Corinth, though traditionally Dorian, had little in common with the other Dorian states of the Peloponnese. All her sympathies were Ionian. With the Ionians of the East she was closely connected by that trade which was the basis of her wealth, and by the common worship of Poseidon. The influence of the East is clearly marked in the early art of Corinth, especially in her pottery. Equally close were her relations with Athens. We have seen that Theseus was one of the reputed founders of the Isthmia; and that the Athenian theoroi had a special place of privilege at the festival. Indeed, the Isthmia seem almost to have been regarded as an Attic festival, and were an occasion of merry-making, a sort of public holiday for all classes of Athens, even for slaves. Many an Athenian was debarred from visiting Olympia by the length of the journey, the heat, and other discomforts of the festival itself. The Isthmia suffered from no such drawbacks; it was but a few hours’ journey, either by land or sea; the festival took place in the spring; Corinth offered ample accommodation for such as could afford it; those who could not afford it might take their tents with them and encamp in the neighbourhood. Under these circumstances it is reasonable to suppose that the Isthmia bore more resemblance to the Panathenaea, or even to the Delia, both of which festivals were also said to have been founded by Theseus, than they did to the more strenuous Olympia; and such few facts as we know about the programme confirm this idea.
It is perhaps to this essential difference in character that we may ascribe the sort of feud existing between the Olympia and the Isthmia. The Olympia were accounted “the most athletic” of all festivals.[342] The inferiority of the Isthmia in athletic prestige is proved by the fact that Solon assigned only 100 drachmae to a winner at the Isthmia, while he assigned 500 to an Olympic winner.
Of the history of the Isthmia in the fifth and fourth centuries we know practically nothing. The records of victories in the games are too scanty to enable us to form any trustworthy conclusions;[343] as far as they go they indicate that the athletic competition was far more local than at Olympia. There are hardly any names of victors recorded from Sicily and Italy which figure so largely in the Olympic records. With the exception of a few periodonikai the competitors come chiefly from Corinth, Aegina, Thebes, and Athens, and some of the islands of the Aegean. Bacchylides in his Second Ode on Argeius of Ceos mentions that at this date the Ceans had already won seventy victories at the Isthmus, and a Cean inscription, now at Athens, records numerous victories which they had won at the Isthmia and the Nemea, including victories of Argeius.[344] The Oligaethidae of Corinth had, according to Pindar, themselves won sixty crowns at these two festivals, and the Timodemidae of Athens had won eight victories at the Isthmus and seven at the Nemea. We can find no such records as these at Olympia.[345]