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ANCIENT OLYMPICS 1
My uncle, an Austrian Olympic Official, invited me to go to Olympia to witness the first Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony, which was an awesome event for me, at age ten, first, to walk among the old ruins of Olympia, waiting for the Torch Lighting Ceremony of the Olympic Flame Relay of the 1936 Berlin Olympics which was 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 Olympic 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 saw a good opportunity for their Propaganda Machine, they knew how to exploit it. See " Olympic Flame ". We showed up more than four hours early in order to see the old ruins of the ancient temples 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, with the statues sculpted by Praxiteles, 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 stood in the sacred Inner Sanctum. Nearby was the Temple of Zeus' mother Rhea, the Philippeion, Temple of King Phillip II and Alexander the Great, the House of Nero, the Metreon, or Temple of the Mother of the Gods, the Treasuries and the Temple of Hearcles, built around 600 B.C., the Temple of King Oinomaos, the Bouleuterion or Council House, which were all part of the Altis, the Grove which bordered the Prytaneion, where the sacred Flame and archives of the Olympics were stored since 776 B.C. and which also 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 the Gymnasium, which was used for training purposes, then there was Pheidias' Workshop, where the Gold and ivory statue of Zeus was created, the Leonidaion, where Officials, Diplomats, Judges and Champions were housed and last was the once covered Megaron, the passage way that led from the Altis to the vaulted entrance of the Stadium, where inside, the marble Start lines were still standing and at the center, the place where Judges and Officials sat. Adjacent to the Stadium was the Hippodrome, where Horse and Chariot Races, took place, but so far, no remains have been found. According to legend, the first Temple of Zeus stood on the spot of the impact, when Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at his Father Kronos from high up Mount Olympus, before coming to earth in the 7th century B.C. and sharing the first Temple with his sister-wife 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, which was highly interesting for me, came also very handy for my classes in Mythology and later for lectures as well. The lecture from the nice guide and the great ceremony is unforgettable. The Olympics every four years in Olympia, although a wonderful athletic spectacle, was actually 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, who 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 olds 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 and the finals. Only Greek citizens, were allowed at the Olympic Festivals. Athletes and spectators came from as far as Spain, Italy, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine and Turkey, which at the time was 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 in Greece, like the Isthmian Games in Corinth, the Pythian Games in Delphi and the Nemean Games in Nemea, although there were also games near Athens and 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, observing a strict diet. The Trials to qualify for the games, which also took place in Elis, who were the Organizers of the games, like NOC's and the IOC 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 a full lap of the Stadium, the most traditional of all the Greek sports, which was won the first time by Coroibos, a cook from Elis, a race, that was 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, when violent contact sports, Wrestling, Boxing and the bloody Pankretion were added, as was the exhausting Penthatlon and the regular Horse races and the deadly two and four Horse Chariot races, the number one spectator sport among the fans, were slowly added to the Festivals and at the end, the Olympic 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 was made over twice and moved further west of the Sacred Grove and was entered through the Megaron, the passage way that bordered the Altis of 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, although young girls were 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 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 young boys and athletes as their preference. High class courtesans could also become very rich women, with some making enough 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, being the greatest Athletes and Olympic Champions of Greece and the entire world during the Ancient Olympics and by winning three or more events, were entitled to have their personal statue erected at the Inner Sanctum of the Altis in Olympia. These were the most famous heroes: 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. E mail checked daily at: enash327@yahoo.com or weekly at: museum@olympicsource.org Telephone: Summer: 541-765-2923 Winter: 702-346-1776. |
