Preparing for life in the 21st century 2014 -2016

1st General Lyceum of Ilion, Athens,Greece

Art in the Olympic Games

Sports is art. How the Olympic games are presented? In ancient times we
study amphoras and statues showing us the perfection of the athletes.
There are exhibits in Greek Museums, the Museum of Olympic games in
Olympia but in other museums too, like the New York Metropolitan
Museum, Louvre , British Museums .

Every fourth year between 776 B.C.E. and 395 C.E., the Olympic Games,
held in honor of the god Zeus, the supreme god of Greek mythology, in the
city of Olympia and attracted people from across Greece. Crowds watched
sports such as running, discus-throwing and the long-jump.

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You want to win at Olympia? And I, but the gods; they are nice. But examining the
past and its consequences and then attempt. You must obey a certain teaching; eating
compulsive food n 'abstain from sweets, necessarily exercising in a certain time, in the
heat, the cold, not to drink cold water or wine as received, but to surrender yourself in
the hands of the coach, as the doctor's hands, then during the struggle to make
trenches in a while to churn your hand, spraining your foot to swallow powder lot, be
flogged once, and then 'from all this, to unconquered.

Chariot racing was the most popular spectator sport in ancient times.
Up to 40 chariots could compete in a race and crashes were common.
In ancient Greece only the wealthy could afford to maintain a chariot and
horses.
Wealthy citizens and Greek statesmen were anxious to win such a
prestigious event. They sometimes drove their own chariot, but usually
employed a charioteer. The races took place in an ar ena called
the hippodrome. The most dangerous place was at the turning post, where
chariot wheels could lock together and there were many crashes.

Charioteer and horses (detail), Panathenaic amphora, c. 410-400 B.C.E.,

67.5 x 38 cm, Attica
Trustees
of
the
British
Museum. This vase belongs to
a distinctive type given as a
prize to the winner of the
chariot race in the ancient
games held at Athens during
the yearly festival known as
the Panathenaia that honoured
Athena, the city's patron deity.
The vase would have been one
of 140, each containing 40
liters of olive oil, given to the
winner.
The painter of this vase has been highly successful in creating the
illusion of speed as the chariot careers alo ng. A quadriga chariot drawn by
four horses is shown, the hair and tunic of the charioteer are blown back,
and the manes and tails of the horses fly in the rush of air. The chariot is
coming up to a post which may represent the turn or the finish of the ra ce.
Both moments would be climaxes.
After the dangers and excitement of the chariot race came the horse racing. This was hazardous because the track was already churned up, and
the jockeys rode without stirrups or saddles, which were not yet invented.
The winning horse and its owner were given an enthusiastic reception, and
riderless horses that came first past the post were also honored.

Combat Sports

Panath
enaic prize amphora of a chariot race, 490-80 B.C.E., red-figured cup,
attributed to the Foundry Painter, Attica, Greece Trustees of the British
Museum
A big attraction at all the Greek games were the "heavy" eventswrestling,
boxing, and the pankration, a type of all-in wrestling. Specialists in the
sports could win large sums of money all over the Greek world, once they
had proved themselves at Olympia.

Exterior side A (detail), Panathenaic prize amphora of a chariot race, 490-80

B.C.E., red-figured cup, attributed to the Foundry Painter, Attica, Greece
The Trustees of the British Museum.
The pankration was a mixture of boxing and wrestling, where almost any
tactic was permitted. Only biting and going for an opponents eyes were
illegal. On the cup above, on the left is a pair of boxers in a bout. In the
center is a pair of pancratiasts down on the ground. Above them hangs a
discus in a bag. In the center, one pankratiast tries to gouge his opponent's
eye. A bearded trainer steps forward, his forked stick raised over his head to
stop the fouls and the fight.
Boxing was considered the most violent sport. There were no separate
rounds in a match and the contestants fought until one of them gave in. In
ancient Greece thin strips of leather were bound around the boxers fists to

protect their hands. Boxing gloves were eventually developed, and in the
Roman period they were weighted with lead or iron to inflict greater
damage.

A pair of boxers in a bout,

exterior
side
A
(detail), Panathenaic
prize
amphora of a chariot race, 490-80
B.C.E.,
red-figured
cup, attributed to the Foundry
Painter, Attica,
Greece
Trustees
of
the
British
Museum.
The boxer on the left has his left
arm bent up in front, his right arm
back, and there is a dilute line on his cheek.
His opponent, facing to the left, is seen in three -quarter back view,
his left arm out in front, his right drawn back for a blow. His cheek is
heavily marked with relief lines, under the eye and along the cheekbone, to
denote swelling.
Wrestling was a sport of great skill which used many of the throws
still seen today. It also featured as part of the pentathlon ("pente" means five
in Greek while "athlos" means contest, so the ancient pentathlon included
five events: discus, javelin, long jump, running and wrestling).

Running
Fikellura style amphora with a running
man, 6th century B.C.E., Greek,
, made in Miletos, Asia Minor from
Rhodes Trustees of the British
MuseumThe
most
ancient
and
prestigious event at Olympia was the
running race along the length of the
stadium, a distance of 600 Olympic
feet (192.28 meters). The Olympiad
(the four-year period up to the next
Games) was named after the winner,
and dates were recorded by reference
to the list of victors. Besides this
equivalent of our "two-hundred
meter" event, there was a race along
two lengths of the track, and a longdistance race of twenty or twenty-four
lengths.
There was no "marathon," this was
the invention of Baron de Coubertin who revived the Olympic Games in
1896. In all these races the runners made a standing start, from a row of

stone slabs set in the track that had grooves cut in the m to provide a grip for
the toes.
Here, a runner is painted in silhouette, with the few inner markings
reserved in the natural colour of the clay. His pose, with arms and legs fully
extended and chest thrust out, suggests that he is running at full speed. Most
sixth-century vase painters would have surrounded this isolated figure with
ornamental friezes or panels, but this artist wisely resisted the temptation.

Jumping
Black-figured
"Tyrrhenian" amphora
showing athletes and a combat scene,
540 B.C.E., Greek, but made for the
Etruscan market, 42.15 cm, found near
Rome Trustees of the British
MuseumThis vase has one of the best
surviving depictions of the long-jump
event
at
the
ancient
Olympic
Games. There was only the long jump,
not the high jump, in Greek athletics.
You can see that the athlete in the
picture is holding heavy lead or stone
jumping weights called halteres. These
were swung to increase the length of
the jump. You can also see three pegs
in the ground which mark the previous
jumps.
The athlete is shown on the shoulder of
the vase, and is captured in mid-jump,
while to the right a trainer urges him
on. Beneath the jumper are pegs, which
may record his previous jumps or those
of other athletes.
In the ancient long jump athletes carried wei ghts that were swung
forward on take-off and back just before landing. Its often said that the
weights increased the length of the jump, but it is more likely that they were
there for use as a deliberate handicap. Most ancient sport developed as a
means of training for warfare, and this exercise would simulate a jump
carrying kit. Skill in this sport would be useful for crossing a stream or
ravine.
Athlete jumping (detail), Blackfigured "Tyrrhenian" amphora
showing athletes and a combat
scene, 540
B.C.E.,Greek,
but
made for the Etruscan market,
42.15 cm, found near Rome
Trustees of the British Museum.
The vase has other scenes related
to
ancient
sporting
events,

including a discus thrower. To the jumpers left there is an athlete holding

what are possibly javelins and two wrestlers are also shown.

Pentathlon
The pentathlon was made up of five events (discus, jumping, javelin,
running and wrestling) which all took place in one afternoon. Running and
wrestling also existed as separate events.
Discus-thrower (The Townley Discobolus), Roman copy of a bronze
original of the 5th century B.C.E., attributed to Myron, from Hadrian's Villa
in Tivoli, Italy Trustees of
the British Museum
There are differences between
the ancient and the modern
contests.
Greek
discusthrowers did not spin round on
the spot: they rarely managed
throws of more than 30 meters,
less than half the modern
Olympic record.
In the ancient long-jump,
contestants
used
jumpingweights. These where swung
forward on take-off then
backward just before landing,
to add thrust and gain extra
length. Some kind of multiple
jump may have been involved.
Javelin-throwing was similar
to todays event, except that a
thong was attached to the
javelin shaft to add spin and
secure a steadier flight.
The head on this figure of a
discus
thrower has
been
wrongly restored, and should be turned to look towards the discus. The
popularity of the sculpture in antiquity was no doubt due to its
representation of the athletic ideal. Discus-throwing was the first element in
the pentathlon, and while pentathletes were in some ways considered
inferior to those athletes who excelled at a particular sport, their physical
appearance was much admired.
The Olympic victors
Valuable prizes could be won in athletic contests all over the Greek
world, but victory at Olympia brought the greatest prestige. Winning
contestants were allowed to put up statues of themselves inside the
sanctuary of Zeus to commemorate their victory; many bases for these
statues survive.

Statues of athletes and statesmen were a prominent feature of Greek

cities and sanctuaries. If they won three times they could set up specially
commissioned portrait statues which could cost up to ten times the average
yearly wage.
Sealstone with the goddess
Nike crowning an athlete,
4th century B.C.E., 2.3 x
1.6
cm,
Temple
of
Artemis,
Ephesus

Trustees of the British

Museum.
Athletes tied a woolen
band
around
their
forehead, and sometimes
around their arms and
legs, as sign of victory.
Winners
at
Olympia
received crowns of wild
olive, just as Herakles was
said to have done when he
had run the first races at
Olympia
with
his
brothers.
This
small
engraved
sealstone,
perhaps
originally from a finger
ring, shows the winged
goddess Nike placing a
crown of leaves on the head of a winning athlete. In Greek mythology, the
goddess Nike was a messenger of the gods and, more generally, the
personification of victory.
She was also closely associated with Zeus, god of the Olympic
Games, and is often shown in flight, bearing a wreath or a victory ribbon, to
crown victorious athletes. The athlete holds a small branch, also symbolic of
victory. Whether this sealstone belonged to an athlete or simply a sports
enthusiast we shall probably never know.
Statues of Nike featured prominently at Olympia in connection with
both sporting and military victories. The victors wreaths associated with
Nike were usually made of foliage that could be dried and kept for a long
time to preserve the memory of a victory. At Ol ympia they were made of
twigs of olive, sacred to Zeus.
Winning athletes were showered with flowers and leaves. This mark
of celebration is called phyllobolia and is echoed today in the throwing of
confetti and "ticker tape."

Marble figure of a victorious

athlete

(Daidoumenos),

Roman version of a Greek

bronze
original,
c. 440430
B.C.E., 183 cm, found at
Vaison, France Trustees of
the British Museum
Known
as
the Daidoumenos (ribbon
wearer) this statue shows a
triumphant athlete tying a
ribbon
round
his
head
immediately after a victory. At
ancient Greek sports festivals it
was the custom to give ribbons
to winning athletes. Later, at the
awards ceremony, the athlete
received a wreath of leaves such
as olive, laurel or wild celery
leaves,
depending
on
the
festival. The identity of the
athlete and the event he won are
not known. He may represent
athletic victories in general.
Victor statues were intended to immortalize successful athletes. Sculptors
favored bronze for athletic statues, perhaps because it better represented
tanned, oiled skin, but many were carved from marble. They were set on
bases inscribed with a dedication to a god, the athletes name, fathers name,
home town and contest.
t

is

often

difficult

to

distinguish hellanodikai and umpires on vase

paintings. On this vase the
distinction is clear. The naked
man on the right is the umpire. He
is closely watching the athletes
and signals the submission of one
of them to the hellanodikes.
He carries a whip to punish the
athletes
for
offences.
The
hellanodikes is the man with the
crown and the expensive cloths.
His
function
was
more
honourable.
The hellanodikai had various
tasks. First of all they decided on
the admission of the athletes. Participants had to be free Greek citizens, and
had to be present one month in advance. Latecomers were disqualified.
The admitted athletes were divided into age-categories. In this time
without birth-certificates the hellanodikai took their decision on the basis of

the physical appearance of the athlete. In the month preceding the games
they supervised the training.
Athletes had to follow the compulsory training schedules. Before the
contest the hellanodikai drew lots to decide which athletes had to contend
with each other.
During the games they decided the winner. They checked if
nobody cheated and punished offences. For this they were assisted
by umpires, called stick- or whipbearers, who stood near the athletes and
executed the punishments.
In case of corruption, the hellanodikai determined the fine. Against a
decision of the hellanodikai athletes could appeal to the Olympic council.
The council could not undo the decision, but it could punish the
hellanodikai.
The function of hellanodikes was very honourable, with a sacral
component, which is for example present in the purification ritual. The
hellanodikai wore a valuable purple robe to express their authority.
A seat of honour was provided for them in the stadion. To ensure the
honesty of the hellanodikai, they were not allowed to participate in the
games.

This drinking cup

(500-475 BC) depicts
the fight between
two boxers and
two pankratiasts. The
pankratiasts try to
gouge out each other's
eyes. The umpire is
about to punish them
for this offence. The
objects on the wall (a
bag with products for
washing and anointing) situates this scene in the gymnasion.

Panathenaic black-figured
amphora (about 500 BC) depicting
four pentathletes: (from left to right)
a jumper, a javelin-thrower, a discusthrower and a second javelin-thrower.

This panathenaic amphora (fourth century

BC) depicts two sprinting athletes. The man
on the right is about to overtake his
opponent. His open arms and large paces
point to great speed. The left athlete keeps
his arms closer to his body. He is clearly at
the end of his strength.

Archaeology at Olympia
Over the centuries the river Alpheios, to the south of the sanctuary,
folded and swept away the hippodrome, and the river Kladeios to the west
destroyed part of the gymnasium. Following earthquakes and storms, a layer
of silt was deposited over the entire site. Olympia lay unnoticed until
modern times when an Englishman, Richard Chandler, rediscovered it in
1766.
The German government sponsored full-scale excavations from 1875.
The excellent local museum displays many of the remarkable finds, and the
German Archaeological Institute in liaison with the Greek Archaeological
Service continues to investigate the site to the present day.

Suggested readings:
J. Boardman, Early Greek vase painting (London, Thames and Hudson,
1998).
J. Swaddling, The ancient Olympic Games, 3rd edition (London, The British
Museum Press, 2004)
Richard Woff, The Ancient Greek Olympics (Oxford University Press,
2000).
The sealstone with the goddess Nike crowning an athlete at The British
Museum
Panathenaic prize amphora of a chariot race at The British Museum
The Townley Discobolus at The British Museum
Black-figured "Tyrrhenian" amphora at The British Museum
Fikellura style amphora with a running man at The British Museum
Marble figure of a victorious athlete (Daidoumenos)
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/athl/hd_athl.htm
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/athl/hd_athl.htm