From dgw1@nyu.edu Fri Aug 2 08:07:00 2002 Received: from mailscan4.cac.washington.edu (mailscan4.cac.washington.edu [140.142.33.15]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with SMTP id g72F6weY026304 for ; Fri, 2 Aug 2002 08:06:59 -0700 Received: FROM mxu4.u.washington.edu BY mailscan4.cac.washington.edu ; Fri Aug 02 08:06:58 2002 -0700 Received: from mx3.nyu.edu (MX3.NYU.EDU [128.122.108.104]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.06) with ESMTP id g72F6vlq031364 for ; Fri, 2 Aug 2002 08:06:58 -0700 Received: from homemail.nyu.edu (D2G0.HOME.NYU.EDU [128.122.108.82]) by mx3.nyu.edu (Switch-2.2.2/Switch-2.2.0) with ESMTP id g72F6uf07800 for ; Fri, 2 Aug 2002 11:06:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Diana Wright To: classics@u.washington.edu Message-ID: <23fd79624011be.24011be23fd796@homemail.nyu.edu> Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 11:06:55 -0400 X-Mailer: Netscape Webmail MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Language: en Subject: Hercules[sic] returns to Nemea -- NYTimes X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ANTIQUES The Return of Hercules By WENDY MOONAN f all the labors of Hercules the best known may be the first: slaying the Nemean lion. According to the myth, killing the ferocious lion of Nemea, Greece, was a daunting task because no sword could penetrate its fur. Clever Hercules figured out he could wrestle it to the ground and strangle it. This is why Hercules is depicted on ancient Greek vases and in sculpture with a lion skin draped over his shoulder. It was the trophy that he then wore as a coat of armor. Advertisement On Tuesday Hercules will return to Nemea, when Handel's rarely seen opera "Hercules" is performed there in the ruins of the ancient Temple of Zeus, not far from the Bay of Corinth and ancient Mycenae. Staging the opera there was the brainstorm of Michael Sisk, the head of the French American Center for the Arts in Paris. Mr. Sisk will direct the opera, which is loosely based on the Sophocles play "The Women of Trachis." David Stern, the son of Isaac Stern, will conduct, and the mezzo- soprano Jennifer Larmore will be the featured singer. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to stage an opera in the ruins of a temple," Mr. Sisk said. President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos of Greece; Thomas Miller, the United States ambassador to Greece; and the film producer Jules Dassin, who was married to Melina Mercouri, are expected to attend on opening night. Hercules is the patron saint of wrestlers, and Greece will be the host of the 2004 Olympics. "Nemea became a much more appropriate site than we realized at the start," Mr. Sisk said. "It was at Nemea that the ancient Greeks celebrated the athletic and religious festivals that were part of the cycle of athletic games held at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia." (The first Olympic Games were in 776 B.C.) The cycle of games among the four cities began in 573 B.C. and lasted, with interruptions, for several hundred years. The Temple of Zeus next to which "Hercules" will be staged next week was constructed in 330 B.C. A few of its fluted columns are still standing. The temple was built on the ruins of an earlier Temple of Zeus, from the sixth century B.C. The temple is in the center of an ancient precinct, with an Altar of Zeus, a sacred cypress grove, a bathhouse, hotel and hero shrine, and a street of private houses. When the Nemean Games were held in ancient times, the atmosphere must have been like that at a state fair. South of the temple is a giant stadium, also from 330 B.C., with 60 rows of seats carved into the hillside. It accommodates 40,000 spectators. "The stadium is similar to the early Hellenic stadiums at Olympia and Epidaurus," Mr. Sisk said. "They had foot races, boxes, wrestling, javelin and discus throws, long jumps and the pankration, a free-for- all fight. We know this from Pindar's 485 B.C. poem `Ode to a Victor at Nemea.' " Archaeologists have been excavating at Nemea since 1884. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens became involved in 1924. Since 1974, Stephen G. Miller, a classics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has been leading the excavations. "The area has been important since the Bronze Age," Mr. Miller said. His team has unearthed ancient architectural fragments, coins, gems, pots, tools and weapons. They are displayed, with models of the ancient temple sanctuary and stadium, at the Archaeological Museum of Nemea. On Tuesday, the museum will open an exhibition of ancient gold rings, seal stones, pots and ornaments found at a nearby site, the Mycenaean Cemetery at Aidonia. Some of the artifacts going on view were legally excavated; others were not. "The grave site was found first by illicit diggers, who smuggled the gold out in watermelons to Germany in 1976," Mr. Miller said. The robbers left one grave undisturbed. It was then excavated with authorization from the Mycenaean Cemetery, and a large cache of ancient pots, figures, jewels and gold objects was found, which will be on display at the museum. Now athletic games are returning to Nemea. Since 1996, the Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games, which is based in Berkeley, has twice staged re-enactments of the ancient games in Nemea's stadium. Two years ago, 1,300 contestants from 45 countries raced around the ancient stadium in short white tunics and bare feet. (In ancient days the competitors were stark naked.) Victors were awarded crowns of wild celery, just like their ancient predeccessors. On July 31, 2004, the society plans to stage another Nemean Games, two weeks before the opening of the 2004 Olympics. All they need is Hercules to appear. .