Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/82

 64 HISTOKY OF GREECE. the duty in their names. 1 At the first Pythian ceremony (in 586 B.C.), valuable rewards were given to the different victors ; at the second (582 B.C.), nothing was conferred but wreaths of laurel, the rapidly attained celebrity of the games being such as to render any farther reward superfluous. The Sikyonian despot Kleisthenes himself, one of the leaders in the conquest of Kirrha, gained the prize at the chariot-race of the second Pythia. We find other great personages in Greece frequently mentioned as competitors, and the games long maintained a dignity second only to the Olympic, over which, indeed, they had some advan- tages ; first, that they were not abused for the purpose of pro- moting petty jealousies and antipathies of any administering state, as the Olympic games were perverted by the Eleians, on more than one occasion ; next, that they comprised music and poetry as well as bodily display. From the circumstances attending their foundation, the Pythian games deserved, even more than the Olympic, the title bestowed on them by Demos- thenes, " The common Agon of the Greeks." 2 1 Mr. Clinton thinks that the Pythian games were celebrated in the autumn : M. Boeckh refers the celebration to the spring : Krause agrees with Boeckh. (Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. ii, p. 200, Appendix; Boeckh. ad Corp. Inscr. No. 1688, p. 813 ; Krause, Die Pythicn, Xemccn und Isthmien, vol. ii, pp. 29-35.) Mr. Clinton's opinion appears to me nearly the truth ; the real time, as I conceive it, being about the beginning of August, or end of July. Boeckh admits that, with the exception of Thucydidds (v, 1-19), the other authori tics go to sustain it ; but he relies on Thucydides to outweigh them. Now the passage of Thucydides, properly understood, seems to me as much against Boeckh's view as the rest. I may remark, as a certain additional reason in the case, that the Isthmia appear to have been celebrated in the third year of each Olympiad, and in the spring (Krause, p. 187). It seems improbable that these two grcr.t festivals should have come one immediately aftor the other, which, never- theless, must be supposed,' if we ad >pt the opinion of Boeckh and Krause. The Pythian games would be sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later, in consequence of the time of full nioon: notice being always sent round by the administrat )rs beforehand of the commencement of the sacred month. See the references in K. F. Hermann, Lehrbuch der gottesdienstl. Alterth. der Griechen, ch. 49, not. 12. This note has been winewhat modified since my first edition, see the note vol. vi, ck lir
 * JJemosthen. Philipp ii:, p. 119.