mea--the
first expansion of all the three from local into pan-Hellenic festivals.
To the Olympic games, for some time the only great centre of union among
all the widely dispersed Greeks, are now added three other sacred
_Agones_ of the like public, open, national character; constituting
visible marks, as well as tutelary bonds, of collective Hellenism, and
insuring to every Greek who went to compete in the matches, a safe and
inviolate transit even through hostile Hellenic states. These four, all
in or near Peloponnesus, and one of which occurred in each year, formed
the period or cycle of sacred games, and those who had gained prizes at
all the four received the enviable designation of Periodonices. The
honors paid to Olympic victors, on their return to their native city,
were prodigious even in the sixth century B.C., and became even more
extravagant afterward. We may remark that in the Olympic games alone,
the oldest as well as the most illustrious of the four, the musical and
intellectual element was wanting. All the three more recent _Agones_
included crowns for exercises of music and poetry, along with
gymnastics, chariots, and horses.

It was not only in the distinguishing national stamp set upon these
four great festivals, that the gradual increase of Hellenic family
feeling exhibited itself, during the course of this earliest period of
Grecian history. Pursuant to the same tendencies, religious festivals
in all the considerable towns gradually became more and more open and
accessible, attracting guests as well as competitors from beyond the
border. The comparative dignity of the city, as well as the honor
rendered to the presiding god, were measured by the numbers, admiration,
and envy, of the frequenting visitors. There is no positive evidence
indeed of such expansion in the Attic festivals earlier than the reign
of Pisistratus, who first added the quadrennial or greater Panathenae
to the ancient annual or lesser Panathenaea. Nor can we trace the steps
of progress in regard to Thebes, Orchomenus, Thespiae, Megara, Sicyon,
Pellene, AEgina, Argos, etc., but we find full reason for believing that
such was the general reality. Of the Olympic or Isthmian victors whom
Pindar and Simonides celebrated, many derived a portion of their
renown from previous victories acquired at several of these local
contests--victories sometimes so numerous as to prove how widespread
the habit of reciprocal frequentation had become: t