Nugae literariae: prose and verse

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ON THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

srst patrons Were to satisfy theniselves with an inclusive and inferior homage. Scruples might be raised, dialectics might be argued, distinctions might be taken ,-and 8ome convenient reseren e to a δουλεια and a λα εια might ease every dissiculty

and stili overy doubt. It Will be my present diity, not to vindicate every thingbelonging to the Olympic Games, but to narrate their history,

and explain their intentions. And the preliminary statements will servo so far the matter of their deserice as to eXtricate them Dona the supposition of encouraging the horrid guili os human sacrifices, and the vindictive oblation of prisoners and gladiators the lalter either coerced or hireling) to the angryghosts of armies and private citigens,-Hl of Whom Were im gined to pass aWay as angrily as Penelope S screaming suit-ors, or to breali sorth as indignantly as Turnus' exasperaten

This, hoWever, only Would be relevant is these Games canbe proved Funereat. of this there cara be no doubt, Whateverhistorical originat we give to them. That of Iphitus and Lycurgus, Will render them a series of actions descriptive of thel ours and combais os Hercules, to Whom Pausanias insortiisus the Eleans Were eirioined to osser sacrifice. That of tho Alcmenan Hercules, Will explain them as expiatory tributesto the Eleans against Whom, and their ungrateful hing, he had Warred, but whom he Was afterWards deSiroUS to appease. That of tho Idean Hercules, though lost in legendary mystery, Will unsold them as representations os fame and posthumous renown paid to his Sire os Crete, tho Iupiter whom ho hadassisted against the Titans, had co-operated With against Saturn,

and had probably laid in his grave: a grave Whicli the shepherdsof Ida, long after the days of Μinos, Were simple and honestenough to fhow. And this is the more intelligibie, sor ons of the names of Iupiter is Palaestes; and table at least recordsthat Hercules Was by some accounted implous for engaging ina good stand-up Wresiling match With his fallier at tho righos parricide. We cannot but remember, also, that the Μythological Heaven of tho heroes admitted the continuation os their

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gymnastic deligitis. It was filled with mews, intersected with

courses, or laid out in arenae.

Pars in gramineis exercent membra palaeStris ἔContendunt ludo, et fulva luctantur arena :Pars pedibus plaudunt choreaS, et carmina dicunt. Quae gratia currum Armorumque fuit viviS, quae cura nitentes Pascere equos; eadem Sequitur tellure repostos. 'Tho subject of this Essay is Very interesting, not unusesul, illustrative of the most Wonderfiat peopte Whicli ever existed, decipitering many peculiaritieS of their nationat temperament, opening a passage to the heart of their idolatry, esides constituting a splendid observance Whicli survived kings and king- donis, and filled a notation os more than a thousand years. Itis pertinent to historical letters, and classic studies : it can bemade to povrtray and impress the course of each duty and thoen COUnter os caeli illi Is Ι may crave indulgetice for any heaviness of the style, or any minutene8S of the delati, in this discussion, it should bo recollected that accura cy is every thing in such questions :moreover, I may claim credit for the ulmost patias-taking and research in my poWer. It Will Often be necessary to cito the opinions, alluSion S, and Statements of Grecian and Latin authors: the greater pari iS mine OWn Selection, While others, which were suggested to me, I haVe HWays attempted to veri0. Knowing that Gilberi West Was the chies modern writer onthoso Games, Ι sorbore to examine him untii my principia materials wore collected: I then read him With much advantage, and sonio mortification, for I Soon found that proose and descriptions which Were, tantii then, regarded by me as fortunate and hard-gained treasures, had been ascertained and seiged by himbesore. I cheersully, hoWever remit the reader to that author, that he may try the extent of my obligations to him. 1emorials are necessary to the civiligation of a people: there must be annals and registers. This may be done by dif-

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ferent Ways. The trophied pile may seeli the 8ky: the sculptured marbie may adorn the sane : the course os time may betraced on the tablet: history may transmit the fleeting incidentio her page: columns and scrotis may preserve in lusting characters What other ise is lost. Or this perpetuity of nationalrecollection may be secured by Solemn conventions of men, bysporis, by proceSsions, by festi Vities, by gestures, by cries. The record is thus embodied, reliearsed, depicted in visibie and living sortiis,-Time solands iis intervals through tho humanvoice, and Event delineales iis Datures in the human image. Such was tho Olympic Dundation t Though the first authentie period of this Solemnity was that of the Course in whicli Coroebus was the victor, yet it is evident, that While chronologyCould not venture an earlier computation, the Solemnity itselfWRS remotely antecedent. It is easy to follow it untii it isburied in tho obscurity of backWard ages. Wo learn, on the

fullest evidelice, that instead of commencing at 776, before the Advent, it was hept by Iphitus and Lycurgus about 884.

Greece, We are informed by Pausanias, being then much tornby intestino divisions and desolated by pestilence, the oracle of Delphi was consulted. The response of the Pythia Was, that the Eleans should restore tho Olympic Games. The chios of

Lacedaemon concurred. However sabulous the machinery, thetruth is evident, that religion and governnient seli the loss of that which had been formet ly ad vantageous to both. It Was,

therofore, determined to revive it. From this time we mustascend to Hercules, the Theban, the son of Alcmena. Therois no reaSonable t rying-place belween the tWo politis of timostated. This Will certainly carry us beyond the Siege of Troy, and wseli nigh to tho Amphictyonic leagiae. To this it is objected, that it is not probable that sucii an instituto sithershould be suspended, or, being suspended, should have been

reneWed. ΝοW we know that the religiolis ossices and gamos of Andania in Alesssenia had been lost for centuries: and thon Were r consecrated by Epaminondas iapon the authority of a plate found in a bragen urn. That plate Was cox ered withalmost obsolete Words, but so far as they could be deciphered

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they referred to certain mystic ceremontes.-Μore formidabie

objections, hoWever, exist to this ancient date, though wo thinhthey may be rebutted. It is, in the sirst place, contended, thatas Homer has, in his catalogue of the ships, introduced the

contingent force of Elis,-and as, after the est lishment of the Games that country Was neutral ground,- the siege of Troymust have been prior to them. We reply, that that neutralitywas internationes, respected only and necessarily the other poWers of Greece, and could not excuse it froni j oining in an expedition against a common De. Also, We learn Dom Polybius, that when the Arcadians attempted to talio Lusion Dom

io have recourse to arnas, and to change their former Way ofli . ' Μoreover, the oracle Whicli sorbade them to tine partin tho disputes around them, permitted them to defend them-selves.-Νexi, it is assirmed that had these Games boon known in tho days of Homer, he Would have noticed them. ΝOW, many memor te characteristics of city and country are omitted in his celebrated Epigraphy. No mention is made os Eleusis, though tho barks of Telamon sWeep by those aWful stiores, and hor inhabitanis must have been onrolled in the bands of Salamisor A thens. Ceres is scarcely intimated to exist, and never tobe an object of Worship, through ali the writings of the bard. Sho donotes littio more than the fruit of the ground . ItWill not be disputed, hoWevor, that the Eleusinian Μysteries Wore then extant, and Bourishing in their greatest pomp. Dodona is describod as cold, but not a Word is ultered concerning

rison with their later magnificence: and that in singing the sternand lony epic, the muster os compatriot nations, the Lindlingos tosty passioris, the rusti os daring deeds, it Was ea sy for himio larget the mimicry of War, to despise the drill-ground of athletic crast for the realities of the batile-seld,-to hurry at

Onee to Tenedos Where their navios rode majesticatly at theiranchorage, and to the Dardanian strands untii they burn Withone refulgent maSs of mali, caparison, and weapoli l But all

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this While the assumption has been undented, that in the ΗΟ-meric poems there is this perfeci siletice. Yet nothing is more gratuitous. In the ninth book of tho Iliad, Ulysses, one of the princes delegated to Achilles, offers him as a reWard sor his

Same acquaintance is displayed. Ulysses, StilpWreched on Phaeacia, is entertained by Alcinous With many of these exploiis: and the poet, reflecting the Delings of his more resined coun- trymen, puis into the lips of the Host a disgust of tho moro perilotas encounters, especialty eXcepting the caestus, in Whicli Sparta, though the most hardy of nations, had never sufferedits champions to engage. Had Homer never alluded to thesespectacles, What Would have been proved 8 Virgil spes ks of Elis, and of Alpheus, iis holy riVer, Without deigning a recolloction of the exhibition which had there iis chosen spot: and who will deny iis notoriety in the reigia of Augustus p 'It is no sinali confirmation that these Games Were knownbesore Homer and the Trojan expedition, that in the Olympiantemple, according to Pausanias, there had been eight figures, one of Which Was destroyed, expressing eight disterent Linds of contest. In later times, the principat Were only sve, as thoirnames pentathlon and quinquertium designate. In the death-honours of Patroclus the number eXactly corresponds to thsoriginal statues of the stirine. There Was the chariot-race, thegauntiet, Wresiling, running, the Single combat, the discus, archery, and hurling the spe . The tWo that Wero laid aside,

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Were the single combat und the boW. The chariot Was retained, but was considered rather a Splendid ornament, than an elementary subsistence, of the triae regulation. The games of Iphitus Were, there re, a compreSSion and emendation of What Wasorda inod of old: capable of receiving, after ea ch revision, that which was fuit te to raise and adorti them.

Perhaps the identity of these agonistical rules will bodoubted froni the dissoretice of tho assigned rewards. Richspoiis provoke the Grecian chiosi on the Phrygian shore: acha plet os leaves adorns the victor in the Olympic stri . The withholdment of this may be rea lily expla ined. The tree Wassacred Dom Whicli those leaves Were gathered: it grow but

But is other proof were Wanting, it might be concluded that Homer know the very ground on whicli the candidates of Olympia contended. For Nestor, When directing Antilochus in tho tactios of the chariot-race, telis him how to cast his ρyosorWard to sonae object as his directory and aim :

tho ouisset and goal of the Olympic race Were tombs, as Weshali shortly have occasion to State. Besides, the most ancient institutions of Sparta, the goVernnient of the oldest men, the Γερουογα,-the conStant appeal to the ΓερονΤες,-is evidently alludod lo again and again. '' Wo have not reached their origin yet. We ure credulousonough to coincide With them Who identi θ them With Herculos. Proba ly he est lished them a s the solemn Exequiae of thoso who had fallen, on either Side, When he conquered Elea. Dis- polling the haZe of va in tradition Which soats around him and exaggerates his ProportionS,-We are Willing to admire him forhigher attributes than those of sineWy conformation and brutat

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ON THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

courage. The manile of the sage and the senator may welldisplace his lion-skin, and a sceptre os Wisdom and a crook of mercy may be fastioned Dom his club. Polybius, in suggesting topios for a Discourse ora Peace, SVS that the orator may inow that when Hercules instituted the Olympio Games, RS a recompense aster his totis, he sussiciently declarod this tobe his mea in g, that when he brought misclites ora any bymal ing War, he was sorced to it by necessity and the commmdsof others, but that willingly he had never done harm to any person. Diodorus Siculus, in his fifth book, is disposod toth in k that tho Olympio Regimen was devoted by the hero onliis retum froni the Argonautic Voyage. And in an earlier partof the sanie book ho says, that this Which is deservedly themost renowned of ali, took iis b inning Dom the best of men. ' In tho fixili Olympic odo of Pindar Wo snd a similar attestation: When Hercules, brave for every danger, that illustrious branch of the Alcem stocli, instituted the rite Which

Cogitantibus Argonautis in patriam abire, Herculem serunt hortatum esse ad res magnae fortunae obeundas: adegitque ut jurejurando pollicerentur alterum alteri si opus esset auxilio fore. Elegisse autem clarissimum Graeciae locum ad Statuenda certamina, ConcurSUSque hominum celebrandos: idque certamen maximo deorum Jovi Olympio consecrasse. Cum Argonautae omneS in laedus communis presidii jurassent, instituendorum cura Herculi demandata, illum elegisse aiunt ad hominum conventus Eleorum regionem juxta Alpheum flumen. Unde juxta eum loca maximo deorum sacrata Olympia ab eo appellantur. Cum equorum certamen palaestramque instituesset, modo certaminum Statuto Urbes propinquas ad deorum spectacula excivit. Et gloria, famaque HerculiS eX Spectatione certaminum Olympicorum vulgata, Graecorum Omnium qui clari eSSent eo concursus fuit. - - Μerito igitur omnium hoc ab Hercule institutum certamen habetur praestamtissimum, quod ab optimo viro principium sumpsit.'

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But it does not precisely folloW that he was solander in the strictest sense. ΜΗ he not, too, have only the presse ofa restitution 8 The testimony of Herodotus seems decisive.

Egyptians mere the earliest of mankind to instituto the sacredthrongs, processions, and offerings: and Dom them tho Grooks Wore instructed. The Judges of the Olympic Stadium sont stili according to Herodotus, f) ambassadors Who Were Eleansio Psammis, hing of Egypt, to consuli respecting these games, and to ask What improvements could be suggested. Ηe calledtogother the Wisest of his subjecis to give them the conserenoe. Why was this done, it Egypt Was not the fource of these and similis ritos Θ But in the fifth book of Pausanias, there is yet Stronger evidence: he says that the Eleans in their libations not only adoro the Grecian divinities, but those Whicli are Wor-shippod in Libya; that they appear to have used, Dom the most ancient period, the oracle there; and that there existed, in his da , altars in the temple of Iupiter Ammon which wero dedicated by them. Libya and Egypt, bordering on each other, dis rod littis in thoir mythologies. And, above ali, the disserent positions, or rounds, of Wresiling contests are depicted in the most ancient Tombs at Ben Hassam, seventeen centuries in their excavation before Christ. This mill greatly tend to fhowWhence the earlier games Were derived, and their strictly funerealcharacter. And it is a strange largetfuiness, or ignorance, Which

tho Euterpe and Thalia of Herodotus, Who knows not his D quent reser ence to Egyptim dynastieS, Stories, and arcana. Homer, in the ninth book of the Iliad, mahes Achilles speak of tho Egypti an Thebes With iis hundred gales. The fame allusionis found in the Odyssey more than once. I It is reason te, consequently, to belleve that a far older rituat was in the mind of

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Hercules, that he brought it With him Dom the eastern countries of Africa, and that much of the Sattic Μysteries shono in thomirili and ambition os Elis. Far more than reueis and tittedlisis did ho intend. The persecution os living Worth is melltold in tho crueities of Eurystheus: iis ultimate vindication, iis eventuat triumph, is not the less impressivel 3 proclaimed in thoreturn, and in the glorious destinies, of the Heraclidae. Four disserent places mere devoted to this species of solemnentertainment. One Was in Phocis,-Pytho,-the seat of the Pythian games. This Was a most classical topography. ItWas mid-Way betWeen Helicon and Parnassus, making an isos-

celes trian e with the woodland of Daulis and the oracle of Delphi. Castalia yielded to the panting contendant iis refreshing draught. The other three belonged to the Peloponnesus,- the Isthmian, celebrated on the neck of land ne. Whicli Corinthwas bulli, and which bound Achaia to the Peloponnesian peninsula,-the Nemean, celebrated in Nemea, a city of the Argives,not sar Dom the rise of the Inachus,-and the Olympio, cel bratod at Pisa in Elea. Prob ly ali partook of a commondescent, but my Dissertation, Only embracing the last, I shallmerely allude to the others, as they, Dom a generat resemblance, may furnisti important illustrations. Tho Geography of this far-famed Arena must be prim rib setiled. Ιt stood hard by Pisa a town of Elis, or Elea. Olympia, Whicli sonte lime imagined to be another name sor theterritory of Elea, Was reatly only another name for the town : the one being the vulgar and original, the other iis classical and adopt0d name. And it is quite necessary to dis use the confused allocations Which have been gravely set down by those Whoseem to think that Greece is smali as ins spaco whicli it silis

considerable elevation, Which Was called Olympus, in honouros Iupiter ; and somelimes in honour of his Ather Saturn, tho Cronian steep. Strange that it inould have been mistakon fortho olympus os Thessalyl There is mollier misapprehension. Tho Rivor Ponous flows belWeen the Thessalian Olympus and Ossa, forming the vale of Tempe. But another river of the

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fame name flows higher in Elea than the Alpheus, the two forming natural divisions of that province. It need scarcely besaid that the two mountains and the two rivers, each named Olympus and Peneus, are hundreds of miles apart. Wo have every reason to belleve that Elea was a most

his merrtest pipe. Fauns stole Dom their coveri, and Wovetheir graceml dance. The forester solanded his horn throughiis thichol, and woke the echoes of the Chase.

Phi galeia, so lamed for iis exquisite compositions os sculptu red