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Cypselus

Cypselus, Kypselos, Cypselus sometimes Frenchified in Cypselus (in ancient Greek / the first tyrant of Corinth. He became archon, polemarch tyrant and then ended the aristocracy (exile, murder, counting of powerful people). He reigned from 655 to about 625 , leading the war against Argos and defeating Corcyra where Corinth founded colonies. His son Periander succeeded him to 627 after he was reminded of Corcyra.

Although it is probably a historical figure, his life is associated with some myths. His mother belonged to the lame Labda Bacchiadae , Dorian nobility who ruled Corinth from the end of the monarchy. When Bacchiadae learned of the oracle of Delphi that his son would become the tyrant of the city, they decided to kill him. Labda would then concealed in a container. We think it was a jar or a safe (in Greek / Kypseli). Pausanias gives a detailed description (V, 17, 5 ff.) reports that the trunk and decorated with gold and ivory was still exposed to Olympia many centuries later. Vernant examines the story of the boot, told by Herodotus as a contamination of the myth of Oedipus , the tyrant of Thebes.