influence of wine, crowned with a wreath of ivy, his right hand thrown carelessly over his head. The fine execution is all that differentiates it from the numerous copies in various museums. The most important sculptures of the Roman period, however, are a group of colossal figures supporting an entablature, a large part of which has been recovered. One of the figures, a barbarian captive, effeminate like those which appear on Roman triumphal arches, is practically intact. Another, its counterpart, is preserved down to the hips. These differ from Caryatids, which bear the architrave on their heads. Here a pilaster forming the back of the figure receives a Corinthian capital, upon which the architrave rests; and the figures merely brace up the pilaster. Two of these figures stood at the end of a re-entrant curve, several pieces of which are preserved. Two female heads of like proportions belong to the system, since the backs of their heads are cut away in the same manner as the male heads. The building to which the figures belonged, a porch, extended westward from the propylaea; and may be traced for 45 ft. All that is left of it is the core of opus incertum.
The excavations brought to light vases and fragments of vases, of nearly every period except the Mycenaean. On the N. side of the hill on which stands the village schoolhouse, from which one looks across the indentation to the Apollo temple, several vertical shafts in the limestone stratum were found, and underneath it in horizontal passages were bodies surrounded with vases. These are pre-Mycenaean, and their only ornament is scratches, into which white matter has been pressed. There are over fifty of these vases, of multiform shapes. By the side of the Lechaeum road, near the steps leading to the propylaea, were found in deep diggings thirteen early Geometric vases. Proto-Corinthian vases also were everywhere strongly represented. The best find of pottery, however, was an Old Corinthian celebē (κελέβη, drinking vessel), about a foot high, in forty-six fragments, found in a well, 30 ft. below the surface. On one side are a boar and a leopard confronting each other, and on the other side two cocks in the same heraldic arrangement. On the projecting plates supported by the handles are palmettes.
Two inscriptions in the Old Corinthian alphabet came to light. But, on the whole, inscriptions before the Roman times were almost entirely lacking. One inscription, though of late date, deserves mention. On a marble block broken away at both ends, which in a second use was a lintel, we read ΑΓΩΓΗΕΒΡ, which can only be συναγωγὴ Ἑβραίων (synagogue of the Hebrews).
The excavations were confined to a small part of the city, but there is little doubt that it was the most important part. By good fortune the earth here was very deep. On the higher level of the agora and the Apollo temple, where the depth of earth is comparatively slight, there is little hope of important finds. There is no hope of finding the great bronze Athena, which stood in the middle of the agora. To the west, beyond the theatre, one might find the temple of Athena Chalinitis and the fountain Lerna, and somewhere near Glauce, the Odeum and the tomb of Medea’s children; but it is more likely that they have disappeared. On the Lechaeum road, on which a bewildering wealth of fountains and statues is enumerated, only the Baths of Eurycles below the plane tree were found; deep diggings were made into them, and the foundations of the façade laid bare. This great complex was apparently supplied with water from Hadrian’s aqueduct from Lake Stymphalus. On the street going eastward from the agora nothing is mentioned between it and the city wall. This level eastern part was probably given up to fine houses, all traces of which have perished. Outside the gate, apparently, was the famous Craneion, shaded by cypress trees, and near it the tombs of Lais and Diogenes, a precinct of Bellerophon and of Athena Melaenis. The number of temples and shrines enumerated by Pausanias along the road leading up to Acro-Corinth is bewildering. Here were represented Isis and Serapis, Helios, the Mother of the Gods, the Fates, Demeter and Persephone; but no trace of these temples remains. At the highest point of the road, according to Pausanias, there stood the famous temple of Aphrodite, but the remains excavated at this point seem to be those of a late tower, and the few foundations below it do not resemble those of a temple. We are equally unfortunate in regard to Strabo’s splendid marble Sisyphaeum just below the summit. The fountain Pirene, “behind the temple,” still exists, but so much earth has accumulated about it that one now approaches it by going down a ladder. The water is so crystal clear that one inadvertently steps into it. The identity of name with that of Pirene in the city is justified by the fact that the upper spring is the source of the Pirene below.
See, for details, the American Journal of Archaeology (from 1896). (R. B. R.)
CORINTH, a city and the county-seat of Alcorn county,
Mississippi, U.S.A., situated in the N.E. part of the state, about
90 m. E. by S. of Memphis, Tennessee. Pop.(1890) 2111; (1900)
3661 (1174 negroes); (1910) 5020. It is served by the Mobile
& Ohio and the Southern railways; and by a branch of the
Illinois Central connecting Jackson, Miss., and Birmingham,
Ala. It has woollen mills, cotton compresses, clothing,
furniture, and spoke and stave factories and machine shops,
and is a cotton market. Because of its situation and its importance
as a railway junction, Corinth played an important part
in the western campaigns of the Civil War. After the first Confederate
line of defence had been broken by the capture of Fort
Henry and Fort Donelson (February 1862), Corinth was fortified
by General P. G. T. Beauregard, and was made the centre of the
new line along the Memphis & Charleston railway, “the great
East and West artery of the Confederacy.” Grant’s advance
on this centre, then defended by General A. S. Johnston, led to
the battle of Shiloh, fought on April 6/7 about 20 m. N.E. of
Corinth; after this engagement Beauregard withdrew to Corinth.
General H. W. Halleck, with a greatly superior force, cautiously
and slowly advanced upon the Confederate position, consuming
more than a month in the operation. During the night of the
29th of May Beauregard evacuated the place (which was occupied
by the Federals on the following day), and re-established his line
at Tupelo. Corinth then became the headquarters of the Union
forces under General W. S. Rosecrans, who on the 3/4 of October
1862 was fiercely attacked here by General Earl von Dorn, whom
he repulsed, both sides suffering considerable losses in killed and
wounded, and the Confederates leaving many prisoners behind.
CORINTH, ISTHMUS OF, an isthmus of Greece, dividing the
Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf. Ships were sometimes
dragged across it in ancient times at a place called the Diolcus
(διέλκειν, to pull or cut through). Nero, in A.D. 67, began cutting
a canal through it; but the project was abandoned. In 1893
a ship canal was opened, with its western entrance about 114 m.
N.E. of the little town of New Corinth. It was begun in 1881
by a French company, which ceased operations in 1889, a Greek
company completing the undertaking. The canal is about
70 ft. broad, nearly 4 m. long, and 26 ft. deep. It shortens the
journey from the Adriatic to the Peiraeus by 202 m., but foreign
steamships seldom use it, as the narrowness of the canal and the
strength of the current at times render the passage dangerous.
About 1 m. from its western end it is crossed by the iron bridge
of the Athens and Corinth railway. Traces of the Isthmian wall
may still be seen parallel to the canal; it was constructed, at an unknown date, for the fortification of the Isthmus. Just to the S. of it, and about 12 m. from the sea are the remains of the Isthmian precinct of Poseidon and its stadium, where the Isthmian games were celebrated. This precinct served also as a fortress. Within it have been found traces of the temple of Poseidon and other buildings. (E. Gr.)
CORINTHIANS, EPISTLES TO THE, two books of the Bible (New Testament). The two letters addressed to the Christian church at Corinth are, with Romans, the longest of the Pauline
epistles. They possess a singular interest and value, due to the apostle’s close acquaintance with the members of the church addressed and their circumstances. In consequence of this
intimate character the First Epistle to the Corinthians presents a picture, unrivalled in fulness and colour, of the life of a Pauline
church, while the Second Epistle, written out of strong feeling, gives a revelation of the innermost feelings and characteristic
