Four horse chariot
THE TROJAN WAR
War and games were strongly associated in Greek culture. According to Homer’s Iliad, the Greek hero Achilles, after killing the Trojan prince Hector at the siege of Troy, curbed his wrath by organizing games which included chariot racing, ‘hurtful boxing’, wrestling, running, hurling a weight, archery and throwing the javelin, events incorporated into the early Olympics which date from about the time of the Trojan War. Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato rationalized athletic competition as a preparation for military prowess.The games of King Iphitos are first recorded in 776 BC and were preceded by the reading of the ‘sacred truce’ whose preamble read: ‘May the world be delivered from crime and killing and freed from the clash of arms.’ Cities which broke the truce were excluded from the games and fined.
Zeus
21ST CENTURY OLYMPIC PEACE
In July 2004 the Turkish football club Galatasaray of Istanbul and their Greek rivals Olympiakos of Athens signed an ‘Olympic Truce’ as a sign of goodwill to coincide with the opening of the Olympic Games in Athens. This was a symbolic act of friendship between their two nations and signified the warming of relations following a long period of hostility.
Throughout the games a fire burned, marking the theft of fire by Prometheus from Zeus, king of the gods. There was no torch in the Ancient Games. As the years passed, the site at Olympia became more elaborate, with the stadium itself surrounded by temples to Zeus and Hera, his wife, a refectory and a workshop for the sculptor Phidias. In 1958 archaeologists found a drinking vessel of the right date at the site engraved with the words ‘I am Phidias’s’. The site also contained the ‘Leonidaion’. This was built by Leonidas of Naxos in about 350 BC as accommodation for the athletes and may thus be regarded as the first ‘Olympic Village’, though lavatories were not introduced until two centuries after it was built! In 12 BC the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia was refurbished following a gift of money from King Herod of Judea, a king not normally associated with charity or with religious tendencies.
At the first Olympic Games there was only one event, a race over a distance known as a ‘stade’ (about 192 metres, supposedly sixty times the length of Herakles’ stride) which was won by a local cook called Coroebus who, running naked as was the custom, thus became the first Olympic champion (despite the claims of Herakles as noted above). A standing long jump of over 7 metres by Chionis of Sparta in the following century would be creditable in the 21st century though he was probably helped by the use of weights held in the hands to propel himself forward. Within two centuries cities from throughout the Greek world were sending competitors, only men of Greek descent being admitted to the games. Other events were gradually introduced. In 708 BC the pentathlon was contested, supposedly devised by Jason when he was not searching for the Golden Fleece. In AD 67 at a special event to please Nero, the emperor himself won the chariot race, being the only competitor. Other entrants withdrew and who can blame them? Women were not allowed to participate or even watch the Greek games on pain of death, though presumably the truce meant that the execution would have to wait until the games ended. The only exception was the priestess of the goddess Demeter whose marble seat in its place of honour may still be seen at Olympia. Women could, however, win prizes as a result of owning horses which won the chariot race. There were also separate games for maidens, in honour of the goddess Hera, held at a different time and consisting, it seems, just of a 160 metres foot race. Leonidas of Rhodes was the first multiple medallist; he won the stade (192 metres), the diauos (4 stadia) and the hoplitodromus (24 stadia) in 164, 160 and 156 BC, a record unbeaten in the Ancient Games.
Olympia
OLYMPICS AND OLYMPIADS
From 776 BC the games were held every four years. An ‘Olympiad’ was a four-year period which began with the celebration of the Olympic Games. This tradition continues, following the revival of the Olympic Games in the modern era, even when the games themselves do not take place because of external influences. Thus the period from 1916 to 1920 remains the 6th Olympiad of the modern era even though the 1916 Olympics did not take place because of the First World War. The term ‘Olympiad’ does not apply to the Winter Games.
In 330 BC the Panathenaic stadium, which had hosted games in Athens since 566 BC, was rebuilt in marble in a natural hollow between two hills near Athens by Lycurgus, a Greek politician and pupil of the philosopher Plato. This stadium was restored in the 19th century and used for the first Modern Olympics of 1896. The Ancient Games continued for almost 1,200 years until in 393 AD they were abolished by the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius who considered them to be a pagan festival. They were always held in Greece except for the year 80 BC when they were moved to Rome by the Roman general and dictator Sulla. Every four years messengers were sent to all the Greek states (including colonies in Spain, Italy, Libya and Turkey) inviting them to send competitors to the games at Olympia, their safe passage being guaranteed by the Olympic Peace. As the Games developed, a system of pre-qualification was introduced. Greek judges would screen those who wished to participate in order to eliminate those who were not of the required standard (like qualifying times for the Modern Olympics). There was even some rudimentary seeding but the usual way of determining contests was for competitors to draw clay tokens from a vessel, each marked with a letter of the Greek alphabet. For example two wrestlers drawing the tokens marked with an alpha would fight each other and others followed this pattern with further letters. One of the athletes from Libya, Eubotas, was so confident of winning a foot race in 408 BC that he commissioned a victory statue beforehand and dedicated it on the day of his victory. The games were attended by thousands of spectators, amongst them the philosopher Plato and the Athenian statesman Themistocles.
Plato
PINDAR
Plato was one of many scholars of the Ancient World who were drawn to the Olympic Games. On one occasion the mathematician Pythagoras attended, ran into the centre of the arena and bared his right thigh which, he claimed, was made of gold. The Geek poet Pindar wrote several odes to celebrate Olympic achievements including the following:
If ever a man strives
With all his soul’s endeavour, sparing himself
Neither expense nor labour to attain
True excellence, then must we give to those
Who have achieved the goal, a proud tribute
Of lordly praise, and shun
All thoughts of envious jealousy.