• Background: tyrants of archaic city-states.

    Obverse of Corinthian silver stater
    circa 550 - 515 BC
    Pegasus with curled wing
    Collection: Arthur S. Dewing Collection
    Photograph by Maria Daniels
    Thucydides tells us that as the wealth and power of Hellas increased, tyrannies were established, replacing the previously existing hereditary monarchies. (Thuc. 1.13.1-2). Because of Corinth's strategic position on the isthmus as well as its naval power, it follows Thucydides' reasoning, that as one of the first city-states to amass tremendous wealth, it was also one of the first to be ruled by a tyrant. According to Thucydides, it was the habit of tyrants to seek personal comfort for themselves and renown for themselves and their families. Tyrants usually seized power with some popular support and often upheld existing laws and customs, thus maintaining stability in the city-state with little risk to their own personal security. (Thuc. 1.17). (See also Thomas Martin on tyranny.)

  • Brief biography of Cypselus.

    According to Pausanias, who reasons on the basis of the evidence of the mythological stories represented on the chest dedicated by Cypselus at Olympia, the family of Cypselus originally came from Gonussa, above Sicyon; Paus. 5.18.7.

    Herodotus recounts the role that the oracle at Delphi played in directing the course of Cypselus' life. When his father, Eetion, sought the advice of the oracle at Delphi on how he might overcome his childlessness, the propitious answer given to him corresponded to an ominous oracle which had been delivered to the Bacchiadae, the family then ruling Corinth. (Hdt. 5.92C.1)

    Attic red-figure hydria, circa 490 BC
    Danae and Perseus, about to be put into the chest and cast into the sea
    Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
    Image from Caskey & Beazley, Plate XXXIV

    Consequently, the Bacchiadae sought the life of the child born shortly thereafter to the wife of Eetion. To protect the child from his would-be murderers, his mother hid him in a chest, where no one would think to find him. Because he was delivered from his enemies in this way, the boy was named after the chest, i.e., "cypselus." When he grew older, he was prompted by the oracle at Delphi to seize power of the city of Corinth from the Bacchiadae. (Hdt. 5.92e.1ff.)

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