Reading ancient tradition

the rulers of Archaic Corinth

Abstract

The paper examines the traditional accounts about the Bakchiad and the Kypselid dynasties ruling Corinth during the Archaic period. The obviously mythological patterning of these stories is viewed not as a secondary embellishment, but as a narrative mold into which the information was cast soon after the events, and which can indicate how the past was remembered and appreciated by the people living when an adequate memory about the events was not yet extinct. Both the Bakchiad and the Kypselid traditions were woven into a complex narrative involving lameness, crime and punishment, gradually shaped from an early period and tied to the cult of Isthmian Poseidon. The tradition does not indicate an obvious difference of the character of the dynasties’ rule, while on the other hand clearly juxtaposes Kypselos the popular hero punishing unjust predecessors to Periandros the monstrous tyrant bringing the dynasty down. This dichotomy reveals the controversial attitude towards tyranny among the Archaic Greeks.