Site Library Library of Hellas

THE ANCIENT OLYMPIEIA FESTIVAL AT ATHENS

THE TEMPLE
Impressive, isn't it? Even in ruins, the temple still soars from the center of Athens into the blue, up to the home of the gods, to Olympian Zeus. Colossal, imperious, imperial, these fifteen 50-foot tall Corinthian columns are the last survivors from a forest of 104, the others toppled long ago by earthquakes and wind.

Most, if not all, of those columns were erected by the Roman emperor Hadrian in 125 AD. Inside his temple, in imitation of Phidias' gold and ivory statue of Zeus at Olympia, stood a copy-cat colossos of the god. Two of them, in fact: one of Olympian Zeus; the other, just as grand, of that god incarnate, Hadrian. Those giant statues, like the fallen column drums, are long gone - carted off and recycled.

Somewhere in or under the remaining rubble may still lie foundation blocks from the original 6th century BC Doric temple to Zeus. Begun by Peisistratus the Younger in 515 BC, the work was halted by regime change -- abandoned, in fact, when the tyranny of the Peisistrids and their cronies was overthrown.

Their dynasty had begun with the first Peisistratos, grandfather of the Younger. Quite a showman and horseman, as you will see, he was the son of Hipparchos ("Horse-trainer") and sired two sons, Hippias ("Horsey"), and a young Hipparchos, who ruled Athens together until Hipparchos was assassinated while leading the Panathenaic procession in 514 BC and Hippias was driven into exile in 510. Athena herself was called "Hippia," "Horse-goddess," and was said to have invented and driven the chariot in the war of the gods against the Giants. So Athens was always a "horse" town.

THE GAMES
Temples and tyrants may come and go, but the games must go on. And, until Hadrian added Olympic-style foot races and hand-to-hand combat sports to celebrate the completion of his temple, most of them remained "horsey" events.

Here is a slab from the Parthenon frieze, which many think depicts an actual procession that took place at the summer festival of the Panathenaia. But it seems unlikely horses would gallop in such a procession, so this and similar slabs may display athletic games and contests -- many of which could have occurred during other Athenian festivals, such as the Olympieia.

There are many such slabs on the frieze around the Parthenon, and several, like this one, display both a naked young man and one wearing a chiton. Except for the mock cavalry fights, where the young men wore chitons, other contests, such as jumping on and off a galloping horse or chariot, were often in the nude.

The riders who took part were Athenian youths, raised in the gymnasia snd wrestling schools, and practised in music and athletics.

Here is a relief from an Athenian monument commemorating the winning team in the cavalry competition during the Panathenaic festival at Athens. They are shown at the finish line in the mock Cavalry Fight (anthippasia).

Five horsemen, beardless youths clad in knee-length chitons, gallop past the finishing post. Leading them at the left is a bearded older man in a helmet with a sword in his left hand. A tribal leader (phylarch), he acts as a pivot when the troop wheels around to prepare for another charge.

Here is how General Xenophon says this simulated cavalry fight should be choreographed:

"When the parade review takes place in the Hippodrome [Racetrack], ... the troops should first fill the whole area with an extended front, driving out the crowd of standees in the center that block the parade. Then, in the mock battle, the tribal teams, swiftly charging and retreating, should gallop right across and through each other, the two hipparchs (cavalry leaders) at their head, each with five squadrons under him. Consider the effect of such a spectacle: the grim advance of opposing squadrons front to front; the charge; the solemn pause when, having swept across the hippodrome, they stand once more confronting one another. Then the trumpet sounds, signalling a second charge. How fine the effect! They come to a halt. Then again the trumpet sounds, and for the third time, at full gallop, they make a final charge across the field. At last they come to a halt en masse, in battle order. They then ride up to salute the senate, and disband. These changing formations will be applauded, I think, not only for their novelty, but for looking like real warfare."

The general emphasizes that close formations like the one seen here not only wow spectators and impress enemies; they also provide discipline and protection when beating a hasty retreat on the battlefield!

Though hard to see, there are holes drilled into this relief in front of the winning horsemen. Into them bronze spears, now lost, were once inserted. The riders carried spears because their cavalry charges in the games simulated those they were trained to do in battle.

One of their training exercises and public displays was throwing a spear (javelin) at full gallop at a target. An Athenian relief shows a rider charging a tripod target with lowered lance just like a medieval knight in a jousting tourney. A PanAthenaic amphora in the British Museum shows two such lancers charging a round target, probably a shield. While one raises his javelin to strike the target, the other rides off with a backward wave, leaving his javelin in the center, as if to say: "Bullseye! Bye, bye!"

Xenophon also mentions riders leaping onto a horse in full gallop -- something they would have to do in battle when unhorsed by the enemy. If there were festival contests for such fellows, they might be called "acrobats," Greek for "up-leapers." Several contests featured "down-leapers," "apobats," who would leap down from a racing horse or chariot, then run alongside it and leap back up onto it - buck naked except for a heavy shield and helmet. No wonder a so-called "Demosthenes" raved about them in his "Eroticus" as "godlike" and "delectable." The crowd loved them, which explains why Phidias and his assistants carved 11 of them on the Parthenon frieze. Here's a drawing of one of them -- oops, sorry, this one is dressed, in full armor.

This crowd-appeal also explains why Peisistratos may have participated in the apobatic contest in 556 BC, re-enacting its mythic invention by Erichthonios and Athena. This was when the exiled tyrant returned to Athens during the Panathenaic festival with a tall woman named Phye dressed as Athena in full armor, in a chariot preceded by heralds announcing that Athena was bringing him back to her Acropolis. (Herodotos 1.60.2-5). Needless to say, he was re-installed as Tyrant of Athens.

Our pseudo "Demosthenes" says the chariot-leaping apobats are so spectacular they deserve the richest prizes. That suggests huge jars of olive oil. But none have turned up, not even for the PanAthenian games. For the Olympieia, alas, no prize amphoras exist for any of the contests.

Even though there is little or no evidence of athletic events beyond the "horsey" military types, the festival did end with an event that had its counterparts at the famous ones: the PanAthenian festival and the panHellenic games at Olympia. This was a big party and feast honoring both the winners and a god or goddess: Athena at Athens, Zeus at Olympia, and Zeus at Athens during the Olympieia. Oxen were sacrificed and barbecued, and also a prize bull, whose tongue and other parts, not so tasty for mortals, maybe, were irresistible to the immortals once they smelled the smoke circling skyward towards Olympos. So there must have been a scene like the one here on the Parthenon frieze, of the celebrants leading us along with their beautiful bull.

by DIonysia Xanthippos ("Yellow-horse")

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended reading, sources and credits:

Kallistos Alexandros, "The Olympeion." A brief but elegant and eloquent account of the vicissitudes through the ages of Zeus' great temple in Athens. here

Erika Simon, "Festivals of Attica." Now the standard work, though I was unable to consult it directly, only in reviews.

Xenophon, "On Cavalry Training (Hipparchos)", online at several sites.

Theo Antika, "Olympica Historika"
here
-- a truly delightful website on the ancient "horsey" Olympics and its background by a scholarly vet and Olympic equestrian from Europe who now lives in the Pacific NW.

Related sub-articles to this one:

Jousting at Tripods?
Why it pays to LOOK -- and LOOK & LOOK!
A Look at a Nude Boy from the Gym: Who is he? And what's HE looking at?

TYCHE & OEDIPUS
Adonis & Aphrodite
Fatal Boar Hunts, Fatal Loves: Meleager & Adonis
A Valentine for Camille Flammarion
The Met returns its Euphronios vase!
Camille Flammarion: Romantic Astronomer
The Fountains of Enceladus
The Eye of God
Is Ganymede the Boy from Marathon Bay?

THE ANCIENT OLYMPIEIA FESTIVAL AT ATHENS

Jousting at Tripods?

Why it pays to LOOK -- and LOOK & LOOK!

A Look at a Nude Boy from the Gym: Who is he? And what's HE looking at?

Which satyr would you choose...
The Marathon Boy and the Satyr
Contrapossto from Praxiteles to Rubens and Playboy
The Afternoon of a Faun
The Dancing Satyr - A Lost Bronze of Praxiteles?
Hermes, The Liar Who Invented the Lyre
Inanna, Queen of Uruk
Inanna Adored: The Uruk Vase
The Moon-God Nanna-Sin Visits his Ziggurat at Ur
Apollo Sauroktonos, or How the Romans Killed the Lizard-Killer
Jacob's Ladder
Inanna and the Harrowing of Hell
Lilith: Wild Demon of Sex and Death
DUMUZI FEEDS INANNA'S SHEEP
The Sun God in his Dragon Boat
A Stairway to Heaven: The Ziggurat at Ur
Lassalle's Post-Modern Male Torso
Brancusi's Torsos: Pure Platonic Forms?
Brancusi on Men and Women: Take the Tate Test?
Four Gods Greet the Rising Sun God
Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo
Culsu & Vanth Lead the Dead into Hades
Aita, the Etruscan Hades
Socrates' Apology: The Background
A FATEFUL CHARIOT RACE: The STORY of PELOPS and OENOMAUS