
Pierre de Coubertin said: “The most important
thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to
take part, just as the most important thing in the
life is not the triumph but the struggle. The
essential thing is not to have conquered but to
have fought well.”
It is the principle of the Olympic movement
since ancient times.
The first Olympic Games at Olympia
held in 776 BC in Greece.
were
WELCOME TO ANCIENT OLYMPIC
GAMES!!!
Athens: Black Figure Amphora showing a footrace
• The traditional date for the first Olympic Games is 776 BC,
calculated by the ancient Greeks using a list of winners, but there
was almost certainly activity at the site of Olympia before that. The
Greeks had only been literate since the eighth century BC, so the
names of earlier winners may well have been forgotten. In historical
times, control over the games was disputed between the town of Elis
and the town of Pisa. This may explain the fact that there are two
different foundation legends. According to one version the games
commemorated a footrace held by the Idaean Herakles and his
brothers with a branch cut from a grove wild olive trees at the site.
However, most people believed that they were begun by the
mythological hero Pelops after whom the Peloponnese (“Pelop's
island”) was named.
•
Like most Greek heroes, he came from a
dysfunctional family— his father, Tantalus, once
cooked him up and served him to the gods to see
if they could tell the difference between human
and animal flesh (they could). His lover was god
Poseidon who was associated with horses as well
as the sea. Through him, Pelops had a team of
the finest horses and had acquired great skill as a
driver. When he grew up, he began to court
Hippodameia, the daughter of Oenomaos of Pisa.
The king had an incestuous passion for his
daughter, according to some, and let it be known
that, while anyone was free to carry her off, he
would pursue and slay the hapless suitor if he
could. Thirteen of them had already perished
when Pelops arrived on the scene. He bribed
Oenomaos' charioteer to sabotage the vehicle so
that his master was thrown and killed. Pelops
married Hippodameia and ruled the land quite
happily for a time (although that didn't last). After
his death, a shrine was built for him within the
precinct and funeral games were instituted in his
honour. It was the dead Pelops who received the
first offerings
•
•
The Games
The games were held every four
years, beginning on the second or
third full moon after the summer
solstice— so, sometime in late July or
August. Originally, they lasted only
one day and consisted of a single
event, a footrace over a distance of
about 100 metres known as the
stadion but by 472 BC the
competitions had been considerably
expanded and the festival had been
extended to five days. From the time
of the seventh Olympiad (748 BC)
onwards the prize was a kotinos, a
garland of wild olive from a sacred
tree which grew on the site. The
branch was cut by a boy whose
parents were still both living—
evidently a fertility rite of some
antiquity. The games continued
uninterrupted for 1168 years until they
were abolished, along with all of the
other pagan cults, by the emperor
Theodosius in 393 BC.
• The presiding officials, the ones who acted as judges and enforced
the rules, were known as Hellanodikai and were chosen by lot from
among all the citizens of Elis. They wore purple robes and lived in a
special building, the Hellanodikeon, for the ten months leading up to
the games. During this period they received instruction from the
nomophylakes (“guardians of the games”) on their duties and the
regulations they would have to enforce. As the games approached,
a Sacred Truce was declared which put an end to all hostilities and
the athletes along with various dignitaries and ordinary pilgrims
began to converge on the site from all over the Greek World.
Anyone could compete so long as their parents were freeborn and of
pure Hellenic blood and they themselves were male— no one of the
female persuasion was allowed to set foot in the precinct on pain of
death.
• Apart from the equestrian events and the hoplitodromos, the
athletes trained and competed naked, offering their bodies to the
glory of Zeus.
•
•
•
According to the tradition of Hippias of Elis ca. 400 BC, the events of the Olympic Games
were added to the program in the following order.
Year
Olympiad
Event
776 BC
1st Olympiad
stade race
724 BC
14th Olympiad
double-stade race
720 BC
15th Olympiad
long-distance race
708 BC
18th Olympiad
pentathlon
708 BC
18th Olympiad
wrestling
688 BC
23rd Olympiad
boxing
680 BC
25th Olympiad
4-horse chariot race
648 BC
33rd Olympiad
horse race
648 BC
33rd Olympiad
pankration
520 BC
65th Olympiad
race in armor
408 BC
93rd Olympiad
2-horse chariot race
The Religious Aspects of the Ancient Olympic Games
In ancient Greece, games were closely connected to the worship of the gods and heroes.
Games were held as part of religious ceremonies in honor of deceased heroes, a concept
displayed in the funeral games for Patroklos in Book 23 of Homer's epic poem, The Iliad.
Games were also held in the context of many ancient fertility festivals. The games at
Olympia were connected with both the funeral games of Oinomaos, established by Pelops,
and a fertility cult involving any number of gods and goddesses who were worshipped at
the site. The Olympic games began to be usurped by the prominent cult of Zeus, and
eventually lost much of their religious character.
The broad jumper, going for the greatest distance, sprinted down a
runway, pushed off before reaching a fixed point, and then landed in a
pit of soft soil
The halteres or jumping weights held in the hands were not intended to
make the jump more difficult, but to help the athlete balance his body
so as to achieve a better result.
Wrestling was known as a "heavy"
event, since the training was very
strenuous and there were no weight
classes like those that exist today.
Footraces - the Stadion
The stadion, named for the length of the
Greek stadium, was a 200-yard footrace.
Boxing was the most
At the fifth day all winners were awarded their prizesbrutal
and given
a banquet
at a
sport
in ancient
building known as the Prytaneion. The victor of any Olympic competition was
times. The athlete
honoured throughout the Greek world but nowhere so much as in his home town
bound
hisdemolished
where he received a hero's welcome. A short stretch simply
of the town
wall was
to show that its defence depended not so much on masonry
the hands
superiorin
quality of
wristsas
and
its young men. The winner was driven through the breach
in a thongs
four-horse
chariot and
leather
and
led the entire populace in a triumphal procession to the altar of the city god where he
went
the would
arenasing a
laid down his olive crown. A great banquet followed at
whichinto
a chorus
with
his head
fully made
paeon of praise composed for the occasion. Poets such
as Pindar
or Simonides,
a good living out of writing these hymns of praise. For
the rest of his life he would
exposed.
enjoy free meals at the civic prytaneion, reserved seats at the theatre, games and
As this picture shows,
festivals as well as various tax-exemptions. Often a statue of him was set up in one of
were
delivered
the temples to honour both the athlete and the gods blows
who gave
him victory
(Figure
2).
primarily to the head.
From the beginning, the games at Olympia served to The
strengthen
the of
Greek
reasing
an sense of
national unity. During the Hellenistic period, Greeks who came to live in foreign
index
finger
signalled
surroundings such as Syria, Asia, and Egypt, strove to
hold on
to their
culture. One of
defeat,
just
asathletic
did the
the ways they did this was to build athletic facilities and
continue
their
traditions. They organized competitions, and sent competitors
their towns to
inabilityfrom
to pick
compete in the Panhellenic games.
oneself up again--that
In the 2nd century A.D., Roman citizenship was extended to everyone within the
is, being
knocked
Roman empire. After this point there were many competitors
from
outside ofout!
Greece,
and the Olympic games became more internationalized.