OLTMPIA 



OLYMPIAD 



601 



"Wiesinger ( 1830 et sen. ; Eng. trans. 4 vols. 1847-49 ; 

 rev. ed. 6 vols. New York, 1856-58). His younger 

 brother Justus (1800-82) was a distinguished 

 Orientalist ; and Theodore ( 1802-69 ) took a promi- 

 nent part in the Sleswick-Holstein rising, 1848. 



Olympia. the scene of the celebrated Olympic 

 games, is a beautiful valley in Elis, in the* Pelo- 

 ponnesus, through which runs the river Alpheus. 

 As a national sanctuary of the Greeks, Olympia 

 contained, within a smalf space, many of the choicest 

 treasures of Greek art belonging* to all periods 

 ami states, such as temples, monuments, altars, 

 theatres, and multitudes of images, statues, and 

 votive-offerings of brass and marble. In the time 

 of the elder Pliny there still stood here about 3000 

 statues. The Sacred Grove (called the A Itis) of 

 Olympia enclosed a level space about 660 feet long 

 by nearly 580 broad, containing the sanctuaries 

 connected with the games. It was finely wooded, 

 and in its centre stood a clump of svcamores. 



road 

 pro- 



The Altis was crossed from west to east 'by a 

 called the ' Pompic Way,' along which all the 

 cessions passed. The Alpheus bounded it on the 

 south, the Cladens, a tributary of the former, on 

 the west, and rocky but gently swelling hills on 

 the north ; westward it looked towards the Ionian 

 Sea. The most celebrated building was the Olym- 



frieion, or Olympian, dedicated to Olympian Zeus, 

 t was designed by the architect Libon of Elis in 

 the 6th century B.C., but was not completed for 

 more than a century. It contained a colossal 

 statue of the god, the masterpiece of the sculptor 

 Phidias, and many other splendid figures ; its 

 paintings were the work of Pamenus, a relative 

 of Phidias. Next to the Olympieion ranked the 

 Jf era; it in, dedicated to Hera, the wife of Zeus 

 and Queen of Heaven, containing the table on 

 which were placed the garlands prepared for the 

 victors in the games. The Pdujniim, the MI-II-HHIH, 

 the ten T/icsaitri or Treasuries, built for the recep- 

 tion of the dedicatory offerings of the Greek cities, 

 the temples of Eileithyia ami Aphrodite also de- 

 serve mention. The Stmliinii and the Jh'/>}>ot/rome, 

 where the contests took place, stood outside ami 

 east of the Altis; the Gymnasium and Paliestra 

 were also outside ami to tin- west. Explorations 

 were carried on in IS75-81 by the German govern- 

 ment at a total expense of 40,000, and threw 

 much light on the plans of the buildings. Many 

 valuable sculptures, bronze*, coins, and other 

 objects were discovered. Tlie greatest find was 

 the Hennes of Praxiteles, a most beautiful and 

 marvellous piece of sculpture. The re-nlts of these 

 excavations have lieen published officially in Die 

 Aitsgrabiuiyen zn Olymuui (5 vols. 1875-*81, with 

 118 plat. -i. 



Olympic games were the most splendid national 

 festival of the ancient Greeks, and were celebrated 

 every fifth year in honour of Zeus, the father of 

 the gods, on the plain of Olympia. Their origin 

 goes, back far beyond 776 B.C., the year in which 

 th" custom of reckoning time by Olympiads (q.v.) 

 JMgBO. We may, however, Mieve that the games 

 b.vame a truly national festival for the first time 

 in that year. At first, it is conjectured, only 

 Peloponnc>i :ui s re.-orted to the Olympic games, 

 but gradually the other Greek states "were attracted 

 to them, and the festival became /'<///-//,//>. 

 Originally, and for a long time, none were allowed 

 to contend except thos.- of pure Hellenic blood ; 

 nut after the conquest ,,( (; r eece by the Romans 

 the latter sought and obtained this honour, and 

 both Tilwrius an.l Nero figure in the list of Roman 

 TOtOTS, Women with one exception, the pi i. 

 "f Hfineter < 'hainyiip -were forbidden to be pres- 

 ent, on pain of leing thrown headlong from the 

 Tyna^an Rock. The games were held at the first 

 full moon of the summer solstice, when first 



throughout Elis, and then throughout the rest of 

 Greece, heralds proclaimed the cessation of all 

 intestine hostilities ; while the territory of Elis 

 itself was declared inviolable. The competitors 

 were required to undergo a preparatory trainin" 

 for ten months in the gymnasium at Elis, and 

 during the last of these months the gymnasium 

 was almost as numerously attended as the games 

 themselves. Much uncertainty prevails as to the 

 manner in which the contests were distributed over 

 the different days. Krause (Olympia, p. 106) 

 suggests the following order : On the first day the 

 great initiatory sacrifices were offered, after which 

 the competitors were properly classed and arranged 

 by the judges, and the contests of the trumpeters 

 took place ; the second day was set apart for the 

 loys who competed with e'ach other in foot-races, 

 wrestling, boxing, the pentathlon, the pankration, 

 horse-races ; the third and principal day was de- 

 voted to the contests of men in foot-races of 

 different kinds (as, for example, the simple race, 

 once over the course ; the diaulot, in wnich the 

 competitors had to run the distance twice ; and tho 

 dolichos, in which they had to run it seven or 

 twelve times), wrestling, boxing, the pankration 

 (in which all the powers and skill of the combatants 

 were exhibited), and the race of hopiites, or men 

 in heavy armour ; on the fourth day came off the 

 /"ntittnJon (contest of five games viz. leaping, 

 running, throwing the discus, throwing the spear, 

 and wrestling), the chariot ami horse races, and 

 perhaps the contests of the heralds ; the fifth day 

 was set apart for processions, sacrifices, and ban- 

 quets to the victors (called O/i/m/iiniii/coi), who 

 were crowned with a garland of wild olive-twigs 

 cut from a sacred tree which grew in the Altis, and 

 presented to the assembled people, each with a 

 palm branch in his hand, while the heralds pro- 

 claimed his nnme, and that of his father ami 

 country. On his return home he was received with 

 extraordinary distinction : songs were sung in his 

 praise (14 of Pindar's extant lyrics me devoted to 

 Olympionil.oi) ; statues were erected to him, both 

 in the Altis and in his native city ; a place of 

 honour was given him at all public spectacles; he 

 was in general exempted from public taxes, and at 

 Athens was boarded at the expense of the state ill 

 the Prytaneion. The regulation of the games 

 Ix-longed to the Eleans, from whom were chosen 

 the kellaaodOcai, or judges, at first two in number, 

 but latterly ten or twelve. Theodosius I. pro- 

 hibited the games in 394 A.D. Theodosius II. 

 ordered the buildings, which had suffered at the 

 hands of the Romans and of various Byzantine 

 Emperors, as they afterwards did from Goths and 

 Slavs, tolie burnt. Olympic games(iiicluding bicycle 

 races) were in a fashion revived at Athens in 1896; 

 the athletes coming, however, from France.Germany, 

 and elsewhere, as well as from Greek territories. 



See Krause'g Oliimpia (1838); Botticher's Olympia 

 (1882) ; Baumeister's/JrnliHUiVr; Lalmi and Monceaux, 

 Hotauration <lc I'Olympir (18WI); and Curtiusand Adler, 

 Olympia die Ergelniiiac tier A usyraltunyen ( 1891 ). 



Olympia. capital of the state of Washington, 

 on a ]>eninsula at the south end of Puget Sound, 

 some 65 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and 121 miles 

 by rail N. of Portland, Oregon. The Des Chutes 

 River, which enters the -mind here, provides abun- 

 dant water-power, and the town has Hour and saw 

 mills, boot-factories, &c. Pop. (1900) 4082. 



Olympiad, the name given to the period of 

 four years that elapsed between two successive 

 celebrations of the Olympic games, a mode of 

 reckoning among the. Greeks apparently first em- 

 ployed systematically by Alexandrian writers in 

 the 3d century B.C. It is used only by writers, 

 and is never found on coins and very seldom on 

 inscriptions. The first recorded olympiad dates 



