"These
victories which we leave today to the athletes of the public shows
appeared then the greatest of all. Poets of greatest renown celebrated
them; Pindar, the most illustrious lyric poet of antiquity, has hardly
done more than sing of chariot races. It is related that a certain
Diagoras, who had seen his two sons crowned on the same day, was borne
in triumph by them in the sight of the spectators. The people, holding
such an honor too great for a mortal, cried out, 'Perish, Diagoras,
for after all you cannot become a god.' Diagoras, suffocated with
emotion, died in the arms of his sons. In his eyes and the eyes of the
Greeks the fact that his sons possessed the stoutest fists and the
nimblest limbs in Greece was the acme of earthly happiness."[56] The
Greeks had their reasons for thus admiring physical prowess: in their
wars in which they fought hand to hand the most vigorous athletes were
the best soldiers.
=Omens.=--In return for so much homage, so many festivals and
offerings, the Greeks expected no small amount of service from their
gods. The gods protected their worshippers, gave them health, riches,
victory.
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