Every four years the young Greeks from all parts of the country met at
Olympia and contended for prizes in athletic games. There was running,
jumping, wrestling, boxing, the throwing of javelins and quoits (the
"discus"), and races of horses and chariots. For one month, during this
great festival, wars were suspended throughout Greece.

The only reward of the victor was a crown of wild-olive leaves; but this
was regarded as the dearest prize in life and the greatest honor a Greek
could attain.

The wearer of the olive crown was carried home like a king, with
processions and songs of triumph, and all his life afterward he was a
privileged and honored person. He had conferred everlasting distinction
upon his family and his country, and his statue was erected in the Sacred
Grove of Jupiter, in whose honor these festivals occurred.

Other festivals were established afterward in honor of Apollo, called the
Pythian and Isthmian games, in which there were contests, not alone in
gymnastics and in chariot races, but in music, poetry, and eloquence; and
these prizes were also sought as the richest rewards life could bring. The
Spartans took no part in them. But it was the Olympic games which brought
together all of Greece every four years, cemented the states with a common
sympathy, and kept alive the fraternal spirit.

This national festival was to them what the Christian era is to us. The
interval of four years between the games was called an Olympiad. And time
in Greece was measured from the First Olympiad, which occurred, according
to our reckoning, B.C. 776-772.

With such a stimulus for effort, every young Greek was straining every