OLYMPIAN GAMES 



4373 



OLYPHANT 



B.C. the Greeks began to keep a record of the 

 names of victors. This date is the starting 

 point in Greek chronology. The games were 

 celebrated every fourth year, and the interval 

 between two successive series was called an 

 Olympiad. In the course of time boxing, wres- 

 tling, discus throwing, chariot racing and other 

 athletic exercises were added to the original 

 foot race. Those who entered the lists were 

 compelled to undergo special gymnastic training 

 ami to show a name free from civic or personal 

 li<honor. Until the conquest of Greece by the 

 Romans, contestants had to be of pure Hel- 

 lenic blood, but under the Roman regime both 

 Greeks and Romans participated. 



Great honors were accorded the victors. They 

 crowned with garlands of the sacred olive, 

 their names were announced throughout the 

 land by heralds, and statues were erected to 

 them. To win a prize in the Olympian games 

 was to confer upon one's native city the great- 

 est possible honor. Probably the most far- 

 reaching effect of the games was the inspira- 

 tion which they gave to Grecian sculptors. In 

 the strong, graceful bodies of the contestants, 

 the artist had models of physical beauty that 

 could nowhere else be found. 



The Modern Games. In A. D. 396 the Roman 

 Emperor Theodosius issued a decree forbid- 

 ding the celebration of the games. The mod- 

 ern revival, in 1896, therefore, occurred exactly 

 fifteen centuries later. This series of games 

 was especially interesting because the members 

 of the royal family of Greece took part in the 

 festivities, and the awards were distributed by 

 the king in person. Probably no event at- 

 tracted more interest than the long-distance 

 foot race from Marathon to Athens, held in 

 honor of the messenger who brought to Athens 

 tin news of the victory at Marathon, and died 

 telling his story. It was planned to make 

 this great international meet the first of an 

 indefinite number of series, and accordingly 

 other contests were held at Paris (1900), at 

 Saint Louis (1904), at London (1908) and at 

 Stockholm (1912). The celebration at Saint 

 Louis was not international in scope, and so 

 an intermediate series was held in Athens in 

 1906. The games for 1916 were scheduled to 

 take place at Berlin, but their celebration was 

 made impossible by the outbreak of the v 

 of the Nations (1914). The Marathon races 

 have been won as follows: in 1896 by a Gr- 

 in 1900 by a Frenchman; in 1906 by a Cana- 

 ; in 1908 by an American; and in 1912 by 

 a South African. 



Consult Sullivan's Olympian Games, Stockholm, 

 191* ; Gardiner's Greek Athletic Sports and Fes- 

 tivals. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will make clearer the references in 

 the above discussion. The articles on the various 

 fqrms of athletics mentioned above may also be 

 consulted. 



Athletics 

 Epoch 

 Isthmian Games 



Marathon 

 Nemean Games 

 Pythian Games 



OLYMPUS, olim'pus, a mountain famous 

 not so much because, with its height of 9,754 

 feet, it overtops all other mountains in Greece, 

 but because in the early days in Greece its 

 summit was looked upon as the abode of the 

 gods. It is a massive mountain, at the eastern 

 end of the ridge which divides Thessaly from 

 Macedonia, and by reason of its ruggedness 

 and inaccessibility no less than its height com- 

 mended itself to the dwellers at its foot as a 

 fitting abode for the rulers of men. The twelve 

 great gods who made up the Olympian council, 

 as well as many of the lesser deities, had spe- 

 cial homes on the broad, many-peaked summit, 

 but at the very highest point, where he might 

 survey all the doings of gods and of men, Zeus 

 had his great palace and assembly hall. Thence 

 he sent forth his eagles to the uttermost parts 

 of the earth, and thence he hurled his thunder- 

 bolts. 



Gradually it came to seem to the people, 

 and especially to the poets who had built up 

 and crystallized their mythology, that the snow- 

 covered, cloud-wrapped summit of Olympus 

 could afford no cheerful dwelling place for the 

 gods ; also, the beginnings of exploration taught 

 that the great mountain mass was not, as they 

 had held it, the center of the earth. A new 

 Olympus, therefore, was created a wonderful 

 place of brightness and warmth above the 1 

 ens and thither the home of the gods was 

 transferred. The change may be seen in tin 1 

 writings of Homer; the Iliad holds to the older 

 creed, and places the gods on the Thessalian 

 mountain peaks, while the Odyssey makes their 

 home a sort of heavenly mountain, umvrtain 

 in locality, but still called by the name Olym- 

 pus. 



OLYPHANT, oft /ant, PA., in Lacka wanna 

 County, is one of a group of mining boroughs 

 about six miles northeast of Scranton, in the 

 heastern part of the state. It is on the 

 a wanna River and on the Delaware A 

 ..n an.l the New York, Ontario A West- 

 err railroads niul electric interurban lines. The 

 mining of anthracite coal, silk throwing and 



