Ancient Olympic Games

The ancient Olympic Games (Ὀλυμπιακοί ἀγώνες, "Olympiakoi agones") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC.[1] They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor Theodosius I, who having been converted to Christianity, banned pagan festivals. He banned the olympics in AD 394 as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome.[2] The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies.

For the modern event, see Olympic Games.

The palaestra of Olympia, a place devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes
Olympic Games
Main topics
Games

During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rivals. Politicians would announce political alliances at the games, and in times of war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory. The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sculptors and poets would congregate each olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons.

The ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate,[3] although there were victorious women chariot owners. As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate. The games were always held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations as is the practice with the modern Olympic Games.[4] Victors at the Olympics were honored, and their feats chronicled for future generations.

An artist's impression of ancient Olympia

Origin mythology

To the Ancient Greeks, it was important to root the Olympic Games in mythology.[5] During the time of the ancient games their origins were attributed to the gods, and competing legends persisted as to who actually was responsible for the genesis of the games.[6]

These origin traditions have become nearly impossible to untangle, yet a chronology and patterns have arisen that help people understand the story behind the games.[7] Greek historian, Pausanias provides a story about the dactyl Heracles (not to be confused with the son of Zeus and the Roman god Hercules) and four of his brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius and Idas, who raced at Olympia to entertain the newborn Zeus. He crowned the victor with an olive wreath (which thus became a peace symbol), which also explains the four-year interval, bringing the games around every fifth year (counting inclusively).[8][9] The other Olympian gods (so named because they lived permanently on Mount Olympus) would also engage in wrestling, jumping and running contests.[10]

Another myth of the origin of the games is the story of Pelops, a local Olympian hero. Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, Greece, had a daughter named Hippodamia, and according to an oracle, the king would be killed by her husband. Therefore, he decreed that any young man who wanted to marry his daughter was required to drive away with her in his chariot, and Oenomaus would follow in another chariot, and spear the suitor if he caught up with them. Now, the king's chariot horses were a present from the god Poseidon and therefore supernaturally fast. The king's daughter fell in love with a man called Pelops. Before the race, she persuaded her father's charioteer Myrtilus to replace the bronze axle pins of the king's chariot with wax ones. Naturally, during the race, the wax melted and the king fell from his chariot and was killed. After his victory, Pelops organized chariot races as a thanksgiving to the gods and as funeral games in honor of King Oenomaus, in order to be purified of his death. It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the beginnings of the Olympic Games were inspired. Pelops became a great king, a local hero, and he gave his name to the Peloponnese.

One (later) myth, attributed to Pindar, states that the festival at Olympia involved Heracles, the son of Zeus: According to Pindar, Heracles established an athletic festival to honor his father, Zeus, after he had completed his labors.

The patterns that emerge from these myths are that the Greeks believed the games had their roots in religion, that athletic competition was tied to worship of the gods, and the revival of the ancient games was intended to bring peace, harmony and a return to the origins of Greek life.[11]

History

The Olympic games were held to be one of the two central rituals in ancient Greece, the other being the much older religious festival, the Eleusinian Mysteries.[12]

Prehistory

Areas around the Mediterranean had a long tradition of athletic events. Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians depicted athletic scenes in tombs of kings and their nobles. They did not, however, hold regular competitions, and those events that occurred were probably the preserve of kings and upper classes. Minoans culture held gymnastics in high esteem, with bull-leaping, tumbling, running, wrestling and boxing shown on their frescoes. The Myceneans adopted Minoan games and also raced chariots in religious or funerary ceremonies. [13][14] Homer's heroes participate in athletic competitions to honor the dead. In the Iliad there are chariot races, boxing, wrestling, a foot race, as well as fencing, archery, and spear throwing. The Odyssey adds to these a long jump and discus throw.[15]

First games

Aristotle reckoned the date of the first Olympics to be 776 BC, a date largely accepted by most, though not all, subsequent ancient historians.[16] It is still the traditionally given date and archaeological finds confirm, approximately, the Olympics starting at or soon after this time.[17]

Olympiad calendar

The historian Ephorus, who lived in the fourth century BC, is one potential candidate for establishing the use of Olympiads to count years, although credit for codifying this particular epoch usually falls to Hippias of Elis, to Eratosthenes, or even to Timaeus, whom Eratosthenes may have imitated.[18][19][20] The Olympic Games were held at four-year intervals, and later, the ancient historians' method of counting the years even referred to these games, using Olympiad for the period between two games. Previously, the local dating systems of the Greek states were used (they continued to be used by everyone except the historians), which led to confusion when trying to determine dates. For example, Diodorus states that there was a solar eclipse in the third year of the 113th Olympiad, which must be the eclipse of 316 BC. This gives a date of (mid-summer) 765 BC for the first year of the first Olympiad.[21] Nevertheless, there is disagreement among scholars as to when the games began.[22]

The exedra reserved for the judges at Olympia on the south embankment of the stadium

The only competition held at first, according to the later Greek traveller Pausanias who wrote in AD 175, was the stadion, a race over about 190 metres (620 feet), measured after the feet of Hercules. The word stadium is derived from this event.

Early history

Several groups fought over control of the sanctuary at Olympia, and hence the games, for prestige and political advantage. Pausanias later writes that in 668 BC, Pheidon of Argos was commissioned by the town of Pisa to capture the sanctuary from the town of Elis, which he did and then personally controlled the games for that year. The next year, Elis regained control.

In the first 200 years of the games' existence, they only had regional religious importance. Only Greeks in proximity to the Olympia competed in these early games. This is evidenced by the dominance of Peloponnesian athletes in the victors' rolls.[23]

The Olympic Games were part of the Panhellenic Games, four separate games held at two- or four-year intervals, but arranged so that there was at least one set of games every year. The Olympic Games were more important and more prestigious than the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games.

Imperial period
This model shows the site of Olympia, home of the ancient Olympic Games, as it looked around 100 BC. British Museum

Roman conquest of Greece

After the Roman conquest of Greece the Olympics continued but the event declined in popularity throughout the pre-Augustan era. During this period, Romans largely concentrated on domestic problems, and paid less attention to their provinces. The fact that all equestrian victors were from the immediate locality and that there is a "paucity of victor statues in the Altis" from this period suggests the games were somewhat neglected.[24]

In 86 BC the Roman general Sulla robbed Olympia and other Greek treasuries to finance a war. He was the only Roman to commit violence against Olympia.[25] Sulla hosted the games in 80 BC as a celebration of his victories over Mithridates. Supposedly the only contest held was the stadion race because all the athletes had been called to Rome.[26]

Augustus

Under the rule of emperor Augustus the Olympics underwent a revival. Before he came to full power, Augustus' right-hand man Marcus Agrippa restored the damaged temple of Zeus and in 12 BC Augustus asked King Herod of Judea to subsidize the games. While no Roman ever entered an athletic event at Olympia, in the early years of Augustus reign some of his associates, including future emperor Tiberius, won equestrian events.

After Augustus declared himself a god he founded a cult to himself at Olympia. He dedicated a statue to himself that was three times lifesize in the likeness of Zeus.[27] Subsequent divine emperors also had statues erected within the sacred Altis. The stadium was renovated at his command and Greek athletics in general were subsidized.[28]

Nero

One of the most infamous events of Olympic history occurred under the rule of Nero. He desired victory in all chariot races of the Panhellenic Games in a single year, so he ordered the four main hosts to hold their games in 67 AD and therefore the scheduled Olympics of 65 AD were postponed. At Olympia he was thrown from his chariot, but still claimed victory. Nero also considered himself a talented musician, so he added contests in music and singing to those festivals that lacked them, including the Olympics. Despite his terrible singing, he won all the contests, no doubt because judges were afraid to award victory to anyone else. After his assassination, the Olympic judges had to repay the bribes he had bestowed and declared the "Neronian Olympiad" to be void.[29]

Renaissance

In the first half of the second century, the Philhellenic emperors, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius oversaw a new and successful phase in the history of the games. The Olympics attracted a great number of spectators and competitors and the victors' fame spread across the Roman Empire. The renaissance endured for most of the second century. Once again, "philosophers, orators, artists, religious proselytizers, singers, and all kinds of performers went to the festival of Zeus." [30]

Decline

The 3rd century saw a decline in the popularity of the games. The victory list of Africanus ends at the Olympiad of 217 and no surviving text of subsequent authors mention any new Olympic victors. Excavated inscriptions show the games continued, however. Until recently the last securely datable winner was Publius Asclepiades of Corinth who won the pentathlon in 241 AD. In 1994 a bronze plaque was found inscribed with victors of the combative events hailing from the mainland and Asia Minor; proof that an international Olympic Games continued until at least 385 AD.[31]

The games continued past AD 385, by which time flooding and earthquakes had damaged the buildings and invasions by barbarians had reached Olympia.[32] In 394 Theodosius I banned all pagan festivals, including the Olympics, but archeological evidence indicates that some games were still held.[2]

Location
Olympia over the ages.

Areas of note: 2: Prytaneion, 4: Temple of Hera, 5: Pelopion, 10: Stadium, 15: Temple of Zeus, 20: Gymnasium, 21: Palaestra, 26: Greek Baths, 29: Leonidaion, 31: Bouleuterion

Olympia lies in the valley of the Alfeiós River (Romanized as Alpheus) in the western part of the Peloponnese, today around 18 km away from the Ionian Sea but perhaps, in antiquity, half that distance.[33] The Altis, as the sanctuary as was originally known, was an irregular quadrangular area more than 180 meters on each side and walled except to the North where it was bounded by the Mount Kronos.[34] It consisted of a somewhat disordered arrangement of buildings, the most important of which are the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Zeus, the Pelopion and the area of the great altar of Zeus, where the largest sacrifices were made. The name Altis was derived from a corruption of the Elean word also meaning "the grove" because the area was wooded, olive and plane trees in particular.[35]

Uninhabited throughout the year, when the games were held the site became overcongested. There were no permanent living structures for spectators, who rich or poor, made do with tents. Ancient visitors recall being plagued by summer heat and flies; such a problem that sacrifices were made to Zeus Averter of Flies. The site's water supply and sanitation was finally improved after nearly a thousand years, by the mid-second century AD.[36]

But you may say, there are some things disagreeable and troublesome in life. And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched? Are you not pressed by a crowd? Are you not without comfortable means of bathing? Are you not wet when it rains? Have you not abundance of noise, clamour, and other disagreeable things? But I suppose that setting all these things off against the magnificence of the spectacle, you bear and endure.

— Epictetus, 1st century AD

Culture
The Discobolus is a copy of a Greek statue c. 5th century BC. It represents an ancient Olympic discus thrower

The ancient Olympics were as much a religious festival as an athletic event. The games were held in honor of the Greek god Zeus, and on the middle day of the games, 100 oxen would be sacrificed to him.[4] Over time Olympia, the site of the games, became a central spot for the worship of the head of the Greek pantheon and a temple, built by the Greek architect Libon, was erected on the mountaintop. The temple was one of the largest Doric temples in Greece.[4] The sculptor Pheidias created a statue of the god made of gold and ivory. It stood 42 feet (13 m) tall. It was placed on a throne in the temple. The statue became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.[4] As the historian Strabo put it,

... the glory of the temple persisted ... on account both of the festal assembly and of the Olympian Games, in which the prize was a crown and which were regarded as sacred, the greatest games in the world. The temple was adorned by its numerous offerings, which were dedicated there from all parts of Greece.[4]

Artistic expression was a major part of the games. Sculptors, poets, painters and other artisans would come to the games to display their works in what became an artistic competition. Poets would be commissioned to write poems in praise of the Olympic victors. Such victory songs or epinicians, were passed on from generation to generation and many of them have lasted far longer than any other honor made for the same purpose.[37] Pierre de Coubertin, one of the founders of the modern Olympic Games, wanted to fully imitate the ancient Olympics in every way. Included in his vision was an artistic competition modeled on the ancient Olympics and held every four years, during the celebration of the Olympic Games.[38] His desire came to fruition at the Olympics held in Athens in 1896.[39]

Politics
The Parthenon in Athens, one of the leading city-states of the ancient world

Power in ancient Greece became centered around the city-state in the 8th century BC.[40] The city-state was a population center organized into a self-contained political entity.[41] These city-states often lived in close proximity to each other, which created competition for limited resources. Though conflict between the city-states was ubiquitous, it was also in their self-interest to engage in trade, military alliances and cultural interaction.[42] The city-states had a dichotomous relationship with each other: on one hand, they relied on their neighbors for political and military alliances, while on the other they competed fiercely with those same neighbors for vital resources.[43] The Olympic Games were established in this political context and served as a venue for representatives of the city-states to peacefully compete against each other.[44]

The spread of Greek colonies in the 5th and 6th centuries BC is repeatedly linked to successful Olympic athletes. For example, Pausanias recounts that Cyrene was founded c. 630 BC by settlers from Thera with Spartan support. The support Sparta gave was primarily the loan of three-time Olympic champion Chionis. The appeal of settling with an Olympic champion helped to populate the colonies and maintain cultural and political ties with the city-states near Olympia. Thus, Hellenic culture and the games spread while the primacy of Olympia persisted.[45]

The games faced a serious challenge during the Peloponnesian War, which primarily pitted Athens against Sparta, but, in reality, touched nearly every Hellenic city-state.[46] The Olympics were used during this time to announce alliances and offer sacrifices to the gods for victory.[4][47]

During the Olympic Games, a truce, or ekecheiria was observed. Three runners, known as spondophoroi, were sent from Elis to the participant cities at each set of games to announce the beginning of the truce.[48] During this period, armies were forbidden from entering Olympia; and legal disputes, and the use of the death penalty, were forbidden. The truce — primarily designed to allow athletes and visitors to travel safely to the games — was, for the most part, observed.[48] Thucydides wrote of a situation when the Spartans were forbidden from attending the games, and the violators of the truce were fined 2,000 minae for assaulting the city of Lepreum during the period of the ekecheiria. The Spartans disputed the fine and claimed that the truce had not yet taken hold.[47][49]

While a martial truce was observed by all participating city-states, no such reprieve from conflict existed in the political arena. The Olympic Games evolved the most influential athletic and cultural stage in ancient Greece, and arguably in the ancient world.[50] As such the games became a vehicle for city-states to promote themselves. The result was political intrigue and controversy. For example, Pausanias, a Greek historian, explains the situation of the athlete Sotades,

Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans.[4]

Events
Three runners featured on an Attic black-figured Panathenaic prize amphora.
332–333 BC, British Museum
Events at the Olympics
Olympiad Year Event first introduced
1st 776 BC Stade
14th 724 BC Diaulos
15th 720 BC Long distance race (Dolichos)
18th 708 BC Pentathlon, Wrestling
23rd 688 BC Boxing (pygmachia)
25th 680 BC Four horse chariot race (tethrippon)
33rd 648 BC Horse race (keles), Pankration
37th 632 BC Boys stade and wrestling
38th 628 BC Boys pentathlon
41st 616 BC Boys boxing
65th 520 BC Hoplite race (hoplitodromos)
70th 500 BC Mule-cart race (apene)
93rd 408 BC Two horse chariot race (synoris)
96th 396 BC Competition for heralds and trumpeters
99th 384 BC Tethrippon for horse over one year
128th 266 BC Chariot for horse over one year
131st 256 BC Race for horses older than one year
145th 200 BC Pankration for boys

Apparently starting with just a single foot race, the program gradually increased to twenty-three contests, although no more than twenty featured at any one Olympiad.[51] Participation in most events was limited to male athletes except for women who were allowed to take part by entering horses in the equestrian events. Youth events are recorded as starting in 632 BC. Our knowledge of how the events were performed primarily derives from the paintings of athletes found on many vases, particularly those of the Archaic and Classical periods.[52]

Competitors had access to two gymnasiums for training purposes: the Xystos for the runners and pentathletes, and the Tetragono for wrestlers and boxers.[53]

For most of its history, Olympic events were performed in the nude. Pausanias says that the first naked runner was Orsippus, winner of the stadion race in 720 BC, who simply lost his garment on purpose because running without it was easier.[54] The 5th-century BC historian Thucydides credits the Spartans with introducing the custom of "publicly stripping and anointing themselves with oil in their gymnastic exercises. Formerly, even in the Olympic contests, the athletes who contended wore belts across their middles; and it is but a few years since that the practice ceased."[55]

Running
A section of the stone starting line at Olympia, which has a groove for each foot

The only event recorded at the first thirteen games was the stade, a straight-line sprint of just over 192 metres.[56] The diaulos (lit. "double pipe"), or two-stade race, is recorded as being introduced at the 14th Olympiad in 724 BC. It is thought that competitors ran in lanes marked out with lime or gypsum for the length of a stade then turned around separate posts (kampteres), before returning to the start line.[57] Xenophanes wrote that "Victory by speed of foot is honored above all."

A third foot race, the dolichos ("long race"), was introduced in the next Olympiad. Accounts of the race's distance differ; it seems to have been from twenty to twenty-four laps of the track, around 7.5 km to 9 km, although it may have been lengths rather than laps and thus half as far.[58][59]

The last running event added to the Olympic program was the hoplitodromos, or "Hoplite race", introduced in 520 BC and traditionally run as the last race of the games. Competitors ran either a single or double diaulos (approximately 400 or 800 metres) in full military armour.[60] The hoplitodromos was based on a war tactic of soldiers running in full armor to surprise the enemy.

Combat
Pankration scene: the pankriatiast on the right tries to gouge his opponent's eye; the umpire is about to strike him for this foul.
Detail from an Attic red-figure kylix c. 490–480 BC, British Museum

Wrestling (pale) is recorded as being introduced at the 18th Olympiad. Three throws were necessary for a win. A throw was counted if the body, hip, back or shoulder (and possibly knee) touched the ground. If both competitors fell nothing was counted. Unlike its modern counterpart Greco-Roman wrestling, it is likely that tripping was allowed.[61]

Boxing (pygmachia) was first listed in 688 BC,[62] the boys' event sixty years later. The laws of boxing were ascribed to the first Olympic champion Onomastus of Smyrna.[61] It appears that body-blows were either not permitted or not practised.[61][63] The Spartans, who claimed to have invented boxing, quickly abandoned it and did not take part in boxing competitions.[61] At first the boxers wore himantes (sing. himas), long leather strips which were wrapped around their hands.[62]

The pankration was introduced in the 33rd Olympiad (648 BC).[64] Boys' pankration became an Olympic event in 200 BC, in the 145th Olympiad.[65] As well as techniques from boxing and wrestling, athletes used kicks,[66] locks, and chokes on the ground. Although the only prohibitions were against biting and gouging, the pankration was regarded as less dangerous than boxing.[67]

It was one of the most popular events: Pindar wrote eight odes praising victors of the pankration.[61] A famous event in the sport was the posthumous victory of Arrhichion of Phigaleia who "expired at the very moment when his opponent acknowledged himself beaten."[61]

Discus

The discus (diskos) event was similar to the modern competition. Stone and iron diskoi have been found, although the most commonly used material appears to be bronze. To what extent the diskos was standardized is unclear, but the most common weight seems to be 2 kg size with a diameter of approximately 21 cm, roughly equivalent to the modern discus.[68]

Long jump
A long-jumper holding halteres, Attic red-figure lekythos c. 470 to 460 BC

In the long jump (halma) competitors swung a pair of weights called halteres. There was no set design; jumpers tended to use either spherical weights made of stone carved to fit the hand or longer lead weights.[69][70] It is debated whether the jump was performed from a standing start or after a run-up. In his analysis of the event based on vase painitngs, Hugh Lee concluded that there was probably a short run-up.[71]

Pentathlon
Main article: Ancient Olympic pentathlon

The pentathlon was a competition made up of five events: running, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, and wrestling.[61] The pentathlon is said to have first appeared at the 18th Olympiad in 708 BC.[72] The competition was held on a single day,[73] but it is not known how the victor was decided,[74][75] or in what order the events occurred,[61] except that it finished with the wrestling.[76]

Equestrian

Horse racing and chariot racing were the most prestigious competitions in the games, due to only the wealthy being able to afford the maintenance and transportation of horses. These races consisted of different events: the four-horse chariot race, the two-horse chariot race, and the horse with rider race, the rider being hand picked by the owner. The four-horse chariot race was the first equestrian event to feature in the Olympics, being introduced in 680 BC. It consisted of two horses that were harnessed under a yoke in the middle, and two outer horses that were attached with a rope.[77] The two-horse chariot was introduced in 408 BC.[78] The horse with rider competition on the other hand, was introduced in 648 BC. In this race, Greeks didn't use saddles or stirrups, so they required good grip and balance.[79]

Pausanias reports that a race for carts drawn by a pair of mules, and a trotting race, were instituted respectively at the seventieth Festival and the seventy-first, but were both abolished by proclamation at the eighty-fourth. The trotting race was for mares, and in the last part of the course the riders jumped off and ran beside the mares.[80]

In AD 67, the Roman Emperor Nero competed in the chariot race at Olympia. He was thrown from his chariot and was thus unable to finish the race. Nevertheless, he was declared the winner on the basis that he would have won if he had finished the race.[81]

Famous athletes
Main article: List of ancient Olympic victors
Ancient list of Olympic victors of the 75th to the 78th, and from the 81st to the 83rd Olympiads (480–468 BC, 456–448 BC)
  • Combat:
    • Arrhichion (pankratiast, died while successfully defending his championship in the 54th Olympiad (564 BC). Described as "the most famous of all pankratiasts".)
    • Milo of Croton (wrestling, legendary six-time victor: once as youth, the rest in the men's event)
    • Diagoras of Rhodes (boxing 79th Olympiad, 464 BC) and his sons Akusilaos and Damagetos (boxing and pankration)
    • Timasitheos of Croton (wrestling)[86]
    • Theagenes of Thasos (boxer, pankratiast and runner)
    • Sostratus of Sicyon (pankratiast, notorious for his finger-breaking technique)
    • Dioxippus (pankratiast, crowned champion by default in 336 BC when no other pankratiast dared meet compete. Such a victory was called akoniti (lit. without getting dusted) and remains the only one ever recorded in the Olympics in this discipline.)
    • Varastades (boxing, Prince and future King of Armenia, last known Ancient Olympic victor (boxing) during the 291st Olympic Games in the 4th century[87]
  • Equestrian:
    • Cynisca of Sparta (owner of a four-horse chariot) (first woman to be listed as an Olympic victor)
    • Pherenikos ("the most famous racehorse in antiquity", 470s BC)
    • Tiberius (steerer of a four-horse chariot)[88]
    • Nero (steerer of a ten-horse chariot)

Olympic festivals in other places
Main article: Ancient Greek Olympic festivals

Athletic festivals under the name of "Olympic games", named in imitation of the original festival at Olympia, were established over time in various places all over the Greek world. Some of these are only known to us by inscriptions and coins; but others, as the Olympic festival at Antioch, obtained great celebrity. After these Olympic festivals had been established in several places, the great Olympic festival itself was sometimes designated in inscriptions by the addition of Pisa.[89]

See also

References
  • Gardiner, E. N. (1910). Greek athletic sports and festivals. London : Macmillan.
  • Gardiner, E. Norman, Athletics of the Ancient World, 246 pages, 200+ illustrations, with new material, Oxford University Press, 1930
  • Young, David C. (2004). A Brief History of the Olympic Games (PDF). Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-1130-0.
  • Miller, Stephen G. (2006). Ancient Greek Athletics. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11529-1.
  • Golden, Mark, Sport and Society in Ancient Greece, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  • Hansen, Mogens Herman (2006). Polis, an Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920849-4. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  • Hanson, Victor Davis; Strassler, Robert B. (1996). The Landmark Thucydides. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-9087-3. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  • Kotynski, Edward J. The Athletics of the Ancient Olympics: A Summary and Research Tool. 2006. (Archived 2009-10-25); new link
  • Kyle, Donald G. (2007). Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-22970-4. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  • Mallowitz, Alfred. Cult and Competition Locations at Olympia. Raschke 79–109.
  • Miller, Stephen. "The Date of Olympic Festivals". Mitteilungen: Des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung. Vol. 90 (1975): 215–237.
  • Patay-Horváth, András (2015). The Origins of the Olympic Games. Budapest: Archaeolingua Foundation. ISBN 978-963-9911-72-7.
  • Raschke, Wendy J. (1988). The Archaeology of the Olympics: the Olympics and Other Festivals in Antiquity. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin University Press. ISBN 978-0-299-11334-6. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  • Remijsen, Sofie. The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
  • Spivey, Nigel (2005). The Ancient Olympics. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280433-4. Retrieved 12 February 2010. origins of the ancient olympics.
  • Stanton, Richard (2000). The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitions:The story of the Olympic art competitions of the 20th century. Victoria, Canada: Trafford. ISBN 978-1-55212-606-6. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  • Swaddling, Judith (1999). The ancient Olympic Games. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-292-77751-4. Retrieved 12 February 2010. announcing olympic truce.
  • Tufts – "Women and the Games"
  • Ancient Olympics. Research by K. U. Leuven and Peking University

Further reading
  • Christesen, Paul. 2007. Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  • Lee, Hugh M. 2001. The Program and Schedule of the Ancient Olympic Games. Nikephoros Beihefte 6. Hildesheim, Germany: Weidmann.
  • Nielsen, Thomas Heine. 2007. Olympia and the Classical Hellenic City-State Culture. Historisk-filosofiske Meddeleser 96. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
  • Sinn, Ulrich. 2000. Olympia: Cult, Sport, and Ancient Festival. Princeton, NJ: M. Wiener.
  • Valavanis, Panos. 2004. Games and Sanctuaries in Ancient Greece: Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, Nemea, Athens. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Library resources about
Ancient Olympic Games
  1. "History". Olympic Games. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  2. Tony Perrottet (8 June 2004). The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games. Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-1-58836-382-4. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
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  6. Kyle, 1999, pp.101–102
  7. Kyle, 1999, p.102
  8. Spivey, 2005, pp.225–226
  9. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.7.6–9
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  15. Young, p. 6
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  17. Young, pp. 16–17
  18. Plutarch, Numa Pompilius 1.4
  19. Dionysius, 1.74–1–3. Little remains of Eratosthenes' Chronographiae, but its academic influence is clearly demonstrated here in the Roman Antiquities by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
  20. Denis Feeney in Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2007), 84.
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  22. See, for example, Alfred Mallwitz's article "Cult and Competition Locations at Olympia" p.101 in which he argues that the games may not have started until about 704 BC. Hugh Lee, on the other hand, in his article "The 'First' Olympic Games of 776 B.C.E" p.112, follows an ancient source that claims that there were twenty-seven Olympiads before the first one was recorded in 776. There are no records of Olympic victors extant from earlier than the fifth century BC.
  23. Spivey, 2005, p.172
  24. Young, p. 131
  25. Young, p. 131
  26. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p2cTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 Newby, p. 26
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  31. Young, p. 135
  32. David C. Young (15 April 2008). A Brief History of the Olympic Games. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 135–. ISBN 978-0-470-77775-6. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  33. "Olympia Hypothesis: Tsunamis Buried the Cult Site On the Peloponnese". Science Daily. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  34. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/17740/Altis
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    "A very wealthy Greek, Herodes Atticus, and his very wealthy Roman wife, Regilla, funded an elaborate fountain which was both a practical solution and a work of art. Water, piped in from a tributary of the Alpheus, entered into a large semi-circular basin. Emerging from 83 gargoyle fountains, it was then channeled all around the site. Behind the basin rose a semi-circular colonnade more than 100 feet high, with a series of niches built into its upper level."

  37. Golden, Mark, p. 77 Archived 4 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine
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  39. Stanton, 2000, p. 17
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  74. Young, p. 19
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  83. Bull, Andy (12 August 2016). "Phelps claims 200m individual medley gold for fourth straight Olympics". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 August 2016. Phelps has now overtaken Leonidas of Rhodes as the most decorated Olympian of this, that, and every era. Leonidas, as every self-respecting sports fan knows, did the sprint triple in the stadion, the diaulos, and the hoplitodromos, at four Olympics in a row between 164 and 152 BC. Or 2,168 years ago.
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  87. 369 according to Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece by Nigel Wilson, 2006, Routledge (UK) or 385 according to Classical Weekly by Classical Association of the Atlantic States
  88. Tiberius, AD 1 (or earlier) – cf. Ehrenberg & Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius [Oxford 1955] p. 73 (n.78)
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