The Cruise of the Branwen

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY: THE OLYMPIC GAMES Laudabunt alii claram Rhoden aut Mitylenen, Aut Epheson, bimaris ve Corinthi Mrenia, vel Baccho Thebas, vel Apolline Delphos Insignes, aut Thessala Tempe: Sunt quibus unum opus est intactre Palladis urbem Carmine perpetuo cdebrare. . . . IT is not without significance that the fundamental date in classical chronology is 776 B.c., "the year of the first Olympiad." This choice of an athletic event by the historians indicates that this first Olympiad had grown to be recognised as the beginning of a series of circumstances essentially important to the welfare of the Hellenic world. So much was this the case that origins not merely Heroic but even Divine were attributed to the earliest celebrations of these athletic festivals, and that the Oracle herself did not disdain to recom– mend the revival of ceremonies so grateful to the Gods who watched over the good of Greece.* The official sanction given to athleticism and physical culture by the Spartan Government was no doubt a large factor in the subsequent * The greater part of this chapter originally appeared in "Bailey's Magazine." A I