The Original Olympics

The 2008 Olympic Games are underway! The Olympic Games are Greek. Their old Greek home was the religious sanctuary of Olympia. Olympia was home to the gargantuan Statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The ancient Olympic games were abolished in AD 393. The statue of Zeus crumbled a few decades later.

Nike was the Greek Goddess of Victory.

According to legend, the Olympics began in 776 BC, with a footrace held during Olympia's Zeus festival. After that, when Greeks flocked to Olympia's rural sanctuary every four years to praise Zeus, they stayed for the thrill of Nike and the agony of defeat. Similar games were held at Delphi and other sanctuaries, but Olympia's games reigned supreme.

Like the modern games, these competitions were intended to reveal the most skilled athletes. But a lack of protective gear, random pairings that failed to account for size, and few rules made the ancient Olympics into a most dangerous game. Athletes could die trying to please the crowd.

Battered Ears, Broken Men


Forget restrictions against low blows, kidney punches, and hitting a man while he's down. Ancient boxing was closer to a barroom brawl. Fighters were free to unleash a flurry of blows on a cowering opponent. Rounds didn't exist; men simply fought until one cried uncle or got knocked out cold.

At first, boxers wrapped soft leather straps called himantes around their hands to lessen the impact of their blows. But with each passing Olympiad, the straps grew harder. In some cases, metal was added for an especially memorable right hook. It's hardly surprising, then, that in one of his dialogues, Plato refers to boxers as "those with the battered ears."

Wrestlers couldn't bite, gouge eyes, or grab genitals. But choke holds and joint locks were legit. One particularly violent event, the pankration, combined wrestling and boxing. Athletes fought barehanded (without himantes), punching, kicking, and grappling to win. On one occasion, an athlete who was strangled to death was judged the winner, and his corpse was crowned with the prized olive wreath.

The Quick and the Nude

Those with Hermes's speed proudly raced barefoot and naked, but legend suggests that this wasn't always so. An ancient story circulated that the tradition of nudity among athletes at the games began in 720 BC when an eager sprinter simply lost his shorts.

Runners had four races to choose from, all measured by the length of the 210-yard (192-meter) stadium. The first was called the stadion or stade, a sprint exactly one stadium long. The next race was double that length, while the third was long distance--between 7 and 24 stades.

The other race was the hoplitodromos, an exhausting two- to four-stade sprint by runners encumbered with 50 to 60 pounds (23 to 27 kg) of hoplite armor. Eventually, nakedness won out there, too, and racers just grabbed heavy helmets and shields. A starting rope ensured few jumped the gun; those who did were beaten.

Chariots of Fire

Like the fighters and the runners, Greek jockeys also competed sans pants. No saddles or stirrups either. But they never got much credit for being real athletes. As in modern times, it was expensive to buy, stable, and train a horse. Jockeys were considered mere employees. The victorious owner, not the jockey, was crowned with the olive wreath.

The real glamour lay in the chariot races. The four-horse chariot race, called the tethrippon, was the real crowd pleaser. According to some accounts, Greek women could vie for the olive wreath in this category as horse owners--though under practically every other circumstance, married women were expressly forbidden to watch the games.

Complaints that the horse races were rigged cropped up frequently. In AD 67, the extravagant and eccentric Roman emperor Nero staged a unique ten-horse chariot race. Judges declared him the winner despite the fact that he fell from his chariot and failed to complete the race. Later historians duly struck Nero's name from the list of champions.

And for the Overachiever . . .

There was the pentathlon--"pent" for five events: sprinting, long jumping, javelin hurling, discus throwing, and wrestling. The philosopher Aristotle called pentathlon competitors the most beautiful athletes of all, since their bodies were "capable of enduring all efforts."

Discus and javelin hurling required balance, agility, and strength. The saucer-shaped discus was more or less a lead or stone Frisbee, while the wood javelin was a six-foot (2-meter) pole with a leather thong near the center to help the hurler keep a firm hold. Long jumpers used barbell-shaped weights called halteres to increase their distance, in a swinging motion physicists say really does work.



The games concluded as they began: with a sacrifice to the gods. Winners returned home to be feted with banquets, parades, and money. Some were even granted free meals for the rest of their lives. The defeated went home in disgrace.


--Claire Vail

















Chariots of Fire



Like the fighters and the runners, Greek jockeys also competed sans pants. No saddles or stirrups either. But they never got much credit for being real athletes. As in modern times, it was expensive to buy, stable, and train a horse. Jockeys were considered mere employees. The victorious owner, not the jockey, was crowned with the olive wreath.



The real glamour lay in the chariot races. The four-horse chariot race, called the tethrippon, was the real crowd pleaser. According to some accounts, Greek women could vie for the olive wreath in this category as horse owners--though under practically every other circumstance, married women were expressly forbidden to watch the games.



Complaints that the horse races were rigged cropped up frequently. In AD 67, the extravagant and eccentric Roman emperor Nero staged a unique ten-horse chariot race. Judges declared him the winner despite the fact that he fell from his chariot and failed to complete the race. Later historians duly struck Nero's name from the list of champions.



And for the Overachiever . . .



There was the pentathlon--"pent" for five events: sprinting, long jumping, javelin hurling, discus throwing, and wrestling. The philosopher Aristotle called pentathlon competitors the most beautiful athletes of all, since their bodies were "capable of enduring all efforts."



Discus and javelin hurling required balance, agility, and strength. The saucer-shaped discus was more or less a lead or stone Frisbee, while the wood javelin was a six-foot (2-meter) pole with a leather thong near the center to help the hurler keep a firm hold. Long jumpers used barbell-shaped weights called halteres to increase their distance, in a swinging motion physicists say really does work.



The games concluded as they began: with a sacrifice to the gods. Winners returned home to be feted with banquets, parades, and money. Some were even granted free meals for the rest of their lives. The defeated went home in disgrace.


Read from Claire Vail, Knowledge News