Isthmian Games
One of the four Panhellenic Games held at Corinth every two years in honour of Poseidon, with victors crowned in pine or celery wreaths.
The Meaning of Isthmian Games
The Isthmian Games were held at the sanctuary of Poseidon on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow land bridge connecting the Peloponnese to mainland Greece. According to myth, Theseus founded the games in honour of Poseidon after slaying the bandit Sinis, who had terrorised travellers on the Isthmus by bending pine trees to tear victims apart. Other traditions attributed the founding to Sisyphus as funeral games for the infant Melicertes, whose body washed ashore on the Isthmus after his mother Ino leapt into the sea. The games included athletic events, horse racing, and musical competitions. Victors received crowns of dried celery (later pine). Corinth's position controlling east-west trade made the Isthmian Games a commercial as well as religious gathering. All Greek states except Elis (which ran Olympia) participated, and the sacred truce protected travellers.
Parents
Poseidon (sacred to)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Corinth Canal, cut through the Isthmus in 1893, follows a route that Periander the tyrant attempted in 600 BC and that Nero began digging in 67 AD with Jewish prisoners of war. The Isthmus was so strategically vital that for millennia, ships were physically dragged across it on a stone trackway called the Diolkos — a 6th-century BC railway for boats. The Isthmian Games celebrated the god who ruled the waters this land bridge interrupted.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
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💭 conceptathletics, funeral
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💭 conceptCulture
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Olympic Games
💭 conceptAthletics, Zeus, Olympia
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💭 conceptathletics, music
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Olympic Truce
💭 conceptpeace, athletics
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Panathenaea
💭 conceptfestival, athletics
The most important festival of Athens, held annually in honour of Athena with a grand procession, athletic contests, and the presentation of a new peplos to the goddess.
God of Athletes
💭 conceptAthletics, competition, physical excellence, gymnastics
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Olympiad
💭 conceptAthletics and time-keeping
A four-year period between Olympic Games used as a dating system in ancient Greece, now applied to the modern Olympic Games and international athletic competition generally
Olympian
💭 conceptExcellence, supreme achievement, athletic greatness
Pertaining to supreme mastery or athletic competition, from Mount Olympus, home of the gods.
Pindar Odes
💭 conceptLiterature
Pindar's victory odes celebrating athletic champions at the great Panhellenic festivals of ancient Greece
Pentathalon
💭 conceptathletics, excellence
The five-event Olympic competition combining running, jumping, discus, javelin, and wrestling, considered the test of the complete athlete.
Panathenaia
💭 conceptFestival, Athena, Athens
Greatest Athenian festival honouring Athena with processions, contests, and the sacred peplos