EARLY HISTORY OF THE FOUR NATIONAL GAMES. 15 
shadowed by Delphi and the Ionian festival on Delos. The impor- 
tance of the latter festival in the eighth and-seventh centuries B. C. is 
shown by the Homeric Hymn to the Delian Apollo. Only by the begin- 
ning of the seventh century had Olympia begun to gain its prestige. 
The pre-Dorian Pisatai, in whose territory the sanctuary was situated, 
probably controlled it early. The Dorian Eleans, whom legend had 
King Oxylos lead into the Peloponnesus from Aitolia,! tried to wrest 
this control from the Pisatai, who, however, aided by religious rever- 
ence for the sanctuary, were able to maintain their rights. On account 
of the conflict the games languished, until finally a truce was made by 
the two factions and the games were re-established under their common 
management. This work was ascribed to Iphitos and Kleosthenes, 
kings respectively of Elis and Pisa, and to Lykourgos of Sparta.? 
The dual control was not successful, as the jealous Pisatai constantly 
tried to regain their old honor; but the Eleans, supported by the 
Spartans, prevailed and finally, after the Persian wars, destroyed Pisa 
and the other revolting cities of Triphylia and henceforth remained 
in sole control. ‘The restoration of the games under Iphitos and his 
colleagues took place in 7/6 B.C., from which date the festival was 
Roman emperor Theodosius at the end of the fourth century A.D. In 
776 Koroibos of Elis won the foot-race and this was the first dated Olym- 
piad in the Olympian register,® and from it, as Pausanias says,‘ the 
unbroken tradition of the Olympiads began. ‘This history of Olympia 
is very different from the orthodox mythical story told by Pausanias 
and Strabo and based on the “ancient writings of the Eleans.’” Accord- 
ing to it the games were originally instituted by the Eleans under 
Oxylos and refounded by Iphitos, his descendant, together with 
Lykourgos, still under the management of the Eleans. In Ol. 8 the 
Pisatans invoked the aid of the Argive*king Pheidon and dispossessed 
ee ve lea olostrabo, VIL, 3.33 (C.357). 
*The decree governing the festival was inscribed on a diskos, which dates probably from the 
seventh century B. C., and was preserved in the Heraion down to the time of Pausanias. On it 
the names of Iphitos and Lykourgos were legible down to Aristotle’s day: P., V, 20.1; Plut., 
Lycurgus, I. 1. Phlegon, F. H.G., III, p. 602, and a scholion on Plato, de Rep., 465 D, men- 
tion Kleosthenes; cf. Louis Dyer, Harvard Classical Studies, 1908, pp. 40 f.; Gardiner, p. 43, n. 1. 
3For a discussion of the sources and history of this register, originally compiled near the end of 
the fifth century B. C. by Hippias of Elis (Plut., Numa, I, 4; cf. Mahaffy, J. H. S., Il, 1881, 
pp. 164f.), and revised by various later writers from Aristotle and Philochoros to Phlegon of 
Tralles and Julius Africanus, see Juethner, Ph., pp. 60-70. From it a complete list of stade- 
runners was copied by the church-historian Eusebios from Africanus, who had brought it 
down to 217 A. D. 4V, 8.6. 
5Mentioned by P., V, 4.6 and elsewhere; for the mythical account see P., V, 7.6—8.5 (from 
Herakles to Oxylos); V, 8.5, and V, 9.4 (revived under the presidency of Iphitos and the descen- 
dants of Oxylos). Phlegon, F. H. G., III, p. 603, says that the games were discontinued for 28 
Olympiads from the time of Herakles and Pelops to that of Koroibos. Velleius Paterculus, I, 8 
(ed. Halm), dates the revival under Iphitos, 793 B. C. Strabo, quoting Ephoros, says that the 
Achzans controlled Olympia to the time of Oxylos; for his mythical account of the games, see 
VIII, 3.33 (C. 357). On presidents of ithe games being elected from the Eleans, see P., V, 9.4-6. 
