Olympiad

“ The ecstatic power of an Olympian triumph is well illustrated by the story of Diagoras, the Rhodian, who had been a famous champion in his younger days, and was present when his two sons won the entire pentathlon, i. e., carried off the five prizes for which the athletes of all Greece had been training during the four years preceding the sixty-first Olympiad. ”

“ Ology, ol′ō-ji, n. a science whose name ends in -ology, hence any science generally.
Olpe, ol′pē, n. a small Greek even-rimmed spoutless vase or jug. [Gr.]
Olympiad, ō-lim′pi-ad, n. in ancient Greece, a period of four years, being the interval from one celebration of the Olympic games to another, used in reckoning time (the date of the first Olympiad is 776 B.C.) .—adjs. Olym′pian, Olym′pic, pertaining to Olympia in Elis, where the Olympic games were celebrated, or to Mount Olympus in Thessaly, the seat of the gods.—n. ”

“ The games were held every fourth year, and the interval between two successive festivals was known as an Olympiad.
The contests consisted of foot-races, boxing, wrestling, and other athletic games. Later, chariot-racing was introduced, and became the most popular of all the contests. The competitors must be of the Hellenic race; and must, moreover, be unblemished by any crime against the state or sin against the gods. ”

“ Some writers also speak of events as happening in the first, second, third, or fourth year, as the case may be, of a certain Olympiad; but others do not give the separate years of each Olympiad. The rules for converting Olympiads into the year B.C., and vice versa, are given under Chronologia; but as this is troublesome, the student will find at the end of the book a list of the Olympiads, with the years of the Christian aera corresponding to them from the beginning of the Olympiads to A.D. 301. ”

“ The women had their own festival at Olympia, the Heræa, occurring every four years, at which there were races for maidens of various years, the course being one-sixth less than that for men.
Every Greek boy received a thorough physical training. To keep up the spirit for such training, local festivals were held in which was given opportunity for the boys' testing their strength and skill. In the 37th Olympiad were first introduced contests for boys, the names of the victors being inscribed on the records of the events before the names of the adult victors. ”

“ TO THE YOUTH ALCIMEDON, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE PALÆSTRA, GAINED IN THE EIGHTEENTH OLYMPIAD; HIS BROTHER TIMOSTHENES, VICTOR IN THE NEMEAN GAMES; AND TO THEIR PRÆCEPTOR, OR ALIPTA, [1] MELESIAS.
ARGUMENT.
This ode begins with an address to Olympia ”

“ During the Olympiads it is to be presumed that men busied themselves with the slums that existed in those days, hearkened to the decadent poetry or fiction of that time, and then, as the robuster period of the games came round, braced themselves once more to the consideration of braver things. ”

“ 5.8.11 Afterwards they added races for chariots and pairs of foals, and for single foals with rider. It is said that the victors proclaimed were: for the chariot and pair, Belistiche, a woman from the seaboard of Macedonia; for the ridden race, Tlepolemus of Lycia. Tlepolemus, they say, won at the hundred and thirty-first Olympiad [256 BCE] , and Belistiche at the third before this [264 BCE] . ”

“ FLORIDA) . OLYBRIUS, Roman Emperor (Western) , A. D. 472. OLYMPIA, Battle of (B. C. 365) . See GREECE: B. C. 371-362. OLYMPIADS, The Era of the. "The Era of the Olympiads, so called from its having originated from the Olympic games, which occurred every fifth year at Olympia, a city in Elis, is the most ancient and celebrated method of computing time. It was first instituted in the 776th year before the birth of our Saviour, and consisted of a revolution of four years. The first year of Jesus Christ is usually considered to correspond with the first year of the 195th olympiad ”

“ Olympiads.—The Olympic games, so famous in Greek history, were celebrated once every four years, between the new and full moon first following the summer solstice, on the small plain named Olympia in Elis, which was bounded on one side by the river Alpheus, on another by the small tributary stream the Cladeus, and on the other two sides by mountains. ”

“ Dodowel dans ses Dissertations sur Saint Cyprien prend la Ville d'Olympe pour une Olympiade, takes the City Olympus for an Olympiade, the Name of the Place where, for the Date of the Year when it was done, which is Matter of much Humiliation to all such as believe it impossible for so learned and orthodox a Man to commit so great an Oversight ”

“ To these cities flocked the young and the aged, the private citizen and the statesman, the trader and the artist, to witness or engage in the spectacles. The games were open to all citizens who could prove their Hellenic origin; and prizes were awarded for the best exhibitions of skill in poetry—and in running, wrestling, boxing, leaping, pitching the discus, or quoit, throwing the javelin, and chariot-racing.
The most important of these games was the Olympic, though it involved many principles common to the others. ”

“ Last night athletes from all over the world marched around the Olympic stadium there and stood and watched as a single torchbearer climbed the steps and lit the Olympic flame, marking the start of the games.
I'm sure that like me, you'll be proud of all of these young men and women, and particularly of our own American athletes. Our athletes are a remarkable group, not only for their achievements but for how they represent so much of what is good and beautiful and splendid about this sweet and promised land. ”

“ The Olympian Games of ancient times brought the Greek world together every four years in the beautiful valley of Olympia, to contemplate a spectacle the uniformity of which seems to have constituted an additional charm in the eyes of the spectators. ”

“ The Olympic beauty of this game is beyond all praise. It calls into active exercise every muscle of the human frame, and brings into bold relief the supple and athletic forms of the best built people in the world. ”

“ Know then, as all the world but you, O maidens, are aware, that every five years, at Olympia, which is in a part of Greece called Elis, games are held at which it is the highest honour in the world to compete. For the four years between the great year of the games, all youths who are Grecian by birth are trained at schools called gymnasia—one of which you have lately beheld. ”

“ At this statue it is customary for the athletes, their fathers and brothers, and also their trainers, to swear over the entrails of a boar that they will not cheat at the Olympian games. And the athletes make this further oath that they have carefully trained for the space of 10 months. And the umpires also, either of boys or the colts that compete in the races, swear to give their decisions honestly and without bribes, and not to reveal the reasons for their selection of the winners. ”

“ To-day, as in former times, the Olympian Games respond to a natural and healthy inclination of humanity: in all times and in all countries, if young men are active and in good health, they will be fond of manly games and competitions in which they display their strength and agility, and, incited by the instinct of emulation, they will desire to contend, in the name of their country, against young men of other lands. ”

“ The naturally beautiful youth can be made more beautiful; the naturally homely youth can be made at least passable under the care of a skilful gymnastic teacher.
147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration.—Athletics, then, are a means to an end and should not be tainted with professionalism. True, as we wander about the Academy we see heavy and over brawny individuals whose “beauty” consists in flattened noses, mutilated ears, and mouths lacking many teeth, and who are taking their way to the remote quarter where boxing is permitted. ”

“ The honor of being crowned in the presence of an assembled nation would alone have sufficed to enlist the competition of all able bodied men of a glory-loving race, but many additional inducements made the Olympic championship the day-dream of youth and manhood, and served to increase the ardor of gymnastic emulation. ”

“ In our day I should put the arts and crafts of home life and the practice—not preaching—of its virtues, first in the programme, and secondly, to use Plato’s word, gymnastics. These should include cricket, football, running, jumping, wrestling, dancing, fives, tennis, and all manly and womanly associated games which exercise and develop the body, and have by the public opinion of the players to be played with modesty and self-restraint, and with a reasonable technical skill that can only be arrived at by taking pains. ”

“ Many celebrated athletes could obtain a prize thus by the mere terror of their names.
The gymnastic and equestrian competitions continued from the second to the fourth day; probably the boys contended on the second, the men on the third and fourth days. We know little about the order of events; still, it is probable that on the third day the racing took place first, and in this order—long, single, and double course, then wrestling, boxing, and pancration; on the fourth day the equestrian contests, the pentathlon, and, last of all, the race in full panoply. ”

“ Emulation and the presence of relatives and schoolmates impart to competitive gymnastics a charm which a spirited boy would not exchange for the passive pleasure of witnessing the best circus-performance. Wrestling, lance-throwing, archery, base-ball, and a well-contested foot-race, can awaken the enthusiasm of the Grecian palæstra, and professional gymnasts will take the same delight in the equally healthful though less dramatic trials of strength at the horizontal bar. ”

“ But the college student is prone to adore muscle. The successful athlete is, for a brief period, praised, petted, and advertised far more than is the ablest student or professor in the institution. Scarcely do the noblest achievements of science or philanthropy receive so much notice as a successful full-back on a foot-ball team. The athlete goes up indeed like a rocket, startling the ear and dazzling the eye for a moment—then oblivion, or deserved obscurity. ”

“ SOCRATES: Truly, Hippias, you are to be congratulated, if at every Olympic festival you have such an encouraging opinion of your own wisdom when you go up to the temple. I doubt whether any muscular hero would be so fearless and confident in offering his body to the combat at Olympia, as you are in offering your mind. ”

“ YOU have heard of the Olympic games which were practised in old times, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and you may have seen pictures of the old ruins of the Colosseum at Rome, with its tiers and tiers of seats all round, so that thousands of people could witness the things that went on in the arena. Some very cruel things; but some, on the other hand, were simply men racing with all their might to receive a great prize. ”

“ But, from the heroic legends of competitions for prizes, such as those at the funeral of Patroclus, from the great antiquity of the four national games of Greece (the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian, with the local Panathenæa at Athens) , and from the high social position of the competitors in early times, there gradually became attached to each victory in one of these games so much glory that the townsmen of a victor were ready to, and frequently did, erect a statue to him, receive him in triumph, and care for him the rest of his life. ”

“ It was there, the missing connection: her arrival had on the instant lighted it by a flash. Olympian herself, supremely, divinely Olympian, she had arrived, could only have arrived, for the one person present of really equal race, our young man’s late converser, whose flattering demonstration might now stand for one of the odd extravagant forms taken by nervous impatience. ”

“ Now you have come to Olympia and have exchanged the gymnasium in your house for the stadium of Zeus, where you will have for spectators Greeks who have come from all parts, and foremost among them your own fellow-citizens, on whose behalf you must enter the lists; and certain barbarians will be there also whom it is your duty to impress, showing them your fatherland in as formidable a light as lies in your power. ”

“ Think about the countless hours these athletes put in, knowing it could mean the difference in a split-second victory that earns them a lifetime of pride, and gives us enduring memories. It’s about the character it takes to train your heart out, even when no one’s watching. Just hard work, focus, and a dream. That’s the Olympic spirit – and it’s the American spirit, too
In our Olympians, we recognize that no one accomplishes greatness alone. Even solo athletes have a coach beside them and a country behind them. ”

“ Every city of any importance in Greece encouraged athletic prowess and lavish expenditure of wealth in its citizens by the institution of local contests, sanctified by all the ceremonies of religion, and placed usually under the patronage of a local deity. But all these minor celebrations were eclipsed by the glories of the four great games, and far above all in unapproachable supremacy towered the majestic feast of Olympia. ”

“ The celebrity of the Olympic games, which drew spectators from Asia as well as all the States of Greece, led to similar institutions or festivals in other places. The Pythian games, in honor of Apollo, were celebrated near Delphi every third Olympic year; and various musical contests, exercises in poetry, exhibitions of works of art were added to gymnastic exercises and chariot and horse races. The sacrifices, processions, and other solemnities, resemble those at Olympia in honor of Zeus. ”