Through ancient sculpture, paintings and coins, Dr. David Romano reveals the origins of modern
athletic competition.
Athletes, games and heroes, the ancient Olympics.
One of the most popular aspects of modern western culture is its universal interest
in sports and athletics.
Our world is permeated with athletic contests, athletic images and athletic slogans.
Physical fitness is a current obsession with millions of people.
College and professional athletics are multi-million dollar businesses and the modern Olympic games
have taken on major political, social and economic proportions.
The word athletics today can mean many things.
It includes amateur as well as professional participation.
It encompasses team sports such as basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey and sports like
tennis, golf and swimming for the solo athlete.
The word athlete is originally an ancient Greek word with a very specific meaning, one
who competes for a prize and is related to two other Greek words, athloss meaning contest
and athlon meaning prize.
The original and still primary meaning of athletics therefore is tied very closely to
the concept of a competition for which a prize is given.
What you may ask does this have to do with the study of ancient art and archaeology?
You may be surprised to learn that there is a good deal of evidence for athletics from
the history and archaeology of ancient cultures and that this evidence often relates to the
contemporary world in numerous ways.
In this lecture we will specifically search for evidence in the religious festival and
games of Olympia in ancient Greece.
Based on all available evidence at the present time, the earliest record of formalized athletic
contests and full-blown athletic festivals comes from ancient Greece.
Greek literary, historical and archaeological sources confirm the existence of a rich tradition
of athletic competition.
It is this tradition that was the inspiration for the inception and organization of the
modern Olympic games.
We have modeled many of our events on those of the ancient Olympics and many of their
words like stadium, discus and pentathlon are in modern usage.
It is both interesting and enlightening to explore the past and piece together the events
of the Olympics which began over 2700 years ago.
Through writings on stone and in manuscripts, through sculpture, coins and vases and through
the discovery of buildings and other structures buried under the earth for centuries, archaeologists
and historians help us tell the story of the ancient games.
Beginning around 776 BC, a great athletic festival was held in ancient Greece.
This festival honored Zeus, the principal god of the Greeks.
It took place once every four years in a rural sanctuary in the western Peloponnesus.
The sanctuary was called Olympia, named after the mythological home of Zeus, Mount Olympus,
the highest mountain in mainland Greece.
Situated only seven miles from the Ionian Sea, the sanctuary was located immediately
to the south of the hill of Kronos, named for Zeus' father.
The Alphaeus River flowed nearby, providing the easiest means of transportation for most
of the travelers coming to the site.
There were three major national or Panhellenic athletic festivals which along with the festival
held at Olympia comprised the circuit games.
These were the Pythian games at Delphi, held in honor of Apollo, the Isthmian games held
near Corinth in honor of Poseidon, and the games at Nemea, also honoring Zeus.
But the Olympic games, the oldest of the national athletic festivals held in ancient Greece,
stood at the pinnacle of the four.
From every corner of the Greek world, people traveled to Olympia to honor Zeus and take
part in the games.
Its people, athletes and spectators alike, were all male citizens of the Greek city-states.
They spoke the same language and shared the same religious beliefs and cultural values.
Very few others were permitted to participate in the festival and games.
In the first 100 years of the Olympic games, most of the known athletes came from a relatively
few city-states, in particular Sparta and Messini, two southern Peloponnesian cities
relatively close to the site of Olympia.
As time went on, Greek citizens came from places as far west as the southern coast of
present-day France and Spain, and as far east as the eastern shores of the Black Sea.
In the Roman period, entrance to the games extended to Roman citizens who came from virtually
every corner of the Roman Empire.
Citizens of wealth traveled up the river in splendid sailing vessels, or on horseback,
or horse-drawn chariots.
The poor came on foot or rode on donkeys.
Merchants brought products to sell, and others brought their supplies to cook and sell food
and refreshment.
Booths and stalls, tents and huts took up so much room that by the morning of the first
day of the games, there was not a space left for latecomers.
The festival and games took place in late summer, always the second or third full moon after
the summer solstice.
The weather was the hottest of the season, and all who attended suffered from the heat
and thirst, and from mosquitoes and flies which infested Olympia.
Looking back, we may wonder why the Greeks chose mid-summer with all its discomforts
as the time for this most important of festivals.
One practical reason was that August was a time when people could afford leisure and
celebration.
The crops had already been gathered, and agricultural work was at a standstill.
However, the answer may lie deep in prehistory.
We know there was religious activity at the site of Olympia long before it was associated
with Zeus.
The origins of the games may have been linked to ancient fertility rites connected with
the earth goddess Gae or Gaia.
The ancient oracle of Gae was located in a clearing at the foot of the hill of Kronos.
As the worship of Zeus gained prominence, simple altars were constructed to receive
offerings to Zeus.
Over a period of centuries, these simple altars gave way to elaborate buildings.
The most magnificent of these was the Temple of Zeus, begun in the 5th century BC.
This structure took 10 years to build.
It was ringed with 34 massive columns, marble water spouts in the form of lion's heads
drained water from the roof, and the temple was adorned with statues, some of them many
times life-size.
The greatest of these was a 40-foot-high gold and ivory statue of Zeus created by the famous
sculptor Phidias.
This colossal figure became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Archaeologists have never discovered the remains of this statue, but we do have some clues
as to how it looked and how large it was.
One clue is through coins.
Very good representations of what the cult statue looked like were engraved on coins
dated and used during this time.
There are also the remains of Phidias' workshop at Olympia.
Excavations have found various tools, fragments of molds for drapery, and particles of the
precious materials used in the creation of the statue.
The molds help us recreate the size of this image of Zeus, and remnants of materials confirm
the written descriptions we have.
From literary evidence, we know that Phidias was the sculptor.
A cup found at the site further confirms this information.
Scratched on the bottom is an inscription, I belong to Phidias.
There are a number of legends which describe the origin of the games.
One involves Heracles, the superman of Greek mythology and one of his prodigious twelve
labors.
He created a clearing in the Altes, or sacred olive grove, and laid out the boundaries for
the first games which he dedicated to Zeus.
Another myth concerning the origin of the games is told by the poet Pindar in his first
Olympian ode.
A rich king, Enimaus, who lived in the general area of Olympia, had a daughter, Hippodemea.
To win his daughter's hand, twelve suitors came to challenge the king by means of a chariot
race.
When they had been defeated, Enimaus killed them.
Finally, a young man named Pelops challenged the king.
He was fully aware of what had happened to his twelve predecessors, so he bribed the
king's charioteer to remove the bronze lynchpin from the king's chariot and replace it with
one made of wax.
When the lynchpin melted during the race, the king was killed.
Pelops married Hippodemea and founded the Olympic Games to commemorate his victory and
his marriage.
This mythological event was illustrated directly above the door to the temple of Zeus and facing
immediately onto the area where the athletic contest took place.
The scene depicted is the moment before the chariot race when Zeus, as arbiter, stands
between Pelops on the left and Enimaus on the right.
Hippodemea stands to the left of Pelops.
Further figures include the respective chariot teams and in the corners, the personifications
of the two rivers that meet at the sanctuary.
Even in antiquity, the area of southern Greece where Olympia is located was named for this
legendary hero, Pelops.
To this day, the Peloponnesus, literally Pelops Island, is the name given to the area.
During the first century or two of the festival at Olympia, no systematic written records
were kept.
However in the late 5th century BC, a document compiled by Hippius of Aeolus records a list
of Olympic victors.
The earliest recorded athletic victor, Coroibus by name, won the foot race.
He was from neighboring Aeolus and he was said to be a cook.
The date for the victory is recorded as 776 BC and that is considered the historic date
for the first Olympic Games.
The document known as the Olympic Register was worked on by other authors and it is known
that the philosopher Aristotle revised and corrected it a century later.
In 776 BC, the foot race known as the stadion or one-state race was the only event that
took place at the Olympic Festival.
According to the Olympic Register, it was the only event for the first 13 Olympiads.
Several athletic events were gradually added over the centuries.
They included the Diaoulos or two-stadion length race in 724 BC and the Dolikos or distance
race in 720 BC.
The pentathlon or five-event contest was introduced in 708 BC.
As well as running, it included the following sports.
Wrestling, the long jump, discus throwing, and the javelin throwing contest.
Boxing was added in 688 BC.
In 680 BC, according to the Olympic Register, the four-horse chariot race was added as the
first equestrian contest of the Olympic Games.
Although the two-horse chariot race seems to have been the oldest type of equestrian
race, it was not officially recognized as a competitive event at Olympia until 408 BC,
almost 300 years later.
In 648 BC, the penkradion was added to the program.
It was a combination of boxing and wrestling and was something of a free-for-all.
Horse races were also added in 648 BC.
In 632 BC, separate foot races and wrestling contests were added for male athletes who
were presumably under age 18.
Other events for boys were added over the years.
By the 5th century BC, there were many events in a full five-day program.
Officials of the Games began preparations a full 10 months ahead of time.
These officials, known as Hellenodikai, Greek judges, were chosen by lot.
They wore purple, the color of royalty, and were well known for their impartiality.
Sometimes their number fluctuated, but there were usually 10 throughout the history of
the Games.
One judge was the overall supervisor and the others were divided into groups of three.
One group organized the pentathlon, won the equestrian events, and the third group was
in charge of the remainder of the competitions.
Athletes also began preparations 10 months before the Games.
In fact, they had to swear an oath that they had been training in their hometowns for the
10-month period.
According to an inscription concerning the Augustan Games at Naples in the year AD2,
we have a good idea of requirements at Olympia since the Augustan Games were classified as
equal to the Olympic Games.
The rules set up for Naples may well have been the existing regulations at Olympia.
The inscription reads as follows.
Each of the athletes must be registered according to his official name, either in his father's
name or in some other way established by law.
If not, let him be fined by the supervisors, so many drachma.
If he does not pay the fine, let him be flogged.
If anyone arrives later than the appointed time, let him announce to the supervisors
the reason for his tardiness.
Valid excuses are illness, shipwreck, or pirates.
Let anyone who wishes inform against him, and if he is convicted, let him be barred
from the contests by the supervisors.
At some point in history, it became a requirement for athletes and trainers to live in Elis,
the district in which Olympia was situated for the month preceding the Games.
There they prepared for competition under strict supervision of the Hellenodikai.
We know from statues and vase paintings that athletes trained and competed naked, and we
have stories explaining this practice.
According to one story, a runner competing in Athens was in the lead but lost a race
because his shorts fell down and tripped him.
From this time on, so it was said, no clothes were worn in athletic contests.
Another story concerns one orsippus of Megara.
In 720 BC, he won the stadion race at Olympia but lost his shorts in the process, setting
a new style.
There is an interesting side effect to this tradition.
Nude contests and games gave sculptors and other artists unequaled opportunities to study
the human form.
Especially in the 5th century BC, when athletic training reached a pinnacle of success in
helping men attain physical perfection, an ideal of form was celebrated in sculpture.
The 5th century sculptors Myron and Polyklytus created some of the most beautiful statues.
The compulsory amount of time athletes had to be away from home probably led to hardships
for the less affluent.
Sometimes a male relative accompanied the contestant, but more often a private trainer
was hired for the duration.
As time went on, city-states provided athletes with a daily subsidy, presumably for training
purposes.
In the Naples inscription, a subsidy of one drachma per day beginning 30 days before the
festival increased to three drachma per day 15 days before the festival began.
There were three gymnasia at Elis for the use of the athletes, and an area in the marketplace
was cleared as a hippodrome for the horses.
There were strict rules for diet and exercise, and every word of the judges had to be obeyed
without question.
The judges in turn had much to do.
They made sure all contestants were of Greek descent.
They disqualified those deemed unfit for competition, and they resolved disputes concerning the
classification of athletes as men and boys since there were no birth certificates to
confirm age.
Two days before the festival officially opened, the athletes, their trainers, and the judges
traveled from Elis along the sacred way to Olympia.
For the first 150 years of the recorded Olympics, only a simple stadion and altar existed at
Olympia.
By the third century BC, one could find many buildings besides the magnificent Temple of
Zeus.
We have evidence of treasure houses, the council house, what archaeologists think is a guest
house or hotel, bath houses, the house of the Hellenodeci, the workshop of Phidias,
the Temple of Hera, and a large multi-purpose building located on the western edge of the
sacred grove.
This building was the gymnasium, a Greek word meaning place where naked people train.
It provided extensive facilities for the athletes, space for javelin and discus practice as well
as indoor and outdoor training ground for runners.
There was also a square building called the palestra, which means wrestling place.
It was approximately 100 feet per side with a large open central courtyard where athletes
trained for events requiring wrestling such as the pancration and the pentathlon.
This facility had as many as 19 chambers including religious cult rooms, training rooms, as well
as cold baths and oiling rooms.
Athletes attached great importance to caring for their bodies before and after exercise.
First they oiled themselves to help prevent sunburn and keep dirt out of their pores.
After exercise, a strigil was used to scrape the oil and dirt off the skin.
Separate bathing facilities with hearths for heating water were built in the 5th century
B.C.
The introduction of hot baths was considered a sign of weakness only for the old and feeble,
but they soon became the vogue.
By 1st century B.C. steam baths were in use, and shower facilities were also available.
The site of the athletic contests, the stadion, was located to the east of the Temple of Zeus
and the Zeus altar.
It was composed of a flat open space known as the dromos, or running area.
Artificial embankments of earth were built up on all four sides of the dromos from which
up to 45,000 spectators watched the contests.
The name of the facility, stadion, the standing place, likely comes from the fact that most
of the spectators stood.
Stadium, the term used today, is the Latin equivalent.
A very few seats have been recovered from the stadion by archaeologists, suggesting
that certain people were accorded the privilege of sitting.
This seat dates to the 6th century B.C. and was the seat of Gorgos, a diplomat.
Because of its association with the foot race, the word stadion was eventually used for the
race itself.
Modern starting lines limited the dromos at either end.
The length between the starting lines was 600 feet, 192 meters in modern measurement,
called a stadion length.
Ancient Greek measurements were based on parts of the body, mainly the foot.
The stadion was exactly 600 feet, but that depended on the length of the foot being used.
There was no universal standard, but ancient measurements were not arbitrary.
It has been shown that the foot length used to measure the stadion at Olympia was the
same foot used to measure the length of the Temple of Zeus.
Competing athletes walked to the stadion from the sanctuary.
They entered through a stone vault, their sudden appearance creating a sense of drama.
There was an area for the judges equipped with seats and a special seat for the priestess
of Demeter, the goddess linked to vegetation and fertility.
Her presence underlined both the game's religious importance and origins in agricultural rights.
With the help of archaeological and historical discoveries, we are able to reconstruct the
five-day program of religious rites, games, and feasting.
On the opening day of the festival, dedications and sacrifices were made and many athletes
and spectators consulted the oracles.
Over swearing-in ceremonies for competitors and judges in the council house, before an
altar covered with strips of boar's flesh and a special statue of Zeus, athletes and
trainers swore the oath of fair and honest competition.
Non-athletic events also took place on opening day.
Philosophers gave orations, poetry was recited, and heralds and trumpeters competed for the
honor of participating in the games.
Although festival games were not to begin until the second day, first-day events included
wrestling, boxing, and running races for boys.
On the second day, the chariot and horse races were held in the morning, preceded by a procession
into the hippodrome of all those competing there.
Opening the festival games with chariot racing was significant.
Pelops, mythical founder of the Olympics, is remembered for his victorious chariot race.
Also, it is an accepted theory that the athletic festivals had their origins not only in honor
of the gods, but in funeral games held for heroes.
The earliest recorded chariot race is in Homer's Iliad, found in a description of funeral games
for the hero Patroclus.
But the origins and mythology of chariot racing were not the only reasons for its popularity.
These races had an element of danger to send thrills through the crowd.
Here is a description of a two-horse chariot race in a play by Sophocles.
At each turn of the lap, Orestes reigned in his inner-trace horse and gave the outer its
head, so skillfully that his hub just cleared the post by a hair's breath every time.
But at the last, he misjudged the turn, slackened his left rein before the horse was safely
round the bend, and so struck the post.
The hub was smashed across, and he was hurled over the rail, entangled in the reins.
And as he fell, his horses ran wild across the course.
The hippodrome at Olympia had a hazardous track.
We do not know how many chariots raced at one time, but the largest number recorded
at the Pythian Games was forty-one.
Whatever the number, an elaborate starting gate was constructed to stagger the start,
giving a fair chance to the charioteers positioned at the outside of the line.
The chariots were usually wooden and of very light construction.
They had no springs, but speed, not comfort, was the aim.
They made one hundred eighty-degree turns around the posts at either end of the race
course.
Since the track was straight rather than curved, the turns were most hazardous.
Imagine a great number of chariots and horses maneuvering on a straight track, then swerving
around the posts.
Collisions, crashes, and fearful bumps were definitely part of the event.
The horse race was just as hazardous in its way.
There were no horseshoes or stirrups in antiquity, and the jockeys rode bareback.
On top of that, the ground was fearfully churned up by the chariot teams preceding this event.
In spite of the hazards, the winning jockeys were not honored.
The wreath of victory went to the owner of the horse.
In the afternoon, the pentathlon, five-part contest, took place.
It was an event reflecting the Greek value of diversity as opposed to specialization.
The ideal athlete should be well-rounded with great skill in a number of sports.
The long jump, discus, and javelin competitions were restricted to the pentathlon and took
place at this time.
The discus was usually made of bronze.
Its shape was similar to that used in the modern Olympics, although the ancient discus
was probably heavier.
The rules were five throws per competitor, with the best throw marked by a peg.
Historians have been able to analyze the throwing of the discus with the help of many clues.
For example, statues and vase paintings record aspects of the ancient technique of the throw,
believed to be different from the modern event, which is characterized by a preparation of
one and one-half turns.
The most famous ancient example is the discus thrower by the sculptor Myron made in the
fifth century B.C.
It shows the athlete at the moment when he has completed the backward swing and is about
to launch the discus forward.
Note the power generated by the bent knees, curved arm, and rotated torso and head.
We know this was a much admired statue because a number of copies have been found, either
life-size or as statuettes.
The original disappeared long ago.
The javelin event had the same rule of five throws.
This event probably had its origins in soldiers spear-throwing contests, but the javelin was
lighter and longer than the foot soldier's spear.
Rather than throwing it straight from the hand, the technique involved the aid of a
leather thong wound around the middle of the shaft.
When the javelin was thrown, the thong unwound, causing the javelin to spin.
This helped it travel farther and more accurately.
Even with the discovery of artifacts such as stone jumping weights and vase paintings
depicting the long jump, historians and archaeologists still do not have as clear a picture of this
pentathlon event as they do of the others.
The jumpers carried stone or metal weights, one in each hand.
The average weight among those found is about four and a half pounds.
The jumper swung the weights forward to shoulder height as he soared through the air leaning
far forward.
The weights were then swung down to the knees.
This technique increased the length of the jump and assured a clean landing, without
which the jump was a foul.
What we do not know are the actual qualifying rules.
Were there separate jumps with the best one qualifying, or were the jumps made in a continuous
progression where a single foul would eliminate the contestant?
Perhaps a future archaeologist will find the answer.
What we do know is that this was considered one of the most difficult events.
According to an ancient source, flute music often accompanied the jump to help the jumper
create the proper rhythm and encourages concentration.
Wrestling and the stadion race were held on the fourth day as separate contests.
If an athlete was first in all pentathlon events held on the second day, he was declared
the pentathlon winner without having to prove himself in running and wrestling.
In the evening, the victors paraded around the altis.
There were religious rites in honor of the hero Pelops.
There was feasting and revelry.
The third day of the festival was planned to coincide with the full moon, a sacred time
for the ancient Greeks.
Religious rites, both public and private, took place in the morning, concluding with
a great procession of judges, ambassadors from the Greek states, sacrificial animals,
and athletes.
Heralds announced the names of the athletes and the cities that had entered them.
The afternoon of day three was set aside for the foot races.
So honored was the stadion race that when the history of the games was recorded, each
Olympiad was named after the winner.
Other foot races were the dioulos, which was two lengths of the stadion, close to our modern
400 meters, and a long distance race of 20 or 24 lengths, approximately the equivalent
of our 5,000 meter race.
The last foot race to be added was the hopliteodromos, or race in armor, held on the fourth day of
the festival.
Originally, athletes raced in full armor.
Over time, the armor was reduced to greaves, shield, and helmet, and then to shield and
helmet alone.
It appears a very warlike event, and one which reminded the populace that athletic training
had the purpose of keeping the male citizens physically fit for war.
The starting position for the foot races was not at all the same as that used by the modern
runner.
The left foot was placed in front of the right.
Those gripped the grooves in the marble sill that was the starting line.
This was most important because anyone who jumped the start was flogged by special officials
known as the alitai.
From the vase paintings of the time, we learn there were various styles of running as there
are today.
The sprinter seems to display more vigorous action of the arms and legs, while the long
distance runner holds his arms closer to the body and seems to have a steadier pace.
In an ancient coaching manual, the ideal long distance runner is described as a man with
slender legs and strength in the neck and shoulders needed for swinging the arms over
a great distance.
At the end of the third day, after procession and foot races, a great public banquet was
held in the Pritineon.
In keeping with the religious significance of the day, this building housed the sacred
fire used to light all of the other altar fires in the sanctuary of Zeus.
Day four saw the events of wrestling in the morning, boxing, the pancradion at midday,
and the race in armor in the afternoon.
Wrestling was a very popular sport.
From the 6th century BC, a palestra could be found in every city in the land.
These were often private clubs and people had to pay membership fees to use the facilities.
Just as people meet now for a game of golf or tennis, ancient club members would enjoy
a bout of wrestling or boxing.
The great philosopher Plato, whose name refers to the fact that he had broad shoulders, was
known for his skill as a wrestler.
There were two types of wrestling, upright and ground.
The distinction was in the types of holds used, the rules for deciding the winner, and
the surface on which the match took place.
Upright wrestling took place on a level sanded surface, while ground wrestling was staged
in an area known as the keroma, translated as beeswax, where the ground was watered until
it was muddy and sticky.
Much of our information about wrestling technique comes from scenes on vases depicting mythological
figures in the act of wrestling, as well as scenes portraying real life figures.
Wrestlers anointed themselves with olive oil, as did other athletes, and were dusted with
powder so gripping the body of an opponent wouldn't turn into a comic game of slip and
slide.
This situation led to ingenious cheating at times.
Unethical wrestlers would sneakily rub an oily hand over some part of the body to make
it too slippery for an opponent to grasp.
Only upright wrestling was permitted in Olympic competitions.
However, ground wrestling was part of the sport known as the pancradion.
To win an upright wrestling match, a man had to throw his opponent to the ground three
times.
If a slip, back, or shoulder touched the floor, it was considered a fair fall.
If both wrestlers fell together, nothing was counted.
Tripping was allowed.
Leg holds were permitted, but rarely used.
There were no rounds or time limits during a match.
It continued until a winner was declared.
Boxing took place at midday, so neither contestant would be disadvantaged by having the sun in
his eyes.
It is a very ancient sport depicted by artists in Minoan and Mycenaean periods.
The Greeks found its origin in myth as well.
The sun god, Apollo, was especially associated with the sport and was said to have defeated
Ares, god of war, in the first match held at Olympia.
Historians trace the origins of boxing to the Spartans.
Relying on strength and stamina alone, the Spartans rejected the practice of hiring trainers
and refining the sport as other Greeks did.
Because a match ended with either a knockout or an admission of defeat, Spartans did not
box at the Olympic Games, admitting defeat was a dishonor Spartans could not tolerate.
Along with wrestling, boxing was a martial art essential to the athletic education of
the Greek citizen who was warrior as well as athlete.
There were no classifications by weight in wrestling or boxing, resulting in final competitions
between big, well-muscled men.
A high protein diet was adopted by these athletes to develop exaggerated physiques and bull
necks.
Ancient boxers covered their hands with thin strips of oxide, their only protection.
During the fourth century BC, a padded inner glove bound with hard, sharp leather thongs
was introduced for competition.
Soon after, a ready-made hard glove lined with sheepskin made its appearance.
Competitors came toward each other without any gesture of sportsmanship, such as the
handshake used today.
Most blows were aimed at the head, not the exposed torso.
Any type of blow with the hand was permitted, including gouging with all the fingers except
the thumb.
Fatalities were rare, but when they occurred, the dead man was posthumously awarded the
crown.
Pancradion is from a Greek word meaning all-powerful.
This sport, the biggest attraction at the Olympic Games, could be called a free-for-all.
It was a combination of judo, ground wrestling, upright wrestling, and boxing.
Punching, slapping, and kicking were the norm, though kicking was treated with scorn.
Leg and footholds were commonly used, as were strangleholds and body lifts.
It would appear that the Pancradion required the most brute strength, but the Greeks considered
it less bloody than boxing and greatly admired the skill of the Pancradists.
Day four came to an end with the race in armor.
This was the last athletic event of the Games.
The fifth and final day was taken up with the awards ceremony and feasting.
There was a procession to the Temple of Zeus where the judges, according to some sources,
crowned the winners with olive wreaths and the crowds showered them with flowers.
It is also thought that victors were crowned with the olive wreath at the moment of victory.
There is also evidence that winners were given ribbons of wool before receiving the crown.
These they bound around their heads, arms, or legs to distinguish them.
At a later date, the custom of giving a palm branch as a sign of victory was adopted as
well.
The giving of olive wreaths was shrouded in myth and ritual.
One story concerns a legendary king of Elis.
He was told by the Delphic oracle to fashion a victory wreath from an olive tree adorned
with cobwebs.
He found that tree at Olympia and set it apart with a fence.
According to other sources, there was an exceptional tree at Olympia.
Its leaves grew in a symmetrical pattern and were an unusual pale green.
It became the custom for a young boy with living parents to cut one branch for each
contest using a golden sickle.
From these branches, the Olympian crowns were made.
Through the centuries, Olympia held fast to the symbolic award of the olive wreath and
awarded nothing of material value.
To understand the importance attached to it and the fame and glory it represented, we
have to understand the thinking of the Greek athlete of 2500 years ago.
There were no team sports at the Olympic Games.
An individual athlete trained and competed to please the god or goddess in whose name
the Games were held.
The winner was believed to be the athlete who had most pleased the god.
First prize was the only prize.
Victory was not shared.
If a contest ended in a tie, the wreath was dedicated to the god.
Of all the festival games, the one at Olympia was the most prestigious and the Olympic olive
wreath the most coveted of prizes.
However, as important as this symbol was to the athlete, he certainly didn't shrink from
accepting material rewards.
The modern distinction of amateur versus professional did not exist in ancient times.
Those who earned a living from athletics and those who did not, wealthy aristocrats and
the unknown and untried, all competed on an equal footing.
Money won in any of the circuit games was a subsidy all competitors expected to receive.
From a 5th century BC Athenian inscription, we know 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.
In fact, from this practice, a monetary life pension did eventually evolve.
In 600 BC, an Olympic victor who was a citizen of Athens could expect to receive a cash award
of 500 drachma, which was a vast fortune.
By the 5th century BC, athletes who won at any of the Panhellenic festival games would
usually be assured of great wealth when they returned home.
Material rewards to athletes date far back in Greek tradition.
Our first literary evidence is in Homer's Iliad, where Achilles organizes funeral games
for his friend Patroclus, who was killed during the Trojan War.
This scene illustrates a chariot race in the funeral games for Patroclus.
The artist has placed the prizes for the competitors beneath the chariots.
They include tripods and cauldrons, along with other prizes such as oxen and women.
There may be other evidence for prize giving as well.
There are a series of large bronze tripods in the Archaeological Museum at Olympia that
were found buried at the sanctuary there.
They are thought to have been dedications made to Zeus.
Some scholars see these tripods as possible prizes in contests predating the first recorded
games.
Keeping in mind that the word athlete means one who competes for a prize, we should not
be surprised that at most of the athletic festivals, material awards were routinely
given.
We owe much of our knowledge of ancient Olympic heroes to Pausanias, a Greek from Asia Minor
who wrote one of the world's earliest travel guides.
Guides which no longer exist today were still standing when Pausanias traveled in the second
century AD.
Luckily for us, Pausanias wrote down all he saw and heard.
Other knowledge comes from victory odes, an ancient form of poetry which were sung at
Olympic feasts.
Odes were commonly commissioned by an athlete, the athlete's family, or a rich political
leader to commemorate a victory at the games.
Many authors of these odes were great poets.
One of these was Pindar who lived in the 5th century BC.
45 of his odes for athletic victors survived to this day.
One Pindaric ode, written to commemorate the Olympic victory of hero Tyrant of Syracuse
in a chariot race, praises both city and man.
Mighty city of Syracuse, where Aries dwells in depths of war, where men and horses mailed
for battle have holy nurture.
For you I come bringing from shining Thebes this song.
I tell how, where teams of four horses made earth tremble, hero and his good chariot conquered
and wreathed Ortegia with far shining crowns, where the lady of rivers, Artemis, dwells.
She failed him not, when with light hand on the embroidered reins he broke those young
mares in.
Jockeys and chariot drivers counted for little in all equestrian races, since the owner of
the winning horse was awarded the olive wreath.
However, some political tyrants of the 7th and 6th centuries would personally participate
in equestrian events, usually as chariot driver.
It was their attempt to achieve influence and recognition by peaceful means.
For example, Myron, Tyrant of Scythian, won the four horse chariot race in 648 BC.
Tauzanius tells us that Myron dedicated two bronze chests and a treasury building to Zeus
to commemorate his victory.
Another famous political and military leader, Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander
the Great, won three equestrian victories at Olympia in the two horse chariot race and
in the horse race.
Although Philip is credited with the victories, he was not present.
Instead, he sent a team from Macedonia to represent himself, the common practice.
The custom of winning an Olympic wreath for equestrian races without being present worked
to great advantage for women.
Married women were barred on penalty of death from the sanctuary on the days of athletic
competition for boys and men.
But unmarried girls were allowed to watch the men's and boys' events and competed in
foot races in honor of the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus.
These were held in the same stadion used for the men's and boys' contests, but scheduled
at a separate time.
Tauzanius gives us a description of girls' attire for the Hera games of the 2nd century
AD.
The girls wore their hair free down their back and a tunic hanging almost as low as
their knees, covering only the left shoulder and breast.
This may have been the traditional costume at Olympia for centuries.
The singular advantage the married woman had was the chance to win an Olympic olive wreath.
Because equestrian races were won by the owners and not by the jockeys, all a woman needed
was great wealth to buy and train a winning horse and rider.
The most famous was also the first woman to win.
This was Kyniska, daughter of a king of Sparta.
She was proclaimed victor twice in the chariot race.
First, in 396 BC and then in 392.
In celebration, she set up two bronze monuments.
Part of the base of the larger monument has been found.
The inscription on it speaks for Kyniska.
Sparta's kings were fathers and brothers of mine, but since with my chariot and storming
horses I, Kyniska, have won the prize.
I place my effigy here and proudly proclaim that of all Grecian women I first bore the
crown.
There are a number of boxers, wrestlers and pancratists whose heroic performances are
known to us.
One Clioxanus of Alexandria, Egypt is noted as having completed his boxing career unwounded,
a rare and impressive boast for a boxer.
Arachion, a pancratist who had already won at two Olympiads, was competing for his third
Olympic wreath.
As he was being strangled, he used his last strength to break his opponent's toe.
The man signaled defeat.
Even though Arachion died, he was proclaimed winner and his dead body crowned.
Then there was Sostratus of Sicyon, a wrestler.
He won at two Olympiads as well as 14 more times in the other circuit games.
As part of his reward, a statue of him was placed at Delphi and another at Olympia.
So famous was he that coins were struck with his image, an honor usually saved for political
leaders.
Special honor was reserved for those who won contests at all four Panhellenic games.
Milo of Croton, known as King of Wrestlers, was such an athlete.
He first won an Olympic prize at age 14 and won seven more as an adult.
He also won ten at the Ismian Games and nine at Nemea.
There is reliable evidence that he was a champion wrestler until the age of 40.
The greatest Olympic runner in ancient times was Leonidas of Rhodes, who was said to run
with the speed of a god.
He won all three running events at four successive Olympiads between 164 and 152 BC.
This was such an extraordinary feat that he came to be worshipped by his countrymen as
a local deity.
A boxer of royal descent, Diagoras of Rhodes, was said to be the tallest man in the world.
Though he only won once at Olympia in 464 BC, he won twice at Nemea and four times at
the Ismian Games.
He lived to see two of his sons crowned at Olympia for the pancradion and boxing.
The victorious sons lifted Diagoras under their shoulders and put their wreaths upon
his head.
According to a description of the event, someone in the crowd was so thrilled by the sight
he called out, �Die now, Diagoras.
There is nothing left for you but to rise to Olympus.� At that instant, Diagoras collapsed
and died.
These champions had their statues set up in the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, paid for
by themselves or by the city-states they represented.
Most of the statues were idealistic images, only if an athlete had won three Olympic victories
would a realistic likeness be made.
Archaeological excavations within the sanctuary have revealed a great number of statue bases.
Only fragments of the many bronze statues that stood on these bases survive.
From Pausanias�s descriptions, as well as from a variety of other sources, we learn
that athletes did not necessarily represent their hometowns.
On occasion, they could be political pawns caught in fierce rivalries.
The prestige of claiming an Olympic victory tempted many a political leader to lure superior
athletes away from rival city-states.
We know from coins struck to commemorate Olympic victories that successive tyrants of Syracuse
of the 5th and 4th centuries BC were clearly interested in advertising the triumphs of
their athletes.
Athletes switched allegiances for the sake of material gain.
One champion runner won three successive victories at Olympia as Ostilus of Croton, but on later
occasions he proclaimed himself a Syracusan to please the tyrant Hero.
This so angered the people of Croton they condemned his house to be a prison and pulled
down his statue.
There are additional instances of athletes who were bribed to change their allegiance.
This was not considered a crime at Olympia, but other kinds of cheating were treated harshly.
Competitors and trainers could be whipped publicly, a form of punishment normally reserved
only for slaves, and fined heavily.
Pausanias tells us that special bronze images of Zeus were set up on the roadway that led
from the Altis to the west end of the stadium.
The images were called zanes, meaning images of Zeus.
They were paid for by fines that had been levied against cheating athletes.
Not coincidentally, this was the very path the athletes walked to enter the place of
athletic competition.
In the case of Eupolus of Thessaly, who bribed three other boxers in the 98th Olympiad, the
fine was so high that it paid for six bronze statues.
The inscriptions on the base of these zanes told the story of the offense, named the individuals
involved and included a moral to would-be offenders reminding them that victory was
to be achieved by the speed of your feet and the strength of your body, not by money.
Curiously enough, if bribery was proved after the event, an Olympic winner was not stripped
of his wreath and title.
But if the offender refused or failed to pay the fine, he would be excluded from any future
games.
The ancient Olympic games continued apparently without interruption for almost 1,200 years.
It was the authority of the sacred truce which safeguarded the games.
Though the truce did not stop wars, it did protect travelers going to and returning from
Olympia.
Heralds were sent all over the land to proclaim a month before and a month after as sacred,
ensuring safe passage for all concerned.
As athletes and visitors came from greater and greater distances, the truce was extended.
But everything was not peace and happiness at the site of Olympia.
Antagonisms grew between the neighboring city-states of Elis and Pisa.
For centuries they battled for control of the games.
As early as 668 BC, we hear of a military takeover of the sanctuary by Pisa.
A more famous incident occurred 300 years later.
Pisa, together with its allied forces, was directing the festival and games.
Elis chose precisely this time to attack.
What followed was a day-long battle involving thousands of soldiers.
The battle was bad enough when it took place in the middle of the sanctuary of Zeus during
the pentathlon.
In 393 AD, the Roman emperor Theodosius I banned all pagan festivals.
In his espousal of Christianity, he sought to eliminate the most attractive and thereby
competitive component of pagan religion, athletic festivals, such as the one at Olympia.
Emperor Theodosius II called for the destruction of all pagan temples.
Also, in the 4th century AD, there were two severe earthquakes that largely destroyed
the sanctuary.
During the Middle Ages, the river Alpheus overflowed, virtually covering the entire
area with silt.
The site was rediscovered by Richard Chandler, an Englishman, in 1766, and later excavations
were carried out by the French and the Germans.
Much of our information about Olympia is a result of large-scale systematic excavations
that have taken place there for well over a century.
In the 19th century, a Frenchman named Pierre Baron de Coubertin led the way to revive
the Olympic Games, hoping they would promote peace, understanding, and brotherhood in the
modern world.
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.
Clearly, we are indebted to the ancient Greeks for many traditions of the modern Olympic
Games, although the Games of Antiquity were not the hallowed celebrations of amateur athletics,
which we are often led to believe.
Despite their foundation as religious festivals, the ancient Olympic Games were in many ways
much like the modern Olympic Games.
They were intrinsically political, nationalistic, and commercial.
The religious element that was the basis of the festival was the reason for its longstanding
success and public interest.
Ironically, with the coming of Christianity, it was also the cause of its demise more than
1,000 years later.
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