The athletes were naked, some of the events were extremely violent, and some athletes died during competition. There were fines, flogging, and cheating. That’s all true. Beyond that, much of what you’ve learned about the ancient Olympics is exaggerated or flat-out wrong.
Some of the long-believed inaccuracies about the ancient Olympics were inspirations for the modern games that began in 1896, which further perpetuated the myths. “The modern Olympics were based on some pretty fundamental misunderstandings of the ancient games,” says University of Michigan Professor David Potter, the Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Classical Studies, and professor of Greek and Latin at LSA.
Potter, who teaches a course on ancient and modern sports, is here to set the record straight.
Myth 1: The athletes were unpaid amateurs.
You thought the athletes in the ancient Olympics were amateurs? Oh, you sweet summer child.
While they may not have directly earned prize money, many athletes were showered with gifts after they won. “You only get an olive crown to be an Olympian—that’s true, until you get home. At which point you’re given massive rewards, [such as] free lunch for life in the city hall,” Potter says. Top athletes also earned pensions from their city or sometimes multiple cities.
“Everyone wanted to be associated with successful athletes,” says Potter, who is the author of The Victor’s Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 2011). It makes sense, he says; if someone is to become a top athlete, another person must be willing to sponsor their training. “The way the Olympics are now, with large-scale financial rewards for athletes, are very much in line with the ancient world,” Potter says.
The myth of ancient amateurism was created when the Olympics were reinvented as the modern games in 1896, Potter says. At that time, the founders put forth the ideal that athletes should compete for a pure love of sport and not for money—just like they supposedly did in ancient times.
Myth 2: The ancient Olympics began in 776 BCE and ended in 393 CE.
“776 is a complete fraud,” says Potter. The date was established by politician Hippias of Elis around 400 BCE when he put together a list of Olympic champions based on less-than-thorough research. Archaeological findings put the date closer to 650, Potter says.
Potter also disputes that the ancient Olympics ended in 393 CE during the reign of Theodosius I because the ruler outlawed pagan celebrations. The final games actually were held during the reign of Roman emperor Theodosius II, who ruled from 402 to 450 CE, he says.
“Archaeologically, we know the Olympics were still being competed in the early fifth century,” Potter says. After that, disinterest and a lack of an audience led to the end of the games. Why has the myth of the year 393 persisted? In part, Potter says, because it is precise whereas the real year is hard to pin down. “People like an exact date,” he says.
Myth 3: The ancient Olympics were religious in nature.
This isn’t completely false; the ancient games were part of a religious festival honoring Zeus, but Potter makes a modern comparison that will ring true to many U-M fans. “It was about as religious as an event on Saturday afternoon at Michigan Stadium,” he says.
The ancient Olympics opened with a sacrifice to the gods, which Potter says is similar in spirit to singing the National Anthem before a sporting event today.
Myth 4: “For the first 12 ancient Olympics, the only event was a short footrace of about 190m—or one length of the stadium—called a ‘stade.’”
That statement is taken from a page on the Paris Olympics site titled “Top ten facts about the ancient Olympic Games.” This one is not so factual, and Potter faults Hippias of Elis and his sloppy research once again. “It’s all wrong. It’s even in The Iliad, which was composed before the first Olympics, which shows that you’d have chariot races, boxing, wrestling, and a foot race—never just a foot race,” Potter says. Pankration, a violent sport that was a sort of MMA of its time, was also an event at many of the ancient Olympic games.
Myth 5: All free male Greek citizens could compete in the Olympics, regardless of their social class.
In reality, Potter says, “you had to have a lot of money because you had to be able to take the summer off, and you had to be able to afford the travel. There was a sense that athletes are upper-class people,” he says.
With your new knowledge, enjoy watching this year’s Summer Olympics. Potter will; he’s looking forward to viewing the track and field events, wrestling (Potter himself was a college wrestler), and swimming.
If he were a spectator at the ancient Olympics, “I’d be keenly into wrestling, boxing, and pankration. That’s the big day, the combat sports,” he says. “Homer refers to boxing and wrestling as painful. One of the things that was appreciated about an athlete in the ancient world, that makes them heroic, is that they overcome pain. The risk factor is a major feature in the ideology of the games. The biggest star is the one who has the biggest risk.”
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llustration by Becky Sehenuk Waite
