right hand was an image of victory. The left held a sceptre, composite of all metals, with the eagle recumbent on it. The sandals and the robe were of gold. The body seems to have been principally carved from ivory, and was constantly kept bright by the sacred oils. The measurements, it is plainly intimated by Pausanias, were extravagantly described and we may believe that the prince of statuaries would not greatly exceed the heroic standard, making a due allowance for the distance from which it is seen. For in considering any of the gigantic statures which looked from the Acropolis of Athens, we must recollect their first position, and that we see them or fancy them as they are on a level view with ourselves.-This chamber was the awful Cella. The whole temple was enriched by a tithe on the spoils of victory, and treasures flowed into it from the ends of the earth. ιερονικής. Pisa, or Olympia, was a high place of sacrifice. There was constant religious service. It was a Hierapolis. Every thing was so sacred that the victor was Ministration succeeded to ministration. The altar of Jove was chiefly composed of the ashes of the offerings, which, agglutinated by the water of the Alpheus that was consecrated exclusively for this compost, and mixed with the burnt white-poplar, were laid on it, not only repairing but greatly increasing it. Its skirt was a circumference of one hundred and twenty-five feet. There was a circuit above it of thirty-two feet in ascent. There the altar itself was twenty-two feet loftier still. Victims were consumed on it every day according to the Elean law, and pilgrimstrangers might offer at any hour. While Jupiter was the Guardian of the scene, here was a lavish exemplification of the Intercommunity of worship. Whatever deity condescended a visit, male or female, they might obtain a niche for their image and a victim for their altar. There were six principal ones, and two tutelaries were attached to each. Βωμούς εξ διδύμους, is the phrase of Pindar.* The first article of the peace between the Lacedæmonians and the Athenians, in the tenth year of the Peloponnesian war, is, "In regard to the common temples,— * Olym: v. 10. permission is granted, to all who desire it, to sacrifice, to visit, to consult the oracles, to send public deputations, in the prescribed forms of every people, both by land and sea, without any molestation."* One altar was inscribed to all the gods, a common ground of worship: and as if this was not sufficiently liberal, another rose to the unknown gods. The Stadium next invites our notice. This was a raised platform of earth, surmounted and settled on a lower one of stone. Sand and dust were not removed, but indeed added, that while the racer had less risk of fall, he might have more difficulty of progress. Hercules obtained the credit of measuring the ground. Aulus Gellius says, that Plutarch remarks with what skill and acuteness Pythagoras reasoned in discovering and ascertaining the superior height and size of Hercules. "For as it is well known that Hercules had measured with his feet the space of the stadium at Pisa, and that the length of it was six hundred of his steps, and that the other stadia in Greece, afterwards introduced, consisted also of six hundred paces, though somewhat shorter,-he drew this obvious conclusion: that according to the rules of proportion, the exact measure of the foot of Hercules as much exceeded those of other men, as the Olympic stadium was longer than the rest. Taking, therefore, the size of the foot of Hercules, and adding to it such a tallness of body as the regular symmetry of all the other limbs demanded, he inferred that Hercules as much surpassed other men in stature as the Olympic stadium exceeded those which were nominally of similar extent." It is in this story, that we find the probable occasion of the proverb, Ex pede Herculem. Still after all, from the best evidence it was only six hundred and four feet in its length. The Hippodrome was six hundred and four feet in breadth, and was twelve hundred and eight feet long.-There are two allusions in the opening of Lycophron's Cassandra which illustrate the manner of the start, and some peculiar associations of the course. The keeper of the Prison says to Priam, Εγω δ' ακραν βαλβιδα μηρινθουσίασας, x. 5. X. "I now, as though the extreme barrier were sinking • Thucyd: lib. v. by a cord, enter the prophetess' course of mystic words, just as the fleet courser spurns the repressing bound." We have here the very picture of the manner in which the impatient racers were set loose, and signalled for their career. In a few following lines, there is an allusion to the "rocks of Cronus whence the courser speeds," with the additional information that there was the tomb of the earth-born Ischenus." He was the reputed son of Mercury and Hieræa. And it is remarkable that the sepulchre of Endymion was placed as the starting-point for the running man, while that of Ischenus was for the running horse. This hero is reported to have devoted himself for the Eleans in a famine. And since these Games, as we shall find quickly, had much to do with the state of the chronology, and that chronology was regulated by the lunar cycle, the tale of the shepherd king of Mount Latmos wooed by Diana was, perhaps, but an aoid, a mythos, to describe his celestial observations, while his astronomic musings would pass for more ordinary long-continued slumbers and dreams. We are also told that when the race was about to begin, a brazen dolphin was suddenly elevated at one end of the course, and a brazen eagle at the other. These would be of use to give notice to the spectators and guidance to the athlete. The dolphin is in honour of Neptune: the eagle, of Jupiter. To Pausanias,* concerning what was called the Taraxippus, I must wholly refer you. I know not what he means. The horses were, he relates, exceedingly frightened whenever they approached a particular monument at the end of the course, inhabited by some evil influence in the shape of ogre or in the form of spell. I should think the sudden rising, and violent fluttering, of the mechanical eagle, might cause alarm in any horse. But something marvellous was wanted, and therefore a supernal agency is adduced. To avoid repetition, it may now be considered at what time this Festival was held. Poor Ovid noted his exile by the interval between these celebrations. In his letter to Brutus from Pontus,+ he sighs, "quinquennis Olympias." Polybius remarks, "These then are the most striking events that were + Lib. ix. Lib. ii. c. 20. + Lib. iv. Ep. 6. included in the Olympiad before mentioned, and in the course of four years complete, which is to be considered the proper term of an Olympiad." It enters the fifth year, but is only just the revolution of the four. Therefore it was called Tigαπενταετηρίς. It commenced on the first full moon after the summer solstice. The month was the Hecatombæon, our July. As this necessitates the variation of many days, it was not a perfect period and demanded intercalations. It was indeed the Lustrum, in period as well as in piacular sacrifice. It lasted five days: tapsgos apiññais, -five days' contests.* Statius says, Pisæumque domus non æstuat annum." It could not commence before the ninth of July, nor later than the sixth of August. 66 Next to the Stadium in interest, was the Altis, the sacred grove. It was laved by the river Cladeius. It was entered by a path called the Pompic, because the sacrificial processions passed that way. The Prytanæum, an abode of legislation and of festivity, contrasted itself with the verdure of the scene. The sculptures that were set up amidst its avenues were scattered lavishly. They must be reckoned by many hundreds. Pausanias wearies by his garrulous mention and criticism of so many. We may infer that as works of art they were magnificent. Where the workshop of Phidias yet stood, nothing defective in truth and grace could have lifted its head. What a picture is presented to the mind, in the assemblage of more than four hundred full-length figures of gods and victors,-of purest marble, of noblest symmetry, each look an attribute, each port a history,-gleaming from the green leaf of the wood, and foiled by the deep-blue sky! What noble walks of sculptured border, what vistas of columned scene! And temples rose up in every direction. And some of them must have been massive as they were elegant. Dodwell found in Elea some frustra of the Doric order, the flutings thirteen inches wide, and the diameter of the whole pillar seven feet three inches. These dimensions considerably exceed those of the Parthenon and the Olympeion at Athens. Olym: v. 14. It must be supposed that there was something enthusiastically kindred to these games in the Elean character, that they should so long keep their hold upon it. The people seemed to live for them. They affected the whole cast of their manners and establishments. It was the hope of youth and the remembrance of age. We, therefore, learn from Plutarch's Lycurgus, that while the Athenians were best adapted to conduct mysteries and pageants, the Eleans were best suited to direct the agonistic contests, ως καλλιστα τολο ποιόντας. It was their genius, and seems to have been the genius loci, too. What cannot be urged more strongly than necessary is, that the Olympic Tethmos was strictly religious. It began and ended with hecatombs of sacrifice. The Theocloos was the great high priest. The Vestal fire ever burnt. Certain representatives or deputies were commissioned, according to Plutarch,* under the name of Theori, to bear from the different cities victims for this solemnity. Jupiter Olympius was the object of supreme homage. From the spoils of Platæa, the Lacedæmonians erected an image of him, ten cubits high. Antiochus devoted an exquisite curtain to hide the god, it being of Assyrian woof and Phenician purple. So in the tenth Olympian Ode of Pindar, we read," All the temple resounded, during the sumptuous feasts, according to a praiseworthy custom. And now following those earlier institutions, taking a characteristic song of resplendent victory, let us worship Jupiter, who, with infinite power, peals the thunder, and wields the bolt which quivers in his hand, and the whole fury of the scorching, crashing, elements." This mixture of religion with the struggles and onsets of the course, may seem to us most incongruous. But such was deemed their nature, and such were the sentiments regarding them. In the tenth Nemean, Pindar presents the prayer of Theiaios to Jupiter, while he intimates that his ambition is, after having gained other rewards, to win the Olympic prize: “O Father, Theiaios hath cherished an inward purpose which he cannot reveal. Every issue of our actions is with Thee! Not with an unanxious heart, as though too confident in himself, he seeks • Demetrius. P |