KERKYRA
or Korkyra (Corfu) Greece.
Situated at the extreme NW boundary of Greece, the site has
often been identified because of its peripheral position
with the fabled Scheria, according to the Homeric account, seat of the Phaiakian people (
Thuc. 1.25). It was
originally inhabited by Illyrian and Apulian populations,
until in 734 B.C. it was occupied by Corinthian colonists
under Archias or Chersikrates, both of the Bacchiadai
family. They settled on the E coast and called their city
Kerkyra or Korkyra from a corruption of Gorgon, the
demon routed by the Corinthian hero Bellerophon. The
pre-Corinthian name would have been Drepane. Conflicts
with the mother country began soon. In 664 B.C. the
revolt of Kerkyra provoked the fall at Corinth of the
Bacchiadai and the ascent of the Kypselids; in 435-431
there were new encounters occasioned by the war of
Epidamnos which brought democracy to power in 425
B.C. Kerkyra participated in the Peloponnesian War as
an ally of Athens, and at the beginning of the 4th c. fell
under the hegemony of Sparta. It later joined the second
Athenian confederation in 373 B.C.; became the prey of
Agathokles in 300 B.C.; and finally passed to Epeiros.
From 229 B.C. it was under the protection of the Romans
and served them principally as a naval base.
The earliest traces of human settlement are found in
the NW zone of the island. At Sidari and on the small
island of Diaplo these go back to the Mesolithic period
and to the first Neolithic age (VI millennium), and show
notable similarity to the Campanian culture in Italy;
while in the same places there are Bronze Age strata that
appear, instead, different from the corresponding Italic
facies. At Aphiona an Early Neolithic deposit has been
found from the late III—early II millennia with two types
of pottery. One is coarse and red; the other is finer and
brown with black paint and incised decorations of the
geometric type, classified as Molfetta and belonging to the
Apulian pottery type. The site has been located at a village of the Middle and Late Bronze Age (II millennium)
excavated at Kapo Kephali or instead, farther to the S
in the zone where, on the hill of Ermones, 500 m from
the sea, there has recently been discovered another prehistoric habitation with fragments of clay slabs that must
have served as roofs for mud huts.
The city founded by the Corinthian colonists rose a
little to the S of the modern capital of the island, on the
rocky peninsula of Palaiopolis that projects between the
sea and a lagoon. The acropolis was situated on the height
of Analipsis. Here Euboian settlers had already made a
way place on the road to the W. The peninsula narrows
to the N into an isthmus barred by walls of Hellenistic
age. At opposite ends are the two ancient ports. That on
the W, on the lagoon, is perhaps the older naval port
called the Hyllaiko; while that to the N was connected
with the name of Alkinoos. The inhabited area was between the two ports, but very few remains of the civil
buildings survive. Two gates from the city walls have
been identified, constructed of marble and poros blocks,
and partly incorporated in the Venetian fortifications. A
third port was perhaps dug out farther N, in an inlet near
the oldest Venetian fort. In the Monrepos park, on the
seaward side of the Analipsis height, remains of a sanctuary have been found, and recent excavations permit a
reconstruction of its history. At the beginning of the
Corinthian colonization at the end of the 8th c. B.C. there
arose a large sanctuary probably dedicated to a divinity
protective of Kekyra and the other cities of W Greece.
A century later, at the end of the 7th, the sanctuary was
closed by a peribolos, and a large temple was built with
columns and part of the superstructure in local limestone.
The roof was in terracotta, richly decorated with gutters in the form of leonine protoma and gorgoneia vividly painted, analogous to those of Thermos and Kalydon.
At the end of the 6th c. other cults were established
around the temple to the great divinity. That of Apollo
had a hypaethral enclosure with an altar, and Aphrodite
and Hermes were remembered by two small temples,
parts of whose terracotta roofs remain. Evidence of the
cults lasts until the end of the 5th c. when a fire destroyed
the sanctuary. At the beginning of the 4th c. a new temple
in limestone with a marble roof arose on the ruins of
the archaic temple. New building activity took place in
the 3d c. Still at Monrepos, near the Kardaki spring, are
the remains of a temple discovered in 1822. This is a
Doric building of singular construction, dating to about
510 B.C., and perhaps dedicated to Apollo (Timaios). The
cella, in crude bricks, was circled by a peristasis of 6 by
11 monolithic columns, amply and uniformly spaced. The
entablature bore no frieze with triglyphs, although it had
an architrave crowned with ovoli, cornice, and kyma.
These elements bring to mind Ionic influence similar to
that which is encountered in some architectonic forms,
the so-called achaian of S Italy. Several fragments of a
Nike in terracotta belong to the acroterion of the temple.
Not far from the temple a deposit of clay figurines, coins,
tiles, and inscribed fragments from the middle of the 6th
c. has been found. The same formal characteristics may
be recognized in the temple at Kardaki as in the most
prestigious monument of Kerkyra, the Sanctuary of Artemis, discovered near the Monastery of St. Theodore in
the region of the Garitza. In the sacred area, enclosed by
a peribolos wall, rose the stone temple measuring ca. 47.9
x 22.4 m, with 8 by 17 columns. It is the most archaic
pseudoperipteral Doric temple, datable to about 585 B.C.
The cella was very narrow and divided into three naves
by two rows of columns. The original gutter was in terracotta, replaced during the second half of the 6th c. by
marble elements. The importance of this temple is above
all centered on the decoration of the tympanum, where
for the first time there appears in that position a mythical
representation, although the thematic unity which later
becomes the norm is lacking. On the 21 slabs in poros
stone of the W pediment (of which 12 remain), a gigantic Gorgon was shown at the center in high relief. Her
function was clearly to keep away malign influence, and
she was flanked by her two offspring, Chrysaor and Pegasos, between two panthers. On the sides there were two
groups: to the left Priam being killed by Neoptolemos,
and to the right Zeus battling a giant, while a fallen warrior filled the corner of the pediment. An analogous
scene, but of uncertain identification because of the
meager remains, occupied the E pediment. The figures
are carved according to the archaic scheme, through
parallel planes, in the ornate taste common to all orientalizing production. These are in the Corinthian tradition,
but show strong Doric influence. Also preserved are several fragments of a frieze from a metope with Achilles
and Memnon. Before the temple, and joined to it by a
ramp, rose the altar (25.4 x 2.7 m), decorated with a
frieze, metopes, and trygliphs.
In the Palaiopolis zone, before the entrance of Monrepos park, is the Church of Haghia Kerkyra. It is a large
Early Christian basilica with five aisles, double narthex,
and transept. On the mosaic pavement is inscribed an
epigram of Archbishop Govianus from the middle of the
5th c. A.D. Soundings made under the pavement have
brought to light the remains of an apsidal building, a
Hellenistic bouleuterion or ecclesiasterion. Below that
level have been found sherds ranging from the pre-Corinthian and Geometric periods up until the end of the
4th c., fragments of sculpture from the middle of the
5th c., and remnants of a foundation wall from the 8th
c. Leaning against the N side of the basilica is a small
building constructed of reused material from the 5th c.
B.C. To the W, near the apse, is another small building
with a mosaic pavement a meter higher than the floor-level of the basilica. It was probably constructed after the
period of Vandal destruction in the 6th c. A.D. The basilica arose on the site of the ancient city, which also included Hellenistic habitations in the neighborhood, and
on which a Roman bath was built in A.D. 100. Between
the basilica and the point of Kanoni, at the extreme SW
of the peninsula, a house has been discovered that preserves traces of two building periods; that is, of the 4th c.
B.C. and of the Middle Helladic age. The recovery at
Kanoni of a deposit of terracottas ranging in date from
the 8th to the 5th, with the figure of Artemis, leads to
the supposition that here was another sanctuary dedicated to that deity. A little farther to the N, near the
cloister of Panaghia Kassiopitra, there remain traces of
a temple of the 6th c. B.C., possibly to Poseidon. The
ancient necropolis is near the region of the Garitza, to
the N and NW of the city. Among the more notable monuments is that of Xenvares, which is formed of a Doric
column with a capital of the so-called Achaian type (see
the capitals of Paestum), datable to the middle of the
6th c. B.C. by reason of a dedicatory inscription; and the
cenotaph of Menekrates on a round base, that bears a
metric inscription in Corinthian characters, of ca. 600 B.C.
Next to it has been found a life-size statue of a lion in
limestone on a quadrangular base, stylistically and chronologically close to the felines on the pediment of the
Temple of Artemis. Its immediate precedent is represented by the plastic lions of the pre-Corinthian aryballoi from the middle of the 7th c. Recent excavations have
turned up numerous fragments of archaic ceramics.
The monumental sculpture and the other finds from
the pre-Christian era are in the archaeological museum
of the modern city.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Stuart & N. Revett,
Ant. Ath., suppl.
(1830) plates 1-5; W. Dorpfeld in
AthMitt 39 (1914)
161-76; id. in
Arch.Anz. 28 (1913) 105-9; L. Bürchner
in Pauly-Wissowa,
RE (1922) 1400-16, s.v.; P. Montuoro,
L'origine della decorazione frontonale (1925); C.
Weickert,
Typen der arch. Architektur (1929); H. Payne,
Necrocorinthia (1931); H. Bulle in
AthMitt 59 (1934)
147-240; F. P. Johnson & W. B. Dinsmoor in
AJA 40
(1936) 46-56; I. F. Crome in
Mnemosyne Th. Wiegand
(1936) 47-53; G. Rodenwaldt,
Die Bildwerke des Artemistemples v. Korkyra (1939); J. Papadimitriou in
Praktika (1939) 85-99; id. in
ArchEph (1942-44) 39-48;
H. Schleif et al.,
Der Arthemistempel-Korkyra (1940)
E. Lapalus,
Le fronton sculpté en Grèce (1947); F.
Matz,
Gesch. Griech. Kunst. (1950) 205-10, 367-70; R.
Matton in
Ergon (1959) 77-82; id.,
Corfou (1960);
B. Kallipolitis in
Praktika 1955 (1960) 187-92; 1956
(1961) 158-63;
1957 (1962) 79-84; B. Daux in
BCH
89 (1965) 751-60; 91 (1967) 670-72; 1 (1968) 66-69;
G. Dontas in
BCH 93 (1969) 39-55; A. Sordinas,
Stone
Implements from Northwestern Corfu (1970) J. P.
Michaud in 94 (1970) 1011-17.
L. VLAD BORRELLI