by Prof. Oscar Broneer (USA), Director, American School of Archaeology
As we stand in the Temple of Poseidon and look eastward we see the startlingly blue waters of the Saronic Gulf, the element over which Poseidon held sway. Then, turning toward the west we see Akrokorinthos rising in isolated grandeur above the nearer and lesser heights of the Corinthian landscape. On autumn days, when the sky is partly covered with clouds, the sun setting behind the mountain creates a crown of golden rays, aptly illustrating the modern Greek phrase denoting the sunset: "the sun is king". These two entities, sun and sea, give distinctive character to the Isthmian landscape. And out of such warp and woof the ancients wove the myth about a strife between Poseidon and Helios for possession of Isthmus. An arbitrator was appointed, by the name of Briareos, one of the Cyclops; he opted in favor of Poseidon and gave possession of Akrokorinthos to Helios who later ceded it to Aphrodite. This contest between two elemental forces of nature gives the physiographic and mythological setting for the origin of the games on the Isthmus of Corinth.
Other myths account for the actual founding of the Isthmian athletic festival. The Corinthians ascribed the origin to their king Sisyphos, more popularly known for his sin and punishment in Hades, where he rolls a stone up a steep hill only to see it roll down just before reaching the top. The founding hero was the boy Melikertes, grandson of Kadmos of Thebes, who was drowned when his mother ino fled from her maddened husband, king Athamas of Orchomenos, with the young boy in her arms. She leaped into the Saronic Gulf and was forthwith metamorphosed into a sea divinity and renamed Leukothea. Melikertes was drowned and his body carried on the back of a dolphin to the Isthmus, where Sisyphos found him and at the funeral of the boy instituted the Isthmian Games. Melikertes too received a new name, Palaimon, the Wrestler. By this myth the Corinthians sought to account for the origin of the Isthmian Games.
The Athenians, who held special privileges - seats of honor (proedria) - in the Isthmian Stadium, credited the founding of the Games to their own hero Theseus, son of Aigeus. On his famous journey from Troizen to Athens the young hero dispatched many monsters - Periphetes, Skiron, Prokroustes, Phaia, a sow of Krommion - who made the road unsafe for travellers. At the Isthmus he encountered Sinis, who challenged him to a pine-bending contest. Sinis' method of execution consisted in tying the legs of his victims to two pine trees that he had forced down to the ground and then let fly apart, tearing the unfortunate contender to pieces. Theseus, inflicting the same form of death on Sinis, celebrated his victory by instituting the Isthmian Games. Sinis became known as Pityokamptes, the "Pine-bender". All these myths reflect the reality of conflict in nature, prefiguring the striving of the athletes for possession of the wreath of victory, which from earliest times was made out of pine branches.
Poseidon, chief god of the Isthmus, was not only ruler of the sea; he was god of the horse and wielder of the subterranean forces that cause the earth to tremble. The Isthmus, lying between two seas, the Saronic and the Corinthian Gulfs, is more frequently visited by earthquakes than any other part of the Greek peninsula. The worship of Poseidon goes back at least to the eighth century B.C. His first temple, a remarkable early example of Doric architecture, was built about 700 B.C.; when destroyed in the fifth century it was replaced by a larger and very splendid temple, erected about 465 B.C. The later building, though damaged and repaired several times, remained standing throughout antiquity and was then, together with the other buildings at Isthmia, demolished to provide material for a fortress and wall across the Isthmus, erected in early Christian times as protection for the Peloponnesos against invasions from the north.
The second most important cult place on the Isthmus was the Palaimonion, a complex of buildings, including a small, circular temple to Palaimon. What remains of this structure dates from Roman times, but it is unlikely that the cult of Palaimon originated at that late date. Palaimon, having originally been human, was worshiped with rites suitable to a hero. These rites centered about sacrificial pits in which black bulls were burned whole. They were mystery rites staged at night. The whole area in front of the temple was then illuminated with large oil lamps, and the worshipers carried small lamps in their hands. After the sacrificial fire had been lit in the pits, the participants brought oil in small containers and threw them into the flames. At the height of the celebration, they brought up the black bull to the pit, his horns and hooves guilded and garlands hanging on his neck. A swift stroke of the axe wielded by the officiating priest sent the consecrated animal to the ground, and as soon as his struggles ceased, the attendants heaved the body into the fiery pit where it was quickly consumed by the flames.
This impressive - if to us perhaps unsavory ceremony - probably formed the opening act in the great Isthmian festival, which athletes and delegates from the whole Greek-speaking world attended; for the games were by origin religious in nature, although in later times their secular character predominated. The trainers, directors, and the athletes, prior to the contest had to swear on the Altar of Poseidon that they would perform their offices according to the rules and would use no unlawful means to obtain victory. The Temple of Palaimon contained a crypt in which the athletes took additional oaths. This was an awesome rite, administered in total darkness. So sacred was the oath to Palaimon that the conviction prevailed that anyone who perjured himself could in no way escape punishment.
The Palaimonion was built on the site of the abandoned older Stadium, one of the earliest known stadia of Greece, in its original form going back probably to the sixth century B.C. The Isthmian Games were reorganized into a Panhellenic festival in the 49th Olympiad, 480-476 B.C. At some later period the Stadium was rebuilt, and a new intricate starting gate set up, the only known example of its kind. It consists of a triangular pavement and a stone sill with holes for vertical posts, separating the starting line into sixteen lanes a little more than one meter in width. From a shallow pit at the apex of the triangle a starter operated all the gates by means of strings attached to a wooden bar by which the gates were closed. When he let go of a string the gate attached to it opened as the bar (called balbis) fell by its own weight to the side. The starter could open two, four, or all the gates simultaneously, in accordance with the requirements of each race. Only one end of the Stadium is preserved, but it is possible to calculate its length as about 192.24 m.; and since a stadium always had a length of 600 feet, we obtain a foot length of 0.3204 m. Thus the length was almost the same as that of the Stadium at Olympia (192.28 m.). Before the Earlier Stadium at Isthmia was abandoned, the race track was shortened by 10.93 m.
Some time later, perhaps at the time of Alexander the Great when Corinth was chosen to be the capital of the world, a new Stadium was built in a natural hollow some 250 m. to the southeast. This Stadium used a shortened foot measure (0.302 m.) for the layout of the new race track, which measures 181.20 m. in length. It too had sixteen lanes, each 1.51 m. wide (five feet of 0.302 m.). This later Stadium, which we have investigated by means of pits and tunnels, lies buried to a depth of two to six meters under a grove of fruit trees. It is in remarkably good state of preservation and would repay the effort and expense of excavation. It contains several unique features that might throw new light on the material apparatus of Greek athletics.
The Isthmian Games comprised horse races, as did the other Panhellenic Games. The hippodrome is to be sought at some distance to the west of the Sanctuary, where there is a stretch of level ground large enough for such a purpose. There was a sanctuary of Glaukos, son of Sisyphos, who was worshiped at the Isthmus under the cult name Taraxippos, because it was he who threw the horses into panic near the end of the hippodrome. We have discovered the foundation of a structure which we may conjecturally identify with the cult place of this hero. It consists of an unroofed space set against a hillside and surrounded on three sides with a broad foundation that may have held seats for judges or important spectators. In front of this structure was a parapet, separating it from the rest of the race track. Although the area had been ransacked in modern times in illicit search for antiquities, our excavation yielded many spear points and strigils of bronze, and a small amount of pottery of the fourth century B.C. These finds go far to show that the monument was somehow connected with the Isthmian Games, and the likelihood is good that the hippodrome was located at this point.
From our excavations in the Sanctuary came other objects related to the Games: halteres (jumping weights), shields and helmets that may have been used for the races in armor, and a surprizingly large number of small boats of terracotta and one of bronze. The latter may be dedications offered to Poseidon by boatmen who had competed in a regatta, a type of contest that seems to have formed a part of the Isthmian program of events. Finally, a marble torch found in the Later Stadium points to the inclusion of torch races among the contests in the Stadium. Inscriptions also record victories in musical contests. In the year 67 (or 66) of our era, the Emperor Nero competed with compositions of his own, at which time he of course was proclaimed winner.
The prize of victory at Isthmia was a wreath, at first made of pine, but in the fifth century B.C. a wreath of wild celery was introduced. In late Hellenistic times and in the Roman era, both types of wreaths were awarded to victors in the Games.The celery of the Isthmian crown was withered, in contrast to the Nemean which was made of fresh celery. The withered wreath bestowed upon winners at Isthmia may have lent color to the Apostle Paul's statement in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (9.25), where he contrasts the "imperishable wreath" ("incorruptible crown" in the King James version), which the Christians receive, with the "perishable wreath" of the athletes. Paul may well have been at Isthmus for the celebration of the Games in the year 51, when he lived and worked as tent-maker in Corinth.
The festival held on the Corinthian Isthmus was probably the most popular of all the Panhellenic celebrations. The place was more easily accessible than either Olympia or Delphi, and a visit to Corinth, with all its famed attractions, that followed upon attendance at the Games was considered the high point in the experience of a lifetime. The often repeated saying, ("it is not every man's fortune to visit Corinth") expresses the exaggerated value placed upon such an event in a man's life.
Little enough remains of the splendid temples of Poseidon and Palaimon, or of the more humble cult houses of several other gods and heroes at Isthmia. But the ruins of these buildings now attract visitors from more distant lands, who come to see and to learn about the ideals that inspired athletes of ancient times in their striving for the right to wear a crown of pine or of celery as the badge of excellence. These values are as unchanging as the phenomena of nature, the sea and the mountain, that gave luster and myth to the Isthmus of Corinth.