June 29th - Day 19

Isthmia

Today was another day in the blazing sun as we traveled to Isthmia to see the Sanctuary of Poseidon and Nemea to see the Sanctuary of Zeus. I was not sad to leave New Corinth. Our hotel and the area surrounding the hotel left a lot to be desired. Other than a really comfortable bed it really wasn’t anything to write home about.

Both of the sites we visited today were home to stadiums were games were held to honor the gods. We started the day in Isthmia where Martha Risser, an archaeologist on the site, took us around. We started the tour by looking at the Great Pit, which seems to be the site for the feasting associated with the games. We then moved on to the Temple of Poseidon, which was built around 690 BC. It was built of stone and the roof was made of tiles. The alter associated with the temple is about 100 feet long and the temple was destroyed by a fire sometime between 460 and 450 BC. Across from the temple are some dining caves which consist of 2 rooms lined with benches. These would probably have been used by past victors, priests, or political representatives. Isthmia was the home of both musical and athletic games and we got to see the remains of the old athletic stadium which a reconstructed wooden starting gate.

We were then passed to Tim Gregory, another archaeologist on the site, who toured us around a Roman bath built in about 400 AD. The bath had an incredibly elaborative mosaic floor, which appeared to be white until Tim sprayed it with a hose. The mosaic is mostly off white with black tiles, but it does contain some colored stones as well. After that we trudged back up to see the site’s museum containing finds from the site.

Then it was back on the bus and off to Nemea, home to the Temple of Zeus. In addition to being a site honoring Zeus, Nemea is also home to the hero cult of Opheltes. Opheltes was the son of King Lycurgus of Nemea and it was his tragically premature death, which led to the first Nemean Games. We started in the museum where our guide, Kim Shelton, pointed out some interesting artifacts related to the site, including some curse tablets. When a person wanted to curse someone they would write the curse down on a tablet, which they would then bury. It was believed that the heroes could read these tablets and communicated the information to the underworld where curses were believed to come from.

Nemea was also a site where games were held to honor Zeus and after touring the baths and temple we headed across the way to the ancient stadium where the games were held. We entered the stadium through the entrance that would have been used by the athletes and saw where some of the athletes had scraped their names into the walls while they waited to compete. After staging an impromptu footrace, we climbed back onto the bus and headed to Nauplion where we will spend the next 3 nights.