Aphrodite

Panting, we raced through the tall grass, ever upward.  Thorns poked at our bare hands and legs, and rocks inserted themselves in our shoes as we thrust ourselves through the thick growth.  Still we pressed on, startling grasshoppers with our rough passage.  Finally the top was in sight.  We leaped and scrambled over the last rocks, finally arriving at our destination: the Corinthian Temple of Aphrodite.  Centuries (even millennia) ago, worshipers had made the same trek, probably through less grass, but to the same destination with the same views of the isthmus of Corinth and the Aegean and Adriatic Seas on either side.

When Paul came to Corinth, did he make the climb up the mountain to the temple, just to see what he was up against?  When he worked at a tent maker and lived there for a year and a half, did he see the lines of worshipers making their way up to commune with their god?

Interestingly enough, in his letters Paul never specifically speaks against the worship of Aphrodite.  (Some of his sayings could apply, but that is not the same thing).  Instead, he shows them a better way.  "Love is patient, love is kind," he tells the Corinthians who, with that temple dominating their landscape, knew something of the value of love and had all longed for it at some point.  Paul affirms their value: "the greatest of these is love," but first he redefines it.  The love of God is not like the love of Aphrodite.  It's better.

That was probably the highlight of our day - the hike and the view from the top.  We also saw "lower" Corinth, which was pretty cool.  We saw the canal that now cuts through the isthmus.

And we saw Cenchrea, one of the ports that Paul sailed from.