Nemea
Nemea was the valley in the Argolid where Heracles slew the Nemean Lion and where the biennial Nemean Games were held in honour of Zeus.
The Story of Nemea
The valley hosted one of the four great Panhellenic Games. According to myth, the games honoured the infant Opheltes, killed by a serpent while his nurse showed the Seven Against Thebes the way to water. The ruined Temple of Zeus still stands with its columns. Heracles' first labour — strangling the invulnerable lion — took place here, establishing the hero's most iconic image: a man in a lion skin.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Nemean Games have been revived — since 1996, athletes run barefoot in the ancient stadium wearing tunics, just as in antiquity.
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
Mycenae
🏛 placeCitadel of Agamemnon
Mycenae was the great Bronze Age citadel in the Argolid, seat of King Agamemnon who led the Greek expedition against Troy — its Lion Gate still stands after 3,200 years.
Tempe
🏛 placeSacred geography
The Vale of Tempe, a gorge in Thessaly sacred to Apollo where laurel for the Pythian Games was gathered
Lycia
🏛 placekingdom, Anatolia
A mountainous region in southwestern Anatolia whose warriors fought for Troy and whose hero Bellerophon slew the Chimera.
Ilium
🏛 placeGeography
The citadel of Troy, site of the legendary ten-year siege by the Greek forces
Corinth
🏛 placeCity of Sisyphus and Medea
Corinth was a wealthy trading city on the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece to the Peloponnese, associated with Sisyphus, Medea, Bellerophon, and Pegasus.
Crete
🏛 placeIsland of the Minotaur and Minoan civilisation
Crete was the largest Greek island and the seat of the Minoan civilisation, home to King Minos, the labyrinth, and the bull-cult that produced some of mythology's most famous stories.
Stymphalus
🏛 placeGeography
A lake and region in Arcadia where Heracles defeated the man-eating Stymphalian Birds as his sixth labour
Mount Ida
🏛 placeBirthplace cave of Zeus
Mount Ida was the highest peak in Crete, home to the cave where the infant Zeus was hidden from his father Kronos and raised in secret by nymphs and the Kouretes.
Lerna
🏛 placeSwamp of the Hydra
Lerna was a marshy region near Argos, famed as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra and believed to contain one of the entrances to the underworld.
Rhoeteum
🏛 placegeography
A promontory on the Trojan shore where the tomb of Ajax was located and pilgrims came to honour the hero.
Thebes
🏛 placeCity of Cadmus and Oedipus
Thebes was the great city of Boeotia, founded by Cadmus who sowed dragon teeth, and the setting for the tragedies of Oedipus, Antigone, and the Seven Against Thebes.
Pherae
🏛 placeGeography
A city in Thessaly where Admetus ruled and Alcestis chose to die in her husband's place