Isthmia

Isthmia was the sanctuary of Poseidon on the Isthmus of Corinth, famous for the Isthmian Games, one of the four great Panhellenic festivals. Legend traced the games to funeral rites held by Sisyphus of Corinth for the boy Melicertes, and the historical festival was constituted in 582 BC.

After Chaeronea in 338 BC Philip II of Macedon formed the League of Corinth there, and after the Second Macedonian War the Roman general Flamininus proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks before the festival crowd. When Rome destroyed Corinth in 146 BC the sanctuary was sacked and the games passed to Sicyon, returning after Julius Caesar refounded Corinth in 44 BC.

Nero performed at the games in 67 AD, but the Temple of Poseidon was later abandoned and its stones reused in the Hexamilion wall. Isthmia fell permanently to the Turks in 1458.