Ancient Olympic Games

Presentation

The ancient Games were staged in Olympia, Greece, a rural sanctuary site in the western Peloponnesos. Unlike today, the games were always held at Olympia instead of moving around to different sites every time. The sanctuary was named in antiquity after Mt. Olympos, the highest mountain in mainland Greece. In Greek mythology, Mt. Olympos was the home of the greatest of the Greek gods and goddesses.

Although the first written record of the games dates to 776 B.C., their origins go back at least five hundred years earlier and are linked to religious events well before that. The Olympic games were officially abolished by the Roman emperor Theododius I in 394 AD, probably because of their pagan associations, after a run of 1170 years! From the very beginning the Games were held every four years between August 6 and September 19. They occupied such an important place in Greek life that time was measured by the interval between them: an Olympiad. It took 1503 years for the Olympics to return thanks to a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He was behind the first modern Olympics held in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

The reasons for the location of the games in "Olympia," in the city-state of Elis, near the west coast of the Peloponnesian peninsula are lost in history. The site was never a major city or permanent settlement except during the games themselves when tens of thousands of spectators and participants camped on the grounds. Evidence suggests that the site of Olympia was once the location of a religious festival honoring Gaia, the Earth Mother. Indeed, the site must have had strong historic and religious roots as it is located on the western edge of Classical Greece far from the Greek heartland.

The ancient Olympic games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus, supreme god of all the Greeks, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses, and ruler of the sky (Zeus's brothers Poseidon and Hades ruled the sea and the Underworld, respectively). His primary role was to keep the peace among those same gods and "men" on earth. In his honor a universal truce applied during the Olympic Games every four years and even though the truce was broken on several occasions, the games were never interrupted as a result of war. Legend has it that those taking part had to swear their oath to Zeus that thay had trained for at least 4 months.

The Greeks that came to the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia were all free men who shared the same religious beliefs and spoke the same language, Greek. The athletes were all male citizens of the city-states from every corner of the Greek world, coming from as far away as Iberia (Spain) in the west and the Black Sea (Turkey) in the east.

One of the things we'll hear argued about the modern Olympic Games is the question of amateurism and professionalism of athletes. The competitors at the Olympic Games were amateur in the sense that the only prize was a wreath or garland. The first Olympic champion listed in the records was one Coroebus of Elis, a cook, who won the sprint race in 776 BC. Later, however, the athletes started undergoing a most rigorous period of supervised training and eventually the contestants became true professionals. The concept of "amateur athletics," developed in the 19th century AD, would have been very foreign to the ancient Greeks since the winning of a valuable or prestigious prize was an important part of being an athlete. Not only were there substantial prizes worth substantial amounts of money for winning: material prizes are offered to each competitor, including tripods, cauldrons, valuable metal, and oxen. According to the Roman author Plutarch, an Olympic victor who was a citizen of Athens could expect to receive in the year 600 BC a cash award of 500 drachmai, a literal fortune. In fact, the word athlete is an ancient Greek word that means "one who competes for a prize" and was related to two other Greek words, athlos meaning "contest" and athlon meaning "prize." From an Athenian inscription of the 5th century BC, we learn that Athenian Olympic victors received a free meal in the City Hall every day for the rest of their lives, a kind of early pension plan. But the Olympic champion also received adulation and unlimited benefits from his city. Athletes became full-time specialisyts, a trend that in the modern games has caused a long and bitter controversy over amateurism. The winner of each ancient Olympic event received an olive branch rather than a gold medal in recognition. The olive branch endures to this day as a symbol of universal peace and harmony. In the Old Testament the white dove brought an olive leaf to Noah on the Ark as a sign that the great deluge was over. It also appears in the right claw of the bald eagle on the great seal of the United States (also on the dollar bill), on the flag of the United Nations, and on the flag of the Arab League. Finally, a gold plated olive branch was left on the moon by Neil Armstrong on July 29, 1969 as a symbol of universal peace.

Along with the athletic contests held at ancient Olympia, there was a separate festival in honor of Hera (the wife of Zeus). This festival included foot races for unmarried girls. Although it is not known how old the festival was, it may have been almost as old as the festival for boys and men. It was organized and supervised by a committee of 16 women from the cities of Elis. The festival took place every four years. Married women, on the other hand, were not allowed to participate in the athletic contests of the Hera festival, and were barred on penalty of death from the Sanctuary of Zeus on the days of the athletic competition for boys and men. In the picture we see a bronze Statuette of a girl runner, probably from Sparta.

The ancient Olympics were rather different from the modern Games. There were fewer events and were not lengthened beyond one day. Later they spread, with, perhaps, some fluctuation, over four days, with a fifth devoterd to the closing ceremony, presentation of prizes and a banquet for the champions. According to some literary traditions, the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet long (192 meters), which is the racing length of the track, was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals. In the picture, the stadion track at Olympia is shown. However, in the entire history of the ancient Olympic Games, almost 1200 years, there were only 23 events contested. They were divided into men's track and field events, equestrian events and boys events. All competitions derived from and honored the skills valued among warriors.

wrestling: Like the modern sport, an athlete needed to throw his opponent on the ground, landing on a hip, shoulder, or back for a fair fall. 3 throws were necessary to win a match. Biting was not allowed, and genital holds were also illegal. Attacks such as breaking your opponent's fingers were permitted.

boxing: ancient boxing had fewer rules than the modern sport. Boxers fought without rounds until one man was knocked out, or admitted he had been beaten. Unlike the modern sport, there was no rule against hitting an opponent when he was down. There were no weight classes within the mens' and boys' divisions; opponents for a match were chosen randomly. Instead of gloves, ancient boxers wrapped leather thongs around their hands and wrists which left their fingers free. Plato makes fun of boxers' faces, calling them the "folk with the battered ears."

running: There were 4 types of races at Olympia. The stadion was the oldest event of the Games. Runners sprinted for 1 stade (192 m.), or the length of the stadium. The other races were a 2-stade race (384 m.), and a long-distance run which ranged from 7 to 24 stades (1,344 m. to 4,608 m.). And if these races weren't enough, the Greeks had one particularly grueling event which we lack. There was also a 2 to 4-stade (384 m. to 768 m.) race by athletes in armor, in full battle gear!, called hoplitodromos. This race was especially useful in building the speed and stamina that Greek men needed during their military service. If we remember that the standard hoplite armor (helmet, shield, and greaves) weighed about 50-60 lbs, it is easy to imagine what such an event must have been like.

Pentathlon

This was a 5-event combination of discus throw, javelin throw, long jump, running and wrestling. Aristotle describes a young man's ultimate physical excellence: "a body capable of enduring all efforts, either of the racecourse or of bodily strength...This is why the athletes in the pentathlon are most excellent”.

Discus: The ancient Greeks considered the rhythm and precision of an athlete throwing the discus as important as his strength. The discus was made of stone, iron, bronze, or lead, and was shaped like a flying saucer. Sizes varied, since the boys' division was not expected to throw the same weight as the mens'.

Javelin throw: The javelin was a man-high length of wood, with either a sharpened end or an attached metal point. It had a thong for a hurler's fingers attached to its center of gravity, which increased the precision and distance of a javelin's flight.

Long jump: Athletes used lead or stone jump weights (halteres) shaped like telephone receivers to increase the length of their jump. The halteres were held in front of the athlete during his ascent, and forcibly thrust behind his back and dropped during his descent to help propel his body further. Jump weights also doubled as weight lifting equipment during training.

The equestrian events were held in the hippodrome, south of the stadium.

Chariot racing: There were both 2-horse chariot and 4-horse chariot races, with separate races for chariots drawn by foals. Another race was between carts drawn by a team of 2 mules. The course was 12 laps around the stadium track (9 miles).

Riding: The course was 6 laps around the track (4.5 miles), and there were separate races for full-grown horses and foals. Jockeys rode without stirrups. Only wealthy people could afford to pay for the training, equipment, and feed of both the driver (or jockey) and the horses. As a result, the owner received the olive wreath of victory instead of the driver or jockey. Aristophanes, the comic playwright, describes the troubles of a father whose son has too-expensive tastes in horses: "Creditors are eating me up alive...and all because of this horse-plague!"

The marathon which is so popular today, was not included in the ancient Olympics. The marathon is a modern event that was first introduced in the Modern Olympic Games of 1896 in Athens, a distance of 40 kilometers. The marathon commemorates the victory of the Athenians over the Persians on the plains of Marathon about twenty-five miles north of Athens and the run of a messenger, Philippides, to Athens with the news of the victory, becoming a hero in the process and giving us an athletic tradition that lives on today. The distance of the modern marathon was standardized as 26 miles 385 yards or 42.195 km. in 1908 when the Olympic Games were held in London. The distance was the exact measurement between Windsor Castle, the start of the race, and the finish line inside White City Stadium.

During this Olympic season, you may hear from announcers, critics, commentators and even athletes that the Olympic games are too commercial, too political, too "professional." Or that the judging is too nationalistic. It's easy to assume that the ancient Olympic Games were different, that ancient Greek athletes were pure in mind and body, that they trained and competed for no other reason than the love of physical exercise, fair competition and to honor their gods. In fact, politics, nationalism, commercialism and athletics were intimately related in the ancient Olympic Games. We may not realize it, but in today's games we recreate – with surprising accuracy – the climate and circumstances surrounding the ancient Olympic Games. These days you don't have to look far to see the connection between salesmanship and sports--some would even say that the line between sales pitching and fast pitches has become completely blurred. At Olympic competitions, athletes' uniforms and equipment bear the discreet but readily identifiable trademarks of their manufacturers. After the Games, we are presented with images of Olympians endorsing products and appearing on cereal boxes. Later, some Olympic celebrities become commodities themselves, as TV shows and record labels cash in on their fame.

Even without Wheaties, Coco-Cola, Budweiser …, ancient Greeks honored and even "marketed" their athletic heroes. As early as the 5th and 4th centuries BC the victories won by the athletes were widely celebrated. Poets were often commissioned to celebrate these victories with odes, and sculptors were employed to render an image of the victorious athlete. In addition coins were struck to commemorate equestrian victories. Odes and sculptures were commonly commissioned by an athlete, an athlete's family or a rich political leader to commemorate an athletic or equestrian victory.

Sculptors were commissioned to create statues of victorious athletes to be set up in the Sanctuary or in the home town of the athlete. Only if an athlete had won three Olympic victories could a realistic likeness of the athlete appear in the Sanctuary. Dikon, the son of Kallibrotos, won five foot races. Statues of him have been set up in Olympia equal in number to the races he won. When he was a boy he was proclaimed a native of Caulonia, as in fact he was. But afterwards he was bribed to proclaim himself a Syracusan. True. Some athletes were caught cheating or bribing at the Olympic Games to advance their careers or obtain a political favour.