Tours: The Olympic Games

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Take a day-by-day look at the prestigious Olympic Games!

Opening RemarksDay OneDay TwoSinging PraisesPentathlonDay ThreeDay Four

• Barnabas: Hail, friend, and welcome to Olympia, home of the Olympic Games!

("Who are you?")

• Barnabas: My name is Barnabas, and I'm a ship captain. Don't be fooled by my eye! Though I've seen my share of combat, I mostly stick to trading these days. Well, trading and introducing visitors like you to wonderful sites like this.

("What do you think of this place?")

• Barnabas: I've often dreamed of competing in the Games—if my sight was better, my legs and arms were stronger, and my coin purse was fatter. But that is not what the Gods want, so I continue making the best of the path they've laid out for me.

("Let's begin the tour.")

• Barnabas: We're standing in the main section of Olympia, where the Olympic Games themselves took place. Over the course of the festival, athletes competed against each other for prestige and glory—to honor themselves and their cities. Enjoy your visit, friend. I'll check in when you're done to make sure you've been paying attention.

Red-figure kylix (drinking up) with scene of warrior blowing in trumpet / 500 BCE (Archaic Greece)

The first day of the Olympic festival began with a swearing-in ceremony for the participating athletes, trainers, and judges.

The ceremony took place in front of the altar of Zeus Horkios, or "Zeus of the Oath".

Athletes would swear that they would follow the Olympic rules, while judges promised to be fair and unbiased.

Then the competitions began, starting with a contest between heralds and trumpeters over who would have the privilege of announcing the Games.

The first day's athletic competitions consisted of wrestling, running, and boxing events for the youngest athletes, aged twelve to eighteen.

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The competition of heralds and trumpeters was introduced to the Olympic Games in 396 BCE. The winners of the contest were chosen based on their loudness and clarity.

During the games, the trumpeter's main purpose was to demand the audience's attention, while the herald announced the start of competitions.

The herald also proclaimed the names, fathers, and hometowns of the victorious athletes during the final crowning ceremony.

Quadriga racer crowned by Nike on reverse of a decadrachm of Syracuse / 405-400 BCE (Classical Greece)

The second day began with a grand procession into the hippodrome to celebrate the start of the popular equestrian events.

The most anticipated and spectacular of these was the quadriga, a four-horse chariot race.

Horse-racing events unique in that the winner was not the most skilled jockey, but the owner of the fastest horse or chariot.

The Spartan princess Kyniska once took advantage of this loophole to skirt the rule that women weren't allowed to compete, and earned two Olympic victories in the process.

The rule also allowed for occasionally strange results, like in 416 BCE, when the statesman Alkibiades entered seven chariots into a race and won first, second, and fourth place.

After the equestrian, the 40,000 spectators migrated to the stadium to watch the pentathlon events.

When the day's events were over, funeral rites were performed for the hero Pelops, the mythical founder of the Olympic Games.

The night ended with a celebratory feast and a great parade in honor of the day's victors.

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The Athenian statesman once bought and enrolled seven chariots in a race. This turned out to be a good investment, as his purchases ended up winning first, second, and fourth place.

Alkibiades's victory earned him an enormous feast and an equally enormous boost in popularity. He leveraged his popularity to wield considerable power over Athens' other politicians, and would often reference his Olympic feat to get people to take his side on a variety of issues.

This backfired spectacularly when Alkibiades convinced Athens to send a military expedition to Sicily. The expedition ended in disaster, and signaled the beginning of the end of Athens' power.

Pindar, oil painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) / 1830-1867 (Modern period)

Victory at the Olympic Games was one of the highest honors a mortal could achieve, and there were several ways to immortalize that honor.

Some athletes had statues erected of themselves, while others commissioned poets to write them victory odes.

Oral tradition was very important to the Greeks. These odes, called epinikia, were often composed by the finest poets of the land, such as Pindar, Simonides, and Bacchylides.

They were usually played at banquets and celebrations attended by the triumphant athlete, or upon his departure from Olympia.

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Pindar (518 BCE – 443 BCE) was a Greek poet who orginally hailed from Thebes. He was very sought after in his time, and composed several odes for victorious athletes.

Pindar's popularity earned him commissions all over Greece, from Sicily in the west, all the way to Cyrene in North Africa. Many of the commissions were from members of the ruling aristocracy, such as Hieron of Syracuse, for whom Pindar composed four odes.

Black-figure skyphos with scene of wrestling / 500 BCE (Archaic Greece)

The pentathlon took place at the stadium on the second day.

As its name implies, it was made up of five events, discus throwing, javelin throwing, jumping, racing, and wrestling.

There are several differences between the ancient version of events and their contemporary counterparts.

For example, ancient long jumpers held weights in their hands to give them momentum to launch, since there was no run-up before the jump.

Similarly, if an athlete won the first three events, they were immediately declared the winner, instead of being judged by their overall performance in all five events.

Running events worked the same as they do today – with the notable exception of all athletes being nude.

As for wrestling, competitors were not divided by weight class as they are today, but instead my age. The winner was the first to throw his opponent to the ground three times.

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Earlier Olympic Games were only open to adult men. At the 37th Olympiad in 632 BCE, paides (young boys) were welcomed to compete in stadion races and wrestling, albeit in a seperate category from the older competitors.

The youngest competitor to ever win an Olympic event was Damiskos of Messene, who won the stadion race in 368 BCE at the age of twelve. He continued to win well into adulthood, contradicting Aristotle's belief that a child athlete's success never carried over into adulthood.

Panathenaic amphora with dolichos runners / 332-331 BCE (Classical Greece)

Day three started with the most important event of the festival.

A procession of hellanodikai, ambassadors, competitors, animals made their way to the Great Altar in front of the Temple of Zeus.

The animals were then offered as the offical sacrifice of the festival.

The afternoon of day three was dedicated to foot-racing events. Running was the oldest even of the Games, and in fact was the only event at the first Olympics.

The main race was called the stadion, which was a sprint of around 180 meters.

The winner was granted the honor of lending his name to the four-year period between the Games. This period was known as the Olympiad.

For example, the four years that followed the first games in 776 BCE were known as the Olympiad of Koroibos of Elis, the first Olympic champion.

Once all the competitions were over, a public banquet was held in the prytaneion to celebrate the day's victors.

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Running events were categorized by length. The stadion race was named after its unit of measurement. In Greece, a stadion was equal to about 180 meters.

The diaulos race was twice the distance of the stadion, as runners had to run the length of the track, then run back. Its name was derived from the aulos, a flute whose V-shaped matched the round trip of the race.

The dolichos was a long distance race where competitors ran approximately twenty or twenty-four times the length of the stadion. Since it was less exciting to watch than a shorter, fast-paced race, the dolichos served as an opening events.

Hoplitodromos runner on starting position / 500-450 BCE (Classical Greece)

Day four was mainly for combat events.

Wrestling matches were held in the morning, followed by boxing and pankration.

Pankration was a no-holds-barred mix between wrestling and boxing.

Almost all moves were permitted, except for biting, poking the eyes or mouth, and striking the genitals.

The event was very popular, and it was seen as the ultimate expression of strength and technique.

Later on in the afternoon, there was a unique racing event called the hoplitodromos, "race in armor".

In this event, competitors wore a helmet and held a shield to simulate running in the battlefield.

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The hoplitodromos originated in 520 BCE, at the 65th Olympiad. It consisted of twenty-five competitors running the same length as the diaulos race while carrying bronze shields provided for them from the Temple of Zeus.

The hoplitodromos was emblematic of the close relationship in Greece between sports and war. Both shared qualities admired by the Greeks, such as effort, endurance, and courage.

HellanodikaiCheaters' StellaPrytaneionClosing Remarks

Panathenaic amphora with scene of pankration with judge / 500 BCE (Archaic Greece)

The hellanodikai, or "judges of the Greeks", were both the Games' adjudicators and their organizers.

They hailed from Elis, the city in charge of the sanctuary of Olympia, and new judges were elected each Olympiad.

They had several responsibilities.

Before the games started, they decided which athletes would be allowed to compete and supervised their training.

They also drew lots to make the competition brackets.

During the Games themselves, they picked the winners and kept an eye out for foul play.

For the latter, they were assisted by stick and whip wielding umpires who stood near the athletes and punished them if they were caught cheating.

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Athletes came to Olympia in pursuit of glory, but sometimes that pursuit was fatal. There was always a chance of death at the Games, and some events, like boxing and pankration, were extremely dangerous.

Competitors were aware of this danger, and some even embraced it. In fact, before events, many athletes prayed for Zeus to grant them either victory or death.

Arguably the most infamous death was that of Arrichion. A two-time pankration champion, Arrichion was looking to win a third title for himself in 564 BCE. He made it all the way to the final match, but then his opponent put him in a stranglehold.

Desperate to escape, Arrichion kicked hard at his opponent's foot, dislocating it in the process. The pain caused the opponent to submit to the umpires, but at the same time, Arrichion tried twisting out of his grip. The movement snapped Arrichion's neck and killed him, but since his opponent had submitted mere seconds before, Arrichion was still declared the victor.

Zeus throwing a thunderbolt / 4th-3rd cent. BCE (Hellenstic Greece)

Victory in Olympia was one of the most prestigious honors in all of Greece.

Not only would victors be showered in glory in their home city, but their names would be known across Greece.

The temptation to glory led some athletes to break their oath to Zeus and cheat.

This could be dangerous, as there were many possible punishments should cheaters be caught.

They could be disqualified and fined - - Or, if they were caught cheating during a match, they would be beaten by nearby umpires.

The most powerful deterrent of cheating, however, was shame.

At the foot of Mount Kronios a. on the way to the stadium were a group of bronze statues called Zanes, the plural of Zeus.

These statues were inscribed with the names of the cheating athletes, how they cheated, and the fine that was imposed.

The Lanes - which were funded by cheaters' fines - were strategically placed to be highly visible.

Individuals or even entire cities could be found guilty of cheating.

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Ambition sometimes Led athletes to bribery. This was seen as extremely odious, as the Games started with them swearing an oath to Zeus himself that they would follow the rules.

Even so, corruption still found its way into the Games. Both the boxer Eupolos of Thessaly and the pankratiast Kallipos of Athens paid other competitors to Let them win.

Hellanodikai could also be corrupt, although incidences of them cheating were less common. For example, in 372 BCE, a judge was suspected of corruption when he won two horse races, and as a consequence, his right to buy horses and chariots was suspended.

Red-figure dinos with scene of banquet / 375-350 BCE (Classical Greece)

The prytaneion was the administrative center of the cult of Olympia and the Olympic games.

The building housed the sanctuary's priests, as well as the Games' officials.

It was also used to stage the grand banquet held on the evening of the third day to honor victors.

It also had a sacred function.

Its central chamber was the location of the Fire of Hestia, a sacred flame that burned day and night.

This fire was used to light the other altars around the II, sanctuary. This practice may have partially inspired the modern tradition of carrying the Olympic Torch.

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Public and private banquets played different roles in Greek society.

Private banquets were held for aristocrats to meet, discuss ideas, and display their wealth and power.

Public banquets, on the other hand, were usually organized by the state and thrown for civic, religious, or political reasons. They also helped reinforce a sense of unity and social order.

The religious aspects of public banquets were reflected in their meals, which usually consisted of meat leftover from an earlier animal sacrifice.

("I'm ready for the quiz.") ("Take on the next suggested tour.") ("Take me on a random tour.") ([LEAVE] "That's all for now.")

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