Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

224 The Origin of the Olympic Games [ch.
reign, released from their bonds the brothers of Kronos, the Titans,
who then gave Zeus the thunder and lightning. The unfettering
of Kronos or Saturn appears to be a reflection of the custom
at Saturnalian festivals of releasing prisoners and slaves—the
mock subjects of the mock king of the feast, himself a prisoner
or a slave. It may have symbolised a brief return of the older
reign of Kronos, or the Golden Age, lasting over the intercalary
days between two years of the reign of Zeus. At any rate in this
design are united the attributes of the old Thunderer and
Vegetation Spirit, of the Olympic victor, and of the unfettered
Kronos—a combination which strongly confirms our suggestion
that the Games were connected with a Saturnalian feast.
Against the view here suggested an objection might be urged
on the score of the date of the Olympic Festival. Saturnalian
feasts fall usually in the neighbourhood of Christmas (the winter
solstice) or of Easter (the vernal equinox) or at some season of
carnival between these two dates. The Olympic Games, on the
other hand, were held in the late summer. The earliest date
on which they could fall was August 6
; the latest, September 29.
Moreover they were not annual, but penteteric ; that is to say
they were celebrated once in every four years. How then can
they be connected with Saturnalian rites ?
The answer to this objection will throw light on the second
factor in the myth of Pelops and Oinomaos—the capture of the
bride, Hippodameia.
(b) The Marriage of Pelops and Hippodameia. The date at
which a celebration of the Games fell due was reckoned by
a singularly complicated process, comparable with the mysterious
method laid down by the Christian churches for the calculation
of Easter; for, like Easter, the Games were a moveable feast,
determined by astronomical considerations. The Scholiast on
Pindar 1
quotes from Comarchos what appears to be the official
prescription for fixing the dates, copied possibly from some inscrip-
tion in the Prytaneum at Olympia.
1 Ad 01. in. 33 restored as follows by Weniger, Das Hochfest ties Zeus in
Olympia, Klio, 1905, p. Iff.: Kuiyuapxos 6 to. irepi 'HXeioov (rvvrd^as