Athletics in the Hellenistic World

When you think of athletics, you may think of a sport, like soccer or rugby. Or you may think of a league- perhaps the NFL or the NBA? Or even an athlete- are you a Messi fan or do you love Ronaldo? Either way, you most likely think of a top performer, something you’ve followed for years, a team you love, an athlete you’ve watched rise through the ranks. Because in society today, sports are a money-making industry. Sports are one of the top forms of entertainment. And they have a global reach. Every nation in the world has some sort of athletic monetization. But how did professional athletics come to be? What prompted people to take a hobby, a pastime, a method of self care, and turn it into a career? How did we, as a society, come to place so much value on recreational movement? Why do we put our children into Little League as soon as they can walk and hold a bat? Why do we spend our money on jerseys, on game tickets, on the cable package with ESPN?

The answer to this lies not in recent history, but thousands of years back. It lies with the Greeks. It is nestled deep within the complex web of the Hellenistic World that we see athletics blossom into what we have today. They pioneered athletic festivals, and varying levels of competition. They lead the charge in developing coaching, professionalism, and sponsorship. It’s within the Mediterranean coast that we see patriotism relating to athletes rise at a rapid rate. So how did it really start? Well, what do you think of when you think of Greek sports? What about the modern day Olympics?

The Olympic Games are widely revered as a pinnacle of athleticism- an international competition held every four years to determine which country is home to the best of the best. And they stem all the way back to 776 B.C. Now, it would be amiss to assume that they haven’t changed extensively. Of course, the Olympics of today feature completely different contests. They boast medals instead of laurels, and they’re held in constructed villages all across the world, not just in the heart of Olympia. Yet, the ancient Olympic Games have shaped modern athleticism in a more prominent way than they may first appear.[1]

The ancient Olympics completely outlast the Hellenistic Period. They start hundreds of years before, and conclude nearly one hundred years after Cleopatra’s death. But throughout the Hellenistic Period, we see the first evidence of sports as we know it. For the first time in history, we see people devoting their entire lives to athletics, and being able to make a living off of their talents. We see the rise of training facilities, and coaches making livable salaries. We see the first evidence of true monetization in sports, paving the way for the billion dollar industry we see today.

Athletics start with athletes, and so the first thing one should examine is the lives of those competing in competitions. Clarence Augustus Manning writes of the hierarchical structure of athletic competitions, claiming that initially, only noble men could compete in competition. At some point, however, he notes that those in lower classes began to develop their own competitions, where any man could compete amongst.[2] It is at these smaller competitions that we see merchants begin to set up outside the mock festivals, selling their wares. It wasn’t the Greek elite that started to monetize athletics. No, instead, the lower classes took advantage of their own entertainment to improve their own lives. [3]

It was only once the Greek elite discovered what their subjects were engaging in that they began to develop a hierarchical system. If athletes were successful on a small scale, such as lower class competitions, they could gain entry to sponsored competitions, in which money and prestige were up for grabs. City-states began to host competitions open to any man who had paid his dues to the gods.[4] In these competitions, citizens and elites alike competed against each other, aiming to find the true cream of the crop.

If an athlete won in these games, they could gain entry to international levels of competition, just as the Olympics of modern day.[5] By gaining entry, you place yourself on a level to be seen by the entire world. Athletes were eligible for not only national sponsorship, but payments by sponsoring merchants, similarly to Nike or Adidas sponsoring a World Cup team. It wasn’t the same level of branded marketing, but there was an aspect of power to be gained by aligning yourself with a fan favorite. If one could say that they played any role at all in the success of an athlete, then fans would flock to them. In The Victor’s Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, David Potter writes of a doctor who treated an athlete, and received years of gifts and recognition, culminating in multitudes of marriage proposals for his daughter, all because he treated one athlete once.[6]

It wasn’t solely the Olympic Games that provided athletes the opportunity to represent themselves, though. The Olympics were only one of a four competition cycle, a cycle that repeated itself across four years, creating a traveling circus of the same athletes. Along the same schedule, there were the Pythian Games, held in Delphi to honor Apollo. These games fell every second summer between the Olympics. To supplement the two four year cycles, there were both the Isthmian Games in Corinth, dedicated to Poseidon. This festival fell every two years, in the spring immediately preceding an Olympic or Pythian festival. And to round out the cycle, the Nemean Games occurred every second autumn, in honor of Zeus.[7] These festivals were the pinnacle of athletic achievement, and generated incredible amounts of revenue.

Athletics served a greater purpose than just entertainment, however. Through monetization of ticket sales, local festivities, and travel, nations were now able to showboat their own successes to the rest of the Mediterranean world. For locations hosting major competitions, it was a show of power. To have the resources to host competitions shows that there is expendable income, and it shows a higher dedication to the gods.

Similarly, countries began to sponsor their athletes. If an individual was doing incredibly well, nations would reach out to him, paying him a stipend to travel in exchange for representation.[8] Just as we see today, every country wanted to have the top athletes, to be the best in every category. Differing from modern performance, however, there was an ulterior motive. As empires rose and fell, and battles waged between locations, having the fastest man, the strongest man, the most versatile athlete shows a military dominance. In Sport in Greece and Rome, Harold Arthur Harris compares having the strongest athletes to having the strongest soldiers.[9] If a country had the top athletes in any specific event, it raises the question of what the rest of their citizens may look like. If this is the best of one area, does it mean that this country still has faster men than the majority of other cities? Is this a representative sample size?

It’s also important to consider that every athletic festival served a religious purpose. Whether it was the Olympics, dedicated to Zeus, or a small competition dedicated to Pan, competition served as a form of worship. If you win in the name of Apollo, then the athlete was placed in the favor of the host deity. Similarly, if a country has sponsored an athlete to travel and win in the name of a god, it could place that entire country in the god’s favor until the next competition in their name. To have a god’s blessings was invaluable- it would protect you in war, grant you prosperous harvests, and was considered a generally good omen.[10]

And so, we can deduce why athletics grew so quickly. Athletes wanted to make a living, countries wanted to prove their dominance over others, and everyone wanted to gain the luck of a god’s good graces. And so, as athletes grew better, and competitions grew more prestigious, the question of how to continue an upward trajectory arises.

The answer? Training camps. Construction began, and soon, there were full facilities dedicated to athletic success[11]. Just as in the same fashion as competition, there was a pride in developing the best facilities, because you could devote resources to something so seemingly trivial. As training camps grew in popularity, the question was then raised on how to train. In today’s world, athletes follow strict training regimens and diets, centering their entire lives around their sport. In the ancient world, we see the first evidence of coaching become a career.[12]Previously, athletes would train themselves, relying on talent. Of course, this is why, for so long, the elite dominated the athletic world. They were the only people with the time to dedicate to training for competition, while the rest of the world had to work to survive.

However, as athletics grew, and athletes from lower classes were brought into the ring, we see coaches come up. Athletes that have seen former success giving their advice to anyone who was given the opportunity to live at a training camp. By succeeding, anyone could guarantee a stable income and free time, to devote to their skills. Athletics became a job. For the first time in recorded history, we see an aspect of professionalism in all areas. Elite athletes and coaches, sure, but high level judges would also travel between competitions, following the circuit just as the athletes themselves.

Athletics in the ancient world were a major part of life- they were entertainment, livelihood, money, and worship, all blended into one event. They were something everyone could enjoy, from the poorest to the richest, the lowest class to the highest. Athletes were able to rise through the ranks, slaves could gain freedom. Athletic celebrity emerged, beginning to introduce relevance in popular culture beyond academic and political successes. Favors were to be granted, and laurels were to be rested on. Power was to be gained from being an athlete, being a home state to an athlete, or even having interacted with athletics in any form. Showboating was in full swing, and there was everything to be gained. Athletics flourished in the Hellenistic Period, as Greek culture washed over the Mediterranean. As arts and languages spread, athletics held strong, and grew into a system we still value today. Even if modern societies don’t dedicate their winnings to the gods, there is still a pride in being the best, and there is a level of power to be gained. After all, if power isn’t at stake, what is the point? Without the bloom of athletics between 300 BC and 0, modern athletics would never have been able to develop to the same level.

Notes

[1] Futrell, Alison, and Thomas Francis Scanlon, eds. 2021. The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World First ed. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2] Manning, Clarence Augustus. “Professionalism in Greek Athletics.” The Classical Weekly, vol. 11, no. 10, 1917, pp. 74–78. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4387559. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.

[3] Sweet, Waldo E, and Erich Segal. 1987. Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece : A Sourcebook with Translations. New York: Oxford University Press.

[4] Craig, Steve. 2002. Sports and Games of the Ancients. Sports and Games through History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

[5] Miller, Stephen G. 2004. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven: Yale University Press.

[6] Potter, David. The Victor's Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/phillipsexeter-ebooks/detail.action?docID=800841.

[7] Lunt, David James. 2022. The Crown Games of Ancient Greece : Archaeology, Athletes, and Heroes. Sport, Culture, & Society. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press.

[8] Potter, David. The Victor's Crown : A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/phillipsexeter-ebooks/detail.action?docID=800841.

[9] Harris, Harold Arthur. 1972. Sport in Greece and Rome. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life. Ithaca, New Yorl: Cornell University Press.

[10] Futrell, Alison, and Thomas Francis Scanlon, eds. 2021. The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World First ed. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[11] Potter, David. The Victor's Crown : A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/phillipsexeter-ebooks/detail.action?docID=800841.

[12] Potter, David. The Victor's Crown : A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/phillipsexeter-ebooks/detail.action?docID=800841.

Bibliography

Craig, Steve. 2002. Sports and Games of the Ancients. Sports and Games through History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Crowther, Nigel B. 2007. Sport in Ancient Times. Praeger Series on the Ancient World. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

Futrell, Alison, and Thomas Francis Scanlon, eds. 2021. The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World First ed. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harris, Harold Arthur. 1972. Sport in Greece and Rome. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life. Ithaca, New Yorl: Cornell University Press.

Lunt, David James. 2022. The Crown Games of Ancient Greece : Archaeology, Athletes, and Heroes. Sport, Culture, & Society. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press.

Manning, Clarence Augustus. “Professionalism in Greek Athletics.” The Classical Weekly, vol. 11, no. 10, 1917, pp. 74–78. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4387559. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.

Miller, Stephen G. 2004. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Papakonstantinou, Zinon. “MATCH FIXING AND VICTORY IN GREEK SPORT.” Rheinisches Museum Für Philologie, vol. 159, no. 1, 2016, pp. 13–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26315495. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.

Potter, David. The Victor's Crown : A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/phillipsexeter-ebooks/detail.action?docID=800841.

Sweet, Waldo E, and Erich Segal. 1987. Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece : A Sourcebook with Translations. New York: Oxford University Press.