Crown Games at Isthmia and Nemea

Athletics were a big deal in ancient Greece - as any of you who knows me will have heard. Of all the dozens of athletic festivals, there were four biggies: the Olympian (or Olympic), Pythian, Nemean, Isthmian (near the isthmus - Corinth) Games. Of these four, three of them were held in the Peloponnese. These games were called the "Crown Games" because the only (official) prize was a crown of leaves - olive for Olympia, bay/laurel for Pythian, celery at Nemea and (most of the time) at Isthmia.

Here are some photos from Isthmia and Nemea.



The Isthmian Games were held in honor of Poseidon. This is what's left of the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia. Not much.

Hey - has anyone seen the columns to this temple???











Oh wait. Never mind. I found them.

This is the Hexamilion wall (part of it, anyway). Its very creative name means 'six-mile' wall and was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century (AD, of course) to stave off a feared invasion. Much of ancient Corinth's stonework ended up in this wall.








This is the Temple of Zeus at Nemea - sometimes called Nemean Zeus. It's a pretty spot, and is being restored - three of these columns have been put back up. It's quite a controversy about whether the Greeks should restore these monuments or not. I personally don't mind, as long as they make it easy to distinguish between what is ancient and what is restoration. It gets a bit sticky, however, when archaeologists revise their ideas about a structure's architecture and the restoration is already complete.




This is the stadium at Nemea. It's in really good shape, mostly due to the efforts of Stephen Miller at UC Berkeley. Under his supervision, the Greeks have revived the Nemean Games. They stay pretty loyal to the original program, but they allow women to compete and nobody is (completely) naked. This stadium, like all others, is close to 200 yards long, although there was no standard size in the ancient world.