Even the Dogs Bow Before Him at Corinth

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  Corinth, Peloponnese, Greece
Saturday, November 8, 2008

We began our excursion through the Peloponnese Peninsula of Greece with a stop at the Corinth Canal. Digging the Corinth Canal was one of the three major canal undertakings in the world, behind Suez and Panama. Emperor Nero was in Greece in 60 CE for a triumphal tour and to compete in the Isthmian Games (there were actually four locations for the games, Olympia was only one of them), and he inaugurated the cutting of the canal. Vaspasian, who would later become emperor himself, sent 6000 Jewish slaves to dig the canal. When the slaves began to cut the rock, it was said that "blood ran out," presaging the downfall of Nero. This can be explained, however by water seeping from the rock, heavily stained with iron deposits. This first attempt at cutting a canal into the Isthmus of Corinth was abandoned after Nero's death, and only completed hundreds of years later.

After crossing the Corinth Canal, we parked in ancient Corinth to view the ruins from 6000 BCE in what Sunshine called the "silver light" of an overcast morning. A pack of four dogs followed us around, making it difficult to listen to Indy's lecture about the destruction of Corinth by the Roman Senate and its eventual recolonization by Julius Caesar. The leader of the doggie pack seemed to share the students' adoration for Indy, as he stood in front of Indy and slowly bowed and laid down at his feet.

We saw the rock of the Bema in Corinth, where the Apostle Paul was brought to defend himself against charges of proselytizing. He was acquitted here, but of course did not fare so well in Athens. Corinth at that time was a hive of debauchery, famous for its crowd of sailors, traders, and prostitutes. As Indy put the double entendre, "Only real men made it in Corinth." From the ruins of ancient Corinth, we could see the Acrocorinth, the high rock with an ancient fortification at the top. I was still feeling less than healthy in the lungs, and so I was glad we didn't have to go up to the Acrocorinth stronghold.

Then we went to the Corinth Museum. In 1990, thieves broke into the museum, gagged and shot the night guard, and stole priceless pieces from the collection and money headed for the paychecks of the museum employees. Some of the antiquities were apprehended in Piraeus, the port of Athens, and some of the antiquities were found by the FBI being sold at auction by the Swiss in the U.S. The pieces were returned to the museum, but they never caught the thieves.

Outside the Corinth Museum, four of the students were sitting together, and we laughed because three out of the four of them have the same first name. So it was a convention.

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The temple at Corinth	Paul defended himself at the Corinthian Bema	Stronghold of the Acrocorinth waaaaay up there	The Fountain of Peirene
The pack of stray doggies who entertained us	Headless statues at the Museum of Corinth	The Single Name Convention

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