THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20630, 20 August 1932, Page 11

THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

TO TUB EDITOB OP THR MESS Sir, —The historical portion of the leader on the Olympic • Games in The Presi, of August 6th, must have interested many, like myself, who are keenly alive to ancient Greece and all it implies. To quote your words: "Though many Greek writers dwell complacently on the simplicity of the official prize, the olive garland, the victor received other and more substantial rewards. If an Athenian, he received 500 drachmae and free rations for life. If a Spartan, he was given the post of honour in battle." I had complacently believed in the olive garland, and therefore searched every book on the subject—within reach. At long last 1 found corroboration in that lovely book, "Ancient Times: A History of the Early World," by Breasted. As a variant I will give the reading as I find it: "To the laurel leaf which was granted the winner at the Olympic Games Athens added a prize of 500 drachmas when the winner was an Athenian. He was also entitled to take his meals at tables maintained by the State.? It appears probable to me that.these games started as memorials of. the' noble dead, as funeral games -were ancient even in Homer 'p tune, as "The Times" Historians' History states. Necessity was the basic reason for theni, judging by Labberton's "Historical Atlas": War. in those daytt. was a combat between man and' man, in which the victory belonged to the strongest and best trained. Connoquently,the essential thing to easure I tory (which meant liberty) was to render each warrior the most resit tant-, the etroaij- . est. and i the most agile body pb|MMt>le. ! Therefore, young people passed the greater part of the day in the gymnasium wmUinp and rac'ins- "-'lt was their aim to produce Btroof, robust bodiej, the nipbloat and most,

beautiful possible, and no system of education ever succeeded better in obtaining them. Tha great national festivals of the Greeks, the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games, were the greatest promoters of physical culture. The victorious athlete in the foot race gave his name to the Olympiad; his praises were chanted by the greatest poets. 0" returning to his native cily he was received in triumph, and his strength and agility became the pride <>f the place. Every athlete, once crowned, was entitled to a statue. The Greeks considered the perfection of the human form as attesting Divinity; they made their idol of it, they glorified it on earth by making a divinity of it in Heaven. Out of this conception statuary is born, which adorned the sanctuaries with motionless, peaceful, august effigies, in vhicV human nature recognised its heroes and its gods. Statuary, accordingly, is the central art of Greece: other arts are related to it_. accompany it. or imitate it. No other art has so well exprossed the national Hellenic life; no other was so cultivated or bo popular. The reference to statuary above is given point by a statement in the "Lives of the Greeks and Romans," a German work, that the combatants used to appear quite nakecl, except in earlier times, when they girded their loins with a cloth. The five exercises of running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the diskos, and the spear, hid to be gone through on oije and the same day, and the prize was awarded to bim only who had been victorious in all of them. All four great national festivals named übove agreed On this. Anyone may see in New Zealand to-day Grecian architecture, and Greek (rives the flexibility to our language which has mftde it world-wide.—Yours, etc., •. TROILUS. Wellington, August ISth, 1933, *