Olympic Games

the most celebrated of the four great national festivals of Greece. The others are the Isthmian, the Nemean, and the Pythian Games. The term, Olympic games, is used sometimes as a general name for all four festivals; but, strictly applied, it designates only that festival which was held on the plain of Olympia once in four years. Time was reckoned by these, the interval from one celebration to the next being called an Olympiad.

Only Greeks of pure descent could take part in the games. Barbarians might watch the contests. Women and slaves were excluded from among the spectators. For the first thirteen Olympics, the only contest was a foot race. The number of contests gradually increased to twenty-four, including wrestling, boxing, chariot-racing, horse-racing, foot-racing in armor, and in later times, contests in poetry, music, and oratory. The successful contestants were entertained at magnificent banquets, at which they were crowned with wreaths of wild olive, and such honor was paid to the victor and to his family that no effort was too great for a contestant to put forth in order to succeed. In Athens the victor was maintained at public cost for the remainder of his life.

The Isthmian games were celebrated on the Isthmus of Corinth. This isthmus was sacred to Poseidon, who received the appellation of Isthmius on this account. The festivals occurred the first and third year of each Olympiad, probably in the autumn. The contests took place near the temple of Poseidon. On one side of the temple were placed statues of the victors in these games. It was supposed that the Isthmian games were founded by Sisyphus, king of Corinth, in honor of Palaemon or Melicertes.

The Pythian games were celebrated in honor of Apollo, the conqueror of the Python. The festival was held near Pytho, subsequently called Delphi, in the Crissaean fields. According to tradition, Apollo himself instituted the Pythian games, which consisted originally of a musical contest only, held every eighth year. Later, the festivals occurred in the second year of every Olympiad, and included athletic sports and contests in the poetic art, in painting and sculpture, in tragedy, and in historical narrative. At first prizes of silver and gold were given, but later the laurel wreath and the palm branch were substituted.

The Nemean games were celebrated at Nemea in Argolis, the first and third years of each Olympiad. The victor was crowned with olive and, at a later period, with ivy.

See Olympia