Page "Isthmian Games" Paragraph 4

At least until the 5th century BC ( Pindar's time ) the winners of the Isthmian games received a wreath of celery ; later, the wreath was altered such that it consisted of pine leaves .< ref >“ As he was marching up an ascent, from the top of which they expected to have a view of the army and of the strength of the enemy, there met him by chance a train of mules loaded with parsley ; which his soldiers conceived to be an ominous occurrence or ill-boding token, because this is the herb with which we not infrequently adorn the sepulchres of the dead ; and there is a proverb derived from the custom, used of one who is dangerously sick, that he has need of nothing but parsley.

So to ease their minds, and free them from any superstitious thoughts or forebodings of evil, Timoleon halted, and concluded an address suitable to the occasion, by saying, that a garland of triumph was here luckily brought them, and had fallen into their hands of its own accord, as an anticipation of victory: the same with which the Corinthians crown the victors in the Isthmian games, accounting chaplets of parsley the sacred wreath proper to their country ; parsley being at that time still the emblem of victory at the Isthmian, as it is now at the Nemean sports ; and it is not so very long ago that the pine first began to be used in its place .” “” ( Plutarch, Life of Timoleon ).</ ref > Victors could also be honored with a statue or an ode.

Besides these prizes of honor, the city of Athens awarded victorious Athenians with an extra 100 drachmas .< ref > From Solon ( 638 – 558 BC ) onwards, for he laid it down that “ the victor in the Isthmian games was to be paid a hundred drachmas, and the Olympic victor five hundred ” ( Plutarch, Live of Solon 23. 3 ).

According to Diogenes Laertius, Solon “ diminished the honours paid to Athletes who were victorious in the games, fixing the prize for a victor at Olympia at five hundred drachmae, and for one who conquered at the Isthmian games at one hundred ” ( Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Philosophers 1. 55: Solon ; Greek ).

For comparison: the daily wage for a skilled worked was approximately 1 drachma.

Victors in the Isthmian games were not included in those athletes that were entitled to free meals in the ( IG I < sup > 3 </ sup > 131 ).</ ref >