When we turn to the records of art we still find strength the predominant characteristic of the period. We see this in those early nude statues, so widely distributed throughout Greece and the islands, which are generally classed under the name of Apollo. In all we see the same attempt to render the muscles of the body, whether we regard the tall spare type of the Apollo of Tenea, or the shorter heavier type of the Argive statues. It is in the muscles of the trunk rather than of the limbs that real strength lies, and it is the careful marking of these muscles that distinguishes early Greek sculpture from all other early art, and the sculpture of the Peloponnese in particular from the softer school of Ionia. Perhaps the most characteristic figure of the sixth century is that of the bearded Heracles, not the clumsy giant of later days, but the personification of endurance and trained strength, a man, as Pindar says, short of stature, but of unbending soul. So we see him on many a black-figured vase of the sixth century, and the type survives in the pediments of Aegina or the Metopes of Olympia in the next century. Matched against giants and monsters he represents the triumph of training and endurance over mere brute force. If we compare the figures of athletes on these vases with those on the red-figured vases of the next century, we find the same result; the ideal of the fifth century is the grace of athletic youth, that of the sixth is the strength of fully developed manhood; the hero of the former is Theseus, of the latter Heracles. Finally, if we would realise the true greatness of sixth-century athletics, let us remember that it was this century which rendered possible and inspired the athletic ideal of Pindar in the next. “For if a man rejoice to suffer cost and toil, and achieve god-builded excellence, and therewithal fate plant for him fair renown, already at the farthest bonds of bliss hath such an one cast anchor.” Footnote 72: The legends connected with these festivals are collected in Krause, _Pythien_, and the various articles on them in Dar.-Sagl. Footnote 73: The victory of Chromius of Aetna, celebrated by Pindar, _Nem._ ix., was won not at Nemea but at the Sicyonian Pythia. Footnote 74: The existence of such rivalry is suggested by the quarrel recorded by Pausanias v. 2, 3, with regard to the colossal statue set up by Cypselus at Olympia, and in the account given by Herodotus ix. 81 of the distribution of the Persian spoils. A statue of Zeus 10 cubits high is set up at Olympia, while that of Poseidon at the Isthmus is only 7 cubits high. So Pindar, _Ol._ xiii. 25, prays that Zeus may not be jealous if he sings the praise of Corinth. Footnote 75: Adapted from Jebb’s _Bacchylides_. Footnote 76: Hdt. ii. 160. Footnote 77: Louis Dyer, “The Olympic Council” in _Harvard Studies_, 1907, p. 36; Paus. vi. 3, 7; _Ol. Ins._ 372-486 _passim_. Footnote 78: W. Helbig, _Les Hippeis athéniens_.