Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-23
THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
Their Origin, Abolition and Renais-
Eance

The Olympic games which are being cele-
brated in Greece this week take their name
from Olympia, which in ancient geography
was valley in Ellis, Peloponnesus Greece,
celebrated as the sanctuary OF Zeus (Jupi-
teri. The Olympic games, the most i'm
portant OF the great public games OF clas-
sicai antiquity and the greatest of the four
Panhellenic festivities of the ancient
Greeks, were celebrated at intervals of
four years, in honor of Zeus, in a sacred
enclosure called the Altis, In the plain of
olympia containing many temples and
other reugiouS, civic and gymnastic struc-
lures, besides very many votiye works OF
art The festival began with sacrifices fol-
lowed by contests and racing wrestling
etc, ana closed the fifth day with process
sions, sacrifices and banQuets to the VIC
tors, VINO were crowned with garlands of
WIG olive and on their return home were
received with extraordinary demonstrations
ana were accorded numerous honors and
distinctions The period of four years in
terVening between one celebration and the
next, called an Olympiad, was the meas
ure by which the Greeks computed time.
The actual founding OF the games Is an
terror to history, but Iphitus King of
Ellis, with Lycurgus. the great legislator of
sparta, reorganized the games at the bid
dlng OF the oracle of Delphie in the ninth
century, b. c. The regular chronicle of
Olympian victors begins 776 B. c. The
original and most important event in the
games was the foot race in the stadium. At
first the runners only went once around
the course, but later they made two and
even three circuits. The diaulos more
complicated foot race. was added in the
fourteenth Olympiad: wrestling and the
penthalon, or game of five exercises at the
eighteenth and boxing at the twenty third
The chariot race was restored at the TWEEN
ty-fifth, or a hundred years after the In
stitution of the festival, and the horse race
was added at the thirty-third. In the
period after the Persian wars the Olympic
games attained their zenith In the Roman
period champions from all parts of the
world came to Olympia to take part in the
games, and the professional element made
its appearance. The Greeks themselves
took less interest in it, and the games
slowly deteriorated.
The Olympic games We're abolished by
the Roman emperor Theodoius the Great
In S9i A. D., and were renewed in Athens
in 1898, after an interval of more than
800 years. They were held in the Pana-
thenian stadium. the old stadium of Her.
odus Atticus. which was reconstructed in
1904 and 1905 at an expense of 500 Oe0, do
mated by rich Epirote, the late George
Averoff. The stadium is entirely OF pen
delic marble and can hold more than 10000
spectators. The nautical contests and the
Venetian festival, which will be organized
during the games, will be held in the ports
of the Piraeus and of Phalerum.
The games of 1896. the success of which
was largely due to the interest taken in
them by Baron Pierre de Coubertin OF
Tducc, were not as largely attended az
was expected, many of the best athletes
not being attracted on the first occasion.
They were held on April 6. the Greek ma
tional fete day, and on the five consecutive
days. The jumping and running races were
for the greater part won by American COM
petitors. The Germans the gymnas-
tics, the Greeks the shooting. the SWIM
ming by Hungary. Great interest was
taken In the Marathon race, from Mara
thon to Athens, a distance of about twenty
four miles. A Greek peasant by the name
Of Loues won the race in hours. So minutes
and so seconds. After the games King
George crowned the victors with olive
The success of the games of 1896 assured
their continuance, and this year the par
ticipation by different countries is extreme
ly large.