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Olympia is a city west of Pisa in
Elis, best known
for being the site where the Olympic games
originated.
The people of Olympia may be called
Olympians but they are completely
different from the
Olympian
gods, who received their name from
Mount Olympus, a mountain in Pieria in
northern Thessaly.
Learned men from
Elis say that when
Cronos was king
of heaven, the men of the
Golden
Age built in Olympia a temple in his
honor. When Zeus
was born, his mother entrusted him to the
DACTYLS of Ida,
who some say are the same as those called
CURETES [see also
CORYBANTES].
They came from
Crete to
Elis, and the
Dactyl Heracles 2, who was the eldest
among them, contended with his brothers in
a running-race and crowned the victor with
a branch of olive. This is why the Dactyl
Heracles 2 of Ida is considered to have
been the first to have held the games, and
to have called them Olympic. He
established the custom of holding them
every fifth ear because he and his
brothers were five in number. Tradition
affirms that Zeus
and Cronos
wrestled at Olympia, and that
Apollo outran
Hermes.
After this, Clymenus 8, a descendant of
Heracles 2, came from
Crete to Olympia
50 years after the
Flood, and he
also held games at Olympia. He became king
but was later deposed by
Endymion, and
the latter's son Epeius 1 succeeded his
father in the throne of
Elis by winning a
race at Olympia against his brothers.
During the restoration of the Olympic
games by Pelops
1, the festival was celebrated with
great splendor, and after him Amythaon 1
from Pylos held
games at Olympia. And after him
Neleus, king of
Messenia, and
Pelias 1, king
of Iolcus, held the games in common. And
after them, Augeas, king of
Elis.
When Heracles
1 killed King Augeas of
Elis and his sons,
he put Phyleus 1 on the throne of
Elis and
celebrated the Olympian games, founding an
altar of Pelops
1 and building as well several altars
to the twelve
Olympian
gods. He established gymnastic
contests at Olympia, and himself competed
against Achareus in the so called
'pancratium'.
Heracles 1
selected for this festival a most
beautiful place, for such is the plain
lying along the banks of the river
Alpheus. Heracles
1 also stipulated that there would not
be monetary reward, and that the prize
should only be a crown.
After the return of the
HERACLIDES,
King Oxylus 2 of
Elis celebrated
the games, but after him the Olympic
festival was discontinued until historical
times.
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