Early pre-Theater dining: The Isthmia Experience

The primary feature at the Isthmia archaeological site (near Corinth) is a temple to Poseidon  that was built, destroyed, and rebuilt many times over the centuries, with the result that it's a bit confusing to look at.



However, you can't judge a site just by what's obvious on the ground. Greek archaeological sites with more than some combination of historic importance, quality of preservation, and location have a museum.  The museums tend to be small, with eclectic exhibits that range from inspired to insane.  Usually they contain the smaller finds from the site or the better-quality statues or mosaics, although the best stuff goes to the museum at Athens.  The museum at the Isthmia site is one of the standouts in the 'small museum' category. Just one large room, it contains a number of well-reconstructed and well-described finds from the site, which in addition to the temple also hosted the 'Isthmian games', one of the four pan-Hellenic games (you may have heard of one of the other games, the ones held at Olympia...).  I liked in particular the ancient discus shown here - throwing this sucker must've hurt.


The museum also had a number of stunningly beautiful glass mosaics from 375 AD intended to be mounted on a wall; here's one along with a zoom in picture to show the detail.

 

These were found in a nearby archaeological site (Kechries), due to a curious set of misadventures.  I'll let you read from the description provided by the museum itself.



Now, on to the title of this blog post.  As a major site with a temple and a stadium for the games, Isthmia also had a theatre and a bath (including a 30m square swimming pool).  The theatre was rather small. Lauren noted it only did "second-run plays...", e.g. 'Catcher in the Rye'.



Most interesting, in 1960, archaeologists around two sets of "Caves," one called the Northeast Cave and the other (right under last seats of the theatre) the Theatre Cave (see my earlier note on archaeologist names).  Reading from "Excavations at Isthmia 1959-1961" from Hesperia, XXXI, 1-37 (yes, yes, I know you've read it but it was new to me):

In the autumn campaign of 1959 we discovered a cave at the northeast corner of the Precinct of Poseidon (P1. 1, c). It had been repeatedly entered and used in Roman times, and a series of walls and supporting piers had then been constructed. Through further investigation in 1960 and 1961 it was revealed that the cave during its first period of use had been divided into two chambers (Fig. 2), each entered by its own stairway descending from the southeast. The steps are cut out of the niche with a throne-like seat on one side. Five couches, each with a headrest likewise cut in the hard clay, lined the corridor on both sides. The eastern chamber had six couches, but some were partly destroyed during the Roman occupation; others were covered over with retaining walls. … Although nothing was discovered in the caves that could indicate the nature of the cult, it seems highly probable that they served some religious purpose. These underground chambers, located close to the buildings of the Isthmian Sanctuary, would hardly have been used as public or private dining rooms; the meals served in them would have had some religious significance. Possibly the caves served the members of some association, like the Artists of Dionysos who were active in Hellenistic times in many parts of Greece, including the Isthmos and Nemea. It is probably not accidental that the two caves had the same number of couches, each having one chamber with five couches, another with six. Later intrusions have caused the removal of dedications or other cult objects that might have thrown further light on the use of the caves. 

Here's what they look like, although they wouldn't let us go in to see everything that is shown in the sketch at right.  

OK, so we have cult caves used for feasting right next to the theatre whose purpose is totally unknown.  I'm thinking early foodies/theater types (James Corden-opolous, perhaps, or Rosie O'Donnell-o) who wanted to avoid paparazzi?