Greece Travel Guide the Peloponnese Corinth Prefecture: Ancient Isthmia

The excellent Museum, which is recommended for the first stop, stands at the top of a rise by the road. Open Tues-Sun; 8:30am-3pm; free—same hours as site.

The modern town lies on either side of the Saronic Gulf entrance to the Canal. The ancient site is to the south, on a hill beside the modern village of Kyranos (or Krias) Vrysi.

The Sanctuary of Poseidon is on a natural terrace between the village and the Isthmian Wall which extends for 9.5km across the narrowest part of the isthmus through which the Corinth Canal was cut. Considerable traces of the wall fortifications remain, following a natural line of low cliffs, and can be traced for its entire length, the best preserved part being that just east of the Sanctuary, where the wall is 7meters high and 2.5meters thick.

The Sanctuary of Poseidon was one of the four Panhellenic sanctuaries mentioned and praised in the Odes of Pindar, which was famous for its games (the others being Olympia, Nemea, and Delphi). As with these others, the games at Isthmia are believed to have originally honoured the funeral of a particular hero.

Legend has it that Melikertes (the Phoenician Melkarth), who leapt into the sea with his mother from the Molurian Rock, was taken to the isthmus by a dolphin. Corinth at that time was enduring a famine, and an oracle instructed that only a proper burial and games to honor the drowned boy would end the famine. The games that followed from this were given the boy's name, which was (for some reason) changed to Palaimon. Afterward the oracle further instructed that the games continue in perpetuity to prevent the return of famine.

Legends also ascribe the foundation of the games at Isthmia variously to Poseidon, Sisyphos, and Attic tradition maintains that Theseus was responsible. In any case, the games began around the time of Periander, the date usually given as 582BC, and they were held in the second and fourth year of each Olympiad. Corinth was in charge of them until its destruction in 146 BC, when Sikyon, took over, but they passed back to Corinth with the refounding of the city of Corinth by Julius Caesar. The Athenians originally had the place of honor and the Elians were excluded; the Romans were permitted to compete beginning in 288BC. The athletic contests resembled those at Olympia, to which Isthmia played a close second. In 336BC Alexander the Great ('Megasalexandhros' in Greek) was nominated leader of the Greeks against Persia; in 196BC Flaminius declared the independence of Greece; a proclamation echoed by Nero in 67AD.

The Isthmian Museum

The excellent Museum, which is recommended for the first stop, stands at the top of a rise by the road. Open Tues-Sun; 8:30am-3pm;free-same hours as site.

The first section is devoted to Isthmia itself, with amphorae (panathenaic type), athletic equipment, tiles and paintings from the Archaic temple. Next come finds from Kenchreai with panels of glass mosaic showing a harbor town. These were found in crates and may have been imported from Egypt. They were damaged in an ancient earthquake. Kenchreai was the ancient port of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf. Traces, mainly Roman, of harbor installations remain under the water there. There are also wooden doors and scultpted ivory plaques with seated male figures in this section.

The Isthmian Site

Excavations began in 1952 by the University of Chicago under Oscar Broneer. The Roman temple known as the Palaimonion had a square foundation and a circular open colonnade of eight columns, which can be seen on local coins of the Antonine period. It was built over an underground water conduit , which was said to be the tomb of Palaimon.

Next to this, beneath the South Stoa the Older Stadium was unearthed. It maybe have been abandoned in 390BC. The Starting Gate for sixteen runners has radiating grooves. The Temple of Poseidon was a 5th century BC Doric edifice with a perstyle of six columns by thirteen. The excavator has been quoted as saying that the visitor 'will marvel chiefly, perhaps, at the thoroughness of its destruction.' A 7th century BC Archaic temple that had stood on the same site, exceptional in its early use of dressed stone, had been totally destroyed by fire, and the later building also suffered from fire in 394BC, though the circumstances are unknown. It was later re-roofed. A gigantic statue which formed part of a cult group of Poseidon and Amphitrite was discovered in 1952.

After the sack of Corinth, the site fell into decrepitude, and traces of a wagon road passing across its altar can be seen, to be restoed by Tiberius during the 2nd century AD. The Temenos (sacred precinct) was extended, and the temple area surrounded by stoas, paid for by the high priest, P. Licinius Priscus. The Theater was built in the 4th century BC in an artificial hollow, (which is now cultivated with crops) half way between the temenos and the Isthmian Wall. Nothing remains of the original, the structure later modified several times. Its roof tiles are stamped with the name of Poseidon or with a dolphin and trident. This is the spot where Nero gave his speech on the liberation of Greece. The remains of the huge Roman baths are visible only from the fence, where ecavations since 1975 unearthed the Great Hall with a wonderful mosaic floor, an elaborate hypocaust (heating system with pipes under the floors, and traces of a pool. The Later Stadium is southeast of the Sanctuary, on the opposite side of the road and in a gully. It is larger than the first one and was in use from around 390 until 146BC. In 1960, the starting line was found at the open end. Past the stadium on the slope are traces of a Cyclopean Wall dating from the end of the Mycenaean period, which may have just been the retaining wall of a road.