Greek Identity and the Olympic Games

1. Greek Identity and the Olympic Games Part I

2. Introduction Olympic Games= a series of various athletic competitions that were taking place at the site of Olympia, Greece. The participants were from the city-states of Greece They begun first in 774 BC and lasted till 393 AD.

4. Olympia Two major temples were located at the sanctuary of Olympia. Temple of Zeus Temple of Hera The temple of Zeus contained an enormous ivory and gold statue of Zeus sculpted by Pheidias. The statue was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

7. The Games The Olympic Games were held at Olympia every four years. Initially the only event was the stadion race, a race over about 190 metres. Later the games increased to include boxing, wrestling, pagkration, spear throwing, pentathlon, etc. Only free men who spoke Greek were allowed to participate in the games.

8. Olympic Truce During the Olympic Games a truce or ekecheiria was observed by all the city states. Three runners known as spondophoroi were sent from Olympia to the various participant cities at each set of games to announce the beginning of the truce. During this period armies were forbidden from entering Olympia, wars were suspended and legal disputes and the use of the death penalty were forbidden. The truce was primarily designed to allow athletes and visitors to travel safely to the games.

9. Awards for the Games There were no monetary awards for the games. Instead the winners were receiving olive wreaths, palm branches and woollen ribbons. No women were allowed to participate. The athletes were competing naked as the festival was celebrating the achievements of the human body.

14. Herodotus, Histories , 8.26.3 When the Persian military officer Tigranes "heard that the prize was not money but a crown [of olive], he could not hold his peace, but cried, 'Good heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these that you have pitted us against? It is not for money they contend but for glory of achievement!'"  

15. Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon , 179 Do you think, fellow citizens, that any man would ever have been willing to train for the pancratium or any other of the harder contests in the Olympic games...if the crown were given, not to the best man, but to the man who had successfully intrigued for it? No man would ever have been willing. But as it is, because the reward is rare...and because of the competition and the honor, and the undying fame that victory brings, men are willing to risk their bodies, and at the cost of the most severe discipline to carry the struggle to the end.  

16. Pausanias, Description of Greece , 6.10.1 Glaucus, the son of Demylus, was a farmer."The ploughshare one day fell out of the plough, and he fitted it into its place, using his hand as a hammer; Demylus happened to be a spectator of his son's performance, and thereupon brought him to Olympia to box. There Glaucus, inexperienced in boxing, was wounded... and he was thought to be fainting from the number of his wounds. Then they say that his father called out to him, 'Son, the plough touch.' So he dealt his opponent a more violent blow which... brought him the victory. "  

17. Pausanias, Description of Greece,  6. 11. 5 His ambition was, I think, to rival Achilles by winning a prize for running in the fatherland of the swiftest of those who are called heroes. The total number of crowns that he won was one thousand four hundred. ...