There is hardly a doubt that at the Olympic festival as well as at the others the foot-races were the initial competitions. Plato says that at his time when a contest took place the herald first called on the σταδιοδρόμος to do his part. The reason for beginning with the foot-race was probably an historical one; as has been said, it was originally the sole competition at the Olympic celebration. According to the old Eleian priest legends, the Idaian Herakles, one of the Cretan Kouretes, came to Elis in the reign of Kronos, in the golden age, and arranged a foot-race in which the victor was crowned with wild olive. The legends further state that the place thus honored by the priest of Olympian Zeus was afterward called Olympia, and that in time the celebration was repeated at intervals of four years. Of course the foregoing is a tale invented to explain the priority of the foot-race as well as the founding of the festival. Another legend recounts that at one of these subsequent celebrations Endymion, son of Æthlios, offered the kingdom of Klymenos, whom he had conquered, as a prize to that one of his sons who should be first in the foot-race. Such are some of the myths that helped to sanction and endear an inviolable Olympic custom. It is noteworthy in this connection that in the Odyssey the Phæacians had opened their games with the foot-race. The technique of foot-racing, the style of running most advantageous, and the training and qualities necessary for it, differ considerably with the distance covered. Accordingly very early in the history of the Olympic festival races of varying length were one by one introduced, and the variety doubtless tended to attract a larger number of competitors and to make the occasion more interesting. For thirteen Olympiads, however, the race called the δρόμος was the only feature. In this race the stadion was traversed but once. As the course of the stadion was about 200 yards, the δρόμος was what we call a sprint, and required that a runner exert himself to the utmost from start to finish. This simple race remained a favorite mode of competition among the Greeks until a late time--being practised by Alexander. The δίαυλος, or double course of the stadion, was introduced in the 14th Olympiad. This race required that the runner, after having traversed the 200 yards and reached the goal, should return to the point of starting. As he rounded the goal he described an arc, and on his way back took the opposite side of the track in order that he might not collide with other runners. Very soon after the introduction of the δίαυλος the ἵππιος δρόμος and then the δόλιχος were instituted. The ἵππιος δρόμος, which implies a horse-race, was in reality a foot-race, the contestant running the distance generally covered in a horse-race--namely, four times the length of the stadion, or 800 yards.