The people shouted, and forbade bestow
The wreath on him, who fell without a foe.
But rising, in the midst he stood, and cry'd,
Do not three falls the victory decide?
Fortune indeed hath giv'n me one, but who

Will undertake to throw me th' other two?

4. Upon the day of the chariot-race, the chariots, at a certain signal marched out of the lodges and entering the course according to the order before settled by lot, were there drawn up in a line; but whether abreast, or one behind another, is a question among the learned.

The following noble and animated description of a chariotrace in all its forms, from the pen of Sophocles, translated by Mr. West, will give the reader a lively idea of this part of the contest in the Grecian games:

A description of a Chariot race.
When on the second day, in order next,
Came on the contest of the rapid car,
As o'er the Phocian plain the orient sun
Shot his impurpled beams, the Pythic course
Orestes enter'd, circled with a troop

Of charioteers, his bold antagonists.

One from Achaia came, from Sparta one,
Two from the Libyan shores, well practised each
To rule the whirling car; with these, the fifth,
Orestes vaunting his Thessalian mares.
Ætolia sent a sixth, with youthful steeds

In native gold array'd. The next in rank
From fair Magnesia sprung; of Thrace the eighth
His snow-white coursers from Thesprotia drove:
From heav'n-built Athens the ninth hero came,
A huge Baotian the tenth chariot fill'd.
These, when the judges of the games by lot
Had fix'd their order, and arranged the cars,
All, at the trumpets' signal, all at once
Burst from the barrier, all together cheer'd
Their fiery steeds, and shook the floating reins.
Soon with the din of ratt'ling cars was fill'd
The sounding Hippodrome, and clouds of dust

only lost the victory by that fall; which ever way it was, occasion was taken from thence to make a law, that all the Athletes for the fature should contend naked. West's Pindar, vol. i. p. 72, 12mo.

Ascending, tainted the fresh breath of morn,
Now mix'd, and press'd together on they drove,
Nor spar'd the smarting lash, impatient each
To clear his chariot, and outstrip the throng
Of clashing axles, and, short-blowing steeds,
That panted on each other's necks, and threw
On each contiguous, yoke the milky foam.

But to the pillar as he nearer drew,
Orestes, reining in the near-most steed,
While in a larger scope, with loosen'd reins,
And lash'd up to their speed, the others flew,
Turn'd swift around the goal his grazing wheel.
As yet erect upon their whirling orbs
Roll'd every chariot, till the hard-mouth'd steeds,
That drew the Thracian car, unmaster'd broke
With violence away, and turning short,
(When o'er the Hippodrome, with winged speed
They had completed now the sev❜nth career)
Dash'd their wild foreheads 'gainst the Libyan car.
From this one luckless chance a train of ills
Succeeding, rudely on each other fell

Horses and charioteers, and soon was fill'd
With wrecks of shatter'd cars the Phocian plain.
This seen, th' Athenian, with consummate art
His course obliquely veer'd, and steering wide
With steady rein, the wild commotion pass'd
Of tumbling chariots, and tumultuons steeds.
Next, and, tho' last, yet full of confidence
And hopes of victory, Orestes came.
But when he saw, of his antagonists
Him only now remaining, to his mares,
Anxious he rais'd his stimulating voice.

And now with equal fronts abreast they drove.
Now with alternate momentary pride

Beyond each other push'd their stretching steeds.

Erect Orestes, and erect his car

Thro' all the number'd courses, now had stood;
But luckless in the last, as round the goal
The wheeling courser turn'd, the hither rein
Imprudent he relax'd, and on the stone
The shatter'd axle dashing, from the wheels
Fell headlong, hamper'd in the tangling reins.
The frighted mares flew divers o'er the course.
The throng'd assembly, when they saw the chief
Hurl'd from his chariot, with compassion mov'd,
His youth deplor'd, deplor'd him glorious late

P

For mighty deeds, now doom'd to mighty woes,
Now dragg'd along the dust, his feet in air:
'Till hasting to his aid, and scarce at length
The frantic mares restraining, from the reins
The charioteers releas'd him, and convey'd
With wounds and gore disfigur'd to his friends.
"The just Amphictyons on th' Athenian steeds
"The Delphic laurel solemnly conferr'd."

From this description of the chariot-race the reader will easily imagine what a noise, what a bustle and confusion, ten, twenty, and sometimes forty chariots must have made bursting at the sound of a trumpet, altogether from the barrier! and pressing all to the same point! what skill and courage in the charioteers! what obedience, what strength and swiftness in the horses! what ardour and emulation in both must have been requisite to maintain the advantages, which their own lots had given them, or to surmount those of their antagonists.

5. To excite the ardour and emulation of the competitors, by placing in their view the object of their ambition, the crowns, the rewards of victory, were laid upon a tripod, or table, which during the solemnity, was brought out, and placed in the middle of the stadium.

Λελλοπόδων μεν τινας ευφραί

νεσιν ιππων τιμαι και σεφανοι.

The crowns, whose blooming honours grace
The coursers in th' Olympic race,

PINDAR.

Tempestuous rushing to the goal,

With rapture fill the victor's soul.

DUNKIN.

There were also branches of palm exposed, which the victors were to receive along with the crowns, and which they carried in their hands as emblems, says Plutarch, of the insuppressible vigour of their body and minds. Near the goal was erected a tribunal, on which sat the presidents of the games, called Hellanodics, personages venerable for their years, and characters, who were the sovereign arbiters and judges of these arduous contentions, and impartial witnesses of the respective merit and pretensions of each combatant, and with the strictest justice conferred the crown.

ན

But though the conquerors, immediately on their gaining the victory, were entitled to the chaplet and the palm, yet Pet. Faber, (Agonis. lib. i. c. 30.) conjectures, from a passage of Chrysostom, that they who contended in the morning exercises, did not receive their crowns till noon; at which time it may also be inferred from the same passage, that the spectators, as well as the candidates, were dismissed in order to take some refreshment before the afternoon exercises came on; the conquerors in which were in like manner obliged to wait for their reward till the evening. To this custom the Apostle is supposed to allude. (Heb. xi. 40.) And indeed, as every part of these games was conducted with the utmost order and decency, it is not natural to suppose that the course of the exercises was interrupted, by giving the crown to every single conqueror as soon as he had obtained his victory, especially as that solemnity was attended with a great deal of ceremony..

The following is the manner, according to Mr. West, in which this ceremony was performed:

The conquerors being summoned by proclamation, marched in order to the tribunal of the Hellanodics, where a herald, taking the crowns of olive from the table, placed one upon the head of each of the conquerors; and giving into their hands branches of palm, led them in that equipage along the stadium, preceded by trumpets, proclaiming at the same time with a loud voice, their names, the names of their fathers, and their countries; and specifying the particular exercise in which each of them had gained the victory. The form made use of in that proclamation, seems to have been conceived in these or such like terms; viz. "Diagoras the son of Damagetus, of Rhodes, conqueror in the cæstus in the class of men;" and so of the rest, whether men or boys, mutatis mutandis.

That different degrees of merit were rewarded with different degrees of honour, and consequently with different crowns, is inferred from the words of St. Basil: "No president of the Games, says he, is so devoid of judgment, as to think a man, who, for want of an adversary, hath not contended, deserves

the same crown as one, who hath contended and over

come.'

99

Though the olive chaplet seems to have been the only reward which the Hellanodics conferred upon the conquerors, yet were there many others, no less glorious and no less pleasing recompences attending their victories, as well from the specta-tors in general, as from their own countrymen, friends, and relations in particular; some of which they received even before they were put in possession of the crown. Such were the acclamations and applauses of that numerous assembly; the warm congratulations of their friends, and, even the faint and extorted salutations of their maligners and opponents.

As they passed along the stadium, after they had received the crown, they were again saluted with the acclamations of 'the spectators, accompanied with a shower of herbs and flowers, poured on them from every side..

It was farther customary, for the friends of the conquerors to express their particular respect to them, by going up to them, accosting them, and presenting them with chaplets of herbs, &c.

To perpetuate the glory of these victories, the Hellanodics entered into a public register the names of the conquerors; specifying, without doubt, the particular exercise and class, whether of men or boys, in which each had been victorious; together with the number of the Olympiad; and then set up their statues in the altis, or sacred grove of Jupiter at Olympia.

!

These particulars respecting the sacred games of the Grecians, which were held in the highest renown in the days of the Apostles, explain and illustrate not only the passage which we have placed at the head of this article, but various parts of their writings, the beauty, energy, and sublimity of which consist in metaphorical allusions to these games, from the various gymnastic exercises of which their elegant and expressive imagery is borrowed.

Apud Fab. Agon. 1. iii. cap. 1.