The Isthmian games, the third of the great Hellenic national festivals, were celebrated on the isthmus of Corinth, in the sacred pine grove of Poseidon, where a hippodrome and a stadion for equestrian and gymnastic contests had been erected. The festival, which from the year 582 onwards, became national and Hellenic, took place every two years, in the first and third years of an Olympiad; it consisted of musical, gymnastic, and equestrian contests. We do not hear of any differences between these games and those at Olympia, and we may assume that there were the usual competitions for men and boys; in addition to them there was an intermediate class of the beardless ones--that is, youths (ἔφηβοι). Of course, there was a universal truce during the Isthmian games, and numerous and splendid embassies attended it, since the site between two seas facilitated attendance. The arrangement of the programme fell to the Corinthians, who also appointed the umpires, probably from among the rich and respected citizens. The prize of victory was a wreath of ivy, for which they afterwards substituted one of pine, and this seems to have been still the custom at the time of Ibycus, who, as Schiller tells us, met his death on the way to this “contest of chariots and song.” In the later period, especially in the Hellenistic and Roman times, there were also rhetorical and poetical recitations at the Isthmian games, but they did not form a part of the musical contest. The Nemean games were held at Argolis, in a valley between Cleonae and Phlius, in a grove belonging to the sanctuary of _Zeus-Nemeios_, and they did not attain national importance till the year 573. These, like the Isthmian games, were held every two years, in the second and fourth years of an Olympiad. The contests here also comprised musical, gymnastic, and equestrian competitions; we are incidentally informed that cithara and flute players appeared in the musical contest. We have no information about the length of its duration, but it must certainly have lasted for several days. The Cleonaeans were for a long time superintendents and umpires, but when the Argives gained possession of the Nemean sanctuary they also claimed this privilege. The prize of victory here, as at the Isthmian games, was a wreath of ivy; there were the same arrangements for a universal truce, and visits of sacred envoys, as at other great festivals.