NEMÆAN GAMES, were so called from Nemæa, a village between the cities of Cleonæ and Philus, where they were celebrated every third year. The exercises were chariot races, and all the parts of the pentathlon. These games were instituted in memory of Opheltes, or Archemorus, the son of Euphetes and Creusa, and nursed by Hyssipyle; who leaving him in a meadow, while she went to shew the besiegers of Thebes a fountain, at her return found him dead, and a serpent twined about his neck; whence the fountain, before called Langis, was named Archemorus; and the captains, to comfort Hyssipyle, instituted these games. Others ascribe their institution to Hercules, after his victory over the Nemæan lion.