- Call a truce, strap on your running sandals,
and say a little prayer to the gods.
Today we're talking grit, gridiron, and Greeks.
It's ten surprising facts
you didn't know about the ancient Olympics.
♪ ♪
Just as the majestic art
of horse dressage is one of many modern Olympic events,
the original Olympic games were just one
of many events that made up the greater Panhellenic Games.
Made up of four distinct games
held on a rotating annual schedule,
the Panhellenic Games included the games at Olympia,
which took place every four years,
the games at Delphi, also every four years,
the Isthmian Games every two years,
and the Nemean Games, also every two years.
The Panhellenic Games were intended
to create a sense of unity and common identity
during a time when Greece was a group
of politically and economically independent
city-states.
The games became so important to Greek culture
that they became the basis for their calendar,
which measured the equivalent of four years at a time,
also known as an Olympiad.
What better way to show respect to the gods
than by throwing a javelin as far as humanly possible?
That was the initial idea
behind the formation of the Olympic Games.
In ancient Greece,
sporting events were traditionally associated
with funeral rituals
for heroes and the fallen in battle.
And some claim that, according to Greek mythology,
the games were founded by Zeus himself
to celebrate his victory over his father, Kronos.
Each of the Panhellenic Games
were held in honor of a specific god.
The Olympic and Nemean Games
celebrated Zeus, king of the gods.
The game at Delphi celebrated Apollo,
the god of light and knowledge,
and the Isthmian Games celebrated Poseidon,
the god of the sea.
The site of the Games at Olympia
even included a sacred area called the Altis,
which included temples, sacrificial altars,
and treasuries to store offerings to the gods.
We bet there were even souvenir stands
hawking jerseys with Zeus' name
and foam fingers that said, "Let's go, gods."
At their start, the games showcased a wide variety
of athletic ability as long as it fell
under the category of foot races.
The oldest and most prestigious event
was the stadion--
a foot race that ran the length of the stadium,
or stade, approximately 193 meters.
According to Greek mythology,
Hercules could run a stadion in one single breath,
but the actual Olympic competitors
may have had to huff and puff a bit more than that.
For the first decade, the stadion
was the only competitive athletic event at the games.
Around 724 BCE, the diaulos was introduced,
which ran the distance of two stades,
followed by the introduction of the dolichos,
a long distance race of around 40 stades,
and a race that required runners to complete
a multi-stade course in full battle armor.
The Greeks took these foot races very seriously.
Starting positions were decided by lots,
and making a false start
could result in corporal punishment.
But winning these races would make you a star,
like Leonidas of Rhodes,
the greatest runner of the ancient Olympic Games.
Undefeated on foot, he won three races
on the same day in four consecutive Olympic Games,
making him 12 for 12 over 12 years.
Contrary to popular belief,
the marathon was not one of the many foot races
that were part of the ancient Olympic Games.
The marathon is a modern event
that was brought in during the reboot
for Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.
The marathon honors the run of Pheidippides,
who carried the warning of the Persians landing at Marathon
to the Spartans in Athens in 490 BCE.
Though the marathon we know today is 26.2 miles,
the original distance that Pheidippides covered,
a round trip from Athens to Sparta and back,
may have been a whopping 300 miles
over the course of 4 days.
According to some versions of the story,
after reaching his destination and making his announcement,
Pheidippides promptly collapsed and died.
Someone should have told Pheidippides
as he was running from Marathon not to sprint
and to make sure to replenish those electrolytes.
Streaker.
Oh, wait, no, those are the athletes.
That's right-- the ancient Greeks
competed in the games completely naked.
There are two competing stories
as to exactly why they stripped
before hitting the field.
One tale explains that Orsippus,
a runner from Megara,
was the first to run naked in the stadion race
in 720 BCE
when he lost his loincloth during the race.
Another version of the origin story
posits that nudity was introduced by the Spartans
in the 8th century BCE as a show of civility
in the face of their Persian enemies,
who thought baring it all was uncouth.
Nake-y games became the norm for ancient Greek athletes,
who would cover their body
in olive oil and dust it with fine sand
to help regulate their body temperatures
and protect them from the sun.
A buff bod completely in the buff
soon became a symbol of Greek civilization
and superiority,
making the nude form an integral aspect
of Greek culture and art.
Take it off.
Aside from all the naked short-distance running,
the ancient games also featured the arts
as a major part of the event.
Olympia became an artistic hub
as the festival surrounding the games
attracted large crowds,
which was great for musicians, writers,
and other artists to present their talents to the masses.
Music accompanied events
like the pentathlon and the long jump,
and at some games,
contests in music and arts
formed a separate part of the program,
on par with the athletic events.
They called these "musical contests,"
named after the Muses.
Especially known for their musical contests
were the Pythian Games,
which honored Apollo, the god of music and poetry.
Turns out that audiences have been going to see
performances at the Apollo for thousands of years.
Good sportsmanship is important for any competition,
and it's hard to be a good sport
when you're surrounded by an active war zone.
According to legend, Iphitos, King of Elis,
was told by the Oracle of Delphi
to found a peaceful sporting competition
in order to break the cycle of armed conflict in the area.
And so the games and the military truces,
or Ekecheiria,
that went along with them were born.
First adopted at the inaugural games of 776 BCE,
truces were put into place to suspend all war
and prohibit armies from entering the area
before and during the games.
The truces were faithfully observed
and gave Olympians and visitors
safe passage to the event.
Way to keep it on the field, guys.
Move over, Usain Bolt and Apolo Ohno.
Ancient Olympic champions were celebrities, too,
and they had even cooler names,
like Astylos of Croton and Melankomas of Caria.
Only freeborn Greek men and boys
could compete at the games,
and crowds as large as 40,000
would come from all over Greece to watch them compete.
Olympic winners were given a victory crown
of olive leaves
and an olive branch cut from a sacred tree,
which, according to Greek mythology,
had been planted by Hercules himself.
Leading athletes were considered heroes
who were welcomed back to their hometowns
with a procession where they rode a four-horse chariot,
and attended huge banquets held in their honor.
Winners received glory and fame
and were immortalized in art, victory odes, and statues--
the Wheaties boxes of their time.
Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.
Now go pay for that statue.
Cheating was not tolerated at the ancient games.
When athletes disrespected the rules,
the judge would whip them during the game.
But more serious offenses also carried fines.
The money from the fines
was used to erect statues of Zeus,
which featured the names of cheaters
inscribed on their base.
The punishment statues
were placed around the stadium at Olympia
and inside the gymnasium at Elis
as a reminder to athletes that cheating is bad, okay?
Women were not allowed in the ancient Olympic Games.
They could only be admitted to the arena as spectators
and only then if they were unmarried.
There were, however,
separate athletic competitions for women
that took place every four years
and included three separate races for girls,
teenagers, and young women,
as well as the Maiden's Footrace
honoring Hera, the goddess of women,
marriage, family, and childbirth.
The Maiden's Footrace was held at the Olympic Stadium
and was the length of 5/6 of a stade,
rather than the full 6/6 of a stade that the men ran.
Just 32 meters was all that separated
the women's competition from the men's--
oh, and the fact that the women wore tunics
while competing unlike their nudie male counterparts.
Incredible acts of athleticism and art
and a whole lot of short-distance running...
All this talk about people exercising
2,000 years ago has been really exhausting.
Did we miss any Olympic facts?
Run to the comments and let us know.
Until next time, compete like the Greeks,
but, please, keep your clothes on
during your next 5K fun run.
Bye.