FACT SHEET:
Ancient Olympic primarily a religious festival. Cheating was sacrilege.
(Zanes), Contests for singing and playing the lyre and flute.
The Olympic Games reorganized in 776 BCE and ran without interruption until 393 CE when Emperor Theodosius banned them in the name of Christianity.
The Olympic flame was first introduced in 1928. The torch relay was introduced in 1936. The Olympic symbol was created in1913.
Crown Games: Prize is a wreath. Four Crown Games. No pay for athletes.
Olympic Games: most prestigious, in honor of Zeus, held every four years, prize is wild olive crown, held at Elis in the Peloponnesus.
Nemean Games: in honor of Herakles, held year after Olympics, prize is wild celery crown, held near Corinth.
Pythian Games: in honor of Apollo, held year after Nemean games, prize is laurel crown, held at Delphi.
Isthmian Games: held year after the Pythian Games, prize is pine crown, held near Corinth.
By 500 BCE at least 50 sets of games being held in the Greek world. There were eventually hundreds of local games. They had monetary/material gain. They paid the winners of the Crown games to come.
The winner of the sacred games in Athens for the stade get 100 amphora of the finest olive oil. (9 gallons per jar.). The lowest value for a gallon of oil 12 drachma per gallon. This is the equivalent of 847 days wages for a 24 second race. An athlete could buy several houses for this amount. The winners would get an additional 500 drachmas from their home city. You could buy a sheep for 1 drachma. In 2008 a sheep cost between $50-$100 in Michigan. Winners were also given free meals by their home city. Winners also were given preference in positions of power and government.
Age Brackets:
Boys (to puberty)
Youths (puberty to military age)
Men
Women not allowed to participate, although girls younger than puberty age participated in some running events and women were occasionally mentioned as winning the chariot events.
Stadium: For both chariots and foot races, seats 40,000 at Olympia, turning posts at each end.
Stade=200 meters. First Olympic event.
Double Stade= 400 m
Longest race = 24 stade (5k)
No marathons
Hoplite Race: 2 stade race in full armor (60 lbs)
Heavy events:
Boxing: No weight class, no rounds, leather straps on hands and wrists, referees
Wrestling: Best of 5 falls, 1st to get to 3 wins, standing starts, cover in dust and oil, referees.
Pankration: (All power): combination of boxing, wrestling, kick boxing. Anything goes except biting or eye gouging, strangleholds allowed, referees.
Pentathlon: Medley of 5 events:
Order of events: (1)Stade run, (2)Discus: 15 lbs, 13 inch diameter, (3) Long Jump: used 2-10 lbs weights, (4) Javelin toss, (5) Wrestling
Horse events: Bareback riding, colts, mule race, chariot
6 testimonials as modeling for evidence that Greek athletes were professional athletes who were fiercely competitive:
Testimonial 1: With cruel purpose you fell from above on the bodies of four opponents, an in these Pythian Games no happy homecoming was decreed for them as there was for you. As they returned to their mothers no sweet laughter brought pleasure, but they crept along the back roads, avoiding their enemies, bitten by misfortune.
Pindar, Pythian Odes 8.81-87
Testimonial 2: In the Olympic Games you cannot just be beaten and then depart, but first of all, you will be disgraced not only before the people of Athens or Sparta or Nikopolis but before the whole world. In the second place, if you withdraw without sufficient reason you will be whipped. And this whipping comes after your training, which involves thirst, broiling heat and swallowing of handfuls of sand.
Epictetus, Discourses 3.22.52
Testimonial 3: Here in Olympia he (Agathos Daimon) died, boxing in the stadium, having prayed to Zeus for either the crown or death, aged 35. Farewell.
Epitaph at Olympia
Testimonial 4: But if a man should rise to greatness by being swift of foot or by skill in the pentathlon, in the sacred precinct of Zeus near the streams of Pisa in Olympia, either wrestling or engaging in the painful sport of boxing or the fearful contest men call the pankration, he would be an honored citizen and would take the seat of honor at the games and would feast at the expense of the state and receive expensive gifts from his country to be passed on to his children…
Athenaeus, Doctors at Dinner 10.414
Testimonial 5: An Olympic athlete was paid 30,000 drachmas to enter the local games.
Inscription
Testimonial 6: Payment to winners of the games:
Stade 1250 denarii, Hoplite Race, 500 denarii, Pentathlon 500 denarii, Wrestling 2000 denarii, Boxing 2000 denarii, Pankration 3000 denarii
Inscription in Aphrodisias 2nd C. CE.
Note: a denarius is a day’s wage for an unskilled worker. Denarii is plural.
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