I. The epochs of the games
DThe Olympic Games of the antiquity can be divided roughly
in five epochs which characterize the beginning, the course and the
decline of the games.
In the first epoch many Greek legends and myths struggle to themselves
for the origin of the Olympic Games. Once Herakles has killed king
Augias whose stable he had cleaned by diverting the river Alpheios, and
he has donated to the celebration of the day competition games in the
place Olympia. In another legend one says that Herakles grandfather,
Pelops, courted for a princess and had to line up in a carriage running
against the king and further competitors. The king stabbed to death the
suitors during overtaking, only Pelops has sabotaged the king's
carriage so that the king was dragged to death. Then in future one has
carried out the Olympic Games.
At that time one believed the version that Herakles put together his
brothers to a race and garlanded the winner with a branch of the wild
olive tree which Herakles has brought to the Greeks from a far land.
Zeus whose temple stands in Olympia was entrusted with Herakles and his
brothers.
The first recordings about the Olympic Games, and with it the introduction
of the second epoch, has been found from the year 776 B.C., as the
priests of Elis started to keep a record of the games. The origins, one
dispenses with the myths of that time, are to be led back on the
so-called "corpse games" in Elis. It was a matter there of killing the
defeated person in the competitions. This kind of the "competitions"
fell into oblivion briefly, until wars struck the today's areas in
Greece. The king of Elis questioned the oracle of Delphi because of
this predicament and received the instruction that yearly celebrations
would donate peace. With the help of a contract he seeked an alliance
with the king of Sparta and they allowed to carry out a ritual
celebration, whose disturbance would call not only both city states, but
also the rage of the God, to the mark of their alliance. The Olympic
Games were (re)born.
In the third epoch from 472 to 400 B.C. there was the "golden age", in
whose frame the games received their shine which may be responsible for
the reintroduction in the modern age (see there), but also restricted
the true picture of Olympia on a fraction of its time and veiled the
backgrounds and worse time. From 472 the duration of the games was fixed
to five days whose course was regulated stringently because of the
status of the Olympic Games as a cultural celebration. At this time
state men and princes also took part as athletes, the famous historian
Herodot comes to Olympia and reads from his works, Pindar writes his
odes about the winners, Phidias creates one of Seven Wonders of the
World: the Zeus' statue. Olympia has become a cultural center of Greece
and the whole Mediterranean.
On the "golden one" the "silver age" followed to 338 B.C. Because of
constant wars the Greeks were weakened, and they could bring less and
less good athletes to Olympia, and more and more streamed from other
colonies, like Sicily, Asia Minor and Africa. Olympia became a kind of
national place of pilgrimage. In the last epoch the games neglected, as
Greece lost his independency to the further extending Roman empire and
became whose province. More and more occupational athletes lined up.
Olympia, as a site of a ritual celebration, lost slowly its importance.
After intertemporal period of bloom emperor Theodosius forbade the games
as a pagan cult in 393 A.D.
II. The course
Already ten months before beginning of the games in
Olympia who took place always in the most hot time of the year, how many
deplored, the training camp of Elis opened. The taking part athletes had
to have arrived there thirty days before beginning at the latest. This
camp may have served the model of the Olympic village, however, the
lodgings were very mediocre at the that time, and every athlete received
the same food. The training which was supervised by the Helladonics (judges)
was very hard, it already began before sunrise. A philosopher noted at
this time that success in Olympia, skills and pride could only appear
after "big sufferings".
Nevertheless, the area was many-sided. For the sportsmen sport fields,
distances and Gymnasion (cf. gymnastics, today corresponds to the
concept of gymnasium) were made available for wrestlers, fist combatants
and for the boys, in another building the rules were explained amd
taught to the Helladonics. Baths served for the rest. Furthermore there
was a city hall (Buleuterion) in which it was kept account and the
athletes were introduced in the theory.
At the latest since 472 B.C. the games lasted exactly five days. During the first day the games are opened, all athletes, judges and spectators assemble in the holy district of Olympia in which also among other things there is the temple of Zeus, and they swear an oath to the observance of the rules. The symbolism has kept to this day in the opening celebration and swearing the Olympic oath for the athletes and for the judges. In the afternoon the boys (from 16 years) contest her competitions. During the second day the carriage runnings already begin in all early in the Hippodrom, situated to the south of the Olympic stadium. Besides, the pentathlon takes place later. During the third day a Zeus' sacrifice is carried out with 100 bulls. Run over longer distance, stadium run and double-run are the competitions during this day. The next day the athletes line up to the remained competitions in the wrestling match and boxing contest, in the pankration (a mixture of both) and weapon run. The presentation ceremony takes place during the last day. The winners are exclaimed and walk ceremonially, to be garlanded with branches of the holy olive tree, which Herakles should have got from the far land of the Hyperboreer. A renewed sacrifice of thanks forms the end of the games.
(in the middle the temple of Zeus)
It was a torture for the spectators to be present at the games. In the middle in August it was very hot, the rivers scarcely led water, and the bath grounds were accessible only to athletes. Lodging possibilities did not exist, merely a hostel for more senior staff. In the stadium it was not allowed to carry headgears, apart from the torrid sun the stench of the meat of the sacrificed animals, which were not allowed to be eaten, even permitted itself, plus the fly plague, sweat, excrements, bitting clouds of smoke … it could already go off there.
III. Sports and disciplines
(bronze statue, ~100 B.C.)
As well as in the modern age, so the list of the delivered
sports or disciplines has developed. As already from the five day course
evidently, there were the following sports: running, multi-discipline
event , wrestling, boxing contest and carriage running. Generally all
athletes lined up completely nakedly as one can look also in all
pictures on vases and amphoras.
There were for the origin of the running different distances and exact
lengths were out of it. It was measured in stadium rounds, there was a
stadium run (approx. 180 to 190 m), double-run (2 rounds) and the run
over longer distance which was run more than 7 – 24 rounds, converted
between 1,400 m and 4,600 m. By a false start the suitable runner was
whipped. By a false start the suitable runner was whipped. Because only
a certain number of runners could line up at the same time, there wre
also already qualification runs.
The athletes who lined up in the pentathlon counted as the nicest men,
because this competition checked the versatility of the athletes,
because near quickness strength and agility were also asked. The
pentathlon consisted of running (probably a round), discus throwing,
long jump, spear throwing and wrestling. The about four to five kilogram
discus was thrown three times, the widest throw was marked with a peg.
The distances which were not measured might have lain with about 30 m.
At the spear throwing there counted not the width, but the accuracy,
in which a wooden column or a shield served as a target. The long jump
occurred from the state with dumbbells in the hands which owned a weight
between one and a half and 4.5 kilograms. The jump width were around
approx. three meters.
At the wrestling
match, as a discipline for the Pentathlon, as well as the independent
competition which belonged, besides, to the education of the male youth, it
was a matter of putting off balance the opponent or at least on a knee. Who
succeeded in doing this three times, he was explained to the winner.
If both went down, the judges had to decide. The boxing contest was harder a
little. There it was fought so long, until one was fight-incapable and
surrendered. If no winner crystallized out, a kind of penalty shoot-out was
carried out. Everybody had alternately a free blow which the other had not
to refuse, so long one was knocked out. At beginning fist combatants carried
bandages to save their joints, later the bandages became harder and, with
the help of weaved iron pieces, these became real knuckle-dusters. This kind
of fight reminds of the "corpse games" of Elis.
The pankration or multi-disciplined fight is a mixture of wrestling match
and boxing contest. The hardness of this sport excelled everything. One also
continued fighting on ground and everything was permitted what helped to the
opponents retirement and to one's own victory, it is to be broken limbs or
to choke. Indeed manslaughter was not permitted, but one was only mild
punished, so that often happened this misfortune. Twice a killed athlete was
even explained to the winner because he did not surrender and had fought
properly to the last gasp.
Carriage runnings took place in the Hippodrom, however, these were
introduced only 680 B.C. Nevertheless, the program was expanded constantly
with quadrigas, carriages and pairs, mules and foals. Mostly these were
chosen as a winner to which the horses or bottom plates belonged and not
these which had steered them and came empty-handed.
IV. The "honour" of the winners
Nevertheless, the winners from Olympia were given many
honours. Apart from a statue in the Altis, paid by the hometown of the
athlete, there were big parties with the return of the glorius athlete(s).
Partly pieces of the town walls were torn on the ground that a town
which has such sons would have no walls urgently. An Olympic champion
also has earned financially enough to live comfortably for the rest of
his life, he need not to pay taxes, he received in many places free
charge food and lodging, he received complimentary seats in theaters and
vast amounts of presents.
However, he also had some duties. The participation also at the
following Olympic Games was expected from him, the towns vied with each
other so that he will start for it. Just bigger towns like Athens,
Delphi or Corinth, often offered more than 10,000 € (at that time these
were five talents). And just in the war they were given the "honour" to
fight in the foremost front.
The most famous athlete of the antiquity was Milon of Kroton about which
many anecdotes were spread. Among to other things he had so much
strength that he carried around a four-year-old ox on his shoulder for
fun, killed him with one blow and ate it completely. He has daily 50,000
calories in form of 17 pounds of meat, 17 pounds of bread and 10 liters
of wine to eat, the five- to sixfold of today's professional athletes of
wrestling, weight-lifting etc. He was the best wrestler in the history
of the games, from 540 through 516 B.C. he became Olympic champion six
times. Besides, he still won multifold at the Isthmic, Pythic and Nemeic
games. Then he has carried and put up a statue sculptured by him in
natural size in the Altis to his honour.
The most significant runner was Leonidas of Rhodos who gained every time
the victories in the stadium run, double-run and weapon run in four
Olympic Games. After his death the fist combatant and pankratiast
Theogenes of Thasos, successful in 480 and 476 B.C., was honoured as a
remedial God. More than three generations long, from 464 through 404 B.C.,
however, the house of the Diagorids from Rhodes has brought Olympic
champions in the athletic disciplines and it was also leading
politically on the island.
