Athletics and Games of the Ancient Greeks

by Edward M. Plummer

The Isthmian games, instituted in honor of Poseidon, took place at Corinth in the spring and summer alternately of the first and third years of each Olympiad. This alternation was arranged to avoid interference with the Olympian and Pythian festivals. The victor’s prize at the Isthmia was a wreath of pine native to the spot.

Beside the four national festivals, minor games of more frequent recurrence existed all over Hellas. How eagerly the victor in a local exhibition must have turned his eyes towards Nemea, the Isthmus, Pytho, and perhaps even to Olympia may be imagined. Each of the four great festivals had peculiar features of its own. Thus, the Pythian games, probably next to the Olympian in importance, were characterized by competitions in music and poetry in addition to the athletic contests. The Isthmian games were distinguished by the addition of boat-racing and swimming contests.

But all were essentially alike. All were designed as glorifications of the strong and agile body. All were marked with patriotism. All were embellished with the greatest products of Hellenic art. All were held in honor of gods. And a fitting tribute and worship they furnished, not the mumbled prayers of a sallow-visaged, stunted race, but the exultant feats of proud, self-reliant men. All were attended by the most studied and artistic pomp. The greatest lyric poets of Hellas, Simonides and Pindar, for instance, celebrated the victors. Of Pindar’s ἐπινίκια or “Odes of Victory,” we possess fourteen Ὀλυμπιονῖκαι for winners in the Olympian games. Twelve Πυθιονῖκαι for the Pythian games, seven Νεμεονῖκαι for the Nemean games, and eleven Ἰσθμεονῖκαι for the Isthmian games. Even the wise men and famous bards of Greece could not resist the desire to be present. It is said that the Spartan Chilon, one of the seven wise men of Greece, died while witnessing these games, being overcome with joy at his son’s victory. Sages like Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Sokrates, Plato, Aristippos, Diogenes and Thales came, lured not only by the desire of beholding athletic feats, but also eager to engage in debate, or perhaps to explain some new theory of the universe. Statesmen like Themistokles and Kimon resorted to the games and there met the rulers of distant states. Orators and sophists like Gorgias, Lysias and Demosthenes, were present at the Olympian games. The first two made great panegyric speeches. The games on the Isthmus were attended by the great dramatists Aischylos and Ion. Historians like Herodotos carried their scrolls to read before assembled Hellas. Artists came to exhibit their works of art, and perhaps to obtain new customers. Sculptors showed models of their skill, and potters exhibited vases. These games, like the Schwingfest and the shooting-matches of Switzerland, served not only as pleasant occasions of reunion, but tended to the diffusion of national ideas. In the language of John Fiske, “young men of the noblest families and from the farthest Greek colonies came to them, and wrestled and ran, undraped, before countless multitudes of admiring spectators.”

The victor in the foot-race at Olympia was regarded as an honor to his country, and gave his name to the current Olympiad, and on reaching home entered his native city to the notes of a triumphal song written by a Pindar or Simonides. Another significant fact is that the Greek era began with the Olympic games; every period of four years was called an Olympiad.

About twenty miles above the mouth of the Alpheios, in a long, narrow valley surrounded by well-wooded hills, it is joined by the ancient Kladeos, coming from the north. At the angle formed by the junction of the two rivers is the area known as Olympia, the scene of the greatest athletic festival that the world has ever witnessed.

To the north of this plain was a range of rocky hills, the nearest of which was the famous Kronion, conical in shape and about 400 feet in height. As its name signifies, this hill was sacred to Kronos, the father of Zeus. Another low range bounded the valley on the south. The western boundary was the Kladeos. Eastward was the hill of Pisa, and further in the distance were visible the snow-crowned summits of Erymanthos and Kyllene.

During the long centuries that succeeded the extinction of Greek civilization, the precinct of the games, and the equipments, buildings and statues that remained, were gradually covered by a stratum of alluvium from the Alpheios, mixed with a deposit of clay from Kronion. The rest of the world was not interested enough to record the process, and when in modern times scholars saw no trace of the original scene, it was supposed that the Alpheios by its overflowings had destroyed all monuments. Recent excavations, however, have revealed a very precious remnant at the bottom of the alluvium. It was indeed not really a misfortune that during periods when the products of old civilizations were treated with fanaticism on the one hand, and rapacity on the other, the Olympian scene was covered with earth rather than left exposed to the hand of Middle Age barbarians.

The systematic excavation of Olympia was undertaken in 1875 by the German government. The work involved great expense, and the willingness of the Germans to undertake and execute the task has brought them much praise from the scholars of other countries. The excavations were completed on the 20th of March, 1881.