• a lunchtime lecture given in the Library by Professor Bob Milns, Department of Classics and Ancient History on Thursday 24 August 2000.

Among the many gifts bequeathed to the modern world by the ancient Greeks (eg democracy) is the idea of athletics and organised competitive sport, of which the ancient Olympic Games were the most famous. The word athlete is a Greek word and connected with the words athlos, a contest for a prize, and athlon, a prize. An athlete is thus a person who competes for a prize. 

Origin of the Games

Despite the attribution of the games to such legendary heroes as Pelops and Heracles, the consensus of opinion in antiquity was that the first Olympics began in 776BC. They were held in honour of Zeus of Olympia and were thus a religious festival, unlike the modern Olympics. As Zeus was the king of the gods, so were his games the most prestigious of the four great Panhellenic Games (Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean). They had a life of almost 1200 years, being closed down possibly in 393AD by the Emperor Theodosius the Great as being a pagan religious festival.

Where were the Games held?

Unlike the modern Games, the ancient Olympics were always held at Olympia, near Pisa, near the western coast of the Peloponnese; and from early times they were under the control of the people of nearby Elis. Hence there was no competition between cities for the right of holding the Games and no carrying of the Olympic flame from Olympia to the host city.

When were they held?

Like the modern games, they were held at four yearly intervals, ie at the start of each fifth year from the preceding Games, and were always held in July or August, depending on the date of the second full moon after the summer solstice. It was always extremely hot at the time of the Games.

How long did the Games last?

In their final form, they lasted for five days, but there was proclaimed the Olympic Truce three months before the Games began. Its purpose was to allow competitors and spectators to travel safely from their home state (polis) to Olympia, even if this meant passing through the territory of an enemy state. Visitors came from all over the Greek world, which extended to Asia Minor, the Black Sea, Egypt and North Africa, Italy and Sicily and Spain, eventually converging in a huge tent-city on the banks of the River Alpheios.

Who were the participants?

All free-born Hellenes (Greeks), both boys and men, were eligible. Non-Hellenes and women were banned from competing (and for the most part, women were banned as spectators). Here are two further differences from the modern Games, where men and women from all countries compete, regardless of their ethnic origin. The athletes all competed naked – for the moment, at any rate, another difference from the modern Games – and had to prove that they had been in training for ten months before the Games. They also had to spend 30 days training at Olympia before the Games began under the supervision of judges who made the choice of the athletes who would compete in the Games. Thus, unlike the modern Games, there were no heats during the actual festival, only finals. The judges referred to above were ten in number and called Hellenodikai (the Judges of the Hellenes). They were all from Elis; held office for one Olympiad; had to have had ten months of training; and had wide power over the athletes, including the power of fining, excluding and even flogging delinquent competitors.

Were the athletes amateurs or professionals?

Whilst the athletes in the early stages of the Games were probably mainly from the leisured upper-classes and therefore may be defined as "amateurs", there rapidly developed what can only be called professional athletes, for whom athletics competition was a career, and who made large amounts of money (or its equivalent) from their success in the different athletic games and competitions. We actually hear of Greek cities "poaching" athletes from other cities with promises of financial rewards.

Athletes and Coaches

Each athlete who appeared at Olympia had to be accompanied by his coach or trainer, who uniquely at Olympia had to appear without a cloak. This was after the discovery of the deception practised by Pherenike (also called Kallipateira), herself the daughter of an Olympic champion boxer, who had trained her son and accompanied him to Olympia where she succeeded in passing herself off as a man. The truth was revealed when, in jubilation at her son’s victory, she jumped over a fence and her cloak fell open revealing all (literally!). To prevent such a thing recurring in future, the decision about the absence of cloaks was made. The coaches themselves were usually highly professional people who made athletics into a science and made much money from their activities. We actually hear of one coach who, in a fit of rage, stabbed his athlete to death for failing to win.

What were the prizes at Olympia?

The Olympic Games were what the Greeks called "crowned" Games, ie there were no cash prizes or prizes in goods, but only a simple wreath of wild olive. Moreover, unlike the modern Games, only the winner was crowned, with no wreath being offered to second or third place-getters. But the financial and material rewards when the victorious athlete returned home were very great indeed and a secure and prosperous future awaited him. Moreover, apart from being idolised and made into popular heroes both at home and throughout the Hellenic world, many an athlete gained immortal fame by being made the subject of a victory-ode by famous poets such as the Theban Pindar (whose poems written for winners in the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean Games have survived to this day and can be read by Greek-less readers in the excellent translations in the Penguin Classics series). There are many amazing stories that have come down to us about the prowess of different athletes, including the great wrestler, Milo, from Kroton in South Italy, who has a modern health-drink named after him.

What were the events in the Ancient Olympics?

We may divide the events into field, track and equestrian. In the field events there were jumping (long, not high), discus, javelin, wrestling and boxing, with one event, the pankration, being a combination of boxing and all-in wrestling. The jumping, discus and javelin events formed part of the pentathlon and could not be performed as self-standing events. Among modern field events that were absent from the annual Olympics are high jumping, shot putting, pole vaulting and hammer throwing. Of the track events, the "star" race was the stadion (anglicised as stadium), a race of 200m. There were also middle distance races up to 4000m and a curious race in armour of around 400m. Among modern track events absent from the annual Games were the 100m, relay races, hurdles and the marathon, whose first Olympic appearance was in 1896 at the first modern Olympics at Athens, where the race was appropriately won by a Greek. The pentathlon (= "the five contest event") consisted of the long jump, the stadion, wresting, discus and javelin. The equestrian events were divided into different types of chariot races, with the tethrippon - a four-horse chariot race - being the glamour event, and different types of horse-riding events, in which the jockey rode without a saddle or stirrups. The equestrian events took place in the Hippodromos, ie Hippodrome, a place where horses run, and since the owners won the prizes, not the drivers or jockeys, these could be competed for and won by women. All equestrian events, but especially the four-horse chariot races, were extremely costly for the owners and were indeed the prerogative of the rich. It will be noticed that there were no swimming events in the ancient Olympics.

A few other observations may be made about the ancient Games. We knew that each athlete had to swear an oath to maintain the integrity of the Games, but we also hear stories of cheating, "match-fixing" and bribe-taking by athletes, coaches and relatives of the athletes. It certainly seems that ancient Greek athletes were intensely competitive and that the Olympic ideal propounded by the Baron de Coubertin of amateurism and competition for its own sake was as alien to the ancient ethics as it seems to be to the modern Games.

Source: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/olympics/milns.html