CHAPTER X

THE PYTHIAN, ISTHMIAN, AND NEMEAN FESTIVALS

(1) The Pythia

We have seen how in 582 B.C. the old local musical festival which had been held at Delphi every eight years was transformed into a Panhellenic four-yearly festival with an athletic and equestrian programme copied from Olympia under the presidency of the amphictyonic league. Delphi now became a second centre of this league, which consisted originally of the twelve tribes dwelling round the shrine of Demeter at Phylae or Anthela. The league was administered by a council composed of two representatives from each tribe, the Hieromnemones, who met twice a year in spring and autumn at Phylae and Delphi alternately. Their autumn meeting must have coincided every fourth year with the Pythian festival which took place in the month of Boukatios, about the end of August. An amphictyonic law of the year 380 B.C.[332] contains full details of the duties of the Hieromnemones. Besides the general care of the sacred territory, precinct, monuments, and revenues, they were responsible for all the preparations necessary for the Pythia. They saw to the repairs of the stadium, hippodrome, and other buildings; they arranged the programme, made provision for the sacrifices and processions; they saw that the sacred truce was duly proclaimed, and sent invitations to the various states of Greece, while each Hieromnemon was individually responsible for the state of the roads and bridges by which the official theorioi would travel to the festival. At the games themselves certain of their number, with the title of ἐπιμεληταί, acted as stewards and judges, and presented the laurel crowns to the victors. The actual presidency at the games seems usually to have been entrusted to the Thessalians, whose influence predominated in the league.

Though as a festival the Pythia were second only to the Olympia, it may be doubted whether from a purely athletic point of view they equalled in importance the Nemea or even the Isthmia. The Peloponnese was, as we have seen, the real home of Greek athletics, and, moreover, musical competitions seem always to have held the chief place at Delphi, as was but fitting in the precinct of Apollo. The chief event in the musical programme remained throughout all time the ancient Hymn to Apollo, sung to the lyre (κιθαρωδία), recounting his victory over the Python. Chrysothemis, Philammon, and Thamyris were among the legendary victors in this competition, which was said to have been won in the seventh century four times in succession by Terpander of Lesbos. In 582 two competitions were added: one in singing to the flute (αὐλωδία)—a competition which was, however, at once discontinued—and a solo on the flute, which, like the ancient hymn, represented the various phases in the contest between Apollo and the Python. This was the celebrated Pythian nome. The prize was won in 582, and on two subsequent occasions, by Sacadas of Argos; and Pythocritus of Sicyon is credited with no less than six successive victories, probably at the close of the sixth century. Pindar’s twelfth Pythian ode was written to celebrate the victory of Midas of Agrigentum in flute-playing. The musical programme was completed in 558 B.C. by the introduction of a competition in playing on the lyre, of a somewhat similar character. The first winner was Agesilaus of Tegea. Under the Empire dramatic and poetical competitions took place at the Pythia; but we cannot say whether they existed at an earlier date. If we may trust Pliny’s[333] statement, there must have been a competition in painting in the fifth century; for he tells us that Timagoras of Chalcis defeated Panaenus, the brother or nephew of Pheidias.

Next in importance to the musical competitions were the chariot and horse races, which rivalled in popularity even those at Olympia. At first they were confined, as at Olympia, to the four-horse chariot and the horse race. The pair-horse chariot-race (συνωρίς) and the chariot-race for colts were introduced at Delphi in 398 B.C. and 378 B.C., only a few years after their introduction at Olympia. The remaining two events, the synoris for colts and the riding race for colts, which were introduced at Delphi in 338 B.C. and 314 B.C., did not figure at Olympia till the next century. The popularity of horse-racing at Delphi was due to the wide-spread influence of the Delphic oracle among the Greek colonies, and particularly to the intimate connexion between Delphi and the great horse-breeding lands of Northern Greece, which belonged to the Thessalian Amphictyony; at a later time also to the influence of Macedon. Delphi was no less accessible than Olympia to the Greeks on either side of the Corinthian Gulf, and to the colonies of the West, and of Africa. The earliest victor in the chariot-race was Cleisthenes of Sicyon, and in the fifth century we find among the victors Megacles, the Alcmaeonid of Athens; Hieron of Syracuse, twice victor in the horse-race, once in the chariot-race; Xenocrates of Agrigentum, for whom Pindar wrote his earliest hymn of victory; and Arcesilas of Cyrene. The “Charioteer” is supposed by some archaeologists to be part of the monument commemorating the victory of Arcesilas.

Still more significant than these names is the number of competitors. Pindar, in his ode on the victory of Arcesilas, states that in this race no less than forty chariots fell. The entries, then, must have been still more numerous. We may doubt whether such a field was possible at Olympia. The princes of the West can have formed but a small portion of the entries; few of them can have cared to undertake the expense and labour necessary to compete so far from home unless they had a good prospect of success. A field of forty implies large entries from the home district, and the home district of Delphi afforded an abundant supply of competitors. Northern Greece was a land of horses, and therefore, as Aristotle remarks, of oligarchies. Thessaly, in particular, was famed for producing the finest horses in Greece, and Thebes was famous for its chariots.[334] In both countries the power was in the hand of the land-owning classes, whose wealth consisted largely in their studs of horses. In Thessaly cavalry were first organized and employed for war. Thebes was credited with the first victory in the chariot-race, Thessaly with the first victory in the horse-race at Olympia. They had celebrated local festivals. Pindar’s second Pythian is in honour of a victory in the chariot-race won by Hieron at some Theban festival, either the Heraclea or the Iolaea, and the thirteenth ode of Bacchylides celebrates the victory of Cleoptolemus of Thessaly in the Thessalian Petraea. Some idea of the proportion of local entries at the Pythia may be formed from the list of competitors given in the description of the chariot-race in the _Electra_ of Sophocles. There are ten competitors. One comes from Sparta, one from Achaea; Orestes himself is proclaimed an Argive, but drives a team of Thessalian horses; two are Libyans from Barca, which reminds us of the victory of Arcesilas; the remaining five are an Athenian, a Boeotian, an Aetolian, a Magnesian, and an Aenianian. The Magnetes and Aenianes were Thessalian tribes belonging to the ancient Amphictyony. Thus five came from Northern Greece, two from the colonies, and three from the Peloponnese, if we suppose the Achaean to belong to the Peloponnesian and not to the Thessalian Achaeans. The few records which we possess of the fourth century and later suggest that the competition was now practically confined to Northern Greece, the only exception being the victory of Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus, in 314 B.C., and he, though king of Egypt, was a Macedonian. In the second century there seem to have been horse-races in connexion with the official deputations, Pythaids, sent from time to time from Athens to Delphi; but these deputations had no necessary connexion with the Pythian games. In Roman times we find no mention of horse or chariot races at Delphi, and we may therefore assume that, owing to the impoverishment of Greece, these competitions had ceased to exist.

The athletic programme was the same as that of Olympia, with the addition of two races for boys, the diaulos and the dolichos. In 498 B.C. the race in armour, which had been introduced at Olympia a few years previously, was introduced at Delphi, and in 346 B.C. the boys’ pankration, which did not appear at Olympia till 200 B.C. The strong local element which we have noticed in the horse-races is apparent in athletics, and in the fifth century the festival also attracted numerous athletes from the colonies of the West. Many of those who were victorious at Olympia were also victorious at Delphi. The scanty records do not allow us to draw definite conclusions; but it seems probable that the athletic competition did not reach the same standard as in the festivals of the more athletic Peloponnese. Of individual athletes in the fifth century Phayllus of Croton and Agias of Thessaly deserve especial mention. Phayllus, who served with distinction in the Persian wars, won two victories in the pentathlon and one in the stade-race, which were commemorated by a statue the basis of which still exists. Agias was a pankratiast of the fifth century. Daochus, a member of the same family, two generations later set up in Thessaly a group of bronze statues representing those of his family who had distinguished themselves, including a statue of Agias by Lysippus. A replica of this statue in marble has been found at Delphi (Fig. 20).

In Pindar’s time the athletic competitions as well as the horse-races took place not at Delphi but in the Crisaean plain below. The horse-races continued to be held there, Delphi itself affording no suitable space for a hippodrome. But in the second half of the fifth century the athletics were transferred to a new stadium constructed above the precinct of Apollo. The change is connected by M. Homolle with an attempt of the Phocians to reassert their rights to the control of the games at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.[335] The fourth century was one of great activity among the states of Northern Greece, in Thebes, in Thessaly, and in Macedon, and the Pythian festival regained the importance which it had somewhat lost owing to the doubtful part played by Delphi and the Northern States in the struggle with Persia. The Pythian games appealed to the ambitious rulers of Thessaly and Macedon in the same way as the Olympic games had to the tyrants of an earlier age. Jason of Pherae usurped the presidency of the games, and was preparing to celebrate them with extraordinary magnificence when his ambition was cut short by his murder. Philip of Macedon was more politic. By espousing the cause of the Amphictyons against the Phocians in the Sacred war he won their gratitude, and was appointed by them as president of the games. The new activity at Delphi may be seen in the numerous additions to the programme made in this century. The gymnasium was built in this period, and Aristotle undertook the task of drawing up a register of Pythian victors, being assisted in the task by his nephew Callistratus. A copy of this register was placed in the temple of Apollo.[336]

In 290 B.C. during the war between Demetrius Poliorketes and Pyrrhus, the roads leading to Delphi were in possession of the Aetolians, and Demetrius therefore ordered the Pythia to be celebrated at Athens, there being, he said, no more fitting place for the worship of Apollo than Athens, where he was regarded as the father of the race. The intimate relations between Athens and Delphi at this period are proved by the splendid deputations the Pythaids, as they were called, sent to Delphi from time to time.[337] The splendour of the Pythaids reached its height in the second century. Their arrival at Delphi was celebrated by equestrian, musical and dramatic displays and competitions; but these deputations did not necessarily coincide with the Pythian festival, and after the capture of Athens by Sulla in 87 B.C. they practically ceased.

We know little of the Pythian games under the Empire: we have the names of a few victors, many of them in musical or dramatic competitions, others professional periodonikai. Nero won the Pythian crown, and in return for it carried off hundreds of works of art from Delphi to Rome. At a later period Herodes Atticus rebuilt the stadium in the form in which it exists to-day. The Pythian games still existed in the time of the Emperor Julian, and were probably abolished finally at the end of the fourth century when the Olympic games were abolished.

The festival must have lasted several days, but the precise duration is unknown. The musical competitions appear to have come first, then the athletic events, and lastly the chariot and horse races. The boys’ events were not, as at Olympia, grouped together; but each boys’ competition preceded the corresponding competition for men.[338] The prize was a wreath of bay leaves plucked in the vale of Tempe by a boy whose parents were both living. It is represented on one of the coins in Fig. 27, while the other coin shows the prize table and on it a crow, five apples, a vase and a laurel wreath. As at Olympia, the victors had the privilege of erecting their statues in or near the precinct. The chief religious ceremony of the festival must have been the official procession along the sacred way to the temple of Apollo.

(2) The Isthmia

The Isthmian festival, though inferior in athletic standard to the Olympia and in sanctity to the Pythia, was perhaps the most frequented of all the Panhellenic festivals.[339] It was held in the second and fourth year of each Olympiad, under the presidency of Corinth; and though there is some doubt as to the exact date, it seems certain that it was held in the spring, probably in April or early May.[340] No festival was so central and so accessible to all parts of the Greek world, whether by land or sea, and no place offered such innumerable attractions to visitors of every sort as Corinth, the city of commerce and of pleasure. The description which Dion Chrysostom has left of the crowds which flocked to the Isthmia in the first century A.D. has already been quoted. It reminds one of the crowd at a modern race-meeting, where princes, statesmen, millionaires, jostle with beggars, mountebanks, and sharpers. “The Isthmian festival,” says Livy,[341] “owed its popularity not only to the national love of witnessing contests of every sort in arts or strength or agility, but especially to the advantageous situation of the Isthmus, which, commanding the resources of two seas, was the natural meeting-place of the human race, the mart of Greece and Asia.” In these words we have, summed up, the essential characteristics of the Isthmia, the attractiveness and variety of their programme, their cosmopolitanism, and last but not least their commercial importance. Livy is speaking of the time in the opening years of the second century, when Flamininus proclaimed the liberty of Greece at the Isthmian festival. We cannot doubt that he had also in his mind the revived splendour of the festival in his own time, since Corinth which had been destroyed by Mummius had been refounded by Julius Caesar and become the capital of Achaia. Of the earlier history of the festival we unfortunately know little; but the few notices which have survived indicate that from the very first the character of the festival differed little from that ascribed to it by Livy and Dion Chrysostom.

The reorganization of the ancient local festival in honour of Poseidon as a Panhellenic trieteris seems to have taken place either during the closing years of the Cypselidae, or shortly after their fall. These princes had laid the foundation of the maritime and commercial greatness of Corinth, which, under their patronage, took the lead in trade and literature and art. From this time her wealth and luxury were proverbial; but wealth and luxury are not the soil on which athletics flourish best. Corinth was not an athletic state; few great athletes hailed from her, and, whatever athletic vigour existed in early times in families such as the Oligaethidae soon died away. The character of the Isthmia cannot fail to have been determined by the character and relations of Corinth.

Corinth, though traditionally Dorian, had little in common with the other Dorian states of the Peloponnese. All her sympathies were Ionian. With the Ionians of the East she was closely connected by that trade which was the basis of her wealth, and by the common worship of Poseidon. The influence of the East is clearly marked in the early art of Corinth, especially in her pottery. Equally close were her relations with Athens. We have seen that Theseus was one of the reputed founders of the Isthmia; and that the Athenian theoroi had a special place of privilege at the festival. Indeed, the Isthmia seem almost to have been regarded as an Attic festival, and were an occasion of merry-making, a sort of public holiday for all classes of Athens, even for slaves. Many an Athenian was debarred from visiting Olympia by the length of the journey, the heat, and other discomforts of the festival itself. The Isthmia suffered from no such drawbacks; it was but a few hours’ journey, either by land or sea; the festival took place in the spring; Corinth offered ample accommodation for such as could afford it; those who could not afford it might take their tents with them and encamp in the neighbourhood. Under these circumstances it is reasonable to suppose that the Isthmia bore more resemblance to the Panathenaea, or even to the Delia, both of which festivals were also said to have been founded by Theseus, than they did to the more strenuous Olympia; and such few facts as we know about the programme confirm this idea.

It is perhaps to this essential difference in character that we may ascribe the sort of feud existing between the Olympia and the Isthmia. The Olympia were accounted “the most athletic” of all festivals.[342] The inferiority of the Isthmia in athletic prestige is proved by the fact that Solon assigned only 100 drachmae to a winner at the Isthmia, while he assigned 500 to an Olympic winner.

Of the history of the Isthmia in the fifth and fourth centuries we know practically nothing. The records of victories in the games are too scanty to enable us to form any trustworthy conclusions;[343] as far as they go they indicate that the athletic competition was far more local than at Olympia. There are hardly any names of victors recorded from Sicily and Italy which figure so largely in the Olympic records. With the exception of a few periodonikai the competitors come chiefly from Corinth, Aegina, Thebes, and Athens, and some of the islands of the Aegean. Bacchylides in his Second Ode on Argeius of Ceos mentions that at this date the Ceans had already won seventy victories at the Isthmus, and a Cean inscription, now at Athens, records numerous victories which they had won at the Isthmia and the Nemea, including victories of Argeius.[344] The Oligaethidae of Corinth had, according to Pindar, themselves won sixty crowns at these two festivals, and the Timodemidae of Athens had won eight victories at the Isthmus and seven at the Nemea. We can find no such records as these at Olympia.[345]

During the Peloponnesian war the festival must have suffered greatly from the enforced absence of the Athenians. In the _Peace_ of Aristophanes, written shortly after the peace of Nicias, one of the slaves expresses his delight at the prospect of once more taking part in the Isthmia.[346] The Corinthians had probably equal cause for rejoicing; without the Athenians and their allies the festival must have been shorn of half its splendour. A few years later, in 412 B.C., we find the Corinthians insisting vigorously on the observance of the Isthmian truce, and turning a deaf ear to the suggestions of Sparta for a joint expedition to free Chios from the Athenian yoke.[347] They even invited the Athenians to the festival, and thus enabled them to discover the plot of the Chians, and to destroy the fleet which sailed for Chios at the conclusion of the festival. The policy of Corinth was to preserve the balance of power. Her bitter opposition to Athens was the natural result of commercial rivalry, but the supremacy of Sparta was still less to her liking, and within a few years of the humiliation of Athens we find her leagued with Athens, Thebes, and Argos in an anti-Spartan league. The Spartans had no scruples as to the observance of festivals, except when it suited their convenience; and Agesilaus, with certain Corinthian exiles of the Spartan party, actually invaded Corinth during the progress of the Isthmia.[348] The games were being conducted by the Corinthians and Argives, who seem to have been for a time united into one state. On the approach of Agesilaus they took to flight, and Agesilaus himself encamped in the sacred precinct, while the Corinthian exiles offered the customary sacrifice to Poseidon and conducted the games. When Agesilaus withdrew, the Argives returned and celebrated the festival all over again.

From this point we hear no more of the Isthmia till the Romans began to interfere in Greek politics. The cosmopolitanism of the festival and the commercial importance of the Isthmus as the meeting-place of East and West naturally appealed to the Romans, and a new era of prosperity opened for the Isthmia, which for a time seemed likely to eclipse even Olympia. The Corinthians had no narrow national prejudices, and allowed the Romans to take part in the Isthmia as early as 228 B.C.[349] Consequently, it was at the Isthmus and not at Olympia that Flamininus proclaimed the liberty of the Greeks in 196 B.C. Even the destruction of Corinth was not allowed to interrupt the festival which continued to be held under the presidency of Sicyon till the rebuilding of Corinth by Julius Caesar.[350] Under the Empire Corinth became richer and more luxurious, and the Isthmian festival more popular than ever. The enthusiasm for athletic spectacles at Corinth seems to have made a deep impression on St. Paul. Preachers are wont to draw glowing pictures of the Isthmian games in this connexion. But few perhaps realize how corrupt and degraded were Greek athletics during St. Paul’s lifetime, and nowhere were they more degraded than at the Isthmia. Yet in outward appearance the festival had never been more brilliant. Most of the buildings, which excavations of the sanctuary of Poseidon have revealed, belong to the period of Augustus and his successors.[351] Nero was so deeply impressed with the importance of the site that he conceived the idea of cutting a canal through the Isthmus, and was only prevented from doing so by the opposition of certain ignorant scientists, who maintained that the level of the sea was different in the Gulf of Corinth and in the Aegean.[352] However, he took part in person at the Isthmia, and issued a letter summoning the Greek world to the festival, a copy of which has been recovered.[353] It appears that to suit the emperor’s convenience the festival was postponed from the spring to November, or perhaps it was celebrated a second time the same year. He was proclaimed victor in singing to the lyre and also in the heralds’ competition; and in obedience to his wishes a competition in tragedy was added to the programme, though, according to Lucian, such competitions were barred by a special Isthmian law. He was forced, moreover, to resort to force in order to secure his victory; for a certain Epirote, possessed of a fine voice and less complaisant than the officials, refused to withdraw from the competition unless the emperor paid him ten talents; and Nero, recognizing that he would be defeated, despatched a band of his creatures, who so battered and ill-treated the Epirote as to spoil his voice. Finally, in imitation of Flamininus, he went through the farce of bestowing freedom on the province, and himself proclaimed his clemency standing in the middle of the stadium.

The venality of athletics at the Isthmia under the Empire is evident from the story already quoted of a disappointed athlete, who actually took proceedings to recover the amount of a bribe, and published his own shame before all the assembled crowds.[354] Such an incident implies a degraded public opinion and the absence of all true love of sport. Indeed, it is evident from Dion Chrysostom that the Corinthians and Athenians had already acquired from the Romans a taste for the more exciting and more brutal exhibitions of the amphitheatre.[355] The festival seems to have survived down to the time of the Emperor Julian; but there was no longer any interest in athletic or musical competitions. The vast sums spent by the Corinthians on their games were spent, the emperor tells us, in the purchase of bears and leopards to be hunted in the arena.[356]

The sanctuary of Poseidon where the Isthmian games were held has been excavated, but the excavations throw little light on the history of the games themselves. It consisted of a small acropolis surrounded by a wall, the north side of which was formed by the great military wall that guarded the Isthmus. The sacred way, according to Pausanias, was lined on one side by a row of pine trees, on the other by statues of athletes who had won victories at the festival. Traces have been found of the temples of Poseidon and Palaemon, of the sacred way, of the theatre, and of the stadium, but all are of late date. The stadium lay in a ravine, formed by a stream which must have been diverted from its course, but has now returned to it. It was about 650 feet long. It was seated with marble; and some traces of the seats survive. An inscription in honour of Publius Licinius Priscus, a Roman citizen of Corinth who lived in the second century A.D., records that he built a stoa adjoining the stadium with vaulted rooms opening into it.[357] The same benefactor provided, at his own expense, buildings for the accommodation of the athletes, who came to the Isthmia from “all the inhabited world,” and repaired various buildings which had suffered from the ravages of time and earthquakes including the “judging-rooms” (ἐγκριτηρίονς οἴκους), by which phrase, apparently, are meant the rooms where competitors were examined and classified. No traces of these buildings have been found, nor has the site of the hippodrome been discovered.

The festival must have lasted several days. It began with a sacrifice to Poseidon,[358] and included athletic, equestrian, and musical competitions, and perhaps also a regatta. The athletic and equestrian events differed little from those at other festivals. There were separate competitions for men, youths, and boys, and the youths’ competitions included the pankration.[359] There was also, as at Nemea, a four stades’ or hippios foot-race.[360] The multiplication of boys’ events here, as at Nemea and at the Panathenaea, indicates the comparatively local character of the competition at these festivals.

From the connexion of the festival with Poseidon we should expect to find that the equestrian events were an important part of the programme. Herodotus of Thebes and Xenocrates of Agrigentum won the chariot-race in Pindar’s time,[361] and somewhat later one Theochrestus of Cyrene and two Spartans, Xenarches and Polycles.[362] A horse named Lycus had in the sixth century won two victories for Pheidolas of Corinth or his sons.[363] These are all the records that we possess; but the occurrence of the two-horse chariot on coins of Commodus may perhaps be an indication that chariot-racing still took place at the Isthmia under the Empire.

There is no mention of musical contests previous to the third century B.C., when a certain Nicocles of Tarentum won six victories as kitharodos.[364] He claims apparently to have been the first victor in this competition, but the existence of musical competitions from the earliest days of the festival is rendered probable by the tradition that in mythical times Olympus was victorious in flute-playing, Orpheus on the lyre, Linus in song, and Eumolpus in singing to the lyre and the flute.[365] In Roman times there were numerous musical competitions. There must also have been poetical competitions. The poetess Aristomacha of Erythrae is stated to have won a prize at the Isthmia, and a pupil of Herodes won a prize for an enkomion.[366] During the Hellenistic age it seems probable that there were dramatic competitions held in connexion with the guilds of Dionysiac players, but these competitions must have disappeared under the Empire. Finally, Pliny asserts that at the Isthmus as at Delphi, a competition in painting existed in the time of Panaenus.[367]

The only evidence for the regatta is the statement that in mythical times the Argo won the boat-race at the Isthmus. The Isthmus was certainly a fitting place for such a race: there were boat-races at the Panathenaea, and the Athenian theoria came to the Isthmia in a ship. But we have no definite information on the point.

In Pindar’s time the Isthmian crown[368] was made of wild celery, dry celery, as the scholiast explains, to distinguish it from the fresh celery of which the Nemean crown was made. According to later writers the Isthmian crown was of pine leaves; the pine tree was sacred to Poseidon, and an avenue of pines lined the sacred road at the Isthmus. It seems not unlikely that the original crown was of pine leaves, and this practice was revived under the Empire. On the coins of Augustus and Nero the celery crown is still represented, while on those of Antoninus Pius and Verus, we see the inscription Ἴσθμια encircled by a crown of pine leaves[369] (Fig. 28).

A scene connected with the Isthmian games occurs on a silver cup, which was part of an offering dedicated to Mercurius of Canetum by Q. Domitius Tutus (Figs. 29, 30). To the left is a victorious athlete crowned, and holding in his hands a palm branch. Before him is a table on which stands a herm, to which he has dedicated a fillet and a crown, which curiously appears to be of oak leaves, not of pine or celery. Beyond the table is seated an Agonothetes; and a woman holding a torch stands next to him. In spite of the crown of oak, the identification of the scene with the Isthmia is rendered certain by the representation of the Acrocorinthus and Pegasus, to whom a nymph gives water from the fountain of Peirene.[370]

(3) The Nemea

Little is known of the history of the Nemean games. Their importance dates from the year 573 B.C., when they were re-organized as a Panhellenic festival. This year was reckoned as the first Nemead, and from this date the games were held regularly every two years in the deep-lying vale of Nemea, “beneath the shadeless hills of Phlious.” The presidency of the games belonged to the neighbouring town of Cleonae, until about the year 460 B.C. it was usurped by the Argives, and in spite of rival claims it remained in their hands ever afterwards. The control of a Panhellenic festival was of considerable political importance, and the Argives had no scruple in manipulating the sacred truce to their own interests. On more than one occasion, it seems, a Spartan invasion had been met by sacred heralds proclaiming the sacred truce.[371] At last, Agesipolis in 390 B.C. appealed to Olympian Zeus and Pythian Apollo for leave to disregard the fraudulent truce, and, having obtained their approval, marched through Nemea, and gave such a lesson to the Argives that they never again tried to shelter themselves behind the truce.

At some date between this event and the close of the third century, the festival itself was transferred to Argos. Aratus, when engaged in war with Argos, made an attempt to restore the festival to the Cleonaeans who had joined the Achaean league.[372] The games were once more held at Nemea, and the athletes who had gone to compete at the rival games at Argos were, in defiance of the sacred truce, arrested and sold as slaves by the Achaeans. But the attempt of Aratus failed, and the festival continued to be held at Argos under Argive presidency. It was at Argos probably that musical competitions were first introduced into the festival. Plutarch[373] relates how Philopoemen, after defeating the Spartan tyrant Machanidas in the battle of Mantinea, came to Argos and reviewed his troops before the people assembled for the games. He entered the theatre during the musical competitions at the moment when the musician Pylades was reciting the opening verse of the _Persae_ of Timotheus—

The palm of liberty for Greece I won—

and the whole assembly, struck by the coincidence, with one accord hailed him as the saviour of Greece. Philip V. of Macedon had, some years previously, been appointed by the Argives to preside over the games on the ground that the kings of Macedon were of Argive descent, and the same honour was afterwards bestowed on Flamininus.[374] Under the Empire the festival was still celebrated at Argos. Hadrian seems to have revived its glory. He instituted a winter festival, in which the race in armour was a conspicuous feature, and he also revived the hippios or four stades’ race which had fallen into disuse at the Nemea and the Isthmia.[375] The Argive coins of Antoninus Pius bear the inscription Νέμεια, surrounded by a celery wreath (Fig. 31), and the latter occurs still later on the coins of Gallienus. Meanwhile the old Nemean sanctuary had fallen so far into disuse that when Pausanias visited Nemea, he found the temple of Nemean Zeus roofless and the statue of the god gone.

Little is left to-day of the Nemean sanctuary, nor has the site ever been properly excavated. There was no town at Nemea, merely a sanctuary of Zeus with a stadium and a hippodrome, and we must suppose also a gymnasium. The cypress grove in which the temple of Zeus stood has disappeared, and of the temple itself only three pillars are left, sufficient, however, to show that the temple cannot have been much earlier than the close of the fifth century. The site of the stadium is also visible in a deep ravine some 650 feet long, the end of which forms a natural sphendone. There is no trace of hippodrome or gymnasium. There are said to be traces of a theatre, but the statement appears to be doubtful. Possibly the semicircular end of the stadium has been mistaken for a theatre.[376]

The Nemea took place on the 12th day of the month Panemos, which seems to correspond approximately to our July. The old idea that the festival was held alternately in summer and winter is now abandoned, and it is generally agreed that the winter Nemea was a local festival founded by Hadrian. The duration of the festival is unknown; it must certainly have lasted several days. The prize, as has been already stated, was a wreath of wild celery (σέλινον), and the officials, who bore the title of Hellanodicae, wore dusky robes of mourning in commemoration of the funeral origin of the games.

The athletic programme, like that of the Isthmia, included numerous events for boys and youths. The boys’ pentathlon was introduced in the 53rd Nemead, and in the next Nemead was won by Sogenes of Aegina; and the boys’ pankration, an event not introduced at Olympia till a much later period, was won by Pytheas of Aegina, and probably by Argeius of Ceos, whose victory at the Isthmia has been already noticed.[377] There was also a hippios-race for boys. Races in armour seem to have been a special feature of the Nemea. They were run over the hippios course and were, according to Philostratus, of great antiquity.[378]

We hear little of equestrian competitions. The chariot-race and the horse-race are mentioned in the account of the mythical founding of the games by the Seven Chieftains, and the chariot-race was won in the fifth century by Chromius of Aetna, Alcibiades of Athens, and Xenarches of Sparta; after this we hear no more of it. Nor have we any record of the horse-race which, if we may argue from the mythical tradition, probably existed. The site of the hippodrome is lost; Pausanias tells us that its course was twice the length of the stadium.

There was a competition for trumpeters; but we have no record of musical competitions previous to the transference of the festival to Argos. The absence of any mention of musical competitions in the mythological accounts of the founding of the Nemea, and the association of the Nemea with Zeus and Heracles, makes it improbable that these events existed in early times. The only victors in them known to us belong to the time of the Empire. They are either kitharodoi, singers to the lyre, or Pythaulai, players of the Pythian nome on the flute. In late times there were probably dramatic competitions at Nemea, as at the Isthmus.

From the length of the athletic programme and the scarcity of records of other competitions, we may safely infer that the interest of the Nemea was almost entirely athletic. In fact, if Olympia was “the most athletic of all festivals,” Nemea may almost claim second place. At Delphi the musical competitions took precedence of the athletic, at the Isthmus there was a variety of counter-attractions, even at Olympia the chariot-race rivalled athletics in popularity. At the Nemea, previous to their transference to Argos, athletics were supreme.[379]

The scanty records of victors in the Nemea seem to show that in the fifth century competitors came mostly from the Peloponnese, from Athens, and from the islands of the Aegean.[380] Particularly numerous are the victors from Aegina, though the preponderance of this island in the records may be partly due to the fact of its close connexion with Pindar, most of the Aeginetan victors being known to us from his odes. The Cean inscription, to which reference has already been made, shows that here, as at the Isthmus, the Ceans were constant competitors. The victories of the Oligaethidae of Corinth and the Timodemidae of Athens have been already mentioned. On the other hand, we find few victors at Nemea from either Italy or Sicily. In the succeeding centuries the interest of the festival seems to have declined; the few victors known to us are mostly Peloponnesian; many came from Elis. Under the Empire the only recorded victors are professionals from Alexandria and the powerful cities of Asia Minor.

Footnote 332:

_C.I.G._ 1688.

Footnote 333:

_N.H._ xxxv. 58.

Footnote 334:

Pindar, _Fr._ 83.

Footnote 335:

_B.C.H._ xxiii. p. 613.

Footnote 336:

A list of victors in the Pythian games is given in Krause, _Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmien_, pp. 85 ff. Details of the stadium and gymnasium at Delphi will be found below, pp. 257, 483.

Footnote 337:

_B.C.H._ xxx., 1906, pp. 191-328.

Footnote 338:

Plut. _Quaest. Symp._ ii. 5; Sophocles, _El._ 698.

Footnote 339:

Strabo viii. 6, 20; Aristid. _Isthm._ 45; Dion of Prusa, Διογ. ἡ Ἵσθμ. etc.

Footnote 340:

Unger, _Philologus_, xxxvii. p. 1.

Footnote 341:

xxxiii. 32.

Footnote 342:

Lucian, _Nero_, 1.

Footnote 343:

Krause, _op. cit._ p. 209.

Footnote 344:

A full account of this inscription is given in Jebb’s _Bacchylides_, pp. 187 ff.

Footnote 345:

Pindar, _O._ xiii. 98; _N._ ii. 22.

Footnote 346:

_Pax_, 880. In this play the personified Theoria comes back to earth in the train of Eirene, but Theoria is not confined to the Isthmian theoria.

Footnote 347:

Thucyd. viii. 9.

Footnote 348:

Xen. _Hell._ iv. 5.

Footnote 349:

Polyb. ii. 13.

Footnote 350:

Paus. ii. 2, 2.

Footnote 351:

_Gaz. Arch._, 1884, 1885.

Footnote 352:

Lucian, _Nero_.

Footnote 353:

_B.C.H._ xii. 510-528.

Footnote 354:

_Supra_, p. 174.

Footnote 355:

_Supra_, p. 172.

Footnote 356:

Julian, _Epist._ 35.

Footnote 357:

_I.G._ iv. 203.

Footnote 358:

Xen. _Hell._ iv. 5.

Footnote 359:

Bacchylides i., ii.

Footnote 360:

_Ib._ ix.

Footnote 361:

Pindar, _I._ i., ii.

Footnote 362:

Paus. vi. 1, 7; 2, 2.

Footnote 363:

Paus. vi. 13, 10.

Footnote 364:

_I.G._ ii. 1367.

Footnote 365:

Hyginus, _Fab._ 165, 173.

Footnote 366:

Plut. _Quaest. Symp._ ii. 4, v. 2, viii. 4.

Footnote 367:

_H.N._ xxxv. 58.

Footnote 368:

Krause, _op. cit._ p. 197.

Footnote 369:

_B.M. Cat., Coins of Corinth_, 509-512, 564, 602, 624; cp. _I.G._ ii. 1320, where we find Ἴσθμια enclosed in a wreath of pine leaves.

Footnote 370:

The cup, which forms part of the Bernay treasure, is in the Cabinet des médailles at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Le Prevost, _Mém. sur la collection des vases de Bernay_, Pls. viii., ix.; Schreiber, _Atlas_, xxv. 1, 2.

Footnote 371:

Xen. _Hell._ iv. 7, 2; v. 1, 29.

Footnote 372:

Plutarch, _Aratus_, 17.

Footnote 373:

Plutarch, _Philopoemen_, 11.

Footnote 374:

Livy xxvii. 30, xxxiv. 41.

Footnote 375:

Paus. v. 16, 4.

Footnote 376:

Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 91.

Footnote 377:

Pindar, _N._ v., vii.; Bacchylides, i. xii.

Footnote 378:

Phil. _Gym._ 7; Paus. vi. 16, 4.

Footnote 379:

The athletic character of the Nemea is emphasized in Bacchylides’ Twelfth Ode, in which the origin of the pankration is traced to the victory of Heracles over the Nemean lion.

Footnote 380:

Krause, _op. cit._ p. 147.