by Phedre de Feuillide

Created on: March 24, 2008   Last Updated: May 09, 2010

Unbeknownst to most people, the Olympic games of ancient times consisted of four separate games held at separate locations throughout the year.  The four pan Hellenic games, Olympic, Nemean, Pythian, and Isthmian, were some of the most important festivals in ancient Greece, with the Olympic games being the most important of the sporting festivals. The term "Olympics," eventually came to encompass all of the Hellenic games. 

The games served not only an athletic and cultural role, but played a central religious part for the Greeks, each of the games were held in honor of a god, and provided the Greeks with great entertainment in many fields such as poetry and music as well as the more well know athletic endeavors. They represented the coming together of all Greeks and the excellence of Greek culture. Each of the games had its own separate foundation myth, or myths, which gave each of the games their own character.

The Isthmian games were primarily dedicated to the god lord of the sea, Poseidon, but also had associations with Dionysus, god of wine and revelry. These games took place in the city of Corinth on the year before and after the Olympic games. There are three myths which are connected with the founding of the games. One myth is that they were founded, "around 580 BC, to celebrate the death of the tyrant Kyselos" (thefreedictionary.com 1). Another myth, which is far more complicated, is the one involving Poseidon and Dionysus.

It begins with the orphaned Dionysus being given to his aunt and uncle to raise after Hera had tricked Zeus into killing Semele, Dionysus' mother. Hera was so jealous of the affair that Zeus and Semele had been having, that she decided to go after Ino and Athamas, the aunt and uncle, as well as the rest of their family. What is agreed on in all renditions of this myth is that both parents were driven insane by the Furies. Athamas killed his oldest son, Learchus, thinking that he was either a deer, or according to Ovid, a Lion. After this, Ino took the younger son, Melikertes, and jumped into the ocean. Corinth was the traditional place where it was said that a dolphin brought the body of Melikertes to shore. Like in many other myths, the two tragic figures of Ino and Melikertes were turned into gods, Leukothea, and Palaimon. This is probably the oldest of the myths due to the fact that there seems to have been an older festival which held only night-time events. Of course, a simpler reason for the games association with

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