chosen by lot from the whole body of the Eleans. Their office probably lasted only for one festival, during which time it was their duty to see that all the laws regulating the games were observed by the competitors and others to determine the prizes, and to give them to the conquerors. An appeal lay from their decision to the Elean Senate. Their office was considered most honorable. Their dress was a purple robe, and in the stadium a special seat was appropriated to them. Under the direction of the Hel lanodice was a certain number of deputies, who formed a kind of police, who carried into execution the commands of the Hellanodicæ.

All persons were admitted to a contest in the Olympic games who could prove that they were free men, that they were of genuine Hellenic blood, and that their characters were free from infamy and immorality. So great was the importance attached to the second of these particulars, that the kings of Macedon were obliged to prove their Hellenic descent before gaining admittance. The equestrian contests were necessarily confined to the wealthy, who displayed in them great magnificence; but the poorest citizens could contend in the athletic contests. The owners of the chariots and horses were not obliged to contend in person; and the wealthy vied with one another in the magnificence of the chariots and horses which they sent to the games. Alcibiades sent seven chariots to one festival, a greater number than had ever been sent by a private person; three of them obtained prizes. The only prize given to the conqueror was a garland of wild olive.*

The Greek kings in Sicily, Macedon, and other parts of the Hellenic world, contended with one another for the prize in the equestrian contests.

The Olympic games were celebrated with much splendor

For a full account of Olympia, see large edition.

under the Roman Emperors, by many of whom great privi leges were awarded to the conquerors.

In the sixteenth year of the reign of Theodosius, A. D. 394 (Ol. 293), the Olympic festival was for ever abolished. The description of the Olympic games will, for the most part, serve also for the other three great festivals of Greece, viz. the Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian games.

HERA OR JUNO.

By the poets, Hera is represented as the personification of sublime beauty united with power; and in her person is represented that high, commanding order of beauty which is superior to the delicacy of female charms and does not need them. She is called the reigning, the large-eyed, the white-armed; epithets which tend to inspire us with admiration rather than love. It is not the soft and tender eye that graces her image; it is greatness and majesty commanding awe and veneration; and of all the charms. which constitute the reigning queen of heaven, poetry celebrates none but the powerful arm. And indeed, Hera acts a part in nearly all the violent events in heaven and on earth.

The raging elements in which the whole train of human passions is but a copy in miniature, are personated in her; for the violence of the elements is chiefly displayed in the lower atmosphere. Here they come in collision and interfere with each other; here they rob, and spoil, and breathe revenge; the rock groans in the furious sea; and under the blast of the storm the billows howl; here is a perpetual round of formation and destruction ;-here is the theatre of insurrection and war; the seat of wrath, and mourning, and misery; here must Hecuba pull out her grey hairs, and Troy become a prey to the flames.

But above the atmosphere, in the pure ether, every thing is quiet, permanent, and regular;-there, the celestial

globes complete their courses undisturbed, and nothing interrupts the music of the spheres ;-the top of high Olympos rises above the clouds into the still ether, and thither imagination transfers the abodes of the blessed immortals, who, exempt from care and pain, sip the sweet nectar, while charmed with the sound of Apollo's lyre.

In this manner, Fancy always unites the human form of her deities with the heavenly archetype. The swan in the bosom of Leda, as the blue ether surrounds the earth; and the ether opens again to show the ruler of Olympos with his ambrosial locks, holding the nectar cup in his hand. Hera surrounds the globe with a transparent mist, which, pierced by the glittering rays of the sun, produces the rainbow, the archetype of Iris, Hera's swift messenger; who, standing in the clouds, announced to mankind the approach of the august queen of heaven; and the same Hera wanders on foot through this very mist to visit her foster-parents at the bounds of the earth. But Fancy, not choosing to dwell long on these objects, which she in a certain manner attempts to explain by her personifications, rather delights to roam among the beings to whom she has given personality; and represents Hera as opposing herself to the all-powerful Zeus, by whom she is suspended from Olympos on a chain into her own dominion, the atmosphere, with an anvil fastened to either foot. The heavenly and sublime is thus made to suffer the disgrace of being lowered down, and all celestials mourned at the sight; but Fancy, the earth-born daughter, delights in the sport.

The worship of Hera was solemn and universal in the heathen world. Young geese and the hawk as well as the peacock were sacred to her; and of plants, the dittany, the poppy, and the lily. The ancients offered on her altars a sow and a ewe lamb the first of every month.

Argos is the first place mentioned by Hera herself as among her favored and beloved cities. Urging Zeus to consent to the downfall of Troy, a city which she hated, together with Priam's family, because of the decision of Paris on Mount Ida, she endeavored to carry her point by a kind of barter; "There are three cities," said she, "which are dearest of all to me, Argos, Sparta, and Mycena; nevertheless, I willingly part with them, I abandon them entirely to thy will, if thou wilt consent to the downfall of Troy." (Il. iv. 50.)

The reason of this partiality to Argos, was the extraordinary veneration paid to her by its inhabitants. There, particular festivals were celebrated in her honor, which from her Greek name Hera, were called Heræa.

The games and contests of the Herea took place in the stadium, near the temple, on the road to the Acropolis. A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible to any one, and the young man who succeeded in displacing it, received a shield and a garland of myrtle as a prize.

The Argives always reckoned their year from her priesthood, as the Athenians from their Archons, and the Romans from their consuls.

Festivals were celebrated in honor of Hera in all the towns of Greece, where the worship of the divinity was introduced. At Egina, the Heræa, or Hecatombæa, were celebrated in the same manner as those at Argos. The Heræa of Samos were derived from Argos, and were, perhaps, the most brilliant of all the festivals of this divinity. A magnificent procession consisting of maidens and married women in splendid attire and floating hair, together with men and youths in armor, went to the temple of Hera, and on arriving within the precincts, the men deposited their armor, and prayers and vows were offered to the goddoss.