1 s r 



a canton, in the diftrid of Aiitun ; 19 miles S.S.W. of 

 Aututi. Tbe phice contains 171,, and the canton 5349 

 inhabitants, on d territory of 220 kilioiiictres, in 7 com- 

 tnur.es. 



IriTAD, St. a fniall idand in the Grecian .Archipelago, 

 near the S.E. coafi of Argentiera. 



ISTAKAR, a town of Perlia, rn the province oi Far- 

 Jjian (which fee), at a fniall diiUncc N. of Shiraz. 



ISTAN, a town of Spain, in the province of Grenada ; 

 6 miles S.E. of Monda. 



1ST ANNA, a country of Africa, E. of Benin. 

 ISTAPA, a town of Mexico, in the province of Cii'ia- 

 can ; 4a miles E. of Culiacan. 



ISTAPAN, a town of Mexico, in the province of 

 Guadalajara ; ij miles N.E. 01 St. Miguel. 



I3TECHIA, a town of the Morea, in the gulf of 

 Coron ; 7 miles S. of Scardamula. 



ISTEFAN, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the province 

 of Natolia ; 20 miles N. of Sinob. 



ISTENAZ, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the province 

 cf Caramania ; 18 miles W. of Satalia. 



ISTEPEC, a town of Mexico, in the^ province of 

 Guatimala ; 12 miles N. of St. Salvador. 



ISTER, in yliicknl Geography, the name which the 

 Greeks gave to the river whicli we call the Danube ; which 

 lie. 



ISTESSO, i.'IsTE.?so, Ital. in Muf.c, the fame found, 

 air, or interval. Domenico Scarlatti, in Rofcingrave's 

 edition of his firfl book of Leffons, has I'ljlijfo di/fi-rente ior 

 the fame air, varied ; and Padre Martini, for exactly the 

 fame thing, his Jlefo, JI(fifmo. 



ISTHjEVONES, or IsT.EVOXEs, in Ancient Geography', 

 a people of Germany, who, according to Pliny (1. iv. c. 14."), 

 were lituated near the Rhine, and of whom the Cimbri, in 

 the interior of the country, formed a part. 



ISTHMIA, lT?y.:z, or Isthmian Games, Ludl I/Ihmii, 

 were folemn fports, being one of the four facred games ce- 

 lebrated in ancient Greece. 



They were called IJlhm'ian, becaufe they were celebrated 

 in the Corinthian iithmus, a neck of land by which Pelo- 

 ponnefus is joined to the continent. 



Plutarch, in the life of Thefeus, tells us they were in- 

 ftituted by that hero to the honour of Neptune, in imitation 

 of Hercules, who had before inilituted the Olympic games 

 to the honour of Jupiter ; but Arehias refers their inlli- 

 tution to the honour of Melicertes, or Palxmon, fon of 

 Athamas, king of Thebes, whom the Latins call Portumnus. 

 Others fay they were inftituted by Niljs, fon of Neptune : 

 and others, by Sifyphus, brother of Athamas, king of 

 Corinth, about 1326 years B.C. Others are of opinion 

 that there were two diftinft folemnities obferved in the 

 lllhmus, one in honour of Meiicertes, and another in honour 

 of Neptune. 



The moll probable account of the origin and fubfeqiient 

 renewal of thefe games, allowing, as it may perhaps be ne- 

 ceflary, for fome mixture of fable, is as follows : Athamas, 

 king of the Orchomenians, a people of Boeotia, having di- 

 vorced his former wife, named Nephele, by whom he had 

 two fons, .Phryxus and Hellc, and having married Ino, by 

 v.hom he had aho two fons, Learchus and Melicertes, 

 nr Mehcerta ; the latter perfecuted the children of the 

 former marriage, fo far as to make her hufband behevc that 

 the oracle of Delphos demanded the blood of Phryxu,';, as 

 tbe means of putting a Hop. to the famine of which ihc her- 



I S T 



felf was the caufe ; and the too credulous Athamas was 

 upon the point of facrilicing his fon to the fafety of his 

 fubjed^s; but upon information of his wife's whole manage- 

 ment, he flew her fon Learchus, and purfiied [no with 

 fuch eagernefs, that flie was found to throw herfelf down 

 with Melicerta, wliom (he held in her arms, from the top of 

 the rock Moluria, into the fea. A dolphin, we are told, 

 or rather the waves, carried Melicerta into the illhmus of 

 Corinth ; and the Corinthians, at the perfualion of Sifyphus, 

 the broihcr of Athamas, after having given him a fplendid 

 funeral, inilituted to his honour games, whicli obtained the. 

 name of lilhmian, from the place where they were cele- 

 brated for the firil time. Thefe games, in which were- 

 exliibited the fame trials of /kill as in the others, and chiefly 

 thofe of mulic and poetry (fee G.^me.s), having been in- 

 terrupted, probably by fome wars, were afterwards re- 

 ellablilhed by Thefeus (1234 BC), who confecratcd them~ 

 to Neptune, whofe fon he pretended to be, as to the god. 

 who peculiarly prefidcd over the iilhmus of Corinth ; and 

 they were renewed fo regularly every five years, about the 

 middle of the month Plecatombion, that they were not 

 even difconlinucd after the city of Corinth had been de- 

 flroyed and reduced to aihes by Mumn.ius ( 146 B.C.) ; the 

 Sicyonians having received orders to celebrate them, not- 

 withftanding the public grief and defolation. When the 

 city was afterwards rebuilt, the new inhabitants refumed 

 the care of thefe games, and continued to exhibit them 

 with great regularity. Some time after, the Romans were 

 admitted to them, and celebrated them with fo much pomp 

 and apparatus, that beCdes the ordinary exercifes, a hunting 

 match was there exliibited, in which were prefcnted the 

 moll rare animals ; the city of Corinth ncgledling no means 

 by which they might pleafe their conquerors :. and their 

 fame was ftill incrcafed^ becaufe they ferved as aa era to 

 the Corinthians, and iohabitants of the illhmus. 



Arehias and others fay, the conqueror's prize at thefe- 

 games was a crown of parfley. Plutarch .•xnd Strabo fay 

 it was at firil a crown of pine ; and that this was afterwards 

 changed for one of parfley ; but that at length the pine 

 was refumed ; and to this was added a reward of 100 filver 

 draahmx, or about 3/. 4j-. ']d. llerling. 



Thefe games were held, according to Pindar, every three 

 years, or, according to Pliny, every five ; and were fo cele- 

 brated, and the concourfe at them was fo great, that only 

 the prime perfons of the moil remarkable cities could havr 

 places in them. The Athenians had only as m.uch room 

 allotted them as the fail of a Ihip, which they fent yearly to 

 Delos, could cover. 



ISTHMUS, \a^uo., in Geography^ a narrow neck, or 

 flip of ground, which joins two continents ; or joms a 

 peninfula to the terra firma, and feparates two feas. 



The mod celebrated ifthmufes are that of Panama or 

 Darien, which joins North and South America ; that of 

 Suez, which connefts Afia and Africa ; that of Corinth, 

 or Peloponnefus, in the Morea ; that of Crim-Tartary, 

 otherwife called Taurica Cherfonefus ; that of the peninfula 

 Romania and Eriflb, or the itthmus of the Thracian Cher- 

 fonefus, twelve furlongs broad, being that which Xerxes 

 undertook to cut through. The ancients had feveral de- 

 figns of cutting the ifthmus of Corinth, which is a rocky 

 hillock, about ten miles over ; but they were all vain, the 

 invention of lluices n.ot being then known. There have 

 been attempts, too, for ci'.ting the ifthmus of Suez, to 

 make a commi:nicu;ion bef.\cea the Red Tea and the Me- 

 diterrancaD. 



ISTI.'JIUS 



