What is “the sacrifice to the god”? and when did it take place? On the answer to these questions depends the interpretation of the passage of Pausanias, and the reconstruction of the order of the festival. There can be little doubt that the sacrifice was the official offering of a hecatomb to Olympian Zeus by the Eleans.[294] It is generally assumed that this took place on the 16th, the last day of the festival, and it is certainly natural to connect it with the official banquet in the Prytaneum which took place on the evening of that day. This arrangement naturally appeals to a modern sentiment which demands a climax. But the Greeks had not this sentiment, and there is a mass of evidence to prove that the usual order of a Greek festival was—sacrifice, sports, feast.[295] That this was the ancient order at Olympia is clear from two odes in which Pindar describes the inauguration of the games by Heracles. In the eleventh _Olympian_ we read how Heracles, returning victorious from Cleonae, marked out the Altis, and paid honour to the river Alpheus and the great gods. Then, having first offered sacrifice of his spoil, he ordained the games, and in the evening the precinct resounded, as in Pindar’s time, “with songs of festal glee.” So, too, in the third ode, first he sanctifies the altars, then he ordains the games. The scholiast, commenting on this ode, explains carefully that the full moon came first, then followed the sacrifice, and “the rest of the competitions.” If the games followed the sacrifice, the sacrifice cannot have taken place on the 16th, but rather on the 14th, the morning after the full moon. In speaking of “the rest of the competitions” he is thinking, of course, of the order of the festival in his own time, and this phrase is a strong argument in favour of the views of Weniger. The meaning of Pausanias is now clear, and there is no need with modern editors to assume that the passage is hopelessly corrupt. Previous to Ol. 78 all the sports followed the sacrifice, mostly on the 15th; but I see no reason why some should not have taken place on the afternoon of the 14th, or even on the 16th. The preceding days were occupied with preliminary business and various religious ceremonies. In Ol. 78 the horse-races and the pentathlon were transferred to the 13th, the day before the sacrifice. Some of the preliminary business may at the same time have been shifted to the 11th day. If at a subsequent date separate days were allotted to the horse-races and pentathlon, or if, as Weniger suggests, the boys’ events were after the introduction of the boys’ pankration shifted to the 12th, the 10th day may also have been required for the preliminaries; but there is not sufficient evidence for either of these changes.