e Sacred Games.=--From these diversions offered to the gods
originated the solemn games. Each city had them to the honor of its
gods; ordinarily only its citizens were admitted to them; but in four
districts of Greece were celebrated games at which all Greeks could be
present and participate. These are called the Four Great Games.

The principal of these four festivals was that at Olympia. This was
given every four years in honor of Zeus and continued five or six
days. The multitude coming from all parts of Greece filled the
amphitheatre. They commenced by sacrificing victims and addressing
prayers to Zeus and the other gods. Then came the contests; they were:

The foot-race around the stadion.

The Pentathlon, so called because it comprised five exercises. The
competitors were to leap, run from one end of the stadion to the
other, make a long throw of the metal discus, hurl the javelin, and
wrestle.

Boxing, in which one fought with arms bound with thongs of hide.

The chariot races, which were held in the hippodrome; the cars were
light and were drawn by four horses.

The judges of the games were clothed in purple, crowned with laurel.
After the combat a herald proclaimed before the whole assembly the
name of the victor and of his city. A crown of olive was the only
reward given him; but his fellow-citizens on his return received him
as a conquering hero; sometimes they threw down a section of the city
wall to give him entrance. He arrived in a chariot drawn by four
horses, clothed in purple, escorted by all the people. "These
victories which we leave today to the athletes of the public shows
appeared then the greatest of all. Poets of greatest renown celebrated
them; Pindar, the most illustrious lyric poet of antiquity, has hardly
done more than sing of chariot races. It is related that a certain
Diagoras, who had seen his two sons crowned on the same day, was borne
in triumph by them in the sight of the spectators. The people, holding
such an honor too great for a mortal, cried out, 'Perish, Diagoras,
for after all you cannot become a god.' Diagoras, suffocated with
emotion, died in the arms of his sons. In his eyes and the eyes of the
Greeks the fact that his sons possessed the stoutest fists and the
nimblest limbs in Greece was the acme of earthly happiness."[56] The
Greeks had their reasons for thus admiring physical prowess: in their
wars in which they fought hand to hand the most vigorous athletes were
t