SECOND CHAPTER
Origins, First Institutions, Restorations, Continuations, Augmentations, and Glorifications of the Olympic Games.
§ I.
We will now say something about the origins and first institutions of the OLYMPIC GAMES, and about their restoration, continuation, augmentations, and glorifications. They did not, namely, become perfect in all their parts at once and simultaneously. Things in their first rise are generally crude and slight, growing with time (by help and support), and only at the end do they become great and perfect.
§ II.
However, just as the first beginnings and institutions of things are slight and imperfect, so too are they very obscure and doubtful. For who pays attention to those small things? And moreover, if any note or record was made of them, it vanishes through all-devouring and all-concealing time, so that nothing is left of it but a few disconnected and mutilated pieces, like ruins of ancient palaces. Therefore, we commend Strabo when, after having dealt with the different accounts of the origins or first founders of our games, he adds this conclusion (Strabo, Book 8): "for such matters are told in various ways, but not truly believed."
§ III.
We will not say that some attribute the institution to the gods and to HERCULES or several HERCULESSES. For there are among the pagan scholars who write all of these as first founders (Pausanias, Book 5) or as first practitioners (Nat. Com. Mythol., Book 5, Ch. 1). They say that JUPITER would have instituted them after the destruction of the TITANS, and that APOLLO would have surpassed MERCURY in the foot race and MARS in the fistfight. Or that JUPITER and SATURN would have first contended for sovereignty in such a game. Or also that HERCULES would have first contended in the game with the unknown JUPITER. In these stories two matters require our attention, namely: 1. that they, to give the games more splendor and glory, brought in gods and HERCULESSES; 2. that with the names of gods and Herculesses they depicted some kings, sons of kings, and brave knights, who had done something for the institution, augmentation, glorification, and practice of the warlike games. Such JOVESSES or gods and HERCULESSES could have been, for example, AETHLIUS, ENDYMION, brave youths of Ida, and from Tiryns or Thebes; whom we in the following list of the game-founders, -restorers, and -augmenters will consider and present as such and no differently.
§ IV.
We can find no earlier founder of these athletic games than AETHLIUS, king of ELIS (C. Pascalis, de Coronis, Book 6, Ch. 5) (married to PROTOGENIA, daughter of DEUCALION). For from him they seem to have been named contests (in Greek ATHLA), prizes (in Greek EPATHLA), and the contenders athletes (in Greek ATHLETAE). And we suspect that he introduced them
primarily with the aim of giving a name and fame to the market days of that region, of honoring them and making them very profitable. For such games attract people, and "where there are people, there is trade," as the proverb says. The market held there dealt mainly in byssus (fine linen), for it grew very abundantly in the region of Elis and was also very valuable, as Pausanias testifies in more than one place (Pausanias, Books 5 & 6 at the end & Book 7). "Among the wonders," he says, "of the region of the Eleans is the byssus. For it grows here, and nowhere else in Greece. As for fineness, it is not less than the one which the Hebrew land produces, and is certainly less yellow." It also seems that the Eleans wove that byssus (See also Pliny, Naturalis Historia, Book 19, Ch. 1), adorned it with purple, prepared it into clothing and spreads, and offered it for sale. Indeed, perhaps a large part of the Greek purple trade itself was drawn there. For purple was very abundant in the PELOPONNESE in antiquity, according to the testimony of Pausanias (Pausanias, Book 10) and Bochartus (Bochartus, Phaleg, Book 3, Ch. 4). And although the city of the Mycenaeans, HERMIONE, flourished through that trade, ELIS could have flourished through it before or after, or in part also. Other wares of more or less value will also undoubtedly have been brought and offered for trade. These market days may have first been held in or near ELIS. But when they became famous, so that not only the inhabitants of the neighboring cities, but also from overseas, from the east and west, flocked there, they seem to have been moved later to the field later called the Olympic Field. This was very convenient for transporting the traded goods either upwards to Arcadia and throughout all of Greece via the flowing ALPHEUS, or downwards into the Triphylian Sea. Moreover, it was very suitable, because of its spacious, flat, and beautiful thickets for the great games; for
they demanded both suitability and space, as anyone can easily understand. But furthermore, that AETHLIUS specifically instituted the games to serve as market games, so to speak, seems clear from the actions of IPHITUS (about whom more below), of whom Velleius clearly says that he instituted those games and market (Velleius Paterculus, Book 1). Although he could have better said: renewed. Finally, whether that market in the time of AETHLIUS took place more than once a year, or every other year, like many large markets and so-called annual fairs, or even more rarely, and whether the games were thus celebrated annually or after the lapse of some years, we do not know how to say.
§ V.
After AETHLIUS, some name APIUS as the founder or renewer of the game. However, Pausanias (Syncellus, page 195) has his son ENDYMION follow AETHLIUS.
§ VI.
Under ENDYMION (about whom the poets invent fables, among others that the Moon fell in love with him), born of the aforementioned PROTOGENIA, the daughter of DEUCALION (Pausanias, Book 5, from the beginning), the Olympic market games seem to have been celebrated with such great splendor and fame that he gained the name of first founder from some. And the splendor and fame were all the greater, because he had the game honored with the foot race of his three sons PEON, EPEUS, and AEOLUS, for the succession to the realm. Here, therefore, a royal crown was at stake; which also seems to have been at stake once again later, when OENOMAUS (about whom more in a moment) offered his daughter and crown to the one who could outrun him with the chariot team, which PELOPS is said to have done. And
it seems that those foot races for a crown were the causes, and gave occasion, that the victors were later given symbolic crowns of olive leaves and the like.
§ VII.
Phlegon presents a certain PISUS, son of PERIERES, as the first founder of the athletic games (Phlegon Trallianus apud Aegidius Strauchius § 4). However, it seems to us that he must have lived after ENDYMION; for it seems to us that he is the one of whom it is said that he is descended from the family of NESTOR. But then he must have been a descendant of the first generation of NESTOR, because otherwise he would have to be placed later, as NESTOR was also present in the Trojan War. He was then three centuries, that is three hundred years old, unless one would rather count each century at a little over thirty years, as many wish, in which case he would have been only between ninety and a hundred years old. Meanwhile, it is no wonder that PISUS, a member of the house of NESTOR, ruled over ELIS, for NESTOR's landscape PYLUS bordered on it. And he could have brought it about through the wisdom and eloquence attributed to him that the Eleans elected him as prince or king on a certain occasion. Therefore, this ruler who came from outside had the Olympic game splendidly celebrated, either at the coronation or afterwards. Strabo attributes to him, so it seems, the building and naming of the city of PISA. The latter is most plausible to us. But concerning the games, nothing else is reported of him but this from Pausanias, which means: "The one who drives the two-horse chariots is Pisus, son of Perieres, and Asterion, son of Cometes."
§ VIII.
However, after ENDYMION, Syncellus (Syncellus, at the cited place), who makes no mention of PISUS, places ALEXIUS, whom Pausanias (Pausanias, Book 5, from the beginning) calls ALXIO, and says that some consider him a brave warrior, and he himself, namely Pausanias, places him as the father of OENOMAUS. Since he was a renowned hero, it is not strange to think that he renewed the proud athletic games and had them celebrated with great splendor; indeed, so much so that he could have obtained the name of founder from descendants because of it.
§ IX.
After that, SYNCELLUS places OENOMAUS (Syncellus, at the cited place; Marsham, Canon Chronicus, p. 458), son (as we have said from Pausanias) of ALEXIUS or ALXIO. OENOMAUS was king of ELIS and PISA, and brought great fame to the Olympic games, because he offered his daughter HIPPODAME, or HIPPODAMIA, with the royal crown as a prize in them. However, this was on the condition that the one who fell short against him (for he himself would be the opponent) in the chariot race would lose his life without mercy. OENOMAUS now took this path with his daughter, because, it is said, it was foretold to him that his son-in-law would rob him of his crown and life. For that reason he thought in this way, either to scare away the suitors of his daughter by the harsh condition, or to do away with those who were not scared away, and thus to remain without a son-in-law. For he trusted in the speed of the horses he had harnessed for the team, which are said to have been begotten by the wind; which fable, however, means nothing other than that they were extraordinarily fast and flew like the wind. PELOPS, however, defeated him, although it is said by a trick, by bribing the charioteer (Natalis Comes, Book 7, Ch. 17)
Myrtilus, so that he would mount weak and fragile axles, or none, or put wax pins for the wheels. Because of this, the king crashed during the race; PELOPS won and fled with the bride to Phrygia. Propertius shows this when he says (Propertius, Book 1, Elegy 2) that "Hippodamia, carried away on strange wheels, did not attract her Phrygian husband with false beauty." Without a doubt, because the defeated king, who did not want a son-in-law, not only refused him the promised prize, but also pursued him.
§ X.
The Idaean HERCULES is also celebrated as a founder of the games, that is, a king's son from IDA. IDA was a mountain range in Phrygia, but also one on the island of CRETE. The commentators want him (Pausanias, Book 5) to have come from the Cretan IDA (Alexander ab Alexandro, Geniales Dies, Book 5, Ch. 8). This one is placed very high by the knight Marsham in his second chronicle list (Marsham, Canon Chronicus, Table 2), for he places him at the time of the division of Canaan among the Israelites and the eighty-fifth year of KALEB's life, or at the time of the forty-seventh year after the exodus from Egypt. However, it seems to us that in all the aforementioned two errors can be seen. First, that one understands the wrong Ida and calls it the Cretan, instead of the Phrygian in TROAS. The second error is that this HERCULES
is praised too highly and placed in the time in which not the Idaean but the Tyrian HERCULES must have lived. We do indeed think that behind the person and mask of this HERCULES lurks PELOPS. For he was the son of the Phrygian king TANTALUS, who, if not ruled, then at least oppressed and restricted TROAS, in which IDA lay, as is shown by the fact that he kidnapped and carried off GANYMEDES (Orosius, Book 1, Ch. 12), the son of king TROS. Kings were formerly called JOVESSES (Herodotus in Euterpe), and their brave sons HERCULESSES (Arrianus). Hence one reads about so many HERCULESSES (Cicero, de Natura Deorum, Book 3, Ch. 16) (Vossius, de Idolatria, Book 1, Ch. 14), for some count two, some three, some six, some more. However, TANTALUS in particular was honored as the Phrygian JUPITER. Therefore his son PELOPS could bear the name HERCULES with a special right. He and his companions are called the Idaean Dactyls, whereby the ignorance and love of fables confuse him and his with the priests of the Cretan IDA, who were called Curetes. About the number of our Idaeans there is also a difference of opinion. The Arundel Marble (Marmor Arundelianum) lists one, named KELMIS. Clemens Alexandrinus (Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromateis, Book 1) two, KELMIS and DAMNAMENEUS. The scholiast of Apollonius (Scholiast on Apollonius, Argonautica, Book 1, vs. 1129) three, KELMIS, DAMNAMENEUS and AKMON. Strabo (Strabo, Book 10), from the fabrications of others, four: SALAMINUS (this is held to be KELMIS), DAMNANEUS (for DAMNAMENEUS), HERACLEUS (that is HERCULES) and AKMON. Pausanias (Pausanias, Book 5) counts five: HERCULES, PEONIUS, EPIMEDES, JAZIUS and IDA. Others (Marsham, Canon Chronicus, p. 256) count ten, as many as one has fingers on two hands, and babble that they would therefore have been named Dactyls (which also means fingers). Others count a hundred. It is to be thought that HERCULES, that is PELOPS, had some brave men with him, when he came to seek his adventure
in Greece. But let's continue our goal.
PELOPS then, returning later with his bride, and now wife, seized ELIS, killed the traitor MYRTILUS and threw him into the sea (from which, it is said, the Myrtoan Sea has received its name) and furthermore became so powerful through various ways that the entire peninsula, formerly called APIA and PELASGIA, received the name PELOPONNESE, that is Pelops' Island, from him. This one, now having become so great and having won so much in the foot race, renewed, augmented, and greatly glorified the athletic games, and dedicated them to JUPITER. In our opinion not that JUPITER, to whom they were dedicated from ancient times, but his father TANTALUS, the Phrygian JUPITER. For this deed, he was held by many to be the first founder of the games. Therefore, it is no wonder that Pausanias said of him (Pausanias, Book 5) that "Pelops is honored in Olympia by the Eleans so much more than the other heroes, as Jupiter is above the other gods." Pausanias relates something else wonderful, yet also fabulous, about this PELOPS at the mentioned place, namely: it was foretold to the Greeks that they would not be able to conquer TROY unless they had the bones of PELOPS and the arrows of HERCULES. Thereupon the bones of PELOPS were brought there. However, when the Greeks returned after the destruction of Troy, the ship that carried these bones perished. Some years later, an Eretrian, the fisherman DEMARMENUS, took it out of the depths with his dragnet, and, marveling at its size, hid it in a secret place and goes
to consult the Delphic oracle about it, to know which person it could be from, and for what purpose he could usefully preserve it. Just then, the Eleans also came to ask Apollo what to do against the devastating plague. They were now answered: they had to look for the bones of PELOPS. But DEMARMENUS received the answer that he had to return what he found to the Eleans. When this was done, the plague stopped. DEMARMENUS was greatly honored by the Eleans, and the keeping of PELOPS' bones was commended to him and his family.
§ XI.
Velleius reminds us of ATREUS, the son of PELOPS, when he says (Velleius Paterculus, Book 1) that the most famous contest of all, and the most effective to strengthen the strength of body and mind, had the beginning of the Olympic Games, the Elean Iphitus as its founder. This one instituted the games and the market, 823 years before you, Marcus Vinicius, became consul. It is said that Atreus instituted this sanctuary in the same place, some 1250 years ago, when he held funeral games for his father Pelops. The Olympic games are also considered by others (Stellingfleet, Origines Sacrae, Book 1, Ch. 6, § 3; Statius, Thebais, Book 6; Clemens Alexandrinus; Protrepticus ad Graecos) as funeral games in honor of PELOPS (however not celebrated by ATREUS, but by HERCULES) (C. Pascalius, de Coronis, Book 6, Ch. 3). When Vellejus adds that Hercules won in all game types in that contest, he is mistaken, so it seems,
in the time. For ALCIDES seems not to have been there yet or was still too young, as he was PELOPS' great-grandson. Unless we say that Vellejus, or the source from which he learned it, had an eye on a mediocre hero, who had won all the prizes at the game celebration of ATREUS and was therefore to be honored with the title of HERCULES. However, the funeral games of ATREUS seem to have brought the funeral games in honor of the deceased very much into use. Therefore Homer also has them celebrated afterwards in honor of PATROCLUS, and thus they came into further use.
§ XII.
But also king ELEUS is held by some to be the founder of the games. And we are of the opinion that he also had them celebrated, with the addition of new splendor and greater fame, the long-instituted games. Pausanias (Pausanias, Book 5) describes him as the son of ENDYMION from EURYCYDA. However, since she was the daughter of ENDYMION, the word "son" here means as much as grandson, indeed perhaps even great-grandson. But this one could by no means reach the age of AUGEAS and the Theban HERCULES, which he should have done, would he be the father of AUGEAS. Therefore, we think that Pausanias ignorantly mixes ELEUS, grandson or great-grandson of ENDYMION, with ELEUS, father of AUGEAS, whereby one ELEUS is I and the other ELEUS II. And it may be that they both, each in his time, renewed the games. Pausanias also says that some called ELEUS the son of NEPTUNE (that is, a bastard, or the son of a sea prince), and that the countrymen, formerly called Epeans, named themselves Eleans after him. But also in this he confuses the persons, and we do not know which of the two he means, although we prefer to apply those stories to ELEUS
I, although he too would not have given his name to the countrymen (Bochartus, Phaleg, Book 3, Ch. 4), for ELISA, son of JAPHETH, had already done that for him.
§ XIII.
After these, AUGEAS is placed, of whom it is said that he is the son of ELEUS II. However, to lift him, the Eleans and their affairs higher, some have said that he was the son of HELIUS, that is, of the Sun (Pausanias, cited place). It is said that he had a stable of 3000 cattle, which had not been cleaned for thirty years. EURYSTHEUS commanded HERCULES to clean it in one day, and sent him to AUGEAS for that purpose. He promised HERCULES the tenth part of the cattle (Natalis Comes, Book 7, Ch. 1) if he would do it, for he considered it impossible. Thereupon HERCULES had the river ALPHEUS flow into the stable and at the same time wash away all the manure. Thereupon AUGEAS refused him the stipulated wage. Therefore HERCULES killed him either immediately with his arrows, or he attacked him later together with PHYLEUS, the son of AUGEAS (who had fled to DULICHIUM from the wrath of his father, because he, when he had to give a ruling on the dispute between his father and HERCULES about the said wage, had declared in favor of the latter), killed him, and put said PHYLEUS on his father's throne.
§ XIV.
Then follows HERCULES, not the Idaean, whom we think is PELOPS himself, but a later one, whose real name was perhaps ALCIDES, son of AMPHITRUO and ALCMENE, born in Tiryns, hence called the Tirynthian Hero. He was, however, brought by his father to Thebes in Boeotia, hence the Theban Hercules. He is considered the great-grandson of PELOPS; for it is said that his mother ALCMENE was born from EURYMEDA or (Diodorus Siculus, Book 4)
EURYDICE, the daughter of PELOPS, although Apollodorus states ALCMENE as the daughter of ANAXO, daughter of ALCEUS. Marsham places his age opposite that of Israel's judge SAMGAR (Marsham, Canon Chronicus, Table 2). Dionysius Petavius places EURYSTHEUS, and thus also ALCIDES, opposite GIDEON (Petavius, Rationarium Temporum, Book 1, Ch. 10). The foreign writers place the end of his life a little before the last downfall of Troy. Having reached his manly years, he performed great and many deeds. However, the deeds of previous heroes and Herculesses were also attributed to him, just as his in turn were attributed by later fantasists to the former. Among his deeds are placed these: that he freed Thebes from the violence of the Minyan king ARGINUS, and destroyed his capital ORCHOMENUM; for which service king CREON gave him his daughter MEGARA as wife. He was also among those daredevils who embarked on the ship ARGO, from which they were called ARGONAUTS, and undertook to get the famous golden fleece from KOLCHOS. On the outward journey he freed HESIONE, the daughter of the Trojan king LAOMEDON, from the sea monster, and thereby earned the freed daughter and swift horses. He left them there, however, to take them with him on the return journey, but then they were refused to him. Therefore he took ILIUM, killed LAOMEDON, and put his son PRIAMUS on the throne. EURYSTHEUS also demanded among others of him that he would clean the cattle stable of AUGEAS of all its manure in one day, which he is said to have done, after which he killed AUGEAS and put PHYLEUS on his father's throne, as we showed above. After such deeds he is then said to have instituted, that is, renewed and enlarged, the athletic games in honor of PELOPS, his great-grandfather. However, the
writers differ on what occasion those games took place. Some want him, namely, to have approved of instituting such games from the spoils of AUGEAS (Natalis Comes, cited place). Others that he did it to celebrate the funeral memory of his great-grandfather PELOPS; which, however, was first done by ATREUS, see above. Still others want him to have introduced them on the occasion of his return with the Argonauts, and on the advice of the leaders of these heroes. Diodorus Siculus (Diodorus Siculus, Book 4) speaks about it in the following words: "When the Argonauts prepared to return each to his fatherland, Hercules is said to have given the following advice: that they should bind themselves with an oath to help each other when (because things in the world often change unexpectedly) one needed the help of the other. That they should also choose the most famous place in Greece for the celebration of solemn games and for a gathering of all Greeks, and dedicate it to the greatest of the gods, the Olympian Jupiter. When the leaders had agreed to this aid pact and entrusted the organization of the games to Hercules, he designated for all others the fields of the Eleans near the Alpheus for the great gatherings and solemnities. He sanctified the whole region to the great Jupiter and named it Olympia after him. After he had instituted the horse races and the athletic games and named the prizes, he sent out envoys to invite the regions to come and watch the games." Plutarch (Plutarch in the life of Theseus) adds that in imitation of these Olympic games, shortly thereafter THESEUS, a contemporary of HERCULES, introduced the Isthmian Games in his honor.
§ XV.
After the Theban HERCULES, OXYLUS, according to the saying of Pausanias, celebrated the games (Pausanias, Book 5), and without
a doubt with such a solemnity, that he seemed to be the first founder and great glorifier of them. The more so because they had now fallen into disuse for a while; for the Pisans, under whose rule they had been brought by the Pelopids, after a while did not want to celebrate the games for the Eleans, and did not even consider them legitimate. OXYLUS then, with the armies of the Aetolians, Heraclids and Epeans, frees ELIS from the Pisan yoke, also transferred the right of the game back to ELIS, and made that nation again master over the others. For he took away a part of the area from the Pisans, which undoubtedly included OLYMPIA. Thus the crooked ELIS was happily restored to her high splendor, while PISA, harshly chastised, was deeply humbled. See Strabo (Strabo, Book 8). Thereupon he, namely OXYLUS, who had previously ridden only on a one-eyed mule (Pausanias, Book 8), was appointed king over ELIS by the Heraclids, for his service rendered, and ELAEUS, the previous king, was driven out (Marsham, Canon Chronicus, ad saeculum 13). It is then to be thought that at his inauguration he had the athletic games renewed and celebrated most splendidly, while the Eleans jubilantly cheered the new king, and had again obtained the games, as great glories and inestimable treasures, under their power. This would now have happened, according to the reckoning of Petavius (Petavius, Rationarium Temporum, Book 1, Ch. 12 & Book 2, Ch. 5), about eighty years after the destruction of Troy, which occurred about the time that JAIR wielded the judge's staff over Israel. However, according to the time rules of Marsham (Marsham, Canon 2), about the reign of ELI or SAMUEL. For he places the last return of the Heraclids opposite that. The time had then already progressed to some time after the destruction of Troy, and yet there was not yet a firm footing and unshakable rule for their histories among the Greeks.
§ XVI.
Not long after OXYLUS, the games were again neglected, and that even until the time of IPHITUS. IPHITUS thus restored them. This IPHITUS was not the son of NAUBULUS, one of the Argonauts, of whom Flaccus sings (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, Book 1, vs. 363): "Also the son of Naubulus, Iphitus, raises himself here and plunges into the swirling waves." Nicolaus Heinsius reads this verse as: "Hic & Naubolides tortas insurgit in undas." Although I know that some hold him to be that one, that is with the greatest carelessness with regard to the chronology. For how can that IPHITUS, who before the downfall of Troy traveled with JASON in the company of the Theban HERCULES to COLCHOS, be that IPHITUS who restored the games long after OXYLUS? He may have been present at the games of HERCULES and had a great command, for which reason some praised him in the beginning as a founder or co-founder thereof (from which, to tell the truth, in our guess the error arose). But he will have abstained from the restoration of the games, about which we are dealing in this paragraph, since he had long since died. That IPHITUS then, whom we hold to be the founder of the games after OXYLUS, was from the lineage of OXYLUS and via OXYLUS from HERCULES. Pausanias (Pausanias, Book 5) gives us this report of his immediate origin. The inscription in Olympia testifies that Iphitus was the son of Haemon. Many of the Greeks have called him not Haemon's, but the son
of Praxonides. The archives of the Eleans name his father with the same name, that is, also IPHITUS. C. Julius Solinus says that the Olympic contests, which Hercules had instituted in honor of his maternal great-grandfather, Pelops, had grown old, until IPHITUS the Elean (so the great Salmasius (Salmasius, Exercitationes Plinianae ad Solinum, p. 12) reads after Vinetus, instead of 'the son of Iphielus') renewed them in the year 408 after the destruction of Troy (Solinus, Polyhistor, Ch. 1). Others state it a little differently, more or less, for Dicaearchus counts 436, Vellejus 415, Eusebius 406, Aretes 414, Timaeus 417, Eratosthenes 407, Sosibius 395. It is no wonder that there is such a difference, for there was not yet a fixed and general era, and the intermediate period between the destruction of Troy and the games of IPHITUS is reckoned by most to the mythical time, or fable time, or at least one does not know it with complete certainty, as Censorinus says (Censorinus, de Die Natali, Ch. 21). Be that as it may, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Pausanias show that IPHITUS was a contemporary (Marsham, Canon Chronicus, p. 328) of LYCURGUS, the renowned lawgiver of LACEDEMON, his relative, since both were descendants of HERCULES (Plutarch in the life of Lycurgus), and descended from him in the tenth degree of the descending line. This is clearly shown by Salmasius in the person of said LYCURGUS in this way: Hercules begot Hyllus, Hyllus Cleodeus, Cleodeus Aristomachus, Aristomachus Aristodemus, Aristodemus Procles (from which the Proclids), Procles Sofus, Sofus Europus, Europus Prytanis, Prytanis Lycurgus, although others call him the son of Eunomus. It is also tried to prove that IPHITUS and LYCURGUS were contemporaries (Plutarch, cited place), from the fact that the name of LYCURGUS was on the discus or disk used in the Olympic game. From this it is concluded that he too, together with IPHITUS, is to be considered the renewer of the athletic games, to which two some still add a third, namely CLE-
OSTHENES. Of LYCURGUS' co-foundership in the institution of the games, Plutarch from Hermippus tells this story: "Some say that Lycurgus was not present there from the beginning, nor did he serve as a companion in the matters that Iphitus instituted; but that he, however, traveled there for some reason and was merely a spectator. But that he heard a voice as of a human, who rebuked him from behind and marveled at him that he did not urge his citizens to participate in this solemnity with others. And that, when Lycurgus looked back and saw the one who had spoken nowhere, he thought it was God, and that he thereupon went to Iphitus and with joint effort made the solemnity more splendid and more lasting." The time of the first Olympic game of Iphitus is set according to the reckoning of said Solinus about the year 3938 of the Julian calendar, which, according to the reckoning of Scaliger (Scaliger, de Emendatione Temporum, Book 5, p. 382), was 722 years after the exodus of Israel, 240 years after the building of Solomon's temple, and in the 36th year of Uzziah's reign. However, IPHITUS and LYCURGUS seem to have lived and renewed the game earlier, namely about the year 3827 or 3830 of the Julian reckoning, around the reign of Israel's king Jehu. And so it is. From this it can be seen that Solinus in his reckoning does not have the beginning of the Iphitic game in mind, but the time from which one began to reckon, which was indeed 112 years later, namely when CORAEBUS the Elean won (Strauchius, § 10). This time, although so far from the Iphitic beginning, is however reckoned as the beginning. This is distinguished by Marsham very wisely, saying that the chronology (epocha) of Olympia is twofold, a true and a common one, and so on (Marsham, Canon Chronicus, p. 449). The true beginning of the Olympic games is that which Iphitus, Lycurgus, and Cleosthenes established, being the
year 699 of the Attic reckoning, and 3830 of the Julian. However, the first Olympiad, which was adopted for the general use of the chronologists, is the twenty-eighth Iphitic, that in which Coraebus the Elean won in the foot race; the year 807 of the Attic reckoning, 3938 of the Julian. Of this Phlegon also gives a clear report, saying (Phlegon Trallianus): "After Pisus, Pelops, and Hercules, who as the first had instituted the great Olympic gathering and the contest, after the Peloponnesians had neglected that feast for a while (namely during the time which from Iphitus to Coraebus the Elean amounts to twenty-eight Olympiads) and had neglected the contest, a commotion arose in the Peloponnese, etc." Here he testifies that from the first institution by IPHITUS up to the victory of CORAEBUS there is an intermediate time of 28 Olympiads (Eusebius, Chronicorum, p. 216) (each reckoned at four years, for an OLYMPIAD consisted of four years) and thus of 112 years, as we just said. Callimachus, however, wants that from the institution of IPHITUS to CORAEBUS there would only be an intermediate time of 13 Olympiads, and consequently a series of only 52 years. But he seems to be mistaken. The aforementioned IPHITUS is said to have renewed the game on the advice and command of the Delphic Oracle. The matter is said to have happened as follows according to the story of Pausanias (Pausanias, Book 5). When the games had been neglected for a long time (namely after the death of OXYLUS), Greece was almost destroyed by discord and pestilence. They then send to Delphi to ask Apollo's advice on what to do in such an urgent need. The answer is given that it would be useful if the Olympic games would be restored by IPHITUS and the Eleans. Thereupon IPHITUS then instituted the games, had the great market held, and, because of the games, had a truce
proclaimed throughout Greece. IPHITUS also advised that they should offer sacrifices to HERCULES, whom the Eleans previously considered their enemy. After this, at the sixth game time, IPHITUS is said to have asked APOLLO whether the victors should be crowned (Phlegon Trallianus in Fragmentis)? And, having obtained an answer, at the seventh game time crowned DAICLES with wild olive; whereas previously, as will be said in its place, it was arranged differently. The games now, which IPHITUS restored on the mentioned occasion, seem to have consisted only of running games, which were also the oldest and most common from the very first origin. Hence Aristodemus says at Syncellus (Syncellus, page 196) that the contest was only a foot race, etc. (P. Faber, Agonisticon, Book 2, Ch. 23). IPHITUS seems to have made the foot races quadrennial, that is, recurring after every fourth year; although we do not think that this took place before the time of IPHITUS. That they, at least after the time of IPHITUS, were quadrennial, seems to be evident from the intermediate period between IPHITUS and CORAEBUS. For, as said, that was of 28 Olympic games. These must furthermore have been quadrennial, because they must have yielded about 112 years, which they could not have done otherwise. However, one could object to this that one wanted to reckon those 112 years to exactly 28 Olympic games by imagination, although in that same period the mentioned games were by no means quadrennial.