Greek Spectacles and Games 2.0
Siobhán McElduff
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Table of Contents
Timeline
Greek Sports I: Athletic Events:
a. Nudity and Equipment
b. Athletics and Greek Identity
a. Types of Greek Athletics
Heavy
Non-heavy
Greek Sports II: Equestrian Events
a. Chariot Racing
b. Other Equestrian Events
Greek Sports III: Athletes and their Reputations
a. Honours
b. Legendary Athletes
The Olympic Games
a. Foundation Myth
b. Structure of the Games
c. The Athletes
d. Celebrating Victory
The Heraia, and Women and Athletics
Beyond the Olympics: the Circuit of Games
a. The Pythian Games
b. The Isthmian Games
c. The Nemean Games
d. The Panathenaea
Appendix
Figures
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Timeline for Greek athletics (with some other dates for context)
776 BCE: First recorded Olympic Games are held at Olympia, a holy site dedicated to
the worship of the god Zeus. Sole event is the stadion, a sprint race the length of the
stadium.
724 BCE: Diaulos (double stadion) added to Olympics games
720 BCE Dolichos (long distance race) added to the Olympics; Orsippos first nude
runner in stadion?
708 BCE pentathlon and wresting added to the Olympics
688 BCE boxing added to the Olympics
680 BCE four horse chariot race added to the Olympics
648 BCE pankration and horse racing added to the Olympics
632 BCE stadion and wrestling for boys added to the Olympics
628 BCE pentathlon for boys added to the Olympics; dropped immediately
616 BCE boxing for boys added to the Olympics
586 BCE First Pythian Games held in Delphi (or possible relaunch). Events are
singing to the lyre, playing the aulos (flute), singing to the aulos (dropped at once as
too depressing); stadion, diaulos, dolichos, pentathlon, boxing, wrestling, horseracing, stadion for boys (along with boxing, dolichos, diaulos for boys)
582 BCE: four horse chariot race added to the Pythian Games
580 BCE First Isthmian Games held
573 BCE First Nemean Games; hence start of the periodos, the circuit of crown games.
560s BCE Panatheniac Games first celebrated
558 BCE: lyre playing added to the Pythian Games
540–516 Milo of Croton wins wrestling six times at the 60th and 62nd–66th Olympic
Games.
520 BCE Hoplitodromos added to the Olympics
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500 BCE: Apene (cart race for mules) added to the Olympics.
498 BCE: Hoplitodromos added to the Pythian Games
496 BCE Kalpe added to the Olympics
492-490 BCE: 1st Persian War and invasion of Greece; Battle of Marathon won by
the Greeks led by the Athenians
480 BCE: 2nd Persian War and invasion of Greece; victory of the Athenians and
their allies at the naval battle of Salamis
444 BCE: Apene and kalpe dropped from the Olympics
431-404 BCE: Peloponnesian War between Athens and her allies against Sparta and
hers; Sparta wins
416 BCE: the Athenian aristocrat Alcibiades enters 7 chariot teams in the four horse
chariot at the Olympic Games
408 BCE: Two-horse chariot race added to the Olympics
398 BCE: Two-horse chariot race added to the Pythian Games
396 BCE: Contests for heralds and trumpeters added to the Olympics. Cynisca of
Sparta becomes the first woman to win at the Olympic Games (in the four horse
chariot race).
392 BCE: Cynisca wins again in the four horse chariot race
356 BCE: Philip II of Macedon wins the four horse chariot race at the Olympics
336 BCE: Death of Philip II of Macedon; Alexander (not yet the Great) ascends the
throne of Macedonia
334 BCE: Alexander the Great invades Persia
323 BCE: death of Alexander the Great
279 BCE: The Ptolemaia, modelled after the Olympics, is first celebrated in
Alexandria. These are the first so-called ‘Iso-Olympic Games’, games directly
modelled on the Olympics.
264 BCE: four horse chariot race for foals added to the Olympics
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256 BCE: horse race for foals added to the Olympics
c. 250s BCE: Nemean Games are moved from their original site to the city of Argos
200 BCE: pankration for boys added to Olympics
197 BCE: Romans defeat the Macedonians in the Second Macedonian War
196 BCE: Titus Quinctius Flaminius, victor over the Macedonians, declares Greece
free at the Isthmian Games
168 BCE: Romans defeat the Macedonians at the battle of Pydna; Greece divided
into four regions
149 BCE: Greece becomes a Roman province
146 BCE: Corinth burned to the ground by the Romans; control of the Isthmian
Games moves to Sicyon.
c. 40 BCE: Control of the Isthmian Games is transferred back to Corinth (now a
Roman colony)
4 BCE: Emperor Tiberius wins the 4 horse chariot race at Olympia
65 CE Nero participates in the Olympic Games and the circuit of crown games
(Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian); games are held out of sequence.
393 CE: Final Olympic Games are held in Olympia. Theodosius I bans all pagan
festivals, including the Olympics, the next year.
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Greek Sports I
a. Nudity and equipment
Greek men competed naked, although they had not always done so, a fact which they were aware
of. In Homer’s epic poem the Iliad (23.685) the athletes at the funeral games for Patroclus wear
clothes; this epic, however, dates from the 8th century BCE, long before the rest of our historical
records. At some point in the 7th century clothing was abandoned and, eventually, not only did
the Greeks train and compete naked in all sports (with the exception of some equestrian events
and races where wearing equipment was part of the race), but nudity in athletics became a
marker of Greek identity: barbarians might wear clothes, but Greeks stripped to train and to
compete.
The first man who undertook to strip and ran naked at Olympia, at the fifteenth
Olympiad, was Acanthus the Spartan. Before that time, it seems, all the Greeks
had been ashamed to appear entirely naked in the games, as Homer, the most
credible and the most ancient of all witnesses, shows when he represents the
heroes as wearing clothes around their loins. At any rate, when he is describing
the wrestling-match of Ajax and Odysseus at the funeral of Patroclus, he says:
“and then the two with their loins well covered stepped forth into the ring.”
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 7.72.2-3.
The Athenian historian Thucydides agreed that the Spartans were the first to run naked:
The Spartans were the first who stripped naked and rubbed themselves over with
olive oil for their athletic exercises. But this was not the ancient custom; athletes
formerly, even when they were competing at Olympia, wore loin-cloths, a
practice which lasted until quite lately, and still prevails among barbarians,
especially those of Asia, where the combatants at boxing and wrestling matches
wear loin-cloths.
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.6.
However, some argued that the first person to run naked was Orsippos from Megara:
Near Koroibos1 is the grave of Orsippos. When the athletes, following an ancient
custom, wore loin-clothes at the games, he won the Olympic stadion while naked.
They also say that later, when Orsippos was a general he cut off land from
neighbouring people. I think that he deliberately dropped his loin-cloth at
Olympia, realizing that a naked man can run easier than a man with a loin-cloth.
1
The first winner of the stadion at the Olympic Games.
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Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.44.1
This is the funeral inscription that Pausanias saw at Megara recording Orsippos feat:
For the clever Orsippos of Megara they have erected me here,
a beautiful monument, obeying the word of Delphi.2
He liberated the farthest boundaries of his fatherland,
because the enemy had cut off large parts of land.
He was the first of the Greeks to win the victory crown at Olympia
naked since before everyone competed in loin-cloths in the stadion
IG VII 52
As he begins discussing his laws about women the philosopher Plato in the Republic (4th
century BCE) has one of the characters talk about how recently the Greeks had adopted nudity:
“You're right,” he said. “But since we have begun we must go forward to the
rough part of our law, after begging these fellows…to be serious, and reminding
them that it is not long since the Greeks thought it disgraceful and ridiculous, as
most of the barbarians do now, for men to be seen naked. And when the practice
of athletics began, first with the Cretans and then with the Spartans, the hipsters
of that time could make fun of these practices, don't you think so?” “I do.” “But
when, I take it, experience showed that it is better to strip than to hide all things
of this sort, then laughter faded away before that which reason revealed to be
best.
Republic 452C
The Romans did not exercise naked, which Dionysius of Halicarnassus attributed to them
keeping alive the ancient Greek custom. The following describes the procession before games
After them came the contestants in both the light and the heavy games, their
whole bodies naked except for their loins. This custom continued even to my time
at Rome, as it was originally practised by the Greeks; but it is now abolished in
Greece, the Spartans having put an end to it.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 7.72.2.
The Greeks used relatively little equipment in their athletics. Below I’ve listed some of the
standard equipment you would find Greek athletes using in a gymnasium.
In addition to being the home of the Pythian Games Delphi was also the location of the oracle of
Apollo, which was often consulted by Greek and other states.
2
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aryballos: vase for holding your olive oil for oiling up before exercising
caestus: a hard version of the himantes (see illustration in boxing section)
discus: originally made of stone; later made of bronze or iron. No standard
weight
halteres: weights for the long jump
hairnets: used for preventing your hair getting tangled, especially if you were
throwing the javelin, where the throwing strap might get caught in your hair
himantes: leather strips (c.4 metres in length) wrapped around hands and wrists
for protection. These were made of ox-hide; pigskin was forbidden because it left
wounds that would not close easily and were too painful.
javelins: for the javelin throw. c. 2 metres long with a throwing strap
konis: a type of dust that you used after you had cleaned up after exercising
olive oil: this was rubbed on your body before exercising
strigil: a tool with which to scrape off oil, sweat, and dust after exercising (oil
scrapings from famous athletes fetched high prices). Usually bronze, but could be
made of iron or even precious metals
b. Athletics and Greek Identity
Athletics were central to Greek identity, and were one activity that they felt separated them
from the barbarians (all non-Greeks were barbarians to the ancient Greeks) around them. In the
following fictional dialogue set in the 7th century BCE between the Athenian lawmaker Solon
and a Scythian called Anacharsis, the satirist Lucian (who was himself Syrian in origin) uses
athletics to compare Greek and non-Greek culture. Of course, what Solon does not say is that
there were distinct monetary and personal advantages to winning at games like the Olympics:
they might only give you a crown but many cities gave bonuses to athletes who won at major
games, and some got to dine for free for life in the city’s dining halls. Winning at a major set of
games could also make your political career for life:
An.3 Why do your young men behave like this, Solon? Some of them grappling
and tripping each other, some throttling, struggling, mixing it up in the dust just
like a crowd of pigs wallowing. And yet when they first strip naked (I noticed
that) they oil and scrape each other quite amicably. But I do not know what
comes over them after that: they lower their heads and begin to push, and crash
their foreheads together like a pair of rams battling. Look - that one has lifted the
other right off his legs and dropped him on the ground; then he jumps on top of
him and will not let him get his head up, but presses it down into the dust; and to
finish him off he twines his legs tight round his belly, thrusts his elbow hard
against his throat, and throttles the wretched victim, who meanwhile is patting
his shoulder; that will be a form of supplication; he is asking not to be quite
choked to death. Regardless of their fresh oil, they get all filthy, smother
themselves in mud and sweat till they might as well not have been anointed, and
3
An = Anacharisis; So = Solon.
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present, to me at least, the most ludicrous resemblance to eels slipping through a
man’s hands. Then here in the open court are others doing just the same, except
that, instead of the clay, they have for floor a depression filled with deep sand,
with which they sprinkle one another, scraping up the dust on purpose, like
chickens; I suppose they want their interfacings to be tighter; the sand is to
neutralize the slipperiness of the oil, and by drying it up to give a firmer grip.
And here are others, sanded too, but on their legs, kicking and punching each
other. We shall surely see this poor fellow spit out his teeth in a minute; his
mouth is all full of blood and sand; he has had a blow on the jaw from the other’s
fist, you see. Why does not the official there separate them and put an end to it? I
guess that he is an official from his purple; but no, he encourages them, and
praises the puncher. Wherever you look, every one is busy - rising on his toes,
jumping up and kicking the air, or something. Now I want to know what is the
good of it all. To me it looks more like madness than anything else. It will not be
very easy to convince me that people who behave like this are not wrong in their
heads.
So. It is quite natural it should strike you that way, as it is new to you and
absolutely not the way Scythians behave. Similarly you have no doubt many
ways of behaving and customs that would seem extraordinary enough to us
Greeks, if we saw them as you see ours. But be reassured; these proceedings are
not madness; it is no spirit of violence that sets them hitting each other,
wallowing in clay, and sprinkling dust. The thing has its use, and its delight too,
resulting in admirable physical condition. If you make some stay, as I imagine
you will, in Greece, you are bound to be either rolling around in clay or dust
before long; you will be so taken with the pleasure and profit of the pursuit.
An. Hands off, please. No, I wish you all joy of your pleasures and your profits;
but if any of you treats me like that, he will find out that we do not wear swords
for show. But can you tell me what this is called? What are they doing?
So. The place is called a gymnasium, and is dedicated to Lycian Apollo. You see
his statue there - the one leaning on the pillar, with a bow in the left hand. The
right arm bent over the head indicates that the god is resting after some great
exertion. Of the exercises here, that in the clay is called wrestling; the youths in
the dust are also called wrestlers, and those who strike each other standing are
engaged in what we call the pankration. But we have other gymnasia for boxing,
discus-throwing, and the halma; and in all these we hold contests, the winner in
which is honoured above all his contemporaries, and receives prizes.
An. What do they win?
9
So. At Olympia a wreath of wild olive, at the Isthmus one of pine, at Nemea of
parsley, at the Pythian games some of the god’s sacred apples, 4 and at our
Panathenaea 5 oil pressed from the temple olives. What are you laughing at,
Anacharsis? Are the prizes too small?
An. Oh dear no; your prize-list is most imposing; the givers may well plume
themselves on their generosity, and the competitors be incredibly keen on
winning. Who would not go through this amount of preparatory toil, and take his
chance of a choking or a dislocation, for apples or parsley? It is obviously
impossible for any one who has a fancy to a supply of apples, or a wreath of
parsley or pine, to get them without a mud plaster on his face, or a kick in the
stomach from his competitor.
So. My dear sir, it is not their intrinsic value that we look at. They are the symbols
of victory, labels of the winners; it is the fame attaching to them that is worth any
price to their holders; that is why the man whose quest for honour leads through
toil is content to take his kicks. No toil, no honour; he who covets that must start
with enduring hardship; when he has done that, he may begin to look for the
pleasure and profit his labours are to bring.
An. Which pleasure and profit consists in their being seen in their wreaths by
every one, and congratulated on their victory by those who before commiserated
their pain; their happiness lies in their exchange of apples and parsley for toil.
So. Ah, you certainly do not understand our ways yet. You will change your
opinions before long, when you go to the great festivals and see the crowds
gathering to look on, the stands filling up, the competitors receiving their
ovations, and the victor being idolized.
An. Why, Solon, that is just where the humiliation comes in; they are treated like
this not in something like privacy, but with all these spectators to watch the
affronts they endure — who, I am to believe, consider them happy when they see
them dripping with blood or being throttled; for such are the happy
accompaniments of victory. In my country, if a man strikes a citizen, knocks him
down, or tears his clothes, our elders punish him severely, even though there
were only one or two witnesses, not like your vast Olympic or Isthmian
The four great stephanitic/crown games, so called because the winners did not win money, but were
awarded crowns. Some of the crowns’ materials changed over time, though that at Olympia was always
olive.
5 The Panathenaea was an annual festival in Athens; every four years there was an especially elaborate
festival which had international appeal. The prizes were amphorae of olive oil – which held
considerable monetary value both because of the oil and the quality of the vases (the Athenians did a
thriving trade in ‘fake’ Panatheniac vases, such was the appeal of the design).
4
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gatherings. However, though I cannot help pitying the competitors, I am still
more astonished at the spectators; you tell me elites from all over Greece attend;
how can they leave their serious concerns and waste time on such things? How
they can like it passes my comprehension — to look on at people being struck
and knocked about, dashed to the ground and pounded by one another.
So. If the Olympic, Isthmian, or Panatheniac games were on now, those lessons
might have been enough to convince you that our keenness is not thrown away. I
cannot make you understand the delights of them by description; you should be
there sitting in the middle of the spectators, looking at the men’s courage and
physical beauty, their marvellous condition, effective skill and invincible
strength, their enterprise, their emulation, their unconquerable spirit, and their
unwearied pursuit of victory. Oh, I know very well, you would never have been
tired of talking about your favourites, backing them with voice and hand.
An. I dare say, laughing and celebrating too. All the fine things in your list, your
courage and conditions, your beauties and enterprises, I see you wasting for no
great purpose; your country is not in danger, your land not being ravaged, your
friends or relations not being dragged away. 6 The more ridiculous that such
patterns of perfection as you make them out should endure the misery all for
nothing, and spoil their beauty and their fine figures with sand and black eyes,
just for the triumphant possession of an apple or a sprig of wild olive. Oh, how I
love to think of those prizes! By the way, do all who enter get them?
So. No, indeed. There is only one winner.
Lucian, Anacharsis 1-14
Because of the centrality of athletics to Greek identity, gymnasia were social centres in Greek
towns, and served as places where men could forge relationships, both sexual and nonsexual. They were often places where art was displayed and those in richer cities had
beautiful paintings and mosaics – in fact, one of the first places the Greek travel writer
Pausanias went in a city was its gymnasium. Some came just to look at and lust for the
athletes; we have a number of ‘kalos’ cups, cups which will say something like ‘so and so is
kalos’, ‘handsome’ or ‘lovely’. We have about 200 names listed on these cups: one we have is
that of Leagros, a famously beautiful man who also went on to become a general for the
Athenians. 7 The cup was found in Capua, in Southern Italy, which testifies to the wide
appeal of the body beautiful. However, despite the fact that gymnasia were places to meet and
woo other men (or perhaps because of it) there were restrictions on entering many gymnasia
when youths and children were exercising there. This prosecution speech from 346 BCE
This was a common complaint about athletics by some Greeks as well – that it did not train people for
war and fighting to protect their cities.
7 The Panathenaea also had a male beauty competition as one of its events.
6
11
refers to these laws in Athens; we also know they were in place in other cities around the
Greek world:
In the first place, consider the case of the teachers. Although the very livelihood
of these men, to whom we must entrust our own children, depends on their good
character, while the opposite conduct on their part would mean poverty, yet it is
plain that the lawgiver8 distrusts them; for he expressly states, first, what time of
day the free-born boy is to go to the school-room; next, how many other boys
may go there with him, and when he is to go home. He forbids the teacher to
open the school-room, or the gymnastic trainer the wrestling school, before
sunrise, and he commands them to close the doors before sunset; for he is
extremely suspicious of their being alone with a boy or in the dark with him. He
says what children can be admitted as pupils and their age at admission. He
provides for a public official who shall superintend them, and for the oversight of
slave-attendants of school-boys. He regulates the festivals of the Muses in the
school-rooms and of Hermes in the wrestling-schools. Finally, he regulates the
companionships that the boys may form at school, and their cyclic dances. He
states, namely, that the choregus, a man who is going to spend his own money
for your entertainment,9 shall be a man of more than forty years of age when he
performs this service, in order that he may have reached the most temperate time
of life before he comes into contact with your children. These laws, then, shall be
read to you, to prove that the lawgiver believed that it is the boy who has been
well brought up that will be a useful citizen when he becomes a man. But when a
boy's natural disposition is subjected at the very outset to vicious training, the
product of such wrong nurture will be, as he believed, a citizen like this man
Timarchus.10 Read these laws to the jury.
The Law: The teachers of the boys shall open the school-rooms not earlier than
sunrise, and they shall close them before sunset. No person who is older than the
boys shall be permitted to enter the room while they are there, unless he be a son
of the teacher, a brother, or a daughter's husband. If any one enters in violation of
this prohibition, he shall be executed. The superintendents of the gymnasia shall
under no conditions allow any one who has reached the age of manhood to enter
the contests of Hermes together with the boys. 11 Anyone in charge of a
gymnasium who permits this and fails to keep such a person out of the
gymnasium, shall be liable to the penalties prescribed for the seduction of freeborn youth. Every choregus who is appointed by the people shall be more than
forty years of age.
Solon, an Athenian statesman and lawmaker of the 7 th-6th century BCE.
This was a form of taxation in Athens: rich citizens had to provide choruses and pay for putting on
plays out of their own incomes.
10 The person being prosecuted.
11 Hermes was the Greek god most associated with gymnasia. Games were often held in his honour.
8
9
12
Aeschines, Against Timarchos 9-12.
The Roman architect Vitruvius describes how a Greek gymnasium should be laid out (see
figure 2 for how this looks):
Next, although the building of palaestrae12 is not usual in Italy, I think it best to
explain the traditional way and to show how they are constructed by the Greeks.
The square or oblong peristyle in a palaestra should be so formed that the circuit
of it makes a walk of two stadia, a distance which the Greeks call the diaulos. Let
three of its colonnades be single, but let the fourth, which is on the south side, be
double, so that when there is bad weather accompanied by wind, the drops of
rain may not be able to reach the interior. In the three colonnades construct
roomy recesses with seats in them, where philosophers, rhetoricians, and others
who delight in learning may sit and talk.13 In the double colonnade let the rooms
be arranged in this way: the young men's hall in the middle; this is a very
spacious recess (the exedra) with seats in it, and it should be one third longer
than it is broad. At the right, the equipment room; then next, the dust room;
beyond the dust room, at the corner of the colonnade, the cold washing room,
which the Greeks call the loutron. At the left of the young men's hall is the
anointing room; then, next to the anointing room, the cold bath room, and
beyond that a passage into the furnace room at the corner of the colonnade. Next,
but inside and on a line with the cold bath room, put the vaulted sweating bath,
its length twice its breadth, and having at the ends on one side a Laconicum,14
proportioned in the same manner as above described, and opposite the
Laconicum the warm washing room. Inside a palaestra, the peristyle ought to be
laid out as described above. But on the outside, let three colonnades be arranged,
one as you leave the peristyle and two at the right and left, with running-tracks in
them. The one which faces the north should be a double colonnade of very ample
width, while the other should be single, and so constructed that on the sides next
to the walls and the side along the columns it may have edges, serving as paths,
of not less than ten feet, with the space between them sunken, so that steps are
necessary in going down from the edges a foot and a half to the plane, which
plane should be not less than twelve feet wide. Thus people walking round on
the edges will not be interfered with by those who are oiled up and exercising.
This kind of colonnade is called among the Greeks xystos, because athletes during
the winter season exercise in covered running tracks. Next to this xystos and to
the double colonnade should be laid out uncovered walks which the Greeks call
paradromides and Romans xysta, into which, in fair weather during the winter, the
athletes come out from the xystos for exercise. The xysta ought to be so
constructed that there may be trees planted between the two colonnades, or
Palaestra (plural palaestrae) is interchangeable with gymnasium.
Gymnasia were social and cultural centres as well as being places for athletic training.
14 A dry sweating room.
12
13
13
groves of plane trees, with walks laid out in them among the trees and resting
places there, made of opus signinum. 15 Behind the xystos there should be a
stadium, so designed that great numbers of people may have plenty of room to
look on at the contests between the athletes.
Vitruvius, On Architecture Book 5
This was a common building material in Rome. It was made up of smashed pieces of pottery mixed
with lime.
15
14
c. Types of Greek athletics
All of the following events took place in the stadium; in the following Pausanias describes the
stadium at Olympia, where all foot races and athletic events took place:
There is within the Altis16 by the processional entrance the Hippodameium, as it
is called, about a quarter of an acre of ground surrounded by a wall. Into it once
every year the women who sacrifice to Hippodameia17 may enter this and do her
honor in other ways. The story is that Hippodameia withdrew to Midea in
Argolis, because Pelops was very angry with her over the death of Chrysippus.
The Eleans declare that subsequently, because of an oracle, they brought the
bones of Hippodameia to Olympia. At the end of the statues 18 which they made
from the fines levied on athletes, there is the entrance called the Hidden Entrance.
Through it judges and competitors uusally enter the stadium. Now the stadium is
an embankment of earth, and on it is a seat for the presidents of the games.
Opposite the judges is an altar of white marble; seated on this altar a woman
looks on at the Olympic Games, the priestess of Demeter Chamyne, which office
the Eleans bestow from time to time on different women. Maidens are not
debarred from looking on at the games.19 At the end of the stadium, where is the
starting-place for the runners, there is, the Eleans say, the tomb of Endymion.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.20.7-8
Heavy/combat sports
Heavy sports were so called because, as the Greeks did not always compete in age classes20 (in
other words, youths might compete with mature men), they give a distinct advantage to the
heavier, more mature man. There were also no weight classes in any of the events.
The sacred precinct of Olympia – see figure 1 for map.
Hippodameia and Pelops were mythical figures and Pelops’ chariot race to win Hippodameia’s hand
was often seen in art.
18 The zanes: their bases are still visible, although the statues have vanished.
19 This exclusion of married women from watching events is very unusual; other athletic events had no
such restrictions. And given the reputation of the Olympics for rowdiness, it probably was not a suitable
place for children of either gender. We know that many parents would not let their sons compete there
because of anxieties about this.
20 Many events had a boy’s class, even though assessing ages might be an issue in a world without birth
certificates. However, you did have situations where a 15 year old might be asked to wrestle with a 25
year old.
16
17
15
This vase shows a competitor in
boxing signaling his surrender by
raising a finger.
(Black figure Attic amphora; 510–500
BCE; found in Vulci in Italy)
Pairings in the heavy events were selected by lot, and if there was an uneven number the odd
person out got a bye, which gave him a huge advantage. Lucian, a Greek satirist and
philosopher of the 2nd century CE, describes how competitors drew lots:
A silver urn consecrated to Zeus is produced and into it are thrown little lots
about the size of a bean, with letters on them. Two are marked alpha, two beta,
two more gamma,21 and so on, if the competitors run to more than that--two lots
always to each letter. A competitor comes up, makes a prayer to Zeus, dips his
hand into the urn, and pulls out one lot; then another does the same; there is an
umpire who stands by whoever draws a lot, who holds his hand so that he
cannot see what letter he has drawn. When all have drawn, the chief police
officer, I think it is, or one of the stewards themselves--I cannot quite remember
this detail--, goes round and examines the lots while they stand in a circle, and
puts together the two alphas for the wrestling or pankration, and so for the two
betas, and the rest. That is the procedure when the number of competitors is
even, as eight, four, or twelve. If it is five, seven, nine, or other odd number, an
odd letter is marked on one lot, which is put in with the others, not having a
duplicate. Whoever draws this has a bye, and waits till the rest have finished
their pairings; no duplicate turns up for him, you see; and it is a considerable
advantage to an athlete, to know that he will come fresh against tired
competitors.
Lucian, Hermotimos 43
21
These are Greek letters of the alphabet.
16
Boxing
It’s hard to say what was the most brutal of the heavy sports, but boxing certainly came close.
There were no rounds or breaks, unless your opponent agreed. If not, you got up and boxed
until one of you won, usually by the other collapsing or begging for mercy. The drawing below
shows the development of the boxing ‘glove’ from soft himantes (on the left) to the caestus on
the right.
The extent of the brutality of ancient boxing can be seen in this poem by the Roman poet
Lucilius (fl. 60s CE) describing a statue of a boxer:
Olympicos here, who now looks so terrible, emperor, once had a nose, a chin,
eyebrows, ears, and eyes. Then he entered a boxing contest and lost them all. He
did not even receive his part of his father’s inheritance. His brother had a picture
of him and showed it to the judge, who ruled that it was another man, who did
not resemble him at all.
Greek Anthology 9.5
Pausanias, a 2nd century CE travel writer, wrote an account of his travels through Greece. He
often describes monuments set up to celebrate athletes (some of which were set up by
themselves, others by their cities or communities). He has proven to be remarkably reliable by
various finds from the sites he visited and is an invaluable source for many things, including
Greek sports. In the following he describes a statue of Glaucus who suffered terribly in a boxing
match at Olympia:
17
The ploughshare22 one day fell out of the plough, and Glaucus fitted it into its
place, using his hand as a hammer. Demylus happened to see his son's
performance, and after this brought him to Olympia to box. There, Glaucus,
inexperienced in boxing, was wounded by his antagonists, and when he was
boxing with the last of them he was thought to be fainting from the number of his
wounds. Then they say that his father called out to him, “Son, the plough touch.”
So he dealt his opponent a more violent blow which brought him the victory at
once. 3 He is said to have won other crowns besides: two at the Pythian; eight at
the Nemean; and eight at the Isthmian Games. The statue of Glaucus was set up
by his son, while Glaucias of Aegina made it. The statue represents a figure
sparring, as Glaucus was the best exponent of the art of all his contemporaries.
When he died the Carystians,23 they say, buried him in the island still called the
island of Glaucus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.10.2-3
Boxing resulted in some vicious and deliberately deadly tactics, as Pausanias relates in a
different part of his book:
I know that the people of Argos acted in the same way in the case of Creugas, a
boxer from Epidamnus. For they gave Creugas the crown in the Nemean Games
after his death, because his opponent Damoxenus of Syracuse broke their mutual
agreement. For evening drew near as they were boxing, and they agreed within
the hearing of witnesses that each should in turn allow the other to deal him a
blow. At that time boxers did not yet wear a sharp thong on the wrist of each
hand, but still boxed with the soft gloves, binding them in the hollow of the hand,
so that their fingers were left bare. These soft gloves were thin thongs of raw oxhide plaited together after an ancient manner. On the occasion to which I refer
Creugas aimed his blow at the head of Damoxenus, and the latter ordered
Creugas lift up his arm. On his doing so, Damoxenus struck his opponent under
the ribs with straight fingers; and what with the sharpness of his nails and the
force of the blow he drove his hand into the other's inside, caught his bowels, and
tore them as he pulled them out. Creugas died on the spot and the people of
Argos disallowed Damoxenus for breaking his agreement by dealing his
opponent many blows instead of one. They gave the victory to the dead Creugas,
and had a statue of him made in Argos. It still stood in my time in the sanctuary
of Lycian Apollo.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.40.3-5.
Pankration
22
23
A blade fitted to the end of the plough to turn up earth.
A large island in the North East of Greece.
18
Think boxing was bad? Pankration (which means all-powerful) was a brutal sport in which
everything was legal, except biting and eye-gouging. Except in Sparta, where both of those were
allowed. Arrhachion died during one bout, but still was crowned Olympic victor:
The Phigalians have in their marketplace a statue of the pankratiast Arrhachion;
it is archaic, especially in its posture. The feet are close together, and the arms
hang down by the side as far as the hips.24 The statue is made of stone, and it is
said that an inscription was written upon it. This has disappeared with time, but
Arrhachion won two Olympic victories at the games before the fifty-fourth, while
at these games he won one due partly to the fairness of the judges and partly to
his own manhood. For when he was competing for the wild olive25 with the last
remaining competitor, whoever he was, the latter got a grip first, and held
Arrhachion, hugging him with his legs, and at the same time he squeezed his
neck with his hands. Arrhachion dislocated his opponent's toe, but died of
suffocation; but the man who suffocated Arrhachion was forced to give in at the
same time because of the pain in his toe. The Eleans crowned and proclaimed the
corpse of Arrhachion the winner.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.40.1-2
In the following Philostratus (who was probably the son-in-law of the Philostratus who wrote
on athletics) describes paintings in an imaginary gallery. One of them is of Arrhachion in his
moment of triumph:
You have come to the Olympic Games themselves and to the noblest of the
contests held at Olympia; for this is the men’s pankration. Arrhachion is being
crowned for winning this event, having died just after his victory, and the Judge
of the Games is crowning him – let him be called “the strict judge,” both because
he sedulously strives for the truth and because he is indeed depicted like the
Olympic judges. The land furnishes a stadium in a simple glen of sufficient
length, from which issues the stream of the Alpheios, a light stream – that, you
know, is why it alone of rivers flows on top of the sea, and about it grow wild
olive trees of green-grey colour, beautiful and curly like parsley leaves. Now after
we have looked at the stadium, we will turn our attention to various other
elements, and in particular let us take note of the deed of Arrhachion before it is
ended. For he seems to have conquered not his antagonist alone, but all the
Greeks; at any rate, the spectators jump up from their seats and shout, some wave
their hands, some their garments, some leap from the ground, and some grapple
with their neighbours for joy; for these really amazing deeds make it impossible
for the spectators to contain themselves. Is anyone so without feeling as not to
This type of statue is now called a Kouros. Here is a good example of the type of status Pausanias is
describing.
25 Victors at Olympia were given a crown of olive.
24
19
applaud this athlete? For after he had already achieved a great deed by winning
two victories in the Olympic Games, a yet greater deed is depicted on this, in
that, having won this victory at the cost of his life, he is being conducted to the
realms of the blessed with the very dust of victory still upon him. Let not this be
regarded as mere chance, since he very cleverly planned for the victory.
And as to the wrestling? Those who engage in the pankration, my boy, practice a
form of wrestling that is dangerous; for they must meet blows on the face that are
not safe for the wrestler, must clinch in struggles that one can only win by
pretending to fall, and they need skill so they can choke an opponent in different
ways at different times, and the same contestants are both wrestling with the
ankle and twisting the opponent’s arm, to say nothing of dealing a blow and
leaping upon the adversary; for these things are all permissible in the pankration
– anything except biting and gouging. The Spartans, indeed, allow even these,
because, I suppose, they are training themselves for battle, but the contests of Elis
exclude them, though they do permit choking. Accordingly the antagonist of
Arrhachion, having already clinched him around the middle, thought to kill him;
already he had wound his forearm about the other’s throat to shut off his
breathing, while, pressing his legs on the groins and winding his feet one inside
each knee of his adversary, he stopped Arrhachion’s resistance by choking him
till the sleep of death thus induced began to creep over his senses. But in relaxing
the tension of his legs he failed to forestall the scheme of Arrhachion; for the latter
kicked back with the sole of his right foot (as the result of which his right side
was in danger since now his knee was hanging unsupported), then with his groin
he holds his adversary tight till he can no longer resist, and, throwing his weight
down toward the left while he locks the latter’s foot tightly inside his own knee,
by this violent outward thrust he wrenches the ankle from its socket.
Arrhachion’s soul, though it makes him feeble as it leaves his body, yet gives him
strength to achieve that for which he strives. The one who is choking Arrhachion
is painted so he looks like a corpse and as indicating with his hand that he gives
up the struggle; but Arrhachion is painted as all victors are; for his blood is of rich
colour, the perspiration is still fresh on his body and he smiles as do the living
when they are conscious of victory.
Philostratus, Imagines, 2.6
20
Non-heavy sports
Running
There were a number of different lengths in the footraces, although on the whole the Greeks did
not do long distance running – there was no marathon at the Olympics, where the longest race,
the dolichos, was only 24 lengths of the stadium, some 5,000 metres.
The main races:
a. Stadion: One length of the stadium, however long it was. The premier foot race:
those who won this in the Olympics had the next Olympiad (four year period)
named after them
b. Diaulos: two lengths of the stadium
c. Dolichos: a long distance race; the one at Olympia was 24 lengths of the stadium,
around 4,800 metres
d. Hoplitodromos: a race in (partial) armour.
e. Lampadedromia: a torch race, run in relays. Not an Olympic sport
Racers started in an upright position. At Olympia they stood in starting blocks which are still
in existence:
The most celebrated race was at the Olympics was a sprint, the stadion: one length of the
stadium. Whoever won this event at Olympia had the Olympiad, the period of the next four
years, named after him – a great honour which ensured his reputation would live forever as all
21
Greek cities used this dating system as well as their own. As a result races were fiercely
competitive and not without underhand methods:
The good runner, from the moment the barrier falls, simply makes the best of his
way; his thoughts are on the winning-post, his hopes of victory in his feet; he
leaves his neighbour alone and does not concern himself at all with his
competitors. It is the ill qualified, with no prospect of winning by his speed, who
resorts to foul play; his one pre-occupation is how he may stop, impede, and slow
down the real runner, because failing that his own victory is out of the question.
Lucian, On Slander 12
Some runners were a little slow off the mark, however:
Charmus in Arcadia came in (wonderful to say, but it is a fact) seventh of five
runners in the long race. "As there were six," you will probably say, " how did he
come in seventh?" A friend of his came in his cloak calling out " Go for it,
Charmus," so that he came in seventh and if he had had five more friends, Zoilus,
he would have come in twelfth.
Recently, the great earth made everything quake, but only the runner Erasistratus
it did not move from his place.
Greek Anthology 4.82-3.
Philostratus, a rhetorician and biographer of the early 3rd century CE, wrote a book on
gymnastics: here he describes the ideal body type for a runner (be aware, though, that
Philostratus has some very strange ideas about ideal bodily shapes for athletes)26
To be an excellent dolichos runner a man should have shoulders and a neck
about as strong as those of a pentathlete, but he should have slender and light
legs as a stadion-runner. These bring their legs into a sprint with their hands, as if
their hands give them wings. Dolichos-runners do this only in the final sprint, the
rest of the time it is almost as if they stride, with their hands in a fist, for which
they need strong shoulders…. As stadion runners - this is the lightest event proportionate people are very well suited, but even better are tall people, not the
very tall, but those who are just a little taller than the proportionate ones, for
extraordinarily tall people lack stability, like overgrown plants. They should be
built firmly, because the start of a good sprint is a good posture. 27 The
proportions of their body should be as follows: the legs should be in balance with
the shoulders, the chest smaller than the average and with healthy organs, they
26
27
For information on Philostratus see this page at Livius
The Greeks started from a standing position.
22
should have swift knees, straight shins and hands bigger than the average. They
should have proportionate muscles, for excessive muscles are like chains when
speed is involved.
Philostratus, On Gymnastics 32-33
Race in Armour (Hoplitodromos)
Vase showing a runner in the
hoplitodromos in the starting
position
(Attic red-figured amphora,
c. 480–470 BCE)
One popular event was the race in armour: at the start runners worse a helmet, shield, and
greaves, but as time went runners raced carrying only a shield. Pausanias describes the statue
of Damaretos, one of the winners of the race at Olympia:
Damaretos of Heraea, his son and his grandson each won twice at Olympia.
Damaretos won at the sixty-fifth Olympiad, when the race in armour was held for
the first time, and also at the following Olympiad. His statue shows him with the
shield that is also carried in our time, with a helmet on his head and greaves on
his legs. These were removed from the race eventually both by the Eleans and by
the other Greeks.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.10.4
The Roman satirist Lucilius (2nd century BCE) wrote about one unfortunate competitor who
was challenged in the speed category:
23
Marcus once went on running in armour until it was midnight, so that the course
was closed on all sides; for the public slaves all thought that he was one of the
honorary stone statues of men in armour set up there. What happened? Why next
year they opened, and Marcus came in, but a whole stadion behind.
Greek Anthology 4.85
Lampadedromia: Torch Race
The vase above is an Athenian red-figure vase from the 4th century BCE showing a torch relay
race: it was most likely found in Italy, showing the wide appeal of Greek athletics. The torch was
not an Olympic sport, but it was run in various other cities, including the Panathenaea (a
festival in honour of the goddess Athena) and other Athenian festivals. It was a relay race in
which if the torch died out while a runner was carrying it, they and their whole team were
disqualified.
24
The race in Athens started at the shrine of Prometheus28 in the Academy, which was also a
gymnasium:
In the Academy is an altar to Prometheus, and from it they run to the city
carrying burning torches. While running they must keep the torch alight; if the
torch of the first runner goes out, he has no longer any claim to victory, but the
second runner has. If his torch also goes out, then the third man is the victor. If all
the torches go out, no one can be declared winner. There is an altar to the Muses,
and another to Hermes, and one inside to Athena, and they have built one to
Heracles. There is also an olive tree, thought to be the second that appeared.29
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.30.2
Torch relay races could also be ran on horseback, though that was less usual, as the following
passage shows:
"Didn’t you know," said Adeimantos, "there is to be a torchlight race this evening
on horseback in honour of the goddess?" "On horseback?" I said. "That is
something new. Will they carry torches and pass them along to one another as
they race with the horses, or how do you mean?" "That's it!" said Polemarchos.
Plato, Republic I 328 A
The historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) talks of another equestrian torch race, but does not
specify the location:
The first rider delivers his charge to the second, the second to the third, and
thence it passes on from hand to hand, even as in the Greek torch-bearers' race in
honor of Hephaestus.30
Herodotus, Histories 8. 98. 2
Pentathlon
The pentathlon consisted of five sports: discus throwing, halma (a Greek form of the long jump),
javelin throwing, stadion, and wrestling (only the last two were also competitive sports in their
own right). Some people revered these athletes as the best all-round athletes:
Prometheus was the god who had given fire to humans.
After the first which was created by the goddess Athena on the acropolis of Athens.
30 The Greek god of fire, blacksmiths, other metal workers and craftsmen generally. (Athena was
goddess of craftwork as well).
28
29
25
11. For each age there is a different form of beauty. For a young man, beauty
means that he has a body fit for all efforts, both running and the use of strength.
He is pleasant to look upon, a pure delight. That is why pentathletes are the most
beautiful people, because they have a natural talent for both strength and
swiftness. In a man who has reached his prime, beauty consists in being naturally
adapted for the toils of war, in being pleasant to look upon and at the same time
awe-inspiring. In an old man, beauty consists in being naturally adapted to
contend with unavoidable issues and in not being a trouble to others, because he
does not have the disagreeable accompaniments of old age….14. The athletic
quality of a body relies on its size, strength and swiftness, for the man who is
swift, is also strong. Someone able to throw his legs about in a certain way and
move with rapid and large paces, is a good runner. Someone who can grab and
grapple is a wrestler. Someone who can hit with his fists is a boxer. Someone
who can do both is a pankratiast. But someone who can do everything is a
pentathlete.
Aristotle, Rhetorica 1361b
Whoever wrote the pseudo-Platonic dialogue the Lovers also agreed with Aristotle. In a
discussion about philosophers he compares them to various athletes, discussing the
pentathlete:
I think you mean someone like the pentathletes when they compete with runners
or wrestlers: the former yield, you know, to the latter in their particular events,
and are their inferiors in these, but are superior to the usual sort of athletes and
beat them. I daresay it may be something of this sort that you would suggest as
the effect produced by philosophy on those who make it their pursuit: they yield
to those who are first-rate.
Pseudo-Plato, The Lovers, 135e
Of course, there was always the chance that in competing in so many events in the pentathlon,
you would come last in all of them:
None among the competitors was thrown quicker than myself and none ran the
race slower. With the discus I never came near the rest, I never was able to lift my
legs for a jump and a cripple could throw the javelin better than I, I am the first
who out of the five events was proclaimed beaten in all five.
Lucilius, Greek Anthology 4.84
Discus:
26
The Greek discus was not like the modern one: first it was made of stone and then after that of
bronze or iron and sometimes lead. It was heavy and getting hit with one (as occasionally
happened) was very likely to be fatal. They were not, however, of a consistent weight or size,
varying from 1.3 to 6.6 kilos. Generally people seem to have brought their own to games, but the
discuses for the Olympic Games were special and kept in the treasury of Sicyons there:
On the smaller of the chambers at Olympia are inscriptions, which inform us that
the weight of the bronze is five hundred talents, and that the dedicators were
Myron and the Sicyonian people. In this chamber are kept three discuses, which
are used for the pentathlon. There is also a bronze-plated shield, adorned with
paintings on the inner side, and along with the shield are a helmet and greaves.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.19.4
Additionally, it seems as if you could not throw the discus outside the boundaries and still win,
so the aim was to throw it as close to the boundary as possible without going outside. We are,
however, not sure how far away this boundary was. This was also probably a measure to ensure
you didn’t kill members of the audience and bystanders – which happened from time to time as
the discus was a heavy and potentially deadly object as can be seen from the myth of the boy
Hyacinth and the god Apollo:
Now the Sun was about midway, between the coming and the banished night,
and stood at equal distance from those two extremes. Then, when the youth and
Phoebus [Apollo] were stripped and gleaming with rich olive oil, they tried a
friendly contest with the discus. First Phoebus, well-poised, sent it flying through
the air and cut the clouds beyond with its broad weight. After a long time it fell
down to the earth, a certain sign of strength and skill. Heedless of danger
Hyacinthus rushed for eager glory of the game, resolved to get the discus. But it
bounded back from off the hard earth, and struck full against your face, O
Hyacinthus! The God's face went a ghastly white --as pale as the boy's.
Ovid, Metamorphosis 10.174-188.
27
The Palombara Disco bolus, a Roman copy of the bronze original by Myron.
28
Halma31 (long jump)
This was very different from our long jump. Weights called halteres were used to increase the
distance a jumper could reach, while a flute player played to help them get their rhythm before
they jumped:
The 'halter' was invented by the pentathletes for the long jump, the sport after
which it is also named. Because the rules consider the long jump as one of the
more difficult events in the games, they urge on the jumper with flute music and
with the halter they make him light as a feather. It is a safe guide for the hands
and leads the feet to the ground stably and with a clear print. The rules make
clear how much this is worth, for they do not allow the jump to be measured if
the footprint is not clean. The oblong halteres train the shoulders and the hands,
the spherical halteres also train the fingers. Both light and heavy athletes should
hold them during all exercises, except during breaks.
Philostratus, On Gymnastics 55
Additionally, Greek long jumpers jumped from a take off point (of wood or stone) into sand,
which increased the length they could jump - though they surely could not jump the 55 feet
ascribed to the some athletes. (Phayllos jumped outside the sand area, as that was only 50
feet long.)
Phayllos jumped fifty-five feet long;
But threw the discus ninety-five
Scholiast32 to Aristophanes, Acharnians 214.
31
I use the Greek term for this as the Greek long jump was not at all like the modern one.
29
Phayllos was also famous as a runner and fought against the Persians:
There is a statue at Delphi of Phayllos of Croton. He did not win at the Olympics,
but he won twice in the pentathlon and once in the foot-race at Delphi. He also
fought at sea against the Persians, in a ship of his own, equipped by himself and
manned by citizens of Croton who were staying in Greece.
Pausanias, Guide to Greece 10.9.2.
Javelin
We don’t know if a win in the javelin throw was based on the length of the throw or some
degree of accuracy was involved. The following speech revolves around the issue of who is at
fault when someone’s child is accidentally killed by a javelin in a gymnasium. Here the father of
the defendant explains the situation and shows that his son was aiming at a target:
In training my son in those pursuits from which the state gets the most benefit I
imagined that both of us would be rewarded; but the result has sadly belied my
hopes. For the lad—not from insolence or audacity, but while at javelin-practice
in the gymnasium with his fellows—made a hit, it is true, but killed no one, if one
considers his true part in the matter: he accidentally incurred the blame for the
error of another which affected that other's own person.
Had the boy been wounded because the javelin had traveled in his direction
outside the area appointed for its flight, we should be unable to show that we had
not caused his death. But he ran into the path of the javelin and placed his person
in its way. Hence my son was prevented from hitting the target: while the boy,
who moved into the javelin's path, was struck, thereby causing us to be blamed
for what we did not do. It was because he ran in front of the javelin that the boy
was struck. The lad is therefore accused without just cause, as he did not strike
anyone standing clear of the target. At the same time, since it is plain to you that
the boy was not struck while standing still, but was struck only after deliberately
moving into the path of the javelin, you have still clearer proof that his death was
due to an error on his own part. Had he stood still and not run across, he would
not have been struck.
Both sides are agreed, as you see, that the boy's death was accidental; so by
discovering which of the two was guilty of error, we should prove still more
conclusively who killed him. For it is those guilty of error in carrying out an
intended act who are responsible for accidents5: just as it is those who voluntarily
do a thing or allow it to be done to them who are responsible for the effects
A scholiast is someone who writes notes on ancient Greek texts – in this case a play by the comic poet
Aristophanes.
32
30
suffered. Now the lad, on his side, was not guilty of error in respect of anyone: in
practising he was not doing what he was forbidden but what he had been told to
do, and he was not standing among those engaged in gymnastics when he threw
the javelin, but in his place among the other throwers: nor did he hit the boy
because he missed the target and sent his javelin instead at those standing clear.
He did everything correctly, as he intended; and thus he was not the cause of any
accident, but the victim of one, in that he was prevented from hitting the target.
The boy, on the other hand, who wished to run forward, missed the moment at
which he could have crossed without being hit, with results which he by no
means desired. He was accidentally guilty of an error which affected his own
person, and has thus met with a disaster for which he had himself alone to thank.
He has punished himself for his error, and is therefore duly requited; not that we
rejoice at or approve of it—far from it: we feel both sympathy and sorrow. It is
thus the dead boy who proves to have been guilty of error; so the act which
caused his death is to be attributed not to us, but to him, the party guilty of error:
just as the recoiling of its effects upon the agent not only absolves us from blame,
but has caused the agent to be punished as he deserved as soon as his error was
committed.
Antiphon, Second Tetralogy 2.3-9.
Javelins were around two metres long and had a throwing strap to help with the throw as the
following image shows:
31
Attic red figure cup, c. 470 BCE; found in Southern Italy.
32
Greek Sports II: Equestrian events
Chariot racing
This was the most expensive sport to compete in. Greece is not very suited to either horse
rearing or chariot racing, being mountainous and rocky: horses were luxury items not suited
for the type of work most Greek farmers needed done and chariots are not suited for travel
around Greece. Race horses and chariot horses were massively expensive, fragile, high spirited,
rather useless creatures which could only be afforded by the extremely wealthy. Some city-states
like Argos33 had their own city stables and entered chariot racing competitions as a community;
others relied on wealthy citizens wanting to compete and win glory. Owners rarely raced their
teams themselves: it was usually the job of professional charioteers, who might be either freed or
slaves. (Charioteers in Greece never had the sort of fame that they had in Rome – we know far
more about certain horses than the charioteers.) Chariot racing took place in a hippodrome;
unlike Roman chariot racing it did not have a spina, a central barrier to prevent head-on
crashes, making it incredibly dangerous. This was not helped by the large number of entries in
each race, which ensured maximum chaos; in addition various hippodromes added features to
scare horses. In the following extract Pausanias first describes the hippodrome at Olympia,
before going on to talk of others. (The hippodrome at Olympia has not yet been discovered.)
When you have passed beyond the stadium, at the point where the judges sit, is a
place set apart for the horse-races, and also the starting-place for the horses. The
starting-place is in the shape of the prow of a ship, and its prow is turned
towards the course. At the point where the prow adjoins the porch of Agnaptus it
broadens and a bronze dolphin on a rod has been made at the very point of the
ram. Each side of the starting-place is more than four hundred feet in length, and
in the sides are built stalls. These stalls are assigned by lot to those who enter for
the races. Before the chariots or race-horses is stretched a cord as a barrier. An
altar of unbaked brick, plastered on the outside, is made at every Festival as near
as possible to the centre of the prow, and a bronze eagle stands on the altar with
his wings stretched out to the fullest extent. The man appointed to start the racing
sets in motion the mechanism in the altar, and then the eagle has been made to
jump upwards, so as to become visible to the spectators, while the dolphin falls to
the ground. First on either side the barriers are withdrawn by the porch of
Agnaptus, and the horses standing there run off first. As they run they reach
those to whom the second station has been allotted, and then are withdrawn the
barriers at the second station. The same thing happens to all the horses in turn,
until at the ram of the prow they are all abreast. After this it is left to the
charioteers to display their skill and the horses their speed. 14. It was Cleoetas
who originally devised the method of starting, and he appears to have been
proud of the discovery, as on the statue at Athens he wrote the inscription:
33
They won the four horse chariot race in 480 BCE and the horse race in 472.
33
Who first invented the method of starting the horses at Olympia,
He made me, Cleoetas the son of Aristocles.
It is said that after Cleoetas Aristeides added an extra device to the mechanism.
The race-course has one side longer than the other, and on the longer side, which
is a bank, there stands, at the passage through the bank, Taraxippus, the terror of
the horses. It has the shape of a round altar, and as they run along the horses are
seized, as soon as they reach this point, by a great fear without any apparent
reason. The fear leads to disorder; the chariots generally crash and the charioteers
are injured. Consequently the charioteers offer sacrifices, and pray that
Taraxippus may show himself propitious to them. The Greeks differ in who they
think Taraxippus was. Some hold that it is the tomb of an original inhabitant who
was skilled in horsemanship; they call him Olenius, and say that after him was
named the Olenian rock in the land of Elis. Others say that Dameon, son of
Phlius, who took part in the expedition of Heracles against Augeas and the
Eleans, was killed along with his horse by Cteatus the son of Actor, and that man
and horse were buried in the same tomb. There is also a story that Pelops made
here an empty mound in honour of Myrtilus,34 and sacrificed to him in an effort
to calm the anger of the murdered man, naming the mound Taraxippus
(Frightener of horses) because the mares of Oenomaus were frightened by the
trick of Myrtilus. Some say that it is Oenomaus himself who harms the racers in
the course. I have also heard some attach the blame to Alcathus, the son of
Porthaon. Killed by Oenomaus because he wooed Hippodameia, Alcathus, they
say, here got his portion of earth; having been unsuccessful on the course, he is a
spiteful and hostile deity to chariot-drivers. An Egyptian said that Pelops
received something from Amphion the Theban and buried it where is what they
call Taraxippus, adding that it was the buried thing which frightened the mares
of Oenomaus, as well as those of every charioteer since. This Egyptian thought
that Amphion and the Thracian Orpheus were clever magicians, and that it was
through their enchantments that the beasts came to Orpheus, and the stones came
to Amphion for the building of the wall. The most probable of the stories in my
opinion makes Taraxippus a surname of Horse Poseidon. 35 There is another
Taraxippus at the Isthmus, namely Glaucus, the son of Sisyphus. They say that he
was killed by his horses, when Acastus held his contests in honour of his father.
At Nemea of the Argives there was no hero who harmed the horses, but above
the turning-point of the chariots rose a rock, red in color, and the flash from it
terrified the horses, just as though it had been fire. But the Taraxippus at Olympia
is much worse for terrifying the horses. On one turning-post is a bronze statue of
Hippodameia carrying a ribbon, and about to crown Pelops with it for his victory
This is part of the foundation myth of the Olympics: go to the first reading in the section on the
Olympic Games.
35 Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea and also god of horses.
34
34
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.20.10-19
Greek elites were far more constrained in how they could compete with each other than Romans;
the various games and especially chariot racing and other equestrian events allowed them a way
to show off their wealth on an international stage without incurring the hatred and envy of
their fellow citizens – after all, they could say they were doing it for the community. The
Spartans were especially fond of chariot racing and entered in huge numbers: in 420 BCE
Spartans entered 7 chariots; Athens only entered 1. As a come back Alcibiades (454-404 BCE),
an extremely wealthy and well-born Athenian citizen, entered 7 chariots into the Olympics in
416 BCE. Alcibiades was not without his critics, 36 who pointed out that he presented the
precious vessels that Athens kept in Olympia as his own, thus making a mockery of the city:
In order to make it clear, however, that he was insulting the whole city of Athens;
in addition to Diomedes, he asked the leaders of the Athenian deputation to lend
him the processional vessels, saying that he intended to use them for a
celebration of his victory on the day before the sacrifice; he then abused the trust
placed in him and refused to return them, as he wanted to use the golden basins
and censers next day before Athens did so. Naturally, when those strangers who
did not know that they belonged to us saw the state-procession taking place after
that of Alcibiades, they imagined that we were using his vessels: while those who
had either heard the truth from the Athenians present or else knew the ways of
Alcibiades, laughed at us when they saw one man showing himself superior to
our entire community.
Against Alcibiades 29
He was also prosecuted for apparently stealing one of those 7 chariot teams from Argos,
which kept a city owned team:
11 His breeds of horses were famous the world over and so was the number of
his racing-chariots. No one king or commoner ever entered seven of these at the
Olympic Games but he alone. And the fact that he came first, second, and fourth
(as Thucydides says; Euripides, says third),37 all that ambition can aspire to in
this field was exceeded by the fame of this action. The ode of Euripides to which
I refer is this:
I sing of you, O child of Cleinias;
Victory is fair, but fairest is what no other Greek has achieved,
He had plenty of those, given that the Athenians wanted at one point to try him for sacrilege and he
eventually betrayed the city by going over to their deadly enemies, the Spartans.
37 Thucydides was an Athenian historian; Euripides wrote tragedies.
36
35
To come first, and second, and third in the contest of racing-chariots,
And to come off unwearied,38 and, wreathed with the olive of Zeus,
To furnish a theme for the herald's proclamation."
12 Moreover, this splendour of his at Olympia was made even more conspicuous
by the rivalry of the cities on his behalf. The Ephesians equipped him with a tent
of magnificent adornment; the people of Chios furnished him with food for his
horses and innumerable animals for sacrifice; those of Lesbos with wine and
other provisions for his abundant entertainment for the masses. However, a
serious insult — or abuse on his part — connected with this rivalry was talked
about even more. It is said that there was at Athens one Diomedes, a reputable
man and a friend of Alcibiades, and very eager to win a victory at Olympia. He
learned that there was a racing-chariot at Argos which was the property of that
city, and knowing that Alcibiades had many friends and was very influential
there, got him to buy the chariot. Alcibiades bought it for his friend, and then
entered it in the competition as his own, telling Diomedes to not bother him.
Diomedes was full of indignation and called on gods and men to witness his
wrongs. It appears also that a law-suit arose over this matter, and a speech was
written by Isocrates for the son of Alcibiades "Concerning the Team of Horses." In
this speech, however, it is Tisias, not Diomedes, who is the plaintiff.
Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades 11-12
In the following speech (the one Plutarch references above) his son defends Alcibiades on this
charge of stealing these horses:
About the same time Alcibiades saw that the festival at Olympia was extremely
respected by all men and that the Greeks gave demonstrations of their wealth,
power, and culture there. He saw also that the athletes were admired and that the
cities of the victors shared in the glory. Moreover he thought that performances
here in Athens happen on behalf of the family in front of fellow citizens, but
performances at these games on behalf of the city towards the whole of Greece.
With this disposition, he was not interested in the athletic events, although he
was inferior to no one in physical strength, for he knew that some athletes were
of low descent or lived in unimportant cities. He did take to breeding horses, an
activity for the happy few, something that would never be in the possibilities of
an ordinary man. He not only outrivaled all his opponents, but all the victors ever
before him, for he sent so many chariots that even the greatest cities could not
You should not assume from this that Alcibiades would risk driving one of these chariots himself; like
most competitors he hired professionals, while the glory went to him.
38
36
participate with so many, and they were of such formidable quality that he
finished first, second and third. Moreover, he was so generous and munificent at
the offerings and the other expenses of the festival that everything what the
others spent with public money, seemed less than the expenses from his private
pocket. In this way he ended his visit to the games: he made the successes of his
predecessors look small against his, those who won in his time no longer received
admiration and for those who wished to breed horses in the future, he left no
possibility to exceed him.
Isocrates, The Team of Horses 32
We don’t have an account of a real chariot crash, of which there must have been many, owing
to the fact that the Greek hippodrome did not have a central spina and often raced large
numbers of chariots. What we do have is this description of a chariot crash from Sophocles’
tragedy Electra, describing a crash at Delphi. It is told by the pedagogue of Orestes to his
sister Electra.
I was sent for that purpose, and will tell you everything. Having gone to the
renowned festival, the pride of Greece, for the Delphian games, when he heard
the loud summons to the foot-race which was first to be decided, he entered, a
brilliant form, a wonder in the eyes of all there; and, having finished his course at
the point where it began, he went out with the glorious share of victory. To speak
briefly although there is much to tell, I know not the man whose deeds and
triumphs have matched his; but one thing you must know: in all the contests that
the judges announced, he took the prize and men thought him happy as often as
the herald proclaimed him an Argive, by name Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who
once gathered the famous army of Greece.39 Thus far, it was well; but, when a
god sends harm, not even a strong man can escape. For, on another day, when
chariots were to try their speed at sunrise, he entered along with many other
charioteers. One was an Achaean, one from Sparta, two masters of yoked chariots
were Libyans;40 Orestes, driving Thessalian mares, came fifth among them; the
sixth from Aetolia, with chestnut colts; a Magnesian was the seventh; the eighth,
with white horses, was of Aenian stock; the ninth, from Athens, built by gods;
there was a Boeotian too, driving the tenth chariot.
They took their stations where the appointed judges placed them by lot and
arranged the chariot; then, at the sound of the brazen trumpet, they started. All
shouted to their horses, and shook the reins in their hands; the whole course was
filled with the noise of rattling chariots; the dust flew upward; and all, in a
Agamemnon was in charge of the Greek army that sailed to Troy; on his return his was murdered by
his wife Clytemnestra, who was in turn murdered by Orestes..
40 The Greeks had established colonies in North Africa, as well as Italy, Southern Gaul and a number of
other cities.
39
37
confused throng, plied their goads unsparingly, each of them striving to pass the
wheels and the snorting steeds of his rivals; at their backs and at their rolling
wheels the breath of the horses foamed and struck them. Orestes, driving close to
the pillar at either end of the course, almost grazed it with his wheel each time,
and, giving rein to the trace-horse on the right, checked the horse on the inner
side. Hitherto, all the chariots had escaped crashing; but presently the Aenian's
hard-mouthed colts ran away, and, swerving, as they passed from the sixth into
the seventh round, dashed their foreheads against the team of the Barcaean.
Other mishaps followed the first, shock on shock and crash on crash, till the
whole race-ground of Crisa was strewn with the wreck of the chariots.
Seeing this, the wary charioteer from Athens drew aside and paused, allowing
the billow of chariots, surging in mid-course, to go by. Orestes was driving last,
keeping his horses behind - for his trust was in the end; but when he saw that the
Athenian was alone left in, he sent a shrill cry ringing through the ears of his
swift colts, and gave chase. Team was brought level with team, and so they raced,
first one man, then the other showing his head in front of the chariots.
Before this ill-fated Orestes had passed safely through every round, steadfast in
his steadfast chariot; at last, slackening his left rein while the horse was turning,
unawares he struck the edge of the pillar; he broke the axle-box in two; he was
thrown over the chariot-rail and was caught in the reins; and, as he fell on the
ground, his colts were scattered into the middle of the course. But when the
people saw him fallen from his chariot, a cry of pity went up for the youth, who
had done such deeds and was meeting such a death - now dashed to earth, now
tossed feet uppermost to the sky- till the charioteers, with difficulty checking the
career of their horses, loosed him, so covered with blood that no friend who saw
it would have known the unfortunate corpse. Straightway they burned it on a
pyre; and chosen men of Phocis are bringing in a small urn of bronze the sad dust
of that mighty form, to find due burial in his fatherland.
Sophocles, Electra 681-754.
38
Other equestrian events
Coin celebrating the victory of Anaxilas of Rhegium (S. Italy), 480/4 BCE) in the mule cart
race. The Olympics briefly added two equestrian events, the apene, a mule cart race and the
kalpe, a trotting race for mares, where the riders leapt off the horses and ran along side them for
a portion of the race. The mule cart race in particular was felt to be rather undignified; a poet
once turned down a commission for an Olympic victor in this event – until the victor offered
him twice as much money.
Certain contests, too, have been dropped at Olympia, the Eleans resolving to
discontinue them. The pentathlon for boys was instituted at the thirty-eighth
Festival; but after Eutelidas of Sparta had received the wild olive for it, the Eleans
disapproved of boys entering for this competition. 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 andabatai. The andabatai, however, differ from the riders in the trottingrace by having different badges, and by riding stallions instead of mares. The
cart-race was neither very old nor yet a graceful performance. Moreover, each
39
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.
Horse racing was very dangerous: the Greeks had no stirrups nor anything like modern saddles,
so you were basically clinging on with your knees – which got harder the more horses sweated.
The races were 6 laps of the courses – so the distances varied according to the length of the
hippodrome. As Greek horses were considerably smaller than ours, they were ridden by child
jockeys (almost certainly slaves). So unimportant were the jockeys considered that horses could
win even if they threw their riders; we know this from Pausanias’ discussion of a famous race in
512 BCE at the Olympic Games.
The mare of the Corinthian Pheidolas was called Aura [Breeze] according to the
Corinthians and at the beginning of the race she threw her rider. But nevertheless
she went on running properly, turned round the post, and, when she heard the
trumpet, quickened her pace, reached the judges first, realized that she had won
and stopped running. The Eleans proclaimed Pheidolas the winner and allowed
him to dedicate a statue of this mare.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.13.9
Although the Greeks have left behind little in the way of evidence for training humans, we have
a text on how to select and train a horse which was written by the Athenian writer and soldier
Xenophon (4th century BCE). It is mainly about training horses for battle, but does incidentally
give some information on riding and training horses in general:
Nor must we omit another topic: how the rider is to accommodate himself to
these different movements. Thus, when the horse breaks off into a gallop, the
rider ought to bend forward, since the horse will be less likely to slip from under
and so throw his rider off. So again in pulling him up short the rider should lean
back and thus escape a shock. In leaping a ditch or tearing up a steep incline, it is
no bad plan to let go the reins and take hold of the mane, so that the animal may
not feel the burden of the bit in addition to that of the ground. In going down a
steep incline the rider must throw himself right back and hold in the horse with
the bit, to prevent himself being hurled headforemost down the slope himself if
not his horse. It is a correct principle to vary these exercises, which should be
gone through sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, and should
sometimes be shorter and sometimes longer in duration. The horse will take
much more kindly to them if you do not confine him to one place and one
routine. Since it is a matter of prime necessity that the rider should keep his seat
while galloping full speed on every sort of ground, and at the same time be able
to use his weapons effectively on horseback, nothing could be better, where the
country suits and there are wild animals, than to practise horsemanship in
40
combination with hunting. But when these resources fail, a good exercise may be
supplied in the combined efforts of two horsemen. One of them will play the part
of fugitive, retreating haphazardly over every sort of ground, with lance reversed
and plying the butt end. The other pursues, with covers on his javelins and his
lance. Whenever he comes within javelin range he lets fly at the retreating enemy
with his blunted missiles; or whenever within spear thrust he deals the overtaken
combatant a blow. In coming to close quarters, it is a good plan first to drag the
enemy towards oneself, and then on a sudden to thrust him off; that is a device to
bring him to the ground. The correct plan for the man so dragged is to press his
horse forward: by which action the man who is being dragged is more likely to
unhorse his assailant than to be brought to the ground himself…
How these desirable results are, in our opinion, to be produced, we will now try
to explain. In the first place, then, you ought to have at least two bits. One of
these should be smooth, with discs of a good size; the other should have heavy
and flat discs studded with sharp spikes, so that when the horse seizes it and
dislikes the roughness he will drop it; then when the smooth is given him instead,
he is delighted with its smoothness, and whatever he has learnt before upon the
rough, he will perform with greater eagerness on the smooth. He may certainly,
out of contempt for its very smoothness, perpetually try to get a purchase on it,
and that is why we attach large discs to the smooth bit, the effect of which is to
make him open his mouth, and drop the mouthpiece. It is possible to make the
rough bit of every degree of roughness by keeping it slack or taut….
To quote a saying of Simon,41 what a horse is forced to do he does blindly, and
his performance is no more beautiful than would be that of a dancer taught by
whip and goad. The performances of horse or man so treated would seem to be
displays of clumsy gestures rather than of grace and beauty. What we need is for
the horse to display his finest airs and paces at set signals. Supposing, when he is
in the riding-field, you push him to a gallop until he is bathed in sweat, and when
he begins to prance and show his airs to fine effect, you promptly dismount and
take off the bit, you may rely upon it he will of his own accord another time break
into the same prancing action. Such are the horses on which gods and heroes ride,
as represented by the artist. The majesty of men themselves is best discovered in
the graceful handling of such animals. A horse so prancing is indeed a thing of
beauty, a wonder and a marvel; riveting the gaze of all who see him, young and
old. They will never turn their backs, I venture to predict, or weary of their
gazing so long as he continues to display his splendid action.
Xenophon, On Horsemanship excerpts
41
He also wrote a (now lost) work on training horses.
41
42
Greek Sports III: Athletes: their status and reputations:
Just like now, athletes might receive special treatment, even in war, just because they were
famous athletes. This happened during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) to Doreius when
he was captured by the Athenians, while fighting for their enemies, the Spartans, as is told in
the passage below – which also goes into detail about the fame of his entire family. In this
passage Pausanias is describing victor statues at Olympia, among which there many statues of
Doreius and his family.
So much for the story of Euthymus. After his statue stands a runner in the footrace, Pytharchus of Mantinea, and a boxer, Charmides of Elis, both of whom won
prizes in the contests for boys.42 When you have looked at these also you will
reach the statues of the Rhodian athletes, Diagoras and his family. These were
dedicated one after the other in the following order. Acusilaus, who received a
crown for boxing in the men's class; Dorieus, the youngest, who won the
pankration at Olympia at three successive games. Even before Dorieus,
Damagetus beat all those who had entered for the pankration.
These were brothers, being sons of Diagoras, and by them is set up also a statue
of Diagoras himself, who won a victory for boxing in the men's class. The statue
of Diagoras was made by the Megarian Callicles, the son of the Theocosmus who
made the image of Zeus at Megara. The sons too of the daughters of Diagoras
practised boxing and won Olympic victories: in the men's class Eucles, son of
Callianax and Callipateira, daughter of Diagoras; in the boys' class Peisirodus,
whose mother dressed herself as a man and a trainer, and took her son herself to
the Olympic games.43
This Peisirodus is one of the statues in the Altis,44 and stands by the father of his
mother. The story goes that Diagoras came to Olympia in the company of his
sons Acusilaus and Damagetus. After they defeated him they proceeded to carry
him through the crowd, while the Greeks pelted him with flowers and
congratulated him on his sons. The family of Diagoras was originally, through
the female line, Messenian, as he was descended from the daughter of
Aristomenes.
Dorieus, son of Diagoras, besides his Olympian victories, won eight at the
Isthmian and seven at the Nemean games. He is also said to have won a Pythian
victory without a contest.45 He and Peisirodus were proclaimed by the herald as
from Thurii, for they had been pursued by their political enemies from Rhodes to
There were competitions for boys and men at the Olympics.
See the section ‘The Heraia, Women, and Athletics’ for that story.
44 The sacred precinct of Olympia.
45 In other words, the other competitors withdrew rather than face him.
42
43
43
Thurii in Italy. Dorieus subsequently returned to Rhodes. Of all men he most
obviously showed his friendship with Sparta, for he actually fought against the
Athenians with his own ships, until he was taken prisoner by Attic men-of-war
and brought alive to Athens.
Before he was brought to them the Athenians were angry with Dorieus and used
threats against him; but when they met in the assembly and saw a man so great
and famous as their prisoner, their feeling towards him changed, and they let him
go away without doing him any hurt, and that though they might have legally
punished him severely.
Androtion in his Attic history tells the story of Doreius’ death. He says that the
great King's fleet was then at Caunus, with Conon in command, who persuaded
the Rhodian people to leave the Spartan alliance and to join the great King and
the Athenians. Dorieus, he goes on to say, was at the time away from home in the
interior of the Peloponnesus, and having been caught by some Spartans he was
brought to Sparta, convicted of treachery by the Spartans and sentenced to death.
If Androtion tells the truth, he appears to me to wish to put the Spartans on a
level with the Athenians, because they too are open to the charge of precipitous
action in their treatment of Thrasyllus and his fellow admirals at the battle of
Arginusae. Such was the fame won by Diagoras and his family.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.7.2-7.
Some athletes might even be considered more than human and receive heroic honours:
Not far from these kings stands the statue of Theagenes, the son of Timosthenes
of Thasos. The Thasians assert that Theagenes is not the son of Timosthenes. They
say that Timosthenes was a priest of the Thasian Heracles and that the spirit of
Heracles, in the form of Timosthenes, had sex with the mother of Theagenes.
They say that when the boy was nine years old, he returned home from school
and saw on the marketplace a bronze statue of a god. Because he liked the statue,
he took it on his shoulder and brought it home. The citizens were furious at him
because of what he had done, but a man of advanced age with great authority did
not allow them to kill the boy and ordered him to carry the statue from his house
back to the market-place. When he had carried it, the boy became famous for his
strength and all over Greece they spoke about his feat.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.11.2-3
Not all athletes got heroic honours for their actions as athletes; some received them for being
truly horrible people:
44
At the games previous to this it is said that Cleomedes of Astypalaea killed Iccus
of Epidaurus during a boxing-match. On being convicted by the judges of foul
play and being deprived of the prize he became mad through grief and returned
to Astypalaea. Attacking a school there of about sixty children he pulled down
the pillar which held up the roof. This fell upon the children, and Cleomedes,
pelted with stones by the citizens, fled into the sanctuary of Athena. He entered a
chest standing in the sanctuary and drew down the lid. The Astypalaeans toiled
in vain in their attempts to open the chest. At last, however, they broke open the
boards of the chest, but found no Cleomedes, either alive or dead. So they sent
envoys to Delphi to ask what had happened to Cleomedes. The response given
by the Pythian priestess was, they say, as follows:
Last of heroes is Cleomedes of Astypalaea;
Honor him with sacrifices as being no longer a mortal.
So from this time the Astypalaeans have honoured Cleomedes as a hero.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.9.6-8
One of the most legendary athletes was Milo of Croton,46 who reigned at the Olympics and
other games for some 30 years. In the following Pausanias describes Milo’s statue at Olympia
and talks about his many feats:
The statue of Milo the son of Diotimus was made by Dameas, also a native of
Croton. Milo won six victories for wrestling at Olympia, one of them among the
boys; at the Pythian games he won six among the men and one among the boys.
He came to Olympia to wrestle for the seventh time, but did not succeed in
mastering Timasitheus, a fellow-citizen who was also a young man, and who
refused, moreover, to come to close quarters with him. It is further stated that
Milo carried his own statue into the Altis. His feats with the pomegranate and the
discus are also remembered by tradition. He would grasp a pomegranate so
firmly that nobody could wrest it from him by force, and yet he did not damage it
by pressure. He would stand upon a greased discus, and make fools of those who
charged him and tried to push him from the discus. He used to perform also the
following exhibition feats. He would tie a cord round his forehead as though it
were a ribbon or a crown. Holding his breath and filling with blood the veins on
his head, he would break the cord by the strength of these veins. It is said that he
would let down by his side his right arm from the shoulder to the elbow, and
stretch out straight the arm below the elbow, turning the thumb upwards, while
the other fingers lay in a row. In this position, then, the little finger was lowest,
but nobody could bend it back by pressure. They say that he was killed by wild
beasts. The story has it that he came across in the land of Croton a tree-trunk that
46
Croton was a wealthy Greek town in Southern Italy.
45
was drying up; wedges were inserted to keep the trunk apart. Milo in his pride
thrust his hands into the trunk, the wedges slipped, and Milo was held fast by the
trunk until the wolves – a beast that roves in vast packs in the land of Croton –
ate him.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.14.5-8
Milo’s other deeds, including saving philosophers, were also legendary:
Croton’s fame was increased by the large number of its Pythagorean
philosophers, and by Milo, who was the most famous of athletes, and also a
companion of Pythagoras, who spent a long time in the city. It is said that once, at
the philosophers’ food hall, when a pillar began to give way, Milo slipped in
under the burden and saved them all, and then drew himself from under it and
escaped. And it is probably because he relied upon this same strength that he
brought on himself the end of his life as reported by some writers; at any rate, the
story is told that once, when he was travelling through a deep forest, he strayed
rather far from the road, and then, on finding a large log cleft with wedges, thrust
his hands and feet at the same time into the cleft and strained to split the log
completely asunder; but he was only strong enough to make the wedges fall out,
whereupon the two parts of the log instantly snapped together; and caught in
such a trap as that, he became food for wild beasts.
Strabo, Geography 6.1.12
Some people suggested that Milo’s strength came from a special source:
Alectoria is the name given to a stone that is found in the crop of poultry: it looks
like crystal, and is about as large as a bean in size. Some say that Milo of Croton
was in the habit of carrying this stone about him, which rendered him invincible
in his athletic contests.
Pliny the Elder, Encyclopedia 37.52
Another legendary athlete was Polydamas, whose statue Pausanias saw at Olympia:
The statue on the high pedestal is the work of Lysippus, and it represents the
tallest of all men except those called heroes and any other mortal race that may
have existed before the heroes. But this man, Polydamas the son of Nicias, is the
tallest of our own era. Scotussa, the native city of Polydamas, has now no
inhabitants, for Alexander the tyrant of Pherae seized it in time of truce. It
happened that an assembly of the citizens was being held, and those who were
assembled in the theatre the tyrant surrounded with targeteers and archers, and
shot them all down; all the other grown men he massacred, selling the women
46
and children as slaves in order to pay his mercenaries. This disaster befell
Scotussa when Phrasicleides was archon at Athens, in the hundred and second
Olympiad, when Damon of Thurii was victor for the second time, and in the
second year of this Olympiad. The people that escaped remained but for a while,
for later they too were forced by their destitution to leave the city, when Heaven
brought a second calamity in the war with Macedonia.
Others have won glorious victories in the pankration, but Polydamas, besides his
prizes for the pankration, has to his credit the following exploits of a different
kind. The mountainous part of Thrace, on this side the river Nestus, which runs
through the land of Abdera, breeds among other wild beasts lions, which once
attacked the army of Xerxes, and mauled the camels carrying his supplies. These
lions often roam right into the land around Mount Olympus, one side of which is
turned towards Macedonia, and the other towards Thessaly and the river
Peneius. Here on Mount Olympus Polydamas killed a huge and powerful lion,
without the help of any weapon. He was driven to do this by an ambition to rival
the labours of Heracles, because Heracles also, legend says, killed the lion at
Nemea.47
In addition to this, Polydamas is remembered for another wonderful
performance. He went among a herd of cattle and seized the biggest and fiercest
bull by one of its hind feet, holding fast the hoof in spite of the bull's leaps and
struggles, until at last it put forth all its strength and escaped, leaving the hoof in
the grasp of Polydamas. It is also said of him that he stopped a charioteer who
was driving his chariot onwards at a great speed. Seizing with one hand the back
of the chariot he kept a tight hold on both horses and driver. Darius, the bastard
son of Artaxerxes, who with the support of the Persian common people put down
Sogdius, the legitimate son of Artaxerxes, and ascended the throne in his stead,
learning when he was king of the exploits of Polydamas sent messengers with the
promise of gifts and persuaded him to come before his presence at Susa. There he
challenged three of the Persians called Immortals48 to fight him – one against
three – and killed them. Of his exploits listed, some are represented on the
pedestal of the statue at Olympia, and others are mentioned in the inscription.
But after all, the prophecy of Homer regarding those who glory in their strength
was to be fulfilled also in the case of Polydamas, and he too was fated to perish
through his own strength. For Polydamas entered a cave with the rest of his close
companions. It was summer-time, and, as bad luck would have it, the roof of the
cave began to crack. It was obvious that it would quickly fall in, and could not
hold out much longer. Realizing the disaster that was coming, the others turned
and ran away; but Polydamas decided to remain, holding up his hands in the
47
48
This was one of the foundations of Nemea.
These were a special select force in the Persian army.
47
belief that he could prevent the falling in of the cave and would not be crushed
by the mountain. Here Polydamas met his end.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.5.1-9
However, the diet of athletes received particular attention; they were often considered
gluttonous because in a culture where most people lived on simple diet of bread and olive oil,
they lived largely off meat:
A man from Stymphalus, by name Dromeus [Runner], proved true to it in the
long race, for he won two victories at Olympia, two at the Pythian games, three at
the Isthmian and five at Nemea Games. He is said to have also conceived the idea
of a flesh diet; up to this time athletes had fed on cheese from the basket.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.7.10
And athletes could eat a lot:
The athlete Theagenes ate a bull on his own, as Poseidippos says in his epigrams:
"On an assembly I once ate a Maeonian ox, for my ancestral Thasos could not
have supplied a meal for Theagenes. Whatever I ate, I kept asking for more. For
this reason I stand in bronze, holding forth my hand." According to Theodorus of
Hierapolis, in his book about competitions, Milo of Croton used to eat twenty
pounds of meat and bread and he drank three jars of wine. In Olympia he lifted a
four-year-old bull on his shoulders and carried it around the stadion. Afterwards
he cut it in pieces and ate in on his own in a single day.
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 10.412 d-f
However, others such as Xenophon insisted that what philosophers contributed to the
community was worth more than what athletes did:
If someone should win a victory thanks to the swiftness of his feet or when
competing in the pentathlon there in the sanctuary of Zeus by the streams of Pisa
at Olympia, or gain the prize in wrestling or painful boxing, or in that fearful
contest people call pankration, his fellow citizens would think him more glorious
to look on than ever, and he would gain from his city the right to meals at public
expense and a gift which would be his personal treasure. And if his victory were
won with horses, he would also gain all these things, even though he is not as
worthy as I. For our wisdom is better than the strength of men or horses. For even
if there were a good boxer among the citizens or one skilled in the pentathlon or
wrestling, or, indeed, even if there were a great sprinter, which holds the front
rank among the athletic achievements of men, the state would still not be better
governed because of this. A city would gain little joy if someone should win in
48
competition by the banks of the Pisa, for that victory would not fill its
storehouses.
Xenophon, Hellenica
49
The Olympic Games
This was the oldest and greatest of the crown games: crown games were games in which you
won not money, but a crown. However, such was the prestige that a win in the Olympics was
felt to bring to a polis (city-state) that many offered rich rewards if you won. These rewards
ranged from cash49 to being fed at public expense for the rest of your life; you might also be freed
from paying taxes. Olympia was a sanctuary for Zeus, not a town, and was run by the town of
Elis (with some interruptions when other towns tried to seize control of the games, even leading
at one point to fighting right among and in the temples). In his Description of Greece
Pausanias devoted two books to Olympia – more than to any other place he visited.
Click here for more images and information on the Olympic Games:
a. Foundation Myths
There were a number of mythical stories about the first Olympic Games; some connected them
with the god Zeus’ overthrow of his father, Cronus.
As for the Olympic Games, the most learned antiquaries of Elis say that Cronus
was the first king of heaven, and that in his honor a temple was built in Olympia
by the men of that age, who were named the Golden Race. When Zeus was born,
Rhea50 entrusted the guardianship of her son to the Dactyls of Ida, who are the
same as those called Curetes. They came from Cretan Ida – Heracles, Paeonaeus,
Epimedes, Iasius and Idas. Heracles, being the eldest, matched his brothers, as a
game, in a running-race, and crowned the winner with a branch of wild olive, of
which they had such a great amount that they slept on heaps of its leaves while
still green. It is said to have been introduced into Greece by Heracles from the
land of the Hyperboreans, men living beyond the home of the North Wind. Olen
the Lycian, in his hymn to Achaea, was the first to say that from these
Hyperboreans Achaea came to Delos. When Melanopus of Cyme composed an
ode to Opis and Hecaerge declaring that these, even before Achaea, came to
Delos from the Hyperboreans. And Aristeas of Proconnesus – for he too
mentioned of the Hyperboreans – may perhaps have learnt even more about
them from the Issedones, to whom he says in his poem that he came. Heracles of
Ida, therefore, has the reputation of being the first to have held, on the occasion I
mentioned, the games, and to have called them Olympic. So he established the
custom of holding them every fifth year, because he and his brothers were five in
number. Some say that Zeus wrestled here with Cronus himself for power, while
others say that he held the games in honor of his victory over Cronus. The record
of victors include Apollo, who outran Hermes and beat Ares at boxing. It is for
In the 6th century BCE the Athenian politician Solon gave Athenians 500 drachmas if they won at the
Olympics; 100 if they won at the Isthmian Games.
50 Cronus’ wife.
49
50
this reason, they say, that the Pythian flute-song is played while the competitors
in the pentathlon are jumping; for the flute-song is sacred to Apollo, and Apollo
won Olympic victories.51
Later on there came (they say) from Crete Clymenus, the son of Cardys, about
fifty years after the flood came upon the Greeks in the time of Deucalion. He was
descended from Heracles of Ida; he held the games at Olympia and set up an
altar in honor of Heracles, his ancestor, and the other Curetes, giving to Heracles
the surname of Parastates [Assistant]. And Endymion, the son of Aethlius,
deposed Clymenus, and set his sons a race in Olympia with the kingdom as the
prize. And about a generation later than Endymion, Pelops held the games in
honor of Olympian Zeus in a more splendid manner than any of his predecessors.
When the sons of Pelops were scattered from Elis over all the rest of
Peloponnesus, Amythaon, the son of Cretheus, and cousin of Endymion on his
father's side (for they say that Aethlius too was the son of Aeolus, though
supposed to be a son of Zeus), held the Olympian games, and after him Pelias
and Neleus in common.
Augeas too held them and Heracles, the son of Amphitryon, after the conquest of
Elis.52 The victors crowned by Heracles include Iolaus, who won with the mares
of Heracles. So of old a competitor was permitted to compete with mares which
were not his own. Homer, at any rate, in the games held in honor of Patroclus,
has told how Menelaus drove a pair of which one was Aetha, a mare of
Agamemnon, while the other was his own horse. (Iolaus used to be charioteer to
Heracles.) So Iolaus won the chariot-race, and Iasius, an Arcadian, the horse-race;
while of the sons of Tyndareus one won the foot-race and Polydeuces the boxingmatch. Of Heracles himself it is said that he won victories at wrestling and the
pankration.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.7.6-5.8.3
The structure of the games
In the historical period the Olympic Games and Olympia were under the control of and
governed by the town of Elis (though that was contested by the citizens of Pisa, leading to
battles right among the temples). Here Pausanias goes on to give the more recent history of the
games, some of the order of events, and when they were added or dropped.
Apollo was the major god worshipped by Delphi, site of the Pythian games. The flute player who won
at Delphi played at Olympia.
52 There was a myth that Hercules conquered Elis – which was defended by the god Hades, who got
wounded in the battle.
51
51
After the reign of Oxylus, who also celebrated the games, the Olympic festival
was discontinued until the reign of Iphitus. When Iphitus, as I have already
related, renewed the games, men had by this time forgotten the ancient tradition,
the memory of which revived bit by bit, and as it revived they made additions to
the games. This I can prove; for when the unbroken tradition of the Olympiads
began there was first the foot-race, and Coroebus an Elean was victor. There is no
statue of Coroebus at Olympia, but his grave is on the borders of Elis.
Afterwards, at the fourteenth Games, the diaulos was added: Hypenus of Pisa
won the prize of wild olive in this, and at the next Games Acanthus of Sparta
won in the dolichos At the eighteenth Games they remembered the pentathlon
and wrestling. Lampis won the first and Eurybatus the second, these also being
Spartans. At the twenty-third Games they restored the prizes for boxing, and the
victor was Onomastus of Smyrna, which already was a part of Ionia. At the
twenty-fifth they recognized the race of full-grown horses, and Pagondas of
Thebes was proclaimed victor in the chariot race. At the eighth Games after this
they admitted the pankration for men and the horse-race. The horse-race was
won by Crauxidas of Crannon, and Lygdamis of Syracuse overcame all who
entered for the pankration. Lygdamis has his tomb near the quarries at Syracuse,
and according to the Syracusans he was as big as Heracles of Thebes, though I
cannot vouch for the statement.
The contests for boys are not of ancient creation, but were established by the
Eleans themselves because they approved of them. The prizes for running and
wrestling open to boys were instituted at the thirty-seventh Games;
Hipposthenes of Sparta won the prize for wrestling, and that for running was
won by Polyneices of Elis. At the forty-first Games they introduced boxing for
boys, and the winner out of those who entered for it was Philytas of Sybaris. The
race for men in armour was approved at the sixty-fifth Games, to provide, I
suppose, military training; the first winner of the race with shields was
Damaretus of Heraea. The race for two full-grown horses, called synoris, was
instituted at the ninety-third Games, and the winner was Evagoras of Elis. At the
ninety-ninth Games they resolved to hold contests for chariots drawn by foals,
and Sybariades of Sparta won the garland with his chariot and foals. Afterwards
they added races for chariots and pairs of foals, and for single foals with rider. It
is said that the victors proclaimed were: for the chariot and pair, Belistiche, a
woman from the seaboard of Macedonia; for the ridden race, Tlepolemus of
Lycia. Tlepolemus, they say, won at the hundred and thirty-first Games, and
Belistiche at the third before this. At the hundred and forty-fifth Games prizes
were offered for boys in the pankration, the victory falling to Phaedimus, an
Aeolian from the city Troas.
Certain contests, too, have been dropped at Olympia, the Eleans resolving to
discontinue them. The pentathlon for boys was instituted at the thirty-eighth
52
games; but after Eutelidas of Sparta had received the wild olive for it, the Eleans
disapproved of boys entering for this competition.53 The races for mule-carts, and
the trotting-race, were added respectively at the seventieth Games 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 aphobatai. The mounters, however, differ from the riders in the trottingrace by having different badges, and by riding horses instead of mares. The cartrace 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.
The order of the games in our own day, which places the sacrifices to the god for
the pentathlon and chariot-races second, and those for the other competitions
first, was fixed at the seventy-seventh Games. Previously the contests for men
and for horses were held on the same day. But at the Games I mentioned the
pankratiasts prolonged their contests till night-fall, because they were not
summoned to the arena soon enough. The cause of the delay was partly the
chariot-race, but still more the pentathlon. Callias of Athens was champion of the
pankratiasts on this occasion, but never afterwards was the pankration to be
interfered with by the pentathlon or the chariots. The rules for the presidents of
the games are not the same now as they were at the first institution of the Games.
Iphitus acted as sole president, as likewise did the descendants of Oxylus after
Iphitus. But at the fiftieth Games 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
Games nine judges were appointed. To three of them were entrusted the chariotraces, another three were to supervise the pentathlon, the rest superintended the
remaining contests. At the second Games after this the tenth umpire was added.
At the hundred and third Games, the Eleans having twelve tribes, one umpire
was chosen from each. 5.9.6 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 judges equal
in number to the tribes. At the hundred and eighth Games they returned again to
the number of ten judges, which has continued unchanged down to the present
day.
I would give a great deal to know what actually happened that caused them to only run this event
once.
53
53
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.8-9.
Unlike other events Olympia insisted that athletes turned up and trained at Elis for 30 days
before the Olympics. Those who were late by their own fault could be fined or denied the chance
to compete; during those 30 days some were counselled to drop out, while others chose to do so
voluntarily after they saw what their competition would be.
I must adopt what they say at the Olympics to you, my brave friends; and the
following is an Olympic exordium. When the Olympic Games are about to
happen the people of Elis train the athletes for thirty days in their own country.
In the same way, when the Pythian games approach, the natives of Delphi; and
when the Isthmian, the Corinthians assemble them and say: 'Go now into the
arena and prove yourselves men worthy of victory.’
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyre 5.43
In his account of Greece Pausanias (2nd century CE) described the gymnasia and other features
of Elis:
One of the noteworthy things in Elis is an old gymnasium. In this gymnasium the
athletes go through the training through which they must pass before going to
Olympia. High plane-trees grow between the tracks inside a wall. The whole of
this enclosure is called Xystus, because an exercise of Heracles, the son of
Amphitryon,54 was to scrape up each day all the thistles that grew there. The
track for the competing runners, called by the natives the Sacred Track, is
separate from that on which the runners and pentathletes practise. In the
gymnasium is the place called Plethrium. In it the judges match the competitors
according to age and skill; it is for wrestling that they match them. There are also
in the gymnasium altars of the gods, of Idaean Heracles, surnamed Comrade, of
Love, of the deity called by Eleans and Athenians alike Love Returned, and of
Demeter and of her daughter. Achilles has no altar, only a cenotaph raised to him
because of an oracle. On an appointed day at the beginning of the festival, when
the course of the sun is sinking towards the west, the Elean women honor
Achilles, especially by wailing for him.
There is another enclosed gymnasium, but smaller, adjoining the larger one and
called Square because of its shape. Here the athletes practise wrestling, and here,
when they have no more wrestling to do, they are matched in contests with the
softer gloves. There is also dedicated here one of the images made in honor of
54
This is the famous Hercules, of the lion skin and club.
54
Zeus out of the fines imposed upon Sosander of Smyrna and upon Polyctor of
Elis.
There is also a third enclosed gymnasium, called Maltho from the softness of its
floor, and reserved for the youths for the whole time of the festival. In a corner of
the Maltho is a bust of Heracles as far as the shoulders, and in one of the
wrestling-schools is a relief showing Love and Love Returned, as he is called.
Love holds a palm-branch, and Love Returned is trying to take the palm from
him. On each side of the entrance to the Maltho stands an image of a boy boxer.
He was by birth, so the Guardian of the Laws at Elis told me, from Alexandria
near the island Pharos, and his name was Sarapion; arriving at Elis when the
townsfolk were suffering from famine he supplied them with food. For this
reason these honours were paid him here. The time of his crown at Olympia and
of his benefaction to the Eleans was the two hundred and seventeenth Festival.
In this gymnasium is also the Elean Council House, where take place exhibitions
of extempore speeches and recitations of written works of all kinds. It is called
Lalichmium, after the man who dedicated it. About it are dedicated shields,
which are for show and not made to be used in war. The way from the
gymnasium to the baths passes through the Street of Silence and beside the
sanctuary of Artemis Philomeirax. The goddess is so surnamed because she is
neighbour to the gymnasium; the street received, they say, the name of Silence for
the following reason. Men of the army of Oxylus were sent to spy out what was
happening in Elis. On the way they exhorted each other, when they should be
near the wall, themselves to keep a strict silence, but to listen attentively if
perchance they might learn anything from the people in the town. These men by
this street reached the town unobserved, and after hearing all they wished they
went back again to the Aetolians. So the street received its name from the silence
of the spies. One of the two ways from the gymnasium leads to the market-place,
and to what is called the Umpires' Room; it is above the grave of Achilles, and the
judges go to the gymnasium along this. They enter before sunrise to match the
runners, and at midday for the pentathlon and for such contests as are called
heavy.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.23.1-6.24.1
After their stay at Elis, all the athletes, the judges, many of the audience, and all the horses
walked the c. 40 km route of the Sacred Way to Olympia; unfortunately, we do not know much
about the procession, although there are references to it in Pausanias and elsewhere, who talks
about the processional entrance at Olympia:
The Leonidaeum is outside the sacred enclosure, but at the processional entrance
to the Altis, which is the only way open to those who take part in the processions.
55
It was dedicated by Leonidas, a native, but in my time the Roman governors of
Greece stayed in it. Between the processional entrance and the Leonidaeum is a
street, for the Eleans call streets what the Athenians call lanes.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.15.2
On arrival at Olympia athletes and judges swore a great oath to Olympian Zeus at his statue in
the council house (the bouleterion) there:
The Zeus in the council house is made to frighten the unjust more than any other
statue of Zeus. He is called Zeus Horkios [of the oath] and carries a thunderbolt
in each hand. It is a habit for the athletes, their fathers, brothers, and trainers to
swear at this statue on wild boar meat that they will commit no offence to the
Olympic Games. In addition, the adult athletes swear that they have trained for
ten months without interruption. The judges who examine the boys and foals
swear that they will judge according to the law and without receiving bribes55
and that they will keep secret everything about the candidate, admitted or not.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.24.9-10
Before any athletic events were held, there were contests for trumpeters and heralds. The
winners were considered Olympic victors, just like those who competed in the athletic
competitions. However, after they won they had to work during the rest of the Olympics
announcing events and the winners of those events
There is in the Altis an altar near the entrance leading to the stadium. On it the
Eleans do not sacrifice to any of the gods, but it is customary for the trumpeters
and heralds to stand upon it when they compete. By the side of this altar has been
built a pedestal of bronze, and on it is an image of Zeus, about six cubits in
height, with a thunderbolt in either hand. It was dedicated by the people of
Cynaetha.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.22.1
The Athletes
All of those who competed at the games were Greeks (non-Greeks were not allowed to take part,
though when the Romans came along they were accepted as Greeks). Ordinary Macedonians
could not compete in the Olympics as they were not considered Greek; the royal family,
however, claimed descent from Achilles and could compete as they were considered Greek:
The competition was far less fierce for the boys’ events than for the adults, hence it would be a huge
advantage to be classed as a boy rather than a man; the same went for horses and foals.
55
56
I myself happen to know and will prove that these descendants of Perdiccas are
Greeks, as they themselves say, in the later part of my history. Furthermore, the
judges who manage the contest at Olympia determined that it is so for when
Alexander56 chose to compete and entered the competition for that purpose, the
Greeks who were to run against him wanted to bar him from the race, saying that
the contest should be for Greeks and not for foreigners. Alexander, however,
proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek. He accordingly
competed in the stadion and tied for first place. This, then, is approximately what
happened.
Herodotus Histories 5.22.1-2
However, not all city-states were endowed with native athletes; as with the modern Olympics,
some athletes were lured to run for cities other than their own, as the following set of anecdotes
from Pausanias show. He is describing statues of victors at Olympia:
After Hysmon comes the statue of a boy wrestler from Heraea in Arcadia,
Nicostratus the son of Xenocleides. Pantias was the artist, and if you count the
teachers you will find five between him and Aristocles of Sicyon. Dicon, the son
of Callibrotus, won five footraces at the Pythian games, three at the Isthmian
Games, four at Nemea, one at Olympia in the race for boys besides two in the
men's race. Statues of him have been set up at 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. The
statue of Cyniscus, the boy boxer from Mantinea, was made by Polycleitus.
Ergoteles, the son of Philanor, won two victories in the dolichos at Olympia, and
two at the Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean Games. The inscription on the statue
states that he came originally from Himera; but it is said that this is incorrect, and
that he was a Cretan from Cnossos. Expelled from Cnossos by a political party he
came to Himera, was given citizenship and won many honours besides. It was
accordingly natural for him to be proclaimed at the games as a native of Himera.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.4.10-11
Sotades was victorious in the dolichos at the ninety-ninth Games and proclaimed a
Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian,
being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the
Cretans
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.18.6
Others held out against tempting offers to change their citizenship at the Games:
56
Not the famous Alexander the Great, but Alexander I, king of Macedon from c.492-450 BCE.
57
By the statue of Thrasybulus stands Timosthenes of Elis, winner of the stadion for
boys, and Antipater of Miletus, son of Cleinopater, conqueror of the boy boxers.
Men of Syracuse, who were bringing a sacrifice from Dionysius to Olympia, tried
to bribe the father of Antipater to have his son proclaimed as a Syracusan. But
Antipater, thinking nothing of the tyrant's gifts, proclaimed himself a Milesian
and wrote upon his statue that he was of Milesian descent and the first Ionian to
dedicate his statue at Olympia.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.2.6
Olympia had two age classes: boys and men (some other games eventually had a third,
intermediate class, but the Olympics never did). There was an obvious advantage in being
placed in the younger class, even if winning in the older class held more prestige, because the
competition was less fierce as people often did not like their young sons to travel and possibly
run into all sorts of shocking behaviour at Olympia, which was incredibly crowded and full of
parties during the games. The minimum age to compete at the Olympics was twelve, but few
won at that age. One of those few is mentioned below:
Beside this is the Messenian Damiscus, who won an Olympic victory at the age of
twelve. I was extremely surprised to learn that while the Messenians were in exile
from the Peloponnesus, their luck at the Olympic Games failed. For with the
exception of Leontiscus and Symmachus, who came from Messene on the Strait,
we know of no Messenian, either from Sicily or from Naupactus, who won a
victory at Olympia. Even these two are said by the Sicilians to have been not
Messenians but of old Zanclean blood.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.2.10
Others might be ruled too young to compete (proving exact ages in an era without birth
certificates and different dating systems was impossible):
Pherias of Aegina, whose statue stands by the side of Aristophon the Athenian, at
the seventy-eighth Festival was considered very young, and, being judged to be
as yet unfit to wrestle, was debarred from the contest. Out at the next Festival he
was admitted to the boys' wrestling-match and won it. What happened to this
Pherias was different, in fact the exact opposite of what happened at Olympia to
Nicasylus of Rhodes. As he was eighteen years of age he was not allowed by the
Eleans to compete in the boys' wrestling-match, but won the men's match and
was proclaimed victor. He was afterwards proclaimed victor at Nemea also and
at the Isthmian Games. But when he was twenty years old he met his death
before he returned home to Rhodes.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.14.1-2
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Although the Eleans claimed to be impartial, they were judges in events where people from their
own city state competed. Some people wondered if that were possible as the following story from
the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) shows:
While Psammis was king of Egypt, there came to him men sent by the Eleans,
who boasted that they organized the Olympic Games in the most just and
honourable manner possible and thought that not even the Egyptians, the wisest
of men, could find out anything which needed to be added to their rules. Now
when the Eleans came to Egypt and said why they had come, then this king
called together those of the Egyptians who were said to be the wisest, and when
the Egyptians had come together they heard the Eleans tell everything they did
for the Games; and when they had related everything, they said that they had
come to learn in addition anything which the Egyptians might be able to find out
besides, which was fairer than this. They then having consulted together asked
the Eleans whether their own citizens took part in the contest; and they said that
it was permitted to any one who desired it, both from their own people and other
Greeks equally, to take part in the contest. When they heard this the Egyptians
said that in so organizing the games they had wholly missed the mark of justice;
for it could not be but that they would take the side of someone from their own
State, if he was contending, and so act unfairly to the stranger: but if they really
desired, as they said, to order the games justly, and if this was the cause for
which they had come to Egypt, they advised them to order the contest so as to be
for strangers alone to contend in, and that no Elean should be permitted to
contend. Such was the suggestion made by the Egyptians to the Eleans.
Herodotus, Histories 2.160
Cheating did occur at the Olympics and took various forms. The Eleans were sometimes
suspected of giving preference to their own, and it became worse when one of the officials in
charge of the festival was competing:
The inscription on Cleogenes the son of Silenus declares that he was a native, and
that he won a prize with a riding-horse from his own private stable. Near
Cleogenes are set up Deinolochus, son of Pyrrhus, and Troilus, son of Alcinous.
These also were both Eleans by birth, though their victories were not the same.
Troilus, at the time that he was umpire, succeeded in winning victories in the
chariot-races, one for a chariot drawn by a full-grown pair and another for a
chariot drawn by foals. The date of his victories was the hundred and second
Games. After this the Eleans passed a law that in future no umpire was to
compete in the chariot-races. The statue of Troilus was made by Lysippus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.1.4-5
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In the previous section of his description of Olympia and Elis, Pausanias described various
other cheating incidents and fines levied at the Olympics.
Afterwards others were fined by the Eleans, among whom was an Alexandrian
boxer at the two hundred and eighteenth Games. The name of the man fined was
Apollonius, with the surname of Rhantes – it is a sort of national characteristic for
Alexandrians to have a surname. 57 This man was the first Egyptian to be
convicted by the Eleans of a misdemeanour. It was not for giving or taking a
bribe that he was condemned, but for the following outrageous conduct in
connection with the games. He did not arrive by the prescribed time, and the
Eleans, if they followed their rule, had no option but to exclude him from the
games. For his excuse, that he had been kept back among the Cyclades islands by
contrary winds, was proved to be an untruth by Heracleides, himself an
Alexandrian by birth. He showed that Apollonius was late because he had been
picking up some money at the Ionian games.
In these circumstances the Eleans excluded Apollonius from the games with any
other boxer who came after the prescribed time, and let the crown go to
Heracleides without a contest. At this Apollonius put on his gloves for a fight,
rushed at Heracleides, and began to pummel him, though he had already put the
wild-olive on his head and had taken refuge with the umpires. For this lightheaded folly he was to pay dearly. There are also two other images of modern
workmanship. For at the two hundred and twenty-sixth Games they detected
that two boxing men, in a fight for victory only, had agreed on the result for a
sum of money. For this misconduct a fine was inflicted, and of the images of Zeus
that were made, one stands on the left of the entrance to the stadium and the
other on the right.58 Of the boxers, the one bribed was called Didas, and the briber
was Sarapammon. They were from the same district, the newest in Egypt, called
Arsinoites.
It is a wonder in any case if a man has so little respect for the god of Olympia that
he will take or give a bribe in the contests; it is an even greater wonder that one of
the Eleans themselves has fallen so low. But it is said that the Elean Damonicus
did so fall at the hundred and ninety second Festival. They say that collusion
occurred between Polyctor the son of Damonicus and Sosander of Smyrna, of the
same name as his father; these were competitors for the wrestling prize of wildolive. Damonicus, it is alleged, being very ambitious for his son to win, bribed the
father of Sosander. When the transaction became known, the umpires imposed a
fine, but instead of imposing it on the sons they directed their anger against the
fathers, because they were the real sinners. From this fine images were made.
One is set up in the Elean gymnasium; the other is in the Altis in front of what is
57
58
The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great and thus was a Greek city.
These are the so called zanes, whose bases can still be seen as you go into the stadium at Olympia.
60
called the Painted Portico, because anciently there were pictures on the walls.
Some call this Portico the Echo Portico, because when a man has shouted his
voice is repeated by the echo seven or even more times.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.21.12-17.
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Celebrating Victory :
Above you’ve read many descriptions of statues put up by victors at Olympia to commemorate
their victory. You could also set up a statue in your home city (or might be voted one by the
grateful population), but for many that was not enough: they wanted a victory ode. The
premier writer of such odes was Pindar (518-438 BCE), who charged a hefty price to write for
you. It was worth it to have not only everlasting fame in poetic form, but also an ode that could
be brought back to your city and performed as you entered it in glory (and presumably on other
occasions when you wanted to remind people of your athletic fame). The following ode is an
Olympian ode, written by Pindar for Hieron of Syracuse, whose horse triumphed at the Games
in 496 BCE; not all were so long or so detailed – Hieron must have paid a lot for this.
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. From there glorious song enfolds
the wisdom of poets, so that they loudly sing about the son of Cronus,59 when
they arrive at the rich and blessed hearth of Hieron, who wields the scepter of
law in Sicily of many flocks, reaping every excellence at its peak, and is glorified
by the choicest music, which we men often play around his hospitable table.
Come, take the Dorian lyre down from its peg, if the splendor of Pisa60 and of
Pherenikos placed your mind under the influence of sweetest thoughts, when
that horse ran swiftly beside the Alpheios, not needing to be spurred on in the
race, and brought victory to his master, the king of Syracuse who delights in
horses. His glory shines in the settlement of fine men founded by Lydian Pelops,
with whom the mighty holder of the earth Poseidon fell in love, when Clotho61
took him out of the pure cauldron, furnished with a gleaming ivory shoulder.
Yes, there are many marvels, and yet I suppose the speech of mortals beyond the
true account can be deceptive, stories adorned with embroidered lies; [and Grace,
who fashions all gentle things for men, confers esteem and often contrives to
make believable the unbelievable. But the days to come are the wisest witnesses.
It is right for a man to speak well of the gods; for the blame is less that way. Son
of Tantalus, I will speak of you, but not like earlier stories. When your father
invited the gods to a very well-ordered banquet at his own dear Sipylus, in return
for the meals he had enjoyed, then it was that the god of the splendid trident62
seized you, his mind overcome with desire, and carried you away on his team of
Zeus.
This is the district around Olympia and the name of a town that fought with Elis over control of the
Olympics, even gaining control for a short period.
61 One of the Fates.
62 Poseidon.
59
60
62
golden horses to the highest home of widely-honored Zeus, to which at a later
time Ganymede came also, to perform the same service for Zeus. But when you
disappeared, and people did not bring you back to your mother, for all their
searching, right away some envious neighbor whispered that they cut you limb
from limb with a knife into the water's rolling boil over the fire, and among the
tables at the last course they divided and ate your flesh. For me it is impossible to
call one of the blessed gods a glutton. I stand back from it. Often the lot of evilspeakers is profitlessness. If indeed the watchers of Olympus ever honored a
mortal man, that man was Tantalus. But he was not able to digest his great
prosperity, and for his greed he gained overpowering ruin, which the Father
hung over him: a mighty stone. Always longing to cast it away from his head, he
wanders far from the joy of festivity. He has this helpless life of never-ending
labor, a fourth toil after three others, because he stole from the gods nectar and
ambrosia, with which they had made him immortal, and gave them to his
drinking companions. If any man expects that what he does escapes the notice of
a god, he is wrong.
Because of that the immortals sent the son of Tantalus back again to the swiftdoomed race of men. And when he blossomed with the stature of fair youth, and
down darkened his cheek, he turned his thoughts to an available marriage, to win
glorious Hippodameia from her father, the lord of Pisa He drew near to the gray
sea, alone in the darkness, and called aloud on the deep-roaring god, skilled with
the trident; and the god appeared to him, close at hand. Pelops said to the god, “If
the loving gifts of Cyprian Aphrodite result in any gratitude, Poseidon, then
restrain the bronze spear of Oenomaus, and speed me in the swiftest chariot to
Elis, and bring me to victory. For he has killed thirteen suitors, and postpones the
marriage of his daughter. Great danger does not take hold of a coward. Since all
men are compelled to die, why should anyone sit stewing an inglorious old age
in the darkness, with no share of any fine deeds? As for me, on this contest I will
take my stand. May you grant a welcome achievement.” So he spoke, and he did
not touch on words that were unaccomplished. Honoring him, the god gave him
a golden chariot, and horses with untiring wings. He overcame the might of
Oenomaus, and took the girl as his bride. She bore six sons, leaders of the people
eager for excellence. Now he has a share in splendid blood-sacrifices, resting
beside the ford of the Alpheus, where he has his attendant tomb beside the altar
that is thronged with many visitors.
The fame of Pelops shines from afar in the races of the Olympic festivals, where
there are contests for swiftness of foot, and the bold heights of toiling strength. A
victor throughout the rest of his life enjoys honeyed calm, so far as contests can
bestow it. But at any given time the glory of the present day is the highest one
that comes to every mortal man. I must crown that man with the horse-song in
the Aeolian strain. I am convinced that there is no host in the world today who is
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both knowledgeable about fine things and more sovereign in power, whom we
shall adorn with the glorious folds of song. A god is set over your ambitions as a
guardian, Hieron, and he devises with this as his concern. If he does not desert
you soon, I hope that I will celebrate an even greater sweetness, sped by a swift
chariot, finding a helpful path of song when I come to the sunny hill of Cronus.
For me the Muse tends her mightiest shaft of courage. Some men are great in one
thing, others in another; but the peak of the farthest limit is for kings. Do not look
beyond that! May it be yours to walk on high throughout your life, and mine to
associate with victors as long as I live, distinguished for my skill among Greeks
everywhere.
May I find suitable speech for my journey in the Muses' chariot; and let me now
have daring and powers of ample scope. To back the prowess of a friend I came,
when Lampromachos won his Isthmian crown, when on the same day both he
and his brother overcame. And afterwards at the gates of Corinth two triumphs
again befell Epharmostos and more in the valleys of Nemea. At Argos he
triumphed over men, as over boys at Athens. And I might tell how at Marathon
he stole from among the beardless and confronted the full-grown for the prize of
silver vessels, how without a fall he threw his men with swift and coming shock,
and how loud the shouting pealed when round the ring he ran, in the beauty of
his youth and fair form and fresh from fairest deeds.
Pindar, Olympian I
He also wrote an ode for the famous Diagoras of Rhodes:
As when someone takes a goblet, all golden, the most prized of his possessions,
foaming with the dew of the vine from a generous hand, and makes a gift of it to
his young son-in-law, welcoming him with a toast from one home to another,
honoring the grace of the symposium and the new marriage bond, and in the
presence of his friends makes him enviable for his harmonious marriage-bed; I
too, sending to victorious men poured nectar, the gift of the Muses, the sweet
fruit of my mind, I try to win the gods' favor for those men who were victors at
Olympia and at Delphi. That man is prosperous, who is encompassed by good
reports. Grace, which causes life to flourish, looks with favor now on one man,
now on another, with both the sweet-singing lyre and the full-voiced notes of
flutes. And now, with the music of flute and lyre alike I have come to land with
Diagoras, singing the sea-child of Aphrodite and bride of Helios, Rhodes, so that
I may praise this straight-fighting, tremendous man who had himself crowned
beside the Alpheus and near Castalia, as a recompense for his boxing, and also
his father Damagetus, a man pleasing to Justice, living on the island of three cities
near the foreland of spacious Asia, among Argive spearmen.
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I shall want to proclaim my message for them, the widely powerful race of
Heracles, and tell correctly from the beginning, from Tlepolemus, the story that
concerns all. For, on the father's side, they boast descent from Zeus, while, on the
mother's, they are descendants of Amyntor, through Astydameia. But around the
minds of men countless errors loom; and this is impossible to discover: what is
best to happen to a man, now and in the end. For indeed, striking Licymnius, the
bastard brother of Alcmena, with a staff of hard olive-wood as he came out of the
chamber of Midea the founder of this land once killed that man, in anger.
Disturbances of the mind lead astray even a wise man. Tlepolemus went and
sought the god's oracle. To him the golden-haired god spoke, from his fragrant
sanctuary, of a voyage by ship from the shore of Lerna straight to the pasture
land with sea all around it, where once the great king of the gods showered the
city with golden snow, when, by the skills of Hephaestus with the bronze-forged
hatchet, Athena leapt from the top of her father's head and cried aloud with a
mighty shout. The Sky and mother Earth shuddered before her. Then even the
god that brings light to mortals, son of Hyperion, [40] enjoined his dear children
to observe the obligation that was soon to be due: that they should be the first to
build for the goddess an altar visible to all men, and by founding a sacred burntoffering warm the spirit of the father and of the daughter who thunders with her
spear. She who casts excellence and joys into men is the daughter of Forethought,
Reverence. Truly, a cloud of forgetfulness sometimes descends unexpectedly, and
draws the straight path of action away from the mind. For they climbed the hill
without bringing the seed of burning flame; and they established the sacred
precinct on the acropolis with fireless sacrifices. Zeus brought to them a yellow
cloud and rained on them abundant gold. And the gray-eyed goddess herself
bestowed on them every art, so that they surpassed all mortal men as the best
workers with their hands; and the roads bore works of art like living, moving
creatures, and their fame was profound. For a wise craftsman, even superior skill
is free from guile.
The ancient stories of men tell that when Zeus and the immortals were dividing
the earth among them, Rhodes was not yet visible in the expanse of the sea, but
the island was hidden in the salty depths. Helios was absent, and no one marked
out a share for him; in fact they left him without any allotment of land,] although
he was a holy god. And when Helios mentioned it, Zeus was about to order a
new casting of lots, but Helios did not allow him. For he said that he himself saw
in the gray sea, growing from the bottom, a rich, productive land for men, and a
kindly one for flocks. And he bid Lachesis of the golden headband raise her
hands right away, and speak, correctly and earnestly, the great oath of the gods,
and consent with the son of Cronus that that island, when it had risen into the
shining air, should thereafter be his own prize of honor. And the essence of his
words was fulfilled and turned out to be true. There grew from the waters of the
sea an island, which is held by the birthgiving father of piercing rays, the ruler of
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fire-breathing horses. And there he once lay with Rhodes, and begat seven sons
who inherited from him the wisest minds in the time of earlier men; and of these
one begat Cameirus, and Ialysus the eldest, and Lindus. Each had his own
separate share of cities in their threefold division of their father's land, and their
dwelling-places were named after them. There it is that a sweet recompense for
his pitiful misfortune is established for Tlepolemus, the first leader of the
Tirynthians, as for a god procession of flocks for burnt sacrifice and the trial of
contests. With the flowers from these Diagoras has had himself crowned twice,
and at the renowned Isthmus four times, in his good fortune, and again and
again at Nemea and in rocky Athens; and the prizes of the bronze shield in Argos
and the works of art in Arcadia and Thebes are familiar with him, and the duly
ordered contestsof the Boeotians, and Pellana and Aegina, where he was six times
victor. And in Megara the list carved in stone gives no other account.
But, Father Zeus, you who rule over the ridges of Atabyrium, grant honor to the
hymn ordained in praise of an Olympian victor, and to the man who has found
excellence as a boxer, and grant to him honored grace in the eyes of both citizens
and strangers. For he walks a straight course on a road that hates arrogance,
knowing clearly the sound prophetic wisdom of his good ancestors. Do not bury
in obscurity the shared seed of Callianax. When the Eratidae are graced with
victories, the city too holds festivities; but in a single space of apportioned time
the winds shift quickly from moment to moment.
Olympian 7
As an Olympic victor was sometimes seen as a pinnacle of glory, those who won and then
suddenly died were seen as blessed, because they died at the height of their success. One
Spartan suggested that the famous athlete Diagoras of Rhodes would have been happiest if he
died at the victory celebrations for his sons:
Such a man would even wish to die while in prosperity; for all the favors that
could be heaped on him would not be so agreeable to him as the loss of them
would be painful. That speech of the Spartan seems to have the same meaning,
who, when Diagoras the Rhodian, who had himself been a conqueror at the
Olympic games, saw two of his own sons conquerors there on the same day,
approached the old man, and, congratulating him, said, “You should die now,
Diagoras, for no greater happiness can possibly await you.” The Greeks look on
these as great things; perhaps they think too highly of them, or, rather, they did
so then. And so he who said this to Diagoras, looking on it as something very
glorious, that three men out of one family should have been conquerors there,
thought it could answer no purpose to him to continue any longer in life, where
he could only be exposed to a reverse of fortune.
66
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 1.46
Therefore the Spartan's advice was better, who, when he greeted Diagoras, the
Olympian victor, who had lived to see his sons crowned at Olympia, and the sons
of his sons and daughters, said: "Die now, Diagoras; you cannot ascend to
Olympus.”63
Plutarch, Life of Pelopidas 34
In other words as he could not become immortal, it would be best to die at this happy moment in his
life.
63
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The Heraia, Women, and Athletics
This marble statue is usually identified as the mythological Greek huntress, Atalanta; it is
now in the Vatican. However, some have argued it may be a victor statue from the Heraia, a
female only event run either before or after the Olympics. (This is a 1st century marble copy
(most likely) of a lost 5th century BCE Greek bronze.)
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At Olympia, after the men’s events were finished, there was a contest for girls called the Heraia
in honour of Hera, the wife of Zeus. We are not sure how many girls took part and if they were
mainly locals or if some came with their families for the male members to compete in the
Olympics and the girls to compete in the Heraia. Our only source is the Pausanias passage
below.
Every four years the sixteen women [of Elis] weave a robe for Hera. The same
women organize the Heraia. The games consist of a foot-race for girls. These girls
are not all of the same age. The youngest run first, the second age-categories after
them and the oldest girls run last. They run as follows: their hair is let down and
their tunic reaches to a little above the knee. They bare the right shoulder as far as
their breasts. The Olympic stadium is reserved for their games and its length is
shortened by about a sixth. To the winners they give olive crowns and a part of
the cow which is sacrificed to Hera. They can also dedicate painted portraits.
16.4] The games of the maidens are also traced back to ancient times; they say
that, out of gratitude to Hera for her marriage with Pelops, Hippodameia
assembled the Sixteen Women, and with them inaugurated the Heraia. They
relate too that a victory was won by Chloris, the only surviving daughter of the
house of Amphion, though with her they say survived one of her brothers. As to
the children of Niobe, what I myself chanced to learn about them I have set forth
in my account of Argos.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.2-4
Married women were not allowed to watch the Olympic Games - though those who had never
been married were. Given the reputation the Olympics had for drunkenness and wild behaviour
(especially the further you got away from the Altis), this is a little surprising, and we have no
way of knowing how many girls were there with their families. The penalty for being found as a
married woman watching the games was death, although no one seems to have ever been killed.
One enterprising mother even passed herself off as a male trainer to accompany her son to the
Olympics and managed to escape the death penalty because of her son’s victory and because her
father and brothers had also won at Olympia:
As you go from Scillus along the road to Olympia, before you cross the Alpheios,
there is a mountain with high, precipitous cliffs. It is called Mount Typaeum. It is
a law of Elis to throw any women who are caught present at the Olympic Games
off it, or even on the other side of the Alpheios, on the days prohibited to women.
However, they say that no woman has been caught, except Callipateira; some,
however, say she was called Pherenice and not Callipateira. She, being a widow,
disguised herself exactly like a gymnastic trainer and brought her son to compete
at Olympia. Peisirodus, for so her son was called, was victorious, and
Callipateira, as she was jumping over the enclosure in which they keep the
trainers penned, exposed her person. So her gender was discovered, but they let
her go unpunished out of respect for her father, her brothers, and her son, all of
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whom had been victorious at Olympia.64 But a law was passed that in the future
trainers should strip before entering the arena.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.6.7-8
The only sports that women could be proclaimed victors were the equestrian events: although
they could not drive their chariots or ride their horses,65 they could still send teams, and those
whose teams won were considered and celebrated as Olympic victors:
Archidamus66 left sons when he died, of whom Agis was the elder and inherited
the throne instead of Agesilaus. Archidamus had also a daughter, whose name
was Cynisca; she was exceedingly ambitious to win at the Olympic Games, and
was the first woman to breed horses and the first to win an Olympic victory.
After Cynisca other women, especially Spartan women, have won Olympic
victories, but none of them was more distinguished for their victories than she.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.8.1
After her victory Cynisca set up a statue at Olympia, at the base of which was this inscription:
My forefathers and brothers are kings of Sparta
I, Cyniska, was victorious with my team of swift horses,
and I have erected this statue. I can say that I am the only woman
in all of Greece to have obtained this garland.
Palatine Anthology 13.16
According to another source, the real motivating force behind her decision to compete was her
brother, the Spartan king Agesilaus, who had her enter the chariot races to show that all there
was to winning these races was money and not athletic ability:
However, on seeing that some of the citizens regarded themselves highly and
were all puffed up because they bred racing horses, he persuaded his sister
Cynisca to enter a chariot in the Olympic Games, wishing to show the Greeks that
the victory there was not a mark of any great excellence, but simply of wealth and
lavish spending.
She was the daughter of Diagoras (see the section Greek Sports III: Athletes: their status and
reputations for more information on him and her family).
65 Male owners of chariot teams did not normally drive their own chariots and instead relied on
professionals as the sport was very dangerous. Greek horses were small and were ridden in these events
by child jockeys.
66 He was king of Sparta from c. 475-427 BCE.
64
70
Plutarch, Life of Agesilaus 20.1
71
Whatever the truth of the matter Cynisca had a hero shrine at Sparta, honouring her
achievements:
At Plane-tree Grove there is also a hero-shrine for Cynisca, daughter of
Archidamus, king of the Spartans. She was the first woman to breed horses, and
the first to win a chariot race at Olympia. Behind the portico built by the side of
Plane-tree Grove are other hero-shrines, of Alcimus, of Enaraephorus, at a little
distance away one of Dorceus, and close to it one of Sebrus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.15.1
In Sparta women exercised as keenly as the men did, also exercising naked (something which
made Sparta a popular tourist destination for Romans):
Lycurgus pursued a different path. Clothes were things, he held, the furnishing
of which might well enough be left to female slaves.67 And, believing that the
highest function of a free woman was the bearing of children, in the first place he
insisted on the training of the body as incumbent no less on the female than the
male; and in pursuit of the same idea instituted rival contests in running and
feats of strength for women as for men. His belief was that where both parents
were strong their progeny would be found to be more vigorous.
Xenophon, Spartan Constitution 1.4
However, there is relatively little evidence for sporting competitions for Spartan women:
Opposite is what is called the Knoll, with a temple of Dionysus of the Knoll, by
which is a precinct of the hero who they say guided Dionysus on the way to
Sparta. To this hero sacrifices are offered before they are offered to the god by the
daughters of Dionysus and the daughters of Leucippus. For the other eleven
ladies who are named daughters of Dionysus there is held a footrace; this custom
came to Sparta from Delphi.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.13.7
One of the reasons why Spartan women were allowed such freedom to exercise and train was
that the Spartans felt that active women would bear stronger children, who would then in turn
be better warriors. In the following passage from the Republic Plato has Socrates argue that in
his ideal republic women would be also trained in gymnasia:
In some city states (Athens in particular) Greek women spent most of their time indoors, and weaving
was their main activity. The Spartans, however, had enslaved the surrounding populations so thus did
not need to do domestic or agricultural labour.
67
72
Socrates: For men born and educated like our citizens, the only way, in my
opinion, of arriving at a right conclusion about the possession and use of women
and children is to follow the path on which we originally started, when we said
that the men were to be the guardians and watchdogs of the herd.
True.
Socrates: Let us further suppose the birth and education of our women to be
subject to similar or nearly similar regulations; then we shall see whether the
result accords with our design.
What do you mean?
Socrates: What I mean may be put into the form of a question, I said: Are dogs
divided into hes and shes, or do they both share equally in hunting and in
keeping watch and in the other duties of dogs? Or do we entrust to the males the
entire and exclusive care of the flocks, while we leave the females at home, under
the idea that the bearing and feeding their puppies is labour enough for them?
No, he said, they share alike; the only difference between them is that the males are
stronger and the females weaker.
Socrates: But can you use different animals for the same purpose, unless they are
bred and fed in the same way?
You cannot.
Socrates: Then, if women are to have the same duties as men, they must have the
same nurture and education?
Yes.
Socrates: The education which was assigned to the men was music and athletics.
Yes.
Socrates: Then women must be taught music and gymnastic and also the art of
war, which they must practise like the men?
That is the inference, I suppose.
Socrates: I should rather expect, I said, that several of our proposals, if they are
carried out, being unusual, may appear ridiculous.
73
No doubt of it.
Socrates: Yes, and the most ridiculous thing of all will be the sight of women
naked in the palaestra, exercising with the men, especially when they are no
longer young; they certainly will not be a vision of beauty, any more than the
enthusiastic old men who in spite of wrinkles and ugliness continue to frequent
the gymnasia.
Yes, indeed, he said: according to present notions the proposal would be thought
ridiculous.
But then, I said, as we have determined to speak our minds, we must not fear the
jests of the wits which will be directed against this sort of innovation; how they
will talk of women's attainments both in music and gymnastic, and above all
about their wearing armour and riding upon horseback!
Very true, he replied.
Plato, Republic 5.
The following inscription from 47 CE records the remarkable feats of three young women
who competed all over the Greek world; it was discovered at Delphi on a base that once held
the statues of the three sisters it mentions. This inscription is a subject of contention because
it suggests that some women competed directly against men not just in artistic competitions
but in the athletic ones as well. Note, however, its late date and the fact that this area was
now governed by the Romans – we do not know how early such professional female athletes
appeared:
Hermesianax son of Dionysios, citizen of Kaisarea Tralles as well as of
Athens and Delphi, dedicates this to Pythian Apollo on behalf of his daughters
who hold the same citizenship:
For Tryphosa, who came first among the girls at the Pythian Games in the stadion
when Antigonos and Cleomachidas sponsored 68 the games, and the following
Isthmian Games when Iouventios Proklos did the same there. For Hedea, who
won the chariot race in armor at the Isthmian Games when Cornelius Pulcher
was the sponsor, and the stadion at the Nemean Games when Antigonos was
sponsor and at Sicyon when Menoitas was sponsor. She also won the lyre singing
in the boys’ category at the Sebasteia in Athens when Nouios son of Philinos was
sponsor. For Dionysia, who won the Isthmian Games when Antigonos was
68
The Greek word that I translate as sponsor can also refer to the person in charge of the games as well.
74
sponsor, and the stadion in the games of Asclepius at the holy town of Epidauros
when Nicoteles was sponsor.
SIG 802
75
Beyond the Olympics: the circuit of games
As previously mentioned, there were a number of other crown (stephanitic) games. These were:
the Pythian Games (at Delphi for Apollo); the Isthmian Games (near Argos for Poseidon), and
the Nemean Games (at Nemea, in the North East of the Peloponnese for Zeus). Of these three,
the Nemean Games were the least important – the other two vied for second place behind
Olympia. None of these overlapped, meaning that athletes would not have to choose between
one and the other; all except Isthmia were on four year cycles – Isthmia was every 2 years, but
every second games (so every four years) there was a Greater Isthmia, which was celebrated on a
grander scale. They are listed in this poem from the Greek Anthology, which also lists what
their crowns were made of
There are four games in Greece, four sacred games,
Two celebrate mortals, two immortals:
Zeus, the son of Leto,69 Palaemon70 and Archemoros.71
The prizes are an olive branch, apples, celery and fir tree.
Palatine Anthology 357
As the games were tied into worship of the pagan gods, they, like Romans spectacles, attracted
fierce condemnation from Christians, like Clement of Alexandria, who rips into their foundation
stories:
Let us now proceed briefly to review the contests, and let us put an end to these
solemn gathering at tombs - the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, and, above all, the
Olympian games. At the Pythian games they worship the Pythian serpent,72 and
the gathering held in honour of this snake is entitled Pythian. At the Isthmus the
sea cast up a miserable carcass, and the Isthmian Games are lamentations for
Melicertes. At Nemea another, a child Archemoros, lies buried, and it is the
celebrations held at the grave of this child that are called by the name Nemean.
And Pisa – pay attention, you Panhellenic peoples! – your Pisa is the tomb of a
Phrygian charioteer, and the libations poured out for Pelops, which constitute the
Olympian festivities, are appropriated by the Zeus of Phidias.73
Apollo.
Also referred to as Melicertes; he was born human and his parents helped take care of the infant god
Dionysus. His father was driven mad by Hera, forcing his mother Ino to take her child and leap into the
sea to escape him. Both were turned into sea deities, but the mortal body of Melicertes was washed
ashore at the Isthmus near Corinth, where it was found under a pine tree.
71 Also known as Ophletes, he was the child of the Nemean king and queen; when his nanny put him
down on the ground, where he was strangled by a snake. Games were created in his honour.
72 Apollo killed a giant serpent called Pytho to get control of the Delphic Oracle.
73 The great statue of Zeus at Olympia was sculpted by Phidias (you can still see the remains of his
workshop): it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
69
70
76
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 1
The Pythian games were held in Apollo’s sanctuary at Delphi. They are notable in that they had
both artistic and athletic competitions, which fits with Apollo’s identity as the god of music and
the arts; they also seem to have had some sort of arrangement with the Olympics, because the
person who won the flute-playing competition at Delphi played the flute during the long-jump
at the Olympics.
As for the contests at Delphi, there was one in early times between singers to the
cithara, who sang a hymn in honour of Apollo; it was instituted by the Delphians. But
after the Crisaean war,74 in the time of Eurylochus, the Amphictyons instituted
equestrian and gymnastic contests in which the prize was a crown, and called them
Pythian Games. And to the competition between the cithara players they added both
flute-players and cithara players who played without singing, who were to render a
certain melody which is called the Pythian Nome.
Strabo, Geography 9.3.10
Plutarch, who was a priest at Delphi, reports a discussion about getting rid of newer additions
to the Pythian games and gives us a good account of the various events that took place there.
One interesting upshot of adding artistic events was that women could and did compete
directly with men in these:
At the Pythian games there was a discussion about taking away all the sports
which had recently crept in and were not there from ancient times. For after they
had added contests in tragic plays in addition to the three ancient music
competitions, which were as old as the games themselves (the Pythian fluteplayer, the lyre player, and the singer to the lyre), as if a large gate were opened,
they could not keep out an infinite crowd of plays and musical entertainments of
all sorts that rushed in after him. Which indeed made no unpleasant variety, and
increased attendance, but impaired the gravity and organization of the games.
Besides it must create a great deal of trouble to the judges, and considerable
dissatisfaction to very many, since only a few could win. It was agreed upon that
the orators and poets should be got rid of – this decision did not come from any
hatred of learning, but as these contenders are the most noted and worthiest men
of all, they admired them, and were troubled that, when they must judge every
one deserving, they could not give the prize equally to all. I, as I was there at this
discussion, dissuaded those who were for removing things from their present
settled order and who thought this variety as unsuitable to the games as many
strings and many notes to an instrument. When the same subject was talked
about at supper, as Petraeus the president and director of the sports, was
entertaining us, I defended music, and maintained that poetry was no upstart
74
c. 595 BCE.
77
intruder, but that had been admitted into the sacred games in the dim and distant
past, and crowns were given to the best performer. Some guests imagined that I
intended to produce some old musty stories, like the funeral games of Oeolycus
the Thessalian or of Amphidamas the Chalcidean, at which they say Homer and
Hesiod contended for the prize. But passing by these instances as the common
theme of every grammarian, as we shall the criticisms of those who, in the
description of Patroclus’ funeral games in Homer, read ϱ̔ήμονες, orators, and not
ϱ̔’ ἥ μονες, darters, as if Achilles had proposed a prize for the best speaker —
omitting all these, I said that Acastus at his father Pelias’ funeral set a prize for
contending poets, and Sibylla won it. At this, a great many demanded some
authority for this unlikely and incredible story, I happily produced Acesander,
who has this story in his description of Africa; but I must confess this is not an
easy to find book. But Polemo the Athenian’s Commentary of the Treasures of
Delphi, which I suppose most of you have read through and through as he is a
very learned man and careful about Greek antiquities. In him you shall find that
in the Sicyonian treasure there was a golden book dedicated to the god, with this
inscription: “Aristomache, the poetess of Erythraea, dedicated this after she had
won the prize at the Isthmian Games.” Nor is there any reason, I continued, why
we should so admire and reverence the Olympic Games, as if, like Fate, they were
unalterable, and never admitted any change since the first institution. For the
Pythian Games, it is true, has had three or four musical prizes added; but all the
exercises of the body were for the most part the same from the beginning. But in
the Olympian games everything except running is a late addition. They added
some and abolished them again; such were the apene,75 either rode or in a chariot,
as likewise the crown appointed for boys that were victorious in the pentathlon.
And, in short, a thousand things in those games are mere novelties.
Plutarch, Moralia 674d-675B
Pausanias, unfortunately, wasn’t that interested in the victors in the musical contests, but he
does still discuss the Pythian games and talks about their history. He is how we find out that
they dropped one artistic event – singing to the flute – because it was too depressing:
The oldest contest and the one for which they first offered prizes was, according
to tradition, the singing of a hymn to the god. The man who sang and won the
prize was Chrysothemis of Crete, whose father Carmanor is said to have cleansed
Apollo. After Chrysothemis, says tradition, Philammon won with a song, and
after him his son Thamyris. But they say that Orpheus, a proud man and
conceited about his mysteries, and Musaeus, who copied Orpheus in everything,
A mule car race: it was eventually dropped because it was felt to be undignified. The boys pentathlon
only lasted for one Olympics before it was dropped.
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refused to submit to the competition in musical skill. 76 They say too that Eleuther
won a Pythian victory for his loud and sweet voice, for the song that he sang was
not of his own composition. The story is that Hesiod too was forbidden to
compete because he had not learned to accompany his own singing on the lyre.
Homer too came to Delphi to inquire about his needs, but even though he had
learned to play the lyre, he would have found the skill useless owing to the loss
of his eye-sight.
In the third year of the forty-eighth Olympiad, at which Glaucias of Croton was
victorious, the Amphictyons 77 held contests for playing the lyre as from the
beginning, but added competitions for flute-playing and for singing to the flute.
The conquerors proclaimed were Melampus, a Cephallenian, for playing the lyre,
and Echembrotus, an Arcadian, for singing to the flute, with Sacadas of Argos for
flute-playing. This same Sacadas won victories at the next two Pythian festivals.
On that occasion they also offered for the first time prizes for athletes, the
competitions being the same as those at Olympia, except the four-horse chariot,
and the Delphians themselves added to the contests running-races for boys, the
long course and the double course. At the second Pythian Festival they no longer
offered prizes for events, and after this gave a crown for victory. On this occasion
they no longer included singing to the flute, thinking that the music was illomened to listen to. For the tunes of the flute were most dismal, and the words
sung to the tunes were lamentations.
What I say is confirmed by the votive offering of Echembrotus, a bronze tripod
dedicated to the Heracles at Thebes. The tripod has as its inscription:
Echembrotus of Arcadia dedicated this pleasant gift to Heracles
When he won a victory at the games of the Amphictyons,
Singing for the Greeks tunes and lamentations.
In this way the competition in singing to the flute was dropped. But they added a
chariot-race, and Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, was proclaimed victor in the
chariot-race.
At the eighth Pythian Games they added a contest for lyre players playing
without singing; Agelaus of Tegea was crowned. At the twenty-third Pythian
Festival they added the hoplitodromos. For this Timaenetus of Phlius won the
laurel, five Olympiads after Damaretus of Heraea was victorious. At the fortyeighth Pythian Games they established a race for two-horse chariots, and the
chariot of Execestides the Phocian won. At the fifth Games after this they yoked
Orpheus and Museus were mythical musicians and singers; Orpheus was also the mythical founder of
Orphism, a mystery religion.
77 The people in charge of the Pythian games
76
79
foals to a chariot, and the chariot of Orphondas of Thebes won. The pankration
for boys, a race for a chariot drawn by two foals, and a race for ridden foals, were
introduced from Elis many years. The first was brought in at the sixty-first
Pythian Games, and Iolaidas of Thebes was victorious. At the next Games but one
they held a race for a ridden foal, and at the sixty-ninth Games a race for a chariot
drawn by two foals; the victor proclaimed for the former was Lycormas of Larisa,
for the latter Ptolemy the Macedonian. For the kings of Egypt liked to be called
Macedonians, as in fact they were.78 The reason why a crown of laurel is the prize
for a Pythian victory is in my opinion simply and solely because the prevailing
tradition has it that Apollo fell in love with the daughter of Ladon.79
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.7.4-8
The Pythian and Isthmian Games competed for second place in importance after the Olympic
Games. The foundation story for the Isthmian Games revolved around a mortal child and his
mother:
There are legends about the rocks, which rise especially at the narrow part of the
road. As to the Molurian, it is said that from it Ino flung herself into the sea with
Melicertes, the younger of her children. Learchus, the elder of them, had been
killed by his father. One account is that Athamas did this in a fit of madness;
another is that he vented on Ino and her children uncontrolled rage when he
learned that the famine which befell the Orchomenians and the supposed death
of Phrixus were not accidents from heaven, but that Ino, the step-mother, had
plotted for all these things. Then it was that she fled to the sea and cast herself
and her son from the Molurian Rock. The son, they say, was landed on the
Corinthian Isthmus by a dolphin, and honours were offered to Melicertes, then
renamed Palaemon, including the celebration of the Isthmian Games
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.44.7-8
There was an on-going feud between the Isthmian Games and the Olympics and athletes from
Elis did not compete in the Isthmian Games. This feud was traced back to mythical times:
Heracles accomplished no brilliant feat in the war with Augeas. For the sons of
Actor were in the prime of courageous manhood, and always defeated the allies
under Heracles, until the Corinthians proclaimed the Isthmian truce, and the sons
of Actor came as envoys to the meeting. Heracles set an ambush for then, at
The Ptolemies, the Greek kings of Egypt, were descended from Ptolemy I, one of the Macedonian
generals of Alexander the Great.
79 Daphne, who was a daughter or a river god and who did not wish to marry; she turned into a laurel
tree while fleeing from Apollo.
78
80
Cleonae and murdered them. As the murderer was unknown, Moline, more than
any of the other children, devoted herself to detecting him.
When she discovered him, the Eleians demanded satisfaction for the crime from
the people of Argos, for at the time Heracles had his home at Tiryns. When the
Argives refused them satisfaction, the Eleians as an alternative pressed the
Corinthians to exclude the people of Argos from the Isthmian Games. When they
failed in this also, Moline is said to have laid curses on her countrymen, should
they refuse to boycott the Isthmian Games. The curses of Molione are respected
right down to the present day, and no athlete of Elis competes in the Isthmian
Games.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.2.1-2
Pausanias describes the site of the Isthmian Games, which was sacred to the sea god
Poseidon:
The Isthmus [of Corinth] belongs to Poseidon. Worth seeing here are a theatre
and a white marble race course. Within the sanctuary of the god stand on the one
side portrait statues of athletes who have won victories at the Isthmian games, on
the other side pine trees growing in a row, most of which grow straight up. On
the temple, which is not very large, stand bronze Tritones. In the fore-temple are
images, two of Poseidon, a third of Amphitrite,80 and of the Sea, which also is of
bronze. The offerings inside were dedicated in our time by Herodes the Athenian,
four horses, gilded except for the hoofs, which are of ivory, and two gold Tritones
beside the horses, with the parts below the waist of ivory. On the car stand
Amphitrite and Poseidon, and there is the boy Palaemon upright upon a dolphin.
These too are made of ivory and gold. On the middle of the base on which the car
is has the Sea holding up the young Aphrodite has been fashioned, and on either
side are the Nymphs called Nereids. I know that there are altars to these in other
parts of Greece, and that some Greeks have even dedicated to them precincts by
shores, where honors are also paid to Achilles. In Gabala is a holy sanctuary of
Doto, where there was still remaining the robe by which the Greeks say that
Eriphyle was bribed to wrong her son Alcmaeon.
Among the reliefs on the base of the statue of Poseidon are the sons of
Tyndareus,81 because these too are saviours of ships and of sailors. The other
offerings are images of Calm and Sea, a horse like a whale from the breast
onward, Ino [Leukothea] and Bellerophontes, and the horse Pegasus. Within the
enclosure is on the left a temple of Palaemon, with images in it of Poseidon,
Leukothea and Palaemon himself. There is also what is called his Inner Sanctum,
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81
The wife of Poseidon.
Castor and Pollux, brothers to Helen of Troy.
81
with an underground descent to it, where they say that Palaemon is concealed.
Whosoever, whether Corinthian or stranger, swears falsely here, can by no means
escape from his oath. There is also an ancient sanctuary called the altar of the
Cyclopes, and they sacrifice to the Cyclopes upon it. The graves of Sisyphus and
of Neleus for they say that Neleus came to Corinth, died of disease, and was
buried near the Isthmus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.1.7-2. 2
The popularity of the Isthmian Games and its very convenient location led to Nero using it to
announce the freedom of Greece when he was making his tour of the games. (Freedom in this
case meant local self-government and freedom from taxation, rather than freedom entirely from
Roman rule. Although it was rescinded under the Flavians, it made Nero incredibly popular in
Greece.)
In competition he observed the rules most scrupulously, never daring to clear his
throat and even wiping the sweat from his brow with his arm. Once, indeed,
during the performance of a tragedy, when he had dropped his sceptre but
quickly recovered it, he was terribly afraid that he might be excluded from the
competition because of his slip, and his confidence was restored only when his
accompanist swore that it had passed unnoticed amid the delight and applause of
the people. When he won he made the announcement himself; and for that
reason he always took part in the contests of the heralds. To obliterate the
memory of all other victors in the games and leave no trace of them, their statues
and busts were all thrown down by his order, dragged off with hooks, and cast
into toilets. He also drove a chariot in many places, and a ten-horse chariot team
at Olympia, although in one of his own poems he had criticized Mithridates for
just that thing. But after he had been thrown from the car and put back in it, he
was unable to hold out and gave up before the end of the course; but he received
the crown just the same. On his departure he presented the entire province with
freedom and at the same time gave the judges Roman citizenship and a large sum
of money. These favours he announced in person on the day of the Isthmian
Games, standing in the middle of the stadium.
Suetonius, Life of Nero 24
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The Emperors and the Games
When the Romans came on the scene they represented a problem for many of the great games,
such as the Olympics, because they were restricted to Greeks only. The Romans gained control
over Greece in 146 BCE and thus control of the Olympics. The Roman general Sulla even
transferred the Olympic Games to Rome in 80 BCE (with the exception of the stadion), the only
time it was held outside Greece. (For good measure, he had also plundered the sanctuary in 86.)
The Emperors became enthusiastic sponsors of the games, with Augustus’ son-in-law Agrippa
helping to restore the temple to Zeus and Augustus formally recognized the circuit of crown
games giving it heightened status in Rome. He also helped restore other portions of the site.
Tiberius won in the chariot race, while Nero and others helped build accommodation and
facilities at Olympia.
Elis allowed all emperors who were made divine on their deaths to have statues in the Altis;
Pausanias describes these as well:
There are statues of emperors: Hadrian, of Parian marble dedicated by the cities
of the Achaean confederacy, and Trajan, dedicated by all the Greeks. This
emperor subdued the Getae beyond Thrace, and made war on Osroes the
descendant of Arsaces and on the Parthians. Of his architectural achievements the
most remarkable are baths called after him, a large circular theatre, a building for
horse-races which is actually two stades long, and the Forum at Rome, worth
seeing not only for its general beauty but especially for its roof made of bronze.
Of the statues set up in the round buildings, the amber one represents Augustus
the Roman emperor, the ivory one they told me was a portrait of Nicomedes,
king of Bithynia. After him the greatest city in Bithynia was renamed
Nicomedeia; before him it was called Astacus, and its first founder was Zypoetes,
a Thracian by birth to judge from his name. This amber of which the statue of
Augustus is made, when found native in the sand of the Eridanus, is very rare
and precious to men for many reasons; the other “amber” is an alloy of gold and
silver. In the temple at Olympia are four offerings of Nero – three crowns
representing wild-olive leaves, and one representing oak leaves. Here too are laid
twenty-five bronze shields, which are for the armed men to carry in the race.
Tablets too are set up, including one on which is written the oath sworn by the
Eleans to the Athenians, the Argives and the Mantineans, that they would be
their allies for a hundred years.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.12.7-8
Others, like Apollonius, a Greek holy man and philosopher were a bit cynical about emperors
like Nero who pretended to compete on fair grown in events like the Olympics.
The conversations which Apollonius held about things he had seen were,
according to Damis, many in number, but the following things he said deserve to
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be recorded. On one occasion they were sitting in the temple of Heracles [in
Spain] and Menippus laughed, for it happened that Nero had just come to his
mind, "And what," he said, "are we to think of this splendid fellow? In which of
the contests has he won crowns of late? Don't you think that self-respecting
Greeks must shake with laughter when they are on their way to the festivals?"
And Apollonius replied: "As I have heard from Telesinus,82 the worthy Nero is
afraid of the whips of the Eleans;83 for when his flatterers urged him to win at
Olympia and to proclaim Rome as the victor, he answered: 'Yes, if the Eleans will
only not attack me, for they are said to use whips and to look down upon me.'
And many worse bits of nonsense than this forecast fell from his lips. I however
admit that Nero will conquer at Olympia, for who is bold enough to compete
against him? But I deny that he will win at the Olympic festival, because they are
not keeping it at the right season. For custom requires that this should have been
held last year, but Nero has ordered the Eleans to put it off until his own visit, in
order that they may sacrifice to him rather than to Zeus. And it is said that he has
announced a tragedy and a performance on the lyre for people who have neither
a theatre nor a stage for such entertainments, but only the stadium which nature
has provided, and races which are all run by athletes stripped of their clothes. He
however is going to take the prize for performances which he ought to have
hidden in the dark, for he has thrown off the robes of Augustus and Julius Caesar
and has dressed himself up in the garb of an Amoebeus or a Terpnus.
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 5.7
82
83
A Roman senator.
Those who made errors– like false starts - in the Olympics were whipped in public for the mistake.
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Appendix
Glossary:
Apene: A mule cart race, briefly an Olympic sport.
Aryballos: A vase for holding olive oil (which was used for oiling up) before
exercising.
Caestus: a hard version of the himantes (see illustration in boxing section) wrapped
around the hands for boxing.
Dolichos: a long distance race, it was added to the Olympics in 720 BCE. It was
anything from 7-24 laps of the stadium. In no case was it more than 4,800 metres.
Diaulos: a race consisting of a lap of the stadium. It was the second event added to
the Olympics in 724 BCE.
Halma: the Greek long jump. Weights called halteres were used to increase the
distance a jumper could reach, while a flute player played to help them get their
rhythm before they jumped. Jumpers also leapt from a high platform.
Halter (Plural: Halteres): weights used in the Greek long jump.
Himantes: leather strips (c.4 metres in length) wrapped around hands and wrists for
protection in boxing. These were made of ox-hide; pigskin was forbidden because it
left wounds that would not close easily and were too painful.
Hoplitodromos: A race in armour. At first the runners ran with helmets, shields and
greaves, but gradually athletes stopped wearing greaves (leg guards).
Kalpe: A race for mares, it involved the riders leaping down from their horses to
run along side them in the last length.
Konis: a type of dust that athletes used after they cleaned up after exercising
Lampadedromia: a relay torch carrying race, where letting the torch go out resulted in
instant disqualification.
Pankration: ‘All powerful’ a particularly violent sport which was a combination of
boxing and wrestling. The only illegal moves were eye gouging and biting; in Sparta
there were no illegal moves.
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Stadion: a race of one length of the stadium. The only event at the first Olympics in
776 BCE. Each Olympiad was named after the winner of the stadion at the Olympics
and this dating system was common to all Greek states and cities.
Strigil: a tool with which to scrape off oil, sweat, and dust after exercising (oil
scrapings from famous athletes fetched high prices). Usually bronze, but could be
iron or even precious metal
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Figure I: Map of Olympia
1: Propyleon NE
2: Prytaneon
3: Monument of Philip II of
Macedon
4: Temple of Hera
5: Sanctuary of Pelops
6. Fountain of Herodes Atticus
7: Temple of the Great Mother
8: Zanes
9: Cryptaeum
10: Stadium
11: Portico of Echoes
12: Monument of Ptolemy II and
Arsinoe
13: Portico of Hestia
14: Hellenistic building
15: Temple to Olympian Zeus
16: Altar of Olympian Zeus
17: Treasury of the Achaeans
18 Dedications of Micythus of
Rhegium
19: Nike of Paeonias
20: Gymnasium
21: Palaestra
22: Theokoleon
23: Heroon
24: Office of the officials and
early Christian basilica
25: Baths of Claudius
26: Greek baths
27 and 28: Hostels
29: Sanctuary of Leonidas
30 Baths
31 Bouleuterion
32: South Portico
33: Villa of Nero
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Figure 2: Vitruvius’ plan for a Greek gymnasium, along with gymnasia at Olympia
from Vitruvius THE TEN BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE, Trans. M.H. Morgan
(Harvard University Press, 1914):
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Figure 3: Side B of a Panatheniac vase; winners received a number of these (the
number depended on the sport) filled with olive oil – this held considerable monetary
value because of the oil and because the vases were highly valued. All these vases had
Athena on one side and the sport on the other. This one is now in the Metropolitan
Museum in New York and dates from c. 490 BCE.
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Figure 4: Map of Greek sanctuaries also showing the sites of the major games:
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