Corinthian Matters

Category: Books and Articles

  • Barbarians at the Gate

    One reason I love Corinthian Matters is that David Pettegrew’s loyal bots constantly crawl the web looking for new academic articles on Corinth. As anyone who attempts to keep abreast of new scholarship on any topic knows, it is almost impossible to do so without some loyal human and software allies.Recently, he brought to my…

  • Roman Colonies in the First Century of their Foundation

    Readers interested in the Roman colony of Corinth and questions of Romanization and colonial identity should find food for thought in Roman Colonies in the First Century of their Foundation, Oxford 2011: Oxbow Books.  The work (ed. Rebecca Sweetman) includes chapters on Corinth (by Paul Scotton), Knossos, Nikopolis, and Butrint, among others. Here is Christopher…

  • The Crazy Project – Canal Istanbul

    Last spring Turkish news agencies covered  reports and rumors about a new canal proposed somewhere in the vicinity of Istanbul that would connect the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara.  The reports referred to the speech made by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in late April as part of his reelection as Prime Minister of Turkey. …

  • Did a tsunami destroy ancient Lechaion?

    In early July, Andreas Vött and his colleagues announced that sometime in the 6th century AD, a tsunami destroyed ancient Olympia, the famous site of pan-Hellenic athletic contests.   In considering recent scholarship on historical tsunamis in the Gulf of Corinth, I pondered here at Corinthianmatters whether there was any evidence for tsunamis in the Corinthia. …

  • Other Byzantine Bodies

    When most of us think of the Byzantine body today, we image the ethereal bodies that grace the walls of painted churches, the emaciated bodies of the Byzantine ascetic, or even the body of the emperor or bishop. At the same time, there has been valued work in the last few years focusing on the…

  • Histories of Peirene

    There are no monuments of ancient Corinth more famous and iconic than the Fountain of Peirene.  Any modern visitor who has wandered among the ruins will likely have shot a photo like the one below of the Roman spring facade and court.  And anyone who walks into a tourist shop will have seen plenty of…

  • Preaching Corinthians from Historical and Archaeological Background: Some Resources

    How important is understanding cultural and social background for preaching and teaching on 1 and 2 Corinthians?  In late July, I stumbled upon Michael Bird’s post at Evangelion on the importance of understanding background for effective preaching.  He comments on video discussion (reposted below) between D.A. Carson and John Piper about whether a pastor whose…

  • A Book about the Diolkos

    I first discovered Apostolos Papafotiou’s Ο δίολκος στον ισθμό της Κορίνθου (=”The Diolkos on the Isthmus of Corinth”), Corinth 2007 (ISBN 960-87108-9-8), while browsing Corinthian history books at bookstore in New Corinth.  Because I don’t like to pay over $100 for a book, I delayed until the following summer to convince myself that it was…

  • Corinthian Scholarship (July 2011)

    Archaic-Hellenistic Corinth D. Obbink and R. Rutherford (eds.), Culture in Pieces: Essays on Ancient Texts in Honour of Peter Parsons, Oxford 2011: Oxford University Press, has several Corinthiaka: a fragment of the archaic poet Eumelus of Corinth, discussions of Pindar’s Thirteenth Olympian and Posidonius of Corinth, a chapter on the Argo adventure J.A. Agnew, J.S.…

  • Corinthian Scholarship (April 2011)

    The latest in Corinthian Scholarship for April 2011.  As always, this list is based on various Google alerts that may be thorough but are certainly not exhaustive.  If you have material to add, send it my way. Geology: The most recent article on the Gulf of Corinth rift: “The Structures, Stratigraphy and Evolution of the…