TheAncient Olympic Games were a series ofathleticcompetitions held between thecity-states ofAncient Greece. They used to be called theOlympic Games (Greek:Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες;Olympiakoi Agones) until the modern dayOlympic Games started. The Ancient Olympic Games began in 776BC inOlympia,Greece.[1]Prizes at the games wereolive wreaths,palm branches andwoollen ribbons. The ancient Olympics were played in the honour of the GodZeus.
There is no agreement on when the games officially ended, but manyhistorians think it is 393AD, when theChristianRoman emperorTheodosius I declared that allPagan religious practices should end.[2] Another date might be 426 AD, when the next emperorTheodosius II ordered the destruction of all Greek temples.[3] The stadium in Olympia got buried bylandslides and othernatural disasters. After the Olympics stopped, they were not held again until the modern Olympic Games were started in 1896 inAthens.
Women were not allowed to compete, or even watch most events. According toPausanias, any woman found on the site had to be thrown off the rock of Typhaion.[4] This only applied to married women (gunaikes), the only exception was the priestess of Demeter.[5] Unmarried women were allowed as spectators. It seems that only one woman was ever found, Kallipateira, a widow, who disguised as the person training her son. She was found when she jumped into the air when her son won.[6] She was spared the fate, but to avoid this happening again, all people competing, and the people training them had to be naked. Nevertheless, unmarried women attending as spectators was improbable.
An exception to this were theequestrian events. Women were allowed to enter horses. Those contorolling the horses or chariots still had to be male. The chariot races also saw the first woman to win an Olympic event. The winner was deemed to be the wealthy benefactor or trainer that funded the team rather than those controlling the chariot (who could only be male). This allowed for horse trainer andSpartan princessCynisca to be the first female Olympic victor.[7]
Because the winner was the benefactor, it was also possible for a particularly wealthy person to improve their odds by bringing multiple teams to the races. According toPlutarch, the record belongs toAlcibiades, who brought seven chariots to a single competition, winning the first, second, and either the third or fourth place at once.[8]
In 67, the Roman EmperorNero competed in the chariot race atOlympia. 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.[9]
↑"Ancient Olympic Games".Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006. Microsoft Corporation. June 20, 1997. Archived fromthe original on May 4, 2006. RetrievedDecember 27, 2006.
↑However, Theodosius'decree contains no specific reference to Olympia (Crowther (2007), p. 54).
↑Millender, Ellen G., "Spartan Women" p. 500-525. InA Companion to Sparta, edited by Anton Powell, Vol. 1 ofA Companion to Sparta. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell, 2018.
↑Tiberius, AD 1 or earlier - cf. Ehrenberg & Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius [Oxford 1955] p. 73 (n.78)
↑369 according toEncyclopedia of Ancient Greeceby Nigel Wilson, 2006, Routledge (UK) or 385 according toClassical Weekly by Classical Association of the Atlantic States
