Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.IX

The religious awe surrounding the champions is hardly surprising considering the strength of mythology in ancient Greece. The physical qualities of the athletes were a diving gift, and the Greeks believed the Zeus helped those who helped themselves- through sound and rigorous training. “Never without effort comes that victory which is the reward of our exploits and the illumination of our life”, sang Pindar.

Statues of the evictors stood in the sanctuary alongside those of the gods. At least 200 such effigies once stood at Olympia. In 430BC, the Athenian Sculptor Phidias created a 15 m gold and ivory statue of Zeus on his throne for the god’s temple. This giant effigy, set with precious stones, became one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Celebrations in honour of Zeus and his champions continued for several days after the events, which were concluded by a banquet held for the athletes and guests of honor in the Prytaneion, or communal hall. Then the crowd would disperse. Tents and booths were packed up. The spectators, hawkers, and pedlars took to the roads, and peace would settle on the sacred precincts of Olympia.

After the Romans conquered Greece in the middle of the 2^nd century BC, the fixed programme of the Games suffered occasional interference. In AD 65 the emperor Nero insisted that music and drama be included among the sporting contests. He entered the chariot race himself – using a team of ten horses. He crashed, but still demanded the olive crown of victory. The following year the emperor committed suicide, and this 211^th Olympiad was struck for the records.

But such changes by the Roam overlords were rare. The Games continued until AD 393, when the devout Christian emperor Theodosius I suppressed them as a pagan abomination. Earthquakes in the 6^th century AD brought floods which deposited almost 5m of alluvial mud over Olympia.

The site lay relatively undisturbed until major excavations began in 1875. Partly as a result of the excitement at the findings, an enthusiastic French sports man, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, revived the Games as a showpiece for peaceful competition between nations. The 1896 Olympics included competitors from 13 countries. A century later, nearly 200 nations took part, a testimony to the spirit of international cooperation first created in ancient Greece.

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Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.VIII

The last day of the festival was devoted to the proclamation of the winners and the distribution of the prizes. The immediate rewards were purely symbolic but the winners enjoyed immense glory. The crowd remained hushed while the name of a victor was read out, followed by the name of his father and city. He then received a crown of olive leaves, taken from a sacred olive tree which, according to tradition, had been planted by the hero Hercules himself.

 When the ceremony was over, the Olympic champions would walk in a majestic procession, accompanied by the hellanodikai and winning horses, into the Altis- a walled grove of sacred plane trees at the foot of Mount Kronos, said to have been consecrated by Hercules.

Special glory was reserved for periodonikai: competitors who were victorious not only in the Olympics but in the full cycle of Greek athletic festivals. The Pythian Games brought crowns of laurel, the Isthmian Games crowns of pine needles, and the Nemean Games crowns of parsley. These symbolic rewards brought unimaginable prestige.  Champions returning to their home state were given a thunderous reception. Some victors did not enter their native city through the gates; a breach was made in the walls to run their arrival into a glorious spectacle.

 

 Many victors returned year after year to the Games. Theogenes of Thasos, an unbeatable wrestler, participated in the games for 22 years in the 5^th century BC, winning crown after crown.  His reputation survived his death, and he received the ultimate accolade: he was declared a descendant of Hercules. From the beginning of the 4^th century BC Theogenes was worshiped as god.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.VII

An Olympic champion named Phaylus threw a discus 29 m; the modern record stands at more than twice that- but today’s discus weighs about 2kg. It also seems that ancient athletes performed only one backward swing of the discus, bending and executing a three quarter turn; modern throwers spin round two and a half times before releasing it.

 When throwing the javelin, it is not clear whether the contestants threw for length or accuracy. The javelin itself was about 2m long. A looped thong, through which the index finger was passed, was attached to the shaft to give the javelin some extra thrust-in the same way that a sling extends the range of a hurled stone.

The long jump seems to have been practiced from a standing start, accompanied by the music of flutes to aid the flow of the movement. The Jumper held stones or Lead weights in each hand and swung them to give greater distance to the leap.

 Away from the epic encounters in the stadium or hippodrome, there was also much to entertain the Olympic crowd. Feasting and carousing lasted long into the night. Peddlers sold wine and honey cakes, trinkets and amulets, and effigies of the deities.  The multitude provided an audience for demagogues, and formal contests were organized for poets and orators. Many came to exploit their talents and look for new disciples.

 The philosopher Plato spoke at Olympia, and Herodotus, the 5^th century BC historian, is said to have found fame giving readings of his Histories there. It was at Olympia in 380 BC that Isocrates presented his Panegyrics, proclaiming the need for peace and unity between the Greek people.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.VI

Yet strength undoubtedly told. One of ancient Olympia’s most famous wrestlers, Milo or Croton, won the champion ship five times. He became famous for his exhibition feats, which included ting a cord round his forehead, inhaling deeply, and snapping the cord by the expansion of his veins.  When the aging wrestler finally lost during his sixth attempt on the championship, the crowd invaded the stadium and carried him round to tumultuous applause.

In boxing, the competitors’ hands were bound in leather thongs which left their thumbs free. Boxing matches had no time limits- adversaries fought on until one raised his finger in defeat. They became a test of sheer endurance. If a fight dragged on, the judges might make the boxers lower their guards and swap blows undefended until one gave in or collapsed.

Boxing and wrestling were combined on the most demanding of all the fighting events- the pankration. Every conceivable type of blow was allowed; the only tactics known to have been banned were biting or gouging an opponent’s eyes out. This even was not for the squeamish. The raked ground was sprayed with water, and the bloodied competitors rolled around in the mud, wrenching, punching, and kicking.

 The aim was to force one’s opponent to admit defeat. Killing was frowned upon: death was shameful way to terminate a contest of strength. When a Pankratis called Arrhichion died in a stranglehold while executing a particularly telling grip on his opponent’s toes, it was to the dead man the victory was awarded.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.V

Horse and chariot races took place in the hippodrome, an arena about 2316 ft long to the south of the main stadium. Horse races began to a blast of trumpets, when the retaining rope was withdrawn. The length of the race is not known, but the jockeys rode bare back, with reins but no stirrups. A horse could win a race even if its rider had fallen. Such was the case with a mare named Aura, which threw her rider at the very beginning of the race, but completed the course ahead of all the others. Her Corinthian owner Pheidolas was declared the winner, and the statue of his mare was erected at Olympia.

  The chariot races were dangerous affairs. The charioteer drove his team of four horses later, team of two with a whip. The course covered 12 circuits of the hippodrome- a distance of some 14 Km along a rutted track on unsprung- vehicles a very rough ride.  Accidents were common, and it required incredible skill to negotiate at high speed the tight bends, the crashed chariots, and the bodies of fallen opponents. The field at start might comprise 40 to 50 competitors; on one occasion, according to the poet Pindar, only a single chariot reached the finish.

The wrestling events were contests of considerable skill. The aim was to throw the adversary three times to the ground so that his shoulders came into contact with the earth. As in modern judo, deft balance counted as much as brute strength.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.IV

The first of the five days was given over to ceremony – for the offering of sacrifices and the swearing of the Olympic oath. The main sacrifice was carried out on the altar of Zeus Horkeios, or Zeus of the oaths. Officials, athletes, and their families would assemble in the Bouleuterion, a building erected in the 6^th century BC. Here, a wild boar was slaughtered before a statue of the god. Each competitor swore upon its limbs that he would not cheat, had no criminal record, and was entitled to compete under Olympic regulations. Those who broke the oath, or swore it falsely, were fined and banned for life from the Games.

 The starting point of the modern Games is marked by the lighting of the ceremonial flame, brought to the host country from Olympia by a relay of runners. Little is known about the sequence of events in the ancient Games, but a fire ceremony took place at some point in the five day cycle. It took the form of a solemn procession of purple robed hellanodikai entering the stadium to the sound of trumpets, with athletes following behind. The flame was lit on a sacrificial altar.

On the second day of the Olympics, spectators rose with the dawn to grab the best seats for the first events, congregation in groups according to their city of origin.

The main competitions were chariot races, horse races, wrestling boxing, the pankration, foot races, and the pentathlon. In all events except chariot racing, the athletes performed naked- the Greeks revered the human form. There were no team sports. Each athlete appeared as an individual, though victory was a glory shared by his whole city.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.III

As soon as the opening day was announced, would be competitors began training in their home towns. To establish their credentials, they would have to present themselves at Elis one month before the Games to endure a final few weeks of training set exercises carried out under the watchful eyes of the hellanodikai, who wielded their authority by means of the rod.

 Rigorous enquiries were made into each applicant’s family history, and only free men and boys of pure Greek descent were allowed to compete. The rule was waived only when Rome affirmed her supremacy Over the Greek world in the 2^nd century BC; Roman citizen were then permitted to enter the Games. Women were not allowed to compete, with the exception of the chariot races, in which the owner of the winning team of horses, rather than the charioteer, was considered the victor. In this event, female owners could and did, win.

While the athletes trained, vast numbers of pilgrims took to the roads, heading for the secluded valley in which the games were held. The peace of Zeus guaranteed their safe conduct.

Many travelled on foot, sleeping under the stars. The wealthy came on horseback or the chariot. Boatloads of visitors disembarked at the mouth of the Alpheus and followed the course of the sacred river up to Olympia’s holy precincts. Acrobats, conjurers, and musicians swelled the throng. Barbarians, slaves, and young girls were admitted as spectators, but married women were excluded they were forbidden to cross the Alpheus for the duration of the Games, which lasted for five days.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.II

Olympic Games for mere mortals were established in 776 BC, in honour of sacred truce made between the warring kings of the city states of Elis and neighbouring Pisa. Foot races were held, and a man from Elis called Coroebus was the victor. Then, and afterwards, the names of the winning contestants were written down for posterity: the records of the Olympics provide the central chronology of ancient Greek history.

The Games expanded over the centuries to include races on horseback and in chariots, jumping and throwing events, and several forms of unarmed combat. By the 5th century BC, the Games had become the supreme festival in ancient Greece, and a fixed programme of competitions had been agreed.

Despite the truce, the control of the Games continued to be a source of friction between Pisa and Elis. By about 700 BC their rivalry become so intense that the Greek states banded together to replace the local truce with a country wide armistice, a tradition observed throughout the 1000 years spanned by those early Olympics. Capital punishment was suspended and legal actions postponed. To fight a war during the Games or in the month leading up to them was sacrilege. Any violation of the truce was firmly punished.

The festival was supervised by the people of Elis, and required much preparation. Months beforehand, ambassadors called spondophoroi were dispatched to the Greek cities and to colonies in Egypt and the Crimea to announce the opening day and judges were chosen by lot from among the citizens of Elis. The judges, the hellanodikai, supervised the athletes’ training and organized the events, as well as judging the results.

Olympia The Site of the Grecian games Part.I

A lush valley on the Peloponnese peninsula provided the backdrop for the Grecian world’s supreme festival: the Olympic Games. The games were held in honour of a battle between two gods, yet they were marked by a nationwide vow of peace.

 Since the four yearly cycle of the modern Olympic began in 1896,it has been disrupted were revived as a forum for peaceful competition among the world’s finest athletes. But the mood of international rivalry surrounding them reflects the tensions that lay behind their origins

Ancient Greece never became unified as a nation; feuding between its city states prevented any lasting political cohesion. And yet, once every four years in the month of July, internal warfare was formally suspended. A scared truce was observed between the states, and for more than 1000 years from 776 BC to AD 393 the games remained the collective expression of a theme central to Greek civilization: the pursuit of excellence.

Today, the ruins of Olympia still stand in testimony to the glory of the ancient festival of sports. They lie in a fertile valley on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece, nestled between two rivers the Alpheus, and its tributary, the Claudius.

Archaeological evidence indicates that Olympia was a place of worship in prehistoric times. Later, it became associated with festivities honouring Zeus, the greatest of Gods. According to legend, Zeus started the tradition of games at Olympia when he wrestled there with his father, fighting for kingship over the gods. Lesser deities then came to the same spot to test their strength. Here Apollo boxed against Ares, the god of war, and ran against Hermes, the messenger. Olympia became a place of divine contest, bounded by rules established by the mighty Hercules.