Nemea is the land of legends and traditions.
The homeland of the Nemean Lion slain by Hercules, the legendary hero. The Nemean lion was a vicious monster that lived in a cave on Mount Triton. Hercules trapped the beast and then killed it with his club. The strategic location of Nemea and its climate were the reasons that the Panhellenic Games were held in the region.
According to another myth, Nemea was ruled by King Lycurgus and Queen Eurydice, and their son Opheltes was killed by a snake while his nurse fetched water for the Seven on their way to Thebes coming from Argos. The Nemean Games were founded in his memory.
Today the archaeological site is dominated by the restored temple of Zeus as well as by the stadium, which lies further to the east and was the venue of the games. The temenos, the grave of Opheltes, was surrounded by open-air altars and enclosed within a stone wall. The sanctuary’s spring was named Adrasteia.
South of the altar and the temple are cypress trees and a series of embassies of various city-states. Some of them have dining rooms attached. A two-story building provided lodging for the athletes, and in line with that hotel was a bath.
Further to the south was a series of domestic structures for the staff, priests, judges, and caretakers of the games. West of the bath was the enclosed shrine of Opheltes with the remains of sacrifices and dedications, and west of that was the hippodrome for the equestrian competitions of the Nemean Games. A very large tripartite reservoir ensured a supply of water for the horses. Between the hippodrome and the tumulus of Opheltes was a practice track for the athletes with a small two-man starting line.
The marble throne decorated in relief is probably Hellenistic work, reused as a synthronon in the apse of the church into which the Parthenon had been transformed in the 6th century.
The Games
In the famed sanctuary of Zeus, the Nemean Games were held every two years. These were athletic games completing the group of four PanHellenic games in antiquity: the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean.
List of the known athletic events that were part of the Nemean Games.
Stadium: a sprint around 200 meters.
Diaulos: a two-stadia sprint of 400 meters.
Hippios: a four-stadia race around 800 meters.
Dolichos endurance race of 18-24 laps on the stadium (3 miles)
Hoplitodromos was an encumbered race in which athletes had to wear pieces of hoplite armor.
The pentathlon is a five-fold event consisting of the discus toss, javelin throw, long jump, stadium sprint, and wrestling.
The Nemean Games were established during the 51st Olympiad in 573 BC.
According to a description found in the area, the games were founded by the king of Argos, Adrastos, in 1251 BC in honor of Opheltes, who was poisoned by a snake. According to another version, the games were established by Hercules in commemoration of his victory against the Nemean lion. The stadium of Nemea could accommodate 40,000 spectators, and it was built 400 meters SE of the temple of Zeus.
The track (total length of 178 m) was bordered by a stone water channel with stone basins at intervals for drinking water. Three rows of stone seats were placed on the western embankment for official spectators, while the public sat on shallow cavities in a soft rock. The track, which was surrounded by an open water channel, had 13 places for the runners and a stone starting line with a hysplex, a rope mechanism that controlled the runners’ start.
There was a podium on the east side for the judges, and the entry of the athletes was through an impressive covered passageway on the west side 36.35 m long. Outside the west side of the stadium was the athletes’ locker room, a rectangular building with an internal colonnade on its western side that served as a changing room.
From it, athletes and judges entered the stadium through a vaulted tunnel. Three blocks at the eastern end of the tunnel had been robbed in the 6th century AD, and the skeletal remains of the man who was probably responsible for the missing blocks were found. He had taken refuge in the tunnel during the Slavic invasions of the 580s, bringing with him some cooking pots, lamps, and his life savings found beneath a stone.
Dozens of graffiti were scratched on the walls of the tunnel. For example, the name TELESTAS is to be identified with an Olympic victor, and another word is NIKO: I win. The spectators sat in roughly leveled terraces cut in the soft rock, while two or three rows of seats were constructed between the starting line and the stoas.
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Pale, Greek wrestling |
The temple of Zeus
The temple stands at the end of the classical Doric temple tradition following a shorter plan with six columns across the ends and twelve on the sides lacking the backroom of the opisthodomos.There is an extension of the interior which represents the adyton, which contains a sunken crypt of unknown purpose.
In front of the adyton, the interior cellar has 14 Corinthian columns on the floor level with Ionic above. One of the first ancient buildings to combine all the architectural orders. In recent years a reconstruction program for the temple of Zeus has been in progress. In 2012 two ancient columns were re-erected and added to the original three, and four more in 2012.
The temple of Zeus stood at the center of the sanctuary of Zeus, which contained a number of buildings and monuments that were used in the religious and athletic ceremonies of the ancient games. Chief among them was the very long altar of Zeus east of the temple. Here athletes and pilgrims brought their animals to be sacrificed to Zeus.
The museum
The museum was founded by the University of California, destined initially to serve the research and educational purposes of the university's excavation project at the sanctuary of Zeus. It also includes finds from other sites in the area. An important unit comprises the so-called Aidonia Treasure, an ensemble of grave offerings from the Mycenaean cemetery at Aidonia village in Nemea.
The exhibits date from the 15th century BC and include a unique set of jewelry: gold signet rings bearing pictorial representations, often of a ceremonial character; necklaces; and gold sew-on ornaments for garments. The largest section forms the finds from the sanctuary of Nemean Zeus. Architectural parts of the monuments are displayed along with artifacts related to the athletic and religious activities that took place on the site in antiquity. Sculptures, coins, and inscriptions testify to the passage of the ancient visitors of Nemea.
Among the most important exhibits are: A statue base walled in the guesthouse. It bears a boustrophedon inscription that reads, "Aristes dedicated me to Zeus, son of King Kronos, because he won the pankration four times at the Nemean Games." Aristes was the son of Pheidon from Cleonai in 550 BC.
Bronze hydria with a female head at the lower end of the handle and an inscription on the rim that labels the artifact as property of the god.
Marble Corinthian capital from the inner colonnade of the temple of Zeus. Bronze Hellenistic statuette presumed to depict the infant Opheltes-Archemoros, the mythical local hero and initiator of the Nemean Games.
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