The+Olympics

=﻿The Olympic Games= The Olympic Games were an athletic festival in honor of Zeus; the Games were held every four years at the ancient Greek sanctuary to Zeus at Olympia. The first Olympiad was held in 776 BC, and this festival became a major cultural, religious, and athletic event over the following centuries. The Olympics were one of the four stephanic games held in ancient Greece. The last Olympiad in the ancient world was held in 395 AD. toc =Origin= The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC. The poet Pindar attributes its founding to the hero Heracles, but this is clearly a mythic origin with no evidence behind it. Indeed, archeological evidence shows that the first temple built at Olympia was a temple to Hera, erected c. 590 BC. There remain wells, however, dating to the 8th century BC, which seem to have served athletes and visitors.

The first Olympiad consisted of a single stade race (basically a 200m dash). The winner of this first event was Coroebus and his prize was an apple. Later, as part of the stephanic games circuit, the victors at the Olympic Games would receive an olive wreath.

The Olympic Games were held in honor of Zeus, and thus they were the most prestigious of the stephanic games in ancient Greece. The 5th century poet, Pindar, makes the prestige of the Olympic Games clear in his ode, "Olympian 1," singing, "Water is best, and gold, like a blazing fire in the night, stands out supreme of all lordly wealth. But if, my heart, you wish to sing of contests, look no further for any star warmer than the sun, shining by day through the lonely sky, and let us not proclaim any contest greater than Olympia" (1-8). The Games that Pindar here praises would have been different from their very first iterations, but he knew the Games at their most complete, as their final form ossified only in the 6th century BC, but this still left nearly 1,000 years (the last games were held in 395 AD) of the Games' taking place; such longevity attests to the cultural and religious significance of the Olympic Games. The panhellenic nature of the Games demonstrates their importance throughout their history. Martin reminds readers that the panhellenism of the games would override conflict and strife. He writes, "an international truce of several weeks was declared to guarantee safe passage for competitors and spectators traveling to and from Olympia, even if wars were in progress along the way" (Martin 47).

=Site of the Olympic Games= The Olympic Games took place at Olympia, in the western Peloponnese. The nearby city of Elis administered the Games and effectively acted as a host city for the festival, although the most important parts of the Games took place at Olympia itself.

Olympia was an important Panhellenic site, as it housed Zeus' most important sanctuary, and the lack of political ties at Olympia made it a welcoming place for people from all over Greece and beyond. The River Alpheus runs along Olympia. The proximity of this river proved important to the fate of Olympia: "the site [became] forgotten after earthquakes changed the flow of the river Alphaeus and allowed it to be buried in silt" (Freeman 216).

= Organization & Contests= One month before the Games took place, participants would convene at Elis. Two days before the festival formally began, there would be a long procession from Elis to the Sanctuary at Olympia. Officials from Elis would lead the athletes, as well as the horses and charriots that would be used in the equestrian events. The festival lasted for five days, mixing the main athletic events with contests for singers and musicians, as well as orations by famous speakers. Banquets and sacrifices took places throughout, and, on the final day, a parade of victors marched to the Temple of Zeus to be crowned with their wreaths (olive). The crowd would throw flowers and leaves on the winners as they marched, not unlike confetti. Once they all arrived at the Temple, a large sacrifice, known as a hecatomb (sacrifice of one hundred oxen), would take place. Freeman explains that "the ashes [from the sacrifice] were never cleared away but mixed into a paste, with the result that every year the alter became more monumental" (216). Winning athletes could also now dedicate his statue to the god.

Agones
The various "events," or "contests" that took place during the five days of the Olympiad were divided into categories: running events, the pentathalon, the combative contests, equestrian sports, and musical competitions. These contests took place in various venues around the Temple of Zeus, such as the stadion, the race track (for equestrian races), and a wrestling ring.

Running Events
In the running program there were four different races of varying distances. The races would be run in the //stadion// (this is where we get our word "stadium"). Runners would compete in either the //stadion// (a one-stade race), the //diaulos// (a 2-stade race), the //dolichos// (a 24-stade race), and the //hoplitidromos// (a 2-stade race in full armor).

Pentathalon
The pentathalon was a five event contest comprised of a 1-stade run, the long jump, the discus throw, the javelin toss, and wrestling. Some scholarly controversy exists over the nature of the ancient long jump. Some contend that it was a triple jump, others a single bound (as today), but the evidence is not conclusive. Our understanding of this event is further complicated by the ancient use of weights during the jump(s), and we are not fully sure of the run-up. The run-up was likely restricted to a short distance. The weights, called //halteres//, changed the athlete's task entirely. In his article, "An Olympic Epigram: The Athletic Feats of Phayllos," Harris explains that the weights "imposed a completely different technique on the jumper. In the modern long jump, success depends on a combination of spring with speed at the moment of take-off. In jumping with weights success depends on a combination of speed with a very difficult co-ordination of arm and leg movements at the take-off" (6). This technique would have required extensive practice for the rhythm necessary for the weights to benefit the jumper, and much strength training would have been needed to handle the weights and not to have them become a hindrance.

Combat Sports
Most of the combat sports are more or less familiar to us. Boxing and wrestling were both events at the Olympic Games, and matches were divided by weight class. One difference in the boxing, however, from what we watch today on Pay Per View was that boxers struck only the head and neck. Body blows were prohibitted and would result in a foul or even disqualification from a match. There was another combative event, however, that is less familar to modern sports fans. In addition to the boxing and wrestling matches, some athletes would contend in the pankration, a no holds barred fight that ended only when the loser surrendered, lost consciousness, or died. There were some barred moves and holds (no gouging of the eyes, no groin yanking), but this fight was not divided by weight class. If you entered the ring for the pankration, you might be larger than your opponent, you might be smaller--you never knew, and there were no excuses. You might compare this event to MMA or the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but although it was similarly brutal, it was a different sport from anything we have today. All of the recorded fights to the death in ancient Greece took place, strangely enough, at the Olympics. This may well indicate that due to the prestige of these Games, athletes gave more effort and were even less likely to surrender during a match; too much was on the line at Olympia (Brophy and Brophy 172).

=﻿Athletes= Those who competed in the athletic events were primarily from the aristocracy. Even though it was free for men to enter the games, an athlete who had any chance of competing would need to be someone with sufficient leisure time to train. Those who were not of the upper classes in ancient Greece would not have had time to undertake such training (for more on the class issue and other social implications, see "Cultural Significance" below).

Athletes competed in the nude, which was an exception to the general Greek cultural attitude toward nudity. In fact, the Greek word //gymnos//, which means "naked," is where we get our word "gymnasium." For more information on ancient Greek athletes and athletics, see Athletics in Ancient Greece.

An important distinction between Olympic athletes in our time and those of ancient Greece is that the ancients competed as individuals, not as representatives of a nation. Victorious athletes would certainly return to their home cities with fanfare and an increased reputation, and victory would bring pride to a city, but athletes competed to demonstrate their own personal excellence. Thomas Martin discusses this need to demonstrate excellence in the context of Greek identity: "the emphasis on physical prowess and fitness, competition, and public recognition by other men as winners corresponded to the ideal of Greek masculine identity as it developed in this period" (46).

The most famous Olympic athlete in the ancient world was Milo, a wrestler from souther Italy. Milo won six wrestling crowns at the Olympic Games starting in 536 BC. Milo "was renowned for showy stunts, such as holding his breath until his blood expanded his veins so much that they would snap a cord tied around this head" (Martin 46). One other famous Olympic athlete is Phayllos. Phayllos' feats in the pentathalon at the Olympic Games are the stuff of legend, and scholars even today struggle to understand what exactly this man accomplished. There survives an epigram and several other literary sources that report Phayllos' having completed a 55 foot long-jump, and a 95 foot discus throw. These numbers, the jump in particular, are hard to accept (the jump too long and the discus throw nothing to get excited about), but the numbers are either exaggerations or we cannot grasp them due to differences in the events from their modern day counterparts, differences that we don't fully understand. Modern long-jumpers have yet to break the 30 foot barrier, so a 55 foot leap would have been superhuman, unless the expert use of weights could produce such dramatic results (see above).

Women
Traditionally in ancient Greece, most women were forbidden from watching athletic contests. During the athletic contests at Olympia, however, the picture is a bit more complicated. Married women were still prohibited from watching, but Pausanias, the ancient Greek travel writer, informs us that "maidens are not debarred from looking on at the games" (6.20.9), suggesting that athletic contests were potentially a place for girls to meet husbands.

Olympia did, however, host a special games for women at a different time of year from the Olympic Games. This women's athletic festival was called the Heraea, and consisted of a single event: a foot race. There were age divisions for the races, and each race included 16 runners. The event was still different from a men's race, though; Pausanias explains, "the course of the stadium is shortened for them by about one-sixth of its length. To the winning maidens they give crowns of olive and a portion of the cow sacrificed to Hera. They may also dedicate statues with their names inscribed upon them. Those who administer to the Sixteen are, like the presidents of the games, married women" (5.16.3).

=﻿Cultural Significance= Above we saw that the primary participants in the Olympic Games (and athletic festivals generally) were the upper class, known as the "agathoi". The aristocracy (the agathoi) felt pressure to preserve their status as great men. The pressure to maintain status is coupled with the Greek-wide cultural imperative to compete and achieve excellence. This competiive spirit is seen throughout Greek literature and cultural institutions, touching many aspects of life in ancient Greece, but the cultural emphasis on excellence (//arete//) did help to perpetuate the class division of Greek society. Indeed, Thomas Martin explains, under this code of excellence, "any life was contemptible whose goal was not the pursuit of excellence and the fame it brought. This code of values of course consigned the great majority of the population to secondary status, from which they had little, if any, hope of escaping unless they could somehow manage to accumulate the wealth that would allow them to participate in the way of life of the elite" (46). The fame and glory that accompanied victory at the Games find their highest expression in the poetry of Pindar. Consider his "Olympian 13": "It is impossible to conceal one's inborn nature. As for you, sons of Aletes, often the Seasons have sent you victorious splendor for your consummate excellence when you won in sacred contests" (12-16). This selection from Pindar's "Olympian 13" points up both the aristocratic individual's efforts to distinguish himself from the rabble and the potential reputation a victorious athlete could maintain.

The religious importance of the Olympic Games, though, cannot be overstated. First and foremost, the Games were a religious festival and as such the focus of the events was directed toward the god. The religious context of the festival is expressed not only the various sacrifices that took place across these five days, but in the athletic contests themselves. Despite the cultural imperative for excellence and the fame that might result from a victory (see Pindar's //Odes//), athletes understood their performance as an offering for the god above all else. A poor showing in a wrestling match, for example, would have been disgraceful both because of the loss and because it was an insufficient gift to Zeus.

=﻿Bibliography= Brooks, Jason. "Lecture 6: Competition, The Gods and Iconography." //Humanities 111.// Pepperdine University. Malibu, CA. 14 June 2011.

Brophy, Robert and Mary Brophy. "Deaths in the Pan-Hellenic Games II: All Combative Sports." //The American Journal of Philology//, 106:2 (Summer 1985), 171-198. Print.

Freeman, Charles. //Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean, 2nd Ed//. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Harris, H. A. "An Olympic Epigram: The Athletic Feats of Phayllos." //Greece & Rome//, 7:1 (Mar., 1960), 3-8. Print.

"Map 1: Greece and the Aegean world" //The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization//. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford UP, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Web. 12 June 2011.

Martin, Thomas R. //Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times//. New Haven, CT: Yale Nota Bene, 2000. Print.

"Olympia." //The Oxford Companian to Classical Civilization//. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.

Pausanias. //Description of Greece//. Trans. W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod. Cambridge, MA, Harvard UP, 1918. The Perseus Project. Web. 11 June 2011.

Pindar. //Odes//. Trans. Diane Svarlien. The Perseus Project, 1990. Web. 12 June 2011.