From boxing contests with no weight classification or point score to chariot races where danger lurked around every corner, it’s easy to see why the ancient Games captivated the Greeks for so long. Here we give you the essential information, highlight our favorite facts.
Full of blood, passion and extraordinary athletic feats, the Olympic Games were the sporting, social and cultural highlight of the ancient Greek calendar for almost 12 centuries.
“It’s hard for us to overstate the importance of the Olympics to the Greeks,” said Paul Christesen, professor of ancient Greek history at Dartmouth College in the United States.
“The classic example is that when the Persians invaded Greece in the summer of 480 BC, many Greek city-states agreed to form an allied army, but they had great difficulty to get one together because so many people wanted to go to the Olympics. They therefore had to delay the formation of their army to defend the country against the Persians.
Threat of invasion or not, the Games were held every four years, from 776 BC to at least 393 AD. All free Greek men were allowed to participate, from farm workers to royal heirs, although the majority of Olympians were soldiers. Women could not compete or even attend. There was, however, a loophole in this misogynistic rule: float owners, not riders, were declared Olympic champions, and anyone could own a float. Kyniska, daughter of a Spartan king, took advantage of this to win victory crowns in 396 and 392 BC.
At heart, the Games were a religious festival and a good excuse for Greeks from across the Mediterranean to gather for a wild barbecue. In the midst of the festival, a large number of cows were slaughtered in honor of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. Once he was given a little taste, the rest was for the people.
For more than 250 years, all the action took place at the sanctuary of Olympia, located in the northwest of the Peloponnese. Marked with olive trees, from which the crowns of victory were cut, and adorned with an altar dedicated to Zeus, it was an extremely sacred place.
The Games lasted five full days in the fifth century BC and featured running, jumping and throwing events as well as boxing, wrestling, pankration and chariot racing. At least 40,000 spectators are said to have filled the stadium each day at the height of the Games’ popularity in the second century CE, and many more sold their wares outside.
But first, here are our 10 favorite facts to get you started:
- All athletes competed naked
- Wrestlers and pankration competitors (a sort of mixed martial art combining boxing and wrestling) faced each other covered in oil.
- Corporal punishment awaited those guilty of a false start on the track
- There were only two rules in the pankration: no biting and no pulling.
- Boxers urged to avoid attacking exposed male genitals
- There were no points, no time limits and no weight classifications in boxing
- Combat sports athletes had to indicate surrender by raising their index finger – sometimes they died before they could do so.
- Boxers who could not be separated could opt for Klimax, a system whereby a fighter was awarded a free kick and vice versa – a draw decided who went first.