The Ancient Explosion

Athletics must always have been an important part of Greek life. Regardless of the view we take of the historical value of the Homeric poems (and scholars are divided), the accounts we have of the competition of Tydeus at Thebes in the Iliad and of Odysseus in Phaeacia in the Odyssey are unintelligible unless we suppose that there were as early as the Greek geometric period frequent opportunities for competitive sport. And Homer, Hesiod the epic cycle attest the opportunities presented by funeral games, as do narrative cycles such as the funeral games for Pelias. But nothing suggests any high of formal organization and (as scholars have stressed) in some cases the impromptu nature of event and locale are emphasized. And nothing prepares us for the quantum leap which sport takes in the archaic period. It is in the sixth century BC that Greek athletics becomes fully institutionalized, when there is - almost literally - an explosion of athletic festivals. There is a seismic shift in Greek culture. The traditional dating for the foundation of the Olympic games is 776 BC. Nothing then seems to happen (except perhaps for occasional funeral games) for 200 years. And suddenly within about a decade in the first quarter of the sixth century BC three more festivals appear. The musical festival at Delphi is reorganized as the four-yearly Pythian games (586 or 582). The games at the Isthmus of Corinth in honour of Poseidon (582) and those at Nemea in honour of Zeus (573) are added as two-yearly festivals. Though the games are suddenly thrust into (our sense of) history, in reality there must have been a steady growth behind their emergence. What we are seeing looks like the product of a shift from local to regional to panhellenic competitions, and an increase in the degree of institutionalization of Greek contests. But even so the evolution must have been rapid.

These four festivals formed what the Greeks called the periodos, the circuit, and it was the goal of every serious athlete to win at all four and become what they called a ‘circuit-winner’, periodonikes. The word is late but the concept is there from the beginning, since our earliest athletic texts in listing victories place the greatest emphasis on the big four. From the sixth century onwards there is a steady increase in the number of festivals across the Greek world which claim international status (i.e. which were open to citizens from any state). By the middle of the fifth century there are dozens, by the Roman period probably hundreds. Inevitably they vary enormously in importance. Some like the Great Panathenaia of Athens try hard (but ultimately without success) to claim the same status as the big four. But none breaks into the circuit. Together however these games offer an enormous number of opportunities for an athlete to notch up victories. And for the aspiring athlete there were also always local exclusive to citizens and regional games which could be used as a training ground before attempting the big games.

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