Ancient Athletics Part Nine: Famous Olympians

The Olympics were the pinnacle of ancient athletics, and winning a crown made an athlete a household name across the Mediterranean. But some athletes were far more famous than others…

Milo of Croton. Marble, reception piece for the French Royal Academy, 1768.

Milo of Croton

Milo first won the wrestling at Olympia and Delphi in the youth category in the 60th Olympiad, winning again as an adult a further 5 times at Olympia and 6 at Delphi. He also won 9 titles at Nemea and 10 at Isthmia. That meant his professional career lasted for about 30 years from 540 BC, 24 of those years as unbeatable champion at every stephanitic Games. An athlete that won at all four Panhellenic Games was called a  Periodonikes. Milo achieved this five times. He finally lost in 512 BC to another wrestler from Croton called Timasitheus, who simply stayed at arm’s length and waited until Milo eventually tired himself out. Milo apparently built up his strength by carrying a calf on his shoulders every day for four years until it was a fully grown bull.

He also had an awe-inspiring diet, eating 20lbs of meat, 20lbs of bread and 18 pints of wine a day. In 520 BC he strutted around a festival to Zeus dressed as Herakles, casually carrying a bull which he later ate in one sitting. Ten years later when Croton attacked nearby Sybaris, Milo donned his Herakles costume again as well as his athletic crowns and led the charge into battle. Milo was fond of party tricks and enjoyed tying a cord around his forehead, holding his breath and snapping the cord with only his bulging veins. He would also love to challenge opponents to steal a pomegranate from his hand. Not only could no man loosen his grip, Milo would not even have bruised the fruit. In fact, a favourite game was for Milo to ask somebody to bend his outstretched finger. No-one ever did. A legendary wrestler required a legendary death. Milo apparently saw a tree with a spilt trunk, held open by wedges. Milo attempted to split the tree in apart by pushing the two halves away, but the wedges fell out and clamped his hands in the tree. Trapped, Milo was eaten alive by wolves.

Aula

Aula won the keles race at Olympia in 512 BC. Her rider didn’t, having fallen off at the beginning of the race. The horse was so well-trained that she finished the course alone. Aula’s owner, Pheidolas of Corinth won the crown.

Theagenes of Thasos

Theagenes was a man of bravado. His father Timosthenes was a priest but some whispered his real father must have been Herakles. Theagenes became famous at the grand old age of 9 when he brazenly stole a large bronze statue  and carried it home. Some people in Thasos asked for the death penalty for this act of sacrilege, but in the end his punishment was to haul the massive statue back, which Theagenes easily managed.

In 480 BC Theagenes won the Olympic boxing title in a fight against Euthymos of Locri. Theagenes wanted to win the boxing and pankration in one day, but Euthymos had put up such a fight in the final that Theagenes was too exhausted to then compete in another event. His pankration opponent won by default, and Theagenes was fined for dropping out, and for entering the boxing for the sole reason of annoying Euthymos, as far as the judges could make out. At the next Olympics, Theagenes won the pankration and didn’t enter the boxing, which Euthymos won. Euthymos seems to have travelled to Tamesa at some point after this and beaten a murderous ghost in a wrestling match, saving the city and marrying a beautiful maiden who was to be sacrificed to the ghost…  Meanwhile, Theagenes became the first Olympian to win both boxing and pankration, even if they weren’t won on the same day as he’d planned. He did manage to win both in a single day (twice) at the Isthmian Games.

Theagenes won several wreaths in boxing and pankration; 10 wreaths at Isthmia, 9 and Nemea and 3 at Delphi. He apparently also won 1,400 victories at various other Games during his stellar career. At Phthia he even ran and won the dolichos race, just to prove how versatile he could be.

After Theagenes died his hometown erected a large statue of him, which was common practice if you had a local Olympic superstar. A longtime rival who had never managed to best Theagenes took out his humiliation and frustration by sneaking up to the statue after dark each night and whipping it. The statue toppled one night and killed the hapless man. The statue was accused of murder and thrown into the sea, as the punishment in Thasos for murder was exile. A drought then hit the island. The Oracle of Delphi told the people to recall their exiles to end the famine and it wasn’t until the people of Thasos retrieved the statue of Theagenes from the sea floor did the drought stop. From that point on, sacrifices were left at the statue which was reputed to have healing powers.

Kleitomachos of Thebes

Kleitomachos was a triple threat. He won three victories at the Pythian Games and was so formidable that the hellanodikai (judges,) at Olympia agreed to change the age-old programme and swap the order of the contact sports on his request (Kleitomachos didn’t want to compete in the pankration with boxing wounds.) He won the pankration at Olympia in 216 BC and the boxing there in 212 BC. One of his boxing matches at Olympia was against a newbie from a Greek colony in Egypt named Aristonikos. He’d apparently been trained on the orders of King Ptolemy who wanted to disprove that Kleitomachos was unbeatable. Ancient fans loved and underdog just as much as we do and they cheered Aristonikos loudly for daring to take on the titan of boxing. Aristonikos managed to hold his own and land some hard blows to even louder cheering. Kleitomachos was furious and berated the crowd for preferring an unknown Egyptian and King Ptolemy to a Theban champion who was trying to win for the glory of Greeks. The crowd immediately started to cheer for Kleitomachos again and he easily beat the humiliated Aristonikos.

Kleitomachos abstained from sex as a means to conserve his strength. He would leave the room if he heard an innuendo or raunchy joke and hated foul language. It was rumoured he even turned away if he saw dogs mating. Perhaps this strict regimen had something going for it. Albeit at Isthmia and not Olympia, Kleitomachos won the wrestling, boxing and pankration wreaths all in a single day. He was the only athlete to manage the combat triple in the whole of the Greek athletic circuit, even Theagenes couldn’t manage that!

Polydamas of Skotoussa

Polydamas of Skotoussa won the pankration at Olympia in 408 BC but is more famous for his exploits that had Greeks likening him to Herakles. Like Herakles, he apparently once killed a lion with his bare hands, not at Nemea but on the slopes of Mount Olympus. He also halted a moving chariot with nothing but his own brute strength and also wrestled a bull with such ferocity that the animal escaped leaving Polydamas holding a torn off hoof. Darius II, King of Persia, invited Polydamas to Susa. He challenged Polydamas to fight three of his elite soldiers known as Immortals. Polydamas killed all of them. He died in a brave or incredibly stupid manner, depending on which source you listen to. Polydamas was exploring a cave with his friends when the roof started to fall in. Polydamas held up the roof long enough to ensure that his friends could escape to safety, although Diodorus Siculus sniffs that it was actually to try to prove that he could hold up the mountain.

Kyniska of Sparta

Kyniska is famous for being the first woman to win an Olympic wreath, in 396 and again in 392 BCE. Unable to actually physically compete as a woman, Kyniska entered the only event where she was eligible: chariot racing. She owned and trained the horses, but purchased an enslaved driver to win the race itself. Kyniska was Spartan, and the daughter of Archidamus (which perhaps explains both the freedom and cash needed for such an undertaking.)

Melankomas of Caria

Melankomas was a boxer famed for his handsome features. For someone possessing such a gorgeous face, boxing appears to be an odd career choice. Perhaps maintaining his good looks was the reason Melankomas got so good at defensive manoeuvres. Throughout his career he never threw a punch and never received one either, maintaining such a solid defensive stance that his opponents would tire out or lose their temper and grow careless. A modern spectator may find this a little boring to watch, but the ancient Greeks admired Melankomas for his unconventional strategy and extreme stamina. His face was never damaged, his nose remained straight and his ears unswollen. It was said he once held his fists up for two straight days without wearying, let alone eating or sleeping. Melankomas trained harder than his peers, and spent far longer at the gymnasium. 

It’s uncertain if the Melankomas who won the boxing at Olympia in 49 CE was this Melankomas or his father, another boxer who he was named after, but he was certainly successful at the Pythian Games. At some point, Melankomas travelled to compete in Italy, where he reportedly had a whirlwind love affair with Titus, who would later become Emperor of Rome. He died at a relatively young age during an athletic festival  held in Naples; on his deathbed he is reported to have asked his companion how many days were left to compete. The philosopher Dio Chrysostom was so impressed by Melankomas that he wrote not one but two orations dedicated to him after his premature death, which were so effusively complimentary that some scholars even think Melankomas wasn’t real at all, but created by the philosopher as an ideal for readers to emulate. Chrysostom notoriously eschewed violent entertainment and was very critical of gladiatorial shows being adopted in the Greek world, so a boxer who never harmed an opponent because of his noble character would certainly provide a moralising alternative. Melankomas’ ascetic regimen, self-discipline and patience, if accurately reported, certainly were unique in the boxing world, but was he so unusual he could only be the work of fiction? We’ll never truly know.

Ageus and Drymus

Ageus of Argos loved to run. He really loved to run. Sometimes, he couldn’t seem to stop. After winning the dolichos (long distance) race in 328 BCE, he was awarded his wreath and immediately ran the whole 68 miles home to tell his friends and family. Eight years later, the winner Drymus of Argos went one better; after collecting his wreath he ran 140 miles to Epidaurus.

Democrates of Tenedos

Having trained for a long time for his moment, Democrates of Tenedos must have been frustrated that just before the Olympics, he severely injured his foot. So he came up with a plan that was allowed by the judges. Instead of a proper wrestling match, Democrates drew a circle in the dirt and stood inside of it. If his opponents could drag him out of the circle, by any method they chose, they would win. Multiple tried, none succeeded. And that is how Democrates became an Olympic wrestling champion, despite his injury.

You can’t have a list of the most extraordinary ancient Olympians without mentioning Rhodes a lot. That island was responsible for some of the most extraordinary athletes of all time, who leave some modern superstars in the shade.

Leonidas of Rhodes

Leonidas of Rhodes was known as a triastes, because when he was about 24 he won 3 events in a single day: stadion, diaulos and hoplitodromos. That didn’t happen very often (we only know of seven,) mainly because such versatile athletes were rare, but what makes Leonidas truly extraordinary is that he achieved the triple for four consecutive festivals (164-152 BCE). Even Usain Bolt only competed in three Olympics. Leonidas was truly special to maintain that dominance in three events over such an extended career. His final triple was at the age of 36. In the modern Olympics, the oldest sprinter to win a gold medal was Linford Christie in 1992, who was 32 at the time. Leonidas’ record of 12 crowns was never beaten, even though the Olympics continued for four more centuries. He was the first and last Olympic triastes. Even in the modern Olympics, few can hold a candle to him; Michael Phelps is the only person to beat his record, with 23 gold medals. Ten of those are for relays, meaning that in individual events, Phelps pips Leonidas to the post by one medal. It only took somebody 2,168 years! 

Diagoras and Sons (and daughter)

Diagoras of Rhodes had a glittering career, winning the pugmachia (boxing) twice at Olympia, at least once at Delphi, twice at Nemea and four time at Isthmia. He also won at prize Games all over Greece, including Athens. He was the subject of a victory ode by Pindar that was displayed on the wall of the Temple of Athens at Lindos in golden lettering – all 95 lines of it.

The patriarch of a sporting dynasty, his three sons were all also Olympic victors. Damagetos won the pankration, Akousilaos was a boxer like his father and  Dorieas was a champion in both pankration and boxing. His daughters were of course forbidden to compete but each gave birth to boys destined for Olympic victory, Peisirodos and Eukles followed in their grandfather’s footsteps to win the pugmachia.

Legend has it that when Diagoras watched Damagetos and Akousilaos win the pankration and boxing respectively in the same Olympic Games of 448BC his sons lifted him onto their shoulders and paraded him around the sanctuary. Sports fans showered him with flowers and a Spartan shouted that he may as well die now, his life will never be happier or greater than this moment. With that, Diagoras apparently died.

He now lends his name to an airport on Rhodes, remaining a household name for Greeks 2,500 years after his victories. His Olympic legacy would also help two of his children when they found themselves in trouble.

Kallipateira was barred from watching the Games as a married woman but was desperate to see her son Peisirodos compete so disguised herself as his trainer. When he won, she was so excited that apparently leapt over the fences to go to him and accidentally revealed that she was, in fact, a woman. Women sneaking in to the Games was forbidden and the penalty was to be thrown from the cliffs of the nearby Typaion mountain. Kallipateira was only spared from this gruesome execution when it was pointed out that her father, three brothers, son and nephew were all Olympic champions. She was allowed to live but from then on, all coaches and trainers were required to attend naked to avoid any further deception.

Her brother Dorieas would overshadow their father’s victories with 8 wins at Isthmia, 7 at Nemea, 3 Olympics in a row and a win at the Pythian Games where his opponent was so overawed that he conceded before the match began. Dorieas fought in the Peloponnesian War as an ally of Sparta. His athletic fame spared him when the Athenians captured him as a prisoner of war. Athens let him go free out of respect for his achievements. No  victory wreath could spare Dorieas when Rhodes switched allegiances however, and the Spartans didn’t hesitate to execute him.

1. That’s medals earned over five individual events, Leonidas only competed in three. If Phelps had been limited to three individual events, the record would remain unbroken.