HIST 1250 lecture 3 and 4 (the origin of sports and the panhllenic games)

the classical world

Ancient Mediterranean > produce Western Eurasia's first "sports culture"

• Classical world was a series of societies based around the Mediterranean Sea between 600 BCE and Ce

• Region where Europe, Asia, and Africa met

• Two of these societies would prove especially significant: The Greeks, and later the Romans, who ultimately creates the Roman Empire

• Roman Empire all shores of the Mediterranean sea

Greco-Roman sports culture

As we will see, the cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome shared
much in common. The Romans eventually conquered the Greeks and
absorbed them into their Empire. When this happened, they also absorbed
many of their cultural customs, including around athletic culture.
• Many educated Romans spoke Greek, read Greek works, and practiced
aspects of Greek culture. They added this to elements of their own culture,
including around athletic competition, to create a kind of _______

Greco-Roman sports culture

This sporting culture included each of the following, as we will see in the
coming weeks:
• Physical Games
• Institutionalized Competitions
• Mass Audiences
• Prizes
For these reasons and others, it is often considered a direct ancestor of
modern sporting culture in the United States.

the origin of sports

It is important to emphasise that Greco-Roman Sporting Culture was not the only or the ‘first’ premodern sports culture.
• Other cultures also developed practices closely related to sports as we know them. (e.g. A Mesoamerican ball game is believed to date to perhaps as early as c.1500 BCE)
• However, many of these are poorly documented; e.g. occurring in non-literate societies. Others are better known, like the ancient East Asian game of cuju, but were less direct ancestors of American practice.

the condition for ancient sports

Why did a sporting culture emerge from the Greco-Roman Mediterranean in the
Classical Era? The answer is rooted in a number of aspects of Greek and Roman society more broadly.
1) A World of Cities
2) Competitive Politics
3) Civic Euergetism

a world of cities

Both Greek and Roman worlds were organized on the basis of powerful quasi-independent city-states. Even the Roman Empire was governed via a network of these city-states.
• Each city-state had its own local identity and institutions; a city government, local religious cult, sometimes local language etc.
• Cities regularly formed alliances with one another and also had fierce local rivalries with other cities. This created the conditions for the emergence of
sporting identities.

competitive politics

Ancient cities were not only competitive with each other but their politics were also individually competitive within themselves.
• Greek and Roman aristocrats competed fiercely among themselves, whether to hold military rank, for election to office, etc, depending on the form of government.
• The result was a highly competitive culture in which wealthy families in particular looked for means to elevate themselves above their rivals and gain distinction.

civic euergetism

this refers to wealthy elites providing major benefits to the city out of their own
money. These benefits included things like sponsoring the construction of major
public buildings (Temples, city halls, public squares, arenas) or providing services.
• This was not done out of charity but rather in exchange for public recognition and celebration. Elites competed to show greater ‘generosity’ to the city than their rival families, and to make their city more spectacular than its rival cities.

emergence of ancient sports

These aspects of Classical culture were fundamental to creating the conditions for sports to emerge:
• Intense Competition at both individual and civic level, with elites & cities looking for new ways to demonstrate superiority over each other.
• Immense Financial Resources for these competitive elites seeking ways to
distinguish themselves
• Available Facilities as the same wealthy elites sponsor the construction of large stadiums & other large capacity venues.
• We can glimpse these begin to come together for the first time in some of the
earliest surviving literature from antiquity…

archaic era

The Classical Era really begins with the development of the earliest Greek
Literature around and after 600 BCE.
• We call the period before c.600 BCE the ‘Archaic’ Era. The Archaic Era is extremely poorly documented, with no writing yet in existence, known only from archaeology.
• This era gives us our earliest examples of sports being depicted in the Greek world. We cannot yet call it a ‘Sporting Culture’ because we are often left only with artistic fragments that we cannot contextualize, but which are fascinating nonetheless.

Minoan Bull leaping Fresco

c. 1450 BCE

female spartan athlete

c. 600 BCE

archaic vases

C. 600-500 BCE

the world of homer

The scant archaeological traces of the Archaic Era thus make clear that early forms of what would later be more systematized ‘sports’ can already be seen, including wrestling, chariot-racing, boxing, and others.
• The first real evidence we have of sporting culture comes with the earliest literature from all of Western Eurasia; the foundational works of the Classical Mediterranean.
• This is the Epic Poetry ascribed to Homer, dated to roughly c.650 – 600 BCE. They are thus written at the dawn of the classical era, although they focus on mythical and legendary events ‘set’ in the Archaic Era centuries earlier.

Homer

Virtually nothing is known for certain about the author of the two great literary masterworks known as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Both were written probably some time around c.650-600 BCE and represent the earliest surviving long-form literature from Western Eurasia.
• Greek tradition ascribes them to a brilliant poet known as Homer. Many modern scholars believe they were stitched together over generations through oral tradition before coming to the form in which we have them. We continue to use the name Homer by convention.
• It is impossible to sufficiently emphasize the popularity which these works enjoyed in antiquity, where they served as the foundation of the education system and were read across both Greek and Roman worlds.

Sports in Homer

Given its extremely early date and tremendous cultural significance, it is highly significant that scenes of athletic competition play a major role in both Homeric poems. These are the earliest literary depictions of sports in any form to survive.
• They also occupy an extremely significant place in the text. Each of these games are described in sections many hundreds of lines long, and occur at climatic moments in the texts. (Both poems are divided into 24 books of ~800 lines in total).
• This tells us that elements of Greco-Roman Sporting Culture were present at the earliest known stages of ancient Mediterranean culture.

the earliest sporting culture

Already by the time of Homer, many of the elements we have seen at the heart of Classical Sporting Culture are present.
• In the Iliad, the Greek army outside Troy serves in many ways as a microcosm of Classical Society as a whole:
1) World of Cities- The protagonists are all warlord and kings representing different cities and societies; e.g. Diomedes of Argos, Menelaos of Sparta, Odysseus of Ithaka.
2) Competitive Politics – These warlords feud among themselves regularly, always seeking to out-do one another.
3) Civic Euergetism – They often perform ‘services’ for the entire army as a means of boosting their own prestige, including staging Games as in Book 23.

sports depicted in homer

Given the totemic influence of Homer in the Classical World, it is unsurprising
that countless instances survive of these Homeric sporting episodes being
depicted on subsequent art.

archaic sports

For your section this week, you will read the section on the Funeral Games of Patroklos
from Book 23 of the Iliad, available on HuskyCT.
• You will then discuss the crucial elements of this depiction, including:
• The Purpose of the Games
• The Rewards for the Games
• The reasons given for Success or Failure in the Games

takeaways from the origins of sports

the Classical World of the Ancient Mediterranean was home to a distinctive
Greco-Roman Sporting Culture which serves as a direct ancestor of modern
American sports.
• This was due to certain crucial features of Classical culture, including above all
an emphasis on competition
• The first known depictions of athletics occur in the Archaic Age, especially the
poetry of Homer.

Victor list

Remarkably old and well-attested type of ancient literature: lists of
the winners of the Olympic Games.
• Earliest known example dates from fifth century BCE. Many more survive in whole or in part; on papyri, as inscriptions, embedded in longer literary texts. Found across the Eastern Mediterranean, everywhere Greek is spoken: Greece, Egypt, Syria, the Levant, Asia Minor.
• Why so many? What is the significance?

victor list entry example

would include

1. olympiad number > edition of the Olympics, corresponds to a year (e.g. 1st Olympiad= 776 BCE)

2. name of victor

3. home city of victor

4. sport (default is stadion > footrace)

questions raised

What exactly were the Olympic Games and why was it so important to record
the winners?
• Why were these lists so common across the entire Eastern Mediterranean?
Why did people keep making them?
• Were they accurate? What information did they convey?

Olympia

Originally a relatively small town in south-western Greece.
• The town’s major feature was a sanctuary of Zeus, the
Greek Sky-God & ‘King of the Gods’ in the Greek tradition.
• This sanctuary hosted an annual festival of Zeus in midsummer.
• At some point in very early Greek history (600s?), this site began to grow in significance. This was likely tied to its total political irrelevance; Olympia was not a large or important town, and was mostly neutral in the status contests of the major Greek cities.

birth of the Olympic Games

The Festival of Zeus at Olympia began to become a major international attraction, bringing Greeks from many different cities to Olympia. Eventually, the town was designated a Panhellenic Sanctuary.
• Pan = All / Hellenic = ‘Greek’. Panhellenic = ‘For All Greeks’
• As the Festival grew in importance, it gained a new element: a set of
attached sporting events. The earliest of these was probably the stadion, the footrace.
• The aim of these very early games appeared to be religious in nature.
Physically talented individuals aimed to perform in view of the gods to
honor them, just as poets might write hymns for the gods, or architects
might design temples etc.

the first games

We do not know when the First Olympic Games were staged, or even how regular they were at first. Much later, they would be standardized as quadrennial, occurring every four years. It is not clear this was always true, and it may have been a move from annual games to make them more financially affordable and physically practical.
• The traditional date of 776 BCE found in the Victor Lists was a much later invention, created when future generations of Greeks tried to discover the origins of the games but found little evidence.
• It is not until around the year 600 that we can begin to document the Olympic Games in any detail. By this time, they had clearly been in place for some time, but we do not know how long.

the games at the games

Major Events
1. Footrace (Stadion / Double Stadion / Long-Distance)
2. Wrestling
3. Pentathlon: Sprint, Discus-Throwing, Javelin, Long Jump, Wrestling
4. Wrestling
5. Horseback Racing
6. Chariot Racing (4-Horse / 2-Horse)
7. Combat (Pankration)
Minor / Inconsistent Events
1. Mule-Racing
2. Foal-Racing (Horseback/Chariot)
3. Women’s Races
4. Youths’ Races

an international phenomenon

Over the centuries, the Olympic Games became wildly popular, first in their region of Greece (the Peloponnese) and then among all Greeks. Greek athletes began to travel from all other just to attend.
• The Olympic Truce was established; athletes participating in the games were not to be attacked by others, even when they came from a city at war with other Greeks.
• Wealthy sponsors from around the Greek world also began to pour money in for larger and more elaborate facilities, as Olympia swelled dramatically in wealth and size, under the flag of neutrality. This caused the prestige of the games to grow still farther.

spoils of victory

As the prestige of the Olympics and victory in the Olympics grew, so too did the rewards for participation.
• In line with early tradition, there was no major cash prize for triumph.
Instead, the victor was presented with an Olive Wreath; a garland or crown made from the branches of a grove of Olive Trees near Olympia sacred to Zeus.
• This fact became part of the prestige of the Games. The Greeks believed that competing for a financial reward was less honorable than competing for pure virtue. The Olive Wreath thus became a sign of merit and success, recognized by all Greeks in all cities

Yet over time, Victors were rewarded in other ways too. Their names were recorded, helping to form the Victor-Lists we have already met.
• Moreover, it became customary to build statues of Olympic Victors at Olympia, especially those who had enjoyed repeat success or an unusually decisive victory. These statues could still be seen for literally centuries after the Games.
• These trophies reinforced the idea that glory and fame (kleos) were the true objectives of athletic competition. Both the Victor-Lists and the statues were not concerned with material wealth but rather establishing a lasting fame which would endure across generations.
• And it worked! We can still read the names of the Victors today.

random quote by Aristophanes, Pluto 583-586

Why, Zeus is poor, and I will prove it to you most clearly. In the Olympic Games, which he founded, and to which he convokes the whole of Greece every four years, why does he only crown the victorious athletes with wild olive? If he were rich, then he would give them gold!”

beyond the olympics

Although the Olympics were by far the most prestigious games in antiquity and remain the most famous today, they were not the only set of international sporting competitions in Ancient Greek History.
• Many cities and regions came to develop their own later games. Some did so independently, while others were inspired by the success of Olympia. Of these, three gained considerable success in their own right. They also sought to be Panhellenic, uniting all Greeks.
• Over time then, a cycle developed, of four different sets of games on their own calendars.These four sets, the most prestigious of the many Greek Games, were collectively known as The Panhellenic Cycle.

The panhellenic cycle

The Olympic and Pythian Games were the most prestigious, followed by the Nemean and Isthmian, which came later (in the 500s)
• The most successful athletes in the Greek world aimed to compete at multiple games. A ‘Tour Circuit’ developed, with inns and hospitality to accommodate travelling athletes. (Athletes were notably amateurs, not paid to participate)
• Victory in all four across a cycle was considered the ultimate honor for any athlete and the definitive proof of sporting excellence; a title known as periodonikes, ‘Multiple Champion’. Very few ever achieved this.

Star athletes

Theagenes of Thasos
• Fifth Century BCE periodonikes.
• Famed combatant; won dozens of boxing & pankration bouts and claimed hundreds of wreaths.
• Greatly honored after death; some worshipped his statue in Thasos

Nero
• Yes, that Nero
• Roman Emperor in the first century CE.
• An obsessive fanatic for Greek culture who insisted on moving the games so he could compete in all of them in 67 CE
• Big surprise: he ‘won’ contests in all of them.

modern parallels

One useful parallel for thinking about the Panhellenic Games is the modern professional Tennis Grand Slam.
• In tennis, both men and womens, there are many prestigious tournaments but four stand out above all, hosted by different countries and with some variation in
content (clay vs grass etc): the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Winning any of these is a great honour, but winning all four is the
ultimate accolade.
• There are limits to the analogy (All four in one year vs across a four year cycle, one sport vs many) but it can be a useful tool to think of parallels.

the survival of the games

The Panhellenic Games Cycle survived for roughly a millennium, from some time in the sixth century BCE to the end of the fourth century CE.
• The Games survived the Roman conquest of Greece and remained prestigious and important in the Roman Empire. We hear of celebrated winners of each well into the 300s.
• They would ultimately end not due to any natural decline in popularity but when the emperors converted with Christianity and banned them due to their association with worship of the pagan gods like Zeus and Apollo.
• For context: the oldest continual sports event in the USA is the Kentucky Derby, which began in 1876 and is about 15% as old as the Panhellenic Games Cycle’s lifespan.

why the games mattered

1. Internationalism: The Panhellenic Games served an ideological function bringing together Greeks from many city-states in common athletic endeavour. In this, they served as the model for future international sporting competitions. (This would be part of the Olympic Revival in the Nineteenth Century)
   2) Institutional Model: The Games created a model for athletic competition, including setting precedents like the importance of honor as a prize, the Olympic Truce, the ‘linked cycle’ etc, which would be taken up later.
   3) Deep Roots: The importance and endurance of the Games show how athletic culture can be deeply rooted in a broader society. The Games were not some minor side show; they were a fundamental aspect of Greek and later Roman society and life. This is the earliest example of a society where Sports were truly central to culture.

victor lists revisited

So we can cycle back once more to our original question; why do we have so many Olympic Victor- Lists and why did they matter so much, even to authorities like Aristotle?
• The answer is that Victor-Lists became a standard way of organizing the passage of time across the Greek world. In antiquity, most cities and regions had their own calendars with their own years, months etc.
• It thus became common to use Olympiads as a shared way of expressing time. An Athenian, a Spartan, and a Roman might all have different names for the same year, but they could all agree and synchronise time based on the common calendar of the Olympiads, using the Victor-Lists.

On Olympic time

E.g. The year we call 203 BCE.
-> Was the ‘Year Of Apollodoros’ in Athens
-> Was the ‘Year of the Consulships of Caepio and Geminus’ in Rome
But if an Athenian and a Roman wanted to be sure they were talking about the same year, they would consult the Olympic Victor List and find it was the ‘Second Year of the 144th Olympiad’
In other words, the Panhellenic Games, and especially the Olympics, were so important to ancient Mediterranean society that they served as the basis of one of the first international calendars!