The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1913-02-07
OLYMp|AN GAMES
The Famous Contests In the
DAYS of Ancient Greece.
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WAR.
Battles Might Be Forgotten, but Time
Was Reekoned and Events Dated
From tho Years Of the O!ympiad3.
The Fivefoid Contest, the Pentathlon.

The Fjvefoid Contest, the Pentathlon.
According to tradition, the Oldest OF
all Olympian games were estaDhsheu
by Zeus in honor of his success over
Chronos in his struggle for the SOY
ereignty Of heaven. The more general
belief among Greek writers, though
was that these famous games were
instituted by the Idaean Hercules, the
eldest of the five brothers to whom
Rhea confided Zeus after his plrth
These games We're held every h1tn
year, because, according to this story
the brothers were FIVE in number. Inc
games were therefore four years
apart.
The first of the games, according TO
this tradition. was simply 1oot race
in which Hercules and his four broth
ers were the only contestants. Ihls
straightaway foot race 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 ana
the pentathlon Twenty five years later
boxing was made part of the eXer-
else, and four horse races, the pancrat-
ium and riding races were introduced.
The pentathlon was a fivefold 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 were al
lowed to hurl the javelin. The four
most successful in this took part in
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 breaking of bones We're allowed.
The prizes in the Olympian contests
were merely wreaths from the wild
olive trees abundant in the locality,
and 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
Mt 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
pOrtant.
The Christians refer all time to the
beginning Of the Christian era, SO the
Mohammedans to the flight of their
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 war might be for
gotten. an Olympiad would never be.
Those who were victors were ac-
J corded the most extravagant honors.
Their enthusiastic countrymen would
escort them home with unbounded de.
light, and they were given the highest
J seats of honor at every public festiv-
lty. 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
unfairness was regarded as sacrilege,
the games being religious ceremonies,
the guilty ones We're 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 well.
1t does not seem, however, that de.
nberate wounding of an adversary ia 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 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