There are places where you feel that you are trampling the navel of the earth, or at least the roots of the world tree. And not because some super-mystery is hidden here or the whole human history originates, - here myths, legends, ancient and modern history are intertwined, everything is fused with a common meaning and is crowned with a loud name. This is Corinth …
A spoonful of truth, a barrel of a fairy tale
It stands on the Isthmus of Corinth, separating mainland Hellas from the Peloponnese peninsula. The most ancient Corinthians, who settled here as early as 5-3 thousand BC. e., chose a place with sense: access to the sea, an elevated position, a fertile plain - live without fear and in pleasure. And so they lived. The first of the kings to glorify Corinth, the demigod himself, was short-lived with the Olympians. In the middle of the city, on Mount Acrocorinth, he decided to build a fortress; however, noticing from the top how the thunderer Zeus attracts the nymph Aegina to the nearest island, he forgot about modesty: he reported the incident to Aegina's father, the river god Asol. Enraged Zeus threw the snitching king into Hades, where he was doomed to forever roll a stone to the top of the mountain. His name is Sisyphus. And on Akrokorinth they built a temple dedicated to Biya (goddess of violence) and Ananka (goddess of inevitability) …
The grandson, Bellerophon, was noted at the Acrocorinth and Sisyphus. Here Pegasus went down to the watering hole. Bellerophon, who needed a feathered horse for another feat, caught him and tamed him.
At the foot of the mountain there is a well, whose origin is also fanned by myths. Jason, who cooled down with time to Medea, forgot what she sacrificed for him and how dangerous it could be. In a word, he fell in love with Princess Glauka, wooed and even accepted a gift from his abandoned wife for a happy bride. The luxurious coverlet on the shoulders of Glavka began to burn her with a hellish flame - the poor girl threw herself into the well. And she gave him her name.
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History imperiously invades myth, it is impossible to separate them - especially since fiction turns out to be a component of European culture. So, Corinth is mentioned in the Iliad, in the VIII century. BC e. the famous Corinthian triremes appear, Corinthian ceramics are bought by the whole Mediterranean. In 582 BC. e. the Isthmian Games are established in honor of Poseidon. All Greece rushes to Corinth every two years to watch sports competitions, listen to musicians. Once among the spectators there was … the Apostle Paul: a testimony of this was preserved in his Epistles.
Love is everywhere
Acrocorinth ascended high - 575 meters above sea level, and Corinth at its foot fell rather low. A city battered by the Greco-Persian wars, beaten by earthquakes, plundered by the Romans in 146 BC. e. was completely destroyed and began to be rebuilt only by the will of Caesar in 44 BC. e. It was inhabited by all kinds of rabble, the situation was aggravated by the fact that Corinth was "twice" a port city: both on the Aegean and on the Ionian seas, its harbors rustled. The Greeks no longer recognized him as their own, multilingual speech sounded on the streets, and migrants brought their own beliefs. The cults of Isis, Cybele, Seralis flourished here, but the main attraction of the city was the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos (National) - all on the same slopes of the long-suffering Acrocorinth. In cells, covered with rose bushes, thousands of priestesses served the goddess as best they could.
Nowadays not a trace remains of the temple of love, but in the 1st century. n. e. when the apostle Paul came to Corinth, the depravity of the Corinthians shocked him.
Yet it was here in Corinth that Paul founded one of the first Christian communities. Here he was for the first time tried for preaching a new teaching and - acquitted. It is to the Corinthians that four of his Epistles are addressed, of which only two have come down to us. In this multifaceted, international city, he decided to leave the synagogue and preach the Word of Christ to everyone - not just the Jews; Christianity has become truly national. And finally, it was to these dissipated voluptics that he considered it necessary to explain what love is (1 Cor. 13: 1-8,13).
There is power, we will get some mind
Nero also visited Corinth, wishing to fulfill an old Mediterranean dream - to dig a canal that separates the Peloponnese from the mainland. He even dug in the ground with a golden hoe. On this the matter slowed down until 1893.
For the last two millennia, Corinth has lived a familiar life: earthquakes ruffled it, Heruls, Allarich's Goths, Normans, pirates, Florentines, Turks, and crusaders seized and burned it.
The latter, having mastered the ancient axiom ("who owns the Acrocorinth, is the lord of the entire Peloponnese"), erect an impregnable fortress on the mountain, repair and improve it throughout the Middle Ages, and leave it to the Turks.
In 1822, when the Turks are no longer all over Greece, a small garrison still holds Acrocorinth - there was not a single surrender in the history of the fortress. Finally, the saddened Turks, realizing that in Acrocorinth they are threatened with death only from old age, leave the fortress with the national flag and freely return to their historic homeland.
Corinth, the eternal battlefield between love and power, finally resolutely rejected the latter, the Apostle Paul was not mistaken in his addressees.
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