Competitors and their friends would offer sacrifices and vows at the altars of the gods or heroes whom they regarded as their patrons, or who were specially connected with the events in which they were competing.[320] The superstitious would consult the oracles and soothsayers as to their chances of success.[321] The crowd of sight-seers would wander through the Altis admiring the statuary of the treasuries or Libon’s new-built temple, perhaps listening to some rhapsodist reciting Homer, or to Herodotus as he read the story of the Persian wars, or else visiting the workshop to the west of the Altis where Pheidias was busy on his ivory and gold statue of Zeus. There were friends, too, to be seen and greeted—friends from distant parts of the Mediterranean, who after years spent in the colonies had returned to meet their kinsfolk and acquaintances at Olympia. The following days were occupied with the sports, on the details of which we need not dwell. These took place in the stadium, or the hippodrome, some of them probably in the open space east of the altar of Zeus. They began early in the morning and lasted all day. Before daybreak every point of vantage was occupied. There were no seats: spectators sat or stood on the banks of the stadium, or hippodrome, on the slopes of the hill of Cronus, on the rows of steps beneath the treasuries, on every point which commanded a view of the games or ceremonies. They were bareheaded, and suffered severely from the sun, and dust, and thirst. Yet nothing could damp their enthusiasm. As they watched the sports they shouted and cheered on their friends and favourites; in their excitement they sprang from their seats, waving their arms, or their clothes, embracing their neighbours in their joy.[322]