|
The scarped vertical face of rock, which may be seen above the
figure of
the shepherd, shows the recently excavated site of the Place for
the
Lustration of Pilgrims, to which the water of the Castalian spring
was
carried by an artificial channel in the rock. The masonry to the left
of
the drawing is part of a modern reservoir.]
It seems to have been
almost the invariable practice for Greeks to
consult the oracle before
resolving to plant a colony, so much so that
Delphi is declared to have been
“the best-informed agency for emigration
that any State has ever
possessed.”
Its prestige declined owing to several causes. The priests
were not
always proof against bribery; and when it became known at any time
that
they had thus abused their office, it produced a deep feeling
of
indignation and distrust. There are several well-attested cases
of
corruption, chiefly on the part of Spartans. One of their
kings,
Cleomenes, procured the deposition of his brother-king Demaratus
by
bringing private influence to bear at Delphi. When the facts of the
case
came to light, the prophetess was deposed from her office, and her
chief
adviser at Delphi had to take to flight. Another Spartan
king,
Pleistoanax, who had been exiled for accepting bribes from
Pericles,
succeeded, after eighteen years’ residence in Arcadia (where,
for
safety, half of his dwelling-house was within the enclosure of
a
temple), in obtaining his recall to Sparta with great honour, owing
to
the injunctions to this effect, which were repeatedly given by
the
oracle as the result of bribes. Lysander, the great Spartan
general,
after he was deprived of his command, concerted a scheme with
the
authorities at Delphi for getting himself recognised as king through
the
publication of fabricated records, alleged to be of great antiquity,
and
only to be opened by a genuine son of Apollo. Such a pretender
they
secured, but the scheme broke down owing to the timidity of one of
the
conspirators.
Another drawback was that the growing power of rival
states rendered it
increasingly difficult for the oracle to hold the balance
with any
fairness between them, and at the same time maintain its old
and
intimate relations with Sparta. Its dignity was also lowered
when,
instead of being open for consultation for a month once a year,
more
frequent opportunities were afforded and trivial questions
entertained.
But perhaps the most serious difficulty they had to contend with
was the
growing intercourse and correspondence of the different cities
of
Greece, both with one another and with foreign cities, and the
general
spread of knowledge, which tended to impair the reverence in which
the
oracle had been held, and deprived its priests of the monopoly
of
general information which they seem to have at one time
virtually
enjoyed. By the time the Christian era began, the Greek oracles had
been
practically superseded by the Chaldæan astrologers; and when Julian
the
Apostate in the fourth century tried to revive the glory of Delphi,
he
received the answer, “Tell the king the earth has fallen, the
beautiful
mansion; no longer has Phœbus a home, nor a prophetic laurel, nor
a
font that speaks: gone dry is the talking water.” It was
finally
suppressed by the Emperor Theodosius towards the end of the
fourth
century.
Like the still older sanctuary of Dodona (where
revelations were
supposed to be given through the rustling of a sacred oak),
Delphi was,
alternately with Thermopylæ, the seat in historic times of
an
Amphictyony or union of states, which existed for the worship of
the
deity whose shrine they were pledged to defend, as well as for
mutual
friendship and protection. Unfortunately the history of the
oracle,
although a national institution, was marked at various times by
deadly
strife among the different Hellenic tribes whose interests
were
involved. At first the management of the oracle seems to have been
in
the hands of the people of Crisa, who were Phocians, but after
the
protracted war waged by the Amphictyony against the natives of
Cirrha,
the adjacent sea-port, on account of the extortions they practised
on
the pilgrims to the shrine and the outrages they sometimes
perpetrated
on them, the trust was committed by the federation to the
inhabitants of
Delphi, who were of Dorian extraction. Cirrha was laid waste,
the whole
Crisæan plain was dedicated to Apollo, and the spoils of Cirrha
were
used to establish the Pythian games on a more ambitious footing than
had
been possible when they were held in the limited space available
at
Delphi.
A second Sacred War, as it was called, broke out in 357
B.C., when the
Amphictyonic Council, after imposing a fine on the Phocians at
the
instigation of their enemies the Thebans, which remained
unpaid,
proceeded to confiscate their territory. The Phocians offered a long
and
desperate resistance, asserting their old right to administer
the
affairs of the sanctuary. In the course of the war their leaders
had
recourse to the treasures of the temple again and again, melting
and
coining the precious metals, and turning the brass and iron into
arms.
Altogether they are said to have appropriated no less than
￡2,300,000,
which was required to keep up their large mercenary
army.
The fabulous wealth of the place had often tempted the cupidity
of
foreign foes, but on every occasion the god had been found able
to
protect himself. When Xerxes sent a detachment of his huge army
to
despoil the shrine, his soldiers were thrown into a panic and
put
utterly to flight by great rocks tumbling down upon them from the
cliffs
of Parnassus in the midst of a terrible thunderstorm. The rocks
were
shown to Herodotus in the precincts of the temple of
Athena,--perhaps
the same as are still to be seen in the low ground to the
south of the
public road. A similar experience is said to have befallen the
Gauls
under Brennus about two hundred years afterwards. At an
intermediate
date (370 B.C.), when Jason of Pheræ, the powerful ruler of
Thessaly,
set out for Delphi with, as it was believed, a hostile intent,
under
colour of sacrificing to the god a thousand bulls and ten
thousand
sheep, goats, and swine, he was suddenly cut off in the prime of
life by
a treacherous band of assassins.
There was yet a third Sacred
War, a few years afterwards. The objects of
Amphictyonic wrath on this
occasion were not the Phocians but the
Locrians of Amphissa (now Salona), who
had taken possession of Cirrha
and repeated the old offence of using part of
the consecrated ground for
their own secular purposes.
[Illustration:
DELPHI. THE PORTICO (STOA) OF THE ATHENIANS
The wall of polygonal masonry
to the right is part of the _Heleniko_, or
terrace wall, of the Great Temple
of Apollo. Three marble steps at the
back of the Athenian portico, with two
Ionic columns in place, stand in
front of the wall. The “sacred way,”
terminating at the east end of the
Great Temple above, passes in front of
this portico, and the row of
marble seats along its farther side marks out
its course. To the left of
the drawing is seen the mountain slope of Kirphis
leading down to the
gorge of the river Pleistos.]
The sympathies of
Greece were divided in this war, and the final outcome
of the struggle was
that Philip of Macedonia, who had been called in to
finish the previous war,
and had been admitted a member of the
Amphictyony in place of the
dispossessed Phocian tribe, now became
master of Greece by reason of his
victory over the combined forces of
Athens and Thebes at the fateful battle
of Chæronea in 338 B.C.
Within the past few years French archæologists
have done wonderful work
at Delphi. By the removal of the modern village of
Castri, the
foundations of the temple and the remains of many of the
surrounding
buildings and monuments have been brought to light. As you pass
along
the “Sacred Way” you can identify many of the sites mentioned
by
Pausanias, in the very order in which he describes them. In most
places
the old pavement still remains, with grooves to keep the feet
from
slipping. Some of the most precious relics have been removed to
the
Museum, where there are also models of many of the most beautiful
works
of art that have perished. Among the former is the famous _Omphalos_
or
“Navel-stone,” on which Apollo is often represented as sitting.
It
marked the spot at which two eagles met, which had been sent out
by
Jupiter from extreme east and west, of equal speed in flight,
to
determine the exact centre of the earth. The marble stone which is
now
shown, although apparently identical with that seen by
Pausanias,--for
it was discovered on the same spot,--may be only an imitation
of the
original, like another which has also been recently discovered; and
the
golden eagles which stood beside the _Omphalos_ have also
disappeared.
The chasm in the temple floor, from which the vapour ascended
that was
supposed to inspire the prophetess, cannot now be found, having
probably
been filled up somehow; but a little way off there is a rock with a
rift
in it, on which the first Sibyl (mentioned by Plutarch) is supposed
to
have sat and prophesied. The rift may have been the lurking-place of
the
dragon which Apollo shot with his darts, when he came from Delos,
the
land of his birth, to inaugurate the ministry of the Cretan
travellers,
whom he had enlisted in the service of his new sanctuary.
According to
the legend the skin of the dragon was left to rot, giving rise
to the
ancient name Pytho, by which Delphi was known in the days of Homer.
In
the hymn to the Delphian Apollo the scene of the combat is laid in
the
gorge of the Phædriadæ, but the other conjecture is supported by
the
proximity to the Sibyl’s rock of an enclosure like a
threshing-floor,
which is supposed to be the place where the drama was
enacted every
fourth year.
A little way above the temple is an
open-air theatre--one of the best
preserved in Greece. It is in the usual
horse-shoe form, with its
sloping back, enclosing the sitting accommodation
for the spectators,
resting on a rising ground. The stadium is still higher,
right under the
cliffs of Parnassus on the north, and shut in by rising
grounds on
either side, but commanding a magnificent view to the south over
valley
and mountain. It was the ancient scene of the Pythian games, and
is
still recognisable as such in almost every feature. Apollo was
regarded
as the leader of the Muses, and the Pythian festival was originally
a
musical, not an athletic contest. The prize of laurel wreath was
given
for the best song in honour of Apollo to the accompaniment of the
lyre.
At the conclusion of the first Sacred War, nearly 600 B.C., the
chariot
races (which are deprecated in the Homeric hymn) were inaugurated in
the
plain beneath. But the higher form of competition still
continued,
including even poetry and painting--a distinction of which no
other
pagan cult can boast. Deeply interesting as the ruins are from
an
archæological point of view, they bring home a sense of
the
transitoriness of early glory when one thinks how little remains of
the
thousand statues and trophies and votive offerings which once filled
the
spot with “the glory that was Greece.” Time has robbed it of
the
treasures of art which were to be seen in the days of Pliny, even
after
the ravages of Sulla and of Nero. Happily, one of the most
interesting
and beautiful of all the monuments has just been restored, namely
the
Treasury of the Athenians, which was built of Parian marble in the
form
of a small Doric temple, from the spoils taken on the field of
Marathon.
It seems to have been overthrown by an earthquake, but almost all
the
blocks of which it was constructed have been discovered among the
ruins,
and have been fitted together with such skill and success as
to
reproduce the old inscriptions engraved upon the walls,
including
several hymns to Apollo, with their musical notation. The expense
of
the restoration has been mainly borne by the city of Athens.
A few
hundred yards to the east is the Castalian spring, in the cleft
between the
lofty Phædriadæ. At one time it was believed to confer the
gift of prophecy
on those who drank of it; but its rock-hewn basin is
now used by the village
women for washing clothes. In ancient times its
water was used for sacred
purposes by the prophetess and her attendants
and all who came to consult the
oracle. That the purification sought was
not merely that of the body may be
inferred from a prophetic utterance
which has been rendered as
follows:--
To the pure precincts of Apollo’s portal,
Come,
pure in heart, and touch the lustral wave:
One drop sufficeth for the
sinless mortal;
All else e’en ocean’s billows cannot lave.
If the
traveller pursue his journey a few hours farther to the east,
passing the
picturesque little town of Arachova, about 2000 feet above
the sea, he will
reach the ancient Cleft or Triple Way, in a scene of
desolate grandeur at the
end of a long, deep, narrow valley. It was
there that Œdipus, seeking to
escape the destiny which had just been
announced to him by the oracle, and
unaware of his true parentage, met
his father Laius, King of Thebes, on his
way to Delphi, and in a fit of
anger at the unceremonious way in which he was
jostled aside by the
royal charioteer, slew the aged king and all his
attendants save one,--a
crime which was the beginning of those many sorrows
in his
[Illustration: THE ANCIENT QUARRIES ON MOUNT PENTELIKON
Of
extraordinary interest as the material source of the finest
architecture and
sculpture of Ancient Greece.]
family history which were to be the theme
of some of the greatest of the
Greek tragedies. Pausanias mentions that the
tomb of the murdered men,
with unhewn stones heaped upon it, was to be seen
at the middle of the
place where the three roads met: the modern traveller
finds a monument
with an inscription which tells how Johannes Megas was
killed on the
same spot in 1856, in an encounter with a band of brigands,
which he was
seeking to extirpate.
CHAPTER
III
OLYMPIA AND ITS GAMES
Olympia has been described by an
ancient writer as the fairest spot in
Greece. In so describing it, he must
have had in view not only the
natural scenery but also the beautiful
buildings and statuary with which
it was so richly adorned as the
time-honoured seat of the Olympian
games. The scenery is pleasing without
being grand, presenting in this
respect a striking contrast to the stern
majesty of Delphi. It may be
described as a peaceful and fertile plain,
traversed by the river
Alpheus, whose waters Heracles is said to have
diverted from their
course to cleanse the Augean stables. On either side, and
also at its
western end, the plain is shut in by hills, while far away to the
east
the mountains of Arcadia, where the Alpheus has its rise, can be
dimly
seen. In the immediate foreground, standing by itself, as if
detached
from the low range behind, there is a small conical hill, about 400
feet
high, covered with pines and brushwood, and bearing a name
(Cronius)
which calls to mind the primeval deity who was dethroned by his
son
Zeus, the presiding god of Olympia. Close to this hill, on the
south,
lies the Altis or sacred enclosure, originally a consecrated
grove,
which, in course of time, was overspread with altars and temples
and
other public buildings.
Thirty years ago there was scarcely any
trace of this ancient glory to
be seen. But within the last generation a
great work of excavation and
discovery has been carried on by German
archæologists, at an expense of
￡40,000, generously defrayed by the German
Government, on the
understanding that all objects of interest brought to
light should be
allowed to remain in Greece. One can form some idea of the
labour
involved in the undertaking from the fact that the average depth of
the
_debris_, composed of the clay washed down from the Cronius hill and
the
alluvial deposits of the river Cladeus (which joins the Alpheus close
to
the Altis on the west), was fully sixteen feet.
Although
associated, more than any other spot in Greece, with the
worship of the
“father of gods and men,” Olympia seems originally to
have been devoted to
the honour of his consort Hera, or possibly of
both. The oldest architectural
remains within the enclosure are those of
a temple of Hera, to which
Pausanias assigned an earlier date than we
can give to any other sacred ruin
in Greece, namely, about 1096 B.C. Its
great antiquity is proved by the
resemblance which it bears in some
respects to the architecture of Mycenæ,
and also by the fact that the
existing columns (of which thirty-four out of
the original forty have
been more or less preserved) were evidently preceded
by columns of
wood, one of which, made of oak, was still standing when
Pausanias
visited the place in the second century A.D. Wood seems to have
been the
material in which the Doric architecture was originally executed;
and in
this instance it was only as the wood of each column decayed that it
was
replaced with stone, the natural result being that the columns
differ
greatly from one another in thickness and style and the nature of
their
stone. Some of them must have been substituted for the wooden ones
as
early as the seventh century B.C., for their capitals are among
the
oldest specimens of Doric architecture that are anywhere to be
found.
Pausanias tells us that this temple contained rude images of both
Zeus
and Hera; and not far from the spot a head has been discovered, twice
as
large as life, which is supposed with great probability to belong to
the
latter. It is believed to date from the seventh or sixth century
B.C.,
and is made of the same soft stone as the base still remaining,
which
could not have lasted so long unless it had been under cover. The
eyes
are large, the head is crowned, and the face wears a look
of
complacency, without much dignity or refinement. Hera seems to have
had
much the same prominence in Olympia as she had in Argolis, where
the
family of Pelops was also in the ascendant.
It was only gradually
that Zeus obtained general recognition as the
chief deity in the court of
Olympus, becoming the centre of the
Pan-Hellenic religion reflected in Homer,
which was as powerful a bond
of union among the ancient Greeks as
Christianity has
[Illustration: OLYMPIA. THE BASE OF THE KRONOS HILL,
WITH THE REMAINS OF
THE TEMPLE OF HERA AND THE PHILIPPEION
At the foot
of the hill, the columns of the north, south, and west sides
of the Heræon
still _in situ_ are clearly shown, and also the cella wall
on the west and
south. The remains of the Philippeion, a circular
building erected by Philip
II. of Macedon (_circ._ 336 B.C.), are in the
foreground, to the west of the
Heræon. The base of one of the Ionic
columns is in its place, and the marble
steps which supported the
colonnade are connected by a slab of marble with
the circular
sub-structure of the central mass of the
building.]
proved to be in modern times in preserving the Greek
nationality under
the Turkish Empire. The supremacy which was given to Zeus
in theory in
other parts of the country was visibly realised at Olympia,
where the
chief sanctuary was a temple dedicated to his worship, more than
200
feet long and about 90 feet wide, surrounded by 134 columns, each
of
them about 34 feet high, dating probably from the fifth century B.C.
It
was a magnificent edifice, as we may still judge from the appearance
of
the columns and the decorations of the pediments and
the
frieze--although built of native conglomerate. On the east pediment
of
the gable there were twenty-one colossal and imposing
figures,
representing those interested in the chariot-race from Pisa to
the
isthmus of Corinth, by which Pelops gained the kingdom and the hand
of
the king’s daughter; while on the west there was a representation, in
a
similar style, of the legendary battle of the Lapiths and the
Centaurs.
On the metopes of the frieze the Twelve Labours of Heracles
were
depicted, and along the sides of the roof gargoyles projected in
the
form of lions’ mouths. Many of these figures have been recovered,
mostly
in fragments, and are exhibited in the local museum. In the same
place
there is an exquisite statue of Hermes by Praxiteles, which was
found
under a covering of clay in front of the very pedestal in the temple
of
Hera where Pausanias mentions that he had seen it standing, and also
a
Nike of Pæonius, representing the goddess of Victory flying through
the
air to execute the behest of Zeus.
But the crowning glory of
Olympia, the masterpiece of Pheidias and of
Greek art, is gone beyond recall.
It was a colossal image of Jupiter,
made of gold and ivory and ebony, about
40 feet high, and standing on a
pedestal of bluish-black stone in the
innermost part of the temple.
Cicero expressed his admiration of it by saying
that Pheidias had
designed it not after a living model but after that ideal
beauty which
he saw with the inward eye alone. Dīo Chrysostom bore still
more
impressive testimony to its entrancing beauty when he said:
“Methinks
that if one who is heavy-laden in mind, who has drained the cup
of
misfortune and sorrow in life, and whom sweet sleep visits no more,
were
to stand before this image, he would forget all the griefs and
troubles
that are incident to the life of man.” It is uncertain whether the
image
perished in the fire which destroyed the temple in the beginning of
the
fifth century A.D., or was carried to Constantinople and consumed in
a
conflagration which took place there in 475 A.D.
Near the centre of
the Altis has been found the foundation of the great
altar of Zeus (which was
made of ashes and rose to a height of 22 feet),
and not far off an ancient
altar of Hera, where an immense quantity of
small bronzes and terra-cotta
figures has been found. In the same
neighbourhood has been traced the
_Pelopium_, a precinct sacred to the
memory of Pelops, where he was
worshipped as a hero with a ritual of a
sad and gloomy nature, directed to a
pit as an emblem of the grave, and
more akin to the primitive worship of the
Chthonian or infernal gods
than to that of the deities who were enthroned on
lofty Olympus.
The fame of Olympia may be said to have rested even more
on its games
than on its religious associations, though the secular and
sacred were
so bound up with one another, in ancient Greece, that it is
scarcely
possible to form a true conception of the one without the other.
The
Olympian games held the foremost place among those
competitive
exhibitions, which were so illustrative of the spirit of
emulation
characteristic of the Greeks, as well as of their ideal of a
harmonious
development of body and soul. There were three other foundations
of the
same kind: the Pythian, in honour of Apollo, likewise held every
four
years; the Nemean (under the care of Argos), every second year,
in
honour of Zeus; and the Isthmian (under Corinth), also held every
second
year, in honour of Poseidon. The prizes were respectively a wreath
of
bay, of pine, and of parsley, a palm-branch being also placed in
the
hand of the victor. The prize at Olympia was a wreath of olive, cut
with
a golden sickle by a boy, both of whose parents had to be
alive--as
among the Gauls the priest had to cut the sacred mistletoe with the
same
precious metal. At the three other places just mentioned the games
dated
practically from the first quarter of the sixth century B.C. But
the
register of victors in the Olympian games went back to 776 B.C.,
which
is the first definite and reliable date (called the First Olympiad)
in
Greek chronology.
The origin of all these gatherings may probably
be traced to the
funeral games mentioned in Homer and Hesiod, which were
celebrated by a
chief in honour of a departed friend or relative. According
to one
account the Olympian games were instituted by Heracles in honour
of
Pelops, grandfather of Agamemnon and brother of the ill-fated Niobe,
who
had come to Pisa from the Lydian kingdom of his father
Tantalus--that
presumptuous guest at the table of the gods whose name is
immortalised
for us in the English word which describes the nature of his
penal
sufferings. The traditional connection of Olympia with Asia Minor
is
borne out by the resemblance of the bronzes above mentioned to
early
Phrygian art, as well as by other circumstances; and there is no
reason
to doubt that Olympia was at one time in the hands of the
Achæans.
The Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus about 1100 B.C., eighty
years
after the fall of Troy, marked a new era in the history of Olympia.
The
Heracleids (whose shipbuilding for the voyage across the narrow
straits
of the Gulf is still commemorated in the name of the port
_Naupactus_,
on the northern side of the Gulf) are said to have rewarded the
Ætolian
exile Oxylus, who acted as their guide (answering to the
oracular
description of “a man with three eyes,” whom they were to
find--being
one-eyed and riding on a horse with two eyes), by confirming him
in the
possession of Elis, which in older times was known as Epeia, and is
so
referred to by Homer. For a long time the Eleans and the Pisatans
seem
to have superintended the games
[Illustration: OLYMPIA. THE
PALÆSTRA AND REMAINS OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS
This view is taken from the
western side of the Palæstra, and the
standing columns in the foreground are
part of the southern colonnade of
that building. The platform (Krepidoma) of
the great Temple (which was
raised upon a mound and occupied the highest
point of the _Altis_ or
sacred enclosure) is in the centre of the drawing.
Many of the colossal
drums and other architectural members of the Temple lie
scattered about
on the platform. Across the valley of the Alpheios are seen
the Phellon
Mountains, topped by splendid masses of cloud. This drawing is a
record
of a lovely spring day in the Western Peloponnesus.]
jointly,
with the support of the Dorian settlement at Sparta, whose
great lawgiver,
Lycurgus, was said to have put the institution on a new
footing in concert
with Iphitus, the king of Pisatis, the names of both
being inscribed on a
famous quoit of which Aristotle speaks. Pausanias
tells us that the towns of
Elis and Pisatis appointed sixteen
women--eight from each state--to weave the
festal robe (_peplos_) for
the image of the Olympian Hera. The Pisatans,
however, were afterwards
displaced, and in 570 B.C. their city was destroyed,
and Elis obtained
the whole right of administration.
The first
historic game was a foot-race, and it was only by degrees that
other contests
were at various times added. The _pentathlon_, during
which the Pythian air
was played on the flutes in honour of Apollo,
consisted of running, jumping,
throwing the disc or quoit, throwing the
javelin, and wrestling. Finally came
chariot-racing (in a hippodrome
adjoining the Altis), which, though
necessarily confined to men of
wealth, added much to the spectacular
attractions of the games.
The competitors had to strip naked for the
athletic contests, this being
a characteristic feature of the Greek games,
obligatory on all without
distinction of rank. There were games for boys as
well as for men, and
the celebrations, which at first were confined to a
single day, extended
ultimately to five days. The women had a festival of
their own, with
games for girls; but at the ordinary games married women were
not
allowed to be present. At the same time there was very
little
coarseness or cruelty about them, compared with a Roman
gladiatorial
exhibition or a Spanish bull-fight--except in the _pancratium_,
a
combination of wrestling and boxing, in which the combatants
were
allowed to get the better of one another by any means in their
power,
provided they did not make use of any weapon, which was forbidden in
all
the contests. The conflict was sometimes attended with a fatal
result.
Pausanias mentions a case of this kind in which a dead man
was
proclaimed victor, and crowned with the olive wreath.
The stadium
or race-course can be distinctly traced north-east of the
Altis. The two
parallel grooves in the stone pavement at the
starting-point, the one a few
inches in front of the other, were
evidently intended to give the runner a
secure footing. The course was
600 feet long, which became a recognised
measure of distance, as the
English furlong was derived from the length of a
furrow. But the double
race was soon introduced, which accounts for there
being similar grooves
at the other end, where the seats for the judges were,
as the start
would then have to be made from that end. In the same place you
can also
trace the sockets, about four feet apart, in which were fixed the
wooden
posts that marked off the space for each of the runners, who could
be
accommodated to the number of twenty.
There is a vaulted entrance
to the stadium about a hundred feet high
(one of the oldest examples of such
work in cut stone, 350-300 B.C.),
through which none could pass but the
judges and heralds, and the
competitors, who must have gone through ten
months’ training, and were
lodged during the games at the public expense.
Close to this entrance
are still to be seen a large number of pedestals, on
which stood at one
time certain brazen images, well fitted to warn
competitors against any
infringement of the rules. They were called Zanēs in
honour of Zeus, and
they had all been placed there at the expense of persons
who had been
convicted of some violation of the rules. Giving or receiving
bribes was
the most common offence at Olympia, as it was indeed with the
Greeks
generally, even in the more serious game of politics. But there
were
others of a different nature. For example, Pausanias tells of a man
of
Alexandria who had come too late for the boxing match, and, finding
that
another had been adjudged the prize without a contest and was
already
wearing the olive wreath, put on the gloves as though for a fight
and
rushed at the victor, for which he was sentenced to pay a fine.
In
contrast to the penal erection of a statue to Zeus, the winner of
a
prize was allowed to put up a statue in commemoration of his
victory,
and the third time he thus distinguished himself he was at liberty
to
erect an image of himself. In this way Olympia became in course of
time
a great school of art as well as a gymnastic arena. In Homer there is
no
mention of statues of the gods, not even of wood, and the development
of
art in this line during the seventh and sixth centuries was
very
remarkable.
Xerxes or one of his princes is said to have
expressed his astonishment
that the Greeks should contend so earnestly for
the sake of an olive
wreath. But in reality the wreath was only an emblem of
the honour
conferred upon the victor. In the days of Solon, before the games
had
reached the height of their popularity, a grant of 500 drachms was
made
to an Athenian when he was successful at Olympia, and 100 drachms if
he
carried off a prize at the Isthmian games. The reward offered by
the
Spartans to any of their sons who thus distinguished themselves was
the
privilege of fighting near their king. Success in the competitions
was
attended with many other advantages. The victor in the foot-race
gave
his name to the Olympiad which was then beginning; the name,
parentage,
and country of every successful competitor was publicly
proclaimed
before the whole assembly, which comprised deputies from the
most
important cities of Greece, frequently very distinguished men, who
had
been sent not only to do honour to Zeus but also to maintain the
dignity
of the community which they represented. For example, Alcibiades
headed
the deputation which Athens sent, after an interval of twelve
years,
during the Peloponnesian war. On that occasion there was a
remarkable
display of Athenian wealth and magnificence in connection with
the
public processions and sacrifices. Alcibiades himself entered as
a
competitor with seven chariots--each drawn by four horses--one of
which
gained a first prize and another a second. He gave a splendid banquet
to
signalise his triumph; and such was the impression made on the
assembled
visitors by what they had seen of Athenian greatness that
Alcibiades
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF HERA AT OLYMPIA
A portion
of the west front of the Temple, which stood upon a platform
with two steps,
is shown. Two columns on the east side and six on the
north are seen _in
situ_. These columns vary in size to a surprising
extent. One of the enormous
capitals, tilted up and standing upon the
head of its abacus, should be
noticed, behind the tall column in the
centre of the drawing. The hill at the
back of the Temple is the one to
the west of the river Kladeos. In this
Temple, said to be the most
ancient in Greece, was found the Hermes of
Praxiteles, the only extant
work of sculpture of the finest period known to
be from the chisel of a
great master.]
claimed, some years afterwards,
to have done much on this occasion to
restore the prestige of the city. A man
in the position of Alcibiades
could afford to give a banquet to celebrate his
victory. But, in
general, the feasts and processions were provided for the
winners by
their friends and admirers, and, on returning home, they received
a
great ovation and frequently had substantial benefits conferred
upon
them. We have an illustration of the interest taken in the contests
even
by distant colonies in the fact that when (408 B.C.) a native
of
Agrigentum in Sicily came off victorious, he was met, when he
returned
home, by three hundred of his richest countrymen, each driving a
chariot
drawn by two milk-white steeds. Sometimes a poem was written
to
commemorate victory, and the odes of Pindar, written for this
purpose,
have proved more imperishable than brass.[1]
From a physical
point of view there can be no doubt that the games at
Olympia and elsewhere
had a salutary influence on the nation, and helped
to develop that aptitude
for military life which enabled them to repel
the Persian invaders and to
distinguish themselves so often in the field
of war. But higher interests
were also promoted. Although no prizes were
offered for intellectual
distinction, the opportunity was often afforded
for the publication of
literary works. Herodotus is said to have read
aloud his history at Olympia,
and to have thereby stirred the ambition
of Thucydides. Dramatic performances
were also sometimes given. It was
the great ambition of Dionysius, the Tyrant
of Syracuse, who had risen
from a comparatively humble position to be the
greatest potentate in the
Grecian world, to distinguish himself as a dramatic
poet. With this view
he once sent to Olympia, along with a splendid embassy,
a fully equipped
company of the best actors of the day, to represent some
plays which he
had written. They met with a very bad reception, which was no
doubt
partly owing to the personal unpopularity of their author; and it
is
said that when Dionysius heard that his verses had been laughed at,
and
that his representatives had been treated with contumely, he was
so
chagrined that he almost went out of his mind. A still worse effect
was
produced on him, however, some time afterwards by his success at
the
Lenæan festival in Athens, for the rejoicing and conviviality to
which
he abandoned himself when he heard that he had gained the first
prize
were largely the cause of his death.
Literature was not the only
interest which was promoted side by side
with gymnastic accomplishments. Such
a gathering of Greeks from all
parts of the world could not fail to have an
educative influence from
many points of view. Intellectually it afforded the
most cultured men an
opportunity for discussing subjects of common interest
and for an
exchange of views, while politically it tended to counteract
the
tendency to isolation on the part of the several states, and to
foster
unity of sentiment among the members of the great Hellenic race
from
Trebizond to Marseilles, and from Amphipolis to Cyrene.
Occasionally
great orations were heard at critical periods in the history of
the
nation, as when Lysias and Isocrates strove to rouse their countrymen
to
a sense of the dangers impending over them from the tyranny of Persia
on
the east and that of Syracuse on the west. Even commerce shared in
the
benefit, for it was a meeting-place of merchants from far and near.
As
already indicated, the games had also a religious aspect.
Many
sacrifices were offered during the celebrations, and solemn oaths
were
taken. Near the entrance to the stadium there was an image of the god
of
Oaths holding a thunderbolt in each hand, before which competitors
had
to swear that they would conform to the rules laid down for them. For
a
fortnight before and after the celebrations (which took place at
the
first full moon after the summer solstice) a truce was
proclaimed
throughout the whole of Greece, to enable competitors from all
parts to
attend. So strictly was this enforced that the Spartans were
excluded
from the games on the same occasion on which Alcibiades was
present,
because they had despatched a thousand soldiers to the town of
Lepreum
after the truce had been proclaimed, to help the inhabitants to
maintain
their independence against the claims of the Eleans. In consequence
of
this exclusion Lychas, a wealthy Lacedæmonian, had to enter for
the
chariot-race in the name of the Bœotian federation. But he was
so
elated by the success of his chariot that he stepped into the lists
and
put a chaplet on the head of his driver, to show that the chariot
was
his, whereupon the attendants, regardless of his rank, made use of
their
staffs and drove him back to his proper place. On another occasion
a
Spartan king, Agis, was refused permission to sacrifice to or
consult
the oracle because he wished to pray for success in the war
against
Athens.
At the 104th Olympiad the peaceful solemnity
of
[Illustration: THE BASTION AND TEMPLE OF WINGLESS VICTORY VIEWED
FROM
THE ASCENT TO THE PROPYLÆA (EARLY MORNING)
The northern face of
the great Bastion or outwork of squared masonry,
which guards the ascent to
the Acropolis at its south-western point,
occupies the left-hand half of the
drawing. This Bastion is capped by a
cornice of Pentelic marble, upon which
formerly stood the famous parapet
adorned with figures of winged Victories
sculptured in low relief. The
three steps of the exquisite little Temple
would, therefore, originally
have been hidden from view. Just below are the
steps, still _in situ_,
belonging to the stairs which ascended to the
platform of the Temple.
The pedestal, above the _anta_ beside these stairs,
supported a statue
of one of the leaders of the Athenian Cavalry. The long
flight of the
steps, passing transversely across the drawing, is the modern
ascent to
the Propylæa. Far below, near the foot of the Acropolis, some of
the
upper arches of the massive facade of the theatre of Herodes
Atticus
rise into view; and, to the right, the scathed surface of the
Museion
Hill, with the monument of Philopappus on its top, slopes away from
the
eye in subtle curves. Farther to the right is the Bay of Phaleron
and
(closing the landscape above) the clearly seen ranges of the
mountains
of Argolis.]
Olympia was rudely broken by a sanguinary
struggle in the sacred
enclosure between the Eleans on the one hand and the
Arcadians and their
allies from Argos, who had taken possession of the Altis
and planted a
garrison on the adjoining hill. The Eleans fought bravely but
were
overpowered, and had the mortification of seeing the games carried
out
under the direction of the Pisatans, the original presidents of
the
festival. The outrage was aggravated by the fact that the Arcadians
were
not content with enriching themselves with the wealth of the Eleans,
but
went so far as to rob the temples and the treasuries of their
precious
contents. The ruins of some of these “treasuries,” as they were
called,
built against the side of the hill, are still to be seen. They bore
the
names of different Greek cities, chiefly colonies, and contained
the
various utensils and votive offerings that would be needed by
their
representatives in connection with the celebration of the
games.
Even before this time (364 B.C.) the social standing of
competitors in
the games had begun to deteriorate, and a class of
professionals had
arisen who made it their sole object to develop their
muscles so as to
succeed in athletic contests. But even after the glory of
Greece began
to wane the Olympian games still held their ground. When Philip
of
Macedonia became supreme he sought to conciliate Hellenic sentiment
and
to prove himself a genuine Greek by dedicating a building in the
Altis,
to which his name was given. And when his son, Alexander the
Great,
issued a rescript, for political reasons of his own, ordaining that
all
Greek cities should recall their exiled sons, it was at Olympia that
the
proclamation was made by the herald who had gained the prize for
the
loudest voice, in the hearing of 20,000 exiles who had gathered
there
knowing what they had to expect, and of hundreds of the leading men
of
Greece, among them the great Athenian orator, who had striven in vain
to
preserve the liberties of his country.
Nearly four centuries later
we find Nero contending successfully in the
games, and building a palace on
the border of the Altis, the remains of
which have been recently discovered.
The institution was finally
abolished by the Emperor Theodosius in 394 A.D.,
the last recorded
victor being an Armenian knight, who carried off the prize
in the
previous year.
CHAPTER IV
ARCADIA AND ITS
ABORIGINES
Arcadia held a unique place in the Peloponnesus, both as
regards its
physical features and the character of its inhabitants. It
occupied the
very centre of the peninsula, and was the only province that had
no
direct access to the sea. Its area was greater than that of any
other,
being about equal in extent to the county of Cumberland. The
rural
charms with which it was credited by the Latin poets, and by Sir
Philip
Sydney among ourselves, were largely the product of imagination, as
the
scenery is generally of a bleak and stern character, and the people,
in
consequence, are disposed to take life seriously. There are some
smiling
plains in the south and west, but the most of the country consists
of
rugged mountains and marshy valleys. A remarkable feature is the
number
of basins enclosed on all sides by the hills, where the streams can
find
no visible outlet, and either form a lake or take a subterranean
course
through some chasm or crevices in the porous limestone, in many
cases
never to reappear. The only river which forces its way through
all
obstacles till it reaches the sea, and has a perennial supply of
water,
is the Alpheus, which we have already met at Olympia. It was believed
by
the ancient Greeks to hold on its course after it reached the sea,
and
to mingle its waters with the fountain of Arethusa at Syracuse. In
proof
of this it was said that a cup which had been thrown into the river
had
afterwards been discovered in the fountain!
In classical times the
Arcadians had been so long settled in the land
that they were generally
believed to be indigenous, and their chief
city, Lycosoura, was regarded as
the oldest city in Greece. On its site
some colossal heads have recently been
discovered that are supposed to
represent Despoina (that is, Persephone), who
had a temple here,
Demeter, Artemis, and Anytus the Titan. The city was close
to Mount
Lycæus, the fabled birthplace of the Arcadian Zeus; and perhaps
this
fact and the similarity of the names may account for the belief in
its
antiquity. Here, as on Mount Ithome, Zeus seems to have been
worshipped
in primitive fashion without temple or image. On Mount Lycæus
Pelasgus
was also believed to have been born, the reputed ancestor of
the
primitive race which was in possession of the country before the
Achæans
or the Dorians made their appearance. A story is told of his son,
King
Lycaon, which seems to reflect the memory of a time when
human
sacrifices were sometimes offered. It was said that Zeus had come
to
detect the royal family in their wickedness, and was received
with
reverence by the rest of the community,
[Illustration: This
illustration is from the colossal head of Despoina
from Lykosoura in Arcadia,
now in the Central Museum, Athens.
The small figure is a Pan, also in the
Museum.]
but Lycaon, being sceptical of his guest’s divinity and wishing
to put
it to the test, caused his grandson Arcas to be cut up and served at
his
table, whereupon the indignant deity at once destroyed him, his
sons,
and his palace with a flash of lightning, and restored Arcas to life,
to
take possession of the throne and give his name to the country.
There
were other versions of the same story. According to Pausanias
“Lycaon
brought a human babe to the altar of Lycæan Zeus and sacrificed it,
and
poured out the blood on the altar; and they say that immediately
after
the sacrifice he was turned into a wolf.” Pausanias’ comments on it
are
interesting, as an illustration of the religious views of
a
well-informed Greek in the second century of the Christian era. “For
my
own part I believe the tale: it has been handed down among the
Arcadians
from antiquity, and probability is in its favour. For the men of
that
time, by reason of their righteousness and piety, were guests of
the
gods, and sat with them at table; the gods openly visited the good
with
honour and the bad with their displeasure. Indeed, men were raised
to
the rank of gods in those days, and are worshipped down to the
present
time.... So we may well believe that Lycaon was turned into a
wild
beast, and Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, into a stone. But in the
present
age, when wickedness is growing to such a height, and spreading
over
every land and every city, men are changed into gods no more, save
in
the hollow rhetoric which flattery addresses to power; and the wrath
of
the gods at the wicked is reserved for a distant future, when
they
shall have gone hence.” By far the greater part of the observations
made
by this writer on Arcadia relate to its religious customs
and
traditions; and from the vague nature of the information he
obtained
regarding many of its deities and the peculiar rites with which
they
were worshipped, it is evident that Arcadia contained more
distinct
traces of the old Pelasgic religion, anterior to the theogony
recognised
by Homer and Hesiod, than almost any other part of Greece. It
was
difficult for a votary of the Hellenic religion like Pausanias to
arrive
at a definite conception of the names, the functions, and the
outward
symbols of not a few of the objects of Arcadian
worship.
According to tradition Arcas had three sons, of whom the
second,
Apheidas, was the founder of Tegea, an aggregate of nine villages,
and
for a long time the most famous city in the district. He was
the
ancestor of Atalanta, immortalised by Euripides in connection with
the
Calydonian Hunt, which ranks with the Voyage of the Argonauts, the
Siege
of Thebes, and the Trojan War, as one of the heroic legends of
Greece.
It is the same Atalanta who is known to us by the story of her
conquest
in the foot-race by one of her suitors, Melanion, through the
seductive
influence of the golden apples of the Hesperides, which she stooped
to pick up when he threw them in her path. After the hunt she was said to have
brought home with her to Tegea the head and skin of the wild boar which Artemis
had sent to ravage the Calydonian kingdom |
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