They had
many idols, of whom Zeus, the Thunderer, was the chief; but they did not
worship them with cruel rites like the Phoenicians, and some of their
beautiful stories about them were full of traces of better things. Their
best and wisest men were always straining their minds to feel after more
satisfying knowledge of Him, Who, they felt sure, must rule and govern
all things; and sometimes these philosophers, as they were called, came
very near the truth. Every work of the Greeks was well done, whether
poems, history, speeches, buildings, statues, or painting; and the
remains have served for patterns ever since. At first there were many
separate little states, but all held together as one nation, and used
to meet for great feasts, especially for games. There were the Olympian
games, by which they reckoned the years, and the Isthmean, which were
held at the Isthmus of Corinth. Everyone came to see the wrestling,
boxing, racing, and throwing heavy weights, and to hear the poems sung
or recited; and the men who excelled all the rest were carried high in
air with shouts of joy, and crowned with wreaths of laurel, bay, oak, or
parsley, one of the greatest honours a Greek could obtain.
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