The Peloponnese - The Rough Guide to Greece - page 183

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THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The origins of the games at Olympia are rooted in legends - often relating to the god Pelops,
Zeus, or to Hercules (Herakles). Historically, the contests probably began around the eleventh
century BC, growing over the next two centuries from a local festival to the quadrennial
celebration attended by states from throughout the Greek world. These great gatherings
extended the games' importance and purpose well beyond the winning of olive wreaths;
assembled under a strict truce , nobles and ambassadors negotiated treaties, while merchants
did business and sculptors and poets sought commissions.
THE EVENTS
From the beginning, the main Olympic events were athletic. The earliest was a race over the
course of the stadium - roughly 200m. Later came the introduction of two-lap (400m) and
24-lap (5000m) races, along with the most revered of the Olympiad events, the pentathlon .
This encompassed running, jumping, discus and javelin events, the competitors gradually
reduced to a final pair for a wrestling-and-boxing combat. It was, like much of these early
Olympiads, a fairly brutal contest. One of the most prestigious events was the pancratium
where contestants fought each other, naked and unarmed, using any means except biting or
gouging. Similarly, the chariot races were extreme tests of strength and control, only one team
in twenty completing the 7km course.
RULES AND AWARDS
In the early Olympiads, the rules of competition were strict. Only free-born male Greeks could
take part, and the rewards of victory were entirely honorary: a palm, given to the victor
immediately after the contest, and an olive branch, presented in a ceremony closing the
games. As the games developed, however, the rules were loosened to allow participation by
athletes from all parts of the Greek and Roman world. By the fourth century BC, when the
games were at their peak, the athletes were virtually all professionals , heavily sponsored by
their home states and, if they won at Olympia, commanding huge appearance money at
games elsewhere. Under the Romans, commercialization accelerated and new events were
introduced. In 67 AD Emperor Nero advanced the games by two years just so that he could
compete in (and win) special singing and lyre-playing events.
DECLINE AND FALL
Notwithstanding Roman abuses, the Olympian tradition was popular enough to be
maintained for another three centuries, and the games' eventual closure happened as a result
of religious dogma rather than lack of support. In 393 AD Emperor Theodosius, recently
converted to Christianity , suspended the games as part of a general crackdown on public
pagan festivities. This suspension proved final, for Theodosius's successor ordered the
destruction of the temples, a process completed by barbarian invasion, earthquakes and, lastly,
by the Alfiós River changing its course to cover the sanctuary site. There it remained, covered
by 7m of silt and sand, until the first excavation by German archeologists in the 1870s.