Ancient Athletics Part Four: Who's Who?

Greek athletes. From the base of a funerary kouros, later included in the Themistokleian Wall of Athens. 510-500 BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

Athletes

There is debate about whether athletes were amateur or professional. Qualifying for the Olympics required athletes to be free men, but could a poor man ever get that far? Who could dedicate at least ten months to constant training with a coach and then fund travel to get to the sanctuary? The Greek world was a slave-owning society, so those who could exploit an enslaved person to run their business or tend their farm during training would be able to free up their own time to spend in the gymnasium.

We do know that some cities chose to sponsor poorer men and subsidise their training and travel costs, if they possessed exceptional talent.

Athletic training was a standard part of a boy’s education to make sure the male population was healthy, strong and ready for war, but not everyone had the talent, time and ability to compete at the top level. We do know of some athletes who were amateur, like Glaukos of Carystus. He was a farmer, and his strength at the plough had convinced his Dad that Glaukos could be a top rate boxer. Glaukos arrived at Olympia with much less experience than his competitors, but his Dad told him to use his fists to hammer their heads just as he hammered the ploughshare at home. Transferable skills have always been appreciated! Glaukos won, and went on to have a sterling athletic career on the Greek circuit. The four main Games (Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean) were called the stephanitic Games because the prize was a crown (stephanos). If an athlete won, their city usually bestowed them with cash, tax cuts or free meals as a sign of civic pride. But other Games across the Greek world offered monetary or other valuable prizes, so an athlete could fund his training and entry to stephanitic Games by hoovering up prizes on the wider athletic circuit. As such, they were professional.  

Trainers

Trainers and coaches were key to an athlete’s success. They oversaw training, but they also oversaw all lifestyle decisions including diet and health. Often trainers were employed by a city gymnasium, but a superstar athlete would sometimes hire a personal coach, who could charge astronomical prices for such bespoke services. The trainers made sure that all training was within Olympic regulations, but had some freedom in deciding which diets and exercises were best. Regimens were diverse and best practices hotly debated, so choosing a trainer carefully was very important. As with modern coaches, some could be harsh and some could be sympathetic.  

Olympic Council

A senate of Elean elites formed the governing body of the Olympic Games. As well as organising the Games themselves, the council also acted as a court in case there were any disputes or appeals. They could not reverse decisions made by the judges, but could fine the judges for failing to remain impartial. The council HQ was the Bouleuterion.

Referees

Even if we aren’t sure of every rule in the Olympic events, there were definitely lots of potential infractions that needed to be monitored. That’s why the athletes were closely monitored by umpires to ensure that every competition was fair. The referees were armed with whips and cudgels, not only to nudge contact athletes to stay within the fighting area, but to punish cheaters and those who made mistakes. From an anecdote in Herodotus’ Histories, we know that for instance, any runner who made a false start was soundly beaten. 

Judges

The judges were called Hellanodikai, meaning ‘judges of Greeks.’ At Olympia, they were all drawn from elite Elean citizens. They acted as sponsors, which meant that the judges were usually very rich aristocrats to be able to afford to donate so much money, but they received a lot of prestige as a return on their investment.

They were recognisable as they wore ceremonial purple robes for the duration. There were never more than 12 judges at a time. The festival was a very busy time for the Hellanodikai as they had a lot of responsibilities. They supervised the month long preliminary training in Elis, making sure that everyone was eligible to compete. They were tasked with fairly assigning race lanes and combat opponents by lot, using marked sherds in a jar. They distributed punishments for cheating, and they were responsible for determining the winner. Pausanias tells us that their decisions could be appealed; there were three judges in charge of the sprint in 396 BCE. One declared that Leon from Ambracia had won, the other two declared that local Elis boy Eupolemus had won. Leon appealed, and the two judges were heavily fined (which didn’t seem to stop Eupolemus being able to erect himself a victor statue in the altis; even a corrupt decision was still considered final). The judges also had important roles in the religious rites during the festival, and had VIP seating for all events.

Celebrities

The hubbub of the festival was the perfect place to see famous men from across the Greek world. The Games were a huge draw for sports fans, but others took the opportunity to see and be seen. In the evenings, fans could be entertained by musicians, singers, dancers, acrobats and poets who revelled in busking to such large crowds. Even the great historian Herodotus gave a recital of his Histories in the Temple of Zeus to a rapt audience. That’s not to say that crowds were always benevolent, the Syracusan tyrant Dionysios I tried to recite some of his dodgy poetry, the crowds hissed and booed.

Priests

There were multiple temples at Olympia and even more altars that required tending. Priests and priestesses were in fact, along with caretakers, the only permanent inhabitants of the site, living in the Theokleon. All other officials lived in Elis, the town that ran the Games. There were many rituals, rites and sacrifices throughout the festival, and priests naturally were very busy. The festival was deeply religious, unlike our secular Games today, and the priests made sure that the Games were kept sacred, performing purifications.

Ambassadors

Elean ambassadors spent the months preceding the Games travelling across the Greek world to announce the date of the Games, so that athletes and spectators had enough time to plan their visit. Travel took a long time and could be expensive, and businesses needed to be run whilst owners were away. There were also festivals across the Greek world, so having ambassadors announce their Games allowed athletes to plan their schedules (as smaller Games had cash prizes, athletes were keen to attend as many as possible to fill their purse as well as gain experience.) 

Each polis also sent official ambassadors to the Games, even if their athletes didn’t pass the preliminary stages. Everyone who was anyone attended the Games and it was an excellent opportunity for political discussions and deals to be made between towns. 

Merchants

Staying at Olympia meant a long trek or voyage followed by camping beneath the stars, and that’s if you brought your own tent. It was far easier to travel light and to purchase what you needed at the sanctuary, so enterprising merchants set up temporary shops across the entire site. Spectators could buy food, cooking equipment, clothes, tents and blankets, animals or cakes to sacrifice at the altar of their choice, statuettes to dedicate as votives, souvenirs and perhaps something pretty to take home to their wives and mistresses. Other merchants created pop-up taverns for some wine and carousing into the night. The athletes won no money, but there was a lot of money to be made for a savvy businessman at Olympia.