The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-11-15
5eIrrt MisrellanlI.
THE ATHLETES OF OLD.

The father of the Olympic games was
Hercules, the embodiment of all that was
physically great in man, except, perhaps,
personal beauty. Hercules was not hand
some in the sense that Apollo was Her.
cules performed many wonderful feats, all
OF which were no doubt the patriotic in
yentions of poets to inspire the imagina-
ton of the youth of Greece. Some time
about 600 d. c. we find an account of Her.
cnlrs- who, perhaps. was a very strong
man. giving exhibitions for livelihood
appeared at Olympia in Ellis. Here was a
great Doric temple. built and dedicated to
Jupiter Olympus. Near this temple grew
wild olive tree. whose value became ap-
parent subsequently,. just few years
before Endymion who had deprived .Ethe-
licus of his kingdom, proposed to his sons
that the possession of it be settled by ath-
letic contests. This is one of the very
earliest accounts of athletics 1t was on
this occasion, when a kingdom was at
stake, that Hercules appeared with his
great horses for regular horse racing and
chariot-racing. Probably many other
horses contended against the great ones
of Hercules, but the first person who was
ever crowned victor as a rider or driver
was he who rode the fast horses of Hercu-
les. That victor was Iolaus, and Hercules
had him crowned with Il wreath from the
wild olive tree. SO the Olympic games
ha rop n hn racir a nd pb int.
racing, and the course at Olympia was
nothing more than a hippodrome circle,
with lines of seats around for the specta-
tors. The horse and chariot racers from
Ellis tiocked to Olympia by thousands.
Other contests, such rs foot racing, boxing
wrestling, throwing the deus, the dart and
javelin, jumping, &c, were introduced.
The Olympia games had now become a
great national festival, held every four
years, called o ympads, and such impor-
tance did they soon gain in the general
Greek mind that they actually became an
almanac or time table for Grecian history
Athletics had now become more than a
passion-a religion-with the Greeks; for
at the beginning of every festival sacri
| flee of some animal was made to Jupiter
Olympus, and every contestant entered the
| list with his heart anxious for the favor of
| this supreme god AS fond as we mOdernS
are of athletics, we can never hope to en-
! Joy it with quite the enthusiasm the Greeks
| did To do so we would have to carry
| that inspiration that we get from our BIZ
bles, song books and family altars to the
race track with us The Greeks were mus
Gle mad, but it was the necessity of the
times. The contestants trained long and
arduously for these great festivals before
| leaving their homes and then, a few weeks
before the celebration, they set out with
/ their horses, chariots, tents, &c, for Olym-
pia. When the festivals were at the zenith
of their glory, all the civilized world was
there represented camping in tents about
the sacred mount that overlocks the beau
tiful river Alpheus. Some historians
! Pausanius, for inStance-have estimated
that there were nearly 100000 people
| present. How immensely interesting it
would be to get a glimpse of this great
crowd of ancients who must have remain
| ed together for a fortnight at Il time, though
the festival proper did not last longer than
| four or five days. Did these crowds gam
! bic on the contestants? Did they fake,
| thimberig, cheat, pick pockets, get drunk?
Were any ofthem lockedup? Every mod
ern who looks back at this crowd instinc-
/ lively asks these questions, to show just
how the crowd behaved itself in these re-
spects.
The judges in the Olympic games were
all chosen from citizens in Ellis by lot