Εμφανίζονται 7 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Εορτές, αγώνες & ιεροπραξίες αρχαίων για το τοπωνύμιο: "ΝΕΜΕΑ Αρχαίο ιερό ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑ".
Νέμεα. Σύμφωνα με την παράδοση, τα Νέμεα ξεκίνησαν το 573 π.Χ. και διεξάγονταν κάθε δύο χρόνια, τη δεύτερη πανσέληνο μετά το θερινό ηλιοστάσιο, προς τιμήν του Οφέλτη, γιου του βασιλιά Λυκούργου, που βρήκε φρικτό θάνατο από δάγκωμα φιδιού. Αν και αργότερα προστάτης των αγώνων ανέλαβε ο Δίας, τα Νέμεα συνέχισαν να έχουν ένα νεκρικό χαρακτήρα, που τον φανέρωναν τα μαύρα ιμάτια που φορούσαν οι Ελλανοδίκες και το άλσος κυπαρισσιών γύρω από το ιερό του Δία. Όπως στα Ολύμπια, έτσι και στα Νέμεα δεν περιλαμβάνονταν μουσικοί αγώνες. Αρχικά, η πόλη των Κλεωνών είχε τον έλεγχο των αγώνων, αλλά αργότερα ανέλαβε τη διοργάνωσή τους το Αργος. Το έπαθλο για τους νικητές ήταν ένα στεφάνι από αγριοσέλινο.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Ιούνιο 2005 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα, με φωτογραφίες, του Ιδρυματος Μείζονος Ελληνισμού
Nemea was a valley in Argolis, between Kleonae and Phlius. It was the reputed
scene of many famous mythical events. Here (it was said) Argos had watched Io:
and here Heraklees slew the lion. Pausanias (ii. 15, 2) relates that in his time
the den of the Nemean lion was pointed out in a mountain range, a little less
than two miles from Nemea. And here too, in historic times, stood a splendid temple
of Nemean Zeus, with a sacred enclosure (alsos, not to be rendered grove ), in
which the Nemean games (Nemea or Nemeia) were held (Strab. viii. p. 377). Pindar
describes the locality of these games by a variety of imaginative expressions:
e. g. Nemeaiou en poluumnetoi Dios alsei (Nem. ii. 4, 5); askiois Phliountos hup'
ogugiois oresin (Nem. vi. 45, 46); chortois en leontos (Olymp. xiii. 44). The
valley of Nemea from its situation belonged naturally to the people of Kleonae,
who for a long time were presidents of the games (agonothetai). But, before Olymp.
53, 1, the Argives obtained possession of the temple and the presidency at the
games. At a later time the Kleonaeans recovered the right of presiding, but did
not retain it (Pind. Nem. x.; Pausan. ii. 15, 3).
In prehistoric times we find the institution of the Nemean festival
connected with the expedition of the Seven against Thebes (Apollodor. iii. 6,
4), or with the slaying of the Nemean lion by Herakles (Schol. Pind. Nem.). Writers
who held the former opinion uniformly describe the festival as an agon epitaphios,
established to commemorate the youth Archemoros, who was killed by a serpent (Apollodor.
l. c.), but differ as to the particular Archemoros whose death was thus honoured.
Some represented him to have been the son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, while others
(among whom was Aeschylus) related that he was the son of Nemea, daughter of Asopus
(Schol. Pind. Nem.). Apollodorus in the passage referred to gives the names of
the victors, together with the contests, in which they were victorious at the
first Nemean games. The second celebration of these games is attributed by Pausanias
(x. 25, 2, 3) to the Epigoni.
As regards the first historic occurrence of the festival, we have
but scanty evidence. In its local character it had no doubt been in existence
from immemorial antiquity; but not until long after the Olympic games had become
famous did those of Nemea rise to the rank of a Pan-Hellenic festival. Eusebius
dates the first Nemead from Olymp. 53, 2: but it is probable from the dissertation
of G. Hermann, whose conclusions are supported by Boeckh, that the series of historical
Nemeads began in the winter of Olymp. 51 (Boeckh, C. I. i. n. 34, p. 53). The
Nemean games, like the Isthmian, in this respect were biennial (agon trieterikos),
i. e. two complete years elapsed between each festival. Accordingly they fell
twice within the Olympic period, occurring alternately in winter and summer in
the second and fourth years respectively of each Olympic penteteris. We read in
the Schol. to Pindar's Nemean odes that they took place on the 12th of the month
Pan[ecedil]mos (meni panemoi dodekatei), but such authority helps us but little
in settling the matter.
The games comprised musical, gymnic, and equestrian contests (agon
mousikos, gumnikos, hippilos). (Plut. Philop. 11; Pausan. viii. 50, 3; Schol.
Pind. Nem.) The gymnic contests at Nemea, as regards the subjects of competition,
corresponded closely with those at Olympia. The following are expressly mentioned:--The
simple foot-race (gumnon stadion) for men and boys; the wrestling bout (pale)
for men and boys; the pentathlon for men and boys; the pagikration for men and
boys (Pind. Nem. passim; Herod. vi. 92, ix. 75). That boxing (pugmachia) was a
subject of competition may be inferred from Pausan. viii. 40, 3. We learn further
from Pausanias (ii. 15, 2) and Pindar that, besides the simple foot-race, the
Nemean games included the armour-race (hoplites dromos) and the long race (ho
dolichos--notice accent). In the equestrian contests we know that Alcibiades,
Chromios of Aetna, and Polykles of Sparta (Pausan. i. 22, 6) were victorious.
That the games occupied more than one day may be inferred from Liv.
xxvii. 31, where he uses the words per dies festos in reference to them.
The Argives, as has been said above, ultimately supplanted the Kleonaeans
as presidents of the Nemean festival, but they occasionally delegated this function
to military chieftains, like Philip of Macedon or Titus Quintius Flamininus (Liv.
xxvii. 30, xxxiv. 41). In a late inscription the officers who actually presided
are referred to as Hellanodikae (Hellanodikai). Boeckh conjectured that these
were twelve in number, while those who discharged the like duty at Olympia, and
bore the same title, numbered only ten (Boeckh, C. I 1126, p. 581).
Like the other great Pan-Hellenic festivals, the Nemean was an agon
stephanites, i. e. one in which the victor obtained a wreath in token of his victory.
The Nemean wreath was, according to some accounts, at first woven of olive-sprays
(elaia), the garland of green parsley (chlora selina) having replaced it afterwards;
according to others, the parsley wreath, was the original prize (as it continued
to be throughout historical [p. 228] times) on account of its special fitness,
as an emblem of mourning, to be associated with the memory of Archemoros. But
a different myth, already alluded to, represents Herakles, when he instituted
the games after overcoming the lion, as having also appointed the parsleywreath
to be the victor's reward. And this latter account seems to have been present
to the mind of Pindar, for he speaks of the wreath as botana leontos (Nem. vi.
71, 72).
During the celebration of each Nemean festival a cessation of hostilities
(ekecheiria, spondai) between belligerents was an imperative duty (cf. en hieromeniai
Nemeadi, Pind. Nem. iii. 2, with schol.). A sacred embassy, too, was on these
occasions sent by each of the several Hellenic states to Nemea, with offerings
to Nemean Zeus (Demosth. Meid. p. 552, § 115).
Historians, as well as late coins and inscriptions, testify that the
(still so called) Nemean games came to be regularly held in Argos (Polyb. v. 101,
5; Diod. xix. 64; Liv. xxx. 1; Boeckh, C. I. 234, p. 356). On a comparatively
early occasion, indeed, Argos had been the scene of the festival. For the circumstances,
vid. Plut. Arat. 28. Local festivals, named after the great Nemean, were established
in many places, e. g. at Aetna in Sicily (Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 158) and at
Megara (Schol. Pind. Olymp. vii. 157). That Nemea were also instituted at Anchialos
in Thrace may be inferred from a medal stamped under Caracalla, bearing the name
NEMAIA (instead of the usual NEMEIA); and, from the fact of its bearing also the
word XEOPSEPIA, the further inference has been drawn that the Thracian Nemea were
founded in honour of Sept. Severus. (For more detailed information respecting
Nemea, see Krause, Pythien, Nemeen, u. Isthmien, whose guidance has been mainly
followed in the present article.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Nemea, (ta Nemea or Nemeia). The Nemean Games; one of the four Greek national festivals, which was celebrated in the valley of Nemea in the territory of the Argive town Cleonae. In historic times the festival was held in honour of Zeus, who had here a temple with a sacred grove. Originally it is said to have consisted of funeral games, instituted by the Seven during their expedition against Thebes, in memory of the boy Archemorus as an agon epitaphios. Heracles afterwards changed it into a festival in honour of Zeus. From about B.C. 575 on wards, athletic competitions were added to the festival, after the model of those at Olympia; and, like the latter, it was only gradually that it developed into a general Hellenic celebration. It was held twice in a period of four years--once in August, every fourth year; once in winter, every second or first Olympic year. It is more probable, however, that the so-called "Winter Nemea" were only local games held in Argos, and that the Panhellenic Nemea were celebrated in alternate years at the end of every first and third Olympic year, at a time corresponding to our July. The question is discussed by Unger in the Philologus, but Droysen, in Hermes, considers it still unsettled. The management of the festival was originally possessed by the Cleonaeans, but soon passed, together with the possession of the sanctuary, into the hands of the Argives. The games, which lasted more than one day, consisted of gymnastic, equestrian, and musical contests; the prize was a palm-branch and a garland of fresh selinon, often rendered "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery."
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
City of Argolis,
in northeastern Peloponnese,
southwest of Corinth.
In this city were held every two years (in July the second and fourth
year of each Olympiad) the Nemean games, in honor of Zeus. These games were fourth
in fame among the panhellenic games after the Olympic (also to Zeus), the Pythian
(to Apollo) and the Isthmian (to Poseidon).
Nemea was the site of the first of Heracles' 12 labors, his fight
against the lion, and some ascribed to him the creation of the games. But the
more “official” origin was ascribed to Adrastus, the king of Argos
who led the ill-fated expedition of the Seven against Thebes
to try and help Polynices, one of Oedipus's sons, regain the kingship his brother
Eteocles refused to hand him over when time came. Reaching Nemea on their way
toward Thebes, Adrastus and
his companions asked water to Hypsipyle, the exiled queen of the island of Lemnos,
who had once been the wife of Jason but was now a slave at the service of Lycurgus,
the king of the place, serving as a nurse to Opheltes, his baby son. To help them,
the nurse, forgetting an oracle stating that the baby should not be put on the
ground until he could walk, laid the baby for a minute on the grass near a fountain,
where he was killed by the snake guarding it. The games were then instituted by
Adrastus as part of Opheltes' funerals and as a propitiatory ceremony to the his
memory and the seven princes took part in their first occurrence.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
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