2.3.1 In the middle of the marketplace is a bronze Athena, on the pedestal of which are made-in-relief-figures [agalmata] of the Muses. Above the marketplace is a temple of Octavia the sister of Augustus, who was emperor of the Romans after Caesar, the founder of the modern Corinth.

2.3.2 On leaving the marketplace along the road to Lekhaion you come to a gateway, on which are two gilded chariots, one carrying Phaethon the son of Hēlios [Sun], the other Hēlios himself. A little farther away from the gateway, on the right as you go in, is a bronze Hēraklēs. After this is the entrance to the water of Peirene. They say about Peirene that she was a woman who became a spring because of her tears shed in lamentation for her son Kenkhrias, who was unintentionally killed by Artemis.

2.3.3 The spring is ornamented with white marble, and there have been made chambers like caves, out of which the water flows into an open-air well. It Is pleasant to drink, and they say that the Corinthian bronze, when red-hot, is tempered by this water, since bronze … the Corinthians have not. Moreover near Peirene are a statue [agalma] and a sacred enclosure of Apollo; in the latter is a painting of the exploit of Odysseus against the suitors.

2.3.4 Proceeding on the direct road to Lekhaion we see a bronze statue [agalma] of a seated Hermes. By him stands a ram, for Hermes is the god who is thought most to care for and to increase flocks, as Homer puts it in the Iliad:

2.3.5 The Corinthians have baths in many parts of the city, some put up at the public charge and one by ‘King’ [basileus] Hadrian. The most famous of them is near the Poseidon. It was made by the Spartan Eurykles, who beautified it with various kinds of stone, especially the one quarried at Krokeai in Laconia. On the left of the entrance stands a Poseidon, and after him Artemis hunting. Throughout the city are many springs [krēnai], for the Corinthians have a copious supply of flowing water, besides the water that ‘King’ [basileus] Hadrian brought from Lake Stymphalos, but the most noteworthy is the one by the side of the statue [agalma] of Artemis. Over it is a Bellerophontes, and the water flows through the hoof of the horse Pegasus [Pegasos].

2.3.6 As you go along another road from the marketplace [agorā], which leads to Sikyon, you can see on the right of the road a temple [nāos] of Apollo, which has a bronze statue [agalma] of him. A little farther along the way is a well called the Spring [krēnē] of Glauke. Into this well they say she [= Glauke] threw herself, thinking that the water would be a cure for [the pain that she was suffering from] the magical drugs [pharmaka] of Medea. Above this spring [krēnē] has been built what is called the Odeum [ōideion], beside which is the tomb [mnēma] of Medea’s children. Their names were Mermeros and Pheres, and they are said to have been stoned to death by the Corinthians because—as is also said—they had brought to Glauke the gifts [dōra] [from Medea].

2.3.7 And, since their death was violent and unjust, the infant offspring [nēpia tekna] of the Corinthians kept on being destroyed by them [= the ghosts of the children of Medea] until, in accordance with what the god [= Apollo] said-as-an-oracular-pronouncement [khrēsai], yearly sacrifices [thusiai] were established in their honor and a figure of Terror [Deima] was set-up-in-compensation [epi-stēnai]. This figure still exists, even in my time: it is the image [eikōn] of a woman rather frightful to look at. After Corinth was destroyed by the Romans and the old Corinthians were wiped out, the new settlers no longer observed the custom of offering those sacrifices [thusiai] to the sons of Medea, nor do their children [who are initiated into the hero cult of the children of Medea] cut their hair for them or wear black clothes.

2.3.8 On the occasion referred to Medea went to Athens and lived with Aigeus, but subsequently she was detected plotting against Theseus and fled from Athens also; coming to the land then called Aria she caused its inhabitants to be named after her Medes. The son, whom she brought with her in her flight to the Arii, they say she had by Aigeus, and that his name was Mēdos. Hellanicus, however, calls him Polyxenos and says that his father was Jason.

2.3.9 The Greeks have an epic poem called Naupactia. In this Jason is represented as having removed his home after the death of Pelias from Iolkos to Corcyra, and Mermerus, the elder of his children, to have been killed by a lioness while hunting on the mainland opposite. Of Pheres is recorded nothing. But Kinaithon of Lacedaemon, another writer of pedigrees in verse, said that Jason’s children by Medea were a son Medeus and a daughter Eriopis; he too, however, gives no further information about these children.

2.3.10 Eumēlos said that Hēlios [Sun] gave the Asopian land to Aloeus and Ephyraia to Aietes. When Aietes was departing for Kolkhis he entrusted his land to Bounos, the son of Hermes and Alkidameiā, and when Bounos died Epopeus the son of Aloeus extended his kingdom to include the Ephyraeans. Afterwards, when Korinthos, the son of Marathon, died childless, the Corinthians sent for Medea from Iolkos and bestowed upon her the kingdom.

2.3.11 Through her Jason was king in Corinth, and Medea, as her children were born, carried each to the sanctuary of Hērā and concealed them, doing so in the belief that so they would be immortal. At last she learned that her hopes were vain, and at the same time she was detected by Jason. When she begged for pardon he refused it, and sailed away to Iolkos. For these reasons Medea too departed, and handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.