of the highest importance, and
were invested with a solemnity largely due to their ancient institution
and long-continued observance. Their purpose was not alone friendly
rivalry, as in modern times, but was largely that of preparation for
war, bodily activity and endurance being highly essential in the hand
to hand conflicts of the ancient world. They were designed to cultivate
courage and create a martial spirit, to promote contempt for pain and
fearlessness in danger, to develop patriotism and public spirit, and in
every way to prepare the contestants for the wars which were, unhappily,
far too common in ancient Greece.

[Illustration: THE MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES IN THE STADIUM.]

Each city had its costly edifices devoted to this purpose. The Stadion
at Athens, within whose restored walls the modern games took place, was
about six hundred and fifty feet long and one hundred and twenty-five
wide, the race-course itself being six hundred Greek feet--a trifle
shorter than English feet--in length. Other cities were similarly
provided, and gymnastic exercises were absolute requirements of the
youth of Greece,--particularly so in the case of Sparta, in which city
athletic exercises formed almost the sole occupation of the male
population.

But the Olympic Games meant more than this. They were not national, but
international festivals, at whose celebration gathered multitudes from
all the countries of Greece, those who desired being free to come to and
depart from Olympia, however fiercely war might be raging between the
leading nations of the land. When the Olympic Games began is not known.
Their origin lay far back in the shadows of time. Several peoples of
Greece claimed to have instituted such games, but those which in later
times became famous were held at Olympia, a town of the small country of
Elis, in the Peloponnesian peninsula. Here, in the fertile valley of
the Alpheus, shut in by the Messenian hills and by Mount Cronion, was
erected the ancient Stadion, and in its vicinity stood a great
gymnasium, a palaestra (for wrestling and boxing exercises), a hippodrome
(for the later chariot races), a council hall, and several temples,
notably that of the Olympian Zeus, where the victors received the olive
wreaths which were the highly valued prizes for the contests.

This temple held the famous colossal statue of Zeus, the noblest
production of Greek art, and looked upon as one of the wonders of the
world. It was the w