Why this word is great
HELLANODIKAS — [Noun] The presiding judge and absolute arbiter of the ancient Olympic Games, vested with sacred, pan-Hellenic authority. From the Ancient Greek Ἑλλανοδίκας (Hellanodíkas), from Ἕλλην (Héllēn, "a Greek") and δίκη (díkē, "judgment, justice"), thus literally meaning "Judge of the Greeks". Unlike an agonothetes (a civic sponsor of local contests) or a modern umpire (a technical supervisor of play), the hellanodikas was a priestly magistrate whose verdicts were final and divine. One hears the austere scrape of his bronze strigil checking an athlete’s oil, sees his shadow fall across the dust of the stadion as he disqualifies a competitor, and feels the collective hush as he crowns a victor with a wreath of wild olive—a solitary figure arbitrating not merely sport, but the fleeting, sacred order men impose upon their striving.