the tunnel, about 20 cm lower than the first (delivery ca. +72.65 m). The third phase to incorporate a shelf channel (c), considerably lower than the second (delivery ca. +72.15 m), reached back 57 m from the facade, almost to Manhole A. The east wall of the tunnel was extended by a well-built masonry wall east of the facade (Pl. 3:F), a pendant to Wall E, but probably of a later date (and here assigned to Greek Phase 2C).64 Greek Phase 2C is represented by two deep, narrow basins (A and B/C) and a smaller settling tank (D), carved into the soft marl under the harder conglomerate ceiling (Pls. C, 3; Fig. 9).65 These basins were originally backed by solid ground and received water directly from the west supply tunnel. Their orientation established that of all subsequent phases.66 As they lay at least 2.5 m behind the lip of the undercut conglomerate ceiling (their current setback), certain measures must have been taken to support the overhang.

Not one of the original props remains, but Hill noted that footwear on the stone pavement in front of the basins reflects unimpeded circulation before the insertion of spur walls in a later phase.67 Rather than solid walls, he suggested the placement of five pillars under the bedrock ceiling, framing four broad openings that would better match the divisions of the basins behind them. In so doing, he gave Corinth another version of the tristyle-inantis fountain, echoing the Sacred Spring and apsidal temple in the rhythm of its facade.

The lack of contextual data makes Greek Phase 2C difficult to date; however, its relative phasing and stylistic similarities to the fountainhouse of the Sacred Spring may suggest work of the late 6th century B.c. or soon thereafter.

The rock-cut Reservoirs 1–4 of Greek Phase 3A (Pls. C, 3; Fig. 10) postdate the basins, matching their spacing and following their orientation. Their excavation may have been motivated by the needs of a thriving city, but it also seems to reflect a growing understanding of the Peirene aquifer, whose flow depends largely upon recent rain: this augmentation of the subterranean components would help to ensure a constant supply through the seasons, whether they brought rainfall or drought. Water entered through a branch of the east supply tunnel—now in its third or fourth (and probably final) phase of extension—and flowed freely between the reservoirs and basins through robust stone grills, three of which still stand in various states of repair (see Figs. 7–9). I propose that the reservoir system was excavated in the early 5th century B.c., partly due to its similarity to the so-called Fountain of Theagenes at Megara, dated on contextual grounds to the first quarter of that century.68 With its two reservoirs fronted by deep drawbasins, the Megarian fountain resembles the Sacred Spring fountainhouse, but its scale owes more to Peirene and its rock-cut reservoirs. These huge early complexes anticipate later reservoir systems such as the Fountain of Glauke, the Asklepieion-Lerna installations, and the fountainhouse on the high ground at Perachora.69

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chapter five While vase paintings are of limited use in reconstructing architectural details, they remain important sources on the construction and reception of the earliest Greek fountains. Such monuments would abound on Attic works by the last quarter of the 6th century B.c., probably expressing local enthusiasm about new Peisistratid water conduits and fountainhouses, as John Pedley has shown.70 Corinthian counterparts may likewise reflect real excitement about the ever-improving hydraulic technology as well as the state of the art in the age of the Cypselids and thereafter. John Boardman has noted that scenes of Heracles fighting the Lernean Hydra were especially popular subjects among Early and Middle Corinthian vase painters.71 The episode is among the earliest myths represented in Greek art, and Boardman points out that its popularity at Corinth could be due to the fact that this was the hero’s nearest labor, just south of Argos. Perhaps the theme also appealed to a Corinthian audience for another reason—because they, themselves, were beginning to identify with the paradigmatic Peloponnesian plumber.

One of the earliest images of a fountain with running water is a scene of Achilles waiting to ambush Troilus on a Middle Corinthian bottle of about 580–570 B.c. by the artist Timonidas.72 The fountain consists of a wall-mounted lion-head spout dispensing water into an ornamental basin, and it is safe to assume that the painter was familiar with such arrangements, very likely at Corinth, and quite possibly at Peirene. Still more interesting is a tristyle-in-antis facade that appears on a Corinthian kylix of ca. 590–585.73 The prominent central column and the lack of a central doorway have led Pedley to conclude that “either the painter misunderstood his facade, or the central column is to be thought of as the central jamb of a double door behind a distyle in antis facade.”74 The rendering of a Trojan fountainhouse with a tristyle-in-antis facade on the François Vase, an Attic work of about 570–560, however, should prompt us to consider a similar identification for the slightly earlier Corinthian painter’s building.75 That it is a fountainhouse is at least a strong possibility, for while the structure lacks a doorway, it does have a horizontal band with two or more bosses, easily taken for spouts mounted on a reservoir wall. Moreover, given the Archaic Corinthian predilection for tristyle-in-antis fountain facades—that is, quadripartite divisions of fountains—we should strongly consider the likelihood that there was an actual prototype for the designs on these vases.76

Puzzling Remains East of Peirene Having considered the early phases of the main springhouse of Peirene, let us turn to the Cyclopean Fountain, nearby to the north (Pls. 1, 3, 15; Figs. 68, 71).77 This was among the earliest hydraulic structures associated with the spring, probably functioning by the late 6th century B.c. and here assigned to Greek Phase 2A. The fountain and its approach evolved in three major stages, probably continuing to be used even after 146 B.c.; they were then buried. Although the remains are now physically separated from Peirene proper

by Roman Imperial and Late Antique walls, the two founts were originally connected by the cliff, or berm, along the east side of the valley, and as they long shared a source of water, their histories are entirely conjoined. The Cyclopean Fountain will be viewed through art-historical lenses in the next chapter, but here I consider its development and the evolution of the area between it and the main Peirene facade.

The date of this monument has long remained at issue. Although at least one scholar entertained the possibility that it was “actually prehistoric,” the lack of monumental Late

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Figure 71. Peirene, east side: Cyclopean Fountain, reservoirs, footed basin, and pre-stoa foundations including a light foundation interpreted as the base of an altar, and an earlier rubble wall. After Corinth I.6, p. 48, fig. 25

Helladic construction at Corinth puts that theory to rest.78 Archaeologists working at the site have tended to accept Hill’s observation that it was one of the earliest structures to draw on the water of Peirene or, given the lack of new evidence, have given it a wide berth.79 Others, such as David Gordon Mitten, have questioned the assumption of an early date for the fountain, wondering if this fictive cave “is not a construction of Hellenistic date at the earliest,” reflecting the conventional wisdom that that topos was invented in the courts of the successors of Alexander the Great.80 While the very composition of the fountain belies early or primitive workmanship, stratigraphic evidence and structural relationships confirm a date somewhere between these temporal poles, probably in the 6th century B.c.

Close examination reveals that the Cyclopean Fountain was a structurally coherent whole, its walls rising from a hexagonal basin, with at least two courses of its southern wall shared with the east cistern, the construction of which was contemporary or later.

Although the cistern was destroyed in the late 5th century B.c. when the Hexastyle Stoa was built, the fountain continued to function, fed by a water channel hidden in the rebuilt southern wall of its approach. And still, the Cyclopean Fountain seems to have functioned

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chapter five when, in the Hellenistic period, a deep drain was cut through the area, prompting the raising of the walls of the approach and the installation of a ramp to lead visitors down from the higher ground to the west. Though buried under the Peribolos of Apollo and seemingly forgotten by the Early Imperial period, the fountain had already existed long enough to have become widely known, a model of its class.

The west-facing fountainhouse was built of massive conglomerate chunks stacked in courses of uneven height, the diameter diminishing toward the top in a rocky canopy or corbelled vault (Pl. 15; Fig. 68).81 Of the five original courses, four at least partially survive in the heavily damaged structure. The uppermost blocks of the fountain today rise about 2.50 m above the floor (probably close to the internal height of the vault). As reconstructed, the top of the uppermost stone course was perhaps a meter higher. That course was removed by the Early Roman period when the Peirene court and the market on the later site of the Peribolos of Apollo were constructed, and possibly earlier. The extraction of the lower courses around the south and west sides could have occurred at any time after the end of the fountain’s use life, but most of the damage probably occurred between the 5th and 19th centuries A.d., when a succession of water channels cut through the area.82 Under the stone vault is a water basin in the shape of an irregular hexagon, about 1.6 m across. A shallow depression near the middle of the floor allowed the basin to be bailed dry, for cleaning or repairs.83 The longest of the six sides is the western, at the mouth of the grotto, where the conglomerate walls give way to a neat, low parapet of poros limestone, 0.23–0.25 m thick, now rising just 0.57 m high above the basin floor. Originally, the parapet was topped with a coping for a total height of 0.67 m. This element, now missing, was fitted into deep sockets in the adjacent walls and mortared into place; it also appears to have been doweled to the lower parapet blocks. In addition to the dowel holes, the exposed surface of the parapet has several larger, round depressions made to receive the pointed toes of water vessels.84 These, together with wear marks left by the dragging of vessels over the inside and unprotected top, indicate that the fountain continued to be used well after the removal of the coping, probably in the period after the sack of 146 B.c.

Closely matching the conglomerate ceiling of nearby Peirene, the stones in the vault certainly hail from the immediate vicinity. It is worth emphasizing, however, that none is in its natural situation; the Cyclopean Fountain was inserted into the landscape, not carved out of it. The use of unworked or roughly finished conglomerate at Corinth is rare and is mainly attested in early retaining walls, such as a Geometric wall near the Sacred Spring and hydraulic features that were never meant to be seen, such as the lower courses of the Great Drain.85 Why was this hard-to-handle stone chosen for the Cyclopean Fountain?

Details of mortar use, described below, rule out an extremely early date in this case, but it could represent the adaptation of practical hydraulic architecture to a decorative purpose.

Or perhaps the very material was relevant, the ideal material from which to fashion an artificial grotto.

While the features associated with the Cyclopean Fountain, including two cisterns, a water channel, and a portion of a footed tub, are clearly indicated in Figure 71, the accompanying photograph serves more to emphasize the complexity of the remains in the area than to help parse them (Fig. 72). The larger east cistern is an irregular rectangle measuring 4.60 to 4.90 m from north to south and 3.10 to 3.20 m from east to west.86

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Figure 72. Peirene, east side: Exterior wall of east apse of Peirene, stylobate of Hexastyle Stoa, and other pre-stoa foundations, including reservoirs, viewed from the south

The floor level (+71.00 m) is approximately half a meter above the floor of the Cyclopean Fountain. The cistern walls consist of two courses, the lower course rising 0.20 m from the floor, and the taller upper course another 0.73 m. In the east and south walls, the inner faces of the blocks are plumb and smooth, with fine mortar covering them from top to bottom, and with corners finished at right angles. The upper blocks, which remain only at the southeast corner, are laterally secured to one another with Z-clamps, attested in Corinthian architecture as early as the last quarter of the 6th century B.c.87 None of the coping blocks is in situ, but Hill convincingly associated a stuccoed block found in the foundations of the Hexastyle Stoa, which, at 0.165 m, would bring the total depth of the reservoir up to slightly over a meter.88 At the northeast corner of the cistern, a low, 0.65 m long segment of the north wall is preserved, enough to show that it was once a party wall with the Cyclopean Fountain (Fig. 73). The common block belongs to the lowest course of the fountain’s southern wall. Its north side shares the pillowy aspect of all surfaces within the fountain, while its southern face—facing into the cistern—has been worked smooth. Like the rest of the cistern’s interior surfaces, it has a fine hydraulic mortar finish, which extends smoothly around the corner onto the east wall, preserved in two courses. The remainder of the wall, further west, was removed and replaced in a later phase (Greek Phase 4), and the southern face of the new extension bears no traces of sealant, indicating that its installation accompanied or followed the end of the cistern’s use life.89 Unfortunately, the remains in this area were heavily damaged by cuts made for the medieval water channels, and relationships between blocks are very difficult to discern. The close relationship between the Cyclopean

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chapter five

Figure 73. Peirene, east side: (left) Cyclopean Fountain from the west, showing remains of vault and party wall with east reservoir, to the south; (right) detail of south wall of Cyclopean Fountain and northeast corner of east cistern; a solid line indicates the cistern walls’ original mortar-lined interior faces, while a dotted line marks a later replacement course, unfinished

Fountain and the east cistern superficially suggest contemporaneity; however, it is possible or even likely that the fountain was built first and the cistern added subsequently, as will be discussed soon.

A mortar-lined poros channel enters the east cistern from farther east, where it probably tapped the Peirene aquifer someplace beyond the Peribolos apse (Figs. 71, 74).90 It is a typical Corinthian water channel, carved into a single line of blocks resting on earth fill and originally covered with a capping course. The channel divides at its juncture with the eastern wall of the cistern. A short spur debouches directly into the cistern, while a longer branch, cut in the top of the cistern wall, runs south before curving 90 degrees west to follow the southern wall of the cistern. Disappearing into the foundations of the Hexastyle Stoa, it reemerges at the cistern’s west wall, where it leads to a low tub, or trough, originally more than a meter long, with a rounded belly and four feet (Fig. 75).

The tub stands on what Hill described as a “very hard strosis,” or ancient floor level.91 About a meter above the Peirene mall, this level, the east terrace, must have been bounded on the west by a low retaining wall where the remains of a later wall or walls are preserved.

That the tub was original to the cistern complex is shown by a neatly applied mortar seal that appears to have been applied over the seam between tub and cistern wall before the complete curing of their surface finishes. Along with the cistern, the tub must have passed out of use when the Hexastyle Stoa was built, for at that time the level in this area was raised some 0.25 m and paved with cobblestones (also visible in Fig. 75).92 The west wall of the cistern is of more robust construction than its counterparts, the south and east walls. Again, two courses are preserved. The upper blocks are attached to each other with Z-clamps and tightly bonded with mortar, used like glue in the anathyrosis joints.93 Contrasting the other walls with their flat inner faces, the lower course here consists of 0.83 m broad blocks with a shallow recess made to receive the bottoms of the narrower orthostates of the upper course (0.48 m). This manner of joining blocks is

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Figure 74. Peirene, east side: East cistern and water channel with early wall, base of light structure, and basin rim, from northeast, 1966

paralleled in several constructions near the Sacred Spring, including the southern segment of the Triglyph Wall, the quadriga base to its south, and the wall marking the north side of a roadway leading west from the Peirene Valley.94 On both faces of the wall, that is, within the cistern and without, the projecting edges of the lower course are covered in mortar, forming a sort of beveled edge about 0.24 m above the cistern floor. The different treatment from the other cistern walls suggests that this wall was freestanding, probably allowing access to the cistern from the west, while the southern and eastern walls were supported by earth against their exterior faces.

An extension of the west wall continues south beyond the end of the east cistern, but then disappears beneath the foundation of the triconch court. Hill suggested that a second, longer cistern originally existed here, but the balance of evidence contradicts him.95 Only 0.255 m wide, the extension is not built to support a large body of water to either side, and it is more likely to have functioned as a retaining wall for a higher earthFigure 75. Peirene, east side: Footed tub and overlying cobblestone pavement of Hexastyle Stoa terrace, from north; stoa steps and stylobate to left, ca. 1936

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chapter five filled terrace south of the east cistern, a bit over a half a meter above the hard strosis with the footed tub. That surface and the tub likewise testify against a second cistern here.

East of the footed tub, excavations within the foundations of the Hexastyle Stoa, both south and east of the east cistern, have provided the means to date the east cistern and, with it, to assign a loose terminus ante quem, if not a precise date, for the Cyclopean Fountain.96 A series of levels cut by the foundation trenches of the Hexastyle Stoa reflect earlier activity in the area. Unfortunately the contexts were small in scale, and there seems to have been some confusion of the stoa’s foundation-trench material and the contexts it cut. A stone-chip layer can be connected to the construction of the stoa; the finds above and below it are indistinguishable, probably representing an original deposit and redeposited material from the cutting of the stoa’s foundations. All should be associated with a light foundation of the 5th century B.c., perhaps the remains of an altar, just south of the east cistern (Figs. 71, 74).97 Finds in this context included many votive loops, fragments of figurines representing humans, satyrs, and dogs, miniature vessels (cups, kraters, and lekythoi), skyphoi, kylikes, kotylai, oinochoai, and black-glazed pottery—some Attic, and some Corinthian imitations, including a stemless cup of the late 5th century B.c.98 At a slightly lower level, an earlier, differently oriented rubble wall can be dated to the 6th century B.c., perhaps its second half.99 It stood upon a sandy surface below which only material of Geometric-to-Protocorinthian date was discovered down to bedrock (reached at +70.90 m); no prehistoric artifacts were registered here.100 This is exactly what we should expect of a context that was covered by higher ground until human activity exposed it in the Iron Age. The evidence still leaves much to be desired. No foundation trench was encountered around the edges of the east cistern, giving the impression that some, if not all, of the aforementioned strata were deposited against it. Given its very different orientation and construction, the cistern seems unlikely to have been built at the same time as the Middle– Late Corinthian rubble wall. On the other hand, its orientation matches that of the 5thcentury B.c. foundation, and we can tell from the structural relationships that it existed through two phases before its destruction at the time of construction of the Hexastyle Stoa toward the end of that century. Like so many buildings in this part of Corinth, the east cistern is therefore assigned to the late 6th or early 5th century B.c. With it comes the lower estimate for the date of the Cyclopean Fountain. As noted above, however, the structural relationship between the fountain and the cistern allows for the precedence of the former. Differences in building material and mortar composition, construction methods, and slightly varying orientations strengthen this likelihood. The uppermost estimate for the Cyclopean Fountain is provided by the Protocorinthian Wall N1 nearby; however, despite the common use of conglomerate boulders, the walls do not bond, and their structures differ significantly enough to indicate a later date for the fountain.

On these grounds, the fountain and cistern are assigned to two successive stages, Greek Phases 2A and 2B. Can comparative evidence be used to tighten the frame? The boulders in the superstructure of the Cyclopean Fountain are secured in place with a high-quality hydraulic mortar that was applied like glue between the blocks, then as a sealant or finish across all exposed surfaces. While no other early conglomerate walls at Corinth show either of these characteristics, later Corinthian comparanda are surprisingly

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numerous. The finishing of worked stone with a coating of stucco or mortar began by the Protocorinthian period, as exemplified by traces on blocks from the 7th-century temples at Corinth and Isthmia.101 Stucco-lined sarcophagi are known from the early 6th century B.c., and by the middle of the century, they were the norm.102 Given the porosity of the local building stone, waterproof mortar linings were also critical components of Corinthian hydraulic installations by the late 7th or 6th century B.c. No fountain lacks traces of such waterproofing, and structures such as the 5th-century B.c. Painted Building and the Peirene Valley dye works are interpreted as hydraulic installations largely because of their sealed walls.103 Less common—and certainly less celebrated—than the fine dry-stone masonry of ancient Greece is the use of mortar between blocks. The conventional wisdom is that, while clay sometimes served as a binder in masonry dating from the Bronze Age forward, lime mortar was not used in joints before the Hellenistic period and, even then, was used relatively rarely in dressed-stone masonry.104 Corinth, however, presents numerous exceptions to the rule, particularly in hydraulic installations, where mortar anathyroses are not unusual. The practice is perhaps best exemplified in the walls of the east cistern, just south of the Cyclopean Fountain, dated here to the late 6th or early 5th century B.c.

Here, in either end of each wall block, vertical U- or V-shaped cuttings still bear traces of mortar-sealant.105 Mortared joints are visible also in the late-5th-century B.c. wall through which a hidden channel brought water to the Cyclopean Fountain after the construction of the Hexastyle Stoa.

Thus, a Corinthian reliance on mortar as an architectural finish and sealant is attested from the 7th century B.c. forward, and as early as the 6th century B.c. mortar is evidenced as glue between blocks in hydraulic constructions. The Cyclopean Fountain belongs to these tectonic traditions; moreover, the application of mortar to the rocky surfaces of the fountain exceeds mere waterproofing and enters into the realm of sculpture, augmenting and emphasizing the contours of the boulders in the vault. Such a sophisticated use of mortar sets this structure apart from all other conglomerate constructions of Corinth.

I therefore conclude that while the construction of the Cyclopean Fountain can be bracketed between the 7th-century B.c. Wall N1 and the late-6th- or early-5th-century east cistern, currently the best estimate is a date in the course of the 6th century B.c., no more than a few generations earlier than the cistern, if not actually contemporary with it.

Sometime after the construction of the large east cistern, a smaller, square reservoir, the northwest cistern, was installed at a very low level to the west (Figs. 71, 72). In the far corner of the Peribolos apse, it is now partly occluded by the foundations of the apse’s stylobate and the northwest pier of the triconch court. The east cistern of Greek Phase 2B clearly predates the northwest cistern, here assigned to Greek Phase 3B, given that the exterior west wall of the former was damaged when the latter was installed.106 At +70.18 m, the floor of the northwest cistern is of large poros blocks, sealed with a friable, offwhite mortar. Bedded upon the floor blocks, the walls are about 1.92 m long on each side, coated with fine mortar, ca. 0.5–1.5 cm thick with a beige slip coat with a slight pinkish cast. While the west wall was rebuilt on one or more occasions, the north, east, and south walls are preserved in one original course 0.64 m high. In the north wall, one original coping block remains in situ, sealed in place with mortar; it is 0.25 m high and rises 0.87 m above the floor.107 The west wall continued the line of a north–south-running retaining

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Figure 76. Votive loops, or koulouria, like those excavated in the Peribolos apse, scale 1:2

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chapter five wall that must have separated the Peirene mall from the east terrace and still higher levels farther east.

To bring water to the low cistern, it seems likely that a water channel was installed in the retaining wall in this phase. Its Classical successor, still partially preserved, is visible in Plate 3.108 Two steps were inserted in the southwest corner of the cistern after the floor and walls had been finished with mortar; they are themselves sealed neatly in place. The placement of the steps and the remaining coping block suggest a functional association with the east terrace and the footed tub upon it to the south; entrance to the cistern could have been down one step from that level, or up a few steps from the Peirene mall on the west.

Perhaps the tub and others like it were provided for practical or ritual ablutions, a chance to wash off street dirt and other impurities before approaching the sanctuaries in the Peirene Valley and Forum Hollow.109 The purpose of the northwest cistern is obscure, but the stairs are provocative, suggesting the desire for easier access than such a shallow basin would require if it were only a reservoir or storage tank. Did rites practiced beside the cistern—on the east terrace or the Peirene mall—involve a bathing ritual?110 It is a tempting proposition.

Indeed, finds east of Peirene, and extending right up to the present scarp line, provide slight but telling evidence of Classical religious activity, suggesting that Peirene, like the Sacred Spring, was a site of devotion, perhaps the veneration of a nymph or nymphs.111 Unlike the finds around the Sacred Spring, however, where an abundance of lekythoi suggest chthonic associations, most of the pottery found east of Peirene seems to be of a more convivial nature.112 The humble figurines and vessels are typical of Corinthian votives, but it is the great concentration of terracotta loops, or koulouria, that most strongly suggests a place of reverence (Fig. 76).113 Beyond Peirene and the Peribolos of Apollo, other Corinthian examples of these modest gifts have appeared only in the Potters’ Quarter and the Asklepieion; outside Corinth, I am aware only of examples from Troizen.114 What they represented is not known, but scholarly opinion currently favors wreaths or special loaves of bread, and we might also wonder if their more ephemeral counterparts were dedicated alongside.115 Either would recall other known votive practices, such as casting local cakes and other customary votives into Delphic Castalia on certain feast days (Paus. 10.8.10) and the commending of wreaths to the Alpheus and Eurotas (Strabo 6.2.9). The interpretation of the low walls as the bases of altars finds parallels in an altar at Olympia at which the Kallistephanoi, nymphs with lovely garlands, were honored beside the sacred olive tree.116 Unfortunately, the evidence seems to raise as many questions as it answers.

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Classical Developments In the 5th century B.c., the access to the main Peirene springhouse continued to be from the Lechaion Road on the west. To the north, the ground graded upward into a sort of sacred precinct or a grove surrounding the new Temple A and its altar, built over a Geometric burial beside the Peirene stream.117 In the last quarter of the 5th century B.c., the Hexastyle Stoa was built east of Peirene (Greek Phase 4; Pls. B, C, 2, 3; Figs. 72, 77).

It is dated by context pottery from within its foundations.118 Preparatory work involved the trimming of the scarp east of Peirene along a straight line almost due east. How far the scarp was cut back at first is not clear; only in a subsequent stage (Greek Phase 5) was a wall erected to support and, in places, to screen its trimmed face, which now extends to the edge of the excavations.119 The construction of the Hexastyle Stoa is implicated in the destruction of the east cistern, for the stoa’s foundations consist partly of wall blocks and coping blocks from the cistern, laid within its remaining walls.

Of the stoa, nothing above the crepidoma survives in situ, but several blocks have been found in the vicinity, and marks on the stylobate reveal that it was a Doric prostyle hexastyle structure with columns of 0.92 m lower diameter separated by uniform 2.22 m intercolumniations (Pl. 3; Fig. 72). At north and south, the steps returned slightly beyond the line of the antae; they were drafted along the bottom, the stylobate doubly so.120 Figure 77 is a visualization of the stoa in its prime by Stevens (it also appears in the perspective in Fig. 66).121 If the height of the order is estimated as 5 m or slightly more (assuming a proportion of about five and a half times the lower diameter), we might imagine a structure approaching the scale of the—somewhat later—Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus.122 Though still small by comparison to Corinth’s later stoas, the Hexastyle Stoa would have towered over the Peirene mall and the springhouse under the cliffside, as is clear both in elevation and perspective.

When the stoa was built, the east terrace was raised and improved with a pavement of fist-size cobblestones, at +72.00 m (covering the old strosis and footed tub, as visible in Fig. 75), now more than a meter and a half above the general level of the Peirene mall.123 The retaining wall along the west side of this four-meter-wide strip was built or rebuilt and raised in this phase, and a water channel was neatly cut into one of the courses; a segment Figure 77. Peirene, east side: Elevation of Hexastyle Stoa, between Peirene springhouse and Cyclopean Fountain. G. P. Stevens

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chapter five is still preserved in the east apse of Peirene.124 Just west of the terrace wall, at least one footed tub was placed against the west side of the new water channel, perhaps relocated from the earlier east terrace (Pl. 3); there may have been others.125 North of the Hexastyle Stoa, the wall turned east toward the Cyclopean Fountain, becoming the southern wall of its increasingly constrained approach.126 Best seen in Plate 17, this east–west wall was of neatly squared poros blocks joined with fine light-colored mortar with a rock-cut water channel hidden within. It is today preserved to about +71.75 m, and one additional course can be inferred, bringing its top up to the level of the cobblestone terrace before the stoa (only about 0.25 m higher at most). The three massive conglomerate and limestone blocks that today remain above the regular courses of smaller-block masonry belong to a subsequent phase, to be discussed in due time (Greek Phase 7).

The stoa was fitted into a very tight space. The conglomerate ledge stood less than a meter away from the southern return of the stylobate. For a person about 5’6” tall standing on the stylobate, its underside is now approximately at forehead level. To what extent the ledge was already undercut when the stoa was built is a question, but it appears that some space must have been hollowed out, for Hill noted foot wear from traffic across the space between the anta and the southernmost column. Within, he imagined a spout dispensing water from the east supply tunnel, but the space seems to have been little more than a service area, so perhaps the wear is best assigned to the time of the stoa’s construction.127 It was not long before an east–west wall was built under the adjacent scarp, probably at the end of the 5th century and no later than the early 4th century B.c. (Greek Phase 5).

This wall was joined to the end of Wall F, two blocks of which were cut down to create a functional bond (see Pl. 3). To Hill it was obvious that this new extension postdated the Hexastyle Stoa, for its foundation trench cut through a layer of stucco that was applied over the stoa’s south steps after they had become worn.128 The western half of the wall supported the undercut conglomerate capstone east of Peirene, while the other half merely screened the scarp (more recently cut, and less undermined), functioning as the foundation for a structure with a mosaic floor on the cliffside above.129 The eastern end of the screen wall cannot extend much past the border of the excavations, for a later, north– south roadway, reconstructed just beyond, must have followed a gentler drop. East of the Hexastyle Stoa, student excavator Lucy Shoe found the screen wall to be bedded in clay, and a single stratum of Classical date extended right up to the face of the wall, with no sign of a construction trench and no earlier strata visible below.130 Her observations support my view that the originally higher ground in this area was not carved down to its current levels until the late 5th century or the turn of the 4th century B.c.

Thus, down through the 5th century, Peirene was still a large but relatively unadorned water grotto, enhanced by the excavation of collection galleries, reservoirs, and basins, but still awaiting its first major architectural transformation. The basins were still accessed by passing underground into an open space protected by a heavy lip of bedrock supported by freestanding pillars.131 It had a large earthen plaza or mall before it, beside which a large stoa offered morning shade, as spouts in hidden channels provided water to several tubs; around the corner, the Cyclopean Fountain was perpetually full of Peirene’s limpid water.

Beyond the changes at Peirene, the late 5th and early 4th centuries B.c. brought significant development to the Forum Hollow, especially in the way of athletic facilities

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and the display of victory monuments. The circular monument south of the starting line seems to have been the first of many such trophies, probably erected before the last quarter of the 5th century. A quadriga base was added by the early 4th century, and, some time after mid-century, the Triglyph Wall over the Sacred Spring was extended southward with a return to the west, becoming a display place for military and agonistic victory monuments.132 From around the middle of the 4th century, Isthmian victory monuments were added, perhaps reflecting more than local interest in the natural and manmade facilities of the Forum Hollow.133 Catherine Morgan has noted that after repeated damage to the Sanctuary of Poseidon, particularly a fire in 390 B.c., work at Isthmia lagged, while development in the Forum Hollow flourished.134 The Isthmian victor bases reflect Corinth’s proud administration of the games, a connection that later would be extended and amplified by the metonymy of Peirene and Isthmia in the verses of Posidippus, Callimachus, and in the lines inscribed for Pythocles of Hermione.135 Peirene’s gradual gains were at some cost to the Sacred Spring. There, the extension of the Triglyph Wall cut into the plan of the fountainhouse, which was effectively halved, half-buried, and converted into an underground chamber reached by a narrow stair from higher ground.136 Such a complete reconfiguration suggests that the flow of the Sacred Spring was much diminished by the mid-4th century B.c. Was the cause the concurrent extension of the Peirene system, to tap the aquifer farther upstream, as Hill believed?137 Apparently not; the relationships between Peirene manholes and overlying structures indicate that the two arms of the west supply tunnel were driven to the ends of the later forum long before, meaning that Peirene’s supply system had been robbing the Sacred Spring of its flow for generations.138 A drought in the second half of the 4th century B.c., however, may have been the final straw.139 Within a century, the Sacred Spring seems to have been totally abandoned. Richardson’s team discovered its stairway blocked, an event that was likely related to the laying of the Hellenistic racecourse around the middle of the 3rd century B.c.140 From then until 146 B.c., the hydraulic needs at the Sacred Spring sanctuary were fulfilled with water brought from a remote, western source along a circuitous route to a simple boxlike tank located directly over the buried springhouse.141 The system seems geared toward the creation of a well-watered racecourse, with the liturgy of the Sacred Spring and the apsidal temple taking a lower priority. Indeed, it seems that a token amount of water now sufficed, and the area was given over to agonistic and military trophy displays. Meanwhile, in this district ἐπὶ Πειρήναι, a decision was made to invest further in the springhouse that we now know as Peirene, and for that to become Corinth’s premier water display.

Hellenistic Floruit Peirene’s first emphatically architectural elaboration can be dated to the second half of the 4th century B.c., very probably toward the end of the century (Greek Phase 6).

At this juncture, the open space under the natural stone ceiling was divided into six approximately square antechambers by the construction of seven anta walls of fine poros masonry (Pl. C:I–VI; Fig. 78). The leading edge of each anta was articulated with a typical 4th-century cyma-reversa-type hawksbeak with crowning fascia and cavetto; the sharp termination of the lower curve looked forward to 3rd-century refinements.142 With the construction of the new walls, a visitor would step into one of the six chambers to draw

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Figure 78. Peirene: Restored north elevation of springhouse showing 4th-century spur walls, Chambers I–VI, and darkened vaults of Reservoirs 1–4; to east is the Hexastyle Stoa and its terrace.

After Corinth I.6, pl. IX:1

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chapter five water over a low parapet from the old basins behind them. Standing on each parapet, two antae flanked each opening, perhaps also a central pier.143 The new arrangement seems to have been intended to improve access for a flourishing population and perhaps also for festival crowds. It would have diminished the bustle under the escarpment and shifted the center of activity further out into the open, where users would queue to enter the semi-subterranean access chambers. The solid spur walls are still well preserved behind the Roman facade that would later transform the springhouse.

This Early Hellenistic phase falls within a period of significant architectural development at Corinth. In the third quarter of the 4th century B.c., Temple A was leveled and a baldachin erected in its place, a naiskos for a hero cult (as suggested by votives) that seems to have survived until 146 B.c.144 Mary Sturgeon has suggested that a marble head of a maiden, heavily weathered but datable to the second half of the 4th century B.c., was the akroterion for the new shrine.145 Across Corinth, approximately coeval work included the construction of the original wing of the Northwest Stoa (ca. 300 B.c.) and the theater, the monumentalization of the Asklepieion, and the creation of the South Stoa, its associated terraces, and water system. The investment in waterworks projects is paralleled at nearby Sicyon and Perachora in the same age, and it likely reflects patrons’ expectations of significant returns on hydraulic benefaction as well as the wisdom gained in a recent drought. Peirene was both a focus of new attention and the example upon which the new systems were modeled.146 With changing pottery chronologies and new research on the monumental history of this period, dates, catalysts, and patrons are currently debated. Were the Corinthian building projects underwritten by the proceeds from Timoleon’s Sicilian campaign of 345–341 B.c.? Were they provoked by the foundation of the Corinthian League after the victory of Philip II at Chaeronea in 338 B.c., or by the needs of later conventions? Do they represent urban renewal after a late-4th-century earthquake?147 Or could they all be the work of a later Macedonian overlord, Demetrius Poliorcetes—the controlling interest in the area, who seems to have turned to city building after his besieging days were done— or of his son, Antigonus Gonatas?148 Without tighter chronological control we can only hypothesize about the individuals and the circumstances behind the construction of these buildings.

A major technological development of the Peirene system, though one invisible to users at the springhouse, came with the construction of the massive South Stoa along the

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southern edge of the Forum Hollow. Connecting to two nodes of the Peirene water system, a long channel—the South Stoa aqueduct—was excavated under the stoa, paralleling its long axis. Thirty-one wells, accommodating all but two units in the stoa, were sunk just north of the aqueduct, joined to it by means of small apertures or tunnels, and fresh Peirene water was delivered to the users of each shop.149 As the floor of the aqueduct was about 0.60 m below the adjacent portion of the supply tunnel, its provisioning seems to have taken priority over downstream destinations, including the Peirene fountainhouse.

Perhaps a manifold or dam system existed, by which the water could be diverted past the South Stoa aqueduct when the wells were filled, or between times when the stoa was heavily trafficked, if indeed the stoa served as a hostelry or other facility for periodic events, such as political conferences or athletic festivals.150 Broneer believed that the South Stoa aqueduct and wells were part of an ingenious system for cooling comestibles.151 While this is certainly possible and, indeed, finds parallels elsewhere, it seems unlikely to have been the primary purpose of this highly complex and integrated arrangement. With the general population depending on its quality at the springhouse downstream, the water of Peirene was too important a resource to be a mere coolant. Rather, the whole arrangement suggests a special purpose for the South Stoa, and perhaps a special status for its original users. There, a select few—kings, ambassadors, local dignitaries, businessmen, bards, poets, symposiasts, athletes?— could have been served the cool water of Peirene, midstream between its supposed sources on Acrocorinth and its appearance in full force below. Recalling that Peirene enjoyed international fame and a more celebrated connection to the Isthmian Games in the Hellenistic period, I believe that Peirene’s higher profile had much to do with the increased prominence of the fountain in Corinth and the accessibility of its waters to the elite visitors who came especially for the games.152 Another technological advance is represented by the installation of a low-level pipeline that drew on the west supply tunnel, originating in Basin D (deepened for the purpose) and running north (visible on the west side of Pls. 3 and 13).153 The destination remains unknown. It is best interpreted as a pressurized water conduit given its composition of terracotta tubes laid in a deep trench with their upper circumferences and the trench floor completely coated in thick concrete. Terracotta pipelines are relatively rare in preRoman contexts at Corinth, with the earliest surviving examples dated to the 4th century B.c.154 Among those, cemented joints are normal, but the only truly comparable concreteencased pipelines are two segments in the Asklepieion area. The longer, better-preserved pipeline there is securely associated with the late-4th-century monumentalization of the sanctuary.155 Still extending about 35 m, it fed the so-called lustral basin southwest of the temple, a structure that must have played an important, if short-lived, role in the sanctuary.156 South of the temenos and the ramp to the lower terrace, an identical concretecoated channel extends about 10 m east–west; it likely belonged to the same project.157 What was the source of the water for the conduits in the Asklepieion? As there are no nearby springs of sufficient elevation, it must have come from some distance. Landon has balked at Wiseman’s suggestion of a spring to the east, noting that the nearest spring capable of delivering water at the appropriate level from that direction would be Peirene, and doubting that anybody would have gone to such trouble.158 The existence of the deep pressure line at Peirene should prompt a reconsideration of the possibility. Whether or

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chapter five not its ultimate destination was the Asklepieion, it seems to have been part of a major expansion of, and technological revolution in, Corinthian waterworks that included the creation of Glauke, the development of the Lerna complex by the Asklepieion, and the plumbing of the South Stoa.

Denouement and Destruction Greek Phase 7 includes a number of modifications dating from the mid-3rd through the mid-2nd century B.c. The first of these additions is the construction of a retaining wall along the north side of the Peirene mall (Pl. 3), more explicitly articulating the separation between Peirene and the sacred temenos to the north.159 The northern retaining wall crosses over a Hellenistic drain built of reused blocks, which now emerged from below the graded south end of the Lechaion Road, cut a straight path across the north end of the Peirene mall and turned north below the approach to the Cyclopean Fountain, establishing the course of the Peirene drain thereafter. Although there is no associated context material, two factors suggest a date in the mid- to late 3rd century B.c. First, it seems to have replaced an earlier drain, slightly to the west, in which the latest deposits were of the early 3rd century B.c.160 Second, the water channels laid in conjunction with the Hellenistic racecourse would have required additional drainage measures, and, given the level of planning behind that operation, it would have been logical to improve circulation in the Peirene Valley concurrently.

When the deep drain was excavated, the Cyclopean Fountain entered into its third and final phase. The ground level north of the new retaining wall, and probably throughout the area around Temple A, stood about 1.5 m or more above the Peirene mall. The two walls of the dromos were heightened with the addition of massive conglomerate slabs, somewhat reminiscent of the earliest constructions in the area (Pls. 16 and 17). Between these, a ramp was installed, negotiating a drop from the higher ground to the west and giving passage over the (hidden) drain. Its grade can be reconstructed along the broken edge of mortar that was used to smooth over joints and irregularities in the stone. Although the intimate physical connection between Peirene and the Cyclopean Fountain was broken, the visual link was, if anything, strengthened, as anyone standing on the terrace wall would have had prime views of the fountain, across to the Hexastyle Stoa, and then down the ramped approach into the Cyclopean Fountain which, more than ever, probably looked like the cave it was made to resemble (Fig. 68).

Peirene and its surroundings continued to be maintained much along these lines until the Roman conquest and probably up to the resettlement of Corinth in the mid-1st century B.c. However, one final modification should be noted. Probably in the first half of the 2nd century B.c., the parapets between the chambers and the basins were outfitted with water spouts and newly decorated. Still preserved, the additions to each consisted of two antae flanking a pier supporting a graceful fluted Ionic half-column, rising from parapet level to support an entablature that, in turn, provided additional support for the conglomerate ceiling (Figs. 7, 8, 79, and Pl. 3).161 Although thickly stuccoed in the Roman period, the antae, piers, and columns would have remained visible throughout antiquity and are still relatively well preserved. The significant variance of measurements from chamber to chamber is better attributed to sloppiness than to weathering.162

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Figure 79. Peirene: Ionic screen over inner parapet. Elevation and plan showing wear between antae and central pier, after Corinth I.6, pl.

VIII (left); photo showing detail of column and capital in Chamber V (right)

The choice of the Ionic order reflects an impulse to beautify Peirene, the more ornate idiom contrasting the plainer Doric moldings of the sidewalls of the six chambers.

Prototypical screens likely belonged to the earliest definition of the six chambers under the bedrock roof (Greek Phase 6); however, they are attested only by anathyrosis surfaces on the lateral walls, and it is impossible to tell whether they included Ionic centerpieces.163 It would have been natural for the later designers to emulate the original scheme, creatively combining traditional and innovative features. The bases of the preserved order are of the old-fashioned variety, with a scotia between two tori, and no plinth. Deep flutes helped the shafts to read in the half-light, drawing attention to the smooth lines of the Classicizing capitals, and contrasting their curves. The entablatures consist of a triple-fascia epistyle, plain frieze, and dentilated cornice—a combination harkening back to the late 4th century B.c. but common by the 2nd. While the architect was well-versed in traditional design, a number of features indicate his currency as well. Recalling earlier models from Epidaurus, the frieze is a shallow cyma recta, with the lower curve projecting slightly forward of the upper, crowned with an ovolo.164 The epistyle is crowned with a cyma reversa, a detail that has few 3rd-century parallels but is common in Pergamene and Delian architecture of the next century.165 Well-dated parallels for the cyma reversa geison soffit are clustered in Attalid Pergamon, with later and undatable examples from Delos and Athens.166 Georges Roux has demonstrated that half-columns are an invention of the Peloponnese and Magna Graecia, and the taste for half-columns attached to freestanding

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chapter five pillars seems to have developed in the 4th century B.c.; they were certainly ubiquitous by the 2nd century B.c. in decorative as well as supportive roles, particularly in locations where intercolumnar parapets or pinakes were desirable.167 Indeed, it is tempting to imagine that Peirene’s 4th-century screens were on the leading edge of that trend and themselves already included Ionic half-columns and pillars. The possibility is strengthened by the presence of similar elements in 4th-century B.c. contexts such as the L-shaped stoa at Perachora, in other hydraulic contexts like the gymnasium fountains at Sicyon, and, indeed, even in the similar scheme in Upper Peirene (Fig. 23).168 With their 2nd-century replacements incorporating updated capitals and molding profiles, Peirene’s stewards respected the past while keeping well up to date. In the new screens, panels were inserted between the vertical elements to prevent visitors from entering—or even seeing into—the basins beyond. Spouts must have been provided, probably outfitted with bronze animal-head protomes in the typical fashion; however, that system was not to last. Heavy parapet wear on either side of the central pillar indicates that some time after the installation of the Ionic columns, the spouts ceased to function (and were removed), and users reverted to drawing water by hand.169 The damaged parapet of the Cyclopean Fountain shows similar wear patterns. While neither Peirene proper nor the Cyclopean Fountain shows clear evidence of damage in the Mummian sack of 146 B.c., the years of desolation that followed certainly would have taken their toll on such a high-maintenance monument, and traces such as these, above all, suggest the continued use of structures that had seen better days. This evidence should be registered alongside other signs of human presence in the “interim period,” which seem to cluster around the Forum Hollow and the Peirene Valley. The archaeological record has shown that from the late 2nd century B.c., at least some residents “aspired to drink good wine and that they could afford to import it.”170 Undoubtedly they diluted their spirits with the water of Peirene.

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postscript

Adventures in Underland

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•

T

wo short works of fiction were found among the papers of Bert Hodge Hill.1 Sterling Dow, then a Harvard student and associate of the American School, gave “Alice in Underland” to Hill at his 60th birthday party in Athens on March 7, 1934. At a surprise party in Corinth four days later, Oscar Broneer presented “Pausanias’ Second Visit to Corinth” as wine and brioche were served within Peirene. A number of students and staff members of the American School of Classical Studies (many present at one or both birthday parties), a famous benefactor, a peripatetic apostle, and an archaic letter (ϙ = a “koppa”) appear in these works; some are easily identified, while others are less obviously or specifically so.2 Piet de Jong’s 1926 caricature of Hill (Fig. 178) sets the tone and, indeed, contains some of the same imagery.3

“Alice in Underland” by Sterling Dow “Well, well well,” said Alice to herself,4 and then she thought, “How ridiculous to make puns after you’ve fallen into a—” “Not at all,” said the Cheshire Cat who appeared just then at her elbow, and seemed to have heard her thoughts (such stupid thoughts too, Alice felt, very ashamed). The cat went on “Not at all. My name is Well, you know, Still—” “Still what?” said Alice, rather troubled.

The Cat appeared not to notice her embarrassment.

“Won’t you come to tea?” said the Cat, “We always have tea after the work stops.”

Alice was hungry and made haste to accept. “That is, if people have tea in dreams,” she added nervously.

“Of course they do,” said the Cat, “if you can be hungry in a dream you can also eat and not be hungry. Even people in the Roman School know that.”

“It’s a relief, anyway,” said Alice more embarrassed than before.

“Well,” said the Cat, who was beginning to fade out from sheer annoyance,” if it’s a relief, it’s low relief.”

“When does the work stop?” asked Alice, trying a new approach.

“Work on Peirene never stops,” replied the Cat, fading out except for a smile.

Alice saw that she seemed to be on the shore of an underground lake, which stretched away as far as the eye could reach. Here and there other wells reached up to the green fields above, wells like the one down which she had fallen. As she became accustomed to the dim light, she could see that some of the wells were lined with inscribed geometric sherds, dated all the way from King Tut down to the time when Richardson was Director. In some of the wells cavalcades of Streptococci were prancing up and down, with other humorous little germs riding pick-a-back. Off from the shores of the lake led numerous channels built of bad, fifth-century masonry. Alice was surprised to notice that all of these channels were exactly parallel. “I suppose they all meet at infinity,” thought Alice, and sure enough she found she could make out inscriptions at the entrances. Each inscription read “ad inf.”

Alice was beginning to recover her composure, and to feel very hungry indeed. “I suppose,” she reasoned, remembering something she had read, “if I could get to infinity, then I’d be at the end of space, and time would come to an end also. And when time comes to an end, the work on Peirene will be over, so that we can all have tea.” These notions cheered her immensely, so that she began trying to decide which of the channels she should take.

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ad inf

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Figure 178. Homage to Bert Hodge Hill, a caricature by Piet de Jong, Corinth, 1926. Hill is portrayed as the consummate gentleman. Behind him, Acrocorinth and the Archaic Temple rise above Peirene, its Greek facade fully modernized, and the Great Arch with one of its crowning chariot groups. Along a conventionalized shoreline near the middle of the painting, Athanasi Karousatos drives Hill’s red car in pursuit of a steam train, while the archaeologist gesticulates wildly as if trying to catch the engineer’s eye. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum

Just at that moment a pleasant round man appeared in an automobile, writing notes as he drove. She noticed that his paper was very small and that he was writing in Swedish.5 As his car came near to her, the engine stalled.

“I am Pausanias,” he said, not waiting to be asked, “and Corinth has taken me ten minutes. I have no license and I’m being chased by a koppa.” His engine roared, and he was gone. A moment later a black man trotted by on a little donkey; Alice noticed that he wore a big badge inscribed ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ. The donkey seemed exhausted, but after a drink

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postscript from the lake, he dashed off in pursuit. Alice noticed with alarm that he was gaining on the automobile.

Alice felt thirsty and decided to try the Peirene waters, so she went down to the lake and took a sip. At once her legs grew very long, and ran off with her down one of the channels marked “ad inf.”

Chapter Two Presently Alice noticed as she ran that she was coming to the end of space and time. Along with her were running hundreds of neatly typed pages. Alice, now somewhat breathless in spite of the invigorating water, managed to ask Page 1444, who was running beside her, where he was going. “To the tea,” he said, turning edgewise so as to lower the wind resistance. “Miss Gutman said we must all be there, clean and neat.” Saying which he jumped a puddle forty yards long.6 Chapter Three Running faster and faster, in what seemed to Alice like an infinite time, she arrived in a spacious court lined with square arches and intercolumnar columns in the Stuart Thompson manner.7 Alice paused on the threshold, and since no one seemed to notice her at first, she had time to marvel at the extraordinary scene. The tables were all water tables, and trickle was being served with the tea. Off in one corner a group of School students was playing poker in antis. At the high table were several distinguished persons. Alice noticed her friend Pausanias, who was playfully ducking the circular head of the Koppa in a pitcher of trickle, while Miss Gutman roguishly splashed the water table at his tail. St. Paul Means was lecturing a sleepy group of students on the Wages of Sin and Archaeology.8 In another corner, a group of Agora Excavators could be heard talking shop above all the tumult. One of these, the Queen of Spades, was maintaining that the Parthenon was really the Painted Stoa.9 Pausanias stopped his work on the Koppa every so often to contemplate them with amusement. Lucy T. was searching the pocket of a Mr. John D. Anonymous—she found it was empty—that gentleman prepared to leave, comparing the Agora under his breath to Radio City.10 Piet De Jong was thoughtfully stirring a can of striped paint, preparatory to restoring a pot so skilfully mended that none of the original surface showed.11 “So glad you could come,” said the Cheshire Cat, seizing Alice’s hand with a tea clamp. “You know, now that time is over, it’s always five o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, and eternity is just one endless School Tea.” With this remark she forced a smile, while the rest of her faded away. “Allow me to introduce you to our Uncle Harold,” said the smile, seating Alice at a table and presenting her to a gentleman with a Hat.12 At this moment the last of the Pages came scurrying in, and bedlam broke loose. Water tables were overturned and trickle swished about the floor knee deep. Mr. Fosteropoullos fainted, a cooky at his lips. The din was so great that Mrs. Cosmopoullos, smiling pleasantly at the company, turned off her ear phones and alone remained placid, writing away on her book, still unfinished at the end of time.13 (But then, she reflected, if time is over, there’s no hurry about my getting back to the beginning of it.) St. Paul’s class woke up and burst into cheers for Archaeology—We Want Archaeology—The poker players realized for the first time it was an Archaeological School. Pausanias let go the Koppa, who turned and fired several shots into his head, but without effect. The poker players

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danced about one of the intercolumnar columns, which swayed on its base. In the midst of the uproar, Uncle Harold the Hatter rose unsteadily in his seat. “The Committee on Publication,” Alice could hear him screaming “takes no responsibility for the statements of individual contributors.” The can of striped paint, deftly aimed by Piet, hurtled over the assembly and removed Uncle Harold’s Hat. Mr. Anonymous changed his mind, and began filling out an enormous check. The hundreds of Pages forming a great fluttering circle about the entire company, danced giddily round and round faster and faster, streaking by in one endless blur. Alice’s head began to spin and she woke up. In her lap was a heavy red volume inscribed on the title page “TO ALICE FROM THE AUTHOR.” B.H.H.

“Pausanias’ Second Visit to Corinth: New Translation by O. Broneer” On the road from Megara to Corinth there is a rocky promontory called the Hill of Look-out. They say that Bert Hodge never passed this place, whether he was riding in a car or pushing it, without stopping to admire the view of the sea and islands. And on every occasion there appeared as by a miracle salted almonds, cake, chocolate, and hot tea. Some say that the sea gulls brought the food in expectation of his coming, but there is another story to the effect that he hid the food himself in the car, and would under no circumstances permit the box to be opened before the Hill of Look-out was reached. Even to this day travelers stop at this spot to look at the scenery, but the box containing the eatables does not appear unless Bert Hodge is among the travelers.

When you cross the Isthmus, shortly before you arrive at the bridge there is on the right side of the Road a station called Loutraki, where they say the train stops longer than at any other place between Corinth and Athens. Inquiring from the station-master about the reason for this delay, I learned that in the days before cars were common the engineers were instructed to wait at this place for Bert Hodge to board the train. One time, so the story goes, the train left Loutraki before he had arrived, and then he was unable to catch up with the train before Eleusis. But this story is probably invented by the natives, for Eleusis is so close to Athens that he would surely have gone the whole distance by car if he had not caught the train before.

The road from New Corinth passes along the very edge of the sea. On the left side is a low hill called Korakou, which is the birthplace of Prehistory. This hill is only fifteen metres from the sea, but no one has ever been able to throw stones from the hill into the water, although the attempt was repeatedly made by the excavators.

As you enter the town of Old Corinth there are mounds of earth visible from the road at no great distance. These they say were heaped up by the excavators who removed the soil covering the ancient city. But the rumor that these mounds cover up important monuments is not credible, although believed by some.

In the town of Old Corinth are many fountains, most of which are fed from the same source. At one time there was only one Spring, called Peirene, and when that became buried through the neglect of the inhabitants the water gushed forth in several places. But the ancient city had many fountains and even more wells.

There is a legend about Peirene which was related to me by an old man. When Bert Hodge, then a young student, arrived at Corinth for the first time he saw in a dream a

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postscript vision of a nymph who showed him the picture of a labyrinth no less intricate than that in which Theseus slew the Minotaur. He asked her to show him the way to this building, which she said that she would do if he promised not to depart until he had solved the riddle of the Labyrinth. And so strong was his desire to explore the place that he promised to devote his whole life, if need be, to this undertaking. The nymph looked at him with an expression of mingled pity and admiration, and taking him by the hand she led him down along a stony path with pits and hollows on either side. Soon they arrived at the entrance to a square enclosure, and there she told him to remove his shoes and outer garments.

Then she pointed to a narrow opening in the wall which she said was the entrance to the Labyrinth. He entered through the hole into a narrow passage in which flowed a stream of clear water. But when he stepped into the stream he sank down into deep mud.

He was so frightened that he turned to go out, but when he looked back the nymph had disappeared. Thereupon he found that the mud and the water prevented him from going back. It was possible, albeit with great difficulty, to proceed farther into the passage, and soon he was no longer able to see his way back. The passage twisted and turned, and numerous channels led in various directions. He now remembered his promise to the nymph to explore the whole place before returning to his native city, and this he set out to do. The hope of solving the riddle filled him with so much happiness that he became totally oblivious to the cold and dampness of the place. But after many hours of walking about in complete darkness he noticed a narrow opening in the roof of the passage. When he looked up he saw the starry heavens and the evening star setting in the west. Then he remembered his native land, and suddenly he began to sink down into the mud. The slippery sides of the channel gave him no hold for his hands, but when he was nearly submerged the nymph appeared again and lifted him out. She told him that he would not sink if he would only refrain from looking up.

As soon as he awakened in the morning he knew the meaning of the dream. When I visited Corinth he was examining the opening into the passage. They say that he has explored the whole underground system, but he declares that there is one branch, now no longer used, which he has not seen.

The most noteworthy building in the modern town is a pink house which stands above the fountain of Peirene.14 In this house Bert Hodge lives and works. Even the earthquake, which left the house a cracked and crumbling structure, could not compel him to leave the house, although the other inhabitants have long since departed.15 At one time the house threatened to burn down. The fire, they say, was caused by Poseidon, who was wroth by reason of the refusal of Bert Hodge to be frightened by the earthquake. But some say that the riddle of Peirene can only be solved by dreams, and that those dreams will not appear except in the pink house.

As you leave the market place on the road to Acrocorinth—

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Appendix 1 Summary Chronological Table* Neolithic Bronze Age (Helladic) Iron Age Archaic

6000 B.c.

3100 B.c.

1065 B.c.

750 B.c.

Classical Hellenistic Interim Roman Colonial Imperial Late Antique Early Byzantine Middle Byzantine Frankish Ottoman Venetian Ottoman Hellenic Republic

480 B.c.

323 B.c.

146 B.c.

Mycenaean Period (LH), 1600–1065 B.c.

Bacchiads, traditionally ca. 750–657 B.c.

Cypselus, traditionally 657–627 B.c.

Periander, ca. 627–587 B.c.

Destruction by Mummius, 146 B.c.

Refoundation by Julius Caesar, 44 B.c.

44 B.c.

31 B.c. late 3rd century A.d.

7th century A.d.

843 A.d.

1210 A.d.

1458 A.d.

1687 A.d.

1715 A.d.

1821 A.d.

*See Introduction, p. xxix and n. 30, for a discussion of dates and divisions

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Appendix 2 Early Corinthian Pottery Sequence* Submycenaean (SM) Early Protogeometric (EPG) Middle Protogeometric (MPG) Late Protogeometric (LPG) Early Geometric Middle Geometric I Middle Geometric II Late Geometric Early Protocorinthian Middle Protocorinthian I Middle Protocorinthian II Late Protocorinthian Transitional Early Corinthian Middle Corinthian Late Corinthian I Late Corinthian II Late Corinthian III

1125/1075 B.c.

1050/1025 B.c.

980 B.c.

960 B.c.

900/875 B.c.

825 B.c.

800 B.c.

750 B.c.

720 B.c.

690 B.c.

670 B.c.

650 B.c.

630 B.c.

620/615 B.c.

595/590 B.c.

570 B.c.

550 B.c.

525 B.c.–500 B.c.

* See Introduction, p. xxix and n. 31, for a discussion of this table and its sources

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Appendix 3 Summary of Phases of Peirene* Greek Phase 1

Walls N1, N2, N3

Greek Phase 2

Tunnels, Wall E

Early 7th century B.c.

2A

Cyclopean Fountain

6th century B.c.

2B

East cistern

Late 6th–early 5th century B.c.

2C

Wall F, Basins A, B/C

Late 6th–early 5th century B.c.

Greek Phase 3A

Reservoirs 1–4

Early 5th century B.c.

Greek Phase 3B

Northwest cistern

5th century B.c.

Greek Phase 4

Hexastyle Stoa E–W retaining wall with hidden channel

Late 5th century B.c.

Greek Phase 5

Screen wall east of Peirene

End 5th century/early 4th century B.c.

Greek Phase 6

Chambers I–VI

Second half of 4th century B.c.

Greek Phase 7

Retaining wall north of mall Ionic screens on parapets renovated/replaced

Mid-3rd to mid-2nd century B.c.

Retaining walls & maintenance

Interim/colonial: 146–30 B.c.

Spring facade

Early Augustan Numismatic terminus post quem 30 B.c.

Poros court

Augustan/Tiberian

Hypaithros krene

Numismatic terminus post quem 10/9–5/4 B.c.

Marble Court

Trajanic or Early Hadrianic

Roman Phase 1 “First Roman Period” Roman Phase 2 “Second Roman Period” Roman Phase 3A “Third Roman Period” Roman Phase 3B “Fourth Roman Period” Roman Phase 4A “Fifth Roman Period” or “First Marble Period” Roman Phase 4B Roman Phase 4C Late Antique Phase 1 “Sixth Roman Period” or “Second Marble Period” Late Antique Phase 2 “Seventh Roman Period” Late Antique Phase 3 “Byzantine and Modern Times”

Hypaithros krene modifications and fish paintings Various minor changes Peribolos apse

Second half of 2nd century A.d.

Late 2nd and 3rd centuries A.d.

Triconch court

4th century A.d.

Round pool

Early 5th century A.d.

Outlooker screen

Later 5th or early 6th century A.d.

* Quotation marks appear around the phases of Peirene as outlined by Hill in Corinth I.6: The Springs

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Appendix 4 Abbreviations of Corinth Excavations Material Inventory numbers: C- and CP- Pottery MF- Miscellaneous finds I- Inscriptions S- Sculpture Deposit registers: MH- Manhole Well- Well Grave- Grave Records: Corinth Drawing Excavation drawings Corinth Photo Excavation photographs Lotted pottery Corinth Lot Corinth NB Excavation notebooks

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notes to pages xix–xxxi

Notes Introduction 1. Richardson 1898b, p. 236.

2. Richardson 1902b, p. 323.

3. For the underground reaches, the essential treatment is still Corinth I.6: The Springs, by Bert Hodge Hill, and I seek not to supplant that work but to provide a more general entrée.

4. Snodgrass 1987, pp. 93–97.

5. Further Greek Epigrams, pp. 202–204, “Simonides,” no. 11, line 720; for further discussion, see Chap. 2, p. 28.

6. For the phrase, from Libanius (Or. 14.64.6), see Chap. 2, p. 62.

7. C. W. Blegen, “Foreword,” in Corinth I.6, p. v.

8. Frend 1967, p. 187. For other reviews, see Williams 1969b; Mitten 1971.

9. Lord 1947, p. 191; he also ranks work done under Hill as “equal to that of any of the archaeological schools in Greece and far superior to most.”

10. For a succinct summary of the published evidence, see also Glaser 1983, pp. 76–79. Although he does not deal with the specifics of Peirene, Landon (1994) offers many observations helpful for understanding the hydraulic engineering behind it.

11. I depend on OCD3 for the dates of these and subsequent rulers cited here and in Appendix 1.

12. This explanation is considered most plausible by the OED2, s.v. grotesque.

13. Corinth I.6, p. 46.

14. The quotation is from R. B. Richardson (n. 2 above).

15. Green 1995, p. 40; Duncan 1990.

16. For an example, see Gould and Robinson 1994.

17. Surveys: Dunkley 1935–1936; Walker 1979; Glaser 1983, 2000; cf. DorlKlingenschmid 2001. For 2nd-century A.d. floruit: OlForsch XV; Volgraff 1958; Walker 1987; Leigh 1997.

18. For Athens, see Leigh 2001; for Greece in general, Agusta-Boularot 2001, omitting the important Fountain of Arsinoë at Messene, a Greek fountainhouse that was dramatically transformed under Nero (Felten and Reinholdt 2001; Themelis 2003).

19. Landon (1994, 2003) focuses on technical and topographic issues such as water sources, cisterns, wells, and channels, and his corpus also includes a number of architecturally elaborated springs outside the city center. His unpublished dissertation (1994) is available at the libraries of the Corinth Excavations and the University of California, Berkeley.

20. Robinson 2001.

21. Parsons 1943.

22. Pinto 1986; MacDonald and Pinto 1995. Katherine W. Rinne’s encyclopedic electronic “Aquae Urbis Romae” project (http://www.iath.virginia.edu/ rome/) is similarly exemplary.

23. Pinto 1986, p. 4.

24. Purcell 1996a, 1996b; Cosgrove 1990a, 1990b, 1998; Schama 1995, esp. pp. 205–306.

25. Cosgrove 1998, p. 15; cf. Green 1995.

26. Landscape studies range from survey-based spatial analysis of sites and regions, to reconstructions of conceptual or ideational landscapes, and interpretations of landscape representations. For a range of approaches, see Duncan 1990; Alcock 1993; Gosden and Head 1994; Green 1995; Cosgrove 1998; Ashmore and Knapp 1999; and Wylie 2007.

27. See Carroll-Spillecke 1985; Hurwit 1991; Siebert 1996; Bergmann 1991, 1995, 1999.

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28. I hope that the benefits of using the best work of successive generations will make up for any negatives perceived in including illustrations of multiple hands and styles.

29. Quoted by C. W. J. Eliot (1981, p. 10).

30. My model is Hurwit 1999, pp. 320–326, Appendix D. Given the chronological uncertainties of the archaeological record, the designation and tabulation of discrete periods involve interpretation, and inevitably introduce bias.

Nonetheless, the resulting scheme is a useful aid, improving authorial clarity and the understanding of a diverse audience. I hope that its benefits will make up for any problems stemming from rationalization and oversimplification. For terminological variance in recent studies, see Sanders 2004, p. 164; Pettigrew 2007, p. 747, table 1, s.v. Chronological Definitions.

31. Amyx 1988, vol. 2, p. 428; Pfaff 1999, p. 73.

32. Although Corinth is generally assumed to have been the capital of Achaea and therefore the provincial governor’s residence and headquarters, definite evidence is lacking. Certainly the proconsul Gallio was present during one of the apostle Paul’s visits (Acts 18.12), and Harry Adams Stansbury III (1990, pp.

166–169, with notes on pp. 202–203) has amassed compelling circumstantial evidence to suggest that the city first served as provincial capital in the second half of Augustus’s reign. See also Wiseman 1979, pp. 502–505.

33. Broneer perhaps gives the most dismal view of late antiquity at Corinth (see, e.g., Corinth I.4, pp. 159–160), but this perspective is fairly typical of his generation and his predecessors.

34. This trend is most apparent in current research, and is gradually appearing in print. See particularly Corinth XVIII.3, pp. 436–440; Brown 2006, 2007, and 2008 (available too late for consultation); Robinson 2000, 2001; Rothaus 2000; Sanders 1999, 2000, 2001b, 2003; Slane 1994; Slane and Sanders 2005; Stirling 2008. Too numerous to list here, Williams’s contributions to Corinthian chronology are evident throughout.

35. Pettigrew (2007, p. 747, table 1) lists the terms used in recent studies to denote subdivisions within the Roman Imperial period in Greece. As his tabulation makes clear, such definitions vary widely, making it crucial for any study to specify the system in use.

36. For the lower end of Late Roman pottery production, see Slane and Sanders 2005 (foreshadowed by Sanders 2004, p. 164). Far from reflecting homogeneous conditions, their evidence points to four horizons or temporal subdivisions of the Late Roman pottery chronology, characterized by local and long-distance trade differentials. Kardulias (2005, pp. 47–56) offers a useful review of dating evidence and the debate over the transition from Late Roman to Early Byzantine culture.

37. The Middle Byzantine period traditionally begins with the end of Iconoclasm in 843 and ends in 1204, when the Crusader conquest of Constantinople led to decades of Latin rule. Corinth was captured only in 1210, with the subsequent Frankish period lasting until 1395 when Theodore of Mistra took the city.

Corinth’s Late Byzantine period was brief, ending in an Ottoman siege in 1458, five years after Byzantine Constantinople’s last stand. The Ottoman grip on Corinth lasted until 1821, interrupted only by a Venetian occupation between 1678 and 1715. This admittedly skeletal outline is based largely on Corinth XVI, but see also Corinth XX and Kardulias 2005, p. 48.

38. See Chapter 3.

39. Thus, I use Corinth rather than Korinth or Korinthos, but Glauke, not Glauce. In archaeological discussions, Ancient Corinth will be called simply “Corinth,” and “New Corinth” will refer to the modern city of Corinth.

40. See Robinson and Weinberg 1960. A benchmark on the stylobate of the Archaic Temple (+84.85 m) was used for most prior elevation measurements, which allows comparison and correlation with modern measurements.

41. Eliot 1971, p. 145.

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322 •

notes from pages 4–18 Chapter One

1. For the present contours and the surface geology of the excavation area and a reconstruction of the state of the site preceding anthropogenic changes, see Hayward 2004.

2. These terms are here used in place of the standard “Upper Lechaion Road Valley” and “Lower Lechaion Road Valley.”

3. See Williams and Fisher 1971, pp. 1–10.

4. Hayward 2004, p. 395.

5. My understanding of Corinthian geomorphology owes much to discussions with Ruth Siddall, her kind previews of work in progress, and Siddall 1997; Keraudren and Sorel 1987; Landon 1994, pp. 13–20; and especially Hayward 2003, 2004.

6. The ages of the terraces remain a matter of debate among scientists, so for the purposes of this study, I will use the simple descriptors “upper terrace” and “lower terrace” when discussing them; these correspond to the 200 ka and 120 ka (200,000 and 120,000 year-old) terraces recognized by Hayward (2003, 2004).

7. Press and Siever 1986, p. 162.

8. See Corinth I.6, pp. 16–17.

9. Corinth I.6, p. 17, and p. 29 for the flow from the east tunnel, approximately 4.2 m–8.1 m3/hour. Lolos (1997, p. 295) estimates the flow of Corinth’s Stymphalian aqueduct at about 80,000 m3/day.

10. See Chap. 4, pp. 118–119.

11. For Snodgrass’s conception of “Greece Yesterday,” see Introduction, p. xxii.

12. Camp 1982, pp. 15–16, drawing on Corinth I.6, p. 177, as updated by Williams 1969b.

13. Following Corinth I.6, p. 10; Eur. Med. 68–69; Ath. 13.558c–e. I-401, found near the Northwest Stoa, and I-432, found near the Propylaia, are nonjoining fragments of an inscription on gray limestone. Apparently an honorary decree, the inscription is too incomplete to allow a confident reconstruction, but it does seem to place Peirene and the Agora near one another, and not far from the head of the Lechaion Road. While the location of the Archaic-through-Hellenistic agora is debated, the spring we call Peirene is the only source close enough to be a realistic candidate: Smith 1923, pp. 333–336, no. 61; Corinth VIII.1, pp. 5–7, no.

5; Landon 1994, p. 55, n. 64; and recently reconsidered by Donati 2006.

14. Plaut. Aulularia 557–559; Cic. Att. 12.5; cf. Corinth I.6, p. 2, and Chap. 2 below.

15. This description draws on Fowler 1922, pp. 200–206 (written by Hill); Corinth I.6; Robinson 2001; and additional personal observation.

16. Corinth NB 108D, p. 40.

17. I use the term “poros” in the general archaeological sense of any soft limestone building stone; at Corinth, however, the term generally refers to oolitic limestone. For mortars and related materials, I follow terminological guidelines established by Siddall (1997). The term “cement” refers to the adhesive binder in a mortar, the hardened slaked lime that holds together the aggregate of sand or pebbles. “Mortar” is that very mixture of cement and fine aggregate; functionally, it can be used as a finish, like a stucco, or as a glue, like the pointing between bricks.

The term “concrete” is reserved for material containing coarser aggregates, as used in Hellenistic emplekton walls and poured into formwork by Roman builders.

18. These rooms and their history are discussed below, Chaps. 7 and 10. I refer to them using the numbering system indicated on all plans, with walls identified by the rooms they bound, e.g., Wall W1/W2 divides Room W1 from Room W2 (see Pls. B and 4). When discussing specific phases, I differentiate later phases of the rooms (when truncated by the triconch walls) with “double-prime” symbols, e.g., Room W4 becomes Room W4″ and Room E6 becomes E6″, as on Pl. 5.

19. Throughout this volume, the words “mall,” “forecourt,” and “court” refer to the area in front of the arcade or spring facade. While “spring” and “source” refer

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more generally to Peirene’s origin and basic state as a natural water source elaborated by human workmanship, the terms “springhouse” and “fountainhouse” denote the built features underground.

20. Corinth I.6, p. 32.

21. Corinth I.6, p. 36.

22. Fowler 1922, p. 202.

23. The southwest supply tunnel has not been penetrated between Wells F3 and M, and part of the east branch of the South Stoa aqueduct remains unexplored. The tunnels running north from the junction at “m” and from Well M, as well as another passing under Manhole S, have not been pursued to their ends.

24. For modern visitors, see Chap. 4. This part of the overview draws on Corinth I.4, pp. 59–65; Corinth I.6, pp. 54–63; Corinth VII.3, pp. 196–198; and personal observation. Sketches and sketch sections of the tunnels derived from Corinth I.6, p. 55, fig. 31, are placed within the text as Hill wished: “They will be really needed, in their right places, if the chapter on Supply Tunnels is not to be [hopelessly dull—erased] & nearly unintelligible. . .” (from draft of letter to editors, ASCSA Hill Papers).

25. Corinth I.6, pp. 56–63.

26. For the Underground Shrine, see Williams 1978b, pp. 67–78; Pfaff 2003, p. 127; Bookidis 2003, p. 254. The Peirene channel is substantially lower than the level of the shrine, but it is interesting that a nearby drain detoured around the graves in this area (Williams 1978b, p. 77).

27. Although Hill traced this channel for about 8 m from M, it was the one branch that he failed to follow to its end, and the two manholes were not found until 1959 and 1960: Corinth I.6, p. 59; Robinson and Weinberg 1960, p. 231; and Robinson 1962, pp. 103–104.

28. The shafts that probably served first as manholes but were converted into wells are J12, J1, J2, perhaps J5, and K4. There were also two dedicated manholes, L1 (medieval or modern) and L2, probably original to the system, both south of the tunnel (Corinth I.6, p. 61).

29. Corinth I.4, pp. 62–65; Corinth VII.3, pp. 188–235; for a sense of the complexities of interpretation, see Landon 1994, pp. 141–146; the stoa is currently being studied by David Scahill (architecture) and Guy Sanders and Sarah James (well deposits).

30. Corinth is crisscrossed by lead and terracotta water pipes, but of lengthy ancient lines only a few can be associated with Peirene with any confidence. For a Greek pressure pipe running north under the west apse of the Peirene court, probably of the 4th century B.c., see Chap. 5, pp. 147–148. Hill (1927, pp. 75–76 and figs. 2, 3) inferred that a sequence of terracotta pipes under the Lechaion Road sidewalk drew upon the western reservoir of Peirene until late in the 3rd century A.d., at least.

31. Robinson and Williams 1963.

32. As commented by Loeb translator C. B. Gulick (Cambridge, Mass., 1927, p. 187); cf. comments of translators of the Belles Lettres edition, A. M. Desrous­ seaux and C. Astruc (Paris 1956, p. 105). For another mention of Peirene in a quotation of the Cynics’ Symposium of Parmeniscus, see Ath. 4.156e.

33. For Hill’s tests, by E. I. Emmanouel of the University of Athens, see Corinth I.6, p. 17; additional figures are recorded in a letter from Hill to Capps, August 2, 1933 (ASCSA Adm Rec 203/4 folder 5). In 2006, chemical tests were commissioned from A. Theodoropoulou-Davaki in Ancient Corinth; results of other tests by T. Kabanaki of the University of Athens are reported in “Chemical Investigation 2006.” Disparities between the 1932 and 2006 figures seen for all springs (averaging 26% with 14%–35% range) are probably due to testing differences or seasonal variations.

34. Caley 1941, p. 702. Recent conductivity tests seem to support his results.

I am grateful to Konstantinos Lengas and Yannis Lolos for providing chemical analyses of the fine water of Lake Stymphalus for comparison.

6/1/11 11:21 AM

notes from pages 18–26 35. Caley (1941, p. 703) cites studies of sites on the Mediterranean coast of France. A number of recent studies have verified the impact of aerosol salts on archaeological sites, but the focus has been on the weathering of stone (e.g., Chabas and Lafèvre 2000). A thorough study of atmospheric and soil science at Corinth is therefore desirable.

36. See Voudouris and Daniel 1999.

37. Corinth I.2, pp. 27–31, 36. For Corinthian bronze, see Mattusch 2003; Caley 1941.

38. “Wattwiller,” http://www.aquamaestro.com/innerview.asp?catid=36 (accessed May 29, 2007).

39. As revealed in a letter from Hill to Capps, August 2, 1933 (ASCSA Adm Rec 203/4 folder 5).

40. Peirene “colony-forming unit” counts (with safety limits in parentheses, as established by Directive 98/83/EC) are as follows: E. coli: 94 cfu/100ml (<1 cfu/100ml); Enterococci: >180 cfu/100ml (<1 cfu/100 ml); 22°C colony count: >300 cfu/ml (<100 cfu/ml); 37°C colony count: >300 cfu/ml (<20cfu /ml).

Samples were collected in sterile 100 ml vessels and refrigerated until their analysis, one day later; cultures were carried out by D. E. Anastasiou, of the Laboratory Center for Food & Environmental Analysis (EKET), Patras, on August 20, 2006. Unfortunately, most of the readings from Peirene exceeded the maximum values of these tests, so they cannot be compared to European swimming standards as prescribed by EU Council Directive 2006/7/EC, Annex 1.

41. See Chap. 4.

42. As noted by C. K. Williams II (pers. comm.), Peirene is only seasonally a bat cave. In March 1999, I encountered a large colony of bats in the cavernous space at the junction of the southwest and south-central supply tunnels, but I have not seen a single bat in two summertime visits.

43. Celico, Musilli, and Naclerio 2004; Celico, Varcamonti, Guida, and Naclerio 2004. Documented risks include grazing within tens of meters and manure-fertilization within a few hundred meters.

44. Corinth III.1, pp. 31–49 (R. Stillwell), 50–60 (O. Broneer); Dunkley 1935–1936, p. 183; Glaser 1983, pp. 18–19, no. 10; Crouch 1993, p. 88; Landon 1994, pp. 154–162.

45. Corinth III.1, pp. 39–44; for other Hellenistic vaults in Greece, see Boyd 1978.

46. Corinth III.1, p. 49.

47. For some time, water was collected in a cistern west of the entrance; this was built over a stratum characterized by Hellenistic sherds, and material from within the basin indicates that it functioned until the second half of the 4th century A.d.; see Corinth III.1, pp. 32–36, 49.

48. Broneer (Corinth III.1, pp. 59–60) suggests a date in the second century A.d. for the inscriptions.

49. Crouch (1993, p. 88) hypothesizes that the water flows from a perched nappe, a tilting aquifer. Landon (1994, p. 156) is doubtful, ultimately concluding that it still remains to be demonstrated whether the spring is a pressure-fed artesian well, or receives water from an aquifer within the higher reaches of Acrocorinth. Siddall (pers. comm.) has noted a layer of chert in a nearby outcrop, which may have served to trap water in the aquifer tapped by the tunnels in Upper Peirene.

50. Wallace 1969; Baladié 1978, pp. 16–17.

51. Trans. H. L. Jones, Cambridge, Mass., [1927] 2001.

52. The only alternative, Hadji Mustafa, can be dismissed on the grounds that its volume is about one-fifteenth that of Lower Peirene; see Corinth I.6, p.10; Landon 1994, pp. 174–177.

53. Trans. W. H. S. Jones, Cambridge, Mass., [1918] 1959.

54. Baladié 1980, p. 109.

55. Corinth I.1, p. 86, n. 11.

56. Baladié 1980, pp. 43–115.

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• 323

57. Trans. H. L. Jones, Cambridge, Mass., [1927] 2001. Strabo’s hydraulic veins are paralleled in his understanding of vulcanism. At Aetna, for example, he describes smoke, flames, and lava moving through a subterranean network (6.2.8).

58. My summary of the modern hydrological status quo draws on Press and Siever 1986, pp. 151–175; for ancient models, see Baker and Horton 1936; Herak and Springfield 1972; LaMoreaux 1991, esp. pp. 215–218; Crouch 1993, sharing Landon’s reservations (1994, pp. 149–151, 156).

59. According to Salmon (1984, pp. 7–8), the average annual rainfall of 404.7 mm at Corinth betters only Athens among mainland readings, but the Attic allotment is meted out more gradually. While, on average, only about 40 days of the year bring more than a millimeter of rain to Corinth, that frequency is almost doubled in Athens. See also Landon 2003, p. 43.

60. Hippocrates (Aer. 8) discusses evaporation, condensation, and the qualities of rainwater, but does not consider spring formation per se; cf. Arist. Mete.

1.12.349b–350a; Vitr. De arch. 7.1.7.

61. Pliny, esp. HN 2.166; 2.222; Seneca, esp. Q Nat. 3.7.1–4. Although Plato does not discuss the origin of springs, he is sometimes included in this company (Baker and Horton 1936, p. 397).

62. Lucr. 6.608–638.

63. Sen. Q Nat. 3.2.1.

64. Sen. Q Nat. 3.19.4: “the earth has not only veins of water from the confluence of which rivers can be formed, but also streams of vast size” (trans. T. H. Corcoran, Cambridge, Mass., 1971) and cf. 3.15.1; 3.15.8, 3.16.4; 3.26.1; 3.26.3.

Pliny (HN 2.166) envisions water penetrating the earth “by means of a network of veins radiating within and without, above and below” (intra extra infra supra venis ut vinculis discurrentibus, trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge, Mass., 1938).

65. Trans. H. N. Fowler, Cambridge, Mass., [1917] 2005.

66. Trans. H. D. P. Lee, Cambridge, Mass., 1952.

67. Aristotle admits that these subterranean passages are a widespread phenomenon and specifically mentions the Peloponneses (Mete. 351a3).

68. Trans. T. H. Corcoran, Cambridge, Mass., 1971. See also Sen. Q Nat. 6.8.1–2.

69. For his part, Pliny (HN 2.222) imagined that seawater became salty only through the agency of the sun’s power, concentrating the harsher, denser components of the water. Lucretius (6.631–6.638) believed that water not only flowed from land to sea, but that seawater also oozed back into the land, and therein the salt virus was strained away as the fluid percolated through.

70. See Chaps. 8 and 9.

71. Baker and Horton 1936, p. 395. Plin. HN 2.166: atque etiam in summis iugis erumpente, quo spiritu acta et terrae pondere expressa siphonum modo emicat tantumque a periculo decidendi abest, ut in summa quaeque et altissima exsiliat (“the water burst[s] out even at the tops of mountain ridges, to which it is driven and squeezed out by the weight of the earth, and spurts out like a jet of water from a pipe, and is so far from being in danger of falling down that it leaps upward to all the loftiest elevations,” trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge, Mass., 1967).

72. See Sen. Q Nat. 3.15.1–7: placet natura regi terram, et quidem ad nostrorum corporum exemplar, in quibus et venae sunt et arteriae, illae sanguinis, hae spiritus receptacula (“The idea appeals to me that the earth is governed by nature and is much like the system of our own bodies in which there are both veins [receptacles for blood] and arteries [receptacles for air],” trans. T. H. Corcoran, Cambridge, Mass., 1971). This became a prominent topos again in the Renaissance; on Leonardo’s subterranean systems, see Farago 1996, pp. 17–22.

73. Quoted at length, p. 22.

74. Baladié 1980, p. 109.

75. Compare the prodigiously swelling waters of the Alban Lake before the creation of the drainage tunnel there in 398 B.c.: Plut. Vit. Cam. 3.1–4, 4.3; Livy 5.15.

76. For example, Murphy-O’Connor 1990, p. 59; Landon 1994, p. 48.

77. Corinth III.1, pp. 59–60, italics mine; cf. LIMC VII.1, 1994, pp. 231–232, s.v. Peirene (C. Lanara).

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6/15/11 3:46 PM

Histories of Peirene: A Corinthian Fountain in Three Millennia Betsey A. Robinson

HISTORIES OF PEIRENE

The author and Paul Scotton after a tour of Peirene, August 2006

A CORINTHIAN FOUNTAIN IN THREE MILLENNIA

About the Author Betsey A. Robinson is Associate Professor of Art History and of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her research and teaching interests include Greek and Roman architecture and art, ancient cities and sanctuaries, landscapes and natural history. Professor Robinson has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She was a Junior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (1999–2000), and Oscar Broneer Fellow at the American Academy in Rome (2001–2002).

Ancient Art and Architecture in Context Published with the support of the Getty Foundation, this series demonstrates, through case studies of specific artifacts and monuments, that aesthetic study, contextual investigation, and technical examination are complementary tools in the quest to retrieve meaning from the past. By combining archaeological and art historical approaches within a contextual framework, the books in this series exemplify true interdisciplinary research and lead to a richer understanding of antiquity.

Jacket Illustrations Front: Detail of a fish on west wall of Chamber VI; view of triconch court Photos ASCSA Back: Interior view of Chamber IV Photo ASCSA

PEIRENE COVER PRESS.indd 1

The Peirene Fountain as described by its first excavator, Rufus B. Richardson, is “the most famous fountain of Greece.” Here is a retrospective of a wellspring of Western civilization, distinguished by its long history, service to a great ancient city, and early identification as the site where Pegasus landed and was tamed by the hero Bellerophon. Spanning three millennia and touching a fourth, Peirene developed from a nameless spring to a renowned source of inspiration, from a busy landmark in Classical Corinth to a quiet churchyard and cemetery in the Byzantine era, and finally from free-flowing Ottoman fountains back to the streams of the source within a living ruin. These histories of Peirene as a spring and as a fountain, and of its watery imagery, form a rich cultural narrative whose interrelations and meanings are best appreciated when studied together. The author deftly describes the evolution of the Fountain of Peirene framed against the underlying landscape and its ancient, medieval, and modern settlement, viewed from the perspective of Corinthian culture and spheres of interaction.

ASCSA

BETSEY A. ROBINSON 6/27/11 1:34 PM