Corinth is a backwater city-state (polis) on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta.

An aristocratic revolution ousts the monarchy in 747 BCE (a traditional date), when the royal clan of Bacchiadae, a tightly knit Doric clan numbering perhaps a couple of hundred adult males and claiming descent from the Dorian hero Heracles through the seven sons and three daughters of a legendary king Bacchis, takes power from the last king, Telestes.

Practicing strict endogamy, which keeps clan outlines within a distinct extended oikos, they dispense with kingship and rule as a group, governing the city by electing annually a prytanis (executive) who holds the kingly position for his brief term, doubtless with a council (though none is specifically documented in the scant literary materials) and a polemarchos (war leader) to head the army.

Corinth is on its way to becoming a unified state.