CORINTH. 553 
gunpowder. Chandler suspected this temple to 
have been the Sisypheum mentioned by Strabo*, 
but without assigning any reason for this con- Sts yp heum - 
jecture. Nothing can be easier than an arbi- 
trary disposal of names among the scanty relics 
of a city once so richly adorned ; nor can any 
thing be more difficult than to prove that such 
names have been properly bestowed. The Sisy- 
pheum was a building of such uncertain form, 
that Strabo, eighteen centuries ago, could not 
positively pronounce whether it had been a 
temple or a palace 3 ; whereas the first sight of 
this, even in its present dilapidated state, would 
have been sufficient to put that matter beyond 
dispute. The Sisypheum was situate below the 
Fountain Pirene, and built (\ZVK<U xftia) with 
ivhile stone; an expression generally used to 
signify marble, both by Strabo and by Pausanias. 
The present building does not answer this 
description. The Sisypheum is not once men- 
tioned by Pausanias; which could not have been 
the case, if its remains were of this magnitude. 
The only antient author by whom the Sisypheum 
has been noticed, excepting by Strabo, is 
(2) 'Ttrt Si TJ IIE/JJJVJJ TO 'Sifutfucv ia-r/v, aj rttef, n &ffi>.tit>r, Xipxai 
X(Vi v<.Toii)fi.ivot, (sic leg. Casaub.) $iaru%n igi/ma tux. oX/ya. Strabon. 
Gcog. lib. viii. p. 550. ed. Oxon. 
(3) Ibid. 
