WONDERS OF

BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL.

BOOK I.

BODILY STRENGTH.

CHAPTER I.

PHYSICAL FORCE IN ANCIENT TIMES-CELEBRATED

ATHLETES.

The "Profession "" among the Greeks-The Victors in Public Games -The Crowns-The Triumph-The Museum of Olympia-Milo of Croton-Polydamas of Thessalia-Theagenes-The Emperors Commodus and Maximus.

In primitive societies physical force was more highly esteemed, and was also of greater utility than it is in these days. Before men had become mixed in communities, and before those communities were powerful enough to protect all their members, it was well that each individual should be able to protect himself. Progress completed the work of nature and necessity. Everything-climate, religion, and social institutions-combined to favour the development of material force. Costume, regulated by the condition of an ever pure atmosphere, did not hide, but on the contrary, showed to advantage the outlines of

the body. Religion was nothing but the worship of external nature, and adoration was paid to physical beauty under the names of Venus and Apollo, and physical strength as embodied in the myth of Hercules. Mind came of course to be placed above matter, but at the same time matter was not entirely overcome; and so in the Bible, Samson is the type of strength, just as Hercules is in heathen mythology.

It is not then surprising that under the influence of such

Athletes practising Javelin and Quoit throwing, and Pugilism, to the sound of the Flute. (From a painted vase in the Berlin Museum.)

ideas there should have arisen among the ancients at an early period a special class of men, whose purpose in life was to develop their physical strength, and that the nations should have encouraged this tendency by establishing public games devoted to all sorts of bodily exercises. In Greece, to go no further back in ancient annals, this art was called "athletics," and those who pursued it were styled " athletes," from a word which signified combat. They underwent long and painful courses of training before appearing in public. They were obliged to submit to a particular regimen,

to accustom themselves to bear hunger, thirst, heat, the dust of the arena--in a word, all the discomforts to which they were to be exposed during the public games, which sometimes lasted from the morning to the evening. For this reason, Galen, the physician, showers invectives upon this profession, which he refuses to consider as one of the fine arts; "For," says he, "athletes devote themselves to increasing the bulk of their flesh and the quantity of their thick and viscous blood-not

to the work of simply rendering the body more robust, but more massive, and therefore more likely to crush an adversary by mere weight. This sort of training is therefore of no use in the acquisition of that vigour which may be attained by ordinary means, and is, besides, very dangerous."

Victor in the Games accompanied by
Herald.

They had only

But the love of glory, which was so ardent among the Greeks, made the athletes forget the fatigues of the palæstra, and blinded them to the mishaps that threatened them when the day of contest should come. one aim to carry off the reward of the victor. they won was in itself of little value, consisting of a wreath of parsley, wild olive, pine, oak, or laurel leaves, according to the locality. It is pretended that in the earliest times it was made of gold; but this opinion seems to be contradicted by the sentiments of the ancients, and of the people most

The crown

interested in the question, the athletes themselves, whe considered a reward which was simple and without any intrinsic value as so much more glorious and worthy of esteem. The crown of leaves was only valuable from an idea which was associated with it, and because it gained for the athlete the applause of the people throughout the whole of Greece. Other ovations were accorded to the victor when he returned to his home bearing the crown and the palmthe emblems of his triumph. He made his solemn entrance into the town in a four-horse chariot, preceded by torchbearers, and followed by a long procession. He did not enter by the common gate of the town, but by a breach made in the walls expressly to do him honour. By this ceremonial it was intended to indicate that a city that could count among its sons a number of valiant athletes had no need of walls to protect it against the besieger. But, was it certain that these men, in spite of all their strength, would have made good soldiers? "Though an athlete excels in wrestling," says Euripides, "is unrivalled in running, is skilled in throwing the quoit, or can soundly buffet the jaws of an adversary, in what way cán such accomplishments serve his country? Can he repel the enemy with a blow of the discus, or put him to flight by going through his exercises armed with a buckler? One does not amuse himself with these trifles when he finds himself within the sweep of a swordsman's arm."

The triumphs of the athletes were sometimes very brilliant. For example, when Egenetus, in the ninetysecond Olympiad, entered Agrigentum, his birthplace, he was attended by an escort of three hundred chariots, each drawn, like his own, by two white horses, and all belonging to the citizens of the town. But the honours accorded to vic

torious athletes did not end with the pageantry of a triumph. They enjoyed numerous privileges, which were either of an honorary or of a lucrative description. They had the right of being present at all public games; their names were engraven upon marble tablets, and they were freed from the performance of civic duties. They enjoyed the right of being exempt from the charges which were levied upon the other citizens, and of being maintained to the end of their days at the expense of the national funds. Lastly, their native towns set up statues in their honour, of wood originally, but afterwards of bronze, each of which represented the athlete in the attitude in which he had gained his victory.

In later times these statues greatly increased in number, and formed an unrivalled museum at Olympia, a town of Elis, and also a theatre of public games, which were the most renowned in the whole of Greece. The museum was in the open air, the statues being scattered through the sacred grove, which in its vast circuit contained the temple of Jupiter, with a colossal figure of the god in gold and ivory by Phidias, the temple of Juno, the theatre, and a number of other buildings. The Greeks, in the enthusiasm of their nature, were so apt to render extravagant honours to the victors in the Olympic games, that the magistrates endeavoured to restrain their ardour. They watched carefully that the statues should not be on a larger scale than life, and whatever colossal statue was erected was broken

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by them without mercy. It was feared that the people, carried away by their enthusiasm, would set up more statues to their favourities the athletes than there were figures of the gods and demi-gods. The statues of Olympia were inscribed with the names of the greatest sculptors.