The victor in an Olympic competition was mounted upon a tripod of bronze, and crowned with a wreath of olive, cut from the sacred trees with a golden sickle. Public proclamation was made of his name, his parentage, and his native state; and father and fatherland were each esteemed as sharing in the victor's glory. Great was the triumph of a newly-founded city, when for the first time its name was proclaimed by the sacred heralds in the ear of assembled Greece. We may find an instance of this feeling in an Ode of Pindar in honour of the Sicilian Psaumis and his adopted city Camarina.[1]
"Glory great, O Camarina, brought he to thy peopled town;
Six twin-altars duly decking at the festival most high,
Where, 'mid sacrifice of oxen, in the five days' contests vie
Car and mule and flying courser; and his triumph brought thee fame,
For thy new town's praises mingled with his father Acre's name."
When Xerxes, as has been already mentioned, began his march into Bœotia, and heard from the Arcadian spies that the Greeks were occupied at that supreme moment with the mimic contests of Olympia, he asked for what prize they strove? "A crown of olive." "Heavens!" cried a cousin of the king, "what kind of men have we come to do battle with?—men who contend not for gain, but for glory!" We have seen that substantial rewards
- ↑ Ol. v. 4.
