Corinth
Corinth names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Corinth a city of ancient Greece
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of ancient Greece. It was situated on a narrow isthmus of the name--a portage where the wares of Italy and the West were exchanged for those of Greece, Asia Minor , and the East. The neck of land is four miles wide. A strongly fortified citadel added to the importance of the city. It was at one time at the head of the Achaean league. The Corinthian style of architecture was developed here. In its day the city was enormously wealthy, and was the most shamelessly profligate city in Greece. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians were addressed to the Christian church here. A few pillars and ruins deeply buried in sand are all that remain of the celebrated city. The old marketplace has been excavated. It lies sixty feet below the present level. A neglected village of a few thousand inhabitants occupies a part of the former site. A sea level ship canal has been constructed across the isthmus. It was completed in 1893, at a cost of $11,000,000. In one place the canal passes through solid rock. Massive walls rise on either side to a height of 260 feet. The passage is lighted at night by electricity. Iron rings are provided at intervals to which ships may tie for safety--against the winds that at times blow through the cut with the violence of a hurricane. See Current
Corinth a famous city of Greece within the Morea (ancient Peloponnesus)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a famous city of Greece within the Morea (ancient Peloponnesus), near the isthmus of the same name, between the gulfs of Lepanto (Corinthiacus Sinus) on the W., and of Ægina (Saronicus Sinus) on the E., 48 miles W. of Athens. Corinth was destroyed by an earthquake in 1858, and has now but few remains of its ancient splendor. The only interesting monument of antiquity is the citadel or Acrocorinthus. Corinth was first founded by Sisyphus, son of Æolus, A. M. 2616, and received its name from Corinthus, the son of Pelops. It was totally destroyed by L. Mummius, the Roman consul, and burnt to the ground, 146 b. c. The government of Corinth was monarchial till 779 b. c., when officers, called Prytanes, were instituted. Its inhabitants formed numerous colonies, and Paul preached the Gospel in it for upward of a year. After the RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT CORINTH taking of Constantinople it fell into the hands of the Turks, from whom it was retaken in 1687 by its former possessors, the Venetians. In 1715 it was again pos- Turks who held it till 1823. Pop. about 5,000. sessed by the ,
Corinth a city and county-seat of Alcorn co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of Alcorn co., Miss., on the Southern, Illinois Central, and Mobile and Ohio_railroads, 93 miles E. of Memphis, Tenn. It has machine shops, woolen mills, and other industries. During the Civil War Corinth was the scene of many battles. Brisk skirmishes were fought April 24 and 29, 1862, and on the 30th its railroad communications N. were cut by the Union forces. During May of the same year several encounters took place
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 note that "a few pillars and ruins deeply buried in sand are all that remain" is long out of date: the American School of Classical Studies has dug at Corinth continuously since 1896, uncovering the forum, the Peirene fountain, shops, the theatre and the Roman colony's street plan, alongside the seven standing columns of the Temple of Apollo. The modern town, moved to the coast after the 1858 earthquake Collier's mentions, was flattened again by a quake in 1928 and rebuilt; it now holds tens of thousands of people, while the old site is the separate village of Archaia Korinthos. The canal of 1893, praised by Aiton for its electric lighting and mooring rings, proved too narrow for twentieth-century shipping and today carries mainly tourist craft and small vessels, and has been repeatedly shut by landslides from those 260-foot walls. Corinth, Mississippi, remains a railroad town of some fourteen thousand; its 1862 siege and battle are now interpreted by a National Park Service centre tied to Shiloh.
Written for this edition, 2026.