Nugae literariae: prose and verse

101쪽

ON THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

Was Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, for the second time in the Pancratium. I cannot sind tho regular intervals. But it is clear that Elea was neutral during the whole of those turmotis. I, in this dissicut ty, referred to Dionysius Halicarnassensis, knowing that he was a bellor critic than historian. Remarhingon Thucydides, he gives this judgment: The potnis in Whichhe least excels, are distribution, order, and elaboration. Ι beginwith distribution, premising that while older historians have perspicuousty arranged their Writings by the respective scenes and dates he has leti it unattempted: thus dissering Domitioso high authorities as Herodotus, Hellanicus, and others, anterior to his age, who distinguished their Writings by the genealogies of hings and priesis, by the periori of the Olympiades, or the yearly goVerninent of Archons.' And What rendoroditiis ratiying cali to ali Greelis more important stili, Was their colonising system. Unlike ours, there Was immediate independence, or Subjection to other governments. In Ionia, in Sicily,on the Euxine, they Were Widely Spread. A summons, whicli allthe worid obeyed, Would particularly arou se them : they visited more frequently than they might otherWise hope to do thoirsather-larid, maintained the sellowships of blood and civism

horo l Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus. ' Aris- tolle says, The beauty of a Foung man is to have a bodytisosul for the indurance of labour, Vig. for the course, undsor violent action, and which also is pleasing to the VieW... Ηencelliose that contend in the sve games are most beatit ut ' ' In the Banquet of Xenophon, When Autolicus, Who had just won the Olympic prige, is described, it is Stated, The Whole com pany bocarne immediately sensibie of the poWer of beauty, and

102쪽

to the cause of religion, and our country's liberty,. When it requires firm hearis in Aound hodies to stand and cover their stations, rather than to See the ruin os our protestation, and theensorcement of a flavisti liso.' Me may 8uppose that the8e Games were great improu menta on more ancient Passan Oxyies. There is not now thostia dow of a doubi that the Egyptians practised human Sacriscos. All tho intimations of the most ancient sacrificaturo areos the most frightful crueity. Here Was a system comparatiVelymercimi. The ritual Was formalty framed against uti licentious-DeSS. It Was not a mockery of captivos, but the cheerfui collision

to osser a great sacrifice tanto Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And it came to pass, When their hearis Were merry, thatthoy said, Cali for Samson, that he may mahe us Sport. . . . Andho made them sport.'' ΝοW With the catastrophe, We have nopresent concern, but that it Was a public spectacle is plain, forthree thous d men and Women Were on the roos probablysome temporary Scassolding.-Instead of vieWing the olympios Dom our position, Me Ahould regard them froni potnis os observation in the old heathen Worid ; and wo fhould snd tho benevolence and resinement of the change. Indeed the Oreolis were sar more religious and humane than the Roman s. Homer

103쪽

greatly surpasses Virgil in this spirit os seriousness. The divine

interventions and machines os the lalter are poetic con Veniences, those of the former are personat convictions oις θεαι εσε l

Grecians could not have sat without disgust and horror in tho Circus. We might presume that manners and Delings Wouldbe corrected by these Rules, as Horace sings:

In connection with this design, it may have been purposedio maintain and esta listi this purer Μythology. A commontomplo and object of Worship must haVe checked the propensitysor new gods which belonged to sinali and more ignorant tribes. Bonoath tho flatioring titie of the Patron Deity of the wholo ofGreece, the peopte Were united by the patriotism os religion:

ΠαΤερος EVλανιου .: His name Was, indeed, Panhellenius la hish mora ty, considerins it8 8tandard, wa8 promoted by these Games. So severe Was the laW of marriage, that adoubi os legitimate descini debarred froin the ordeat. Anydisgrace of character Was disquali0ing.-Ιdleness and luxuryWere, by the necessary discipline, put Under Strici restraint. Chrysostom states, that in the Olympic contests there stands alterald crying with a lovd voice, Does any one accia Se this manos being a flave, a thies, or open to the proos of any evil dosed λThe candidates Were led round the whole line os spectators, theirlathers, brothers, and relatives, to see Whether any imputationrested on pedigree, Station, or character. Quick-sighted onvythere took iis place, and every vindictive Deling had thoro iis

Scope: an equivocat repute had consequently litile chanco ofeVaSion. Who among the poets is so pure as Pindar Θ Thoscene was, Withat, reputed as moSt holy : and the Virtues wero consecrated by the sanctionS of religion. SomeWhat os a solLdo nco might be operative: and Olympia WaS Set up as acolinterpolse by the Peloponnesians against the attraction and influence of Eleusis.

They were intended to assist the liberty and seneral

104쪽

equality of that people. Dedicateii to Iupiter Eleutherius, ali

good men and truct Were eqUalty welcome. Glaucus theploughman may use his iron-hand, Whicli drove in the coulter, as undisputedly as any Sceptred palm. Aristolle copies an epigram on an Olympian conqueror, Who Utters his oWn Surpriseat being turned into one frona a travolling fishmonger. ' Thocrowd can vent lotad execrations against a Hiero, and Themistocles denounces him. But we must distinguisti here. WhOever contended must be disciplinod according to the ternis Hready stated. Νow the poor man could Dot afford this. In the Μemorabilia, Socrates says of a master, Who complains that

race Was the most aristocratical distinction. Iis expensivenessconfined it to the wealthy. Aristophanes spealis of it as AhoWing the pride, and proving the ruin, of the Athenian youth.: These Games were of the greatest use for the purp08eos Chronomis. Untit this Calendar was invented, secular history continued an entangled Web. I his gives a great precision. Only one omission occurred of the victors Damo in eight hundred and sorty-four years. All this Was notabie. It dependedon no mysterious tableis, lihe the private registers of the Roman pontim. It may seem strange to dato froni the hard blows of the stadium, to cali the worid to timo at the moment Fou thus

105쪽

ON THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

as Alpheus was subled by submarine passage to spring up in

Quos Elea domum reducit Palma coelestes pugilemVe equumque Dicit, et centum potiore signis Μunere donat. 'These Games were of the greatest value in restraining and directis, ambition. In a colantry comparatiVely Smali, and among iis many riVal States, the presence of so much heroicspirit might have proved fatal to liberty, and been tempted toWar against iiseis Here Was alWays the stass and sheleton ofa mi ty ariny, and here might have idled iis proper chiess. But here, too, Was constant muster and emprise. To stand wellamong his compatriois, and stili more to surpass them, the lest generat must continue his exercises of Skill and strength. And to win the peaceml olive of the course Was almost ashonour Je as to gather the laureis of the fiet d. Ambition, there re, fretted not, nor did treason iurk. The stercest martiat temper Was ready to strihe the in Vader, and in the mean-while found ample scope and reWard in the competitions of

106쪽

ON THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

Peace. Thus Were the greatest captains ever prepared, Straining Upon the stari, ' and ever saved hom intestine seud, se guill-less of their country s blood.' How Tully Warms when hespealis of Athens and her reWards i Quae ego vidi Athenis iquae aliis in urbibus Graecise i quas res divinas talibus institutas viris i quos cantus i quae carmina i prope ad immortalitatis

et religionem et memoriam consecrantiar.

In Some respecis Olympia may tali bolow the civiligation ofScenes more contiguous to us. Α good deal of information maybe collected concerning it. But We read not of iis jockeyclub. It had no belling rooms. Ιts founder, Hercules, neVersWoro but orace in his lila. ' It was annoyed by historios and poems i How inferior in laste to tho modern spectacle i Theycalled themselves αυσοχρονες, but thought not that they, like the present generation, belonged to the turl Μuch nearer the Levant than oursolves, they litile foresaW that levanting Wasthe phrase for shisting every unpleasant obligation. Their faint ouiline is gloriousty completedi Could they look on thedroadly sterii morality With Whicli theso things are conducted now l It would have dono a nobiy-sandaled Athenian good toliave seen the boot of this age ori Iegs equat ly blach, with iton or ossi It is not to bo concealed that fixteen centuries have given the recent candidate for fame a great ad vantago lSome other matters have been considered favourable to knowledgo and morat improvementi Yet alloWing eVery exception, may me not, Without Violation os justice or generosity, Scorntho poor attempts of Olympia amidst the lustre os virtus and tho blago os intelligence,-the literature, - the decorum, theromance, Whicli distinguisti a Britisti Course 8 Alpheus, thyWave Was classic once-yield thee at last to the triumplis of tho, - DON l When Will nations see their poticy, and heronegociale their disputes ; and Chronology, learning her triae secret os accuracy, Write her epochs by the St. Legers ΘThere Was great inconvenience experienced froin the heatand consequent thirst. A lian observes, in the eighteenth chapter of his fourteonth book of tho Variolis History, that a Chian

107쪽

tho mill but to carry him to Olympia; thinhing it a greator

punishment to stand a spectator there in the excessive heat os thosiin than to bo employed in the most servile labour. ' Lucian, in his Lila's End of Peregrinus, strongly censures him sor abusing tho nobie Herodes Who had constructed an aqueduci to Olympia at his oWn expense, that the spectators of the games misht no Mnser perish by thipsi VThese sporis, being Pagan riteS, Were alWays most dis- pleasing and abhorrent to the JeWs. Antiochus Epiphanes bythis means seduced many of that peopte to idolatry : ρε where-upon they bulli a place of eXercise at Jerusalem, according totho custonis of the heathen.V Josephus reprobates the conductos Herod in est ablishing Solemn games eVery 6Ve years, in whicli ho imitate J Whatever Was most costly and magnificent intho fhows of other nations. ' The Christians, by absentingiliemselves hom these rites, and similar ones, and protestingagainst them, osten secured their martyrdom. The Romans did not thin k it honourable to contenti in PerSon,-a Senator would have been disgraced by an appearance in the Scene,-tho Eternat city Wept to Witness Nero,-that butche mime, returning in the chariot Which had borne the sortia, and signatisod the triumph, of Augustus, crowned as a pugilist: and Hadrian, the renovator of Greece, gained no favour With his patrician peers and vallant felloW-soldiers, When it Was reported that he had waiked, in the habit os an Agonothetes, along the Olympic COUrSP. Cicero, With the keen observation Whicli distinguishes him, trinis very doubtingly the boasted clatins of the athlotae toValour and endurance. He compares such rude virtves with his native gladiators, and appears to giVe them the preferetice. Quis mediocris gladiator ingemuit 8 Quis vultum mutavit unquam 3 Quis non modo Stetit, Verum etiam decubiit turiapiter 8 Quis, cum decubuisset, ferrum recipere jussus, collum Contraxit 8r:

108쪽

Hastening to a concluSion, We may endeaVour to imagine the scene. The fifth year operis, long eXpected, anxioUStyaWaited, the crisis of hope to tens of thousands. Μonilis have Witnessed a strange alteration in the manners and natures of thepeople. The Schools of eXercise have been crowded. V ouilis

Curriculo pulverem Olympiacum Collegisse juvat: metaque fervidis

Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis Terrarum Dominos evehit ad Deos. '

lisis are prepared i Altis is bathed in morning dew l Templo and portico glisten in the early lighil

109쪽

anon, he turns to the sun l-What means that generat shouit It is Alcibiades, that inconsistency of qualities, - that impar Sibi, - So Proud, So abject,-So fierce, So gentie,-the Patriot, the traitor,-the

110쪽

issuod his dying orders With the javelin quivering in his