To honor Zeus
The athletes marched slowly down the great way to the grove of Altis at Olympia, the most sacred site of Zeus, the ruler or gods. In to days the Olympic Games would start. So important was the event that a halt was always called to the feuding between the Greeks states. Heralds were sent out around the Mediterranean, giving the official dates of the festival and announcing a truce. This year, 376 BC, the 100th games were to take place.
After the procession, the athletes and their entourages pitched their tents around the Olympic complex, Artists, souvenir sellers and vendors of food and wine shouted their wares; horse-traders made deals; politicians talked peace. As night fell, fires were built up, the smell of spit-roasts filled the air and singers chanted tales of battles won and lost.
The games took place every four years, and preparations began about a year in advance. Ten judges, the hellanodikai, were chosen by lot from the ruling families of the nearby city of Elis. They preside over the preparations as well as the events themselves. Tracks and accommodation were made ready. About a month before the games, athletes with trainers in tow arrived and went into a training regime under supervision of the judges, who made sure the competitors were of Greek descent, fit, properly trained and that they followed strict diets.
Sacred Stadium
The main stadium at Olympia, built around 350 BC, stands outside the temple complex, but all races were arranged to finish at the end nearest the temple. The track was straight, instead of oval, so athletes ran back and forth in longer races.
In Step
Athletes compete in a running race. Each Olympiad, or period of four years between games, was named after the winner of the sprint face.
Fit for Battle
Contestants wearing helmets and leg protectors and carrying shield run in the hoplitodromos, the race-in-armor, which was introduced in 520 BC.
Sporting prowess
Over five busy days, the games combined athletics with sacrifices to the gods. The program varied over the centuries, but long jump, boxing, chariot races, foot and horse races were usually included. Most taxing was the pentathlon, in which athletes had to prove their prowess at five disciplines: running, jumping, discus, javelin and wrestling.
Agility and Grace
Twisting his torso, an athlete begins to throw his discus. Greeks made only a single three-quarter turn instead of spinning twice like modern athletes. A typical bronze discus from the 6th century BC weighing 1.35 kg is dedicated to Castor, the son of the god Zeus, renowned for his discus throwing.
Because horses were expensive to keep and to train, horse and chariot races were events for the Greek elite. Bareback horse racing in the hippodrome was especially dangerous, because it was held after chariot races which damaged and track. The biggest crowd-puller was the pankration- wrestling with no holds barred. Eye-gouging and biting were forbidden, but a favorite trick was to break an opponent's fingers.
Pankatrion
Rough and Tumble
A wrestler acknowledges defeat by raising his index finger. Wrestlers, like all the other athletes, competed naked and covered with olive oil, but they also coated themselves with a layer of dust to enable opponents to get a grip.
Flying Leap
An athlete takes part in a jumping contest holding halteres or jumping weights. The record was 53 ft, so the event must have been a triple jump- a hop, a skip and a jump. To help the athletes to concentrate during the long jump- considered to be the most difficult event- music was played.
Weight and Balance
Hand-held weights used by athletes to give them extra momentum in the long jump were either cast in bronze or carved from stone with finger holds. They weighed between 1-4.5 kg.
A win at the Olympics was the greatest triumph a Greek athlete could achieve. Although the prize was initially just a wreath of wild olive leaves, it was accompanied by adulation. An individual's win was a win for his city. Athletes returned home to triumphal processions and civic banquets. Poets were hired to write odes in their honor, statues were erected to them and an Athenian winner could look forward to dining at the city's expense for the rest of his life. By 376 BC, the pressure to win had already begun to erode the ideal of competing to honor Zeus. Though the games were open to all, only the wealthy could afford to make the trip and hire a trainer. Professional athletes traveled around the ancient world, going from one competition to the next. The games stopped being held- until their modern revival in 1896- at the end of the 4th century AD, possibly because the Christian emperor, Theodosius I, objected to their setting at the heart of a pagan festival.
