υἱὸς, σταθμᾶτο ζάθεον ἄλσος
πατρὶ μεγίστω· περὶ δὲ πάξας,
Ἄλτιν μὲν ὅγ’ ἐν καθαρῷ
διέκρινε.
Pind. Olymp. x.
“The stalwart son of Jove measured out a grove divine to the mightiest Father, and hedged it round, and the Altis he set apart in that sacred place.” Pindar thus attributes the foundation of the Olympic games to Hercules, who was more popular than Jupiter himself amongst his Heraclidan audience; and a few lines before he alludes to his conquest of Elis, on whose plain these games were subsequently celebrated, “μυχοῖς ἅμμενον Ἄλιδος;” Hercules having led thither an army from Tiryns, the first walled city upon record. The sacred grove to which Pindar above refers contained the temple of Olympian Jove, and the statues erected to the conquerors in the games. The τρισολυμπιονῖκαι, or those who had been thrice victorious, had their εἰκόνες in marble thus set, and copied exactly from their members, which were thus in some degree deified. (Plin. lib. 34, cap. 3.) And Aristotle, in his Ethics, lib. 7, c. 6, says that the Olympian conquerors were called “ἀνθρώπους” κατ’ ἐξοχὴν, as if they alone were worthy of the name!
X. “And sulphurous fires the bastioned bulwarks tear
Like rags asunder!”
—Καὶ στεφάνωμα πύργων
Πευκάενθ’ Ἥφαιστον ἑλεῖν.
Τοῖος ἀμφὶ νῶτ’ ἐτάθη