propylaea, are two porches of different periods. The older one,
which still existed in Roman times, was backed up against the
temple hill, which was cut away to make room for it. An ancient
staircase, 15 ft. broad, led down from the temple hill into the
lower area of the broad pavement, from which access to the agora and the Pirene was easy.
To the E. of the paved road and close up against the agora itself, only at a much lower level, was found, buried under 35 ft. of earth, the famous fountain Pirene, tallying exactly with the description of Pausanias, as “a series of chambers that are like caves, and bearing a façade of white marble.” This Pirene originally had a two-storey façade of Roman fashion made of limestone, but, before the time of Pausanias, it had received a covering of marble which has now fallen off, but has left traces of itself in the holes drilled into the limestone, in the rough hacking away of the half columns, and in the numerous marble fragments which lay in front of the façade. This was not, however, the earliest form of Pirene. It was built up in front of a more simple Greek fountain-structure which consisted of seven cross-walls placed under the edge of the stratum forming the upper terrace. Six chambers were thus formed which showed the chaste beauty of Greek workmanship, while the stratum of native rock which covered them gave a touch of nature and made them caves. The walls ended at the front in the form of an anta delicately carved. On a parapet at the rear of each chamber a single slender Ionic column between two antae supported an Ionic entablature. The stuccoed walls were striped horizontally and vertically with red on a blue field, on which appear fishes swimming. The chambers were really reservoirs, filled by the water which flowed along their backs.
We know nothing further about the Greek system, but in the Roman adjustment the water was led from this series of cisterns into a large rectangular basin which formed the centre of a quadrangle 50 ft. square. In the N.E. corner is a hole through which it was drained, and at the N. end a flight of five steps led down into it. Besides the four orifices through which water flowed into it there were two other holes about 4 in. lower down to keep the basin from overflowing. Two uses of water are mentioned by Pausanias, “The water,” he says, “was sweet to drink,” and also good for tempering bronze. It seems clear then, that the basin was at stated times used for the latter purpose, and was converted into a tank. The bronze was plunged into the water in a red hot condition, and thus acquired its peculiar excellence.
In Byzantine times five columns, of various diameters, with no two bases of the same size, bearing Corinthian capitals, were set up about 6 ft. in front of the façade. Blocks of marble which had seen use elsewhere ran from them back into the façade, which was hacked away in rough fashion to receive them. Probably these blocks formed the floor of a balcony, a tawdry marble addition.
Pirene was at all times the heart of the city. Here it was that Athena helped Bellerophon to bridle Pegasus; and hence she received the epithet of “the Bridler,” Chalinitis. The importance of the fountain is attested by the fact that the Greek poets and the Delphic oracle instead of saying Corinth said, “the city of Pirene.” That it was a place of common resort is shown by Euripides (Medea, 68 f.), where it is said that the elders were to be found “near the august waters of Pirene, playing draughts (πεσσί).” The quadrangle, with its walls 20 ft. high, and its three apses probably covered with half domes, provided considerable shade. There is reason for supposing that the marble coating of the façade, and perhaps the erection of the quadrangle, also covered with marble, were the work of Herodes Atticus, and therefore just completed when Pausanias saw them. A base on which stood a statue of Herodes’ wife, Regilla, was found close to the façade, inscribed with fulsome praise, stating that the statue was “set up by order of the Sisyphaean Senate at the outpouring of the streams.” Two inscriptions of Roman times make the identity of Pirene certain, if there could be any doubt in the face of the exact agreement of Pausanias’s description with the structure.
Of the surviving monuments of the Greek city the most important is the temple of Apollo. While it was probably badly wrecked by the Romans at the sack of the city, its massive columns with the entablature survived. That it was restored and was in use in Roman time is shown by the fact that both the seven columns still standing and two fallen columns discovered in the excavations, to say nothing of several fragments of others, have a thick coating of Roman stucco laid over the finer Greek. The style of the temple points to 600 B.C., when Periander was at the height of his power. According to Herodotus he made his doubtful adherents deposit pledges of faithfulness in the temple of Apollo. Quite near the W. end of the temple is the fountain Glaucē cut out of a cube of rock, apparently left standing when the material for the temple was quarried around it. In it were carved out four chambers or reservoirs all connected and a porch consisting of three pillars between two antae in which the side walls ended. The water coming down from Acro-Corinth was introduced from behind. Approached by a flight of steps partly rock-cut, it had at the rear of the porch a balustrade with marble lions’ heads through which the water overflowed. Two of these heads were found. The top of the system of reservoirs was too heavy for the slender cross walls and pillars, only the stumps of which remain; a collapse took place, by which the porch and the W. compartment were carried away. From its location only about 50 yds. from the temple it seems to have been the temple fountain. It was named after the second wife of Jason, Glaucē, who plunged into it to quench the fire of the poisoned bridal garments given her by Medea.
It is not surprising that monuments were found of which there is no record in ancient writings. Such was a very ancient fountain W. of the propylaea, 25 ft. below the surface. Under remains of the Roman city appeared a triglyphon of porous stone with an extent from N. to S. of about 30 ft. At the N. end it turned westward at an obtuse angle and extended about 10 ft. in that direction. The system is about 4 ft. high. While the colours on the metopes and triglyphs had faded somewhat, the border above them, topped with a cornice projecting 6 in., retained a most brilliant maeander pattern of red, blue and yellow, while below these were two bands of godroons of blue and red. On the top of this system as a foundation were set several statue bases, one bearing the signature of Lysippus, which shows that the system stood there at least as early as the 4th century B.C. Some parts of it may have been taken from older buildings, but not the cornice nor the corner metope block which formed an obtuse angle. Near the middle of the long side is an opening; and from it a flight of seven steps led down to a trapezoidal chamber, on the back wall of which are two lions’ heads of bronze, through which water, conducted in long semi-cylindrical channels of bronze, from behind the wall, poured out into pitchers for which holes are cut in the floor. Channels for the overflow were cut along the back and sides of the chamber. All this was once approached from the front at the level of the floor, long before the triglyphon was set up, 7 ft. above it. Considering its depth this fountain must be dated back to the 5th century, probably near the beginning. The style of the lions’ heads would hardly admit a later date. This is the only case of an ancient Greek fountain of such an early date, unaltered and intact. The pains taken to preserve it suggest that it was invested with a sacred character.
Sculptures in large numbers, both of the Greek city and the Roman, are collected in the new museum erected by the Greek government near the plane tree. The finest of the Greek sculptures is the head of a youth found in the orchestra of the theatre at a depth of 23 ft. It lacks only the lower part of the bridge of the nose, and has style and character, resembling Myron’s heads in shape and in the hair. A large fragment of a relief also of early date, represents two dancing maenads half life-size. Most impressive is a colossal female figure of grand style and excellent drapery. If not an original of the 5th century it is one of the finest of copies. Of the great amount of Roman sculpture the best single piece is a head of Dionysus under the
