ancient Corinth
Ancient Corinth has resided since Neolithic times
(5000-3000 BC).
Ancient Corinth has resided since Neolithic times
The cult of Melicartus on the Isthmus of Corinth is perhaps related to the cult of the Phoenician Melkarth.
Its name, which has survived reconstructed in Greek, may indicate the establishment of Phoenicians in Corinth. Of course, according to Greek mythology and contrary to the previous version, Melikertis was the son of Athamas, the king of Orchomenos of Boeotia, and Inos, the daughter of Cadmus.
History
Due to the rage of Athamas, he and his mother fell into the sea to save themselves, drowned, and transformed into sea deities: Ino was named Leukothea and Melikertis Palaemon. The body of Melikertis-Palaemon was transferred to the Isthmus of Corinth by a dolphin, so Sisyphus, the city’s king, made sacrifices in his honor and established the Isthmian, the well-known games of antiquity. It was mentioned in numerous ancient myths during the Bronze Age, such as the myth of Sisyphus, the legend of Bellerophon, Jason, and Medea, etc.
Homer mentions in the list of Neos Corinth as participating in the Trojan campaign
under the leadership of king Agamemnon of Mycenae. After the descent of the
Dorians, Dorians settled in Corinth by displacing the older populations, mainly
of Ionian origin easter.
With the establishment of the Dorians, the aristocracy polity was established in
Corinth, where an aristocratic class of Dorians, the Bacchiades, now ruled.
Archaic History
In the middle of the 7th century BC, aristocracy polity ended, and tyranny was established, with Kypselos as the first tyrant. Periandros, who got described as one of the seven sages of the Archaic period, succeeded Kypselos,
Periandros got succeeded by his nephew Psammitichos, who got assassinated after three years, and the aristocracy system got restored.
At the end of the Archaic Period, several big projects took place in Corinth, but also in the colonies since the trireme, the warship that gave Hellenism the sovereignty of the seas and which was the culmination, was built for the first time by Bacchiades Amenoklis of the technology developed by the ancient Corinthians.