Poseidon’s sanctuary at Isthmia is one of the earliest post-Mycenaean cult places yet identified in the Greek world, having been established at the beginning of the Protogeometric period around 1050. It therefore ranks in age with Olympia and Kalapodi/Hyampolis. Yet for centuries the worship of Poseidon required no temple; the main structures were a platform for dining created in the eighth century, and temporary shelters of which only the postholes remain. The dominant activity seems to have been sacrifice followed by extensive feasting and drinking.5 Easily accessible by land and sea, the sanctuary was an important meeting place for the people living in the scattered communities that would evolve into the maritime polis of Korinth. In contrast to Olympia or Delphi, it attracted few dedications of precious metals, such as tripods, and there was less of an emphasis on aristocratic display in the votive practice. In spite of the focus on drinking, dedications of jewelry show that women were active in the worship. Terracotta bulls, animals symbolic of Poseidon, are present from the earliest years, though most of the bones found on the site belonged to sheep, goats, and pigs. The sacrificial area was covered with egg-sized stones that were used in the ritual. Most likely, the participants cast stones at the hapless victim in the moments before its throat was cut. In this way, all present joined in the act of slaughter, just as all would share in the feast.6
Constructed in the seventh century, the first temple was destroyed in a conflagration around 470. No sign of a statue base was found in the cella, and the temple may have been used mainly as a strongroom for valuable dedications and supplies. Excavation has brought to light the charred remains of storage vessels for oil, chariots, and horse trappings from the cella, while many small valuables came from the area of the east porch, including a tiny golden bull. The exterior wall was coated with stucco and brightly painted with animals and geometric designs, while within the peristyle stood a lovely marble perirrhanterion, a water basin used for purification before entering the temple.7 Its Orientalizing design features a base with four women standing on lions. Outside the temple was a monumental altar over 30 m long. In 582 the Isthmian games were opened to Panhellenic participation, a stadium was added, and the sanctuary continued to grow with the patronage of Korinth and the advantage of placement on a major road. When the Archaic temple burned, it was speedily replaced with a larger Doric temple, which stood until late antiquity. A major category of dedication in this period, second only to the offerings at Olympia in abundance, is armor and weapons, which were displayed so as to be visible from the road.
A number of other gods were worshiped at the sanctuary, including
Amphitrite, Poseidon’s consort, and the child-hero Melikertes-Palaimon. The games, with their prize of a pine crown (later changed to wild celery), were said to have originated as funeral games instituted in his honor by Sisyphos. According to the legend, Palaimon and his mother Ino-Leukothea were drowned in the sea, but Ino was transformed into a Nereid, while Palaimon’s body was carried to shore by a dolphin. Both mother and son granted mariners’ prayers for safety. An interesting and unusual feature of the sanctuary in the Classical period was the pair of underground, man-made caves, designed to serve as dining rooms. One is located near the theater, while the other sits roughly between the theater and the temple of Poseidon and is associated with a nearby altar. Each cave contained couches carved from the earth, and the theater cave also had two kitchen areas. These small rooms, each able to accommodate only five to six people, may have been used in the worship of Melikertes-Palaimon or some other chthonian power.8
Yet another early Poseidon cult, the source of our earliest images of the god, has been detected in the environs of Korinth. At Penteskouphia a large number of painted terracotta pinakes (tablets) dating to the seventh and sixth centuries were recovered from a votive dump. The location of the sanctuary itself has not been pinpointed, but much can be learned from the tablets. They record dedications to Lord (Anax) Poseidon and often to Amphitrite as well, demonstrating that this cult pairing, so prominent at Isthmia and the Hellenistic sanctuary of Poseidon at Tenos, was already well established in the Archaic period. Amphitrite sometimes receives dedications of her own, and is shown on one pinax with a small worshiper. The divine pair stand facing one another, or ride together in a chariot driven by Poseidon. Other pinakes from this deposit demonstrate Poseidon’s patronage not only of seagoing merchants, but also of the potters and painters who helped supply the cargo. Several pinakes show ships, one loaded with pots, while at least twenty-eight illustrate workers using kilns, and the tablets themselves may have been used as proofing pieces in the firing process. Most of the tablets seem to be dedications by men working in the ceramics industry; often the donors made and/or painted the tablets themselves. As a deity of subterranean processes and energies, Poseidon was considered the right god to watch over kilns; as a marine deity and ruler of the Isthmos, he guarded a ceramic industry dependent on sea trade.9
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