The alleged Kingship of the Olympic Victor

Abstract

Anthropology has been busy with the Olympic Games. The theories which I propose to discuss have now been before the public for some years and, though they have not met with any general acceptance, there has not been, as far as I know, any critical examination of the evidence on which they are based, and there is a danger that they may be taken on trust. This is the reason for the publication of the following pages. They were intended to form part of a work on Olympia on which I have long been engaged, the issue of which has been delayed by present circumstances. Forming as they do part of a continuous work, I may be allowed to state briefly certain conclusions which I hope to establish later, some of which, are assumed in the present article, though my argument is, in reality, independent of their correctness.I. The history of Olympia and the North-west Peloponnese, as far as we can trace it, has always depended on the north and west and has been independent of the Aegean. Though the earliest inhabitants may possibly have been of the same stock as the Aegeans, they were always out of touch with the centre of that civilization and the land was, at a very early period, occupied by northern immigrants.