Before we enumerate and explain the several exercises it may be proper to introduce a description of the gymnasia themselves. Of these establishments there were many at Athens;[636] though three only, those of the Academy, Lyceum, and Cynosarges have acquired celebrity. The site of the first of these gymnasia being low and marshy was in ancient times infested with malaria, but having been drained by Cimon and planted with trees it became a favourite promenade and place of exercise.[637] Here, in walks shaded by the sacred olive, might be seen young men,[638] with crowns of rushes in flower upon their heads, enjoying the sweet odour of the smilax and the white poplar, while the platanos and the elm mingled their murmurs in the breeze of spring. The meadows of the Academy, according to Aristophanes the grammarian, were planted with the Apragmosune,[639] a sort of flower so called as though it smelt of all kind of fragrance and safety like our Heart’s-ease or flower of the Trinity. This place is supposed to have derived its name from Ecadamos, a public-spirited man who bequeathed his property for the purpose of keeping it in order. Around it were groves of the moriæ sacred to Athena, whence the olive crowns used in the Panathenaia were taken. The reason why the olive trees as well as those in the Acropolis were denominated moriæ must be sought for among the legends of the mythology, where it is related that Halirrothios son of Poseidon formed the design of felling them because the patronship of the city had been adjudged to Athena, for the discovery of this tree. Raising his axe, however, and aiming a blow at the trunk the implement glanced, and he thus inflicted upon himself a wound whereof he died.[640] Footnote 636: There was a gymnasium sacred to Hermes, near the Peiraic gate.—Leake, Topog. of Attica, p. 124. Footnote 637: Cf. Xenoph. de Off. Mag. Equit. iii. 14. Footnote 638: Aristoph. Nub. 1001. Footnote 639: Sch. ad Aristoph. Nub. 1003. Footnote 640: Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 992. The name of the Lyceum[641] sometimes derived from Lycus, son of Pandion[642] probably owed its origin to the temenos of Lycian Apollo there situated. It lay near the banks of the Ilissos, and was adorned with stately edifices, fountains and groves. Here stood a celebrated statue of Apollo, in a graceful attitude, as if reposing after toil, with his bow in the left hand, and the right bent negligently over his head. The walls, too, were decorated with paintings. In this place anciently the Polemarch held his court[643] and the forces of the republic were exercised before they went forth to war.[644] Footnote 641: Pausan. i. 19. 3. Harpocrat. v. Λύκειον, p. 190. Footnote 642: Here Aristotle taught (Cic. Acad. Quæst. i. 4.) as he had previously done at Stagira, where the stone seats and covered walls of his school remained in the age of Plutarch.—Alexand. § 7. Footnote 643: Suid. v. Ἄρχων. i. p. 452. c. Footnote 644: