Corinth

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This paragraph appears to refer to what the excavators named Temple E. Yet as Hutton points out, “Octavia is not known to be the recipient of major cult honors anywhere in the Greek east, and there is certainly no known reason why the Corinthians would honor her with their most opulent temple” (Hutton, Describing Greece 168). If Pausanias is not correct in identifying the temple as Octavia’s, to what divinity was it dedicated? Since Corinth is the Roman capital of Achaea, Walbank (BSA 84 [1989] 361-94) and Torelli (in Knoepfler and Pierart 2001) have argued that Temple E could be the Capitolium, the home of the Capitoline triad Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.

Why does the Pythia ask the Corinthians to worship the tree from which Pentheus spied on the women of Thebes?

In addition to the cases of faces painted red mentioned by Pausanias, the Romans painted the face of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill red on festival days, and Pliny mentions that in Ethiopia the chiefs and statues of the gods were painted red (NH 33.111, 35.157). In Florence, the statue of St. Zenobius’ face is painted red. What is the significance of painting statues with red paint: a substitute for blood, ornamental, or some other reason?

With the temple of Tyche, Pausanias begins to show the relationship of one monument to another. In addition to the temple of Tyche, he mentions a shrine to all the gods, a fountain of Poseidon, and statues to Aphrodite, Hermes, and Zeus. In this section, we can detect Pausanias’ preference for statues over temples. For example, he includes the naos for one of the Hermes statues almost as an afterthought.

Ever since the original excavator Robert Scranton, archaeologists have attempted to see the monuments in this paragraph describing the group of temples along the west side of the Forum. Yet aside from the fountain of Poseidon and the Babbius monument (not explicitly mentioned by Pausanias), there has been no consensus in identifying these temples. Scranton believed that Pausanias entered Corinth from Cenchreae to the south and that Pausanias is describing a single visit to the city. Thus, he identifies the buildings beginning at the south end and moving north. More recently, C. K. Williams has argued that a tympanum block belonging to Temple F has a Latin inscription dedicating the temple to Venus. He therefore argues that Pausanias is decribing the space from north to south. Based on what you know of Pausanias’ habits in how he composed his work (cf. Pausanias’ order of describing monuments on the Athenian agora) and the textual markers for topographical relationships between monuments, what do you think? Do you agree more with Scranton or Williams or do you think that they are attempting to provide order to the west side that isn’t in Pausanias’ text? Cf. Hutton, Describing Greece, ch. 5, esp. pp. 140-41, 149-55.

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