Greek Athletic Sports And Festivals — Part 169-Cedar Herald Index

From the length of the athletic programme and the scarcity of records of other competitions, we may safely infer that the interest of the Nemea was almost entirely athletic. In fact, if Olympia was “the most athletic of all festivals,” Nemea may almost claim second place. At Delphi the musical competitions took precedence of the athletic, at the Isthmus there was a variety of counter-attractions, even at Olympia the chariot-race rivalled athletics in popularity. At the Nemea, previous to their transference to Argos, athletics were supreme.[379]

The scanty records of victors in the Nemea seem to show that in the fifth century competitors came mostly from the Peloponnese, from Athens, and from the islands of the Aegean.[380] Particularly numerous are the victors from Aegina, though the preponderance of this island in the records may be partly due to the fact of its close connexion with Pindar, most of the Aeginetan victors being known to us from his odes. The Cean inscription, to which reference has already been made, shows that here, as at the Isthmus, the Ceans were constant competitors. The victories of the Oligaethidae of Corinth and the Timodemidae of Athens have been already mentioned. On the other hand, we find few victors at Nemea from either Italy or Sicily. In the succeeding centuries the interest of the festival seems to have declined; the few victors known to us are mostly Peloponnesian; many came from Elis. Under the Empire the only recorded victors are professionals from Alexandria and the powerful cities of Asia Minor.

Greek Athletic Sports And Festivals — Part 169

A list of victors in the Pythian games is given in Krause, _Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmien_, pp. 85 ff. Details of the stadium and gymnasium at Delphi will be found below, pp. 257, 483.

Greek Athletic Sports And Festivals — Part 169