DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0288
266
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. IX.
It is most fortunate when these methods can be com-
bined ; when in visiting the scene of great events we see
also on all sides traces of their course and results of
their energy. This is now the case at Olympia. The
result of the excavations carried on there at great cost
and with supreme disinterestedness by the German people
has been to enable the traveller at Olympia not only to
study the scene of the greatest of Greek athletic fes-
tivals, but to trace the celebration from hour to hour
and from point to point. He not only sees the hill of
Cronion, where the spectators crowded, wades through
Olympic dust, and feels the sun of Olympia beat on his
head ; but he can wander on the threshold of the Temple
of Zeus, pass from building to building in the sacred
enclosure of the Altis, and stand at the starting-point
of the runners in the Stadium. Taking the guide-book
of the old Greek traveller Pausanias in our hand, we can
follow in his steps ; and out of broken pillars, truncated
pedestals, and the foundations of demolished buildings,
we can conjure forth the beautiful Olympia of old, with
its glorious temples, its rows of altars, its statues of gods
and godlike men who conquered in the games, its trea-
suries full of the noblest works of art and the richest
spoils of war. And we can people the solitude with
the combatants and with the spectators, a crowd filled
with the enthusiasm of the place and with delight in
manly contests ; a crowd over whom emotions swept as
rapidly as the chariots through the hippodrome, and who
were ever -breaking out into wild cries of delight or loud
shouts of scorn and derision. We can see the bestowal
of the crowns of. wild olive, and can hear the heralds
recite the names of those who have been victorious.
Scarcely any chapter - of Greek history is of more
interest, or contains more instruction for modern readers,
than that which records the rise and the fall of Greek
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. IX.
It is most fortunate when these methods can be com-
bined ; when in visiting the scene of great events we see
also on all sides traces of their course and results of
their energy. This is now the case at Olympia. The
result of the excavations carried on there at great cost
and with supreme disinterestedness by the German people
has been to enable the traveller at Olympia not only to
study the scene of the greatest of Greek athletic fes-
tivals, but to trace the celebration from hour to hour
and from point to point. He not only sees the hill of
Cronion, where the spectators crowded, wades through
Olympic dust, and feels the sun of Olympia beat on his
head ; but he can wander on the threshold of the Temple
of Zeus, pass from building to building in the sacred
enclosure of the Altis, and stand at the starting-point
of the runners in the Stadium. Taking the guide-book
of the old Greek traveller Pausanias in our hand, we can
follow in his steps ; and out of broken pillars, truncated
pedestals, and the foundations of demolished buildings,
we can conjure forth the beautiful Olympia of old, with
its glorious temples, its rows of altars, its statues of gods
and godlike men who conquered in the games, its trea-
suries full of the noblest works of art and the richest
spoils of war. And we can people the solitude with
the combatants and with the spectators, a crowd filled
with the enthusiasm of the place and with delight in
manly contests ; a crowd over whom emotions swept as
rapidly as the chariots through the hippodrome, and who
were ever -breaking out into wild cries of delight or loud
shouts of scorn and derision. We can see the bestowal
of the crowns of. wild olive, and can hear the heralds
recite the names of those who have been victorious.
Scarcely any chapter - of Greek history is of more
interest, or contains more instruction for modern readers,
than that which records the rise and the fall of Greek