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Many are the sights to be seen in Greece, and many are the wonders to be heard; but on nothing does Heaven bestow more care than on the Eleusinian rites and the Olympic games.

The sacred grove of Zeus has been called from of old Altis, a corruption of the word “alsos,” which means a grove. Pindar1 too calls the place Altis in an ode composed for an Olympic victor.

1 Pind. O. 10.55

Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.

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