OLYMPIAN GAMES. 



OLYMPIAN GAMES. 



in the month of Apollonius (July), sometimes in the month of 

 Parthenius (August). (Boeckh ad Find. 'Olymp.,' iii. 18, p. 138; 

 Mailer's 'Dorians,' vol. i., p. 281, trans.) The period between two 

 celebrations was called an Olympiad. The celebration lasted five 

 days. 



The origin of this festival is concealed amidst the obscurity of the 

 mythic period of Grecian history. Olympia was a sacred spot and had 

 an oracle of Zeus long before the institution of the games. The 

 Eleans had various traditions which attributed the original foundation 

 of the festival to gods and heroes at a period long before the Trojan 

 War; and among these to the Idecan Heracles, to Pelops, and to 

 Heracles the son of Alcmena. The Eleans further stated, that after 

 the ^Etolians had possessed themselves of Elis, their whole territory was 

 consecrated to Zeus; that the games were revived by their king 

 Iphitus, in conjunction with Lycurgus, as a remedy for the disorders 

 of Greece ; and that Iphitus obtained the sanction of the Delphic 

 oracle to the institution, and appointed a periodical sacred truce, to 

 enable persons to attend the games from every part of Greece and to 

 return to then- homes in safety. This event was recorded on a disc, 

 which was preserved by the Eleans, on which the names of Iphitus and 

 Lycurgus were inscribed. (Plutarch, ' Lycurg.,' 1 ; Pausan., v. 20, 21.) 

 Other accounts mention Cleosthenes of Pisa aa an associate of Iphitus 

 and Lycurgus in the revival of the festival. " All that can be safely 

 inferred from this tradition, which hag been embellished with a variety 

 of legends, seems to be, that Sparta concurred with the two states 

 most interested in the plan, and mainly contributed to procure the 

 consent of the other Peloponnesians." (Thirlwall's ' History of 

 Greece,' vol. i., ch. 10.) The date of the revival of the festival by 

 Iphitus is, according to Eratosthenes, 884 B.C. ; according to Callima- 

 chus, 828 B.C. Mr. Clinton prefers the latter date. (' Fasti Hellenic!,' 

 vol. iL, p. 408, note h.) The Olympiads began to be reckoned from 

 the year 776 B.C., in which Coroebus was victor in the foot-race. We 

 have lints of the victors from that year, which always include the 

 victors in the foot-race, and in later times those in the other games. 

 (Pausan., v. 8. 3.) 



This, like all the other public festivals, might be attended by all 

 who were of the Hellenic race, though at first probably the northern 

 Greeks and perhaps the Aehicans of Peloponnesus were not admitted. 

 Spectators came to Olympia not only from Greece itself, but also from 

 the Grecian colonies in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Among them were 

 solemn deputations sent to represent their respective states. Women 

 however were forbidden to appear at Olympia, or even to cross the 

 Alpheus, during the festival, under pain of death. But at a later 

 period we find the chariots of women mentioned as taking part in the 

 chariot-race, though it is at least doubtful whether the women drove 

 their own chariots. An exception was made to this law of exclusion 

 in favour of the priestess of Demeter, who was permitted to be 

 present at the games, and had a place assigned to her opposite the 

 judges : according to Pausanias (vi. 20) a similar privilege was accorded 

 to virgins, but no other writer refers to such an exemption, and the 

 passage in Pausanias is by some recent authorities believed to be cor- 

 rupt. The management of the festival was in the hands of the Eleans. 

 Originally indeed Pisa, in which state Olympia lay, seems to have had 

 an equal share in the administration ; but in the fiftieth Olympiad the 

 Eleans destroyed Pisa, and from that time they had the whole arrange- 

 ment of the games. They proclaimed the sacred truce, first in their own 

 territories, and then throughout the rest of Greece. This truce took 

 effect from the time of its proclamation in Elis, and while it lasted the 

 territory was inviolable, any armed invasion of it being esteemed 

 an act of sacrilege. On this privilege the Eleans founded a claim to 

 have their territory always considered sacred, though in fact they 

 themselves did not abstain from war. As the presiding nation, they 

 gave laws for the regulation of the festival, imposed penalties on 

 individual* and states, and had the power of excluding from the 

 games those who resisted their decrees. They actually thus excluded 

 the Lacedaemonians on one occasion and the Athenians on another. 



The Eleans appointed the judges of the contests, who were called 



Hellanodioc. ( 1'aus., v. 9. 4, 5.) They were instructed in the duties 



of their office for a period of ten months before the festival by Elean 



office, called Nomophy laces (Paw., vi. 24. 3) : they were sworn 



to act impartially, and an appeal might be made from their deci- 



> the Elean senate. (Pans., vi. 24. 3.) Their number varied 



at different periods : in the 100th Olympiad it was fixed at ten, 



, wan the number ever afterwards. The judges had under them 



-, called O\VTIU (nli/tir), whose business was to keep order. These 



H were called iuurny6<popoi (matti'joj>h'/ri) in the other Grecian 



games. 



The Olympian festival consisted of religious ceremonies, athletic 

 contests, and races. The chief deity who presided over it was the 

 Olympian Zeus, whose temple at Olympia, containing the ivory and 

 gold statue of the god by Phidias, was one of the most magnificent 

 works of art in Greece. (Pans., v.) The worship of Apollo was 

 associated with that of Zeus (Miiller'a ' Dorians,' vol. i., p. 279-281, 

 tran-. i ; and the early traditions connect Heracles with the festival. 

 (Ibid., p. 453.) This is another proof of the Dorian origin of the 

 games, for Apollo and Heracles were two of the principal deities of 

 tli.- Doric race. There were altars at Olympia to other gods, which 

 were said to have been erected by Heracles, and at which the victors 



ABTS ASD CI MV. VOL. TI. 



sacrificed. The most magnificent sacrifices and presents were offered 

 to Zeus Olympius by the competitors and by the different states of 

 Greece. 



The games consisted of horse and foot races, leaping, throwing, 

 wrestling, and boxing, and combinations of these exercises. 1. The 

 earliest of these games was the foot-race (Spdfws), which was the only 

 one revived by Iphitus. The space run was the length of the stadium 

 in which the games were held, namely, about 600 English feet. lu 

 the 14th Olympiad (724 B.C.) the SiauAos was added, in which the 

 stadium was traversed twice. The 8<(Aixos, which consisted of several 

 lengths of the stadium (seven, twelve, or twenty-four, according to 

 different authorities), was added in the 15th Olympiad (B.C. 720). A 

 race in which the runners wore armour (iirAiraii/ 5p<J,uos) was established 

 in the 65th Olympiad, but soon after abolished. 2. Wrestling (iraMj) 

 was introduced in the 18th Olympiad (B.C. 708). The wrestlers were 

 matched in pairs by lot ; when there was an odd number, the person 

 who was left by the lot without an antagonist wrestled last of all with 

 him who had conquered the others. He was called &f>e8poj. The 

 athlete who gave his antagonist three throws gained the victory. 

 There was another kind of wrestling (apoKA.n'oTrciA.j)), in which, if the 

 combatant who fell could drag down his antagonist with him, the 

 straggle was continued on the ground, and the one who succeeded in 

 getting uppermost and holding the other down gained the victory. 

 3. In the same year was introduced the pentathlon (TrevTaS\ov), or, 

 as the Romans called it, quinquertium, which consisted of the five 

 exercises enumerated in the following verse, which is ascribed to 

 Simonides : 



*A\fut, 



, &KOVTH, ird\i)v, 



that is, "leaping, running, throwing the discus [Discus], throwing the 

 javelin, wrestling." Others give a different enumeration of the ex- 

 ercises of the pentathlon. In leaping, they carried weights in their 

 hands or on their shoulders : the object was to leap the greatest 

 distance, without regard to height. In throwing, neither the discus 

 nor the javelin was aimed at a mark, but he who threw farthest was 

 the victor. In order to gain a victory in the pentathlon, it was 

 necessary to conquer in each of its five parts. 4. Boxing (iriryju))) was 

 introduced in the 23rd Olympiad (B.C. 688). The boxers had their 

 hands and arms covered with thongs of leather, called ceitus, which 

 served both to defend them and to annoy their antagonists. Virgil 

 (' .En.,' v. 405) describes the cestus as armed with lead and iron ; but this 

 is not known to have been the case among the Greeks. 5. The pancratium 

 (-rayKpdriov) consisted of boxing and wrestling combined. In this 

 exercise and in the cestus the vanquished combatant acknowledged 

 his defeat by some sign ; and this is supposed to be the reason why 

 Spartans were forbidden by the laws of Lycurgus to practise them, as 

 it would have been esteemed a disgrace to his country that a Spartan 

 should confess himself defeated. In these games the combatants 

 fought naked. (Thuc., i. 6.) 



The horse-races were of two kinds. 1. The Chariot-race, generally 

 with four-horsed chariots (lirwuit -rt\((uv Sp6fios), was introduced in the 

 25th Olympiad (B.C. 680). The course (iinroSprf/ioi) had two goals in 

 the middle, at the distance probably of two stadia from each other. 

 The chariots started from one of these goals, turned round the other, 

 and returned along the other side of the hippodrome. This circuit 

 was made twelve times. The art of the charioteer consisted in turning 

 as close as possible to these goals, but without running against them 

 or the other chariots. The places at the starting-post were assigned 

 to the chariots by lot. There was another sort of race between 

 chariots with two horses (Svupa or ffvvwpis). A race between chariots 

 drawn by mules (4m)KJ)) was introduced in the 70th Olympiad, and 

 abolished in the 84th. 2. There were two sorts of races on horseback, 

 namely, the Aijt, in which each competitor rode one horse throughout 

 the course, and the icoAirV in which, as the horse approached the goal, 

 the rider leaped from his back, and keeping hold of the bridle, finished 

 the course on foot : in this last only mares were permitted to run. 



In the 37th Olympiad (B.C. 632) racing on foot and wrestling 

 between boys was introduced. There were also contests in poetry and 

 music at the Olympian festival. 



All persons were admitted to contend in the Olympic games who 

 could prove that they were freemen, that they were of genuine Hellenic 

 blood, and that their characters were free from infamy and im- 

 morality. So great was the importance attached to the second of these 

 particulars, that the kings of Macedon were obliged to make out their 

 Hellenic descent before they were allowed to contend. The equestrian 

 contests were necessarily confined to the wealthy, who displayed in 

 them great magnifience ; but the athletic exercises were open to the 

 poorest citizens. An example of this is mentioned by Pausanias (vi. 

 10. 1). In the equestrian games moreover there was no occasion for 

 the owner of the chariot or horse to appear in person. Thus Alcibiades 

 on one occasion sent seven chariots to the Olympic games, three of 

 which obtained prizes. The combatants underwent a long and labo- 

 rious training, the nature of which varied with the game in which 

 they intended to engage. Ten months before the festival they were 

 obliged to appear at Elis to enter their names as competitors, stating the 

 prize for which they meant to contend. This interval of ten months 

 was spent in preparatory exercises ; and for a part of it, the last thirty- 

 days at least, they were thus engagod in the gymnasium at Elie. 



