Isthmian Games Research Articles

Les jeux panhelléniques dans les rapports entre les cités grecques d'Europe et d'Asie

This article focuses in a first part on the four main games that brought together the Greeks of Europe and those of Asia. These four major contests were the Olympic Games, Isthmian Games, Pythian Games, and Nemean Games. In addition, it highlights the conclusion of the truces which were considered an essential condition for the organization of these games. In a second part, the study shows that Greeks came from all cities to participate in the games. It also mentions the honor both an athlete and a city derived from a victory during these games. Finally, the study addresses the fact that the games were opportunities to strengthen the bonds of cultural kinship between Greek city-states and occasions for diplomatic negotiations.

Professionalism and Amateurism in Modern Olympic Sports

The Olympic Games were not the only major sporting event in ancient Greek civilisation. The Nemean, Pythian and Isthmian Games were held simultaneously. After the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, modern Olympic sport has passed a difficult, albeit not so long-term path. But even earlier, around the middle of the XIX century, professional sports began to form in the developed countries of Europe and the United States. The appearance of professional athletes, both in the ancient world and in modern history, was essentially the result of those significant changes that occurred in the economic, social and political aspects of human life at the stages of its development and the evolution of sports competitions. It can be argued that professional sports (both in ancient and modern times) arose as a particular human activity, the content of which was sports. However, the problem of amateurs and professionalism in modern Olympic sports and the Olympic movement was one of the most significant in the context of introducing Olympic ideals into the life of society, solving the problem of “fair play” and allowing athletes to participate in major international competitions (Olympic Games, World Championships, etc.).

The Christian Marathoner: Athletic References in Paul’s Epistles

When the Apostle Paul came to Corinth, most likely in the year 50 AD, Corinth had regained its cosmopolitan importance after its destruction by the Romans in 146 BC. Once again it was a prominent and flourishing commerce city. Its bustling population developed the city and its port to be a vital connecting link between Italy and the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. After a century of virtual abandonment, Corinth’s Isthmian Games were once again celebrated in the same festive manner as they had been in the past. Since Paul, on his first visit remained in Corinth for eighteen months, as indicated in the book of Acts of the Apostles, he must have been present at the Isthmian Games held in the spring of 51 AD. This experience, as well as those of his own youthful Hellenic and Judaic educational upbringing, gave Paul the opportunity to re-acquaint himself with pagan rituals and use athletic images to spread his evangelical message. Although there is no documented evidence that Paul was an athlete, this qualitative analysis of Alexandrine Greek text, which Paul used to write his epistles, as well as archaeological evidence, points out Paul’s usage of many athletic/sport related references (words) in spreading his evangelical message. In the arena of Christian spiritual contests, Paul was an exceptional Isthmian “athlete”.

“Good Luck” from Corinth: A Mosaic of Allegory, Athletics, and City Identity

A Severan mosaic in the South Stoa in Corinth, Greece, depicts a victorious athlete and a seated, semidraped goddess. Holding an inscribed shield as well as a vessel from which water streams into a basin, she recalls two famous Corinthian trademarks, the Aphrodite of Acrocorinth and the nymph Peirene. They are but two reference points among her many explicit and implicit associations, and it is argued that her syncretic form would have inspired rich and textured readings by contemporary viewers. The mosaic is interpreted as an allegory of the Isthmian Games and the goddess as Corinth herself. The inscription on the shield, “eutychia“ (good luck), reflects on the fortune of the victor and offers the same to the viewer. Iconographic and contextual analyses offer insights into the circumstances in which the work was installed, maintained, and viewed, as well as its relationship to broader concerns in Corinth and across the Roman empire. Color images of some of the figures herein can be found under this article’s abstract on AJA Online.

A Roman Circus in Corinth

During the 1967–1968 excavations of the Gymnasium area in Corinth, a long and narrow structure (the Apsidal Building) was discovered. It is argued here that the structure represents the eastern meta and a portion of the spina of a circus, where chariot races were held. The circus appears to have been planned as an integral component of the Caesarian design of the city, constructed during the Augustan period, renovated in the late 1st century a.d., and refurbished as late as the 6th century. Furthermore, the circus was often the site of the equestrian contests of the Corinthian Caesarea festival and at times of the Panhellenic Isthmian Games.

After Paul left Corinth: the influence of secular ethics and social change

After Paul Left Corinth gathers for the first time all the relevant extant material from literary, nonliterary, and archaeological sources on what life was like in the first-century Roman colony of Corinth. Using this evidence, Bruce Winter not only opens a fascinating vista on day-to-day living in the Graeco-Roman world but, more importantly, helps us understand what happened to the Christian community after Paul left Corinth. As Winter shows, the origin of many of the problems Paul dealt with in 1 Corinthians can be traced to culturally determined responses to aspects of life in Corinth. The significance of the role that culture played in the life of the Corinthian Christians has either been ignored or underestimated in explaining the reasons for their difficulties after Paul left. Winter first examines the extent to which Paul communicated alternative ways of behaving while he was in Corinth. Winter then explores the social changes that occurred in Corinth after Paul left. Severe grain shortages, the relocation of the Isthmian Games, the introduction of a new federal imperial cult, the withdrawal of kosher meat from the official market-all of these cultural events had a substantial impact on the life of the emerging Christian community. Accentuated with photos of relevant archaeological artifacts, this volume provides a significant new perspective from which to read Paul's Corinthian correspondence.

Satyr and image in Aeschylus'Theoroi

The enduring fame of Aeschylus as the earliest of the ‘three great tragedians’ has made him in effect the first dramatist of the Western tradition, in chronological terms at least. At the same time it is worth noting that among the ancients he also enjoyed a reputation as a master of the satyr play, as Pausanias (2.13.6–7) and Diogenes Laertius (2.133) tell us. It is to this kind of drama, which comprised one-quarter of his output as tragedian, that I would like to turn, with particular focus on hisTheoroiorIsthmiastai, and its treatment of another visual medium, the plastic arts. Our fragments of this play begin with a figure presenting a chorus of satyrs with artfully wrought images made in their likenesses which bring them a startled delight. In the second discernible scene of the fragment the chorus receivesνεοχμᾰ… θρματα ([c] col. ii 50), usually understood as athletic equipment, which the satyrs find rather more unsettling. The following piece is primarily concerned with the first scene in which the coryphaeus urges his companions to dedicate the depictions as votives on Poseidon's temple, relishing the prospect of the comical, terrifying effect these images would have on his own mother and travellers, the latter probably on their way to the Isthmian games. At least this much is clear from the papyrus (esp. lines 1–22). This part of the fragment has attracted a good deal of attention for the evident ‘realism’ of the images that excites the satyrs so much in the first place.

A New Document from the Isthmian Games

A New Document from the Isthmian Games

Paul and the Pagan Cults at Isthmia

When the Apostle Paul came to Corinth, probably in the year 50, the Roman colony Laus Iulia Corinthiensis was a flourishing center of trade and industry and a vital link of communication between Italy and the eastern provinces of the empire. It was still in the process of rebuilding after the thorough destruction by the Romans in 146 B.C., followed by a century of virtual abandonment. The Isthmian Games, which the Sikyonians had taken over and had presumably transferred to Sikyon, were again celebrated on the site where they had been held for more than a half millennium. Since Paul remained in Corinth for eighteen months on his first visit, he would have been there in the spring of 51, when the games were held at Isthmia. If, as I believe, the biennial Isthmian festival played a contributing, if not decisive, role in his choice of Corinth as the chief base of his missionary work in Greece, he would have come to the Isthmus for the occasion, and this gave him the opportunity to become familiar at first hand with the pagan rites that formed an integral part of the festival.

Mystery Site on Mount Lutraki

During the Corinthian War Agesilaos, after capturing the port of Lechaion in 391 B.c., returned to Corinth the following spring. He found the Corinthians and Argives, who had formed a defensive union, on the point of celebrating the Isthmian Games. When the Spartans approached, the celebrants decamped, whereupon Agesilaos bivouacked in the sacred enclosure, sacrificed to Poseidon on his own account, and waited until the pro-Spartan Corinthian exiles had done the same. On the king's departure the Corinthians and Argives returned and celebrated the games all over again.

The Apostle Paul and the Isthmian Games

Next article No AccessThe Apostle Paul and the Isthmian GamesOscar BroneerOscar Broneer Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 25, Number 1February 1962 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/3211017 Views: 4Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The Biblical Archaeologist (1938-1997), which is continued by Near Eastern Archaeology (1998-present). Copyright 1962 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Researches at Isthmia

The following article embodies the results of researches made by the writer at the supposed site of the Sanctuary of Poseidon at the Isthmus and of the Isthmian games. Two short campaigns of excavation upon a very small scale were made in 1932 and 1933, in the course of which many areas were tested. Mr. H. Megaw has rendered invaluable assistance by making a revised and accurate plan of Justinian's fort (the so-called temenos) and a new plan of the district which includes all the areas in which trials were made; the section dealing with the fortifications (pp. 69–79) is also his work. The writer's thanks are also due to Mr. E. J. A. Kenny, who assisted in the preparation of the western section of the large plan; fig. 9 is based on a large-scale plan also by him. A short notice of the operations undertaken in 1932 appeared in J.H.S. 52, 244, but at least one suggestion made in it has now to be abandoned in the light of the fresh evidence secured in 1933.

Theseus, Sinis, and the Isthmian Games

There are in the Hope Collection two vases, which may help towards an explanation of the well-known myth of Theseus and Sinis. They are both known from publications of about a hundred years back, but have for a long period been lost sight of. By the kindness of the owners I am able to bring them once more to light.The scene from the side of one of them was published by Millin in his Peintures de Vases Antiques. It shows in the middle a tree growing from a small rise of ground. To the left of it stands Sinis, naked and bearded. He has pulled down a branch. To the right is Theseus, a young man in travelling costume, wearing a sword and carrying two spears. He has pulled down a larger branch. On the extreme left is a draped bearded man holding a sceptre. Millin writes, ‘le vase est aujourd'hui en Angleterre: il appartient à M. Edouard.’ By ‘M. Edouard’ he must mean J. Edwards, whose collection was dispersed in 1815, when the vase probably came directly into the hands of Thomas Hope. Millin's drawing is so incorrect and his description so scanty (he does not even indicate the shape) that a republication is necessary.