Isthmian Games
conceptOne of the four Panhellenic Games held at Corinth every two years in honour of Poseidon, with victors crowned in pine or celery wreaths.
The Myth
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:
Explore Further
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Ino
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