Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/257

 OLYMPIC AND PYTHIAN GAMES. 241 Though this association is now no longer recognized, it is, never- theless, essential that we should keep it fully before us, if we desire to understand the life and proceedings of the Greeks. To Herodotus and his contemporaries, these great festivals, then frequented by crowds from every part of Greece, were of over- whelming importance and interest ; yet they had once been purely local, attracting no visitors except from a very narrow neighbor- hood. In the Homeric poems, much is said about the common gods, and about special places consecrated to and occupied by several of them : the chiefs celebrate funeral games in honor of a deceased father, which are visited by competitors from different parts of Greece, but nothing appears to manifest public or town festivals open to Grecian visitors generally. 1 And, though the rocky Pytho, with its temple, stands out in the Iliad as a place both venerated and rich, the Pythian games, under the super- intendence of the Amphiktyons, with continuous enrolment of victors, and a Pan-Hellenic reputation, do not begin until after the Sacred War, in the 48th Olympiad, or 586 B. c. 2 The Olympic games, more conspicuous than the Pythian, as well as considerably older, are also remarkable on another ground. Apollo, the Muses, and Dionysus are ZweopTaaral KCIL gvyxopevrai (Homer, Hymn to Apoll. 146). The same view of the sacred games is given by Livy, in reference to the Romans and the Volsci (ii. 36-37) : " Se, ut con- sceleratos contaminatosque, ab ludis, festis diebus, ccetu quodammodo hominum Deorumqite, abactos esse ideo nos ab sede piorum, coctu, concilioque abigi." It is curious to contrast this with the dislike and repugnance of Tertullian : " Idololatria omnium ludorum mater est, quod euim specta. culum sine idolo, quis Indus sine sacrificio 1 ?" (De Spectaculis, p. 369.) 1 Iliad, xxiii. 630-679. The games celebrated by Akastus, in honor ol Felias, were famed in the old epic (Fausan. v. 17, 4; Apollodor. i. 9, 28). 2 Strabo, ix. p. 421 ; Pausan. x. 7, 3. The first Pythian games celebrated by the Amphiktyons, after the Sacred War, carried with them a substantial reward to the victor (an uyvv ^p^trn'r^f ) ; but in the next, or second Pyth- an games, nothing was given but an honorary reward, or wreath of laure! leaves (ayuv aTt^avirrjf) : the first coincide with Olympiad 48, 3 ; the second with Olympiad 49, 3. Compare Schol. ad Pindar. Pyth. Argument.: Pausan. x. 37, 4-5 ; Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen, und Isthmien, sect. 3, 4, 5. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo, is composed at a time earlier than the Bacred War, whrm Krissa is flourishing; earlier than the Pythian games, u e*M>rated by the Amphiktyons. VOL. jr. 11 16oc