Click2History - The Olympics: Games of the Ancient World - Ancient Olympic Sports - Chapter 6

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>ANCIENT OLYMPICS</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 6 - ANCIENT OLYMPIC SPORTS</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">The Olympics began in the Early <a href="http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/ARCHAIC.HTM" target="_blank"><b>Archaic Period</b></a> - a <a href="http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/timeline.html" target="_blank"><b>time</b></a> of Greek political, economic and cultural <a href="http://www.greekembassy.org/Embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=1&folder=16&article=42" target="_blank"><b>development</b></a>.  Some scholars think that <a target="_blank" href="images/homer.gif"><b>Homer</b></a>, a blind poet who is credited with both the <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Iliad</b></i></a> and the <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Odyssey</b></i></a>, likely lived (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer" target="_blank"><b>if</b></a> he was an actual person) around 800 B.C., a mere twenty-four years after the first recorded Olympics. (Homer’s epics, perhaps first <a href="http://www.uncg.edu/cla/scripts.html" target="_blank"><b>written</b></a> in the <a href="http://www.scbd.connectfree.co.uk/alphabet/" target="_blank"><b>Ionic</b></a> version [see <a href="http://srs.dl.ac.uk/people/pantos/Od_I_1-2LB.html" target="_blank"><b>Note 4</b></a>]  of the <a href="http://www.wam.umd.edu/~rfradkin/phon-greek.html" target="_blank"><b>Greek alphabet</b></a> [which had its own roots in <a href="http://www.wam.umd.edu/~rfradkin/phoenician-animate.html" target="_blank"><b>Phoenician characters</b></a>] by someone listening to a “live” Homeric performance, remain important links to this ancient period.)</p> <p>Olympic sports, at the <a href="http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Iliad.html" target="_blank"><b>time of Homer</b></a> (scroll down 80%) and later, were rooted in religion. First - and always foremost - athletes participated in sports to honor their gods. The Olympics were <i>created</i> to <a href="http://www.library.uq.edu.au/olympics/milns.html" target="_blank"><b>honor Zeus</b></a>. The modern meaning of “sports” and “games” is therefore not descriptive for what the Greeks were really up to at <i>their</i> Olympics.</p> <p>Competitive exercises, for a Greek living in the Archaic Period, were called <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/07/02.html" target="_blank"><b><i>agon</i></b></a> - from which we get our word “agony.” <i>Gymnikos agon</i> - meaning “naked struggle” - was the way an ancient Greek viewed athletic competition. <a href="http://www.smartphrase.com/Greek/gr_medical_voc.shtml" target="_blank"><b><i>Ponos</i></b></a>, Greek for “pain,” was an expected part of training and competing. (The Greek god Ponos, parenthetically, was the son of <a target="_blank" href="images/eris.jpg"><b>Eris</b></a> [strife] and <a href="http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/erebus.html" target="_blank"><b>Erebus</b></a> [darkness].) And Olympic sports, at that time, were not team events. Focus was on individual performance and winning. No prizes were given for second and third place.</p> <p>The foot-race was the first Olympic event - and the only event for the first 13 Olympiads. It measured a distance of one <a href="http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/olympics/stadia.html" target="_blank"><b><i>stade</i></b></a> (192.28 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm"><b>meters</b></a> for the Olympics) and took place in the <a href="http://www.chem.uoa.gr/Location/athensmap/AM_Stadium.htm" target="_blank"><b><i>stadion</i></b></a> (from which we get our word “stadium”). The point of the race was to beat the best man, not run to a stop watch. Runners who “jumped the gun,” to use a modern phrase, could be flogged by referees <a target="_blank" href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1990.01.2323"><b>holding</b></a> willowy rods.</p> <p>At first, the Olympic stadium (where foot-races were run) was itself inside the Altis (the sacred area). Spectators viewed races from the Kronion (<a target="_blank" href="images/kronos.hill.jpg"><b>Kronos Hill</b></a>).  By the late Classical period, however, a stadium was built east of the sacred precinct, where its remains (connected to the sanctuary by a <a target="_blank" href="images/vaulted.passageway.jpg"><b>vaulted passageway</b></a>) are still visible.</p> <p>Other sports - beginning with wrestling and the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cl135/Students/Kristina_Angus/pent.html" target="_blank"><b>pentathlon</b></a>  in the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/faq1.html" target="_blank"><b>18th Olympiad</b></a> - were added and, by Classical times, the games numbered eighteen. They included <a target="_blank" href="images/boxing.jpg"><b>boxing</b></a>, horse racing, and additional running events. The <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/faq10.html" target="_blank"><b>Marathon</b></a>, however, was never part of the ancient Olympics.</p> <p>Thanks to surviving <a href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/BeazleyAdmin/Script2/Pottery.htm" target="_blank"><b>Greek pottery</b></a>, we can view ancient athletes in action. Let’s take a look at their prowess.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="ancient_olympics_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="ancient_olympics_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="ancient_olympics_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>