38. Frazer, Paus. i. 29, 30.
39. Plut. Quaest. Symp. v. 2.
40. Unless we accept Mr. Myers’ translation of Pindar, Ol. i. 94, “And from afar off he beholdeth the glory of the Olympian games in the courses called of Pelops.” Most modern editors translate κλέος τηλόθεν δέδορκε, “his glory shineth from afar,” which, in view of the words which follow, ἐν δρόμοις Πέλοπος, seems decidedly preferable to making Pelops the subject.
41. It is perhaps no accident that in our imperfect records of the Olympic games the earliest victor outside the Peloponnese is Onomastus of Smyrna, who in Ol. 23 won the boxing, an event said to have been then introduced for the first time. He is said to have drawn up rules for boxing which were adopted at Olympia. Again, no family was more distinguished in the history of Greek athletics than the Diagoridae of Rhodes, whose victories in boxing and the pankration were immortalized by Pindar. The prominence of boxing in the East reminds us of Minoan times, and perhaps the tradition may have survived from these days.
42. Paus. iv. 4, 1; iv. 33, 2.
43. Pindar, Ol. i. (E. Myers’ translation).
44. Vide Bötticher, Olympia, ch. i.
45. For the history of Olympia vide Curtius, “Entwurf einer Geschichte von Olympia,” in Ol. Text. i. pp. 16-68.
46. For the cult of Pelops vide Paus. v. 13, 2; Schol. to Pindar, Ol. i. 146, 149.
47. The latest excavations show that this site had been inhabited in prehistoric days. Traces of six buildings have been discovered below the geometric stratum; they are characterized by a semicircular apsidal ending. Ath. Mitth. xxxiii. 185; Year’s Work in Classical Studies, 1908, p. 12.
48. Pindar, Ol. xi. 64.
49. Cp. Louis Dyer, “The Olympian Council House,” in Harvard Classical Studies, 1908, where a full account of these Peloponnesian leagues will be found.
50. Paus. v. 20, 1; Plut. Lycurgus 1, 1. The part taken by Cleosthenes is vouched for by Phlegon, Frag. Hist. Gr. p. 602, and in a scholion on Plato’s Republic, 465 D. Vide Dyer, l.c. pp. 40 ff.
51. Thuc. v. 49; Demosth. De fals. leg., ὑπόθ. p. 335.
52. Hell. iii. 2, 31; vii. 4, 28.
53. Hdt. iv. 148.
54. C.I.G. 11; Roberts’s Greek Epigraphy, 291.
55. Paus. v. 6, 7.
56. Paus. v. 16.
57. Paus. i. 44; Anth. Pal. App. 272; Thuc. i. 6.
58. For a full discussion of the register, its history and its sources, vide Jüthner, Philostratus, pp. 60-70.
59. De Olympionicarum Statuis, p. 36.
60. Thuc. iii. 8, v. 49; Ditt. Syll., 2nd Ed., 256.
61. Gym. 4.
62. Paus. v. 8, 6; viii. 26, 3; Athen. ix. 382 B. Details with regard to the various victors mentioned in this and the following chapters may be found under their names in Krause, Olympia, H. Förster, Olympische Sieger, and W. Hyde, De Olympionicarum Statuis, in all of which full references are given.
63. Paus. v. 2 and 3.
64. Bury, History of Greece, p. 110.
65. Pindar, Ol. ix. The date of Archilochus is fixed by Hauvette in the first half of the seventh century. Cl. Rev. xxi. p. 143.
66. Mimnermus, Fr. 9 (Bergk).
67. Aristot. Politics, v. 4.
68. The recent excavations at Sparta prove that the decline of athletics coincided with the decline of art. Mr. R. M. Dawkins, writing in last report of the B.S.A., vol. xiv. p. 2, says: “In every case we have the remarkable result that the finest works belong to the seventh century, and that the sixth already shows the beginning of the decline which is so marked in the very poor character of the finds of the fifth century.”
69. Hyde, op. cit. p. 56.
70. Paus. iii. 13, 9.
71. For the treasuries at Olympia vide Louis Dyer, in J.H.S. vols. xxv. and xxvi.
72. The legends connected with these festivals are collected in Krause, Pythien, and the various articles on them in Dar.-Sagl.
73. The victory of Chromius of Aetna, celebrated by Pindar, Nem. ix., was won not at Nemea but at the Sicyonian Pythia.
74. The existence of such rivalry is suggested by the quarrel recorded by Pausanias v. 2, 3, with regard to the colossal statue set up by Cypselus at Olympia, and in the account given by Herodotus ix. 81 of the distribution of the Persian spoils. A statue of Zeus 10 cubits high is set up at Olympia, while that of Poseidon at the Isthmus is only 7 cubits high. So Pindar, Ol. xiii. 25, prays that Zeus may not be jealous if he sings the praise of Corinth.
75. Adapted from Jebb’s Bacchylides.
76. Hdt. ii. 160.
77. Louis Dyer, “The Olympic Council” in Harvard Studies, 1907, p. 36; Paus. vi. 3, 7; Ol. Ins. 372-486 passim.
78. W. Helbig, Les Hippeis athéniens.
79. Pindar, Ol. ix, xiii. etc.
80. B.M. Bronzes, 135.
81. Hdt. i. 59.
82. Hermipp. Fr. 14. The story is suspicious, because the Spartans are said not to have been allowed to compete in boxing.
83. Hdt. vi. 103.
84. Hdt. ii. 7.
85. At a later time a drachma was a day’s pay for a sailor, hoplite, or artisan, and in Pericles’ time a juryman received only two obols. In Solon’s time, owing to the scarcity of money, the value of a drachma must have been considerably higher.
86. On the Panathenaea vide A. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen.
87. The palm branch as a symbol of victory does not occur till the close of the fifth century. Mr. F. B. Tarbell traces its origin to Delos, and derives its popularity from the restoration of the Delian festival by Athens in 426 B.C. “The Palm of Victory” in Classical Philology, vol. iii. pp. 264 ff.
88. Paus. vi. 13, 1. Hieron is apparently a mistake for Gelon.
89. Krause, Olympia, pp. 195-201.
90. Hdt. v. 47.
91. Pliny, H. N. vii. 47. Strabo, vi. 255.
92. Paus. vi. 11, 9; Lucian, Deor. Concilium, 12.
93. Simonides, 163 (Bergk). Quoted by Aristotle, Rhet. i. 7 and 9.
94. The attitude of the Spartans towards athletics is expressed in a poem of Tyrtaeus (Bergk, No. 12), in which he declares that he would set no store by speed of foot or skill in wrestling, apart from warlike might. Later their contempt of training and skill degenerated into sheer brutality. Phil. Gym. 9 and 58; Plutarch, Apophthegm. Lac. Var. 25 (233 E); Anth. Plan. i. 1.
95. Paus. vi. 11, 5.
96. Athenaeus, 522, 523.
97. Gym. 43.
98. Aelian, V.H. xii. 22.
99. Ol. Ins. 717. This and the Santorin stone (I.G. xiii. 449) are discussed in J.H.S. xxvii. p. 2.
100. Athenaeus, 412 D, E.
101. A. Furtwängler, Die Bedeutung der Gymnastik in der griechischen Kunst.
102. x. ll. 21 ff. (Bergk).
103. Greek Sculpture, Fig. 25; cp. B.C.H., 1907, p. 187.
104. Greek Sculpture, Figs. 34, 35, 36.
105. Cp. a fine archaic bronze diskobolos in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, published in the Museum Bulletin, iii. p. 33; vide infra Fig. 83.
106. Such attributes are common in bronzes, cp. Pausanias v. 26, 3; 27, 12; vi. 3, 9; 10, 4; 13, 7.
107. Paus. vi. 10, 1-3.
108. Paus. i. 23, 9.
109. Cp. Walter Pater, Greek Studies, pp. 281 ff.
110. Vide Krause, Gym. pp. 943 ff., a criticism of the exaggerated view put forward in Becker’s Charicles.
111. Cp. Aristoph. Nub. 995—
The Spartans considered Αἰδῶς a goddess, Xen. Symp. 8, 36.
112. Vide infra, Figs. 167 ff.
113. For the following sections vide Jebb’s Bacchylides, Introduction.
114. Pindar, N. v. 49.
115. Vide the list of Olympic victors for Ol. 75-83 found on an Oxyrhyncus papyrus. Grenfell and Hunt, Ox. Pap. ii. 222; C. Robert, Hermes, xxxv. pp. 141 ff.
116. N. iii. 70.
117. P. ii. 63.
118. I. i. 47 ff.
119. I. i. 42, iv. 57, v. 10.
120. Herodotus of Thebes, I. i.
121. Thrasybulus, P. vi.; I. ii.
122. Greek Sculpture, Fig. 138. The identification of this statue is uncertain. It has been suggested that the word “Polyzalos” on the basis is an adjective, and that the victory recorded is that of Arcesilas of Cyrene. This view has been assailed in Ath. Mitth. xxxiv. by A. D. Keramopoullos, who believes that the statue was vowed by Gelon and actually set up by Polyzalos.
123. O. vi. 9.
124. I. iv., v.; N. v.
125. O. ix. 100.
126. O. i. 56, xiii. 10; N. i. 65; I. iii. 2.
127. O. vii. 44.
128. P. iv. 173.
129. O. vii. 89; cp. vi. 76, where χάρις is αἰδοία as the giver of αἴδως.
130. O. vii. 15, 90.
131. N. ix. 33.
132. σωφροσύνη does not occur in Pindar; σώφρων only twice: P. iii. 63, of Cheiron; I. vii. 27, of the sons of Aeacus. For the meaning of αἰδώς cp. Gilbert Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 88.
133. O. xiv. 5.
134. Aelian, V.H. ii. 6.
135. Ol. Ins. 54.
136. Paus. v. 9, 5.
137. vi. 23.
138. Polybius iv. 73.
139. L. Dyer, “The Olympian Theatron” in J.H.S. xxviii. p. 265.
140. L. Dyer, l.c.
142. Paus. v. 20, 2; Pliny, N.H. xxxv. 54.
143. These figures are taken from the lists given in Hyde’s De Olympionicarum Statuis.
144. The first trainer of whom we hear is Tisias, who trained Glaucus of Carystus (Philostratus, Gym. 20). Pindar mentions Menander (N. v.; cp. Bacchylides xii.), Orseas (I. iii.), Ilas (O. xi.), Melesias (O. viii.; N. iv., vi.).
145. Symposium, 2, 17.
146. Mem. iii. 10, 6; iii. 8, 4; cp. P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, p. 17.
147. Greek Sculpture, p. 550; and J.H.S. 1905, p. 235.
148. B.M. Vases, 607. Quite different is the type of the long-distance runner of B. 611 (328 B.C.) and B. 609 (333 B.C.), and of the Hoplitodromos of B. 608 (336 B.C.). Vide Figs. 51, 58.
149. Paus. vi. 7, 10 τυρὸν ἐκ τῶν ταλάρων. Diogen. Laert. ἰσχάσι ξηραῖς καὶ πυροῖς. Philostrat. Gym. 43 αἵ τε μᾶζαι καὶ τῶν ἄρτων οἱ ἅπτιστοι καὶ μὴ ζυμῖται καὶ τῶν κρεῶν τὰ βόειά τε καὶ ταύρεια καὶ τράγεια καὶ δόρκοι. Vide Jüthner, Philostratus, pp. 268 ff., and Krause, Gym. pp. 654 ff.
150. B.C.H., 1899, p. 611. I have accepted the rendering of the inscription given by A. D. Keramopoullos in Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1906, p. 167. Instead of the name Εὐδρόμου, an utterly unknown hero, of whose shrine not a vestige has been found, he reads δρόμου. He repeats a misstatement made in Dar.-Sagl., Paully-Wissowa, and other dictionaries to the effect that athletes were not allowed to drink any wine. The only authority for the statement is a single passage from Galen, de Salub. vict. rat., in which he says that “after exercise athletes do not drink wine but water first, having learnt this from experience!” An egregious example of the absurdities which crowd the pages of our dictionaries!
151. Paus. vi. 7, 3; Diogen. Laert. viii. 13; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxiii. 7.
152. Xen. Mem. i. 2, 4; Aristoph. Pax, 33, 34; Aristot. Eth. Nic. ii. 6, 7. Eating like a wrestler was proverbial.
153. Pol. v. 1339 a. Krause (Gym. p. 645, n. 3), and other writers following him, discredit this statement, not realizing that Aristotle is speaking of professional athletics. Of the eight examples quoted by Krause of athletes who had won victories both as boys and as men, five belong to the sixth or early fifth century, one is later than Aristotle, one is contemporary with him, the date of the eighth is doubtful.
154. Corn. Nepos, Epam. 2.
155. Rep. iii. 404 A; cp. Arist. Pol. 1335 b.
156. Plutarch, Vit. Alexander and Philopoemon.
157. Galen, Προτρεπτ. λόγ. ii. ἡ δὲ τῶν ἀθλητῶν ἐπ’ ἄκρον εὐεξία σφαλερά τε καὶ εὐμετάπτωτος. Krause, Gym. p. 47, n. 1.
158. Leg. 794 ff.
159. Leg. 833 ff.
160. Rep. 406 B; Protag. 316 D; Aristot. Rhet. i. 5.
An entirely different view of Herodicus is ably stated by Dr. Jüthner in the introduction to his Philostratus. He regards Herodicus as the father of scientific and medical gymnastic, as applied to the preservation of health and the cure of disease, and he claims that Plato himself shows warm recognition of his merits in the passage in the Protagoras, where he classes him with Homer, Hesiod, and others, among the great sophists who beguiled mankind. The passage certainly proves the ability and popularity of Herodicus, but I can see in it no evidence that Plato did not genuinely dislike his system. The strongest proof of the unscientific and useless character of his system is supplied by the deterioration of the athlete and of the national physique, which dates from this period.
161. Plato, Leg. 839 C.
162. Plutarch, Vita. Alexand. 35.
163. Plutus, 1161.
164. Xen. Hell. i. 5, 19; Paus. vi. 7, 4.
165. Mem. iii. 12. For the contrast between ἀθλητής and ἰδιωτής cp. Hieron, 4, 6; Mem. iii. 7, 7.
166. Nub. 961-1023; Ran. 1086.
167. Thus in the present day professional football-players are largely drawn from the country districts of Scotland.
168. Plato, Meno, 93 D.
169. Nubes, passim.
170. Thuc. vi. 16, 2. The epinikion written by Euripides states that he was first, second, and third. So too does Isocrates, de Bigis, 34.
172. Part of the inscription was found in 1877, and is now in the Museum at Sparta. Tod, Sparta Mus. Cat. 440. The rest has been recently discovered during the excavations of the British School, and is discussed in the B.S.A. xiii. p. 174. It contains a list of victories won by Damonon and his son, Enymacratidas, in the chariot-race, horse-race, and foot-races at nine local festivals, most of them in Laconia. The inscription belongs to the middle or end of the fifth century. It throws an interesting light on the number of local festivals at this period.
173. Ox. Pap. ii. 222.
174. Paus. vi. 2, 6.
175. Paus. vi. 18, 4.
176. Paus. v. 21, 5.
177. Paus. v. 21, 5.
178. Paus. vi. 3, 7.
179. Paus. vi. 1, 4.
180. These changes were particularly connected with the Athenian Iphicrates and Jason of Therae.
181. Taking the lists given by Hyde, pp. 75-77, we find that between Ols. 84-106 out of 54 statues 20 were in honour of boxers, 6 of pankratiasts, 11 of wrestling, 7 of runners, 2 of pentathletes, and 8 of chariots or horses.
182. Isocrates, Panegyric, 43 ff.; Lysias, Olymp.
183. Thuc. v. 49; cp. viii. 10 of the Isthmia.
184. Isocrates, de Bigis, 32, ὁρῶν τὴν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ πανήγυριν ὑπὸ πάντων ἀνθρώπων ἀγαπωμένην καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐπίδειξιν ἐν αὐτῇ ποιουμένους πλούτου καὶ ῥώμης καὶ παιδεύσεως, κτλ.
185. Paus. v. 23, 4.
186. Paus. v. 12, 8; Thuc. v. 47.