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.:—
| Chariot and horse-races | 2nd day of festival (the 13th). |
| Pentathlon | |
| Boys’ events | afternoon of the 3rd day (the 14th). |
| Foot-races for men | |
| Wrestling, boxing, pankration | 4th day of festival (the 15th). |
| Race in armour |
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 ἐγκρίνω here used, like the ἁγνὰ κρίσις 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 (σπονδοφόροι), 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.