The Olympics
of Ancient Greece
Background
✦ Ancient Greeks had long
been captivated by risk &
sport
✦ 2,000 BCE: Bull-jumping
was popular in Crete
✦ Athletes would grab the
horns of a charging bull &
somersault over its back
Background
✦ 776 BCE: First recorded
Olympics took place in
Olympia in honor of Zeus
✦ Attributed the founding of
the games to Heracles
✦ Was originally a religious
event. A race to the statue
of Zeus.
✦ A sacrifice of energy
Background
✦ Greeks were fascinated
by the duality of the
games
✦ 1. They appreciated the
beauty & artistry of sport
✦ 2. Also captivated by its
savagery & violence
✦ Saw it as a metaphor for
life
Background
✦ Would continue every 4
years, uninterrupted for
1,200 years
✦ Rome continued the
Olympics until Emperor
Theodosius I outlawed
them to enforce
Christianity in 393 CE.
Background
✦ Why every 4 Years?
✦ Because the “Olympic
Games” were only one of
four Panhellenic Games
held across Greece.
Games
Cite
Olympic
Games
Olympia
Nemean
Corinth
Games
(Nemea)
Pythian Games Delphi
Isthmian
Games
Corinth
(Isthmus
of)
Honored
God
Zeus
Zeus
Prize
Olive Branch
Crown
Apollo
Wild Celery
Crown
Laurel Crown
Poseidon
Pine Crown
Background
✦ Schedule:
✦ Year 1: Olympic Games
✦ Year 2: Nemean &
Isthmian Games (different
months)
✦ Year 3: Pythian Games
✦ Year 4: Nemean &
Isthmian Games (different
months)
Background
✦ Why do we call them
“Olympics” then?
✦ 1. The Olympic Games
were the oldest, most
important, & most
attended
✦ 2. They called this 4-year
cycle an Olympiad & it
became the way to
measure the passing of
time.
the Games
✦ Any Greek citizen could
compete
✦ No slaves
✦ No women
✦ A chance for anyone to
display the heroic qualities
of Homer’s work
THE GAMES
✦ Athletes competed naked
to celebrate achievements
of the human body
THE GAMES
✦ Legend 1: Nudity
Originally was an accident
✦One runner’s loin cloth
fell off, but he won
✦Others attributed the win
to the nudity & imitated
him
THE GAMES
✦Legend 2: Spartans
always exercised nude.
✦ Since Olympia was near
Sparta, they introduced
the custom
THE GAMES
✦ Married women were
not allowed to watch
✦ Punishable by death
✦ Single women/girls
came to take a look
at the buffet
THE GAMES
✦ Held in August during full
moon
✦ Athletes would arrive 30
days early for training &
observation by the
hellanodikai (officials)
THE GAMES
✦ First a priest would bless
the games by sacrificing
the testicles of bulls to
Zeus
✦ 100 bulls were sacrificed
✦ The rest of the bull was
cooked to serve at the
opening ceremony feast
THE GAMES
✦ Spectators would
come from as far as
Egypt, Algeria,
France, & Russia
✦ Greek city-states
were notoriously
quarrelsome, but a
3-week “Truce of
Zeus” would be in
effect during the
games
THE GAMES
✦ Truce was enforced by
the Spartans
✦ Needless to say, it was
not violated
THE GAMES
✦ Big party atmosphere
✦ Guests would camp &
cook in the grassy
areas of the grounds
✦ Socrates, Plato, &
Aristotle all known to
enjoy watching the
games
THE GAMES
✦ Statues of Nike would
look down on the
competitors
✦ Winners were treated like
conquering heroes &
sometimes like gods
✦ Sweat of athletes was
scraped off & sold as
magic potion
✦ No other prize than their
wreath crowns
THE GAMES
✦ No silver or bronze - just
losers
✦ Losers went home in
shame
THE GAMES
✦ Greeks did not believe in
an afterlife, so it was the
chance for immortality
✦ Remembered in memory,
story, & song
✦ (Athens offered free
meals for life to their
winners)
RUNNING
✦ Running was First set of
events in the Olympics
✦ The competition wasn’t
about times or records it was about winning
✦ Took place in the
stadion
✦Latin version would
become “stadium”
RUNNING
✦ Single stade - 200 meter
sprint of up to 20 runners
✦ Double stade - down &
back around a post
✦ Dalikos - 20 times around
(2.25 miles)
RUNNING
✦ If there was a tie,
they had to rerun it
✦ False starters were
beaten by the
officials
✦ (The Marathon was
not an event)
RUNNING
✦ Hoplitodromos -
Hoplites in full armor ran
out & back twice
✦ last event of the games
✦ symbol of the return of
reality
BOXING
✦ Boxing was added in
688 BCE
✦ No weight division, no
corner men, no rounds,
no water, no gloves, no
breaks
✦ Fights could last hours
until a fighter admitted
defeat by raising one
finger
BOXING
✦ The shame of losing was
much more powerful than
today.
✦ Many fighters took a vow
to die in the ring rather
than admit defeat.
✦ Spartans did not box
✦They might end up
fighting each other and
the shame of loss was too
great
✦ Started wrapping
BOXING
rawhide leather around
their hands to increase
the damage to the
opponent
✦ When Romans took over
in 146 BCE, they started
inserting 1” metal spikes
into their leather
wrappings
✦ Became more of a knife
fight
BOXING
✦ In the rare event of a
stalemate, the
hellanodikai would call for
an exchange of unblocked
blows
PANKRATION
✦ Most brutal, but most popular
✦ Combination of boxing & wrestling
✦ Held in a pit & fought upright
✦ 3 throws by any means was a win
PANKRATION
✦ Believed to be Zeus’s
favorite because of the
occasional unintended
sacrifice of life or limb
✦ Punching, kicking,
strangling, breaking
bones, & tripping were all
permitted
PANKRATION
✦ Only 2 rules:
✦ No biting.
✦ No gouging of eyes.
✦ Groin strikes were
“frowned upon,” but no
rules were ever enforced
CHARIOT RACE
✦ Took place in the
hippodrome
✦ hippo = horse
✦ dromos = course
✦ Track was 150
yards long
CHARIOT RACE
✦ 24 laps (5.33 miles) -
down & back around a
turning post
✦ 44 chariots at once,
each pulled by 4
horses
✦ The Most dangerous
sport at the Olympics
CHARIOT RACE
✦ No barrier dividing the
out & back - deadly
collisions
✦ During one race, 43
chariots crashed.
✦ The winner was the
one survivor
CHARIOT RACE
✦ 67 CE: Roman Emperor
Nero competed in a
chariot pulled by 10
horses
✦ Thrown from the cart &
couldn’t finish
✦ Still declared the winner
✦ When he died the next
year, they overruled his
victory
PENTATHLON
✦ Balance, grace, all-around
skill
✦ all practiced & performed to
the music of the flute
✦ Sculptors used pentathletes
as models when sculpting
the gods
✦ 5 Diverse events: Running,
Long jump, discuss, javelin,
wrestling
PENTATHLON
✦ Stadion (Running)
✦ 200 yd. sprint
✦ Straight down the stade
PENTATHLON
✦ Long Jump
✦ Held hand weights to add
momentum
✦ Pit was 50’ long
✦ Modern World Record:
Mike Powell (USA, 1991) 29’4.25”
✦ Could they jump that
much farther?
PENTATHLON
✦ Discus
✦ Heavier - about 15 lbs
✦ Signature Twisting
technique still used today
PENTATHLON
✦ Javelin
✦ With a rope loop for extra
thrust
PENTATHLON
✦ Wrestling
✦ Held in a mud pit to
make them slippery
✦ Continued until
someone signaled
defeat
✦ A rule had to be added
against finger breaking
PENTATHLON
✦ Leoniskos of
Messene won the
wrestling match at
2 consecutive
Olympic games
because he broke
everyone’s fingers
HERAEA
✦ The Heraea were
Separate games for
women
✦ Virgin & Unmarried only
✦ Dedicated to Hera
HERAEA
✦ Only running - 3 sprints. 1
each for girls, teens,
young women
✦ Spartan girls dominated
HERAEA
✦ Did not compete nude
✦ wore a short tunic that
exposed the right breast
✦ Possibly to prove
womanhood
✦ Held on a day of rest for
the men
MODERN GAMES
✦ 1896: After over 1,500
years, the First modern
Olympic Games were
reinstated.
✦ First was held in Athens
as tribute
MODERN GAMES
✦ Significant Modern
Olympics
✦ 1916: Berlin Olympics
cancelled because of
WWI
✦ 1936: Berlin Olympics
Held beneath Nazi flags
MODERN GAMES
✦ 1940: Tokyo Summer &
Winter Olympics
Cancelled because of
WWII
✦ 1944: London Summer
Olympics & Italian Winter
Olympics cancelled
because of WWII
MODERN GAMES
✦ 1972: Munich Olympics.
Israeli athletes kidnapped
& killed by Palestinian
terrorists
✦ 1994: Lillehammer,
Switzerland is first Winter
Olympics to be offset by 2
years with the summer
Olympics
✦There had been a 1992
Winter Olympics also