eighth century BC. A fondness for athletic contests, something on which the ancient Greeks prided
themselves, was not at all an unusual feature of their festivals in honor of the gods, and the Greeks felt that
this practice, and especially the habit of male participants competing in a state of total nudity,
distinguished them from non-Greeks. And it was only freeborn Greek males who were eligible to
participate in the Olympic games. How the officials of the games determined whether a given competitor
was in reality a citizen of a Greek polis is not known, but that it was their responsibility to determine the
Hellenic identity of competitors (as well as to ensure that the rules of the contests were observed) is clear
from their name, HELLENODIKAI, or “assessors of Greeks.” We see, then, that in the face of increasing
contact with foreigners at the end of the Geometric Period the Greeks were making a collective attempt at
self-definition. That self-definition focused, in the case of the Olympic games, on religious observance
and on the naked display of athletic excellence. In the following chapter, we will see another form of self-
definition with the development of what might be called a “national” literature, but for the fact that there
was no “nation” of the Greeks.
“The Spartans instituted the practice of exercising in the nude and, with their bodies exposed to
public view, to anoint themselves with olive oil as they exercised. In earlier times athletes even at
the Olympic games used to compete wearing a loincloth about their genitals, and it is not many years
since that practice came to an end. It is still the case among many foreigners today, especially in
Asia, that when contests in boxing and wrestling are held, they engage in these activities wearing
loincloths. This is one of many instances in which one can see similarities between the Greeks of
old and foreigners of today.” (Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.6.5–6)
HELLENODIKAI Literally “assessors of Greeks,” the title of the judges or umpires who were
responsible for the organization and operation of the Olympic games.
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
What kinds of evidence might provide a fixed date by which a relative chronology can be turned into
an absolute chronology?
Why is it that the ancient Greeks thought in terms of a progressive degeneration in human affairs,
whereas we tend to think in terms of human “progress”?
What differences have you noticed between the ancient Greek polis and a typical modern city with
which you might be personally familiar?
Bearing in mind the story of the judgment of Paris, why might the Greeks have felt that a given deity
would hold particularly strong feelings, either positive or negative, concerning a given polis?
In the absence of standardized units of measurement or accurate means of telling time, how might the
Greeks have compared the performance of athletes in different venues and at different periods?
Recommended for Further Reading
Boardman, J. The Greeks Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade, 4th edition (London 1999): a
reliable and well-illustrated account of Greek territorial expansion and trade to the end of the Archaic