Greek Literature in the Classical Period: the Prose of Historiography and Oratory by Nagy Gregory;

Author:Nagy, Gregory;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1743841
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

THE ANGER OF CORINTH

Corcyra founded Epidamnus, but, following custom, chose an from its own metropolis, Corinth. Stasis broke out in the 430's, and the common people drove out the , but the together with the local non-Greek inhabitants “raided those still in the polis by land and by sea.” Hard pressed, the people of Epidamnus appealed to Corcyra for aid, but to no avail (1.24.7). The Corcyreans remained inactive until formally approached by the other faction, the (1.26.3), who had been driven out of Epidamnus, and whose side the Corcyreans eventually took.15

Meanwhile the popular faction in Epidamnus, now desperate, had approached the Corinthians for aid and had, after receiving approval from the Delphic Oracle, handed over to them their colony. The Corinthians jumped at the offer (1.25.3), both because they thought it proper to do so ( ) and because they hated the Corcyreans (). Thucydides is explicit about why the Corinthians felt this way: the Corcyreans did not pay them proper respect, even though they were Corinthian colonists ( ). They demonstrated their irreverence in two highly charged religious contexts, the great Panhellenic festivals and local sacrifice at Corcyta.16

First, in the common festival gatherings of the Greeks (1.25.4: ) the Corcyreans did not confer upon Corinth the public tokens of esteem to which custom entitled them (). Sacrifice consisted in the slaughter and preparation of an animal, and the precise cut of meat that one received was a visible token of one's prestige. In a public context such as a Panhellenic festival, the cuts of meat offered at a Corcyrean sacrifice exerted, like many outwardly minor aspects of diplomatic protocol, enormous symbolic power.

The second slight alludes to religious activity at Corcyra itself. The Corcyrcans would not, like other colonists, serve as sacrificial sponsors for Corinthians (1.25.4: ). The right to sacrifice in a polis was normally restricted to citizens, and outsiders in a state such as Corcyra had no right to perform such rituals.17 The Corcyreans thus denied to Corinthians the privileged access to ritual activity that they customarily enjoyed at their other colonies.18 Though local sacrifice did not occupy such a public stage, it was also highly charged, for the privilege to sacrifice in another polis was jealously guarded, and a powerful sign. Overall, the Corcyreans flatly looked down upon their founding city ( ) because the islanders were enormously wealthy and because they had occupied the land traditionally identified with (and thus had appropriated to themselves the prestige of) the Homeric Phaeacians (1.25.4).

Most scholars analyzing the relationship between Corinth and Corcyra have either belittled or even refused to accept this feud and its intensity. Sealey comments that “the traditional friction between Corinth and Corcyra had been a small matter; unlike other colonies, Corcyra did not grant perquisites to Corinthi- ans at festivals.”19 According to Gomme (on 1.25.3), it is curious that “Thucydides, who in his Introduction is careful to stress political and economic motives. should here mention only sentimental ones. One naturally suspects an economic motive, such as rivalry in the Adriatic trade.

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