What Are Some Special Terms Connected With the Ancient Olympics?

The modern Olympic games have their own rituals, including the relay of the Olympic torch and the competition to see which urban area will win the lucrative bid to prepare for the peak of summer onslaught of athletes, trainers, families, news media, tourists, and fans. Except for the summer onslaught (which 'A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics,' by Neil Faulkner nearly makes you smell), the modern experience is very different from the old. First of all, the ancient event was a religious festival. Second, it had an established, fixed location. Third, there was no torch. There were, of course, many other differences.

To get into the spirit of this difference, why not learn some of the technical terms connected with the most famous of the ancient panhellenic games -- the Olympics? For the names of the competitions (agones; sg. agon) themselves, see Individual Sporting Events and Olympic Sports Illustrated.

Main Term - Note there are other terms to learn in the next two columns	Meaning	Passage Reference
Altis	The word for the sacred grove holding the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. Olive leaves from the trees there crowned the Olympic victors. See: Victory Wreaths	"The sacred section, the Altis or Grove of Zeus, was an irregular quadrangle of more than 182.9 meters, (200 yards) on the side, bounded on the north by Cronios Hill and enclosed by a wall on the other three sides." The Altis Grove of Zeus - danaus.net The altar of the Olympian Zeus may have been at the center of the Altis. The hippodrome may have started to the southeast of the Altis. On the Eastern side was the colonnade of Echo. (From Frazer's commentary on Pausanias)
Ekecheiria	This is the term for the sacred truce that prevented warfare in the area of the Olympics. The word was also the name of the goddess of truces.	[Among the statues dedicated at the temple of Zeus in Olympia:] As you enter the bronze doors you see on your right, before the pillar, Iphitos being crowned by a woman Ekekheiria (Truce), as the elegiac couplet on the statue says. Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.10.10 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue 2nd century A.D.)
Hellanodikai	The names includes the Greek word for Greece (Hellas) and the Greek for judges, and the term refers to the the notoriously fair judges at the ancient Olympics, who awarded the crowns.	[5.9.4] The rules for the presidents [proedroi] of the games are not the same now as they were at the first institution of the festival. Iphitus acted as sole president, as likewise did the descendants of Oxylus after Iphitus. But at the fiftieth Festival two men, appointed by lot from all the Eleans, were entrusted with the management of the Olympic games, and for a long time after this the number of the presidents continued to be two. [5.9.5] But at the ninety-fifth Festival nine umpires were appointed. To three of them were entrusted the chariot-races, another three were to supervise the pentathlum, the rest superintended the remaining contests. At the second Festival after this the tenth umpire was added. At the hundred and third Festival, the Eleans having twelve tribes, one umpire was chosen from each. [5.9.6] But they were hard pressed in a war with the Arcadians and lost a portion of their territory, along with all the parishes included in the surrendered district, and so the number of tribes was reduced to eight in the hundred and fourth Olympiad. Thereupon were chosen umpires equal in number to the tribes. At the hundred and eighth Festival they returned again to the number of ten umpires, which has continued unchanged down to the present day. Pausanias 5.9.4-6.
Olympia	The location of the games was Olympia, where there were temples for Zeus and Hera (Heraion, workshops, the stadia (plus the hippodrome running course for horses), and more, including a treasury, about which Pausanias writes:	[6.19.2] Myron built it to commemorate a victory in the chariot-race at the thirty-third Festival.45 In the treasury he made two chambers, one Dorian and one in the Ionic style. I saw that they were made of bronze; whether the bronze is Tartessian, as the Eleans declare, I do not know.
Olympiad	This is the term used for the period from one set of Olympic games to the next. It was four years and was used in dating other events in the Greek world.
Stade/Stadion	The word stadium comes from this ancient measure of distance calculated to be about 600 feet or about 184.9m. The finish line is at the altar of Zeus. There is a starting line called the balbis.
Zanes	Cheaters paid for bronze statues of Zeus that were on display at Olympia. This wasn't trivial: bronze was very expensive. The statues were the zanes.	[6.20.8] At the end of the statues which they made from the fines levied on athletes.... Pausanias