Listed 57 sub titles with search on: Ancients' feasts, games and rituals for wider area of: "PELOPONNISOS Region GREECE" .
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Antinoeia, annual festivals and quinquennial games, which the Roman emperor Hadrian instituted in honour of his favourite, Antinous, after he was drowned in the Nile, or, according to others, had sacrificed himself for his sovereign, in a fit of religious fanaticism. The festivals were celebrated at Athens, Eleusis, in Bithynia, at Argos, and Mantineia, in which places he was worshipped as a god. Afterwards this festival appears to have been discontinued. (Spart. Hadr., c. 14; Dio Cass. lxix. 10; Pans. viii. 9, 4)
EPIDAVROS LIMIRA (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
Inoa, festivals celebrated in several parts of Greece, in honour of the ancient heroine Ino. At Megara she was honoured with an annual saerifice, because the Megarians believed that her body had been cast by the waves upon their coast, and that it had been found and buried there by Kleso and Tauropolis (Paus. i. 42, § 8). Another festival of Ino was celebrated at Epidaurus Limera, in Laconia. In the neighbourhood of this town there was a small but very deep lake, called the water of Ino, and at the festival of the heroine the people threw barley-cakes into the water. When the cakes sank it was considered a propitious sign, but when they swam on the surface it was an evil sign. (Paus. iii. 23, § 5.) An annual festival, with contests and sacrifices, in honour of Ino, was also held on the Corinthian Isthmus, and was said to have been instituted by king Sisyphus. (Tzetzes ad Lycophr. 107.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ISTHMIA (Ancient sanctuary) LOUTRAKI-PERACHORA
Festivals celebrated at Megara, at Epidaurus Limera (in Laconia), and on the Corinthian Isthmus in honour of Ino
ALEA (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
In honor of Dionysus they celebrate every other year a festival called Sciereia, and at this festival, in obedience to a response from Delphi, women are flogged, just as the Spartan lads are flogged at the image of the Orthian goddess.(Paus. 8.23.1)
AMYKLES (Ancient sanctuary) SPARTI
Agesilaus again marched with an army against Corinth, and, as the festival Hyacinthia was at hand, he gave the Amycleans leave to go back home and perform the traditional rites in honor of Apollo and Hyacinthus.
Hyacinthia. A festival, celebrated for three days in the summer of each year, at Amyclae, in honour of Apollo and his unhappy favourite Hyacynthus. Muller gives strong reasons for supposing that the Hyacinthia was originally a festival of Demeter. Like other festivals in honour of nature, the festival of the Hyacinthia, celebrated by the Spartans at Amyclae for three days in July, down to the time of the Roman emperors, was connected with the expression of grief at the death of vegetation, of joy over the harvest, and of cheerful trust in the re-awakening of nature. On the first day, which was dedicated to silent mourning, sacrifice to the dead was offered at the grave of Hyacinthus, which was under the statue of Apollo in the temple at Amyclae. The following day was spent in public rejoicing in honour of Apollo, in which all the populace, including the slaves, took part. They went in festal procession with choruses of singing boys and girls, accompanied by harps and flutes, to the temple of Apollo, where games and competitions, sacrifices and entertainments to one another took place, and a robe, woven by the Spartan women, was offered to the god.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hyacynthia (Huakinthia), a great national festival, celebrated every year at Amyclae by the Amyclaeans and Spartans. The festival dated from pre-Dorian times, but, like the Carneia, had been taken over by the Dorians; and was held in honour of the Amyclaean Apollo and of the youthful hero Hyacinthus, whom he accidentally struck dead with a quoit. This Amyclaean Apollo, however, with whom Hyacinthus was associated, must not be confounded with Apollo, the national divinity of the Dorians. (Muller, Orchom. p. 327; Dor. ii. 8, § 15.) This Hyacinthus is unmistakably a personification of the drying up of vegetation by the heat of summer: the quoit (diskos) is the sun's disc, Apollo the god who hurls it (Schomann, Alterth. ii. 404). The Hyacinthia lasted for three days, and began on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus (the Attic Hecatombaeon, Hesych. s. v. Hekatombeus: Manso, Sparta, iii. 2, p. 201; called also Huakinthios from this festival, Stein on Herod. ix. 7). On the first day of the Hyacinthia sacrifices were offered to the dead, and the death of Hyacinthus was lamented. Nobody wore any garlands or sung paeans at the sacrifices, nor was any wheaten bread offered: plain sacrificial cakes, apparently unleavened, were the order of the day, and great abstinence was practised. This serious and melancholy character was foreign to all the other festivals of Apollo. The second day, however, was wholly spent in public rejoicings and amusements. Amyclae was visited by numbers of strangers (paneguris axiologos kai megale, Didymus ap. Ath. iv. p. 139 e), and boys played the cithara or sang to the accompaniment of the flute, and celebrated in anapaestic metres the praise of Apollo, while others, in splendid attire, performed a horse-race in the theatre. This horse-race is probably the agon mentioned by Strabo in connexion with the Hyacinthia (vi. p. 278). After this race there followed a number of choruses of youths conducted by a choropoios (Xen. Ages. 2, § 17), in which some of their national songs (epichoria poiemata) were sung. During the songs of these choruses dancers performed some of the ancient and simple movements with the accompaniment of the flute and the song. The Spartan and Amyclaean maidens, after this, riding in chariots made of wickerwork (kanathra), and splendidly adorned, went in solemn procession. Numerous sacrifices were also offered on this day, and the citizens kept open house for their friends and relations; and even slaves were allowed to enjoy themselves. (Didymus, ap. Ath. iv. p. 139.) One of the favourite meals on this occasion was called kopis. and is described by Molpis (ap. Ath. iv. p. 140) as consisting of cake, bread, meat, raw herbs, broth, figs, dessert, and the seeds of lupine. Some ancient writers, when speaking of the Hyacinthia, apply to the whole festival such epithets as can only be used in regard to the second day; for instance, when they call it a merry or joyful solemnity. Macrobius (Sat. i. 18, § 2) states that the Spartans wore chaplets of ivy at the Hyacinthia as at a Bacchic rite, which can only be true if it be understood of the second day. The incorrectness of these writers is however in some degree excused by the fact, that the second day formed the principal part of the festive season, as appears from the description of Didymus, and as may also be inferred from Xenophon (Hell. iv. 5, § 11; compare Ages. 2, § 17), who makes the paean the principal part of the Hyacinthia. The third day's ceremonies are not specially described (Schomann, l. c.), but, according to the tradition, were of a solemn character, resembling those of the first day. The great importance attached to this festival by the Amyclaeans and Lacedaemonians is seen from the fact, that the Amyclaeans, even when they had taken the field against an enemy, always returned home on the approach of the season of the Hyacinthia, that they might not be obliged to neglect its celebration (Xen. Hell. iv. 5, § 11 Paus. iii. 10, § 1), and that the Lacedaemonians on one occasion concluded a truce of forty days with the town of Eira, merely to be able to return home and celebrate the national festival (Paus. iv. 19, § 3); and that in a treaty with Sparta, B.C. 421, the Athenians, in order to show their good--will towards Sparta, promised every year to attend the celebration of the Hyacinthia. (Thuc. v. 23.)
This is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Heraea (Heraia) is the name of festivals celebrated in honour of Hera in all the
towns of Greece where the worship of this divinity was introduced. The original
seat of her worship, from which it spread over the other parts of Greece, was
Argos; whence her festivals
in other places were, more or less, imitations of those which were celebrated
at Argos (Muller, Dor. ii.
10,1).
The Argives had three temples of Hera: one (Heraeon)
lay between Argos and Mycenae,
45 stadia from Argos; the
second lay on the road to the Acropolis,
and near it was the stadium in which the games and contests at the Heraea were
held (Paus. ii. 24,2); the third was in the city itself (Paus. ii. 22,1). Her
service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses of the place; one
of them was the high-priestess, and the Argives counted their years by the date
of her office (Thucyd. ii. 2). The Heraea of Argos
were celebrated every fifth year, and, according to the calculation of Boeckh
(Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. von 1818-19, p. 92 ff.), in the middle of the second
year of every Olympiad.
One of the great solemnities which took place on the occasion, was
a magnificent procession to the great temple of Hera, between Argos
and Mycenae. A vast number
of young men--for the festival is called a panegyris--assembled at Argos,
and marched in armour to the temple of the goddess. They were preceded by one
hundred oxen (hekatombe, whence the festival is also called hekatombaia). The
high-priestess accompanied this procession, riding in a chariot drawn by two white
oxen, as we see from the story of Cleobis and Biton related by Herodotus (i. 31)
and Cicero (Tuscul. i. 47, § 113). The hundred oxen were sacrificed, and their
flesh distributed among all the citizens (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152, and ad
Nem. x. 39). The sacrifice itself was called lecherna (Hesych. s. v.) or the bed
of twigs (Comp. Welcker on Schwenck's Etymologische Andeutungen).
The games and contests of the Heraea took place in the stadium, near
the temple on the road to the Acropolis.
A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible
to any one, and the young man who succeeded in pulling it down received the shield
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. Hence Pindar (Nem. x. 41) calls the contest
agon chalkeos. It seems that this contest took place before the procession went
out to the Heraeon, for Strabo (viii. p. 556) states that the victor went with
his prizes in solemn procession to that temple. This contest was said to have
been instituted, according to some traditions, by Acrisius and Proetus (Aelian,
V. H. iii. 24), according to others by Archinus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152;
Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.52, n. 1).
The Heraea or Hecatombaea of Aegina were celebrated in
the same manner as those of Argos (see Schol. ad Pind. Isthm.
viii. 114; Muller, Aeginet. p. 149; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, n. 19).
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated
every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert.
iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen
matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities
commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well
Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens
in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according
to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on
this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating.
She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness
in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female
attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the
other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history
of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
Heraea were celebrated in various other places; e. g. in Cos
(Athen. xiv, v), at Corinth
(Eurip. Med. 1379; Philostrat. Her. xix. 14), at Athens
(Plut. Quaest. Rom. vii), at Cnosus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), at
Pellene in Achaia
(Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 156; ad Nem. x. 82; Aristoph. Av. 1421; Krause, Gymn.
i. pt. 2, p. 715; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 28.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agrionia, a festival which was celebrated chiefly at Orchomenus, in Boeotia, in honour of Dionysus, surnamed Agrionios, i. e. the wild or boisterous. . .
Agrionia of a similar kind were celebrated also at Thebes and at Argos (Hesych. s. v. Agriania, which seems to be only another form for Agrionia). At Thebes the festival was celebrated with games and contests, while at Argos it was a festival of the dead (nekusia).
Agrania. A festival celebrated at Argos, in memory of one
of the daughters of Proetus, who had been afflicted with madness.
(agriania). Probably the same festival as the agrania, and celebrated in Argos and Thebes.
And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus came to Argos,
and there again, because they did not honor him, he drove the women mad, and they
on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their
breasts. (Apollod. 3.5.2)
And Acrisius had a daughter Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon,
and Proetus had daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboea. When
these damsels were grown up, they went mad,(1) according to Hesiod,
because they would not accept the rites of Dionysus, but according to Acusilaus,
because they disparaged the wooden image of Hera. In their madness they roamed
over the whole Argive land, and afterwards, passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese,
they ran through the desert in the most disorderly fashion. But Melampus, son
of Amythaon by Idomene, daughter of Abas, being a seer and the first to devise
the cure by means of drugs and purifications, promised to cure the maidens if
he should receive the third part of the sovereignty. When Proetus refused to pay
so high a fee for the cure, the maidens raved more than ever, and besides that,
the other women raved with them; for they also abandoned their houses, destroyed
their own children, and flocked to the desert. Not until the evil had reached
a very high pitch did Proetus consent to pay the stipulated fee, and Melampus
promised to effect a cure whenever his brother Bias should receive just so much
land as himself. Fearing that, if the cure were delayed, yet more would be demanded
of him, Proetus agreed to let the physician proceed on these terms. So Melampus,
taking with him the most stalwart of the young men, chased the women in a bevy
from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a sort of frenzied dance. In the
pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, expired; but the others were lucky
enough to be purified and so to recover their wits.(2) Proetus
gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias and afterwards begat a son, Megapenthes.
(Apollod. 2.2.2)
Commentary:
1. Compare Bacch. 10.40-112, ed. Jebb; Hdt. 9.34; Strab. 8.3.19;
Diod. 4.68; Paus. 2.7.8; Paus. 2.18.4; Paus. 5.5.10; Paus. 8.18.7ff.; Scholiast
on Pind. N. 9.13 (30); Clement of Alexandria, Strom. vii.4.26, p. 844, ed. Potter;
Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Azania; Verg. Ecl. 6.48ff.; Ov. Met. 15.325ff.; Pliny,
Nat. Hist. xxv.47; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.48; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb.
iii.453; Vitruvius viii.3.21. Of these writers, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and,
in one passage (Paus. 2.18.4), Pausanias, speak of the madness of the Argive women
in general, without mentioning the daughters of Proetus in particular. And, according
to Diodorus Siculus, with whom Pausanias in the same passage (Paus. 2.18.4) agrees,
the king of Argos at the time of the affair was not Proetus but Anaxagoras, son
of Megapenthes. As to Megapenthes, see Apollod. 2.4.4. According to Virgil the
damsels imagined that they were turned into cows; and Servius and Lactantius Placidus
inform us that this notion was infused into their minds by Hera (Juno) to punish
them for the airs of superiority which they assumed towards her; indeed, in one
place Lactantius Placidus says that the angry goddess turned them into heifers
outright. In these legends Mr. A. B. Cook sees reminiscences of priestesses who
assumed the attributes and assimilated themselves to the likeness of the cow-goddess
Hera. See his Zeus, i.451ff. But it is possible that the tradition describes,
with mythical accessories, a real form of madness by which the Argive women, or
some portion of them, were temporarily affected. We may compare a somewhat similar
form of temporary insanity to which the women of the wild Jakun tribe in the Malay
Peninsula are said to be liable. "A curious complaint was made to the Penghulu
of Pianggu, in my presence, by a Jakun man from the Anak Endau. He stated that
all the women of his settlement were frequently seized by a kind of madness--presumably
some form of hysteria-- and that they ran off singing into the jungle, each woman
by herself, and stopped there for several days and nights, finally returning almost
naked, or with their clothes all torn to shreds. He said that the first outbreak
of this kind occurred a few years ago, and that they were still frequent, one
usually taking place every two or three months. They were started by one of the
women, whereupon all the others followed suit." See Ivor H. N. Evans, "Further
Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of Pahang," Journal of the Federated Malay
States Museums, ix:1, January 1920, p. 27 (Calcutta, 1920).
2. According to Bacch. 10.95ff., ed. Jebb, the father of the
damsels vowed to sacrifice twenty red oxen to the Sun, if his daughters were healed:
the vow was heard, and on the intercession of Artemis the angry Hera consented
to allow the cure.
Hecatombaea (Hekatombaia). A festival celebrated in honour of Here by the Argives and people of Aegina. It received its name from hekaton and bous, being a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, which were always offered to the goddess, and the flesh distributed among the poorest citizens. There were also public games, first instituted by Archinus, a king of Argos, in which the prize was a shield of brass with a crown of myrtle
Anthesphoria. A flower-festival ... were also solemnized in honour of other deities, especially in honour of Here, surnamed Antheia, at Argos.
ASSINI (Ancient city) KORONI
...But the men of Asine take the greatest pleasure in being called Dryopes, and clearly have made the most holy of their sanctuaries in memory of those which they once had, established on Parnassus. For they have both a temple of Apollo and again a temple and ancient statue of Dryops, whose mysteries they celebrate every year, saying that he is the son of Apollo.
The object most worthy of mention is a sanctuary of Demeter on Pron. This sanctuary
is said by the Hermionians to have been founded by Clymenus, son of Phoroneus,
and Chthonia, sister of Clymenus. But the Argive account is that when Demeter
came to Argolis, while Atheras and Mysius afforded hospitality to the goddess,
Colontas neither received her into his home nor paid her any other mark of respect.
His daughter Chthoia disapproved of this conduct. They say that Colontas was punished
by being burnt up along with his house, while Chthonia was brought to Hermion
by Demeter, and made the sanctuary for the Hermionians.
At any rate, the goddess herself is called Chthonia, and Chthonia
is the name of the festival they hold in the summer of every year. The manner
of it is this. The procession is headed by the priests of the gods and by all
those who hold the annual magistracies; these are followed by both men and women.
It is now a custom that some who are still children should honor the goddess in
the procession. These are dressed in white, and wear wreaths upon their heads.
Their wreaths are woven of the flower called by the natives cosmosandalon, which,
from its size and color, seems to me to be an iris; it even has inscribed upon
it the same letters of mourning.2
Those who form the procession are followed by men leading from the
herd a full-grown cow, fastened with ropes, and still untamed and frisky. Having
driven the cow to the temple, some loose her from the ropes that she may rush
into the sanctuary, others, who hitherto have been holding the doors open, when
they see the cow within the temple, close the doors.
Four old women, left behind inside, are they who dispatch the cow.
Whichever gets the chance cuts the throat of the cow with a sickle. Afterwards
the doors are opened, and those who are appointed drive up a second cow, and a
third after that, and yet a fourth. All are dispatched in the same way by the
old women, and the sacrifice has yet another strange feature. On whichever of
her sides the first cow falls, all the others must fall on the same.
Such is the manner in which the sacrifice is performed by the Hermionians.
Before the temple stand a few statues of the women who have served Demeter as
her priestess, and on passing inside you see seats on which the old women wait
for the cows to be driven in one by one, and images, of no great age, of Athena
and Demeter. But the thing itself that they worship more than all else, I never
saw, nor yet has any other man, whether stranger or Hermionian. The old women
may keep their knowledge of its nature to themselves. (Paus. 2.35.4-8)
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Chthonia, a festival celebrated at Hermione in honour of Demeter, surnamed Chthonia (Eurip. Herc. Fur. 608). A description of it is given by Pausanias (ii. 35,4, &c.), and it is also mentioned by Aelian (H. A. xi. 4). The Lacedaemonians adopted the worship of Demeter Chthonia from the Hermioneans, some of whose kinsmen had settled in Messenia (Paus. iii. 14,5); hence we may infer that they celebrated either the same festival as that of the Hermioneans, or one similar to it.
FLIOUS (Ancient city) NEMEA
The graves of the children of Aras are, in my opinion, on the Arantine Hill and not in any other part of the land. On the top of them are far-seen gravestones, and before the celebration of the mysteries of Demeter the people look at these tombs and call Aras and his children to the libations.
GYTHION (Ancient city) LACONIA
Carneia were also celebrated at Gythion
KARNASSION (Ancient city) MELIGALAS
I may not reveal the rites of the Great Goddesses, for it is their mysteries which they celebrate in the Carnasian grove, and I regard them as second only to the Eleusinian in sanctity.
KELEES (Ancient city) NEMEA
Celeae is some five stades distant from the city, and here they celebrate the mysteries in honor of Demeter, not every year but every fourth year. The initiating priest is not appointed for life, but at each celebration they elect a fresh one, who takes, if he cares to do so, a wife. In this respect their custom differs from that at Eleusis, but the actual celebration is modelled on the Eleusinian rites.
This extract is from: Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Harvard University Press
Cited Aug 2002 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
KORINTHOS (Ancient city) PELOPONNISOS
A festival celebrated at Corinth in honour of Artemis. It is mentioned only by Xenophon, and no particulars are known about it.
A festival with a torch-race celebrated at Corinth in honour of Athene as a goddess of fire.
A festival celebrated in honour of Zeus on the Lycaean Mount in Arcadia. In the sacred enclosure on its highest peak, where, according to popular belief, no object cast a shadow, there was an altar of heaped-up earth, and before it two columns with gilt eagles on top of them, looking to the east. At the festivals, probably celebrated every ninth year, the priests, who alone were allowed to enter the precincts, offered mysterious sacrifices to the god, including a human sacrifice. These were said to have been instituted by Lycaon, and were kept up till the second century A.D. The man who had been chosen by lot to perform the sacrifice was afterwards compelled to flee, and wandered about for nine years; like Lycaon, in the shape of a wolf, so the people believed. In the tenth he was allowed to return and regained his human form--i. e. the taint was removed. Besides the festival there were also athletic contests.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited April 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lycaea, a festival celebrated by the Arcadians in honour of Zeus Lycaeus on Mount Lycaeon. The account given by Pausanias (viii. 38) is that it was founded by Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, and that besides the games (of which we have no particular account) there was a sacrifice to Zeus of a child, whose blood was poured over the altar, after which Lycaon himself was turned into a wolf, and he records the tradition that ever after at the annual festival a man was turned into a wolf for a period of ten years, or, if he tasted human flesh, for life. It is not improbable that these wehrwolf stories, however ancient, are a perversion of something older still from a false connection of the name with lykos, and similarly that the references to the sacrifice as a rite of the pastoral Arcadians as a protection against wolves, like the Roman Lupercalia are equally illusory. It is more likely that the name of the mountain belongs to the root lyk- (luk-), light, as in the Attic hill Lycabettus, with which we may compare many mountain names of other countries, such as the Strahlhorn. These names come from the fact of the mountain peak catching the sunlight first and retaining it last. It is a remarkable coincidence that Pausanias, speaking of Lycosura, the town founded by Lycaon on the Lycaeon mountain, which he calls the most ancient in Greece, uses the phrase kai tauten eiden ho helios proten. In accordance with this origin of the name, the worship was the earliest Pelasgian worship of Zeus, represented by no statue, but dwelling in light on the summit of the Lycaeon mountain, where was the altar of human sacrifice on the highest point, with two pillars standing eastward of it surmounted in later times by two golden eagles. Below the altar was a grove, which no man might enter, where it was believed that no shadow could fall, and in the grove the holy spring Hagno, in which the priest in time of drought dipped an oak-bough after sacrifice (Paus. viii. 38.) The sacrifice was particularly connected with prayers for rain; and it is probable that human sacrifices were retained to a late period. Pausanias does not mention their discontinuance, and says, epi toutou tou bomou toi Lukaioi Dii thuousin en aporretoi. polupagmonesai de ou moi ta es ten thusian hedu en, echeto de hos echei kai hos eschen ex arches. The contests seem to have included horse-races and foot-races; for Pausanias mentions in front of the grove of Pan on the same mountain hippodromos kai stadion, where at one time the Lycaean festival was held.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Founded by Lycaon.
MESSINI (Ancient city) ITHOMI
Carneia were also celebrated at Messene
MYSSEON (Ancient city) TRIKALA KORINTHIAS
There is a grove in the Mysaeum, containing trees of every kind, and in it rises a copious supply of water from springs. Here they also celebrate a seven days' festival in honour of Demeter. On the third day of the festival the men withdraw from the sanctuary, and the women are left to perform on that night the ritual that custom demands. Not only men are excluded, but even male dogs. On the following day the men come to the sanctuary, and the men and the women laugh and jeer at one another in turn.
This extract is from: Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Harvard University Press
Cited Aug 2002 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
SIKYON (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
A propitiatory festival solemnized at Sicyon in honour of Apollo and Artemis.
Carneia were also celebrated at Sikyon
Opposite the theater are two tombs; the first is that of Pausanias, the general at Plataea, the second is that of Leonidas. Every year they deliver speeches over them, and hold a contest in which none may compete except Spartans.
ASKLEPIEION OF EPIDAURUS (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOLIS
Asclepiea. The Asclepiean games were conducted in Epidaurus in honor of the hero-doctor Asclepius, the son of Apollo, in the sanctuary dedicated to both father and son. The Asclepiea, already active since the beginning of the 5th century BC, took place every four years, nine days after the Isthmia and lasted from June to July. During the Roman years, the games were called Great Asclepiea in order to be distinguished from the Apolloneia, an annual celebration that took place during the same time. Naked races were performed during the games (stade, diaulos, hippios or four-stade race, hoplite race), jumping, discus-throwing, javelin, boxing, pankration and the equestrian contests, chariot races and finally music, singing and drama competitions. The first day began with a sacrifice to Asclepius and Apollo, which was followed by a banquet with the participation of the believers. The contests began the following day.
This text is cited June 2005 from the Foundation of the Hellenic World URL below, which contains images.
Asclepieia (asklepieia), the name of festivals which were probably celebrated in all places where temples of Asklepios (Aesculapius) existed. The most celebrated, however, was that of Epidaurus, which took place in the grove of Asklepios every fifth year, and was solemnised with contests of rhapsodists and musicians, and with solemn processions and games. The solemnity took place nine days after the Isthmian games (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. iii. 145; Paus. ii. 26,7). Asklepieia are also mentioned at Lampsacus (Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. p. 1131), and at Athens (Aeschin. c. Ctesiph.67), which were probably, like those of Epidauros, solemnised with musical contests. They took place on the eighth day of the month of Elaphebolion.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AZANIA (Ancient area) ARKADIA
Aetolus, who came to the throne after Epeius, was made to flee from Peloponnesus, because the children of Apis tried and convicted him of unintentional homicide. For Apis, the son of Jason, from Pallantium in Arcadia, was run over and killed by the chariot of Aetolus at the games held in honor of Azan.
IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
Heraea. The Heraean games were conducted in honor of goddess Hera in the sanctuary dedicated to her, at Prosymna in the wider Mycenae area, 8 km northeast of Argos. The Heraea were conducted already from the Geometric and Archaic period, originally every three years and later on every five years, from the end of June to the beginning of July. The competitions were athletic (running, stade, hoplite, dolichos, pentathlon), equestrian and chariot races, as well as music and drama competitions. The winners received a crown of myrtle and bronze prizes, such as shields, tripods, caldrons and urns. As a result of the bronze prizes, the Heraea were also known by the name of "Chalkeos agon" (Bronze competition). During the 4th-3th century BC, the games were known as "Ekatomboea" whereas from the second half of the 3rd century BC the games were celebrated in Argos along with the Nemean and were named "Heraea at Argos". From the 1st century AD the games were referred to as "the shield from Argos", as a result of the bronze shield that was given as a prize to the winners, a prize that had a particular religious significance to the city. Furthermore, inside Larissa, the acropolis of Argos, lay a sacred fortress named Aspida (shield).
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Heraea (Heraia) is the name of festivals celebrated in honour of Hera in all the
towns of Greece where the worship of this divinity was introduced. The original
seat of her worship, from which it spread over the other parts of Greece, was
Argos; whence her festivals
in other places were, more or less, imitations of those which were celebrated
at Argos (Muller, Dor. ii.
10,1).
The Argives had three temples of Hera: one (Heraeon)
lay between Argos and Mycenae,
45 stadia from Argos; the
second lay on the road to the Acropolis,
and near it was the stadium in which the games and contests at the Heraea were
held (Paus. ii. 24,2); the third was in the city itself (Paus. ii. 22,1). Her
service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses of the place; one
of them was the high-priestess, and the Argives counted their years by the date
of her office (Thucyd. ii. 2). The Heraea of Argos
were celebrated every fifth year, and, according to the calculation of Boeckh
(Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. von 1818-19, p. 92 ff.), in the middle of the second
year of every Olympiad.
One of the great solemnities which took place on the occasion, was
a magnificent procession to the great temple of Hera, between Argos
and Mycenae. A vast number
of young men--for the festival is called a panegyris--assembled at Argos,
and marched in armour to the temple of the goddess. They were preceded by one
hundred oxen (hekatombe, whence the festival is also called hekatombaia). The
high-priestess accompanied this procession, riding in a chariot drawn by two white
oxen, as we see from the story of Cleobis and Biton related by Herodotus (i. 31)
and Cicero (Tuscul. i. 47, § 113). The hundred oxen were sacrificed, and their
flesh distributed among all the citizens (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152, and ad
Nem. x. 39). The sacrifice itself was called lecherna (Hesych. s. v.) or the bed
of twigs (Comp. Welcker on Schwenck's Etymologische Andeutungen).
The games and contests of the Heraea took place in the stadium, near
the temple on the road to the Acropolis.
A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible
to any one, and the young man who succeeded in pulling it down received the shield
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. Hence Pindar (Nem. x. 41) calls the contest
agon chalkeos. It seems that this contest took place before the procession went
out to the Heraeon, for Strabo (viii. p. 556) states that the victor went with
his prizes in solemn procession to that temple. This contest was said to have
been instituted, according to some traditions, by Acrisius and Proetus (Aelian,
V. H. iii. 24), according to others by Archinus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152;
Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.52, n. 1).
The Heraea or Hecatombaea of Aegina were celebrated in
the same manner as those of Argos (see Schol. ad Pind. Isthm.
viii. 114; Muller, Aeginet. p. 149; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, n. 19).
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated
every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert.
iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen
matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities
commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well
Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens
in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according
to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on
this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating.
She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness
in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female
attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the
other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history
of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
Heraea were celebrated in various other places; e. g. in Cos
(Athen. xiv, v), at Corinth
(Eurip. Med. 1379; Philostrat. Her. xix. 14), at Athens
(Plut. Quaest. Rom. vii), at Cnosus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), at
Pellene in Achaia
(Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 156; ad Nem. x. 82; Aristoph. Av. 1421; Krause, Gymn.
i. pt. 2, p. 715; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 51, n. 28.)
ISTHMIA (Ancient sanctuary) LOUTRAKI-PERACHORA
The third, games instituted by Sisyphus in honour of Melicertes, not discontinued after destruction of Corinth, celebrated by Corinthian exiles, Eleans do not compete at, statues of victors in, victors crowned with pine, Isthmian truce.
Isthmia. The Isthmian games were conducted every two years, in spring, in honor of Poseidon. The games took place at the godΥs sanctuary and lasted for three days. Those who believe that the Panhellenic games had their origin in funerary competitions have associated the Isthmian games with the death of Melikertes, also known by the name "Palaimon", who drowned together with his mother Ino. In the first half of the 6th century BC the Corinthians have added naked and equestrian competitions to the games that took place already from the 7th century in Isthmia. Corinth continued to have control of the games during the Roman era with the exception of the period 146-44 BC when the city lost its political rights and as a result the Games were organized by Sikyon. They began with a sacrifice to Poseidon and a banquet for the worshippers. Athletic competitions took part in the track and music competitions in the theatre. The winners were originally crowned with a wreath of pine, which was replaced by a wreath of wild celery in the 5th century BC. In the Roman years the winners received both.
This text is cited June 2005 from the Foundation of the Hellenic World URL below, which contains images.
Isthmia. One of the four great Hellenic festivals. It was celebrated at the Isthmus
of Corinth; and though inferior to the splendour of Olympia, it probably surpassed
the Nemea in brilliancy (cf. Themist. Orat. xv. p. 229, xxviii. p. 413, ed. Dind.;
and Aristid. Isthm. eis poseid. iii. p. 41, Dind. vol. i.). Indeed, when one considers
the natural advantages of Corinth as a centre of commerce, it is rather surprising
that the Isthmian games did not attain higher importance than those of Olympia.
Pindar describes the scene of the Isthmia by a variety of poetic expressions,
e. g. tan haliermea Isthmou deirada (Pind. Isth. i. 9), isthmion napos (Isth.
vii. 63), pontou gephur' akamantos (Nem. vi. 40), &c. A [p. 1024] sacred enclosure
planted with pines, within which was the temple of the Isthmian Poseidon, surrounded
the scene of the games (Strab. viii. 380). Pausanias saw here a theatre and a
stadium of white marble (lithou leukou), but does not speak of the hippodrome,
whence it may perhaps be inferred that it had disappeared or gone to ruin before
the time of his visit (Paus. ii. 1, 7). A late inscription, belonging probably
to Hadrian's reign, refers to the restoration of several edifices here which had
fallen into decay. In it are mentioned kataluseis, or lodging-places, for the
athletes who came to the Isthmian games from all parts of the world (tois apo
tes oikoumenes epi ta Isthmia paragenomenois athletais); also enkriterioi oikoi,
in which it is likely that the admissibility of intending candidates was discussed
and determined; and a portico with vaulted chambers attached (stoa sun kekamaromenois
oikois), in which probably those who intended to compete made ready and waited
during the interval before their turn to engage came on (Boeckh, C. I. n. 115,
p. 573, vol. i.). The kraneion, a gymnasium standing in an enclosure of the same
name planted with cypresses, might have been used by the athletes in training
for the games (Pans. ii. 2, 4; Plut. Alex. 14; Athen. xiii. 6, 589; Diog. Laert.
vi. 77, p. 351).
For information respecting the origin of the games, there remains
to us nothing but obscure traces of primitive cults, which kept their seat in
the Isthmus even into historic times. The myth which seems to be of greatest antiquity
ascribes the institution of the festival to Poseidon and Helios, when Castor won
the prize in the stadium, Kalais in the diaulos, Orpheus in playing on the cithara,
Herakles as pammachos (i. e. as pancratiast), Polydeukes in boxing, Peleus in
wrestling, Telamon in discus-throwing, and Theseus in the armour-race. In horseracing,
Phaethon was victorious with the riding-horse, and Neleus with the four-horse
chariot. On this occasion there was also a ship-race, in which the Argo obtained
the prize (Dion. Chrysost. Orat. Corinth. xxxvii. t. ii. p. 107). In this myth
nearly all the potentates of prehistoric Hellas are observed grouped in one tableau.
Another legend represents the Isthmian games as founded by Poseidon
to honour the memory of Melikertes, son of Athamas king of Orchomenos and Ino,
who cast herself with Melikertes into the sea, becoming thereupon a Nereid with
the name Leukothea, while her son became the sea-deity Palaemon (Schol. ad Pind.
Isthm. p. 514 seq. B; Ovid. Met. iv. 521 seqq.).
According to another tradition, the Nereids appeared to Sisyphos,
and commanded him to found the games in honour of Melikertes. A modification of
this myth states that the corpse of the son of Ino lay unburied upon the shore
of the Isthmus; that the Corinthians were, in consequence, sorely pressed by famine;
and that, consulting the oracle as to the means of relief, they were directed
to inter the dead youth and establish the games in memory of him.
Yet another myth informs that Theseus founded the Isthmia in grateful
commemoration of his victory over the wicked giant Sinis Pityokamptes (Schol.
ad Pind. Isthm. p. 514 B). Now, since both Sinis and Theseus were children of
Poseidon, the institution of the festival by the latter might be looked upon as
an act of atonement offered by him to his offended father; and this view would
help us to understand the statement that the Melikertes festival took rank rather
as a mystic rite than as a popular assembly, the cynosure of sightseers (Plut.
Thes. 25, teletes echon mallon e theas kai panegurismou taxin). The other legends
as to the origin of the Isthmia need not detain us. In almost all we see that,
as the mythic history of the Olympic games takes us back to Zeus, so that of the
Isthmian refers us ultimately to Poseidon. Plut. (l. c.) says that Theseus founded
the latter in emulation of Herakles, who had established the former. Later accounts
represent Theseus as having confirmed, by the institution of the games, a friendly
political relationship between Athens and Corinth. According to Hellanikos, and
Andron of Halicarnassus, Theseus made a covenant with the Corinthians by which
Athenian theoroi should receive at the Isthmia so much standing-ground (proedria)
as could be covered by the sail of the theoric vessel (Plut. l. c.). The inscription
of the Parian marble numbers 995 years backwards from its own time to the institution
of the Isthmian games by Theseus.
In the time of the Cypselids at Corinth, the celebration of these
games was suspended for seventy years (Solin. 12). Solon offered a reward of a
hundred drachmae to every Athenian isthmionikes, from which it is evident that
in his time the Isthmia had obtained wide celebrity as a periodic festival. It
is noteworthy that even the destruction of Corinth by Mummius in 146 B.C. did
not break the continuity of the games. They flourished under the Roman empire,
and Corinthian coins of the reigns of Hadrian, Verus, M. Aurelius, and Commodus,
frequently bear the inscription ISTHMIA. In the reign of Julian these, like the
other great Hellenic games, were zealously celebrated, but they ceased to exist
probably about Olymp. 293, when Christianity became the established religion of
the Roman empire.
Of the four great Pan-Hellenic festivals, two--the Olympia and Pythia--were
penteteric, i.e. recurring after intervals of four years: while two--the Nemean
and Isthmian--were trieteric, i.e. recurring after intervals of two years. Hence
Pliny (H. N. iv. § 5) and Solinus (c. 9) are in error when they represent the
Isthmia as quinquennial. Cf. Pindar, Nem. vi. 40, where he uses the words: en
amphiktionon taurophonoi t rieteridi Poseidanion an temenos. Eusebius places the
first historic Isthmiad in Olymp. 49, 3 (Chron. libr. post. p. 125, interp. Hieron.
ed. Seal. ii.). The Isthmia occurred in the first and third years of each Olympiad.
As to the season in which they were held, so much alone is certain (cf. Boeckh,
Explic. ad Pind. Olymp. ix. p. 183) that the Isthmia which fell in the first year
of an Olympiad took place in summer (Thucyd. viii. 10; Curt. iv. 5, 11), and that
those which fell in the third took place in spring (Xen. Hell. iv. 5; Liv. xxxiii.
32, 33). Dodwell argued from Pindar, Olymp. ix. 83, with Schol., that the former
were celebrated on the 12th of the Attic month Hecatombaeon, which corresponded
with the penultimate month of the Corinthian year (Dodw. de Cycl. vi. 3, p. 283
ff.). Corsini held that this summer festival occurred on the 12th of the Corinthian
Panemos, which, according to him, coincided with the Attic Hecatombaeon; according
to Boeckh, with Metageitnion. But Boeckh (ad Pind. l. c.) shows the inconclusiveness
of their reasoning.
The programme of the Isthmian games included gymnic equestrian and
musical contests, the gymnic being probably the oldest. The Isthmian contests
no doubt resembled in the main those of the other three great festivals. They
were open to boys, men, and youths, well grown but not quite matured to manhood
(ageneioi). Mention is on record of isthmionikai who obtained prizes in the stadium
(for men and boys), the pancratium (for men and ageneioi), and the pentathlum
(Dion Chrysost. Diog. e isthm. Orat. ix. p. 291, vol. i. Reisk., and Krause, Pyth.
Nem. Isthm. pp. 209 ff.). In equestrian contests we hear only of victories with
the four-horse chariot and the riding-horse, but we cannot, from absence of reference
to other equestrian contests, infer that there were none except these.
Pausanias (i. 2, v. 2) mentions a general truce which prevailed during
the Isthmian games (isthmikai spondai), and dated from the mythic age. In historic
times this truce was regularly proclaimed throughout Hellas by heralds called
spondophoroi, whose persons were sacred, but who were not obeyed, however, if
the festival was not at the time under legitimate management (cf. Xen. Hell. iv.
5, 2; Diod. xiv. 86, p. 709; Pans. iii. 10, 1).
The Eleans alone of the Hellenic states sent no theoroi to these games;
nor did any from Elis, except the people of Lepreum, present themselves as candidates
for Isthmian honours (Paus. l. c. and vi. 16, 2).
We have little or no information as to the special rules which regulated the celebration of the Isthmia, but we may suppose them to have been similar to the rules observed at the Olympia, Nemea, and Pythia (vid. Aristid. peri homon., Or. xlii. p. 781; Themist. Or. xv. p. 229; Krause, Olympia, § 15, 144-156). We know, however, that the same person might here compete in as many as three contests on one and the same day (Pans. vi. 15, 3). We gather from Plutarch (Sympos. v. 2) that women were admitted to poetical competitions. The beginning of the games was announced by a herald, who, advancing into the middle of the scene, proclaimed silence with a trumpet, and then in a set form of words declared the festival to have begun (Liv. xxxiii. 32; Themist. l. c.).
The Isthmia were naturally even from prehistoric times under the control
of the Corinthians (cf. Pans. v. 2, 1; 22, 3; Plut. Thes. 25). In Pindar they
alone are referred to as the presidents (cf. Nem. ii. 20). But in Olymp. 96 the
games were held by the Laconizing Corinthian exiles, under the protection of Agesilaus,
who interrupted the celebration of the festival by the Argives and those of the
Corinthians who had submitted to them. As soon as he withdrew, the Argives celebrated
the games over again. But in Olymp. 98. 2, by the peace of Antalkidas, the Corinthians
were freed from the Argive yoke, and recovered control of the Isthmia. When Corinth
was destroyed by Mummius (B.C. 146), the management of the festival passed to
the Sicyonians, who retained it until the restoration of Corinth by Julius Caesar,
when the agonothesia returned to its original possessors (Pans. ii. 2, 2). We
have no account of the number of presidents of the games (agonothetai), who were
chosen apparently for their wealth and nobility. It is supposable that, like the
Hellanodikae at Olympia, they wore a distinctive robe of office; and we know from
Dion Chrysost. (Orat. ix. Diog. e isthm. p. 291, vol. i. ed. R.) that their heads
were adorned with crowns.
The prize of victors at the Isthmia, like that won at each of the
other three great festivals, had during the historic period no intrinsic value,
its symbolic worth being thereby immeasurably enhanced. In Homeric times, such
prizes always possessed intrinsic worth, and it is a mere anachronism when some
myths describe the primitive Isthmia as an agon stephanites. The victor's meed
in historic times was a wreath of parsley (selinon: cf. Pind. Nem. iv. 88; Olymp.
xiii. 31). It has been thought that the Nemean differed from the Isthmian wreath
in that the former was made of green or fresh, while the latter was made of dry
parsley (Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 45); but this view lacks proof. Tradition has
it that the original parsley-wreath was succeeded in prehistoric times by a wreath
of pine; but in the classical period we hear only of the former being awarded,
as it continued to be in the time of Timoleon (cf. Diod. xvi. 679 ; Plut. Tim.
26). Nor was it until probably long after the restoration of Corinth by Julius
Caesar that the pine-wreath supplanted it. But under the Empire isthmionikae are
regularly represented as crowned with the pine, called simply he pitus, like the
Olympian garland, ho kotinos (vid. Plut. Symp. v. 3, 1-3; Pans. v. 21, 5, vi.
13; Luc. Anach. 9, 16). While parsley was suited to an agon epitaphios, the pine
was characteristic of the worship of Poseidon (cf. Plut. Symp. l. c.). A Corinthian
coin of the reign of Verus shows the pine-wreath, and from this onward to the
abolition of the festival the wreath of the isthmionikae continued to be woven
of pine. Here, as in the other great games, the victor received with the crown
a palm branch in token of his victory (Plut. Symp. viii. 4, 1; Pans. viii. 48,
2). At these games Flamininus (and Nero afterwards) declared the autonomy of Hellas
(Liv. xxxiii. 32; Suet. Ner. 22, 24). Rhetoricians, poets, and other writers brought
their productions under public notice at the Isthmia (Dion Chrysost. Diog. e peri
aretes, pp. 277, 278, vol. i. R.). According to Dion Chrysost. (Diog. e isthm.
Orat. ix. p. 289, vol. i. R.), visitors came from Italy, Sicily, Libya, Thessaly,
the Ionian States, and even the Borysthenes, to be present at the great Isthmian
festival.
As the Olympia, Pythia, and Nemea lent their names to minor festivals,
so the name Isthmia was applied to other games than those held at the Isthmus
of Corinth. The number of inferior Isthmia, however, was not as large as that
of the inferior copies of the other great games. Coins and inscriptions remain,
which refer to Isthmia held at Ancyra in Galatia. Isthmia at Nicaea in Bithynia
are mentioned on a coin of this town, struck in the time of Valerianus. [p. 1026]
The Isthmia at Syracuse are known to us only from the isolated statement of a
schol. to Pind. Olymp. xiii. 158, which, however, is credible from the fact that
Syracuse was founded by Corinth. Several ancient authors whose writings are lost
treated the subject of the Isthmian games. Both Plutarch and Athenaeus refer to
a work on this subject written by the epic poet Euphorion (Plut. Sympos. v. 3,
2, 3; Athen. iv. 182). For further information, the reader may be referred to
Krause (Pyth., Nem., Isthm.), whose work has been chiefly followed in the present
article.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Isthmia (ta Isthmia). One of the four great national festivals of the Greeks, held on the Isthmus of Corinth, in a grove of pine-trees sacred to Poseidon, near the shrines of the Isthmian Poseidon and of Melicertes. From B.C. 589, they were held in the first month of spring, in the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. According to legend, the Isthmian Games were originally funeral games in memory of Melicertes (q.v.); another tradition relates that they were established by Theseus either in honour of Poseidon, or in commemoration of his victory over Sciron and Sinis. In any case, the Athenians were specially interested in the festival from the earliest times. It was alleged that, from the days of Theseus downwards, they had what was called the proedria, the right of occupying the most prominent seats at the games, and, in accordance with a law attributed to Solon, they presented to those of their citizens who were victors in the contests a reward amounting to 100 drachmae. The only occasion when Socrates was absent from Athens, except with the army, was to attend this festival. The inhabitants of Elis were completely excluded from the games, being debarred from either sending competitors or festal envoys. The Corinthians had the presidency, which was transferred to the Sicyonians after the destruction of Corinth (B.C. 146), but at the rebuilding of Corinth (B.C. 46) it was restored to that city. The contests included gymnastic exercises, horseraces, and competitions in music. The former two differed in no essential way from the Olympian Games; in the third, besides musicians, poets of either sex contended for the prize. Besides the customary palm, the prize in Pindar's time consisted of a wreath of dry selinon (often translated "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery," apium graveolens). The selinon was a symbol of funeral games. After the destruction of Corinth, a crown of pine needles was substituted for it. The games long continued to be held, even under the Roman Empire. (Cf. Plut. Timoleon, 26; Sympos. v. 3, 1-3).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
NEMEA (Ancient sanctuary) CORINTHIA
Nemea. According to the tradition, the Nemean games began in 573 BC and were conducted every two years, during the second full moon after the summer solstice, in honor of Opheltes, son of King Lycurgus, who died horribly after he was bitten by a snake. Even though in later years, Zeus became the protector of the games, they continued to bear their funerary character shown by the black attire of the Hellanodikai (judges) and the pine groove that surrounded the Temple of Zeus. As in the Olympic games, no musical competitions were included in the agonistic programme. Originally the games were controlled by the city-state of Cleonae, but they were later taken over by Argos. The victors in the Nemean games were given a wreath of wild celery.
This text is cited June 2005 from the Foundation of the Hellenic World URL below, which contains images.
Nemea, (ta Nemea or Nemeia). The Nemean Games; one of the four Greek national festivals, which was celebrated in the valley of Nemea in the territory of the Argive town Cleonae. In historic times the festival was held in honour of Zeus, who had here a temple with a sacred grove. Originally it is said to have consisted of funeral games, instituted by the Seven during their expedition against Thebes, in memory of the boy Archemorus as an agon epitaphios. Heracles afterwards changed it into a festival in honour of Zeus. From about B.C. 575 on wards, athletic competitions were added to the festival, after the model of those at Olympia; and, like the latter, it was only gradually that it developed into a general Hellenic celebration. It was held twice in a period of four years--once in August, every fourth year; once in winter, every second or first Olympic year. It is more probable, however, that the so-called "Winter Nemea" were only local games held in Argos, and that the Panhellenic Nemea were celebrated in alternate years at the end of every first and third Olympic year, at a time corresponding to our July. The question is discussed by Unger in the Philologus, but Droysen, in Hermes, considers it still unsettled. The management of the festival was originally possessed by the Cleonaeans, but soon passed, together with the possession of the sanctuary, into the hands of the Argives. The games, which lasted more than one day, consisted of gymnastic, equestrian, and musical contests; the prize was a palm-branch and a garland of fresh selinon, often rendered "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery."
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
City of Argolis,
in northeastern Peloponnese,
southwest of Corinth.
In this city were held every two years (in July the second and fourth
year of each Olympiad) the Nemean games, in honor of Zeus. These games were fourth
in fame among the panhellenic games after the Olympic (also to Zeus), the Pythian
(to Apollo) and the Isthmian (to Poseidon).
Nemea was the site of the first of Heracles' 12 labors, his fight
against the lion, and some ascribed to him the creation of the games. But the
more “official” origin was ascribed to Adrastus, the king of Argos
who led the ill-fated expedition of the Seven against Thebes
to try and help Polynices, one of Oedipus's sons, regain the kingship his brother
Eteocles refused to hand him over when time came. Reaching Nemea on their way
toward Thebes, Adrastus and
his companions asked water to Hypsipyle, the exiled queen of the island of Lemnos,
who had once been the wife of Jason but was now a slave at the service of Lycurgus,
the king of the place, serving as a nurse to Opheltes, his baby son. To help them,
the nurse, forgetting an oracle stating that the baby should not be put on the
ground until he could walk, laid the baby for a minute on the grass near a fountain,
where he was killed by the snake guarding it. The games were then instituted by
Adrastus as part of Opheltes' funerals and as a propitiatory ceremony to the his
memory and the seven princes took part in their first occurrence.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
PELLANA (Ancient city) XYLOKASTRO
Games in honour of Apollo at Pellene.
TEGEA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
(ta alaia). Games annually celebrated at Tegea in honour of Athene Alea.
Hecatombaea (Hekatombaia). An anniversary sacrifice called by this name in Laconia, and offered for the preservation of the hundred towns which once flourished in that country.
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