Transcriber’s Note: These errata have been corrected.
PEDESTRIANISM.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE GYMNASTIC EXERCISES OF THE ANCIENTS.
Gymnastic exercises were held in the highest repute by the most illustrious nations of antiquity. They mingled with the sacred and political institutions of their governments, and produced consequences affecting the physical and moral character of the people.
The Games interested all Greece; and the period of their celebration was that of peace and security. The different republics, with their dependent colonies in the isles, in Asia, and Africa, furnished candidates emulous to gain the distinguished honors. Hostile states, then uniting in bonds of friendship, interchanged those favourable impressions which tend to humanize the rough nature of man; and that asperity of temper, or animosity of heart, so characteristic of rude nations, was thus softened or lulled.
The Sacred Games of the Greeks, were composed of the exhibitions of the Stadium and Hippodrome; and the charms of poetry and music were added, to gratify the more refined taste of the lovers of these exquisite arts. Philosophers, poets, historians, orators, and every description of people, assembled to witness the exertions of the combatants, and to enjoy the varied pleasures of the festival.
The Olympic games claimed precedency over all others; and to Iphitus, king of Elis, they owe their revival—for their origin is lost in the obscurity of remote ages. The Eleans obtained the direction and management, by the united consent of Greece; and their territory, on this account, was deemed inviolable. They founded their prosperity on the cultivation of peace; and, on sacred ground, raised a temple dedicated to Jupiter, which inclosed them within the pale of its protecting influence.
“The temple,” (says Strabo, lib. viii.) “stands in the Pisæan division, little less than three hundred stadia distant from Elis. Before it is a grove of wild olives, within which lies the Olympic stadium.” The temple was magnificent. It was built of beautiful marble, in the Doric order, and surrounded by a colonade[1]. It was ornamented by the finest productions of art—the genius of the sculptor and painter having adorned the sacred edifice[2]. But the Stadium was no more than a terrace of earth, the area of which was six hundred and thirty-eight feet in length. On the one side was erected the seat of the Hellanodics, or judges; and on the other, an altar of white marble, upon which the priestess of Ceres, and her virgins, had the privilege of viewing the games. At the farther extremity was the barrier, where those who contended in the SIMPLE FOOT-RACE began their course; and there also was situated the tomb of Endymion[3].