| This thesis investigates the origins of Greek temple decoration, in an attempt to clarify the roles played by Aetolia and Corinth in this phenomenon. Many literary sources connect Corinth with the early development of figurative architectural terracottas, but those are first documented at three sites of northwestern Greece: Thermon and Calydon, in Aetolia, and Corcyra. Scholars have tried to explain this contradiction between literary and archaeological evidence by stating that northwestern Greece was then part of the Corinthian 'sphere of influence' and therefore the progress observed there should actually he credited to Corinthian architects. This 'Corinthian connection', however, has always been explained in rather vague terms. As it stands today, it does not account for the fact that when in the Northwest, sanctuaries were systematically monumentalized by the building of new types of temples, Corinth shows absolutely no evidence for similar structures. My dissertation shows that this discrepancy between archaeological and historical sources is only apparent and can be explained by an analysis of the sociopolitical context in Corinth and northwestern Greece at the time when the new structures were constructed. I argue that while the practice of putting images on top of temples was first invented at Thermon, its transmission was accomplished by Corinthians, who were then traveling among the colonies newly founded by Corinth along the trade road to the West. Unlike Thermon and Calydon, two small cities rather insignificant politically, Corcyra was a major metropolis, extremely prosperous and a strategic turning point between Mainland Greece and the Western Mediterranean. Once adopted and adapted by Corcyreans, the practice of using images on temples internationalized and became the standard way of decorating sacred buildings in the Greek Mainland and in the West. Here lies the true nature of the Corinthian connection: a major invention made locally in Aetolia, then propagated by Corinthians who turned it into an international practice. |
