Acrocorinth

Hi all!

You know how it’s summer and people go on vacation and usually take a break from things, right?

That was our case too, for the most part. You see, both Eirini and I had plans for this summer (because everyone needs to rest at some point), but, the thing is, we didn’t really want to take a break from blogging, so we had planned a few entries ahead in order to still have something new to upload while on vacation.

So today’s entry was actually all planned out and sorted, until I decided to “hijack” the blog and do a spontaneous entry about my visit to Acrocorinth, the Acropolis of Ancient Corinth. On that note, Eirini, I am sorry (not really, because I know you'll enjoy it :-D) for uploading an entry without consulting with you first.

Acrocorinth is one of the most impressive of the Acropoleis of Greece, both because of its’ position and geomorphology, but also because of its’ history. It was continuously occupied from archaic times to the early 19th century. Because of that continuity, one can see remains from various time periods, which makes it really exciting. Not to mention that it has three sets of walls: the Archaic one, the Byzantine one and the Frankish one.

How’s that relevant to the project you ask? Well, I was reading a book about the lowlifes of the ancient world (yeah, I read things like that for fun!) and I read that at some point there was a temple dedicated to Aphrodite there.

Naturally, I did some more research and found out that that temple was one of Aphrodite’s most famous ones. There was a statue of her and one of a winged Eros too; of course I wanted to go. So I got my dad and my sister to join me and off we went!

Since Acrocorinth was continuously occupied, over the course of the years the temple changed uses; first it was turned into a church and then into a mosque and, sadly, today one can only see the foundations of the temple.

The remains of Aphrodite's temple...

...the highest point with the gorgeous view (it's said that on a very clear day one can see the Acropolis in Athens)...

...and the replica of the statue.

According to mythology, Helios owned Acrocorinth and the entire area surrounding it; his son, Aeëtes , inherited everything but Acrocorinth, which Helios offered to Aphrodite as a gift.

She much preferred Mount Olympus though, so she gifted Acrocorinth to Medea, Aeëtes’s daughter. Medea built a temple dedicated to Aphrodite to the highest point of Acrocorinth. It was nothing fancy, and didn’t have many visitors until they managed to get running water up that hill (there’s a very interesting myth about it, which you can read here), and it sort of became an “in” place.

Sacred prostitution was practiced here, which, simply put, meant that Aphrodite’s priestesses were paid to introduce men to the mysteries of love. Also, in antiquity, Corinthians prostitutes were famous. People travelled from all over the world and paid insane amounts of money for a single night of pleasure, so it makes perfect sense that Aphrodite was worshipped here.

Until next time!