We have seen how important a part in the Greek national life was
occupied by the Olympic Games. They were regarded as a sacred
institution of the gods, and to contend in them was a religious
consecration. None could enter them who had been guilty of dishonorable
conduct or sacrilege, and young men from the noblest families were not
above taking part. The prizes were wreaths of wild parsley, olive, and
pine, having no intrinsic worth, but of priceless value to the
recipients. To win them was the highest ambition of many a Greek youth.
The victor was led forth before the people, crowned with the wreath and
bearing a palm branch in his hand. Heralds proclaimed his name and that
of his father. Banquets were spread in his honor, and songs were
composed in his praise.[26] From thenceforth he was a person of
distinction. Finally his statue was set up in the _altis_ or sacred
grove of Olympia. There were at one time as many as three thousand such
statues in the place.
[26] See, for instance, Pindar's _Olympic Odes_.
It will be readily seen that in statues of athletes the sculptor had
greater freedom than in statues of the gods. The latter must be
represented in dignified attitudes of repose, but the former would
naturally be portrayed in some characteristic posture of action. It is
so with the statue in our illustration called the Discobolus or
Disk-thrower.
The game of disk-throwing was very old, so old that there were Greek
legends of famous games played by the gods and heroes. Apollo sometimes
tried his hand at it, and also Perseus. The discus, or disk, was a heavy
round plate of metal, bronze or iron, about eight inches in diameter,
grasped in one hand, swung around to give it a rotary motion, and then
sent flying through the air. A modern authority explains that it was
thrown not as the quoit is to-day, with arm and shoulder only, but by
bringing into play and utilizing every limb and muscle of the body.
"Immediately preceding the actual hurling of the discus, therefore,
there had to be a general storing up and compression of energy which,
when suddenly set free, produced the violence of the projection. The
principle is simply that of the spring which, when compressed, shoots
out from the centre. The greater the contortion of the body, the more
each muscle and sinew is strung towards one centre, the greater will be
the impetus when this compression is suddenly set free."[27]
[27] Waldstein, in _Essays on the Art of Pheidias_, page 49.
[Illustration: John Andrew & Son, Sc.