Nemean Games
conceptOne of the four Panhellenic Games held at Nemea every two years, traditionally founded as funeral games for the infant Opheltes, with victors crowned in wild celery.
The Myth
The Nemean Games were celebrated at the sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea in the northern Peloponnese. They were traditionally founded as funeral games for the infant Opheltes (also called Archemorus, "beginning of doom"), whose death foretold the disaster of the Seven Against Thebes. Opheltes' nurse Hypsipyle — former queen of Lemnos — set the baby on a bed of wild celery to show the Seven's army a spring. A serpent killed the child. The seer Amphiaraus interpreted the death as an omen: Opheltes was renamed Archemorus. The warriors founded the games in his honour, and victors wore wreaths of wild celery in mourning. The games included running, wrestling, boxing, pankration, and equestrian events. Heracles' slaying of the Nemean Lion as his first labour also connected to the site. The stadium at Nemea, excavated by UC Berkeley, preserves the oldest surviving starting mechanism for foot races.
Parents
Zeus (sacred to), Opheltes (honoured)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Nemean Games' starting mechanism — a set of grooved stone blocks with a cord system that dropped simultaneously for all runners — was the ancient equivalent of an electronic starting gun. UC Berkeley archaeologists rebuilt it and tested it with modern sprinters, proving it worked perfectly. Athletes at Nemea 2,500 years ago had fairer starts than those at most modern track meets before electronic timing was introduced in the 20th century.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
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