Ancient Olympics 1

International Sports Hall of Fame and Olympic Museum

ANCIENT OLYMPICS 1

My uncle, a high Austrian Olympic Official representing Austria, invited me to go to Olympia with him to see the first Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony, which was awesome and I experienced a weird feeling, walking among the old ruins of Olympia, waiting for the Torch Lighting Ceremony of the first Olympic Torch Relay of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, especially concocted by Dr Karl Diem, the Director of the Torch Relay, to begin. Although the sacred Flame burned at all times in two cauldrons at the Prytaneion or Administration building, since the 5th Century B.C. and although torch relays existed at four other sports festivals throughout Greece since the 3rd Century B.C, none ever existed in Olympia. But whenever the Nazis see a good opportunity for their Propaganda Machine, they know how to exploit it. See my article in the link " Olympic Flame ".

We showed up about four hours early in order to see the old ruins of the ancient temples of Olympia and the tour guide showed us around until it was time for the Ceremony at around noon. First we toured the first Temple, belonging to Zeus and Hera at the base of Mount Kronos, where statues sculpted by Praxiteles stood and then the Tumulus of Pelops next to the Great Altar of Zeus and close by the new Temple of Zeus and it's Cella where Pheidias' 40 foot gold and ivory statue of Zeus was once standing in the sacred Inner Sanctum. Nearby was the Temple of Zeus' mother Rhea, then the Philippeion of King Phillip II and Alexander the Great, the House of Nero and the Metreon, or Temple of the Mother of the Gods, the Treasuries and the Temple of Hearcles, built around 600 B.C., Temple of King Oinomaos, the Bouleuterion or Council House, all part of the Altis, the Grove which bordered the Prytaneion, where the two sacred Flames and archives of the Olympics were kept since 776 B.C. and which was the site of the Great Banquet of day five of the festivities. On the outside of the Altis, which was fenced in, was the Palaestra and Gymnasium, used for training purposes, then Pheidias' Workshop, where the Gold and ivory statue of Zeus was created, the Leonidaion, where Officials, Diplomats, Judges and the Champions were housed and last was the once covered Megaron, or passage way that led from the Altis to the vaulted entrance of the Stadium, where inside, the marble Start lines are still standing and at the center, the place where Judges and Officials sat. Adjacent to the Stadium was the Hippodrome, where Chariot and Horse Races, took place, but no remains have been found. According to legend, the Temple of Zeus stood on the spot where Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at his Father Kronos from high up Mount Olympus, before coming to earth in the 7th century B.C. sharing the first Temple with his wife-sister Hera, until the Temple of Zeus in the center of the Altis was finished in 459 B.C. at which time, it became the Temple of Hera. Years later, when I took Sports Administration and Management in College, the extensive tour and lecture, as well as the ceremony, came extremely handy in Mythology classes and later for my lectures in California and now for this website..

The Olympics every four years in Olympia, although a wonderful athletic spectacle, was mainly a religious festival with pagan rituals, especially on day three of the Olympics when 100 Oxen were slaughtered as a sacrifice to Zeus, a very gory and bloody spectacle. The good thing was that the meat, donated and prepared by the City of Elis, which organized the festival, made a fabulous banquet for the Athletes and spectators, which went on through the entire night. Boys and girls under 18, were not allowed to watch the slaughter and they spent the day at the Stadium, where sprints for 12 to 18 year old boys and girls took place and the single girls performed separately under woman's supervision in the 160 meter Sprints. Later that day, after the morning's religious events and after the events for boys and girls were finished and before the evening's banquet, some of the preliminary Sprints for the Athletes were run in the Stadium, since the next day had a very busy schedule for sprints and Running events as well as all the finals.

Only Greek citizens, were allowed at Olympic Festivals. Athletes and spectators came from as far as Spain, Italy, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine and Turkey, which at the time were under Greek jurisdiction. Athletics was key of education in Greece and Athletes that performed in Olympia, were the best. The Festival in Olympia, took place about 200 years before any of the other Pan-Hellenic festivals took place in Greece, like the Isthmian Games in Corinth, the Pythian Games in Delphi, the Nemean Games of Nemea, the Athenian Games in Athens and Rhodes games in Rhodes. To participate in Olympia, an Athlete had to train for ten months before registering in Elis and undergo another 30 days more of hard supervised training in one of the three Gymnasiums in Elis, with a strict diet. The Trials to qualify for the games, which also took place in Elis, who were the Organizers, like the NOC's in our days, was at least as tough as the Trials for today's Olympics, according to the old scriptures found at the Prytaneion.

Although it is believed that Athletic Festivals existed as early as 1,000 B.C. in Olympia, the first officially recorded Olympics, started in 776 B.C. under King Iphitos of Elis and consisted of only one event, a 192 meter sprint, or full lap of the Stadium, the most traditional of all the Greek sports, won the first time by Coroibos, a cook from Elis, a race, repeated for 52 years until 724 B.C. when the double lap and long distance races of 24 laps were added, which was about three miles. Between that time and the next 200 years, violent contact sports, Wrestling, Boxing and the bloody Pankretion were added, as was the exhausting Penthatlon, as well as Horse races and the deadly two and four Horse Chariot races, the number one spectator sport, were slowly added to the Festivals and finally the Sport Program consisted of a five day morning and afternoon schedule. When the Olympics began in 776 B.C, the Stadium was merely a large rudimentary field adjacent to the Altis, with only the Temple of Zeus and Hera and a few altars until the Temple of Zeus was finished and the Stadium made over twice and moved further west of the Sacred Grove and was entered through the Megaron that bordered the Altis to the new Stadium. Ten Officials from the city of Elis were elected to judge the events, which were known for honesty and impartiality, other than for some occasional favoritism at the Chariot races when fellow Elians and even some of the Judges entered the competition.

Married women were not allowed at the Olympics, but young girls were most welcome, which sometimes found husbands that were Olympic Champions and received the Sacred Olive Crown, the highest price an Athlete could win, meaning that he and his family was honored by the city he came from, getting free meals and many other things for the rest of his life, much more than gold medal winners get today. ( 35 million Dollars a year Basketball players excluded.) Prostitutes were also welcome at the Olympics and usually made more money during the five days of festivities, than all year in their home town. Sexual acts of all kind were allowed with rich old men seeking out young boys and Athletes being their preference. High class courtesans could also become very rich women, with some of them making enough money during the festival, to buy a villa at the Coast. I will finish part 1 of this article, by listing the greatest Champions of the Ancient Olympics, the rare Olympians, honored for the rest of their life in their home towns and all over Greece. Their records are taken from the Prytaneion in Olympia. They were honored Heroes and the greatest Athletes and Olympic Champions of Greece and the entire world during the Ancient Olympics and winning three or more events, were entitled to have their personal statue erected at the Inner Sanctum of the Altis in Olympia. These are the most famous heroes according to the records of the Prytaneon:

1. Leonidas of Rhodes = 12 Victories 2. Herodoros of Megara = 10 Victories 3. Hermogenes of Xanthos = 8 Victories 4.Astylos of Croton = 7 Victories 5. Hipposthenes of Sparta = 6 Victories 6. Milo of Kroton = 6 Victories 7.Chionis of Sparta = 6 Victories 8. Nero of Rome = 6 Victories 9. Gorgos of Elis = 6 Victories 10. Aelius Gr. of Sikyon = 5 Victories 11. Demetrius of Salamis = 5 Victories 12. Diogenes of Ephesus = 5 Victories 13. Phanas of Pellene = 3 Victories 14. Nikokles of Akrion = 3 Victories 15.Polites of Keramos = 3 Victories 16. Hecatomnos of Miletus = 3 Victories End of Part One, the Ancient Olympics. Go to part Two. Thank you for taking interest in this site.

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