The ancient Olympic Games were more than just athletic competitions – they were a crucial part of Greek culture, where sports, religion, and society intertwined. At the sacred site of Olympia, Greek tribes had gathered since time immemorial to honor their gods, compete in sports, and strengthen their unity.
Note: This is a reworked article written by Georgios Xyftilis, originally published in the Swedish journal Sport & Affärer, year 2008. You can download the complete event issue of the journal in PDF format here>>
The Games were held in honor of the god Zeus at the sanctuary in Olympia every four years. They were documented from 776 BC until the end of the 4th century CE, when they were discontinued.
Ode to the Olympic Games, freely adapted from Pindar:
As water is the most precious of the elements,
and gold the most valuable of substances,
as the sun shines brightest among the stars,
so Olympia outshines and overshadows all other competitions.
The Sanctuary of Olympia
Olympia was not an ancient Greek city-state or even a city, but it was one of the holiest places for the Hellenes since ancient times. The various Greek tribes had gathered here from the earliest recorded history to offer sacrifices to the gods and reinforce the Panhellenic identity.
In classical times, Olympia was an impressive and magnificent sight. In addition to the numerous sports facilities, there was also the Olympic Parliament, the magnificent Town Hall – Prytaneion, where the eternal Olympic Flame was kept. There were also waterworks, hot springs, bathing facilities, residences, training rooms, hundreds of temples, statues, and monuments dedicated to heroes, gods, and former Olympic victors.
The most magnificent of all temples was the Temple of Zeus, where the giant statue of Zeus stood. This was the masterpiece of the sculptor Pheidias and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The Games in time
Scholars are still not entirely in agreement on when the very first games in Olympia took place. However, several ancient writings and archaeological finds indicate that their roots can be traced back to ancient burial or fertility rituals, long before 776 BC, when the first games are believed to have occurred.
This year was also the beginning of the so-called Olympic calendar. The calendar was based on four-year periods between the Olympic Games, and each such period was called an Olympiad. However, the roots of the ancient Olympic Games go back to the mysterious and obscure landscapes of the mythological era.
In several myths, it is told that the area around the sacred grove Altis in Olympia was the place where the young god Zeus finally defeated his father, the Titan Kronos, and took his place as the father of gods and humans. He founded the Games in memory of this great victory.
Still, other myths attribute the founding of the ancient Olympic Games to the Panhellenic hero Heracles. According to tradition, it was Heracles who planted the sacred olive tree in Altis, with whose branches the kotinos – the wreath with which the Olympic victors were crowned – was woven.
It is also said that it was Heracles who measured out the later standardized ancient Greek length measurement stadium with his strides, which in Olympia’s arena has been measured to be 632 feet (192.7 meters).
Hero worship and legends
For the ancient Greeks, hero worship was extremely important, and many local heroes were celebrated as much as the Olympic gods. In Olympia, on the eastern side of the Temple of Zeus, the legend of the hero Pelops was prominently inscribed. Pelops has given his name to the entire large peninsula of Peloponnese (Pelops’ island).
Pelops, son of Tantalus and prince of Lydia, sought the hand of Hippodameia, daughter of Oinomaos, king of the city of Pisa, near Olympia. The king challenged Pelops to a chariot race with his life at stake. None of Hippodameia’s previous suitors had survived this sport.
But Pelops was cunning. He bribed the charioteer Myrtilos to sabotage the royal chariot’s wheels. In this way, King Oinomaos was killed, and the Lydian prince married Hippodameia, became king of Pisa, and founded the Olympic Games in memory of this triumph.
The ancient Olympic Games: international flavor
The ancient Olympic Games were major festivals attracting tens of thousands of participants. It is estimated that 45,000 spectators could fit inside the stadium building alone. During the classical period, the festivities lasted five days and culminated with the magnificent Olympic procession.
The first day was dedicated to the god Zeus, with important ceremonial rituals where the Olympic oath was sworn, and 100 oxen were sacrificed in the god’s honor. Olympia was bustling with people and life during these colorful festivals. Visitors came from as far away as the distant Greek colonies in North Africa, Sicily, and the Black Sea.
In addition to the athletic competitions, there were also singing and music competitions, poets recited poetry, philosophers presented their theories, plays were performed, commerce thrived in the market, speakers spread their messages to the people, grand banquets and other gatherings were held.
The ancient Greek nudity
In most contests, athletes competed naked. The naked and well-trained human body was, for the ancient Greeks, nature’s perfect creation in terms of harmony and beauty. The word gymnasium comes from the Greek γυμνός/gymnos, which means naked. Gymnasiums were originally the facilities where both body and soul were trained, with a combination of sports and music. In ancient times, body and soul were considered an inseparable whole.
Women
As is perhaps well known, women were not allowed to participate in the ancient Olympic Games. Married women were not even allowed to be spectators. Lesser known, is that women had their own games at Olympia, which were also held every four years. They were called the Heraean Games and were dedicated to the great goddess Hera. It is still unknown whether men were allowed to attend the women’s games.
The truce that wasn’t peace
The ancient Olympic Games were always held in the summer, but scholars disagree on the exact time. Most of them claim that they coincided with the first full moon after the summer solstice.
One month before, spondoforoi – special envoys – were sent throughout ancient Greece to proclaim the famous Olympic truce.
It is known that this truce did not mean any comprehensive and universal peace between the city-states. It was more of an old convention that allowed athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators to travel through war zones to Olympia safely and undisturbed.
The various sports disciplines
At the very early ancient Olympics, there was only one athletic event: running on a straight track of one stadium length, 632 feet, (192.7 meters). However, throughout the Olympiads, several events were added: running longer distances up to 24 stadia, about 15,092 feet (4,600 meters), horse races, chariot races, wrestling, boxing, the popular but dangerous combat sport Pankration, running in full armor, and pentathlon, including long jump, javelin, and discus, among others.
The Games were led by specially selected judges, the Hellanodikai who had great authority and were highly respected. Dressed in shining purple and with laurel wreaths around their heads, they led the Olympic procession. The Hellanodikai not only supervised the games. They also oversaw the training and lifestyle of the athletes.
The devastation of Olympia
The ancient Olympic Games, which had lasted for 1,116 years without interruption, were finally discontinued at the end of the 4th century CE. The last documented Games took place in 393. A few years later, a great fire devastated the sanctuary. The remaining monuments were either destroyed or transported to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.
A series of later earthquakes buried the rest of the buildings, and the sacred Olympia was eventually covered in mud and forgotten. 1500 years later, Olympia’s ruins were discovered by German archaeologists, and with the initiative of the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Games were revived in 1896 in Athens. The winners of these first modern Olympic Games received, in addition to a medal, a wild olive branch from Olympia.
Sources other than those mentioned in the text: Greek Wikipedia, Greek Mythology, Andreas Georgiou, Olympia-Greece
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