1883.] on the Influence of Athletic Games upon Greek Art. 279 



in a tropical or northern climate could not develop the same charac- 

 teristics. We must at least note the fact that the two distinctive 

 elements of Greek life, a high development of athletic institutions and 

 of naturalism in plastic art, are found together. 



But what tends more directly to show the immediate influence 

 of the athletic games and to solve the main question we have placed 

 before us, is the fact that the fifty years which mark the transition 

 from conventionality to freedom and nature in art are also the years 

 in which the athletic games became really elevated to the important 

 position which they occupy in our mind, and which they did not 

 always hold ; that in this period the paleestree or athletic schools 

 became real national institutions, thoroughly organised all over 

 Greece. 



As with art and most higher manifestations of human thought and 

 cultm-e, the early stages are almost always essentially religious in 

 character, so the athletic games in earlier times were either asso- 

 ciated with some worship of god or hero or were part of the funeral 

 ceremony, thus partaking of an essentially religious chai*acter. 

 Tov.ards the close of the sixth century the great games, such as 

 those of Olympia. partake more and more of a national and political 

 character. They become the central point of peaceful union for all 

 Greek states. The increase of their national importance sprang 

 from the growth of the feeling of Panhellenic unity which pre- 

 ceded the Persian wars ; yet they no doubt reacted strongly upon 

 this feeling, and served to bring together the people of the various 

 states, and to make them feel the common bands which bound them 

 together. The political imjDortance of the great games, especially those 

 of Olympia, can hardly be over-estimated. This political importance 

 was, no doubt, felt by Peisistratos, who, along with Pericles, was the 

 greatest of Athenian statesmen. He appears to me to have foreseen 

 the greatness of the futiu-e of Greece, and above all, of Athens. On the 

 model of the Olympian games he revived the Athenian games, and as 

 there he traced the growth of Panhellenic feeling, so here he wished 

 to create a real Panathenaic feelinsf. He added new g;ames to the 

 old ones, gave greater splendour to them, and, as the Olympic games 

 recm-red at periods of four years, determining the computation of time 

 for the whole of Greece, so he introduced the Greater Panathenaic, 

 recurring every four years and determining the computation of time for 

 Athens. It is a noteworthy fact that every great political leader in 

 Athens marked his political activity by some addition to the Panathenaic 

 festival. After Peisistratos, with the Peisistratidre and with Pericles, 

 the games were further enriched and obtained still greater influence. 

 Furthermore, we must attach the greatest importance to the develop- 

 raent of the palasstras or athletic schools during this period. By 

 degrees these institutions are established or rendered more systematic 

 in their organisation throughout the whole of Greece, and become the 

 schools for the physical training of the Greek youth destined to 

 provide strong and active warriors to defend their native country. 



