What ancient athletes wore, how they cheated, and why a dead man was declared the winner in pankration.
1. Only Greek males could participate in the Olympics
The modern Olympic Games began in 1896 in Athens. And today people of all races and nationalities can participate in them – it is believed that this helps different countries and peoples to unite.
But in the ancestor of the games, ancient Greece , only Greeks were allowed to compete, and free ones at that: slaves and foreigners were not allowed. These competitions in Olympia were a truly sacred event in honor of the god Zeus – outsiders were not welcomed there.
In 504 BC, Alexander I of Macedon Philhellen wanted to participate in the Olympic Games . And what do you think? He was refused. Because he was Macedonian, and these guys, although they spoke Greek, were considered in Hellas not real Greeks.
To prove his right to participate in the games, Alexander had to prove his descent from the Argives and Heracles himself before the court of the Elean Hellanodics, as the judges of the games were called. It is not known how he achieved this – whether he brought them his pedigree, or simply made a generous donation. In any case, he was allowed to participate in the race and pankration.
There were separate games for women, dedicated to Hera, the wife of Zeus. Young participants in Olympia competed in running in short tunics with the right breast open, and in Sparta they also wrestled.
But women were not invited to the Olympics – and they were not allowed to attend even as spectators in the stands under pain of death. Although young unmarried virgins were still allowed to come to the games accompanied by their fathers. They hoped that they would be able to marry their daughter to one of the champions, which was considered incredibly prestigious.
The Greek historian Pausanias told of one woman, Callipatera of Rhodes, who came to the games in 404 BCE dressed as a man and pretended to be a coach. She wanted to support her sons, Peisirodes and Eucles, who were competing. Her deception was discovered, but since Peisirodes won, Callipatera was not punished. However, from then on, all coaches who came to support their Olympians were required to undress to prove that they were not women.
2. The athletes competed naked
In the modern Olympic Games, athletes from each participating country wear special uniforms. Their clothes are designed by many famous brands, such as Issey Miyake, Ralph Lauren and Dior. Naturally, all this costs a huge amount of money.
But if the Olympic Committee had adopted the practice of the ancient Greeks, the athletes would have competed completely naked . During the earliest games, athletes wore loincloths. But this was quickly abandoned – who wants to wrestle and run when your underwear is constantly falling off – and they switched to complete nudity.
Performing exercises and competing naked was considered quite civilized – after all, a trained athlete is like a god and should not shamefully cover himself.
However, the Olympians did have their limits of decency. In Ancient Greece, it was quite normal to walk around with a dangling… dignity, but exposing the head of the penis by moving the foreskin was considered extremely indecent. And the Greeks generally called circumcised foreigners barbarians and said that this procedure was extremely dangerous.
In general, in order not to accidentally show the audience more than necessary, athletes wrapped the tips of their members with kinodesma – a special leather cord. And this was their only clothing.
3. Athletes who broke the rules were fined, beaten and shamed
Because the Olympic Games were sacred, they were taken very seriously. And the rules governing them were extremely important. Cheating at the Games was considered an insult to the gods, and that, you know, is a dangerous undertaking. You never know, you might get struck by lightning or be awarded the plague .
That’s why both Olympic athletes and judges took a solemn vow not to break the rules and play fair. They swore over a sacrificial piece of boar meat – this vow was very serious. But, naturally, even after such an oath there were tricksters who looked for a way to deceive their opponents.
For example, some athletes tried to put the evil eye on their opponents so that they would lose. According to David Gilman Romano, a professor of Greek archaeology at the University of Arizona, many amulets and lead tablets with curses have been found buried under sports facilities and arenas. In addition to black magic , Olympians bribed judges and also openly cheated against their opponents.
Punishments at the games were brutal . If the judges decided that someone had broken the rules—say, a runner had started before the signal—they could immediately whip or beat him with sticks. Given that this was a typical punishment for slaves, it was especially humiliating for a free Greek.
In addition, serious monetary fines were imposed on the guilty. A bronze statue of Zeus was created with this money and placed on a slab on which the offense was described in detail. The sculptures were installed at the entrance to the Olympic arena so that everyone knew the name of the fraudster. To this day, at least 16 stone bases where such statues stood have been preserved in the ruins of ancient Olympia.
4. Pankration was a dangerous and sometimes deadly art.
Modern Olympic wrestling requires a lot of skill and strength. But it is certainly not as spectacular and intense as the ancient Greek pankration. This is a fight that combined techniques from wrestling and boxing. It lasted until one of the wrestlers fell to the ground or gave up.
Experienced pankrationists were highly valued by commanders, including Alexander the Great, as they made good soldiers. Pankration was virtually indistinguishable from fighting on the battlefield, except that no weapons were used.
If a participant felt that he could not win, he could raise his index finger to surrender. However, some pankration fights turned into real mortal combats.
For example, in 564 BCE, Arrichion of Phigalia, who had won two previous games, fought an unnamed athlete. The athlete wrapped his legs around him, grabbed him by the throat, and choked him. With his last strength, Arrichion kicked his opponent in the leg, dislocating his big toe, and then threw him over himself. The man gave in from the terrible pain, but Arrichion had already lost consciousness and died from suffocation or a laryngeal injury.
The judges awarded him the victory because his opponent raised his index finger first. Arrhichion’s corpse was crowned with an olive wreath and honored as an Olympian – the winner of the games.
5. The record set by Leonidas of Rhodes lasted 2,168 years.
American swimmer Michael Phelps has 23 Olympic gold medals. He is best known for winning 13 individual gold medals in 2016, the rest coming from relay events.
But before Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time was the ancient Greek athlete Leonidas of Rhodes. He competed in four consecutive games from 164 to 152 BC and managed to earn 12 Olympic wreaths — the equivalent of a gold medal in ancient Greece.
Leonidas was a record holder, winning 12 victories in three different events: the stadiodrome, a sprint of one stadium or 600 steps; the diaulos, a two-stadium race; and the hoplitodromos, a race in full battle dress. In his homeland of Rhodes, a statue was erected in his honor with the inscription “He ran like a god.”
Leonidas’ success in the hoplitodrom is especially surprising. The equipment consisted of a helmet, breastplate and greaves made of bronze, and in addition the runner was given a large wooden shield with bronze plates – hoplon. The total weight of the equipment was about 22 kg – can you imagine what it would be like to run sprints in this?
And by the way, Michael Phelps got his medals in five competitions, and Leonid Rodossky in only three. So the record here still stands.