Many of the details and regulations connected with the Olympic festival have been already mentioned in previous chapters, where the reader can readily find them by consulting the index. In the present chapter we shall attempt to give some account of the festival itself, as it existed in the fifth century. First we must premise that the details of the festival are involved in the greatest obscurity, largely owing to the fact that the bulk of our information is derived from late writers whose evidence as to what took place five or six hundred years before their time must always be received with a certain amount of reserve. Still, religious conservatism was nowhere stronger than at Olympia, and much that is recorded of the second century of our era existed with little difference in the fifth century B.C. Therefore, though many details remain obscure we can feel fairly certain as to the general outline of the festival.

The festival took place at the second or third full moon after the summer solstice, in the months of Apollonios and Parthenios respectively.^[284] Its date was fixed by a cycle of eight years or ninety-nine-months, the divergence between the year of twelve lunar months and the solar year being rectified by the insertion of three intercalary months, one in the first four years, two in the second. Thus it fell alternately after forty-nine or fifty lunar months. The fourteenth day of the month seems to have been reckoned as the day of the full moon, though the actual full moon varied from the 14th to 15th. This day must, from the earliest time, have been the central day of the festival.^[285] The Greek day was reckoned from sunset to sunset, and as Greek custom demanded that sacrifice to the Olympian gods should be offered in the morning, before mid-day,^[286] it follows that the great sacrifice to Zeus was offered on the morning after the full moon. The festival lasted five days. According to Herodotus, a historian of the fifth century, the five days’ festival was ordained by Heracles.^[287] Certainly it lasted five days in Pindar’s time.^[288] Scholiasts of various dates, while affirming that it lasted five days, state that it began on the 10th or 11th and lasted till the 15th or 16th.^[289] The discrepancy may be due to the variation in the date of the full moon already noticed, more probably to the addition to the festival of one or more preliminary days necessitated in later times by the multiplication of competitions and religious ceremonies. To these days the preliminary business of the festival may have been transferred, but they were not reckoned as part of the actual festival. The seventh ode of Bacchylides, written in honour of Laches of Ceos, who won the boys’ foot-race in 452 B.C., proves beyond doubt that in this year the festival ended on the sixteenth day. If then the festival lasted five days, the fourteenth, the day of the full moon, was the central day of the whole festival. The recognition of the importance of this fact is due to Ludwig Weniger, whose conclusions I have in the main adopted in the following pages.

These five days included sacrifices, sports, and feasts. Sacrifices and feasts, both private and public, formed part of each day’s programme, especially of the first and last days, which must have been largely, if not entirely, occupied by such ceremonies. How many days were devoted to the actual sports we do not know. A scholiast states that they took place on five days,^[290] but the statement is unsupported and certainly was not true of earlier times. The growth of the programme must have necessitated readjustment from time to time, and an extension of the time allotted to competitions. Such an extension took place, according to Pausanias, in Ol. 77, though it did not, of course, take effect till Ol. 78. “The order of the competition,” he says,^[291] “existing in our time—which is that the sacrifice to the god is offered after the pentathlon and the horse-race—this order was introduced in the 77th Olympiad. Previous to this date, events both for men and horses took place on the same day. But on this occasion the competitors in the pankration were kept on into the night, not having been called in time, and the delay was caused by the horse-races and still more by the pentathlon.” This passage gives no countenance to the statement commonly made that at this time the length of the festival, or the number of days allotted to sport was suddenly extended from one day to five. Nor does it prove that before this date all events for men took place on the same day as events for horses, and that after this date none did. If the literal meaning of the words is pressed, it may be argued, and indeed has been argued, that from this date a separate day was assigned to the horse-races, and a separate day to the pentathlon. Unfortunately, we have a definite statement by Xenophon^[292] proving that in Ol. 104 the horse-races preceded the pentathlon on the same day. Those who assert that they took place on different days are forced^[293] to reject the evidence of a contemporary writer, who lived for years in the neighbourhood of Olympia, in favour of a doubtful interpretation of an obscure and ill-expressed passage written by a traveller who owed his information to a visit paid to Olympia some five hundred years later. The alternative is to assume that after Xenophon’s time a separate day was assigned to the horse-races, presumably at the time when the programme of these events was raised to its full complement of six. But this is a mere supposition. All that we can definitely assert is that, after Ol. 77, the pentathlon and horse-races were transferred to the day before the sacrifice to the god.

What is “the sacrifice to the god”? and when did it take place? On the answer to these questions depends the interpretation of the passage of Pausanias, and the reconstruction of the order of the festival. There can be little doubt that the sacrifice was the official offering of a hecatomb to Olympian Zeus by the Eleans.^[294] It is generally assumed that this took place on the 16th, the last day of the festival, and it is certainly natural to connect it with the official banquet in the Prytaneum which took place on the evening of that day. This arrangement naturally appeals to a modern sentiment which demands a climax. But the Greeks had not this sentiment, and there is a mass of evidence to prove that the usual order of a Greek festival was—sacrifice, sports, feast.^[295] That this was the ancient order at Olympia is clear from two odes in which Pindar describes the inauguration of the games by Heracles. In the eleventh Olympian we read how Heracles, returning victorious from Cleonae, marked out the Altis, and paid honour to the river Alpheus and the great gods. Then, having first offered sacrifice of his spoil, he ordained the games, and in the evening the precinct resounded, as in Pindar’s time, “with songs of festal glee.” So, too, in the third ode, first he sanctifies the altars, then he ordains the games. The scholiast, commenting on this ode, explains carefully that the full moon came first, then followed the sacrifice, and “the rest of the competitions.” If the games followed the sacrifice, the sacrifice cannot have taken place on the 16th, but rather on the 14th, the morning after the full moon. In speaking of “the rest of the competitions” he is thinking, of course, of the order of the festival in his own time, and this phrase is a strong argument in favour of the views of Weniger.

The meaning of Pausanias is now clear, and there is no need with modern editors to assume that the passage is hopelessly corrupt. Previous to Ol. 78 all the sports followed the sacrifice, mostly on the 15th; but I see no reason why some should not have taken place on the afternoon of the 14th, or even on the 16th. The preceding days were occupied with preliminary business and various religious ceremonies. In Ol. 78 the horse-races and the pentathlon were transferred to the 13th, the day before the sacrifice. Some of the preliminary business may at the same time have been shifted to the 11th day. If at a subsequent date separate days were allotted to the horse-races and pentathlon, or if, as Weniger suggests, the boys’ events were after the introduction of the boys’ pankration shifted to the 12th, the 10th day may also have been required for the preliminaries; but there is not sufficient evidence for either of these changes.

The same uncertainty prevails as to the order of the events, and still more as to their distribution into days. The attempts which have been made to prove that the order was the same as that preserved in two fragments of the Olympic register must, in my opinion, be regarded as failures. The order for the fifth century as given in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus is as follows:—(1) Stade-race, (2) Diaulos, (3) Dolichos, (4) Pentathlon, (5) Wrestling, (6) Boxing, (7) Pankration, (8) Boys’ foot-race, (9) Boys’ wrestling, (10) Boys’ boxing, (11) Race in armour, (12) Chariot-race, (13) Horse-race. The list omits the mule chariot-race (?p???) and the race for mares, which were discontinued after 444 B.C. Phlegon’s list for Ol. 177 (72 B.C.) agrees with this except that the boys’ pankration is added after the other events for boys, and the four new equestrian events after the horse-race in their order of introduction.

The principle adopted in this list is obvious. The competition is divided into athletic and equestrian. The athletic part is divided into events for men and events for boys. Each division is arranged in the order, real or fictitious, in which the various events were introduced. The only exception is the race in armour, which is placed after the boys’ events, owing to its late introduction, its peculiar character, and the fact that it was the last event on the programme. The arrangement is perfectly simple and logical, but it does not follow that it was the order adopted in the sports. We have seen that in 468 B.C. (Ol. 78) a change was made in the order, and we know that the Hellanodicae had power to alter the order under special circumstances. In Ol. 142, at the request of Cleitomachus, who was competing both in boxing and in the pankration, they placed the pankration before the boxing.^[296]

From the general uncertainty a few facts emerge:—

1. Plutarch definitely states that at Olympia the boys’ competitions took place before any of the men’s,^[297] and there is no reason for disbelieving his statement. In framing a register it may be natural to place the most important events first; in arranging a programme it would be a ludicrous anti-climax to do so.

2. The foot-races all came on the same day, and probably before any other of the competitions for men. Their order is doubtful. Pausanias in his account of Polites^[298] implies that he won the dolichos first, then the stade-race, lastly the diaulos. But practical considerations make this unlikely. Unless a considerable time elapsed between the events it is hard to imagine a three-miler proceeding at once to win a 200 yards and a quarter! Learned writers who have discussed the question all seem to have forgotten that in the stade race and perhaps in the diaulos there was a round of preliminary heats, which may well have complicated the order.^[299]

3. Wrestling, boxing, and the pankration took place on the same day and in the same order.^[300]

4. The race in armour was the last event of the whole programme.^[301] It seems possible from the words of Philostratus that it came on the very last day of the festival.

5. The pentathlon followed the horse-races, and in Xenophon’s time took place on the same day, the day preceding the sacrifice. Previous to Ol. 78 these events may have followed the foot-races.

6. When the competitions for heralds and trumpeters were introduced in Ol. 96, they naturally came off on the first day, seeing that the winners had the privilege of officiating at the festival.

The horse-races and the men’s foot-races took place in the morning; the pentathlon, and the heavy events, boxing, wrestling, and pankration, after mid-day.^[302] The pentathlon and horse-races, as we know, were in Xenophon’s time on the same day, i.e. the 13th. The foot-races and heavy events for men also presumably occupied one whole day, the 15th.^[303] There was certainly no time on this day for the boys’ events, which were not sufficiently numerous to occupy a whole day. We may conjecture that they took place on the afternoon of the 14th. We arrive therefore at the following probable arrangement for the period beginning 468 B.C.:—

It is uncertain when and where the victors were crowned.^[304] The only definite pronouncement on the point is that of a late scholiast, who states that the prizes were distributed on the sixteenth day.^[305] In support of this statement is quoted the commencement of the seventh ode of Bacchylides, unfortunately much mutilated, which appears to connect the sixteenth day “with judgment for speed of foot and strength of limb.” But it may be noted that the verb ??????? here used, like the ???? ???s?? of which Pindar speaks, does not necessarily imply the prize-giving, but would be equally applicable to the actual competitions, or to the rejoicings and feast in which all the victors took part on the sixteenth day. At the same time, this passage of Bacchylides may well have given rise to the scholiast’s note on Pindar. On the other hand, there are certain allusions which seem to indicate that the victors were crowned by the Hellanodicas immediately after each event. This is certainly the natural inference from the story told by Pausanias of Apollonius, who having been disqualified by the Hellanodicae in the boxing for arriving too late, bound on the boxing thongs, and made a violent attack on Heracleides, to whom the Hellanodicae had already awarded the crown, and who had the olive already on his head.^[306] Again, Ageus who won the long-distance race in 328 B.C. ran straight home to Argos and reported the news of his victory the same day.^[307] Surely he must have received the crown first. Otherwise he must have returned that same night from Argos to Olympia in order to receive his prize the next day! Lastly, the picture described by Philostratus of the death of Arrhichion, who died in the moment of victory in the pankration, represents the Hellanodicas in the act of crowning him.^[308] The stories themselves are fanciful, and their evidence is by no means conclusive, but, agreeing as they do with the undoubted practice of the heroic age,^[309] it seems to me probable that the victor received his crown immediately after his victory.

Let us now try to form some idea of the Olympic festival in the middle of the fifth century, the moment of Olympia’s greatest glory, when Libon’s temple had been completed, when the stadium and hippodrome had been laid out, when Pindar and Bacchylides were still singing the praises of the victors, and Myron and Polycleitus were immortalizing them in bronze. Some details will be inserted for the sake of convenience which may belong to a later date, but in such cases the fact will be noted.

Some weeks before the actual festival the three truce-bearers of Zeus (sp??d?f????), wearing crowns of olive and bearing heralds’ staves, set forth from Elis to proclaim the sacred truce to all the states of Greece and bid them to the festival. The truce began from the moment that they left Elis, and lasted probably three months. During this time all competitors and visitors on their way to or from the festival enjoyed its protection, and none might bear arms within the sacred territory.^[310]

Competitors were obliged to give in their names by a fixed date. If they failed to do so, they rendered themselves liable to a fine or even to disqualification.^[311]

In later times—we do not know when the custom was introduced—they underwent thirty days’ training at Elis under the supervision of the Hellanodicae, who had themselves undergone ten months training for their duties. During this period, and during the festival itself, it seems probable that they were lodged and boarded by the authorities of the festival. The training at Elis was noted for its severity: the Hellanodicae exacted absolute obedience to their orders, and punished all infraction with the rod.^[312] They tested the capabilities of the athletes, rejecting those who were not fit; they satisfied themselves as to their parentage and claim to compete; above all, they had opportunity for judging the claims of boys and colts to compete as such.^[313] Philostratus tells us that at the close of the training they called together the competitors and addressed them^[314] in words which well illustrate the high standard which Olympia maintained even under the Empire:—

“If you have exercised yourself in a manner worthy of the Olympic festival, if you have been guilty of no slothful or ignoble act, go on with a good courage. You who have not so practised, go whither you will.”

The whole company quitted Elis a few days before the festival. First came the Hellanodicae and other officials, then the athletes and their trainers, the horses and chariots, their owners, jockeys, and drivers. They went by the sacred way, which, skirting the mountains, followed the coast-line till it entered the valley of the Alpheus. The journey lasted two days. At the fountain of Piera, which marked the boundary between Elis and Olympia, a halt was made, a pig was sacrificed and other rites of purification were performed.^[315] The night was passed at Letrini, and the next day the whole procession wound up the valley to Olympia.^[316]

Meanwhile, visitors of all classes were flocking to Olympia from every part of the Greek world. Some came to see, some to be seen; some for pleasure, some for profit. Tyrants and statesmen, poets and philosophers, peasants and fishermen, all met at Olympia. The whole Greek world was represented from Marseilles to the Black Sea, from Thrace to Africa. The country folk came on foot along the valleys of the Peloponnese, the richer classes in chariots or on horseback. The river Alpheus was still navigable, at its mouth was a small port, and tyrants and merchant-princes from the West could sail in rich barges up to Olympia itself. Particularly magnificent were the official embassies from the various states, each of them anxious to outshine the rest. For all this crowd there can have been little accommodation or provision at Olympia. Competitors and members of the embassies may have been lodged at the public expense. The rest had to provide for themselves. Some slept in tents or booths of wood in the plain around the Altis, the majority slept on the ground in the open air—no great hardship in summer at Olympia. There was no town, or even village near, and the needs of the assembly must have been supplied by merchants, hucksters, pedlars, who brought in provisions from the country and set up rough stalls and booths such as may be seen to-day at any local fair.

The first day of the festival, perhaps the day preceding the festival, was devoted to preliminary business and sacrifice. There were no competitions, except perhaps those for trumpeters and heralds, which were not introduced till 396 B.C.; they took place near the entrance to the stadium, the competitors taking their stand upon an altar. It was probably on this day that the ceremony in the Council Chamber described by Pausanias took place.^[317] There the competitors, their trainers, and their friends underwent a solemn scrutiny. They took their stand before the statue of Zeus Horkios, who was represented with the thunderbolt in his right hand as a warning to evildoers, and there having sacrificed a pig, they swore on its entrails to use no unfair means to secure victory, and further, that they had trained for ten months in a manner worthy of the festival. The ceremony of the oath is represented on a red-figured kylix in Fig. 132. Next came the turn of the judges who decided on the eligibility of boys and colts to compete as such. They swore to give their decisions honestly and without bribes, and not to reveal the reasons for their decision. Then the final list of entries was drawn up and published perhaps on a white board (?e???a).^[318] Throughout the day there must have been various sacrifices both public and private, but little is known of their details. All through the year there was daily sacrifice at the great altar of Zeus. Sacrifice was probably offered on this day at the six double altars which Pindar mentions, and an offering of blood was made on the mound of Pelops.^[319] Competitors and their friends would offer sacrifices and vows at the altars of the gods or heroes whom they regarded as their patrons, or who were specially connected with the events in which they were competing.^[320] The superstitious would consult the oracles and soothsayers as to their chances of success.^[321] The crowd of sight-seers would wander through the Altis admiring the statuary of the treasuries or Libon’s new-built temple, perhaps listening to some rhapsodist reciting Homer, or to Herodotus as he read the story of the Persian wars, or else visiting the workshop to the west of the Altis where Pheidias was busy on his ivory and gold statue of Zeus. There were friends, too, to be seen and greeted—friends from distant parts of the Mediterranean, who after years spent in the colonies had returned to meet their kinsfolk and acquaintances at Olympia.

The following days were occupied with the sports, on the details of which we need not dwell. These took place in the stadium, or the hippodrome, some of them probably in the open space east of the altar of Zeus. They began early in the morning and lasted all day. Before daybreak every point of vantage was occupied. There were no seats: spectators sat or stood on the banks of the stadium, or hippodrome, on the slopes of the hill of Cronus, on the rows of steps beneath the treasuries, on every point which commanded a view of the games or ceremonies. They were bareheaded, and suffered severely from the sun, and dust, and thirst. Yet nothing could damp their enthusiasm. As they watched the sports they shouted and cheered on their friends and favourites; in their excitement they sprang from their seats, waving their arms, or their clothes, embracing their neighbours in their joy.^[322]

A special entrance was reserved for the Hellanodicae and competitors at the north-east corner of the Altis. The vaulted tunnel which served for this purpose in Roman times still exists. Through this the Hellanodicae entered first, robed in purple, with garlands on their heads, and took their places on the seats reserved for them.^[323] After them came the competitors, and the herald proclaiming their names asked if any one had any charge against any of them. Each day’s proceedings were opened by the herald with a solemn proclamation.^[324] Sometimes the Hellanodicas, or some other distinguished person, delivered an address to the assembled competitors. Each event in turn was proclaimed by the herald, together with the names of the competitors, their fathers, and their cities. Possibly the names were written on a white telegraph board (?e???a). In the case of any events requiring heats or ties, lots were drawn in the presence of the Hellanodicae and spectators. The lots marked with letters of the alphabet were thrown into a silver urn; each competitor after uttering a prayer to Zeus drew one in turn, holding it in his hand but not looking at it till all the lots were drawn. Then the Hellanodicas went round and examined the lots, arranging the heats or ties accordingly.^[325] Each event was started with a blast of the trumpet, and after each event the herald proclaimed the victor (Fig. 37).

We have seen that the olive crowns were probably presented to the victors at once. These crowns were made of branches cut from the sacred olive-tree, “the olive of fair crowns” which stood behind the temple of Zeus. They were cut with a golden sickle by a boy of pure Greek birth whose parents were both living, and were placed on a tripod. At the time of which we are speaking, the old iron tripod had been already replaced by the ivory and gold table made by Colotes, which was kept in the temple of Hera.^[326] The table was probably set beside the seats of the Hellanodicae. There, when the herald had proclaimed his name, the victor advanced, having bound his head with fillets of wool, and the chief Hellanodicas set on his head the olive crown, and in later times put in his hand the palm of victory; while the spectators cheered and showered upon him garlands, flowers, and presents of all sorts. The crowning of the victor and the showering him with flowers (f???????a) are depicted on the interiors of two kylices, in Figs. 25, 26.^[327] In the case of a tie or dead-heat the crown was not awarded, but was dedicated to the god; hence the phrases ?e??? p??e??, ?e??? ?e??s?a?, hieram facere, are used to express a dead-heat or draw.^[328]

Then in the evening, beneath the brightness of the mid-month moon, the precinct rang with revelry and song. The victors and their friends in festal attire, with garlands on their heads, went in glad procession round the Altis, while crowds of fellow-citizens chanted to the accompaniment of the flute the old triumphal refrain of Archilochus,^[329] or some new hymn of victory written for the occasion by Pindar or Bacchylides. The victors wore the crowns which they had won, but there is no ground for the statement that they dedicated them to Zeus; rather it seems that they took them home and dedicated them in the temples of their own cities. The processionals followed by banquets given by the victors.^[330] Alcibiades after his victory in the chariot-race entertained the whole assembly at a feast, and borrowed for the occasion all the plate and vessels belonging to the Athenian theoroi. Anaxilas of Rhegium and his son Leophron celebrated their victories in like manner. Empedocles of Aetna being a Pythagorean, and therefore a vegetarian, had an ox made of costly spices, which he distributed to the spectators. The banquets often lasted all night long, and in the morning the victors paid their vows and offered sacrifices to the gods to whom they owed their victories.

The most brilliant of all the ceremonies was the great sacrifice to Zeus on the morning after the full moon. The victors, the officials and the representatives of the different states, went in stately procession to the altar, where a hecatomb of oxen was sacrificed by the Eleans. This was the opportunity for the theoroi to display their magnificence and the wealth of their cities. So we can understand the indignation of the Athenians at Alcibiades^[331] when instead of returning to the theoroi the vessels which he had borrowed for his banquet the evening before, he used them the next morning for his private offering; so that when a few hours later the Athenian theoroi took part in the public procession, the positions were reversed, and the magnificence of the State appeared but as the reflection of the magnificence of a private citizen.

Of the sacrifices, processions, and rejoicings on the last day of the festival we know no details save that in the evening all the victors were entertained at a public banquet in the Prytaneum. The rewards and honours which they received on their return home have been described in a previous chapter.