GREECE
BY JOHN THORBURN
Th e Greeks were one of the few ancient cultures to engage
in athletic activity for purposes other than religious ritual
or training for either war or hunting. With few exceptions
athletic competitions were limited to men, but some women
(especially those from Sparta) did exercise for recreation or
physical fi tness. Although Greek athletics may originally have
been connected with war, hunting, or worship, eventually
people began to engage in sports for the joy of competition and
the desire to display their aretê (“goodness” or “excellence”).
Th e earliest evidence for athletic activity in the region near
Greece comes from wall paintings found on the islands of Th íra
(modern-day Santorini) and Crete. Th e fresco from Th íra (ca.
1650–1500 b.c.e.) shows two children boxing; the Cretan fresco
(ca. 1500 b.c.e.) shows a person leaping over a bull, an activity
that may have had some religious signifi cance.
Th e next signifi cant evidence for athletic activity among
the Greeks comes from two epic poems attributed to Homer,
the Iliad and Odyssey. First written down during the eighth
century b.c.e., these poems contain several descriptions of
athletic events. Th e competitions described in the Odyssey
occur in Phaeacia, which cannot be identifi ed with certainty
as a Greek land, but the events—running, wrestling, jump-
ing, discus throwing, and boxing—are comparable to those
described in the Iliad where the hero Achilles honors a dead
companion with athletic competitions: chariot racing, box-
ing, wrestling, running, sparring in battle gear, throwing the
quoit (similar to a discus), and archery.Although the historical accuracy of the Iliad and Odyssey
is uncertain, about the same time they were written down the
fi rst athletic games took place at Olympia, in southwestern
Greece (in 776 b.c.e.). By 500 b.c.e. several other athletic fes-
tivals were being held regularly: the Pythian Games at Del-
phi, the Isthmian Games near Corinth, the Nemean Games
at Nemea, and the Greater Panathenaea at Athens. In each
case these games honored a divinity, and except at the Pana-
thenaea the victors received crowns of vegetation (for exam-
ple, the olive crown at Olympia).
For the fi rst fi ve decades of the games at Olympia a foot-
race, the stadion, was the only event. Th e name (the source
of the modern word stadium) referred both to the setting
in which the race occurred and to the distance it covered (a
stade). Th e length of the stadion varied somewhat from site
to site, but at Olympia it was about 210 yards. As with most
Greek athletic events, the athletes competed in the nude.
At Olympia and at the newer festivals other events were
gradually added. A second running event, the diaulos, was
named aft er a Greek musical instrument with a double pipe
because the race covered two lengths of the stadion. Th e
course was straight, not oval or circular, and it is uncertain
how the runners turned at the race’s midpoint. Apparently
they started out in individual lanes and then turned around a
single post at the opposite end of the stadion.
Th e dolichos and the hoplitodromos were grueling events.
As the name dolichos (“long”) indicates, this was a distance
race. Its length diff ered at the various festivals; at Olympia
it was 24 stades, or just under 3 miles. In the hoplitodromos
(“running in armor”) the athletes competed in military gear.Hockey game, found in the Th emistoclean wall, Athens (Alison Frantz Photographic Collection, American School of Classical Studies at Athens)1054 sports and recreation: Greece0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1054 1054 10/10/07 2:30:54 PM