DISCOVERIES AT OLYMPIA.

THE history of the Hellenes is distinguished by a twofold trait, namely: on the one hand, a lively sentiment of national unity, as against all other nations; and, on the other, a strong sense of individuality in the several communities and cities. The sentiment of national unity found expression in the ancient leagues or amphyctioniæ, by which the Hellenes were welded into one people. When these had lost their political significance, the festivals of the gods remained as the most effectual bond of union. Now, of all these festivals none was of greater importance for the history of the Hellenic race than that of Zeus, celebrated in the valley of the Alpheios, where the river issues from the Arcadian mountains, and where, at the foot of the heights of Olympus, lies a plain equaled by but few in Greece for extent, accessible from the interior, as also from the neighboring coast and from the transmarine colonies in the west. Yet the national importance of Olympia resulted not from its situation, but from a series of historic developments.

On the west coast of the Morea we find after the Doric migration two ancient states standing side by side, namely, Pisa, on the Alpheios, and Elis, on the Peneios, which latter stream waters the lowlands to the north. These two neighbor states, held together as they were in peace by their common worship of the goddess Hera, became still more firmly united when, impelled by a Delphic oracle, certain Achaian families settled at Pisa, and there introduced the worship of Pelops, whose rank among heroes was as that of Zeus among gods. In the plain before the gates of Pisa there was an oracle of Zeus, much frequented by strangers. It was thus that the town first acquired prominence; and at one time Elis and Pisa honored Olympian Zeus by holding festivals and games in common. But their pacific relations were disturbed by the dissensions which broke up the Peloponnesian states into distinct groups. Elis allied

itself to Sparta, which thus strove to extend its influence over the states on the west coast. Pisa united with Arcadia and Messenia. After a stubborn resistance, the Pisans were finally vanquished (about 600 B. c.), their city destroyed, their commonwealth annihilated, and ever afterward the Eleans enjoyed the exclusive right of conducting the festivals, while Sparta, as the chief power of the peninsula, insured to the whole region the inviolability of its frontiers. Olympia became a place of meeting for all the Peloponnesus; and as the Peloponnesus, down to the time of the Persian wars, led all Greece, Olympia came to be the center both of the mother-country and of the colonies. Every five years the envoys of the Eleans went forth to proclaim the festival, which was to begin at the first full moon after the summer solstice; and ambassadors, spectators, and athletes came, in answer to the summons, from every part of the world inhabited by Greeks. The Eleans made it a point of honor to add continually new attractions to the national festival, and to decorate the site on which it was held with the statues of victors, votive offerings, and monuments of every kind. Every Hellenic community, at home or abroad, desired to be represented here; and, when Hellenic freedom was extinguished, the conquerors of the Hellenes strove to efface the memory of the struggle by making a show of Hellenic culture at Olympia. This was the policy of both the Macedonians and the Romans. The Roman emperors looked on Olympia as the place above all others where Hellenic and Italian civilization could best be amalgamated. The Olympic games survived the Christian era, nor was it till the close of the fourth century that they ceased. In the year 395 the Emperor Theodosius decreed their discontinuance; in the following year came the Goths under Alaric, who utterly destroyed here a very forest of bronze statuary. The buildings still remained intact, but their destruction began when the Byzantines, as a defense against a new barbaric invasion, built a fortress inclosing the temple of Zeus, taking the materials from the still standing edifices. Whatever buildings were then left erect were soon afterward overthrown by earthquakes in the fifth century; finally. Olympia was buried beneath mud and débris by the overflow of the rivers and the washing of the hillsides.

In modern times the plain has been cultivated in vineyards and corn-fields, but uninhabited; and so it came about that, among all the famous sites of the ancient world, Olympia was one of the few where no new settlement interferes to prevent a thorough exploration of the ground. But nowhere else can you find so many remains of

Grecian civilization belonging to every age and to every region. It was on this account that, from his early years, it was a passion with Winckelmann to explore Olympia.

The first attempt was made by the French, when, after the battle of Navarino, Marshal Maison's troops occupied the peninsula. Then it was (May, 1829) that those remains of statuary were found which are to be seen in the Louvre. The results then obtained insured in advance the success of the thorough exploration which began in 1875 under the auspices of the Imperial German Government. In October of that year the temple of Zeus was brought to light, and for the five years that have since elapsed, during the months (October to May) when work can be carried on, the exploration has proceeded, at an annual expense of 150,000 marks; for last year the Emperor allowed an additional grant of 80,000 marks. Let us now see what is the total result in this year 1880.

Olympia consists of two very distinct parts, namely, the precinct of Zeus, and the edifices lying without the same. The precinct of Zeus, known also as the Altis, and the Sacred Grove, is a walled inclosure, forming an irregular quadrangle, with a mean length of 4,000 feet from east to west (parallel with the river), and a mean width of 2,000 feet from north to south (from the foot of the mountain to the river). Within this inclosure stood the altars, temples, sanctuaries, treasuries, and other buildings for the use of the officials, and for the reception of the city's guests attending the festival. The space not occupied by these structures was filled with statues and votive offerings, which, as time went on, were multiplied till at last only the roadways traversing Altis were free. Pausanias has left us a precise description of Altis (written A. D. 173), which is still ex

tant.

Olympia now lies before us like an open book. We know more about it than about any other spot in ancient Greece. The Abbé Barthélemy might now, with full assurance, point out to the young Anacharsis the notable monuments of the precinct of Zeus.

This precinct of Zeus may be considered as divided into two parts, a northern and a southern. In the southern portion the temple of Zeus forms the central point, around which are grouped the lesser monuments. The temple was never entirely covered with débris, but not till now could its whole ground-plan be seen. It was a building in character like the Parthenon, but still more imposing, for it had only six columns on its narrower façades, making its architrave blocks so much more massive. There still remains in

the vestibule of the temple the ancient mosaic pavement, composed of pebbles of different colors from the Alpheios, representing Tritons and Cupids. We can measure exactly the cella; we recognize distinctly the site where stood the colossus erected by Phidias ; we see the traces of the interior columns, the supports of the galleries, to which wooden stairways led up. The material of the temple was a friable shell limestone coated with white stucco of the finest quality. The molding flute with lions' heads spouting water, as also the flags forming the roof of the temple, were of Parian marble. In Roman times the edifice underwent a thorough restoration, the material employed being Pentelic marble. This work of restoration can be distinguished both by the material and by the marks made by the workmen on the blocks of stone. Still, the edifice as a whole is a monumental example of a Doric temple, and it is of the highest value for the history of that style of architecture. It is the work of Libon, a native artist, and dates from a time only twenty years prior to the building of the Parthenon. We find here grander proportions, a more admirable earnestness, a purer Doric, than in the more celebrated temple at Athens.

Special interest attaches to the sculpture of the temple-the work of masters known to us through Pausanias, who describes this edifice more minutely than any other in Olympia. Paionios represented on the eastern pediment the contest between Oinomaos and Pelops in twenty-one colossal marble figures, with Zeus, as judge of the battle, in the middle. These figures have all been discovered in a more or less perfect state of preservation; eight still have their heads. This group by Paionios in the eastern pediment, flanked by the two river-gods, Alpheios and Kladeos, in the outer angles, is full of gravity and repose. The western pediment, which was the work of Alkamenes, exhibited more action. Here, again, a god stood in the middle of the group-the youthful Apollo, who intervenes amid the strife that has arisen during the marriage-feast of Peirithoös. Drunken Centaurs are carrying off the women, and the Hellenes are coming to the rescue. On each side of Apollo we have three groups of combatants; prostrate on the ground are female slaves lamenting. The outer angles are occupied by reclining nymphs. Here, again, the number of figures is twenty-one, and of thirteen of them the heads remain. Notwithstanding the fearful ravages of time, these compositions are still intelligible, and capable of restoration in all essential particulars. The pediments of temples are the grandest products of Hellenic sculpture; therefore

the discovery of these two pediments marks an epoch in the history of ancient art. They date from the age of Phidias, and are incomparably superior to anything of the kind before known.

Besides the pediments we have the metopes of both ends of the temple sculptured in alto-rilievo, and representing the twelve labors of Herakles-six groups standing over the eastern entrance and six over the western. These reliefs were the last to fall down, and hence fragments of all twelve have been found on the templesteps. Of some of the groups nearly all the fragments have been found, especially the one representing King Atlas as bringing to Herakles the apples of the Hesperides; Herakles in the mean time supporting the vault of heaven, assisted by one of the Hesperides, who stands behind him. The battles with the Stymphalian birds, the Cretan bull, and the Nemean lion, are substantially perfect.

These rilievos are treated in vigorous style, and at one time we thought we saw in them the work of the Peloponnesian sculptors who wrought here before Attic art had found entrance into Olympia. But, having since had opportunity for a closer study of the sculptures of the temple, I now hold it to be beyond question that these are of the same school to which the sculpture of the pediments belongs. Beyond a doubt, the recently discovered head of the youthful Herakles setting his foot upon the lion is a work of Attic art.

Very widely divergent opinions have been expressed about the place to be assigned to the sculpture of the temple in the history of art. In fact, it is a problem of great difficulty and of high interest, the complete solution of which will be reached by degrees. In my opinion it was to the earlier school antedating Phidias, the school of Kalamis, that the governors of the temple of Olympia turned when they bethought them of treating with foreign sculptors concerning the glyptic ornamentation of the edifice. These artists held to Phidias the same relation that Perugino does to Raphael ; and they retained their style even after the more recent master had introduced a new epoch. Thus we can explain the rigid symmetry that characterizes Paionios's pediment, while the impassioned groups of the west pediment show what a fermentation was going on in plastic art, for as yet artists had not learned from Phidias how to combine harmoniously repose with action.

The sculptures at Olympia are part and parcel of the history of art. The Apollo in the middle of the western pediment shows how the artists of the time, in representing the gods, still scrupu