or ISTHMIAN GAMES; one of the four solemn games which were celebrated every fifth year in Greece. They had the name from the Isthmus of Corinth, where they were celebrated. In their first institution, according to Paufanias, they consisted only of funeral rites and ceremonies in honour of Melicertes: but Theseus afterwards, as Plutarch informs us, in emulation of Hercules, who had appointed games at Olympia in honour of Jupiter, dedicated those to Neptune, his reputed father, who was regarded as the particular protector of the Isthmus and commerce of Corinth. The same trials of skill were exhibited here as at the other three sacred games; and particularly those of music and poetry. These games, in which the victors were only rewarded with garlands of pine-leaves, were celebrated with great magnificence and splendor as long as paganism continued to be the established religion of Greece; nor were they omitted even when Corinth was sacked and burnt by Mummius the Roman general; at which time the care of them was transferred to the Sicyonians, but was restored again to the Corinthians when their city was rebuilt.