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closing wall of which is not earlier than the fourth century B.C. There
was a cult at Isthmia of the Ancestral Gods, but again we are ignorant
about its location, and about the exact identification of these deities.
They are mentioned in an inscription now in the Lapidarium at Verona,
but originally set up in the Isthmian Sanctuary. Among the stones
from the wall of Justinian we have found an altar dedicated to Heracles
in response to a dream, and this is the only reference that we have to
a cult of this hero at Isthmia. Pausanias tells us that there were ancient
tombs on the Isthmus, one of Neleus, the father of Nestor; the other
of Sisyphus, king of Corinth, who became famous through the punishment
which Zeus imposed upon him. Pausanias did not see the tombs
and he voices a warning to tomb robbers or future archaeologists who
might be looking for the royal graves, for he says they were unknown
to all but a few of the Corinthians at the time of the king's death.Even
Nestor was ignorant about the location of his father's burial place.
In an area closely associated with the sanctuary, called the Hiera
Nape (Sacred Glen), there were cult places of several other deities:
of Demeter and Kore, of Artemis, of Dionysos, and of Eueteria, the
goddess of good seasons. We know the approximate location of the Demeter
sanctuary. In a field, some 400 meters southwest of the Temple
of Poseidon, the plow a few years ago turned up an inscriped statue base
and part of a statue of a young girl, a dedication to Demeter. Not far
away an ancient well was found from the fill of which came a large krater
with figures in relief and bearing a dedicatory inscription to Demeter.
Presumably the other sanctuaries which the Verona inscription names
in the same connection were located somewhere in the vicinity.
Indications of the cult life at Isthmia also came from two caves,
one at the northeast corner of the sanctuary, the other just above the
Theater. Both caves were divided into two chambers each with a separate
entrance. Within the chambers were dining couches cut out of the
native rock and small niches which may have held images of the gods.
In front of the cave above the Theater there was an open court room
from which each chamber was entered. Each entrance court was provided
with a kitchen, a stone table, and a disposal pit; and in one of the courts
was found a collection of kitchen ware which had been used for preparing
the meals consumed within the chambers. From the nature of the pottery
we can date these establishments to the fourth century B.C. Although
no inscriptions were found revealing the names of the deities
connected with these underground chambers, the location of the caves
close to the sanctuary and the obviously religious nature of the esta-
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