to have been always a religious one-a common sanctuary, the scene of periodical meetings for the celebration of a common worship; and this, among the Greeks, especially in the earliest times, implies the belief of a certain degree of kindred, which, as far as we know, was always confirmed by community of language. It seems, therefore, not unreasonable to consid-There were two regularly convened every year : er the amphictyonic associations as founded on the same principle which united tribes of the same race in peace and amity, though distance, or other accidental causes, might exclude some which, by blood, were as well entitled to share in the union as those which entered into it. or council. This last appellation refers to the fact that the affairs of the whole amphictyonic body were transacted by a congress composed of deputies sent by the several states, according to rules established from time immemorial. One peculiar feature of this congress was, that its meetings were held at two different places. one in the spring, at Delphi, the other in the autumn, near the little town of Anthela, within the Pass of Thermopylæ, at a temple of Demeter. This diversity of the places of meeting suggests a great variety of difficult questions as to the origin of the league. It is very improbable that they were selected together, and it is not easy to determine which of them was appointed first. The ancients seem to have conunion; and this opinion is confirmed by its ancient sanctity and the early renown of its oracle; whereas the choice of Thermopylæ could only have been dictated by its peculiar position, the importance of which was not connected with any of the ordinary objects of the league. On the other hand, the name of Pylæa, which was applied as well to the assembly held at Delphi as to that of Thermopyla, seems strongly to indicate the priority of the latter place of meeting; nor, if Delphi had been the earlier, is it easy to imagine why the other should ever have been chosen. The readiest mode of reconciling these conflicting arguments may be to suppose that there were originally two distinct confederations; one, perhaps, formed of inland, the other of maritime tribes; and that, when these were united by the growing influence of Delphi, the ancient places of meeting were retained as a necessary concession to the dignity of each sanctuary. This conjecture seems to be confirmed by the legends which couple the name of Acrisius, king of Argos, with that of Amphictyon, in the history of the council. He is said to have founded the assembly at Delphi in emulation of that which Amphictyon had founded at Thermopyla, and then to have combined the two, and to have regulated them by new laws.* This account might be substantially correct, though the agency of Acrisius should have been referred to the wrong point, as we are elsewhere informed that he founded the temple at Anthela, which would indicate that he was more immediately connected with the congress of Thermopyla. That he was the first who brought the confederacy into order, fixed the number of its members, the distribution of the votes in the council, and the nature of the causes which were to be subject to its jurisdiction, is likewise mentioned by Strabo as a received opinion. But the main question, how Argos acquired such influence, or what These are not the only instances by which power Acrisius more properly represents, is we are led to conclude that amphictyonic asso-left in almost total obscurity: we can only sus ciations were anciently much more numerous than appears from the scanty notices left of them in history. There seems to have been one in Argolis distinct from that of Calaurea;t and another, of which Delos was the centre, attained to considerable celebrity. But of all such institutions, the most celebrated and important was the one known, without any other local distinction, as the Amphictyonic League * By Müller, Æginetica, s. 8. It is probable that many amphictyonies once existed in Greece, all trace of which has been lost; and even with regard to those which happen to have been rescued from total oblivion,sidered Delphi as the original centre of the our information is, for the most part, extremely defective. One is merely mentioned by Strabo as having held its meetings at Onchestus in Boeotia, probably in the sanctuary of Poseidon, where a periodical festival appears to have been celebrated with chariot races. No account is given of the states which composed it, or of any other particulars. Another, our knowledge of which we owe to the same author, must, if we may judge from the names of its members, have been once of considerable importance. Its place of congress was also a sanctuary of Poseidon, long a revered and celebrated asylum, in the island of Calaurea. It included seven states, three towns of Argolis, Epidaurus, Hermione, and Nauplia, Prasiæ in Laconia, the island of Ægina, Athens, and the Baotian Orchomenus. It seems clear that this confederacy must have been founded for a political rather than for a religious purpose, since Træzen, though so near to the place of congress, and though Poseidon was its tutelary god, was not a party to it. Its antiquity is attested by the names of its members; for Orchomenus must have entered into it while still independent and powerful; that is, before the Eolian conquest of Boeotia. But the motives which gave rise to this association, among states so remote from one another, and apparently so little connected by interest, can only be matter for very uncertain conjecture. It has been suspected* that the weaker states-those of Peloponnesussought the protection of the more powerful against some formidable neighbours; but we do not venture so to fill up a blank in history. All that is certain is, that after the political relations out of which the confederacy arose had been entirely altered, and it had sunk into utter insignificance, Argos stepped into the place of Nauplia, and Sparta into that of Prasiæ, for the performance of the religious ceremonies, which became the sole object of the league. + Paus., iv., 5. pect that he may, in this legend, have belonged rather to the northern than to the southern Achæans. The more important part of the subject is that which relates to the constitution, functions, and authority of the council. It is said to have been originally composed of deputies sent by twelve tribes or nations, each of which might include several independent states. The confeder * Schol. Eur., Orest., 1087. ate tribes are variously enumerated by different | as a Hellenic confederacy, and this may have authors. A comparison of their lists enables us been the cause from which the Achæans of to ascertain the greater part of the names, and Phthia were not designated, in the proceedings to form a probable conjecture as to the rest; of the council, by the name of Hellenes, which but it also leads us to conclude that some chan-is peculiarly applied to them in the Homeric' ges took place at a remote period in the consti- poems; but there seems to be no reason for retution of the council, as to which tradition is si- ferring a title which is sometimes given to the lent. The most authentic list of the Amphic-council in later times, of a general congress of tyonic tribes contains the following names : the Hellenes, to the period when the Hellenic Thessalians, Boeotians, Dorians, Ionians, Per-name was confined to a few northern states, the rhæbians, Magnetes, Locrians, Etæans, or Eni- original members of the confederacy. anians, Phthiots, or Achæans of Phthia, Malians or Melians,* and Phocians. The orator Eschines, who furnishes this list, shows, by mentioning the number twelve, that one name is wanting. The other lists supply two names to fill up the vacant place, the Dolopes and the Delphians. It seems not improbable that the former were finally supplanted by the Delphians, who appear to have been a distinct race from the Phocians.t After the Return of the Heracleids, the number of the Amphictyonic tribes-then, perhaps, already hallowed by time-continued the same; but the geographical compass of the league was increased by all that part of Peloponnesus which was occupied by the new Dorian states. And though a considerable part of Greece was still not included in it—for Arcadia, Elis, Achaia, Ætolia, and Acarnania never belonged to itthe power of the league, if measured by the extent of its territory, or unanimously exacted, would have been sufficient to command the obedience of the other states; and it might, therefore, have been looked upon as a national confederation. The causes which prevented it from really acquiring this character will be evident when we consider the mode in which the council was constituted, and the nature of its ordinary functions. The constitution of the council rested on the supposition-once, perhaps, not very inconsistent with the fact-of a perfect equality among the tribes represented by it. Each tribe, however feeble, had two votes in the deliberation of the congress; none, however powerful, had more. The order in which the right of sending representatives to the council was exercised by the various states included in one Amphictyonic tribe was, per The mere inspection of this list is sufficient to prove at once the high antiquity of the institution and the imperfection of our knowledge with regard to its early history. It is clear that the Dorians must have become members of the Amphictyonic body before the conquest, which divided them into several states, each incomparably more powerful than most of the petty northern tribes, which possessed an equal number of votes in the council. It may, however, be doubted whether they were among the original members, and did not rather take the place of one of the tribes which they dislodged from their seats in the neighbourhood of Delphi, perhaps the Dryopes. On the other hand, the Thessalians were probably not received into the league before they made their appearance in Thessaly, which is commonly believed to have taken place only twenty years before the Do-haps, regulated by private agreement; but, unrian invasion of Peloponnesus. It is, therefore, highly probable that they were adınitted in the room of some other tribe which had lost its independence through the convulsions of this eventful period; and this may have been one of those which inhabited Boeotia before the Eolians from Arne gave their name to the country-the Minyans of Orchomenus, or the Cadmeans of Thebes. But so scanty is our information, that it has been conjectured,‡ perhaps with equal probability, that they did not gain entrance into the league before the sixth century BC., when they took an active part in a war, which will be hereafter mentioned, between the Amphictyons and the town of Crissa. Hence it would appear that, before the Return of the Heracleids, the Amphictyonic body comprehended most of the Greek states north of the Isthmus; but, probably, notwithstanding the mention of Acrisius, none of those within it. It may already, at that time, have been considered less one state usurped the whole right of its tribe, it is manifest that a petty tribe, which formed but one community, had greatly the advantage over Sparta or Argos, which could only be represented in their turn, the more rarely in proportion to the magnitude of the tribe to which they belonged. This right would have been of still less value if it had been shared among all the colonies of an Amphictyonic tribe; and this was the case with the Ionians: but the Æolian and Dorian colonies seem not to have claimed the same privilege. With regard to other details less affecting the general character of the institution, it will be sufficient here to observe that the council was composed of two classes of representatives called pylagores and hieromnemons, whose functions are not accurately distinguished. It seems, however, that the former was the body intrusted with the power of voting, while the office of the latter consisted in preparing and directing their deliberations, and carrying their decrees into effect. Athens three pylagores were annually elected; one hieromnemon was appointed by lot we do the council, which held its sessions either in not know the practice of other states. Besides the temple or in some adjacent building, there was an Amphictyonic assembly, which met in the open air, and was composed of persons residing in the place where the congress : At * ἐκκλησία τῶν ̓Αμφικτυόνων, described by Æschines, Ctes., 124. was held, and of the numerous strangers who were drawn to it by curiosity, business, or devotion. It would seem, however, that this assembly was only called together in extraordinary cases, as when its aid was required for carrying the measures decreed into execution, or when it was thought necessary to appoint an extraordinary convention in the interval between the two regular times of meeting. in these it might safely reckon on general cooperation from all the Greeks. Thus it could act with dignity and energy in a case where a procession, passing through the territory of Megara towards Delphi, was insulted by some Megarians, and could not obtain redress from the government, the Amphictyonic tribunal punished the offenders with death or banishment.* A much more celebrated and important instance of a similar intervention was that which gave occasion to the war above alluded to, which is commonly called the Crissaan, or the first sacred war. Crissa appears to be the same town which is sometimes named Cirrha. Situate on that part of the Corinthian Gulf which was called from it the Gulf of Crissa, it commanded a harbour, much frequented by pilgrims from the west, who came to Delphi by sea, and was also mistress of a fruitful tract called the Cirrhæan plain. It is possible that there may have been real ground for the charge which was brought against the Crissæans of extortion and violence It is evident that a Constitution such as we have described could not have been suffered to last if it had been supposed that any important political interests depended on the decision of the council. But, in fact, it was not commonly viewed as a national congress for such purposes; its ordinary functions were chiefly, if not altogether, connected with religion, and it was only by accident that it was ever made subservient to political ends. The original objects, or, at least, the essential character of the institution, seem to be faithfully expressed in the terms of the oath, preserved by Eschines, which bound the members of the league to re-used towards the strangers who landed at their frain from utterly destroying any Amphictyonic city, and from cutting off its supply of water, even in war, and to defend the sanctuary and the treasures of the Delphic god from sacrilege. In this ancient and half-symbolical form we perceive two main functions assigned to the council to guard the temple, and to restrain the violence of hostility among Amphictyonic states. There is no intimation of any confederacy against foreign enemies, except for the protection of the temple; nor of any right of interposing between members of the league, unless where one threatens the existence of another. It is true that this right, though expressly limited to certain extreme cases, might have afforded a pretext for very extensive interference if there had been any power capable of using it; but so far was the obligation of the oath from being strained beyond its natural import, that no period is known when it was enforced even in its simplest sense. The object of mitigating the cruelty of warfare among the Amphictyonic tribes was either never attained or speedily forgotten. In the historical period the remembrance of the oath seems never to have withheld any of the confederates from inflicting the worst evils of war upon their brethren, much less could it introduce a more humane spirit into the nation. port or passed through their territory; one ancient author, who, however, wrote nearly three centuries later,† assigned as the immediate occasion of the war an outrage committed on some female pilgrims as they were returning from the oracle. It is, however, at least equally probable that their neighbours of Delphi had long cast a jealous and a wishful eye on the customs by which Crissa was enriched, and considered all that was there exacted from the pilgrims as taken from the Delphic god, who might otherwise have received it as an offering. A complaint, however founded, was in the end preferred against Crissa before the Amphictyons, who decreed a war against the refractory city. They called in the aid of the Thessalians, who sent a body of forces under Eurylochus; and their cause was also actively espoused by Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, and, according to the Athenian tradition, Solon assisted them with important advice. They consulted the offended god, who enjoined, as the condition of success in the war, that they should cause the sea to beat upon his domain. In compliance with this oracle, at the suggestion of Solon, they vowed to dedicate the Crissæans and their territory to the god by enslaving them, and making their land a waste forever. If the prospect of such signal vengeance animated the assailants, the A review of the history of the council shows besieged were no doubt goaded to a more obthat it was almost powerless for good, except, stinate defence by the threat of extermination. perhaps, as a passive instrument, and that it The war is said to have lasted ten years, and was only active for purposes which were either at length to have been brought to a close by a unimportant or pernicious. In the great na- stratagem, which we could wish not to have tional struggles it lent no strength to the com- found imputed to Solon. He is reported to mon cause, but it now and then threw a shade have poisoned the waters of the Pleistus, from of sanctity over plans of ambition or revenge. which the city was supplied, and thus to have It sometimes assumed a jurisdiction, uncertain reduced the garrison to a state in which they in its limits, over its members; but it seldom were easily overpowered. When the town had had the power of executing its sentences, and fallen, the vow of the conquerors was literally commonly committed them to the party most fulfilled. Crissa was razed to the ground, its interested in exacting the penalty. Thus it harbour choked up, its fruitful plain turned irto punished the Dolopes of Scyrus for piracy, by a wilderness. This triumph was commemorathe hands of the Athenians, who coveted their ted by the institution of gymnastic games, callisland. But its most legitimate sphere of ac-ed the Pythian, in the room of a more ancient tion lay in cases where the honour and safety and simple festival. The Amphictyons, who of the Delphic sanctuary were concerned; and *Plut., Cim., 8. Plut.. Qu. Gr., 59. † Callisthenes. Athen., xiii., p. 560. NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. ce.ebrated the new games with the spoils of them and the Dorians, their companions in As the Delphic oracle was the object to ancient temple and oracle at Olympia; and that, which the principal duties of the Amphictyons in the time of Lycurgus, their king, Iphitus, in arms, was consecrated to Jupiter, who had an related, it might have been imagined to have concert with the Spartan lawgiver, and with been under their control, and thus to have af- the sanction of the Delphic oracle, as a remedy forded them an engine by which they might, at for the disorders of Greece, revived the festileast secretly, exert a very powerful influence val, and ordained a periodical suspension of over the affairs of Greece. But, though this hostilities throughout the nation, to enable engine was not unfrequently wielded for politi- Greeks from every land to attend. it without cal purposes, it appears not to have been under hinderance or danger. Though, however, the the management of the council, but of the lead- legends fabricated or adopted by the Eleans to ing citizens of Delphi, who had opportunity of magnify the antiquity and glory of the games constant and more efficacious access to the deserve little attention, there can be no doubt persons employed in revealing the supposed that, from very early times, Olympia had been will of the god. In early times the oracle was a site hallowed by religion; and it is highly often consulted, not merely for the sake of probable that festivals of a nature similar to learning the unknown future, but for advice and that which afterward became permanent had direction, which, as it was implicitly followed, been occasionally celebrated in the sanctuary really determined the destiny of those who re- of Jupiter. Without supposing some such traceived it. The power conferred by such an in- ditional title to veneration attached to the strument was unbounded, and it appears, on ground, it would be difficult to explain why it the whole, not to have been ill applied; but the was adopted by the Eleans for the purpose to honour of its beneficial effects must be ascribed which it was finally dedicated. For Olympia, almost entirely to the wisdom and patriotism not so much a town as a precinct occupied by of the ruling Delphians, or of the foreigners a great number of sacred and public buildings, who concerted with them the use of the sacred originally lay in the territory of Pisa, which, machinery. But the authority of the oracle it- for two centuries after the beginning of the self was gradually weakened, partly by the Olympiads, was never completely subject to progress of new opinions, and partly by the Elis, and occasionally appeared as her rival, abuse which was too frequently made of it. and excluded her from all share in the presiThe organ of the prophetic god was a woman, dency of the games. The celebration of the of an age more open to bribery than to any ancient festival had probably been long interother kind of seduction ;† and, even before the rupted by the troubles consequent on the DoriPersian wars, several instances occurred in an invasion, and its renewal may have been which she had notoriously sold her answers. suggested as well by political as by religious The credulity of individuals might, notwith- motives. Pestilence is mentioned as one of the standing, be little shaken; but a few such dis- evils which it was designed to relieve, by proclosures would be sufficient to deprive the ora- pitiating the displeasure of the gods, and the cle of the greater part of its political influence. sacred truce might seem a happy expedient for The character of a national institution, which stilling the fierce passions of hostile tribes. the Amphictyonic council affected, but never This, however, is little more than conjecture; really acquired, more truly belonged to the pub- nor do we venture to speak with much greater lic festivals, which, though celebrated within confidence of the authors of the measure. Iphicertain districts, were not peculiar to any tribe, tus, Lycurgus, and Cleosthenes of Pisa* are repbut were open and common to all who could resented as the persons who were most active in prove their Hellenic blood. The most impor- bringing it about; and the names of Iphitus and tant of these festivals was that which was sol- Lycurgus were inscribed on a disk, which was emnized every fifth year on the banks of the Al-preserved as a kind of charter, and as evidence pheus, in the territory of Elis; it lasted four of their solemn compact. But all that can safedays, and, from Olympia, the scene of its cele-ly be inferred from this tradition, which has been bration, derived the name of the Olympic contest or games, and the period itself which intervened between its returns was called an Olympiad. The origin of this institution is involved in some obscurity, partly by the lapse of time, and partly by the ambition of the Eleans to exaggerate its antiquity and sanctity. As all its lustre was reflected on them, its ministers and directors, they endeavoured to establish the belief that it had been founded, and from time to time renewed, by gods and heroes, long before the Trojan war; that after the Etolians had effected a settlement in Elis, their whole territory, by a compact between Hence, at the first celebration, valuable prizes were given (it was an dyr xpnuarirns), for which chaplets were substituted in the following Pythiads (it became are embellished with a variety of legends, seems to not, at first, either consulted or expected to 1 The Pythias had once been a maiden, chosen in the flower of youth; but this practice having been attended with inconvenient consequences, women were appointed who had passed the age of fifty, but still wore the dress of er of the games. virgins. Diodor, xvi., 26.1 Phlegon, p. 139, who mentions Peisus as the first foundVOL. I-U † ἐκεχειρία. † Plut., Lyc., 1. Paus., v., 20, 1. Ο σπονδοφόροι. cessful competitors for the like prize. No accidents of birth or station could affect the inherent dignity of contests in which the most renowned of the heroes had excelled and delighted. In one respect, those of the later period were more honourable than those of the heroic ages. In the games described by Homer valuable prizes were proposed, and this practice was once universal; but after the seventh ed as inviolable, and no armed force could traverse it without incurring the penalty of sacrilege. But the Eleans, with a bold contempt of historical evidence, which seems to have deceived many writers, ancient and modern, pretended that, by the original contract, their land and persons had been made forever sacred, and entitled to enjoy perpetual peace. Unless we could suppose that such a privilege might have existed, without imposing a corresponding obli-Olympiad, a simple garland, of leaves of the gation, we have the strongest proof that it was never recognised by the other Greeks; for they themselves did not abstain from the use of arms, though their situation and political circumstances tended to keep them generally exempt from war.* After the fiftieth Olympiad, Elis had the whole regulation of the festival, and appointed the judges of the contest, who were instructed and exercised in the duties of their office, for ten months before the time of their presidency, by Elean magistrates. But, originally, it is probable that Pisa had an equal share in the administration of the festival and the election of the presiding officers; and this seems to have been the main cause of those feuds which were carried on for several centuries between the two states, and ended only with the destruction of Pisa. The presiding people possessed a jurisdiction in matters connected with the festival, by virtue of which it might impose penalties on individuals and on states, and might exclude all who resisted its decrees. But this authority might be considered as a trust held by one tribe for the benefit of the whole nation, to which the festival really belonged. It was very early frequented by spectators, not only from all parts of Greece itself, but from the Greek colonies in Europe, Africa, and Asia; and this assemblage was not brought together by the mere fortuitous impulse of private interest or curiosity, but was, in part, composed of deputations which were sent by most cities as to a religious solemnity, and were considered as guests of the Olympian god. wild olive, was substituted at Olympia as the only meed of victory. The mainspring of enulation was undoubtedly the celebrity of the festival, and the presence of so vast a multitude of spectators, who were soon to spread the fame of the successful athletes to the extremity of the Grecian world. But other honours and advantages were annexed to this triumph by the pride or policy of particular states. Even the most powerful city regarded an Olympic victory, gained by one of its citizens, as reflecting additional lustre on its name; and the victor was sometimes solicited to let himself be proclaimed as the citizen of a town not his own: so Astylus of Croton, who had won the foot-race in three successive Olympiads, was induced by Hiero, the Syracusan tyrant, to transfer the honour of the last two victories to Syracuse; an affront for which his countrymen revenged themselves by taking down his statue, and turning his house into a prison.* At Athens, by a law of Solon, a citizen who had gained an Olympic prize was rewarded with five hundred drachmas, and with the right to a place at the table of the magistrates in the prytaneum : at Sparta he was honoured with a conspicuous post on the field of battle. The Altis, as the ground consecrated to the games was called at Olympia, was adorned with numberless statues of the victors, erected, with the permission of the Eleans, by themselves or their families, or at the expense of their fellow-citizens. It was also usual to celebrate the joyful event, both at Olympia and at the victor's home, by a triumphal procession, in which his praises were sung, and were commonly associated with the glory of his ancestors and his country. The most eminent poets willingly lent their aid on such occasions, especially to the rich and great. And thus it happened that sports, not essentially different from those of our village greens, gave birth to master-pieces of sculpture, and called forth the sublimest strains of the lyric muse. The immediate object of the meeting was the exhibition of various trials of strength and skill, which, from time to time, were multiplied so as o include almost every mode of displaying bodiy activity. They included races on foot and with horses and chariots; contests in leaping, throwing, wrestling, and boxing; and some in which several of these exercises were combined, but no combats with any kind of weapon. The equestrian contests, particularly that of the four-horsed chariots, were, by their nature, confined to the wealthy; and princes and nobles vied with each other in such demonstrations of their opulence. But the greater part were open to the poorest Greek, and were not, on that ac-brated each twice in every Olympiad, at differcount, the lower in public estimation. One of the most celebrated pugilists, Glaucus of Carystus, had first given proof of his uncommon strength while he was following the plough ; but the most illustrious family in Rhodes, those Diagorids, who boasted of the blood of Aristom-high antiquity, though the form in which they enes, gloried in having produced many suc The celebrity of the Olympic games gave occasion to several other festivals of a similar nature. Of the Pythian, which were celebrated in every third Olympic year, we have already spoken. The Nemean and Isthmian were cele ent seasons of the year: the former in the plain of Nemea, in Argolis, under the presidency of Argos; the latter on the Corinthian isthmus, under the presidency of Corinth. These, like the Pythian and Olympic games, claimed a very were finally established was of late institution; and it is highly probable that they were really * Phlegon, p. 145, relates that the Eleans, when about to suggested by the tradition of ancient festivals, aid the Spartans in reducing Helos, were enjoined by the which had served to cement an Amphictyonic Delphic oracle to abstain from war. Strabo, viii., p. 358, represents the sanctity of the Elean territory as having been confederacy. These four contests were chiefly first violated by Pheidon, after which, therefore, from the distinguished from the numerous games cele8th Olympiad, the Eleans no longer refrained from the use of arms. Paus., vi., 24, 3. + lb. vi 10, 1. Paus., vi., 13, 1. |