other things of a similar kind, and no peans were sung in praise of Apollo; and when the repasts were over, every body went home in the greatest quiet and order. The second day, however, was wholly spent in public amusements and rejoicings. Strangers visited Amycle in great numbers. Boys played the cithara, or sung a hymn in honour of Apollo, to the accompaniment of the flute. Others, dressed in splendid attire, performed a horse race in the theatre. After the horse race, were choruses of singers and dancers. Numerous choruses of young men, each under the guidance of a leader, or choropæis, sang the national songs of Sparta; whilst other choruses performed an ancient dance, in which they accompanied the flute and the song with simple and appropriate movements and gestures. The great event of the day, however, and one which cost many a Spartan youth his heart, was the grand procession of maidens. All the maidens of Sparta and Amycle were arrayed in the most splendid costumes, and rode in chariots made of wicker work, and magnificently adorned; thus performing a most beautiful procession through the city of Sparta, and along the road to Amycle. Numerous sacrifices were also offered on this day, and the citizens kept open house for their friends and relations, whilst even the Helots were permitted to enjoy themselves. favourite meal on this day was called the Copis, and consisted of a supper of barley cakes, loaves, meat, rare herbs or vegetables, broth, figs, sweetmeats, and mulled wine. This Hyacinthian festival was considered of so much importance that both the Spartans and Amycleans, on more than one occasion, broke up a campaign and returned home in order to be present at its celebration.

The

The GYMNOPÆDIA, or festival of " naked youths," was also celebrated in July, and by somewhat similar choruses of dancers and singers. The Spartans were, indeed,

more partial to music and dancing than any other Greek nation; and all the sons and daughters of the citizens were trained in both accomplishments, which enabled the youth to perform every military movement with the utmost order and regularity, and gave to the Spartan maiden a physical grace and energy which the females of no other city could exhibit. In Sparta, a part of the Agora, or market-place, was especially set apart for these purposes, under the name of "The Chorus ;" and in this city alone were those ancient dances executed in which the young men and women danced together in rows, holding one another by the hand, like the Cretans. But to return to the Gymnopædia. In "The Chorus" stood the statues of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto; and during the festival, which lasted several days, the youths performed their choral dances round these statues, and sang songs and pæans. Some of the dances consisted of imitations of gymnastic exercises, and indeed might be called gymnastic exercises, led off and accompanied by music, and with which the wild gestures belonging to the worship of the vine-loving Dionysus were frequently intermingled. Other dances seem to have been mimic representations analogous to our ballet; whilst others included singing, and were performed by youths and maidens dancing together. The actors in these graceful performances were very lightly clad, on account of the exercise and the heat of the summer season: hence arose the name of Gymnopædia. The festival is described as always filling the city with merriment and rejoicings. Old bachelors were rigidly excluded from the festivities, as it was considered to be only equitable, that those who selfishly refused to take upon themselves the cares and responsibilities of marriage should not be permitted to take any delight in the families of others. The Gymnopædia is generally supposed to have been first established in the year B. C. 665, or about two centuries

before Herodotus's visit; and it especially became of the utmost importance as an institution for gymnastic and orchestral performances, and for the cultivation of the poetic and musical arts at Sparta.

The CARNEIA was a great national warlike festival, celebrated during nine days in the month corresponding to our August, in honour of the mighty far-shooting Apollo, the especial deity of the Dorian race. It is impossible to describe all the characteristics of the festival. Sacrifices were offered and musical contests were held; and during the nine days of its celebration, nine tents were pitched near the city of Sparta, in which nine men lived, in the manner of a military camp, obeying in every thing the commands of a herald. During its celebration the Spartans were never allowed to take the field, though indeed this restriction seems to have been common to all the great Hellenic festivals.

Such then was Sparta, her city, her people, and her institutions. Here we have probably lingered too long; and our readers are perhaps as weary as was Herodotus of this great city of intrepid warriors, handsome maidens, and degraded homebred slaves. We would also that we could hope that their hearts were panting with the same interest and excitement for the opening of the next chapter, as did that of Herodotus when the day arrived for his taking farewell of Myron, and the old gentleman who had so kindly befriended him, and he fairly set out for beautiful Olympia, there to celebrate the mighty festival which may be almost said to have alone united the whole Greek world.

CHAP. XIII.

OLYMPIA, B. C. 460.

GRAND FESTIVAL OF THE EIGHTIETH OLYMPIAD. - APPEARANCE OF THE VALLEY OF OLYMPIA. CHARACTER OF GREEK GYMNASTICS. ART WORSHIP. RACES OF HELLAS AND THEIR TIES OF UNION. -HISTORY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES. THEIR PEACEFUL AND JOYOUS CHARACTER. WITTICISMS ON THE ROAD. HERODOTUS'S FIRST EVENING AT OLYMPIA.

- MOONLIGHT VIEW OF THE VALLEY. -GENERAL REVELRY. — · FIRST DAY OF THE FESTIVAL. - SACRIFICES TO ZEUS, AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE GAMES. SECOND DAY. - CONTESTS OF YOUTHS. - THIRD DAY. — FOOT RACES, WRESTLING, BOXING, PANCRATIUM, AND PENTATHLUM IN THE STADIUM. - GRACEFUL MOVEMENTS OF THE GREEK ATHLETE.— FOURTH DAY. HORSE AND CHARIOT RACES IN THE HIPPODROME. -GREAT FOUR-HORSE CHARIOT RACE. FIFTH DAY. CROWNING OF THE VICTORS. CONCLUDING FESTIVITIES.

FIERCE CONTESTS.

BEFORE describing the great festival of Olympia, we invite our readers to accompany us upon an imaginary visit to the ancient site.

Nature herself has fallen to ruins in the famous valley. We stand upon the slope of Mount Cronium, and gaze upon the once smiling landscape. The heights which engirdle Olympia are bare and treeless. The valley itself is marshy and slimy. The river Alpheus, beyond it, has left its proper channel, and lazily seeks a new bed for itself, now in one direction, now in another. Nothing meets the eye but a few fragments of the wall and pillars of the great temple of Zeus, the natural hollow of the ancient stadium, a few small plots of cultivated ground, and the rank luxuriance of the thistle-like blossoms of the asphodel, the flower of death amongst the ancient Greeks.

Twenty-three centuries ago the hills were covered with

wood. The plain was a throng of temples, altars, treasure houses, and statues, shaded by olives, planes, palms, and silver poplars. The Alpheus flowed in a dreamy but abundant stream. Hush! See the enormous concourse silent and breathless. A wrestler has thrown his adversary; a pugilist has beaten his opponent; a runner is outstripping his competitors in the stadium; the fourhorse chariot is bounding to the goal in the hippodrome. Hurrah! a victory is won. A million plaudits rend the air. The victors are deafened by the praises of a thousand cities; the vanquished are reeling away wearied, sick, and broken-hearted.

Gymnastics were the life and soul of the Greek festivals; but we moderns have no sympathy with them. We connect them with prize fights, pedestrian matches, and sporting public houses. But in Greece the gymnasium was the school of art. Men came to gaze_on the manly beauty of the athlete, the harmony and grace of his movements, his exhibition of heroic strength, or the splendid development of his bodily frame. The people were all artists by nature, worshippers of beautiful forms. Beauty was their ideal of goodness, the great attribute of deity. Without it, moral worth and intellectual excellence were as nothing. This exquisite sensibility of beauty was soon, alas! carried to a criminal excess; and then the delicate art-worship vanished from the earth, and the public taste became meretricious and depraved. At last the coarse contests of the Roman gladiators took the place of the harmonious movements of the Greek athlete, and art for ever lost her ancient attributes. We indeed aspire after beauty of the soul and intellect, but we still sigh over yellow busts and shattered torsos, the sad ruins of a perfection which has passed away.

This love of beauty became the great bond of union between Greek and Greek. Alone it was almost sufficient