Such myths can be understood in terms of initiation from boyhood into manhood, for the purpose of preparing men for warfare. Such a ritualized purpose is evident also in such institutions as the seasonally recurring mock battle known as the Ballētus at the Eleusinian Games, which I considered in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter 259-267. Another, more famous, example is the mock battle of Spartan boys in a sacralized space known as the Platanistās, ‘Grove of the Plane Trees’ (Pausanias 3.11.2, 3.14.8-9, at 3.20.8). On the basis of such rituals, we may infer that the institutionalized practices of athletics and warfare were originally viewed as parts of one single ritual continuum.