which corps of cavalry proper were organized in Athens and other states.
But in 500 B.C. there were no cavalry in the Peloponnese, and the
conservative nobles may well have regarded with jealousy a change which
threatened to put them on a level with the ordinary foot-soldier. The
introduction of the κάλπη then was an attempt to stimulate and encourage
the older style of fighting. But the attempt was doomed to failure; the
progress of military tactics was not to be checked by the Eleans, and
while the hoplite race survived as long as the festival itself, the
κάλπη was ignominiously abandoned in 444 B.C.
Besides the four great festivals of the Crown there were countless local
festivals where competitions of various sorts were held.[79] The prizes
offered were often tripods, and bowls of silver or of bronze; sometimes
articles of local manufacture, such as a cloak at Pellene, a shield at
Argos, vases of olive-oil at Athens; sometimes a portion of the victim
sacrificed, or the victim to be sacrificed. The British Museum possesses
a bronze caldron[80] of about the sixth century, which was found at Cyme
in Italy, and was given as a prize at some local games founded by, or
held in honour of, a certain Onomastus. It bears the inscription, “I was
a prize at the games of Onomastus.” Many of these festivals were
connected with the cults of local heroes, and had existed for
generations. Sometimes the competitions themselves bore a distinctly
ritual character; thus the torch-race, which we meet with in many parts
of Greece, was connected with the primitive custom of periodically
distributing new and holy fire from the sacred hearth where it had been
kindled. Sometimes the competitions were musical, as at the Spartan
Carnea; more frequently they were purely athletic. The athletic
competitions acquired fresh life from the stimulus given to athletics by
the growth of the Panhellenic festivals. At first purely local, even
these minor gatherings in Pindar’s time drew competitors from various
parts of Greece. Many fresh festivals were added, and old ones
reorganized during the sixth century, especially in the eastern parts of
Greece, but of most of these we know little besides the names. The
greatest of all was the Panathenaic Festival.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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