Nemea is not an often visited site but is accessible on the way to the more famous Olympia. But in ancient times, Nemea was the scene of the Nemean games which were also pan-Hellenic and served an equally important function in city-state diplomacy and rivalry. Famous for the Nemean Lion that Herakles slew, I always found it amusing that the winners of the Nemean games would gain a wreath of celery!
The temple to Zeus has had some columns re-erected but many of the drums lie scattered across the site charting the direction in which they tumbled when pulled down by pagan hating Christians in later centuries which makes walking around the site quite fun.
Another unusual find at Nemea is a series of hip baths where athletes would bathe after the games. The American School of Classics and Archaeology still excavates at Nemea so you may catch some archaeologists in action.
I really liked this little model in the museum which made sense of the whole site with the relationship of buildings and spaces to each other and how big it would have been. And the little piece of cotton wool here creating a dust trail for the chariot really brought the scene to life!
Indeed actually the site is truly brought to life with a revival of the ancient Nemean games here every four years – so head to Nemea next year!
(p.s. the little charioteer looks as if he might be shouting ‘charge!’, but actually the Greeks would have actually said ‘alale’ invoking the goddess Alala of the war cry)
Laura Aitken-Burt 