Attitudes to Olympics - then and now - Blog - Auckland War Memorial Museum

There are a lot of truly wonderful things you can see and hear about in Greece, but there is a unique divinity of disposition about the mysteries at Eleusis and the Games at Olympia
Pausanias, Guide to Greece, Vol II Book V.

Article by Deirdre Harrison, Collections Manager, Archaeology

This mystique associated with the ancient Olympic Games has continued into the modern era. Although they are not the pinnacle of sporting achievement for many sports there is a special quality about winning the Olympic gold or even attending an Olympic event.

The celebration of the ancient Olympics spanned a millennium whereas the modern Games have lasted (merely) 130 years. Both Games have drawn on competitors, judges and audiences from widespread societies, from warring states and from unrecognised territories. This chronological, geographic, and cultural range makes any generalisation about attitudes impossible, but it is interesting to investigate some of the ancient writings and artefacts which address modern concerns with the Games and the athletes.

Problems such as:

the use of sport in soft (and not so soft) political display,
who is eligible to compete,
professionalism versus amateurism, (the monetary/social value of sport)
what constitutes cheating and how is it punishable, all sound like modern issues– but they were discussed in the ancient literature at some length as important social concerns.

Origins and rationale

There is evidence found in ancient art, objects and literary texts that sports and games were an integral aspect of social life in Ancient Greece, and sporting contests on a larger, more formal scale were organised regularly to mark social/religious occasions such as funerals and festivals.

The earliest mention of organised Greek sporting contests (in the Iliad and the Odyssey), demonstrate the strong connection between sport, society, and the gods. Sporting victory was portrayed not only as a physical achievement but also as a demonstration of bravery, intelligence and virtue and the favour of the gods - not dissimilar to the fame and adulation accorded to modern sports stars which extends beyond the sporting arena.

The mythical origins of the ancient Olympic Games (Pelops’s dubious chariot race for the hand of Hippodameia) and the documented revival of the Games in 776BCE on the advice of the Delphic oracle both indicate political reasons for staging the sporting events.

Like the modern Olympics, the ancient games were much more than a sporting event - they were displays of “soft power”. With many of the events centred around war-like skills (hoplite races, javelin, chariot races, wrestling, and pankration), victory on the sports field demonstrated a physical superiority which enhanced the reputation of the victor’s city for producing strong warriors.

Pankration - a combination of boxing and wrestling with very few rules, often fought to the death.
By Unknown artist - Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow), 2007, CC BY 2.5. More information ›

Eligibility

All competitions require rules, and for the ancient Games rules around the eligibility of athletes and judges to compete or attend the ancient games were crucial. Initially eligible athletes included any freeborn Greek-speaking male citizen of a polis (city-state) on the Hellenic Peninsula, later this was extended to include the Greek-speaking colonies or cities outside of “Greece” itself. Other sporting contests were held for women, but the ancient Olympics did not permit women competitors, or officials, or even women spectators. In the modern era the criteria for the eligibility of athletes are a complex mixture of national sporting rules, inclusion or exclusion of countries sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee, and anti-doping compliance monitored by the World Anti-Doping Agency. All these criteria contain some political dimension. Although women have entered the modern Olympics since the second Games (1900), full integration of women competitors and officials has been slow. It was not until 2012 that women were permitted to enter all sporting codes at the Games - despite being able to participate in these codes at other international competitions.

In keeping with the religious nature of the ancient Games, athletes had to be innocent of any crime or impious act and were required to have performed the required sacrifice to the gods. Entrants, and cities that the competitors passed though on the way to and from the games had to uphold the Sacred Truce. A concept mirrored in the (mostly) unimpeded travel of the Olympic flame to the venue of the Games and the modern Athletes’ oath. People who transgressed the ancient laws were punished severely – fines, disqualifications, public flogging, and the public announcement of their transgression (some of these penalties are still practiced today).

At Olympia a separate event was held for women - the Heraia (in honour of Zeus’ wife Hera). Here women raced on the Olympic track over the stade distance, for an olive crown and a share of the meat from the sacrificed oxen.
Bronze figure of a running girl, from about 520-500 BCE. Possibly Spartan in origin. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. More information ›

Professionalism and Training

The athletes’ training regimes were very demanding of time and resources so naturally favoured the wealthy or noble born. Later, with democratisation of the cities, sporting talent was recognised in poorer citizens and the concept of sponsorship evolved so that the wealthy individual or city could share in the glory of an Olympic victory. However, this early “professionalism” was not completely embraced. The concept was publicly addressed and in some cities the prizes/rewards were limited by law. (e.g. Solon’s laws from early the sixth century BC in Athens). The modern Games were also reluctant to permit entry to professional sportspeople although it is widely recognised that the current elite level of sport would be impossible without extensive subsidy and sponsorship.

Many of the ancient training techniques and equipment would be familiar to a modern athlete, as would the necessity of specialised diets, sports massage, hygiene, physiotherapy, and sports psychology- all topics discussed by ancient writers and physicians such as Galen and Hippocrates.

Ancient trainers employed many methods which are very close to “modern” developments in sports science:

The “tetrade”, or four-day cycle of training with varying intensity, in a build-rest-build cycle.
Strict discipline with regard to diet, sleep and sexual relationships
Cross-training for building fitness and stamina e.g. swimming to train for other sports.
Use of punchballs, weights and other strength building equipment. (Lifting stones have been found with inscriptions – “lift me”)

Stone with the inscription 'Bybon, son of Phola, has lifted me over [his] head with one hand'
Creative Commons CC0 1.0

Winning, losing, and cheating

Winning was important in ancient Greek society. Winning signalled not only hard work and talent, but also divine grace - whereas defeat was seen as disreputable and dishonourable. Epictetus, an ancient author wrote that “if you are defeated [at Olympia] you cannot just depart, but first you are disgraced … before the whole world. If you withdraw without sufficient reason, you will be whipped.” Sport was seen as a training ground for civic duty and military service – there was no value in merely “taking part”. Although many modern losers are disgraced by having their moments of defeat widely publicised and globally repeated on multiple media platforms, few are publicly whipped.

When the modern Olympic Games were established by Baron Pierre de Courbetin in 1896, he made his famous statement “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle”. This statement, confusingly, is in direct opposition to the Olympic motto “faster, higher, stronger” (citias, altias, fortias) which outlines the sporting struggle to be better than your rivals and those who have gone before. Even the moderator - “Together” which was added to the motto for 2021 games to indicate solidarity and the need for unity in the world, does little to mitigate the nationalist fervour of modern international sporting competition - nowhere more evident than at the Olympic games.

Because there was so much emphasis on winning, clear rules for each contest, and with the stakes rising ever higher, fairness and the issue of cheating needed to be addressed. The most visible evidence of cheating at Olympia are the remains of the inscribed plinths of bronze statues of Zeus (Zanes), erected and paid for by the cheating athletes.

Mostly these plinths record bribes to officials or throwing a match, although other references mention a late arrival to the Games, and another an Egyptian who was fined for cowardice – he ran away from the pankration. Elsewhere it is noted that false starts were dealt with by beating with rods.

These days we recognise another form of cheating where the athlete chemically enhances their performance. Drug cheats were not specifically identified in the ancient literature, but then, as now, it was recognised that the food you ate had an impact on your sporting performance and diets were tailored for performance. Most frequently reported was the increase of the amount of red meat eaten as a source of protein. Other dietary supplements (which may be considered less acceptable these days) included various mushrooms and herb extracts which could have a stimulant or analgesic effect on the athletes. The Greeks had extensive knowledge of plants and studies on the effects of cinnamon, opium, myrrh, and others are found from the time of Aristotle. Poppy seeds on bread were specifically mentioned in the ancient literature in the diet of athletes, although the quantities ingested are not known. Sesame seeds and other concoctions, such as fermented honey, were also believed to be beneficial to athletes and were taken with the intent of improving performance. The “supplements” were not restricted to the human competitors but were sometimes fed to the horses too.

These enhanced diets were not regarded as cheating in ancient times because it was accepted that the source and the knowledge of these supplements derived from the gods, (who sometimes dispensed these potions themselves) and thus using the knowledge was complying with their intentions.

The most common diet of the time was grain and vegetable based, with cheese and dairy as the main source of protein.

As well as literary mentions, the evidence of supplement use can be traced by chemical analysis of bones from the graves of ancient athletes. From skeletal damage, increased bone density, muscle attachment and joint measurements of a skeleton, forensic scientists can identify the bones as those of of an athlete, and determine the sports which the man would have performed routinely or excelled in. Occasionally this is corroborated with specific sports illustrated on the prize amphorae buried with these athletes.

Although not considered cheating, to some members of the ancient public these supplemented diets, over-training and extra-large athletes were considered extreme. There is evidence that athletes were criticised for being so focused on results as to be useless to the city, or even a drain on its resources. In Greek city life there was a delicate balance between being a highly competitive and a good citizen who lived a life of moderation and harmony.

Several physicians (some of them even having been trainers) condemned the over-training or specialist-training required to compete at the games. “As well as being in constant pain and discomfort and tired and hungry or over full, the athletes often end up with no resilience to heat or cold or disease and take no pleasure from their bodies” – Galen. Many modern athletes could identify with this description, and many modern citizens would agree with the criticism of over emphasis on the importance of sport.

The ancient and the modern public may have (slightly) different expectations regarding the Olympic Games, but it has always been an institution which has inspired excellence and controversy, and which has demonstrated the best and the worst of the human (competitive) spirit.

Panathenaic amphora, oil-filled prize for the victor at the Panathenaic Games
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.