User:Senior citizen smith/Ancient Olympic Games

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Ancient Olympics

Lede

The Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: Ὀλύμπια Olympia,[1][2][3][4][5][6] "the Olympics" also Ancient Greek: Ὀλυμπιάς Olympias[4][5][6][7] "the Olympiad") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC.[8] They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in 393 AD as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome. The games were held every four years, or olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies.

During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rivals. Politicians would announce political alliances at the games, and in times of war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory. The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations and artistic competitions. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sculptors and poets would congregate each olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons.

The ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate,[9] although a woman, Bilistiche, is also mentioned as a winning chariot owner. As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate, although the Hellanodikai, the officials in charge, allowed king Alexander I of Macedon to participate in the games only after he had proven his Greek ancestry.[10][11] The games were always held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations as is the practice with the modern Olympic Games.[12] Victors at the Olympics were honored, and their feats chronicled for future generations.

• Pronunciations cluttered, over-reffed, better as footnotes?

• Dates need clarification [see: Foundation section below]

• ..only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate,[9] although a woman, Bilistiche, is also mentioned as a winning chariot owner.

Why is she singled out? Other women won (e.g. Timareta and Theodota from Elis), and Bilistiche wasn't the first (that honour goes to Cynisca). Should women be mentioned in the lede at all? [See Women section below]

Only freeborn Greek men? What about during the Roman period, when slaves could particpate? The fact that the Games evolved over a vast timescale, and how this is classified, should be mentioned.

• As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate..

Not covered elsewhere. Again, what about in the Roman period, when all Roman citizens could compete?

"During the Classical period all Greeks could participate in the Olympic Games, from various city-states in mainland Greece and its colonies, that extended from Gibraltar and south Italy and Sicily to the Black Sea. The participation of the slaves and the "barbarians" was strictly forbidden, as well as those who had committed a crime or had robbed a temple."FHW

Of the Panhellenic Games, the Olympics was the least accessible. "Poor transport links are the key reason tend to be a Western Greek event, with disproportionate numbers of athletes and spectators coming from southern Italy, Sicily and the Adriatic." [Faulkner]

• Hellanodikai mentioned here and nowhere else. [See Hellanodikai section below]

What should the lede include?

• When?

longevity

• Where?

Ancient Olympia

• What?

events

politics

importance,

• Why?

religious/cultural significance

"Ancient Greece had scores of other athletic festivals, some truly important. But the games at Olympia were the ultimate in athletic competition. Pindar, we may recall, compares the way they eclipse the others to the way the sun outshines all other stars in the noonday sky. The Olympic Games were in a class of their own. Above all, for most of the centuries that they were held, the Olympics were a showcase for human physical excellence, where mortals, as Pindar said, could “resemble the gods.” Of equal importance, the Olympics played so unique a role in antiquity that they passed beyond the athletic events proper to exemplify, even to symbolize, all of ancient Greek civilization at its best. That, in fact, is precisely the reason why they were revived in modern times." [Young: 137]

"These Panhellenic festivals played an important part in the politics of Greece. They appealed to those two opposite principles whih determine the whole history of Greece, the love of autonomy and the pride of Hellenism. The independent city-states felt that they were competing in the persons of their citizens, whose fortunes they identified with their own. At the same time, the gathering of citizens from every part of the Greek world quickened the consciousness of common brotherhood, and kept them true to those taditions of religion and eduction which distinguished Greek from barbarian." Gardiner: 4

Origins

To the Greeks, it was important to root the Olympic Games in mythology.[13] During the time of the ancient games their origins were attributed to the gods, and competing legends persisted as to who actually was responsible for the genesis of the games.[14] These origin traditions have become nearly impossible to untangle, yet a chronology and patterns have arisen that help people understand the story behind the games.[15]

Neither Pelops nor either Heracles were gods.

The earliest myths regarding the origin of the games are recounted by the Greek historian, Pausanias.

No.

According to the story, the dactyl Herakles (not to be confused with the son of Zeus) and four of his brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius and Idas, raced at Olympia to entertain the newborn Zeus. He crowned the victor with an olive tree wreath (which thus became a peace symbol), which also explains the four year interval, bringing the games around every fifth year (counting inclusively).[16][17] The other Olympian gods (so named because they lived permanently on Mount Olympus) would also engage in wrestling, jumping and running contests.[18]

Another myth of the origin of the games is the story of Pelops, a local Olympian hero. The story of Pelops begins with Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, Greece, who had a beautiful daughter named Hippodamia. According to an oracle, the king would be killed by her husband. Therefore, he decreed that any young man who wanted to marry his daughter was required to drive away with her in his chariot, and Oenomaus would follow in another chariot and spear the suitor if he caught up with them. Now, the king's chariot horses were a present from the god Poseidon and were therefore supernaturally fast. Pelops was a very handsome young man and the king's daughter fell in love with him. Before the race, she persuaded her father's charioteer Myrtilus to replace the bronze axle pins of the king's chariot with wax ones. Naturally, during the race the wax melted and the king fell from his chariot and was killed. At the same time the king's palace was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes, save for one wooden pillar that was revered in the Altis for centuries, and stood near what was to be the site of the temple of Zeus. Pelops was proclaimed the winner and married Hippodamia. After his victory, Pelops organized chariot races as thanksgiving to the gods and as funeral games in honor of King Oenomaus, in order to be purified of his death. It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the beginnings of the Olympic Games were inspired. Pelops became a great king, a local hero, and gave his name to the Peloponnese.

One other myth, this one occurring after the aforementioned myth, is attributed to Pindar. He claims the festival at Olympia involved Herakles, the son of Zeus. The story goes that after completing his labors, Herakles established an athletic festival to honor his father.

The games of previous millennia were discontinued and then revived by Lycurgus of Sparta, Iphitos of Elis, and Cleisthenes of Pisa at the behest of the Oracle of Delphi who claimed that the people had strayed from the gods, which had caused a plague and constant war. Restoration of the games would end the plague, usher in a time of peace, and signal a return to a more traditional lifestyle.[19] The patterns that emerge from these myths are that the Greeks believed the games had their roots in religion, that athletic competition was tied to worship of the gods, and the revival of the ancient games was intended to bring peace, harmony and a return to the origins of Greek life.[20]

Since these myths were documented by historians like Pausanias, who lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the 160 AD, it is likely that these stories are more fable than fact. It was often supposed that the origins of many aspects of the Olympics date to funeral games of the Mycenean period and later.[21] Alternatively, the games were thought to derive from some kind of vegetation magic or from initiation ceremonies. The most recent theory traces the origins of the games to large game hunting and related animal ceremonialism.[22]}}

Tooo much about ancient beliefs (esp. Pelops), not enough about modern views.

Legends

"The legends of Zeus, Pelops, Heracles, and others are contradictory, and even the ancients found them confusing. Acc to Strabo (8.355), 'one should disregard the ancient stories both of the founding of the temple [Sanctuary] and of the establishment of the Games...for such stories are told in many ways, and no faith at all is to be put in them.' Perhaps over the centuries the Greeks updated the myths, as the character of the cult changed." [Crowther in Schaus]

Origin theories covered in depth by German in Schaus [1]

"Most ancient authors present accounts which reflect the interests of Elis...Strabo (8.335) states that the Olympic Games were controlled by Elis from the date of their foundation.." Morgan, p. 64

Morgan, Catherine (1990). Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-37451-4.

in depth early history of Olympia.

"Prior to 700, the Olympic victors listed by Hippias came almost exclusively from the Western Peloponnese or Lakonia, and unless these regions produced exceptionally talented athletes, access to Olympic contests must have been limited, either deliberately or via custom." Morgan, p. 102

Pelops

<snip!>

Too long, too much focus on the backstory.

"The hero Pelops had a hero shrine in the Altis close to the altar of Zeus (see chapters 2 and 5), and the major myth about him concerns his chariot race with King Oinomaos on the future site of Olympia." [Young: 76]

It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the beginnings of the Olympic Games were inspired.

Bold claim unreffed.

"A few ancient sources even regard this race as the very origin of the Olympic Games. Pindar himself makes no such claim, but clearly implies that this fabled race is pertinent to the early history of Olympia." [Young: 76]

Zeus / Herakles

According to the story, the dactyl Herakles (not to be confused with the son of Zeus) and four of his brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius and Idas, raced at Olympia to entertain the newborn Zeus. He crowned the victor with an olive tree wreath (which thus became a peace symbol), which also explains the four year interval, bringing the games around every fifth year (counting inclusively).[16][17]

Could this be explained more clearly? What are the sources?

One other myth, this one occurring after the aforementioned myth, is attributed to Pindar. He claims the festival at Olympia involved Herakles, the son of Zeus. The story goes that after completing his labors, Herakles established an athletic festival to honor his father.

Word salad

Then Zeus’ mighty son assembled his entire army and all the booty at Pisa. He marked out a sacred precinct for his father, the Altis, which he fenced in and set apart in the open. The plain around he turned into an area for feasts, and honored the river Alpheus. Herakles took out the best of the spoils and made an offering with them, and he established a quadrennial festival and contests for prizes, the first Olympiad. Who then won the new crown with his feet, hands, or chariot? Oionos the son of Likymnios was best with his feet at running the straightway of the stade race.

Pindar

Among many noble feats, gentlemen, for which it is right to remember Heracles, we ought to recall the fact that he was the first, in his affection for the Greeks, to convene this contest. For previously the cities regarded each other as strangers.

Lysias Olympic Oration 33 1 (trans. W.R.M. Lamb)

"According to Philostratus (De Gymnastica [2?]5), the origin of the first running event was a race to the altar of Zeus, where the victor lit the sacred fire for a sacrifice to the god." [Crowther in Schaus]

Diodorus Siculus, B. iv. c. 3, Pausanias, and other ancient writers, as well as Pliny, ascribe their origin to Hercules; Pausanias, however, says, that some supposed them to have been instituted by Jupiter. Bostock

Resurrection

The games of previous millennia were discontinued and then revived by Lycurgus of Sparta, Iphitos of Elis, and Cleisthenes of Pisa at the behest of the Oracle of Delphi who claimed that the people had strayed from the gods, which had caused a plague and constant war.[19]

Presented as fact.

"..there was one tale of the festival's beginnings which is perhaps not wholly mythical. Olympia lay in the land of the Triphylians, "The three tribes." They belonged to the peoples of Arcadia, the very mountainous section of the central Peloponnesus. Their main city was Pisa, not far from the site itself, and Triphylians probably had control of the site in the earliest years. But they had to contend with the people of Elis, to the north, who at some early point took control from them. With only a few interruptions, the Eleans thereafter administered the site and organized the Olympic Games. Some scholars even accuse the Eleans of inventing legends in order to legitimize their claims to be the original sponsors of the games. Pausanias (second century BC [sic]) recounts the story which they apparently told to justify their authority. The king of Elis, Iphitos, was once instructed by the Delphic oracle to "restore the Olympics." He made a pact with the Spartan lawgiver, Lycurgus, and the Pisatan king, Cleomenes, to hold the games and to declare the thirty day Olympic truce, the ekecheiria which protected those going to the games." [Young: 13] [Paus. (5.20.1)?]??

Iphitos established the Olympic Games, since the citizens of Elis were very pious. Because of such things, these men prospered. While the other cities were always at war with one another, these people enjoyed a general peace, not only for themselves, but also for visitors, with a result that here, of all places, an especially great number of people assembled.

Strabo, Geography 8.3.33 ??

Background

Mediterranean antecedents

It was often supposed that the origins of many aspects of the Olympics date to funeral games of the Mycenean period and later.[21]

"was often supposed?" Clarify. and later is ambiguous here. Source is offline.

"For nearly a century Burckhardt's argument that the Greeks were uniquely competitive received wide acceptance (Gardiner 1930: 1–2). Recently, however, some of the best scholars have disagreed. They argue that the earlier cultures of the ancient Near East and Egypt had sport as well, and stress their strong and sweeping influence on Greece in other matters. Yet depictions of wrestling bouts or other combative contests in these other cultures offer no proof that these activities were part of a larger or formal competition. And they do not tell us who the competitors were or why they are competing. They are merely pictures of men wrestling or fighting. In Egypt and elsewhere the rulers (or others in honor of the rulers) indeed hunted animals and engaged in other physical activities. But none of these things anywhere seems to have influenced or resembled the Greek athletic meeting. I join many others who think that Burckhardt's thesis still survives a thorough examination rather well (Golden 1998: 30–3; Poliakoff 1987: 104–11; Scanlon 2002: 9–10)." [Young: 3]

"...the Olympic Games were not the first athletic events to be organized in the Mediterranean area. Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians had a long tradition in athletic activities as shown by the reliefs depicting athletic scenes carved on the tombs of their kings and their nobles. They did not organize regular festivals however and when they did, these were most likely reserved to kings and higher classes. The Minoans were particularly interested in the gymnastics. Bull-leaping and tumbling were their favorite sports as indicated by the frescoes decorating their palaces. Other Minoan sports included track contests, wrestling and boxing. But it is most likely that such activities were performed near the palace, probably by members of the higher class. The Myceneans adopted all Minoan games and introduced chariot racing and more track events. In the Mycenean world the chariot was considered extremely important, as it is not only used in hunting and in war but for religious and funerary ceremonies as well." FHW

Homer?

Iliad: Chariot race, boxing, wrestling, foot race (diaulos), sword-fencing, weight throw, archery, spear throw.

Odyssey: Boxing, wrestling, a foot race, long jump, and discus throw.

"Homer does not mention Olympic Games, a sure anachronism; but he is certainly familiar with athletic contests. Already in his day the Olympics may well have been the most prominent among them. Homer’s heroes of the Trojan War indeed participate in athletics. As his best friend Patroclus lies dead and unburied, Achilles decides that the most appropriate way to honor him would be to hold an athletic meeting and distribution of athla, prizes (Iliad 23.256–897)." :[Young: 6]

"The difficult question is how much in Homer is an authentic memory of Mycenaean times, and how much comes from life in eighth-century Greece. [...] There is, I think, cogent evidence that Homer, rather than preserving a memory of athletics centuries earlier, represents athletics in his own time. No discuses have turned up at Mycenae, and I am confident that they never will." [Young: 8]

"The Olympic Games almost certainly began before [Homer's compositions c.725 BC], and I think the athletics which Homer represents give us a good notion of what the early Olympics probably were like. [Young: 10]

FHW

Military?

"A common theory about Greek athletics finds their origin and purpose in military training. Yet in Homer the best boxer is a poor soldier. Moreover, some highly successful generals of the Classical period thought athletics were detrimental to military training. The fourth century BC general Epaminondas of Thebes discouraged his men from athletics. In the next century, the military mastermind Philopoemen actually forbade his troops to do any athletics at all (Plutarch, Moralia 192c–d, 788a; Philopoemen 3.2–4). The military theory has little to commend it." [Young: 6]

Other

"Robertson even speculates that early contests were a sort of initiation rite, in which boys were taken from their community, with the priestess of Demeter Chamyne, the only marrried woman at the festival, representing the 'domestic milieu'." [Crowther in Schaus]

Alternatively, the games were thought to derive from some kind of vegetation magic or from initiation ceremonies. The most recent theory traces the origins of the games to large game hunting and related animal ceremonialism.[22]

"vegetation magic?" (Check sources) "The most recent theory.." It's a theory

History

The games started in Olympia, Greece, in a sanctuary site for the Greek deities near the towns of Elis and Pisa (both in Elis on the peninsula of Peloponnesos). The first games began as an annual foot race of young women in competition for the position of the priestess for the goddess, Hera,[24] and a second race was instituted for a consort for the priestess who would participate in the religious traditions at the temple.[25]

Rewrite first sentence.

Need we mention the women's race? Maybe the first race on the site, but not the first "games". What are the sources?

The Heraea Games, the first recorded competition for women in the Olympic Stadium, were held as early as the sixth century BC. It originally consisted of foot races only, as did the competition for males. Some texts, including Pausanias's Description of Greece, c. AD 175, state that Hippodameia gathered a group known as the "Sixteen Women" and made them administrators of the Heraea Games, out of gratitude for her marriage to Pelops. Other texts related to the Elis and Pisa conflict indicate that the "Sixteen Women" were peacemakers from Pisa and Elis and, because of their political competence, became administrators of the Heraea. Being the consort of Hera in Classical Greek mythology, Zeus was the father of the deities in the pantheon of that era.

A mess. The women's games could be mentioned briefly, they weren't part of the Olympic Games.

The para then jumps to dealing with the Statue of Zeus, and ends with:

By the time of the Classical Greek culture, in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, the games were restricted to male participants,

yet the Olympic games were always restricted to male participants!

The historian Ephorus, who lived in the fourth century BC, is one potential candidate for establishing the use of Olympiads to count years, although credit for codifying this particular epoch usually falls to Hippias of Elis, to Eratosthenes, or even to Timaeus, whom Eratosthenes may have imitated.[26][27][28] The Olympic Games were held at four-year intervals, and later, the ancient historians' method of counting the years even referred to these games, using the term Olympiad for the period between two games. Previously, the local dating systems of the Greek states were used (they continued to be used by everyone except the historians), which led to confusion when trying to determine dates. For example, Diodorus states that there was a solar eclipse in the third year of the 113th Olympiad, which must be the eclipse of 316 BC. This gives a date of (mid-summer) 765 BC for the first year of the first Olympiad.[29] Nevertheless, there is disagreement among scholars as to when the games began.[30]

This para needs chopping/rewriting.

The calendar stuff could be treated as a seperate subheading. (See Calendar section)

First sentence virtually incomprehensible.

The trad foundation of 776 BC not mentioned. We should mention that there is confusion over the exact start, but maybe leave the details for a footnote/seperate article? (See 776 BC section)

"Archaeology tends to confirm, approximately, the Olympic starting date at or soon after that which Greeks gave; namely, our 776 BC. That date is several decades before the Greek alphabet and Homer’s Iliad. Olympics then took place every four years for more than a millennium, well into the latter days of the Roman empire, as antiquity gave way to the early Middle Ages. Very recent excavations prove that international competition took place later than was thought, to about 400 AD." [Young: 16-17]

Kyle, Donal G. [http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/NASSH_Proceedings/NP2007/np2007d.pdf "Herodotus on Ancient Olympia and the

Elean Embassy to Egypt"]

Archaic period

776 BC?

• Investigated and accepted by Aristotle and Erastothenes [2]

"generally regarded with skepticism as a reliable foundation date." [Schaus]

• Earlier?

"The year 776 BC used to be considerd a firm date for the Olympic Games, and one of the few absolute dates available for the Iron Age[...]Yet even in the ancient world, Olympic chronolgy was challenged by Plutarch (Numa 1.4) and others. Pausanias (5.8.5) states that the Games lapsed in the time of Oxylus and were refounded in the reign of Iphitus. Eusebius says that Coroebus of Elis was not the first victor but the first recorded victor, and that there had previously been twenty-seven [unrecorded] victors. Some ancients believed the Games began in the ninth century..." (bear in mind they are writing many centuries later)

"Mallwitz suggests that Olympia first became a sanctuary in the ninth or eight century BC. In its early days, the Olympic festival was probably one of numerous comps that arose in Greece on an informal basis, which would have little to do with the illustrious Games that they were to become. If one follows the traditional account (which is now considered to be far from certain), there was only one event in the first Olympiad, the stade.[...]it is unlikely that at this time athletics were a major part of the festival." [Crowther in Schaus]

• "The First Olympic Games" Max Nelson

Note 60

Calendar

"As early as Thucydides, historians used Olympic victories to fix events (Thuc. 3.8, 5.49.1). The practice became prevalent after Hippias of Elis, a contemporary of Thucydides, drew up his list of Olympic victors[...] chronographers disagreed as to whether the Olympic year should be said to begin with the Athenian year (summer) or the Macedonian (in fall) or some other. In this way the Greeks staked a claim to time. They colonized the past by constructing and recording it through a festival which featured a distinctively Greek activity and was open to Greeks alone." Golden: 16

"The only Panhellenic calendar used in ancient Greece is that supplied by the Olympic Games themselves." [Faulkner]

Classical period

Define

• 472 and 456 BC Temple of Zeus, Olympia
• Defeat of Persians

united Greek states for the first time, Olympia "very embodiment of Panhellenism" More contestants, donations, poets etc. Pindar, Thermistocles Young: 58

470s Golden decade

expansion left "permanent imprint on the site and its institutions, and on Greece itself." Hellanodikai increased from two to nine, number of days inc from one/two to four/five. [[Young: 59=60]

• 476 BC Olympic peace pact

symbol of peace

• Peloponnesian War 431-404 BC

• Philip

Gardiner: 153

The Olympic truce and battle at Olympia

Several groups fought over control of the sanctuary at Olympia, and hence the games, for prestige and political advantage. Pausanias later writes that in 668 BC, Pheidon of Argos was commissioned by the town of Pisa to capture the sanctuary from the town of Elis, which he did and then personally controlled the games for that year. The next year, Elis regained control.

Unreffed

• "The Olympic truce[...]was a period on either side of the festival during which competitors and other visitors were to be granted safe passage to and from Olympia (Lammer 1982-3). Originally a month long, this was extended to two months as participants came from further afield (Luc. Icar. 22). It is important here to emphasize that the truce was quite restricted, an armistice (ekecheiria), not a period of peace (eirene) throughout the Greek world; only did open warfare by or against Elis was foridden. Other wars could (and did) carry on - all that was intended was that they not disrupt the games[...]Even this limited goal was sometimes beyond reach. In 365 [BC], the Arcadians seized the sanctuary and proceeded to hold the Olympic festival of 364 along with the neighbouring Pisatans (who claimed to have been the original custodians). While the games were under way[...]the Eleans and their Arcadian allies invaded the sacred precinct, and a pitched battle ensued (Xen. Hell. 7.4.28-32)." Golden: 16-17

Wasn't the crowd cheering on? (check sources)

"The quoit of Iphitus has inscribed upon it the truce which the Eleans proclaim at the Olympic festivals; the inscription is not written in a straight line, but the letters run in a circle round the quoit." Paus. 5.20 1

Late Hellenistic peiod

"The Olympic games[...]appeal may have weakened slightly in the late Hellenistic period." Newby: 7

Imperial period

This model shows the site of Olympia, home of the ancient Olympic Games, as it looked around 100 BC. British Museum

Roman conquest of Greece

Mummius dedication and adornment of temples.

"Greek athletics continued because of this leniency toward local customs. Roman rule, however, was not kind to Greece or to Olympia, both of which declined noticeably throughout the preAugustan era of Roman control. Yet enough Roman dignitaries erected their statues at Olympia during that period to prove that there was no open friction between the Olympic officials and their overlords. [...]Romans had entered a long period so marred by the devastation of civil wars and internecine strife that they concentrated on their problems at home, paying less attention to their subject provinces. Olympia and its games suffered more from neglect than from any malevolence. And all Greece had apparently entered a kind of financial depression. There is a paucity of victor statues in the Altis in this period. And all the Olympic equestrian victors came from nearby Elis, a clear indication that no one could afford racing stables, or at least not the transport of their horses and gear to the games." [Young: 131]

Sulla

"Only one Roman committed a violent act against Olympia. In 86 BC the Roman general Sulla, who needed to finance a foreign war, robbed Olympia and other Greek sanctuaries of their treasures. Somewhat later the sanctuaries were indemnified and there was no real permanent damage." [Young: 131]

"Sulla's games in 80 BC, held to celebrate his victories over Mithridates, certainly included athletic contests and were said to have robbed Olympia that year of any contest except the stade race since all the athletes had been called to Rome." Newby: 26

Augustus

"Just before Augustus attained his position of full power, his friend Marcus Agrippa had helped restore the damaged temple of Zeus. There were other signs that the site and games might be redeemed under Augustus’ imperial rule. In 12 BC the emperor induced King Herod of Judea to subsidize the Olympic festival. No Roman ever entered an athletic event at Olympia, but the few exceptions to the Elean monopoly of the equestrian events are also the only Romans known to sign up at all. In the early years of Augustus’ control, a few people closely linked to him, even the future emperor Tiberius, won equestrian events. Probably no Roman Olympic victor ever set foot on Olympic soil." (my emph)

"The new emperor eventually declared himself a god, and at Olympia he founded a cult to himself. He dedicated his own statue there, three times life size. But it did not look much like him, because it was made in the likeness of Zeus, replete with thunderbolts (Drees 1968: 119). The stadium was renovated at his command – almost as it is now – and he subsidized Greek athletics in general. The Eleans allowed subsequent “divine” emperors to place their statues within the Altis. If they wished the games to continue and even to improve, they had no choice. They were compelled to go along with these excesses, which were often committed as much on behalf of successful policy as megalomania." [Young: 132]

Nero

"The next three emperors neglected Olympia somewhat, but the most notorious events in all Olympic history took place thereafter under Nero, who was the quintessence of megalomania. A fan of the chariot races in Rome, he wanted to win the chariot race at all festivals of the Greek Circuit in a single year. So he ordered the Big Four to hold their festivals all in the same year, 67 AD. Olympiad 211, scheduled for 65 AD, was therefore postponed for two years. Badly deceived by flattery and delusion, Nero also fancied himself a great singing musician. So he made sure that contests inmusic, tragedy, and singing were added to festivals that lacked them, such as the Olympics. His singing was appallingly bad, but no judgedared award the crown to anyone else. In the chariot race, he fell off his chariot, but claimed the victory anyway. He was assassinated within a year, so the Olympic judges, who now had to repay the bribes which he had given them, declared the Neronian Olympiad a non-Olympiad which did not count. But the Olympiad number 211 was kept, lest the chain be broken, and just two years later came Olympiad 212." [Young: 132-3]

Renaissance

"In the first half of the second century ad, the Philhellenic Antonine emperors, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, strongly supported Olympia. The Olympics once again became a grand institution which attracted large numbers of spectators and athletes. An athlete’s prestige, if he won, was once again enormous, and it now spread throughout the broad Roman Empire. The Olympic Games entered a new and successful phase, which can aptly be called a “renaissance” (Scanlon 2002: 53–4). It lasted for most of the second century. Philosophers, orators, artists, religious proselytizers, singers, and all kinds of performers went to the festival of Zeus. Most of them attracted large crowds as they spoke or exhibited whatever they brought." [Young: 133]

Improved water supply to site. [Young: 134]

[3]

• Games importance to Rome

"Athletic contests and training continued to grow in popularity during the Roman period." Newby: 2

Cultural differences

"Ever since first coming into contact with the greek world in the third century BC, and with growing impetus from the first century BC onwards, the Romans had eagerly embraced certain aspects of Greek culture[...]Involvement in Greek athletics seems to have been particularly problematic. Traditional Roman morality was hostile to the public nudity and performance which were such characteristic features of Greek athletics and attacked the gymnasium as lustful and enervating." Newby: 3

Spin-offs

Covered by Farrington.

Decline

• The games were in decline for many years but continued past 385 AD..
• When did they go into decline?
• Why?

[4]

• Did they really continue past 385?

Antioch franchise [5]

"In 1994, Sinn discovered a bronze plaque, which lists victors at Olympia as late as AD 385." [Crowther in Schaus]

"The prosperity of the Olympics in the second century ad seems to have faded badly in the course of the next. Not only does Africanus’ victory list end with the Olympiad of 217, but also subsequent ancient authors no longer seem to care enough about the games to mention any new Olympic victors in any extant text. Evidence for the few later Olympic victors of whom we know comes not from literature but from excavated inscriptions written in antiquity. Formerly, the last certain and precisely datable victory was (probably) in 241 AD, when Publius Asclepiades of Corinth won the pentathlon. For centuries and even a decade ago, historians thought that the very last known Olympic victor probably was not a Greek, but an Armenian prince named Varazdates. Varazdates’ supposed victory is attested only in a murky Armenian source (Moses of Khoren, History of Armenia 3.40). Since Varazdates reigned from 374–8, conjectures place his rather doubtful victory, mentioned only in an Armenian history of Armenia, in the 360s AD. But the bronze plaque found in 1994 at the athletes’ clubhouse not only gives us new names, it also reveals that truly international Greek Olympic Games continued at least until 385 AD, much longer than any previous evidence suggested. The plaque contains the names of the victors in the combative events who come from both the mainland and Asia Minor. The list extends from the first century ad almost to the end of the fourth. The last two entries are for two brothers from Athens, Eukarpides and Zopyros, who won boys’ events in 381 and 385 AD, respectively (Ebert 1995). It is perhaps somewhat reassuring to learn that the last known victor is from Athens rather than Armenia. There is no doubt, however, but that the very institution of the Olympic Games slowly and continuously declined throughout the third and fourth centuries ad. It was then interrupted by a journey into obscurity which lasted a millennium and a half before the games could resume their glorious course. In 267 AD barbarians called the Heruli had overrun the major cities of Greece, and a defensive wall built around the central Altis about the same time suggests that they attacked Olympia as well. A little later an earthquake damaged all the buildings. They were soon repaired, but for the next century, repeated flooding from both nearby rivers caused further damage. Although they had long been foundering, the games themselves had somehow endured until at least 385." [Young: 135]

Theodosius I

"In 391 AD Theodosius I, a Christian and the emperor of the Roman Empire, banned all pagan worship and issued an edict that all pagan temples be closed. It was probably then that someone stole Pheidias’ priceless statue of Zeus. It was last seen still in place at Olympia in 384, but it was known to be in Constantinople by 395." [Young: 136]

"Zeus’ temple and his Olympic Games may well have lasted beyond the 391 edict and into the fifth century. Respectable evidence would date the actual termination of the cult of Olympian Zeus not to the reign of Theodosius I, but to that of his son, Theodosius II, who in about 426 reinforced his father’s ban on all remnants of paganism. This time the Olympic priests and officials complied. By then barbarians had taken over most of Greece anyway, and soon Christians took over Olympia. They converted the workshop of Pheidias into a church for the celebration of the Mass. The Christian village, however, never became large. What had been Olympia was no longer a hospitable place. Major earthquakes, floods, and more barbarians continued to frustrate the inhabitants. By 620 even the Christians had abandoned the site. Many feet of alluvial sand buried it for many centuries before archaeologists began to uncover its ancient treasures." [Young: 136-7]

Revival

Keep it brief (does it have its own article?)

[Young: 138+] covers it.

Politics

Can this section be incorporated into History / Culture?

• "And we compel citizens to exercise their bodies not only for the games, so that they can win the prizes -for very few of them go there - but also to gain a greater good from it for the whole city, and for themselves". Lucian, c.170 BC

Events

Table of events in preceding section is poorly written and incomplete. Cut.

The addition of events meant the festival grew from one day to five days, three of which were used for competition. The other two days were dedicated to religious rituals. On the final day, there was a banquet for all the participants, consisting of 100 oxen that had been sacrificed to Zeus on the first day.

Unreffed. Cut.

A large amount of the section copies/closely paraphrases this loose National Geographic article. Most of the events section needs gutting.

• Expansion of events. When were they introduced?

List here: FHW

Bear in mind unreliability of dates, it could be the first time they were recorded.

Gardiner: 52

"Pausanias says that the program of events at Olympia developed gradually, and gives a timetable, which may or may not go back to Hippias. Whatever the case, many modern students of the games think that it is accurate. Pausanias claims that in the beginning and for about a half-century, the only event at the Olympic festival was the race of one length of the stadium, the stade." [Young: 20]

• Number of events

"Eventually the Olympic program consisted of twenty-three contests, although there were never more than twenty at any one Olympiad. [Crowther in Schaus]

• Heats

Gardiner: 278

Youth events

Not mentioned.

First recorded in 632 BC (stadion and wrestling followed by pentathlon in 628 BC)

• How old were competitors?

Youths possibly 12-17 (check sources), age determined by Hellanodakai

"Some festivals recognized three age groups: boys, youths, and men. At Olympia, there were only two divisions: men and boys. There is no clear evidence as to the exact ages where these distinctions were drawn."

Gardiner: 271

Rank of events

• Which are the most important/respected/rewarded events?

Gardiner: 272-3

Performance

• How were events performed? How do we know?

"Our knowledge of how the events were actually performed relies heavily on the many pictures of athletes in the paintings which decorate vases unearthed around the Greek world. Fortunately, the most heavily represented period of athletic art is in the Archaic and Classical periods, which interest us most. Experts can usually date those vases within a decade, and often identify the individual painter by name. The scenes which they depict can be subject to differing interpretations, but sometimes are decisive in clarifying ancient technique." [Young: 18]

Running

Three runners. Side B of an Attic black-figured Panathenaic prize amphora. 332-333BC, British Museum.

A section of the stone starting line at Olympia, which has a groove for each foot

Covered but largely unreffed.

• Starting

Gardiner: 274-7

Lee, Hugh M. (April 6, 2004). "Stadia and Starting Gates". Archaeology.

Stade

At first, the Olympic Games lasted only one day, but eventually grew to five days. The Olympic Games originally contained one event: the stadion (or "stade") race, a short sprint measuring between 180 and 240 metres (590 and 790 ft), or the length of the stadium. The length of the race is uncertain, since tracks found at archeological sites, as well as literary evidence, provide conflicting measurements. Runners had to pass five stakes that divided the lanes: one stake at the start, another at the finish, and three stakes in between.

Cut first sentence, dubious, as is the second. The last sentence can be cut.

• Length

"The foot used in the stadium at Olympia was one of the longest, 0.3205 meters, giving a total length of more than 192 metres." Miller: 33

Stadion

Clarify it is a straight line sprint as our 100m

Diaulos

The diaulos, or two-stade race, was introduced in 724 BC, during the 14th Olympic games. The race was a single lap of the stadium, approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft), and scholars debate whether or not the runners had individual "turning" posts for the return leg of the race, or whether all the runners approached a common post, turned, and then raced back to the starting line.

Miller: 32

"As indicated by the name, runners in the diaulos ("double channel" or "double pipe") ran in lanes, which were marked by lime, and turned around individual turning posts (kampteres)." Miller: 44

Dolichos

A third foot race, the dolichos, was introduced in 720 BC. Accounts of the race present conflicting evidence as to the length of the dolichos; however, the length of the race was 18–24 laps, or about three miles (5 km). The runners would begin and end their event in the stadium proper, but the race course would wind its way through the Olympic grounds. The course often would flank important shrines and statues in the sanctuary, passing by the Nike statue by the temple of Zeus before returning to the stadium.

• Distance

Go with Miller here

"The sources are not unanimous about the length...some claim that it was twenty laps of the stadium track, others that it was twenty four. It may have differed from site to site, but it was in the range of 7.5 to 9 km." Miller: 32

"Ancient sources never specify the exact number of laps in the distance race, and modern opinions vary greatly. The most widely accepted number is 20 laps, a distance of a little over 3,845 meters (2.36 miles), more than double our classic distance race of 1,500 meters." [Young: 26]

Hoplite race (Hoplitodromos)

Hoplitodromos from an Attic black-figure Panathenaic amphora, 323–322 BC

The last running event added to the Olympic program was the hoplitodromos, or "Hoplite race", introduced in 520 BC and traditionally run as the last race of the Olympic Games. 25 runners would run either a single or double diaulos (approximately 400 or 800 yards) in full or partial armour, carrying a shield and additionally equipped either with bronze greaves and a helmet.[52][53] As the armour weighed between 50 and 60 lb (27 kg), the hoplitodromos emulated the speed and stamina needed for warfare. Due to the weight of the armour, it was easy for runners to drop their shields or trip over fallen competitors. In a vase painting depicting the event, some runners are shown leaping over fallen shields.[citation needed] The course they used for these runs were made out of clay, with sand over the clay.[54]

"In the 5th century BC, the breast-plates were removed and when the helmet was also removed in the 4th century BC the runners ran holding only their heavy wooden, bronze-embedded shield."

• Military links.

Pentathlon

consisting of wrestling, stadion, long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw (the latter three were not separate events).

• See Ancient Olympic pentathlon

Gariner: 359-

• Introduction

Introduced 708 BC during the 18th Olympiad. Same time as wrestling. Miller: 60

• Deciding the victor

Not known how the victor was decided. [Young: 19]

• Duration

Competition held on single day. [Young: 32]

Javelin (Akon)

In the target javelin event contestants on a running horse threw javelins at a shield which was attached to a pole, a regular military practice per the historian Xenophon.[54]

Not thought to have taken place at Olympia. Gardiner: 135

• Performance

"To judge from the vase paintings, the akon (or akontion, as it was sometimes called) was about 1.9 meters long and about the diameter of a human thumb or slightly thicker." [Miller: 68-69]

"We read in our sources that it was made of elder wood and tipped in bronze." Miller: 69

"The winner was determined by the length of the throw, as we see from images showing athletes using a marker (semeion), just as they did in the diskos throw." [Miller: 71]

• Thong

"The feature of the akon throw that differentiates it from the modern javelin competition was the use of the ankyle, a thin leather thong that was wrapped around the shaft to make a loop for the first two fingers of the throwing hand...The loop provided leverage and acted like a sling to propel the akon, and as it was released the ankyle unwound, producing a rifling effect on the shaft." [Miller: 69]

Gardiner: 338-358

Discus (Diskos)

Young boy holding a discus at the palaestra. Near him, a pick to prepare the landing ground for the long jump, and a pair of haliteres. Interior of an Attic red-figure kylix. Kleomelos Painter c.510-500 BC, Louvre.

Not covered.

Gardiner: 312-337

• Performance

"..not unlike the modern competition, although the degree to which the diskos was stadardized is not clear. There are stone and iron diskoi, but the most common material is bronze, and the most common size is about 21 cm in diameter with a weight of about 2 kg, the same as the modern discus." Miller: 60

• Images of diskoi:

Miller: 61 File:Antieke en moderne discus (1988).jpg

Jumping (Halma)

Not covered.

Gardiner: 295- Detailed analysis with illustrations.

• Halteres

• Running or standing jump?

Consensus tends towards running. In depth analysis by Hugh Lee in Schaus concludes that the halma was a running long jump with weights, with a shorter run-up than modern long jump (10m vs. 40m). 162

• Triple jump?

Triple jump claims dealt with by Lee, I think (check sources).

Miller: 63

Wrestling (Pale)

A wrestler threw the opponent to the ground three times in order to win. There were no weight classes, larger wrestlers had an advantage. In pankration only biting and gouging were forbidden. One fighter would break an opponent’s fingers at the start of the match to force immediate surrender. Another fighter would twist opponents’ ankles from their sockets.[54]

• One fighter would break an opponent’s fingers at the start of the match to force immediate surrender.

Ambiguous. This refers to a single fighter.

Sostratus of Sicyon was a pankratiast

Paus. tells of a statue to "a man of Sicyon who was a pancratiast, Sostratus surnamed Acrochersites. For he used to grip his antagonist by the fingers and bend them, and would not let go until he saw that his opponent had given in." (In Greek αἱ ἄκραι χεῖρες. Hence Acrochersites, “the fingerer.”) Paus. 6.4.1

Gardiner has a finger-breaker named "Leontiscus" was the wrestler who used this technique.

• Types

Divided into orthia pale (standing wrestling) and kato pale (ground wrestling). Olympics featured one of these (contradicts fhw.gr check sources, Young?)

• Rules

"The starting stance was called the systasis, or "standing together," and is frequently portrayed in vase painting and sculpture."Miller :46-48

Three throws necessary for win. Probably body, hip, back, shoulder and maybe knee had to touch floor. If both fell nothing was counted. Unlike its modern counterpart Greco-Roman wrestling, it is likely that tripping was allowed.

• Byes

"Without dust"

Boxing

Over the years, more events were added: boxing (pygme/pygmachia), wrestling (pale) in 708 BC,[56] and pankration, a fighting competition combining both elements. Wrestling was also the final decisive event in the ancient pentathlon.[57][58]

Boxing became increasingly brutal over the centuries. Initially, soft leather covered their fingers, but eventually, hard leather with metal sometimes was used.[59] The fights had no rest periods and no rules against hitting a man while he was down. Bouts continued until one man either surrendered or died.

Boxers fought on open ground, there were no corners. If a fight last hours, the boxers could agree to exchange undefended blows. Greek geographer Pausanias wrote of a fight between Damoxenos and Kreugas which ended when Damoxenos jabbed Kreugas with outstretched fingers, piercing the skin and ripping Kreugas' entrails out of the body.[54]

"No sport was older, and none was more popular at all periods among the Greeks than boxing."

"..the laws of boxing in use at Olympia were ascribed to Onomastus of Smyrna."

Spartans claimed "to have invented boxing at first as a military exercise, abandoned it at an early date and took no part in boxing competitions." Gardiner: 402 (fear of losing?)

• Date

688 BC, twenty years after wrestling. Miller: 51

Boys event 616 BC.

• Damoxenos and Kreugas

This happened at the Nemean Games. Apparently after a long battle with no result these combatants agreed to free exchage hits. Gardiner: 432 (Polydeuces versus Amycus is interesting. [Gardiner: 429])

• Gloves / thongs

"..called himantes (singular: himas) and consisted of leather straps wrapped round the hands...Their nickname was myrmikes (ants) becuase they stung and left nicks and abrasions on the boxer." Miller: 51

"By the midddle of the fourth century[...]was replaced by the oxys, or "hard" himas." Miller: 52

Gardiner analysis [Gardiner: 403-411]

"Plato [commended] the use of the [??] on account of its brutality as more closely reproducing the conditions of warfare, and so more suitable for training soldiers than the "soft thongs'." Gardiner: 136

• Rules

Knock-out, surrender?

Fatalites apparently infrequent.

Plutarch explains no wrestling, clinching

Image of boxer sculpture??

Pankration

Pankration scene: the pankriatiast on the right tries to gouge his opponent's eye; the umpire is about to strike him for this foul. Detail from an Attic red-figure kylix c.490-480 BC, British Museum

Not really covered.

Gardiner: 435-

• When?

In the 33rd Olympiad. (648 BC) [Gardiner: 435]

Boys' pankration became an Olympic event in 200 BC, in the 145th Olympiad. Miller: 60

• Rules

No gouging nor biting. (Twice mentioned in Aristophanes) Gardiner: 438

Win by submission (raise hand?)

No branch of athletics was more popular..." Pindar wrote eight odes in praise. Gardiner: 437

Regarded as less dangerous than boxing. Paus 5.6.5??

• Arrhichion of Phigaleia "expired at the very moment when his opponent acknowledged himself beaten." [Gardiner: 438]450 and Miller: 59

Similar to UFC

No weight divisions or time limits??

"Galen, in his skit on the Olympic games, awards the prize[...]to the donkey, as teh best of all animals in kicking." Gardiner: 445-6

Equestrian

Not covered (except Nero).

Gardiner: 451-

• Where?

Events were conducted in the Hippodrome. "Even though no ancient hippodromes have been preserved, Pausanias informs us that the one at Olympia lay north of the stadium." FHW

Horse races

• The keles, a race for full-grown horse with a rider (horse should be one year old), which was included in 648 BC.
• The kalpe, a race for mares in 496 BC.
• The race for foals in 256 BC.

Chariot races

• The tethrippon, a four-horse chariot in 680 BC.
• The apene, a chariot pulled by two mules in 500 BC.
• The synoris, a chariot pulled by two horses in 408 BC
• The tethrippon for foals in 384 BC and the synoris for foals in 268 BC. FHW

• Rules?

"According to the representations on pots, the riders were naked and without saddle and stirrups, holding the reins and the whip. The charioteers were not the owners of the horses, but they were paid by the owners to ride their horses on their behalf. The owner of the horse was declared the winner and received the kotinos -the wreath from the sacred olive-tree in Olympia- as a prize, while the rider or the charioteer was crowned with a woolen stripe. For this reason, there have been cases where women were crowned Olympic victors (Cyniske) or even children and cities (Argos, Thebes). The animals that won in the contests were also crowned with a woolen stripe and they received special honors." FHW

Jockeys nude, charioteers clothed [Young: 50]

Jockeys, professional, nude, bareback, no stirrups (at first) ibid

"In early vases the jockeys are inexplicably portrayed in the nude. By the Hellenistic period they are usually shown wearing a chiton and frequently have negroid features." Miller: 78-79

Dropped

"Certain contests, too, have been dropped at Olympia, the Eleans resolving to discontinue them[...]The races for mule-carts, and the trotting-race, were instituted respectively at the seventieth Festival and the seventy-first, but were both abolished by proclamation at the eighty-fourth. When they were first instituted, Thersius of Thessaly won the race for mule-carts, while Pataecus, an Achaean from Dyme, won the trotting-race.

The trotting-race was for mares, and in the last part of the course the riders jumped off and ran beside the mares, holding on to the bridle, just as at the present day those do who are called “mounters.” The mounters, however, differ from the riders in the trotting-race by having different badges, and by riding horses instead of mares. The cart-race was neither of venerable antiquity nor yet a graceful performance. Moreover, each cart was drawn by a pair of mules, not horses, and there is an ancient curse on the Eleans if this animal is even born in Elis." Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.9.1-2

Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 40, states that three mares of Miltiades and Evagoras, which had been victorious in the Olympic games, were buried with sepulchral honours in the Ceramicus. Bostock

Herald and Trumpet contest

• Announcer: keryx
• Trumpeter: salpinktes

Miller: 84

"The salpinktes also apparently signaled the last lap in races at the hippodrome by giving a trumpet blast..." [Young: 51]

Spectators and site

Location

Key for map at Ancient Olympia

Olympia

The stadium at Olympia

• See also: Ancient Olympia

A map of Olympia in relation to the Med would be handy.

"The site of Olympia lies in the valley of the River Alpheus in the northwestern Peloponnesus, about 15 kilometers inland from the west coast, where the rushing river exits into the sea. The valley is bounded on both sides by gentle hills. Northeast of the site is a larger hill, called the Hill of Cronus, the most distinctive landmark of the area. Olympia itself was never an inhabited town or city; it was from its start a religious precinct dedicated to the cult of Zeus. Over the years various structures were built on the grounds. The only permanent residents were some priests, although many thronged to it every four years and it was constantly visited by worshippers and tourists." [Young: 13-14]

"The "Altis," as Pindar calls it, local dialect for alsos, meant "Sacred Place", usually "Sacred Grove," because Greeks tended to place their sanctuaries in shady, well-wooded areas. The religious portion of the site, at Olympia always called by the name Altis, was clearly marked off from the secular grounds nearby, such as the stadium, any accommodations, baths, and other areas which served the tourists or the athletes more than the god." [Young: 13-14]

"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. Pindar too calls the place Altis in an ode composed for an Olympic victor." Paus. 5.10 1

Miller: 87 also describes the location.

Why Olympia?

• [6]

Reaching the site

Perrottet, Tony. The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games. p. 61.

By sea. Gardiner: 36-37

Lack of facilities and later improvements

"The festival was noisy[...]also hideously congested, and for hundreds of years deprived of adequate accomodation, water supply, and sanitation; not to mention marred by the standard plagues of heat, flies, and hucksters." [7]

"No-one got any sleep, as parties went on through the small hours, and hundreds of prostitutes, both women and boys, were busy touting their services until dawn." Spivey

"But you may say, there are some things disagreeable and troublesome in life. And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched? Are you not pressed by a crowd? Are you not without comfortable means of bathing? Are you not wet when it rains? Have you not abundance of noise, clamour, and other disagreeable things? But I suppose that setting all these things off against the magnificence of the spectacle, you bear and endure".

Epictetus, 1st century AD.

"Dictators, diplomats and the rich tend to advertise their presence with large tent pavillions[...]Most people[...]have to claim a pitch and improvise a shelter amidst a sprawling camping-ground of awnings, tents and shacks extending along the Alpheios or down one of the tracks leading to the site." [Faulkner]

Perrottet 67-

• Offering to Zeus Apomyios "Averter of flies" Perrottet 71

"There is a story that when Heracles the son of Alcmena was sacrificing at Olympia he was much worried by the flies. So either on his own initiative or at somebody's suggestion he sacrificed to Zeus Averter of Flies, and thus the flies were diverted to the other side of the Alpheius. It is said that in the same way the Eleans too sacrifice to Zeus Averter of Flies, to drive1 the flies out of Olympia." Paus. 5.14 1

"One of most important features of Olympia’s architecture was built in the mid-second century AD, its construction no doubt triggered by the renewed success of the games during this renaissance. For about a millennium, all who came to the Olympics had suffered from thirst in the blazing August sun. Archaeologists found temporary wells among the earliest remains, but there was never adequate water. And now the Roman-style baths around the south part of the Altis exacerbated the problem. A very wealthy Greek, Herodes Atticus, and his very wealthy Roman wife, Regilla, funded an elaborate fountain which was both a practical solution and a work of art. Water, piped in from a tributary of the Alpheus, entered into a large semi-circular basin. Emerging from 83 gargoyle fountains, it was then channeled all around the site. Behind the basin rose a semi-circular colonnade more than 100 feet high, with a series of niches built into its upper level." [Young: 134]

Visitors

Herodotus, Gardiner: 139 Sophists, Gorgias etc. Oinopides, Plato.

"Anyone with something to sell or publicize was liable to turn up[...]Poets, painters, astronomers, philosophers..."[8]

Peregrinus Proteus, Cynic philosopher, cremated himself on a funeral pyre at the Olympic Games in 165.

Thales of Miletus, Greek philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, died of sunstroke in the stadium 548 BC.

"Having come up from the harbour, we went straight away to see the athletes, as if the whole purpose of our trip was to view the contests. When we got close to the gymnasium, we saw some athletes running on the track outside, and there was a sound of cheering from the people encouraging them, and other athletes exercising in different ways. We decided not to pay any attention to them, but went instead to where we saw the biggest crowd. We could see many people standing around the Arcade of Herakles, and others approaching, and still others going away because they couldn't see anything. At first we tried to see by peeping over the crowd's shoulders, and we managed with difficulty to catch sight of an athlete exercising with his head up and his arms outstretched. Then we gradually got in closer. He was a big and beautiful young man...he looked like one of those carefully wrought statues..."

(Dio 28.1-3)

Gardiner: 137-140

Women

"According to a very strict rule, besides forbidding women from participating in the games, it was also not allowed to married women to enter the Stadium, who thus could not watch the events. This lasted only for the period of the games. The only woman who was allowed to enter was the priestess of Demeter Chamyne, who watched the games seated on the altar of the goddess, opposite the judges. If a woman dared to break the law, the penalty was severe: they threw her from Mount Typaion, as mentioned by Pausanias. The only woman who broke the law and was not punished was Kallipateira, the daughter, sister and mother of Olympic victors. She paid particular attention in raising and training her son Peisidoros, so she wished to see him compete in the games. She dressed as a man and entered the Stadium to watch her son running. After his victory in her attempt to enter into the field her clothes fell revealing her female body. However, the Hellanodikai did not punish her, honoring thus the members of her family who were all Olympic victors." FHW

"...a law was passed that for the future trainers should strip before entering the arena." Pausanias 5.6.8

Why unmarried daughters allowed? Probably because in past "only virgins were pure enough to participate in the local fertility rites[...]and their presence is therefore sanctioned by ancient religious tradition." Although, "in practice, with one or two notable exceptions, the wives and daughters[...]did not attend." [Faulkner]

parthenoi allowed. Kyle, Donald G. "Females in Greek sport". Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World. p. 214.

• Heraia Games, other than sharing a stadium had no connection to the Olympics. According to Christesen, 214

• "Kyniska: Gender, Politics, and Racing Chariots at Olympia", Kyle: 184-5

Number of spectators?

4th century BC. "During this period the length of the Stadium reached 212,50 meters, while the distance from the starting and finishing lines increased to 192,28 meters. It had a capacity of 45,000 pectators, who sat on the ground." FHW

Classical period: "There may be 100,000 spectators staying for a week." [Faulkner]

Drunkenness

Perrottet: 74

perhaps could be covered in the Culture section

At what time of year were the Games held?

"Olympics[...]were held at the second full moon after the summer solstice." Miller: 105

Gardiner: 194

• Why hottest part of year?

"The games[...]coincided with lulls in agricultural activity (and with relatively good sailing sesons)."Golden: 16

Could be assimilation with harvest fertility rites. After harvest when work on land was at standstill. Swaddling: 12

Duration

Gardiner: 195-6

Organization

• Envoys

"The games were announced by the spondophoroi, who were citizens of Elis, crowned with olive-tree branches and holding the staff of the herald. They, as guarantees of the holy truce toured to all the Greek cities in order to declare the interruption of the hostilities for three months." FHW

More on envoys by König

• Sacred way:

Two days before the official opening of the games, a procession of the athletes and the Hellanodikai (Greek judges) started from Elis. Following the Sacred Way that led to Olympia, they stopped at the spring Piera for a ritualistic sacrifice and spent the night at Letrinoi. In the following morning the procession was received by a boisterous and lively crowd that had assembled in the sanctuary of Olympia." FHW

More on opening ceremony by König

Program

<dubious, see ... >

Day one: "First competed the trumpeters and the heralds. The winners of this contest had the honor to announce the names of the Olympic victors and to blow the trumpet during the games. Then followed the public and private sacrifices of the delegations of the various cities to their patron gods.[...]In the afternoon, the excited crowd scattered in the area and visited all the temples and altars, met with old friends, talked, narrated stories about various older Olympic victors or heard writers and poets reciting their works."

Day two: "In the second day the games started with first event being the chariot races of boys. The herald invited the athletes that participated and the Hellanodikai took their place in order to ensure that no irregularities occurred during drawing the lots. The judge held the poll and the runners found out their position by picking a sherd with the digit that defined it. The name of the victor was announced by the herald, who awarded him the palm branch. The first day of competition was dedicated to events for boys, i.e. wrestling, boxing and pankratio. The celebrations for the victors lasted till late in the night." FHW

Day three: Equestrian events and the pentathlon. "The day came to an end with ceremonies in honor of Pelops, the legendary founder of the Games, in front of the Pelopion." [9]

Day four. Started with "the large ceremony, the hecatombe, in honor of Zeus, where one hundred oxen -an offering by the Eleians- were sacrificed in front of the god's altar. The procession that started from the Prytaneion consisted of representatives of the cities, priests, athletes and members of each delegation. Then followed the running events[...]as well as in wrestling, boxing, pankration and hoplite race."[10]

Day five: Closing day of the Olympic Games. "In front of the various altars sacrifices were offered to the deities of Olympia. All the victors assembled in the temple of Zeus, for the awarding of the wreaths by the elder of the Hellanodikai. The name and the city of the victors was announced from the herald in front of everybody. At the Prytaneion, the seat of the officials of the sanctuary, the Elians held a banquet in honor of the victors."[11]

The athletes

• Social status. Professionalism vs. amateurism

Schaus: 7

Kyle: 174-

Prizes and honours

[Solon] curtailed the honours of athletes who took part in the games, fixing the allowance for an Olympic victor at 500 drachmae, for an Isthmian victor at 100 drachmae, and proportionately in all other cases. It was in bad taste, he urged, to increase the rewards of these victors, and to ignore the exclusive claims of those who had fallen in battle, whose sons ought, moreover, to be maintained and educated by the State.

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.2

"Early sixth century BC Athens awarded 500 drachmas to any of its citizens who won at Olympia; an Isthmian victory paid 100 drachmas. Calculations of modern equivalents are of course imprecise, but it seems that it would take a skilled worker almost fifteen years to earn the amount which an athlete got for one Olympic victory. By the principle explained below in the section on the Panathenaic prizes, I must equate those 500 drachmas with at least $700,000 today, and probably closer to a million dollars or even more. An annual income of 500 drachmas thrust an Athenian immediately into the very wealthiest classification in Solon’s timocracy." [Young 1984: 129]

"Other cities, it seems, granted a lump sum prize. An inscription from sixth century BC Sybaris indicates that an athlete named Kleombrotos dedicated a tenth of his Olympic prize to Athena, perhaps to make her a small shrine. Since a tenth of an olive crown would be impossible here, scholars believe that he refers to a large lump sum with which his city rewarded him. There are also reports, perhaps not so reliable, that this same south Italian city, Sybaris, along with its neighbor, the athletic power Croton, offered large cash prizes to lure athletes away from the Olympics." [Young: 98]

"From the state, Xenophanes says, the Olympic victor obtains free meals and a gift, which would be a “treasure” to him, besides." [Young: 98] (Xen lived c.570 – c. 475 BC)

Ceremony

"The victors at the Olympic games, wearing a red wool stripe on their heads and holding a palm branch on their right hand, entered the temple of Zeus. The wool stripe was usually used to adorn sacred objects and the palm branch commemorated Theseus, who established the games in Delos, where the victors were crowned by a palm branch. Inside the temple were the olive-tree wreaths, the so-called kotinoi, placed on a gold and ivory table. The bronze tripod, on which the wreaths were placed during earlier times, was now kept in the temple. The Olympic victors were crowned with this precious prize. As a matter of fact, it was widely believed that the wreath added magical qualities to the athlete. The victor became the favorite of the gods, because he had won with their assistance. This ceremony symbolized the mystical communication between the divinity and man. According to tradition, Iphitos was the one who established for the first time the wild olive-tree wreath as a prize, obeying an oracle from Delphi. The branch was always cut from the same wild olive-tree, the Kallistephanos, which lay near the temple of Zeus. The other panhellenic contests also presented victors with a wreath as a prize, for example in the Pythian a wreath of laurel, in the Isthmia of a pine tree and in the Nemean of celery." FHW

Olive wreath

"[...]the winner's prize, the olive wreath, came from a wild olive tree growing in the sanctuary of Zeus; a boy with both parents living, a pais amphithales - a good luck charm involved in many religious rites - cut the branch with a golden sickle." Golden: 17

The olive of the Beautiful Crown (Καλλιστέφανος). Paus. 5.15 3

"During a 'victory lap,' he might be showered with leaves (phyllobolia)." [Getty]

Honours

"The Olympic victor entered the city on a tethrippon (a four-horse chariot) and on some occasions part of the city-walls was brought down as an indication that they were no longer necessary for the city's defense, since such heroes lived in the city. The reception of the victors was corresponding to the one reserved for generals, when they returned victorious from their campaigns. The Olympic victor visited the temple of the city's patron deity, made sacrifices and offered his wreath. The ceremony was followed by a celebration. The victors had the right to dine at the Prytaneion free of charge for the rest of their lives. They were offered a honorary position during public competitions and, after the middle of the 5th century BC, were exempted from paying taxes. Their name was carved on columns in public areas. In Sparta, the Olympic victors had the right to fight together with the kings during wars, a particularly honorary distinction. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, their privileges increased and the Roman Olympic victors could become members of the Council (Boule). In the sacred area of Olympia, the victors set their statues with their name, the name of their family and their city. The victors commissioned victory odes (epinicia) which were composed by famous poets and ensured the athlete's everlasting fame." FHW

• Dio Chrysostom dramatically expressed the enduring power of an Olympic victory: "You know that the Olympian crown is olive leaves, and yet many have preferred this honor to life itself." (The Rhodian Discourse 31.110). Getty

There had come to them a few deserters, men of Arcadia, lacking a livelihood and desirous to find some service. Bringing these men into the king's presence, the Persians inquired of them what the Greeks were doing, there being one who put this question in the name of all. [2] When the Arcadians told them that the Greeks were holding the Olympic festival and viewing sports and horseraces, the Persian asked what was the prize offered, for which they contended. They told him of the crown of olive that was given to the victor. Then Tigranes son of Artabanus uttered a most noble saying (but the king deemed him a coward for it); [3] when he heard that the prize was not money but a crown, he could not hold his peace, but cried, “Good heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these that you have pitted us against? It is not for money they contend but for glory of achievement!” Such was Tigranes' saying.

Herodotus 8.26

Surprisingly, both Young and Kyle relate this tale inaccurately. (Around the time of the Battle of Thermopylae.)

"Herodotus tells how the Persian king Xerxes, on hearing that Olympia awarded only wreath prizes, marveled that Greeks competed not for material reward but 'only for honor'." Kyle

"In Herodotus some Greek prisoners of war tell the Persians that the only prize in the Olympics is the olive crown, and thus fool their captors into thinking that they are fighting a people which values honor only, never material gain (8.26)." [Young 98]

"Although they accepted material prizes and rewards, ancient athletes referred to them as gifts (dora) not wages (misthos), matters of glory (kleos) not greedful gain (kerdos)." Kyle

• ne plus ultra

...a man is considered fortunate, and wise poets sing his praises, if he wins victory with his hands or the excellence of his feet, and takes the greatest prizes through his courage and strength, and lives to see his young son duly winning Pythian garlands. He can never set foot in the bronze heavens; but whatever splendor we mortals can attain, he reaches the limit of that voyage.

Pindar, Pythian 10

Diagoras

Statues

It was not the custom in former times to give the likeness of individuals, except of such as deserved to be held in lasting remembrance on account of some illustrious deed; in the first instance, for a victory at the sacred games, and more particularly the Olympic Games, where it was the usage for the victors always to have their statues consecrated. And if any one was so fortunate as to obtain the prize there three times, his statue was made with the exact resemblance of every individual limb; from which circumstance they were called "iconicæ."

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 34.9

Pausanias 6.1-18

Gardiner: 70

Statue of a Victorious Youth

Hellanodikai

"The Hellanodikai, assisted by the alytarches (law enforcing officials), imposed to those that did not obey the rules various punishments: physical punishments, fines or even expulsion from the Games. The physical punishments were carried out by the rabdouchoi (rod-bearers) and the mastigophoroi (whip-bearers). If an athlete could not pay the fine, his city paid it for him so he would not be expelled from the games. The revenues from the fines were used to built the statues of Zeus, the Zanes, which were placed in the area of the sanctuary." FHW

"They were responsible for awarding prizes and imposing punishments and fines to those who violated the rules. In order to promote the games and ensure a perfect spectacle, they supervised the athletes during the training month, they selected those that had trained sufficiently and rejected those that did not perform well enough. They passed judgment not only on the athletes' physical performance but also on their character and moral status." FHW

[12]

"The rules for the presidents 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.

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.

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." Paus. 5.9 4-6

Oath

"But the Zeus in the Council Chamber is of all the images of Zeus the one most likely to strike terror into the hearts of sinners. He is surnamed Oath-god, and in each hand he holds a thunderbolt. Beside this image it is the custom for athletes, their fathers and their brothers, as well as their trainers, to swear an oath upon slices of boar's flesh that in nothing will they sin against the Olympic games. The athletes take this further oath also, that for ten successive months they have strictly followed the regulations for training." Paus. 5.24.9 and [13]

Cheating and punishments

"Eupolus of Thessaly bribed the boxers who entered the competition, Agenor the Arcadian and Prytanis of Cyzicus, and with them also Phormio of Halicarnassus, who had won at the preceding Festival. This is said to have been the first time that an athlete violated the rules of the games, and the first to be fined by the Eleans were Eupolus and those who accepted bribes from Eupolus." Paus. 5.21.3

"It is striking[...]that the gods supported each other in disputes which arose from judges' decisions. In 332 [BC], the Athenian Callipus bribed his opponents in the pentathalon and was caught. The others paid, but the Athenians sent the orator Hyperides to Elis to have the fine remitted. When they were rebuffed, they boycotted the games until Apollo at Delphi, a dutiful son of Zeus, declared that he would not deliver any oracle to them while the debt was outstanding." Golden 16 (could come under Religion or other section)

Paus. 5.21.5

Training

"Regarding the athletes who wished to participate, they had to come to Elis a month before the games and train under the supervision of the Hellanodikai. This was a kind of preliminary or practice training, during which the judges could choose those that have trained well. In addition the athletes should prove that they trained systematically in the last ten months before the games. When they arrived in Elis the athletes continued training. They were two Gymnasiums there where the athletes could train before the games: the Xystos for the runners and the athletes of the pentathlon and the Tetragono for wrestlers and boxers." FHW

Training 30 day period unlikely at start of games, Young: 56-57

Epictetus, Discourses 3.15.2-5 Good quote

First take a mirror. View your shoulders, examine your back, your loins. It is the Olympic Games, man, for which you are to be entered; not a poor slight contest. In the Olympic Games a champion is not allowed merely to be conquered and depart; but must first be disgraced in the view of the whole world, -not of the Athenians alone, or Spartans, or Nicopolitans; and then he who has prematurely departed must be whipped too, and, before that, must have suffered thirst and heat, and have swallowed an abundance of dust.

Epictetus, Discourses 3:22

"The use of coaches goes far back in Olympic history, at least to the sixth century BC. Coaches naturally had many duties besides massage. They spent time helping an athlete improve his technique, and most devoted great attention to the athletes’ diet. Philostratus complains about the finicky precision diets which coaches of the Roman Imperial period forced on their charges. In the Classical period and later, athletes were generally notorious for eating large quantities of meat. Pausanias claims that the first all-meat diet was invented by an early fifth century distance runner and periodonikes, Dromeus. Cheese was the staple of earlier athletes’ daily fare (Pausanias 6.1.10). Surprisingly, other sources state that the all-meat diet was first developed in the sixth century BC by Pythagoras. Since the famous philosopher otherwise preached strict vegetarianism, the reference may be to another man by this name." [Young: 111]

Nudity

Paul Christesen, "The Transformation of Athletics in Sixth Century Greece" 63-65

[Young: 110-111]

• 720 BC

Pausanias says that the first naked runner simply lost his garment on purpose, because running naked was easier.Getty

"Near Coroebus is buried Orsippus who won the footrace at Olympia by running naked when all his competitors wore girdles according to ancient custom.142 They say also that Orsippus when general afterwards annexed some of the neighboring territory. My own opinion is that at Olympia he intentionally let the girdle slip off him, realizing that a naked man can run more easily than one girt."

Description of Greece 1.44.1, Pausanias. Trans. W. H. S. Jones

"[The Spartans] also set the example of contending naked, publicly stripping and anointing themselves with oil in their gymnastic exercises. Formerly, even in the Olympic contests, the athletes who contended wore belts across their middles; and it is but a few years since that the practice ceased."

The History of the Peloponnesian War 1.1, Thucydides 431 BC (Trans. R. Crawley)

• Kynodesme?

• Oil

Young: 111

Poaching

Gardiner: 76

Gardiner: 134

Famous victors

• Should perhaps be grouped by event not hometown?

• Geographical trends

Croton(dab) dominance in [Young: 103-104]

Spartan dominance dealt with by Gardiner: 56-58 and Farrington

"Magna Graecia – the civilization of the Greek colonies in Sicily and southern Italy – produced numerous Olympic victors, especially in the athletic golden age of the sixth and fifth centuries BC. We have complete records, of course, only for the 200 meters. But of the 200 meter victories from 588 to 408 BC, thirty (65 percent) belong to these western Greek colonies. In contrast, in that same period, Athens never won in an athletic event at all, Sparta only twice." [Young: 104]

"A number of the third century bc victors were from Macedonia or near there. But another new trend began. Even more athletes from the grand new capital of Egypt, Alexandria, named after its founder, won the Olympic crown. Their success grew until they dominated the list of victors." [Young: 130]

• Heroes

"After Milo of Croton, Theogenes of Thasos was the athlete most renowned." [Young: 106]

Runners

• Polites of Caria. Uniquely won shortest and longest race on same day in 69 AD. Pausanias calls it "a great marvel" [14]
• Athenodorus of Aegium, three-time stadion winner.
• Chionis of Sparta, three-time stadion/diaulos winner, champion jumper.
• Astylos of Croton (running: stadion, diaulos and hoplitodromos)
• Phanas of Pellene (running: stadion, diaulos and hoplitodromos)

Fighters

• Kleomedes the boxer Kyle: 192
• Damarchus, boxer and part-time wolf
• Diagoras of Rhodes (boxing 79th Olympiad, 464 BC) and his sons Akusilaos and Damagetos (boxing and pankration) and grandsons.
• Arrhichion died while successfully defending his championship in the pankration at the 54th Olympiad (564 BC). Described as "the most famous of all pankratiasts".
• Dioxippus, pankratiast. His fame and skill were such that he was crowned Olympic champion by default in 336 BC when no other pankratiast dared meet him on the field. This kind of victory was called akoniti (literally: without getting dusted) and remains the only one ever recorded in the Olympics in this discipline.
• Sostratus of Sicyon, three-time pankriatist with finger-breking style.

Equestrians

• Alcibiades, prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. In 416 BC "he entered seven teams in the chariot race, more than any private citizen had ever put forward, and three of them came in first, second, and fourth" (Plutarch, Aristotle 1.1??)
• Alexander I of Macedon, Archelaus I of Macedon, Philip II of Macedon, Attalus I are some of the monarchs to take part in chariot races. (In which capacity? Owners?)
• Troilus of Elis, controversial referee who won two equestrian events at the 372 BC games. After that a law banned referees from competing. His story has at times been used to show the ancient games had a "win at any cost" mindset quite different from the modern Olympic ideal.
• Pherenikos, "the most famous racehorse in antiquity". 470s BC
• "Famous charioteers were Antikeris from Cyrene, Karrotos the charioteer of the king of Cyrene Arkesilaus, Hromios of the tyrant of Syracuse Hieron, Fintis the charioteer of Agesias from Syracuse and the Athenian Nicomachus the charioteer of Xenocrates from Acragas." FHW

• Herodorus of Megara, ten-time trumpet champ.

• No team events, pursuit of individual excellence.

• Category:Ancient_Olympic_competitors

Religion / Culture?

• Votive objects.

"According to Pausanias (5.14.4-10), there were more than seventy altars at Olympia, but most of these were only indirectly assoc with games."

FHW

• Art and Poetry. FHW

"The athletic competitions were the central theme of ancient Greek art and literature. They were the reason for the birth, already from the 6th century BC, of two literary genres, of the victory hymns (epinicia), with Pindar as the main representative, and of the epigram. The Olympic victors were the first historical figures in ancient Greece which enjoyed the special honor to be depicted in public places." FHW

• kalokagathia?
• Only winners rewarded, no silver or bronze?
• Differences with the other Panhellenic Games

Many other games festivals integrate contests in music, poetry, drama and dance into their main programmes.

• Oracle at Olympia was used to predict results. [15]

"Within the Altis there is also a sacred enclosure consecrated to Pelops, whom the Eleans as much prefer in honor above the heroes of Olympia as they prefer Zeus over the other gods. To the right of the entrance of the temple of Zeus, on the north side, lies the Pelopium. It is far enough removed from the temple for statues and other offerings to stand in the intervening space, and beginning at about the middle of the temple it extends as far as the rear chamber. It is surrounded by a stone fence, within which trees grow and statues have been dedicated.

The entrance is on the west. The sanctuary is said to have been set apart to Pelops by Heracles the son of Amphitryon. Heracles too was a great-grandson of Pelops, and he is also said to have sacrificed to him into the pit. Right down to the present day the magistrates of the year sacrifice to him, and the victim is a black ram. No portion of this sacrifice goes to the sooth-sayer, only the neck of the ram it is usual to give to the “woodman,” as he is called.

The woodman is one of the servants of Zeus, and the task assigned to him is to supply cities and private individuals with wood for sacrifices at a fixed rate, wood of the white poplar, but of no other tree, being allowed. If anybody, whether Elean or stranger, eat of the meat of the victim sacrificed to Pelops, he may not enter the temple of Zeus." Paus. 5.13 1-3

• Gloios. "After exercising you would then scrape off the oil and sweat on your body with a metal scraper called a strigil. The resulting mixture of sweat and dust and used oil was known as gloios. Gymnasium employees had the task of collecting it so that it could be sold for medical purposes. It’s mentioned in quite a few medical texts. It had a range of uses, but it seems to have been used in particular to reduce inflammations. It was spread on to the affected area rather than ingested. Sometimes it was used in combination with the dirt scraped off the walls or statues of the gymnasium." Sweat collectors in the gymnasium

Etymology

Olympiakoi agones agones=struggles, contest, whence agony

Body/mind and decline of the Games

• "Myth" of Mens sana in corpore sano lasts to present day.

Yet "Of the thousand or so known Olympic and Pythian victors, not one was ever noted for any intellectual achievement. And no Greek prominent in the intellectual world ever won a major athletic victory." [Young: 81]

"As there is no specific case of a Greek who combined athletic with intellectual achievement, in all of ancient literature not a word is found that would support, even in the abstract, this supposed concept of the well-rounded top flight athlete who is a scholar as well. All evidence suggests that in Greek society the top athletes and top intellectuals were as clearly divided as they are in ours." [Young: 82]

Plato's Laws(807C):

“An athlete who aims at Olympic or Pythian victory – he has no free time for anything else.”

If a man wins victory at Olympia

with the speed of his feet, in wrestling

or boxing, in the pentathlon or pancration

his fellow citizens look up to him in awe.

He is given a prominent seat of honor at public games,

and, at public expense, he receives free board and a large gift,

which would be a treasure for him. He would get all those things,

yet he is not as worthy as I am.

For my wisdom is better than the strength of humans or horses

It just is not fair to rank strength above my wisdom.

Xenophanes

• Grumblings

Xenophanes complains about the injustice of a system and culture that would rank physical strength over wisdom. It is probably true that many cities gave an athlete who won any of the Big Four games front row seats at all public events, and lifetime free board at public expense. And some gave a large lump sum "prize," probably a cash reward. And certainly in Xenophanes' time, as in most periods, Greek society was not prone to give lofty prizes to philosophers. It is not surprising, then, that other philosophers, such as Socrates (in Plato) and the sophistic teacher-orator, Isocrates, later repeated Xenophanes' complaint. [Young: 85]

Gardiner: 78-9

Gardiner: 127

At his trial, Socrates says:

"There is nothing [no penalty] more fitting for such a man [as I] than free board at public expense. It's much more fitting than if some one of you wins...at the Olympics. Because that person just makes you seem blessed, but I cause you to be blessed; besides, the athlete does not need the support, but I do."

(Plato, Apology 36E)

"Aristotle's strange notion that exercise of the body and that of the mind are antithetical to one another caught on with ater authors and it led to a total degradation of athletes in later literature. There were some earlier precedents on which these later authors could draw, as well. Isocrates asserted the body should be subservient to the mind. He and other philosophers, perhaps even out of jealousy, bitterly complained about the rewards which society heaped on the athletes. Yet no one had yet asserted that athletes, as a group, were stupid. The path lay open after Aristotle's thesis that physical training is detrimental to the intellect." [Young: 88]

Compared to other Panhellenic Games

"The Big Four games were ranked in a hierarchy of importance, and the Olympics topped the list."

"The first poem in the collection, headed by the book of Olympians, is called Olympian 1. It begins by proclaiming that the Olympics outshine all the others as the sun outshines all other stars at noon." [Young: 69](check sources)

• Vases/decline

"Most of the vases bearing athletic scenes come from the second half of the sixth and first half of the fifth centuries BC. Athletic subjects became less and less popular after that, and such vases mostly disappeared by the fourth century BC." [Young: 67]

"The victory ode [epinician] did not last long as a living genre. Virtually all the poems known can be dated between the waning years of the sixth century BC and the mid-fifth; and they come from just three authors. The best known is Pindar. The others are Simonides and Bacchylides, Pindar's slightly older and slightly younger contemporaries, respectively." [Young: 68]

"There is a divine presence in a judgment of human strength."

Pindar, Isthmian 5.8

Sources

"...most studies of the Olympics, both technical and for the public, contain many generalisations which are anachronistic or just plain wrong." [Young]

Primary

• Description of Greece, Pausanias. (Trans. W. H. S. Jones)

Olympic mentions in Paus.

• The History of the Peloponnesian War 1.1, Thucydides 431 BC (Trans. R. Crawley)
• Apology, Plato
• Laws, Plato
• Xenophanes
• Pindar
• Plutarch, Aristotle (For Alcibiades) Lycurgus
• Strabo
• Philostratus Gymnasticus

"A kind of manual of athletic training techniques, which gives a highly idealised vision of the job of the athletic trainer and the history of the discipline. It’s a difficult text in many ways, but it’s full of good anecdotes about trainers at the Olympics." Konig

Gym 3–13 and 17–24 deal with Athletic History. But should be taken with caution.

http://www.academia.edu/15250809/Philosophical_Introduction_to_Philostratus_Gymnasticus

See also

Improvements

• Related articles in need of corrections/expansion.

Sport_of_athletics#History

Temple of Zeus, Olympia

Olympic Truce

Ancient Olympia

Diskos

Stadium at Olympia

Olympic winners of the Archaic period

Images

Current

The "Exedra" reserved for the judges at Olympia on the north embankment of the stadium

Bit dull.

The palaestra of Olympia, a place devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes

An artist's impression of ancient Olympia

The "Discobolus" is a copy of a Greek statue c. 5th century BC. It represents an ancient Olympic discus thrower

Does it? (Check)

The Parthenon in Athens, one of the leading city-states of the ancient world

Necessary?

In 484 or 480 BC, Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, won the mule biga event, and this tetradrachm was struck in commemoration.

(Check source)

Potential

More models of Olympia at wikicommmons

Boxing scene

Jumper with haliteres

Panathenaic prize amphora. Pancratists, by the Berlin painter. 490 B.C. Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

Pentathalon competitors in discus and javelin with jumping weights in background. Tondo from an Attic red-figured kylix, c. 490 BC. From Vulci.

File:Pittore di achille, anfora panatenaica, 450-420 ac, da necropoli arnoaldi, tomba 110, B 03.JPG Category:Head of a boxeur in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens