Page - 93 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

6 Water in Early ChristianRitual: BaptismandBaptisteries inCorinth 93 example is the fountain ofGlauke64 (Fig. 2), namedafter the secondwife of Jason,who sought relief from theburning sensationof thepoisoneddress thatMedea, Jason’s firstwife, had sent herasaweddinggift (Paus. 2, 3,6).Glaukehopedfor salvation throughwater,butnevertheless died.65Another example is the lowerPeirene fountain to thenorth of the forum (Fig. 2),which hasa longhistory.Remodelledafter thecitywas re-founded, the fountainwas transformed into a luxuriousmarble revettedcourtyard in the late 1st or early 2nd centuryAD.66 Since the 1st cen- turyBC, theupperPeirene fountainhadbeen located inameadowbelowAcrocorinthandwas probably connectedwith the lower Peirene fountain.67 The lower Peirene fountain commemo- rates the locationof Bellerophon’s tamingof Pegasus,68 but Pausanias providesmore informa- tion: ‘the legend about Peirene is that shewas awomanwhobecame a spring because of her tears shed in lamentation for her son Kenchrias, who was unintentionally killed by Artemis’ (Paus. 2, 3, 2–3).69 The myth connects the fountain with a story about the tears of a mother having lost her son. The fountain was ‘one of the most famous Corinthian landmarks in the ancientworld’, knownbymanyauthorsof antiquity.70 Therewasalso the fountainofPoseidon 64 The fountainwas revivedafter themiddle of the 1st centuryAD;Robinson 2011, 201. 65 See Fouquet 2019, figs. 11–13. The original context of the fountain might have been different, see Reichert- Südbeck 2000, 155f. 66 Robinson 2011, 175–203. Fouquet 2019, 48f. 131–133. 67 Robinson 2011, 20. 68 Robinson 2005, 116–127. 69 The twoharbours of Corinthwerenamedafter Leches andKenchrias, the sonsof Peirene (Paus.2, 1, 3). 70 Robinson 2011, 28–30. Fig. 2:Corinth, forum,mid-1st cen- turyAD (Fountainof Glauke, Fountainof Poseidon, Peirene Fountain).