CYPSELUS, _tyrant of Corinth from c. 657 to 627 B.C. was the son of Aeetion and Labda, daughter of Amphion, a member of the ruling family, the Bacchiadae. He is said to have derived his name from the fact that when the Bacchiadae, warned that he would prove their ruin, sent emissaries to kill him in his cradle, his mother saved him by concealing him in a chest (Gr. Kop Xsi). When he was grown up, Cypselus drove out the Bacchiadae, and made himself master of Corinth. In the words of Aristotle he made his way through demagogy to tyranny. Herodotus, with the prejudice of the 5th century Greek against tyrants, says he ruled harshly, but he is generally represented as beneficent and popular. He pursued an energetic commercial and colonial policy (see CORINTH), and thus laid the foundations of Corinthian prosperity. He laid out the large sums thus derived on the construction of buildings and works of art. At the same time he strove to gain the good will of the powerful priesthoods of Delphi and Olympia. At Delphi he built a treasure-house for Corinthian votive offer ings; at Olympia he dedicated a colossal statue of Zeus and the famous "Chest of Cypselus," described by Pausanias (v. 17-19). Cypselus was succeeded by his son Periander (q.v.).
See CORINTH: History; histories of Greece; Herodotus v. 92 ; Aris totle, Politics, 1310b ; 1315b ; P. Knapp, Die Kypseliden and die Kypseloslade (Tubingen, 1888) .