Greece: Painted by John Fulleylove; described by J.A. McClymont — John Shaqi
Greece: Painted by John Fulleylove; described by J.A. McClymontM'Clymont, J. A. (James Alexander)
History
Greece: Painted by John Fulleylove; described by J.A. McClymont
M'Clymont, J. A. (James Alexander)
Athens (Greece); Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel
There is a vaulted entrance to the stadium about a hundred feet high
(one of the oldest examples of such work in cut stone, 350-300 B.C.),
through which none could pass but the judges and heralds, and the
competitors, who must have gone through ten months’ training, and were
lodged during the games at the public expense. Close to this entrance
are still to be seen a large number of pedestals, on which stood at one
time certain brazen images, well fitted to warn competitors against any
infringement of the rules. They were called Zanēs in honour of Zeus, and
they had all been placed there at the expense of persons who had been
convicted of some violation of the rules. Giving or receiving bribes was
the most common offence at Olympia, as it was indeed with the Greeks
generally, even in the more serious game of politics. But there were
others of a different nature. For example, Pausanias tells of a man of
Alexandria who had come too late for the boxing match, and, finding that
another had been adjudged the prize without a contest and was already
wearing the olive wreath, put on the gloves as though for a fight and
rushed at the victor, for which he was sentenced to pay a fine. In
contrast to the penal erection of a statue to Zeus, the winner of a
prize was allowed to put up a statue in commemoration of his victory,
and the third time he thus distinguished himself he was at liberty to
erect an image of himself. In this way Olympia became in course of time
a great school of art as well as a gymnastic arena. In Homer there is no
mention of statues of the gods, not even of wood, and the development of
art in this line during the seventh and sixth centuries was very
remarkable.
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