OLYMPIC GAMES, the most splendid national festival of the ancient Greeks, were cele brated every fifth year in honor of Zeus, the father of the gods, on the plain of Olympia (q.v.). Their origin goes back into prehistoric ages. According to the myth elaborated or preserved by the Elean priests, they were instituted by the Idman Herakles in the time of I(ronos, father of Zeus; according to others, by the later Herakles, son of Zeus and Alkinetic; while Strabo, rejecting the older and inure incredible legends, attributes their origin to the Herakleidm after their conquest of the Peloponnesus. But the first glimpse of anything approaching to historic fact in connection with the games is their so-called revival by Iphitos, king of Ells, with the assistance of the Spartan lawgiver, Lyeurgus, about 884 B.c.; or, according to others, about 828 B.C., an event commemo rated by an inscription on a disk kept in the Hercewa at Olympia, which Pausanias (flor. 2d c. A.D.) saw. That festive games were celebrated here—in other words, that Olympia was a sacred spot long before the time of Iphitos, can indeed hardly he doubted: the universal tradition that the Elean king had only "revived" the games proves this; but nothing whatever can be historically ascertained concerning their origin, character, or frequency, in this remoter time. Iphitos may, therefore, be regarded as their founder, yet the reckoning of time by olympiads (q.v.)—the real dawn of the historical period in Greek history—did not begin till more than a century later. At first, it is conjectured, only Peloponnesians resorted to the Olympic games, but gradually the other Greek states were attracted to them, and the festival became Panhellenic. Originally, and for a long time, none were allowed to contend except those of pure Hellenic blood; but after the conquest of Greece by the Romans, the latter sought and obtained this honor, and both Tiberius and Nero figure in the list of Roman victors. Women—with one exception, the priestess of Demeter Chamyne—were forbidden to be present. on pain of being thrown headlong from the Typman rock. The games were held from the 11th to the 15th of the Attic month Helcatonthaeon (our July–August), during which, first, throughout Elis, and then throughout the rest of Greece, heralds proclaimed the cessation of all intestine hostilities; while the territory of Elis itself was declared inviolable. The com batants were required to undergo a preparatory training for 10 months in the gymna sium at Ells, and during the last of these months the gymnasium was almost as numer ously attended as the games themselves. Much uncertainty prevails as to the manner in which the contests were distributed over the different days. Krause (Olympia, p. 106) suggests the following order: On the first day the great initiatory sacrifices were offered, after which the competitors were properly classed and arranged by the judges, and the contests of the trumpeters took place; the second day was set apart for the boys who competed with each other in foot-races, wrestling, boxing, the pentathlon, the pankra lion, horse-races; the third and principal day was devoted to the contests of men in foot races of different kinds (as, for example, the simple race, once over the course; the dz7auloa, in which the competitors had to run the distance twice; and the doliehos, in which they had to run it seven or twelve times); wrestling, boxing, the pankration (iu which all the powers and skill of the combatants were exhibited), and the race of hoplitea, or men in heavy armor; on the fourth day came off the pentathlon (contest of five games —viz , leaping, running, throwing the discus, throwing the spear, and wrestling), the chariot and horse races, and perhaps the contests of the' heralds; the fifth day was set apart for processions, sacrifices, and banquets to the victors (called Oympionikoz), who were crowned with a garland of wild olive twigs cut from a sacred tree which grew in the Altis (see OLYMPIA), and presented to the assembled people, each with a palm branch in his hand, while the heralds proclaimed his name, and that of his father and country.
On his return home, he was received with extraordinary distinction; songs were sung in his praise (14 of Pindar's extant lyrics are devoted to Olympionikoi); statues were erected to him, both in the Altis and in hls native city; a place of honor was given him at all public spectacles; he was in general exempted from public taxes, and at Athens was boarded at the expense of the state in the Prytaneion.
The regulation of the games belonged to the Eleaus, from whom were chosen the hellanodilatt, or judges, whose number varied. At first there were only two, but as the games became more and more national, and consequently more numerous, they were gradually increased to ten, sometimes even to twelve. They were instructed in their duties for ten months beforehand at Elia, and held their office only for one year. The officers who executed their commands were called alytia, and were under the presidency of an alytarch.—See Crause's Olympia oder Darstellung der .grossen Olympischen spiels (Wien, 1838.) one of the latest of the Alexandrian Neoplatonists, flourished in the first half of the 6th c. after Christ, during the reign of the emperor Justinian. Regard ing his life nothing is known. Of his writings, we possess a Life of Plato, with commen taries or scholia on several of his dialogues, the Gorgias, Philebus, Phmdo, and Alcibiades I. In these he appears as an acute and vigorous thinker, and as a man of great erudition. Olympiodorus's Life of Plato was published by Wetstein (1692), Etwall (Lund. 1771), and Fischer (Leips. 1783); the best edition of the scholia is that of Mystoxides and &tibias (Venice, 1816).