Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1896-04-02


which the Olympian games of ancient
Greece will be equaled, if not sur
passed, by the gladiators of modern
time.
The stadium of centuries ago has
been rebuilt in the same spot that il
occupied when Rome was in its infancy
and long before Julius Caesar was ever
thought of. Much of the marble used
in the ancient structure forms a part
of the modern duplication. The retsor-
alton is not a recent achievement, how
ever, as for many years back it has
been pet project with the men and
women who love TO unfold to the world
the beauties of ancient Greece.
In 1878 His Majesty, King George,
ordered the stadium eXcavated, and
paid all the expenses. The excavations
which his money carried on have made
possible the present revival of the
Olympian games, and have in the mean
time afforded pleasure and profit to the
visiting scholar to those classic regions.
Under his majesty's direction the de-
VI 10 VI q NuOuSClllN GStl was Cl6Stl Sttl
away down to the surface of the arena,
and the sloping amphitheater laid bare.
The marble seats, whose construction
had consumed the greater part of The
Pentelic quarry We're no longer there.
Nest of them had gone into the lime
kiln, that rapacious monster that has
deVoured so much of the achievement
OF ancient Greece.
His majesty found the bare amphi-
theater and the arena, the ruins of two
high supporting walls at the entrance,
near the lllissus, and an underground
passage at the other end for the en-
trance and exit of contestants and
judges. There were also few broken
seats, and Two or three others, scat
tered about the city, showed what the
remainder must have been like
The arena as it stands today is as
much like the ancient one as human
ingenuity and knowledge can make it.
Anastasios MetaXas, the kings archi-
tect, who has had charge of the work,
made a thorough study of ancient sta
dia, and there is little doubt that he
has produced a very faithful repre-
senation of the original stadium The
arena is elliptiCal in shape, except that
the ellipse is cut square off at one end.
About this runs a marble border, or
low wall, surmounted by an iron rail
ing Of antique design, on which perches
a long line Of owls, the sacred bird of
Athens Just outside the border and
bounded by it comes an aisle eight feet
wide, and IN a lower level than the
arena. This aisle is bounded on its
other side by platform built of three
strata of marble, the lower stratum
whit with carvings; the second brown,
and the upper one white again, with
carvings.
At this platform begin the seats, and
from it they extend up and back all
around three sides of the eclipse, al
most to the top of the hill. At the
twentieth rev is another aisle parallel
with the first, then more seats up to
low wall, called in Greek the crown.
outside of all is high wall, surmount-
ed by another railing. Inside this is
the third and last aisle,
On either side the opening the hill
is cut square down. The high walls in
front are the ancient ones repaired,
They are nearly triangular in shape,
slanting down to follow the sloping
sides of the amphitheater. At the
lower end of each a high column has
been erected, the one supporting
statue of Athena, the other of Victory.
The straight line across the entrance,
between the two columns, is adorned
with other images in marble-lions,
wrestlers, etc.-all productions from
antiquity. and in the center stands a
noble arch, under which the audiences
will pass.
All of the seats to be used by the
aristocrats are of marble while those
further back from the arena are of
wood. Plebeians, of course, will sit in
them just as they did two thousand or
more years ago.
The course in the stadium is a
straight break, a little over 600 feet in
lPuSlll, DeS iiillHS llDLl d - hLA'7 - -
line drawn at or near the entrance.
At the termination of this distance an
other transverse line is drawn for the
finish A emi-circlular portion Of the
stadium is thus left into which the run
ners may dash, after having crossed
the goal at full speed This semi-circle
is the sphendone,
The first row OF seats, then, and
twenty more about the sphendone, are
Of marble, All the others are Of wood,
painted white. and made TO resemble
marble as much as possible. The sta
dunn holds 10000 people, and admis-
sion will be free.
The history Of the Olympian games
gees back a thousand or more years
before the Christian era The exact
date is disputed matter, but the best
authorities fix it at about b. c. 1853.
The Olympiad as computation Of
time, however begins with the victory
o. GORGEOUS B. c. rs. From that date