Olympic Games

Michael Lahanas

Αρχαία Ελλάδα : Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες

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The Persians . . . enquired of them [deserters from Arcadia] what the Greeks were doing. The Arcadians answered, ‘They are holding the Olympic games, seeing the athletic sports and the chariot races.’ ‘And what,’ said the man, ‘is the prize for which they contend?’ ‘An olive wreath,’ returned the others, ‘which is given to the man who wins.’ On hearing this, Tritantaechmes, the son of Artabanus, uttered a speech which was in truth most noble, but which caused him to be taxed with cowardice by King Xerxes. Hearing the men say that the prize was not money but a wreath of olive, he could not forbear from exclaiming before them all, ‘Good heavens, Mardonius, what manner of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight--men who contend with one another, not for money, but for honor.
Herodotus, The Persian Wars, VIII, 26


there is a precipitous mountain with big rocks, called Typaion. There is an Elean rule that any woman who has been seen at the (Olympic) Games or has crossed the (River) Alpheios during the forbidden days shall be pitched headlong from the summit Pausanias

Slaves and “Barbarians” could watch the Games (only in the Hellenistic times and later) but not married women! An exception was the priestess of Demeter, Chamyne, who used to sit at the altar of the goddess, which was situated exactly opposite the tribune of the chief judges of the Games, the Hellanodikae. Kallipateira the Pherenice a widowed mother from a rich family exiled from Rhodes broke the law according to which the punishment was Death (I hope that there was no such case) but she survived because she was a mother of winners of the Games.

...She came to Olympia in 404 BC to watch with pride her son who was going to compete for an Olympic victory like his uncles and other ancestors before him. Having entered the stadion in the guise of a trainer, she could not, however, restrain her enthusiasm upon her son's victory in the boxing event, and as she jumped over the fence of the trainer's stand in order to go to him and embrace him, her mantle slipped over her shoulder thus betraying her female sex. However, the Hellanodikae, i.e. the chief judges of the Games, acquitted her from the prescribed punishment out of respect for her father, her brothers and her son: an entire dynasty of Olympic victors who were an honour to her family, her country and the gods. After this incident, however, the Hellanodikae decided that trainers who accompanied athletes to the Games should enter the Stadion naked (Com. Bind. 01.VIII, Ael.n.h. I 1. Aischenenes Lett. 4,5), Nikos Yalouris WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO LETTERS, SCIENCE, POLITICS AND SPORT

In 80 BC the Olympic Games are held in Rome. After 1169 years in 393 AD the Emperor Painter, 520-510 BC).

Phlegon (a second century AD author) states that the cotinus was established by Iphitus after an advice by the Oracle of Delphi in 752 BC. This replaced the prize of the first few Games that was a piece of meat (meria) of a sacrificed animal. The victors were called athlophoroi i.e. those who wear the athlon.

(I use also the word Olympionikes as victor in Olympic Games). After an athlete won an Olympic event, a herald would announce his name, his father's name, his city of origin. He was given a palm branch and adorned with red woolen ribbons around his head, arm, and leg marking his victory The crowd praised the victor with Tinella Kallinike (Τήνελλα καλλίνικε )– Well done, glorious victor!

An event called also agon (from which also agony is derived).

Except the Olympic Games in ( (

Orsippus of Megara (Όρσιππος) was probably the first nude runner of the Olympia foot race in 720 BC.

Near Coroebus is buried Orsippus who won the footrace at Olympia by running naked when all his competitors wore girdles according to ancient custom. They say also that Orsippus when general afterwards annexed some of the neighboring territory. My own opinion is that at Olympia he intentionally let the girdle slip off him, realizing that a naked man can run more easily than one girt. Pausanias. Naked (Gr. gymnos), (gymnazein : exercise naked) other words derived: gymnasium, gymnastic.