Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-10-03
0LYM2IAN GAMES
The Famous Contests In the
Days of Ancient Greece.
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WAR.

Battles Might Be Forgotten, but Time
Was Reckoned and Events Dated
From the Years of the Olympiads.
The Fivefold Contest, tho PentathIon.
According to tradition. the Oldest OF
all Olympian games were established
by ZeuS in ono Of his success over
ChronOS in his struggle for the SOW
ereignty of heaven. The more general
belief among Greek writer's. though.
was that these famous games We're
instituted by the ldaean Hercules. the
eldest of the five brothers to whom
Rhea contided Zeus after his birth.
These games We're held every fifth
year. because. according to this story.
the brothers were five in number. The
apart.
The first of the games. according to
this tradition. was simply a foot race.
in which Hercules and his four broth
ers were the only contestants. This
straightaway foot a G. continued to
be the only Olympic game till the
fourteenth Olympiad. when a second
contest, the double course. was intro
duced-i. e., to the end Of the course
and back again. In the eighteenth
Olympiad they added wrestling and
the pentathlon. Twenty-Five years later
boxing was made Il part of the exer-
else. and four horse races. the pancrat-
irnn ar1 ri1jloo a,,nS U-nro intrnHy1nnd
The pentathlon was Il tivefold con,
test in leaping. throwing the discus or
quot, wrestling and hurting the jave-
lin. All contestants were admitted
first to the leaping contest. and those
who crossed a certain space We're al
lowed to hurl the %iavelin. The four
most successful in this took part in a
foot race. The last man in the race
dropped out. and the best three threw
the quot. Again the least successful
retired. and the better wrestler of the
remaining two Won the prize.
The pancratium was a rough and
tumble fight. Almost any method of
throttling an opponent and compelling
him to acknowledge himself vanQuiSh-
ed was permitted. Wrestling, boxing.
hugging. choking and even the DELHI
crate breakin" of bones were allowed.
The prizes in the Olympian contests
We're merely wreaths from the wild
olive trees abundant in the locality.
II the games all took place on one
day until the twenty-Seventh Olym-
piad, when the Greeks. desiring to do
greater honor to the gods for their de-
feat Of the PerSians. extended the
games to fill FIVE days.
All Greece regarded the month dur
ing which the games were held as a
holiday. Business of every kind was
at a standstill. and even hostile armies
'disbanded and attended the games as
friendly rivals. The importance of the
games may be gathered from the fact
that the Greeks reckoned their time
according to the games. just as all peo-
pie have reckoned it from the events
which seemed to them the most i'm
portant.
The Christians refer all time to the
beginning of the Christian era. so the
ICudA " Cue ulSul vi lu0lT
prophet and Romans to the year of the
founding Of their city. But the Greek
historians used to speak like this:
This battle was fought in the fourth
year of that Olympiad in which Euryb.
'otus, the Athenian. won the prize in
the course" While a war might be for
gotten, an Olympiad would never be-.
Those who were victors were ac-
corded the most extravaganza honors.
Their enthusiastic countrymen would
escort them home with unbounded de-
light. and they were given the highest
seats of honor at every public festiv-
1ty. Poets Of the highest merit sang
their praises. The cities in which they
resided erected statues to their honor.
1T is not surprising that. when victo-
ry meant so much. dishOnorable
means were sometimes employed to
secure it. Every attempt. however.
was made to prevent foul play, and as
unfalrnesS was regarded as sacrilege.
the games being religious ceremonies.
the guilty ones were not only con-
demned by all those whose praise they
sought. but they were subjected be-
sides to heavy penalties in money and
often scourged as we'll.
1T does not however. that de-
uberate wounding of an adversary in a
contest was much deprecated. since
Pausanias mentions one man who.
though an inferior wrestler, won sew
eral contests by breaking the fingers
of his antagonist, but he who killed his
opponent lost the prize. and the dead
body was crowned victor.
The cause Of the decay of the game
was that the glory and the substantial
rewards which followed victory final
~ became too great. At last there
became classes of men who did moth
ing else but prepare for the games. and
contending became a profession. Kings
and mobiles then withdrew, and their
example was followed by the better
class Of Greek youth. with the result
that the games were finally neglected