Olympic Games in Ancient Greece by Alfred Tamarin
The Olympic Games in Ancient Greece were a significant cultural event that originated in 776 B.C. and took place every four years for over a thousand years in Olympia. The festival spanned five days, beginning with grand opening ceremonies followed by three days of athletic competitions, culminating in a celebratory banquet for the victors. Events included chariot races, wrestling, boxing, and the pentathlon, which consisted of several athletic disciplines such as the discus throw and sprinting. The games were deeply intertwined with religious practices, featuring rituals such as sacrifices to the god Zeus and oaths taken by the contestants, reflecting the importance of divine favor in the pursuit of victory.
The athletic competitions attracted participants from across the Greek-speaking world, fostering a sense of unity among diverse city-states. The athletes, often celebrated for their physical prowess and beauty, were revered figures in their communities. The festival not only highlighted the spirit of competition but also served as a platform for cultural exchange and a demonstration of Greek ideals. The enduring legacy of the ancient Olympics can still be felt today, with modern Olympic Games continuing to celebrate athletic excellence and international camaraderie.
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Olympic Games in Ancient Greece by Alfred Tamarin
First published: 1976; illustrated
Subjects: Arts and sports
Type of work: History
Time of work: 776 b.c.-a.d. 393
Recommended Ages: 13-18
Form and Content
Olympic Games in Ancient Greece presents a colorful account of how the ancient Greeks played the Olympic Games. Each chapter describes one day in this five-day festival, beginning with the day-long opening ceremonies, proceeding through three days devoted to various sporting events, and concluding with the Victory Banquet on the last day. Shirley Glubok and Alfred Tamarin give an almost hour-by-hour account of the festivities and sporting events, giving the reader the feeling of having personally witnessed an ancient Olympiad. Brief but evocative details of the typical sights, sounds, and smells of the festival add to the impression of immediacy. Although the emphasis is on a “typical, ideal” Greek Olympiad of the fifth century b.c., information about the history of the games and anecdotes about famous athletes from different time periods are incorporated into the narrative so that the reader has a sense of how the festival evolved over time. Black-and-white photographs of ancient pottery and statuary depicting Olympic athletes provide a visual extension to the authors’ description of most of the sports. A note on the modern Olympics, a list of important dates, and an index conclude the book.
A procession of judges, games officials, trumpeters, athletes, and their trainers initiated the Olympiad on its first day. The marchers would start in Elis and proceed thirty-four miles to Olympia. Travelers from throughout the Greek-speaking world representing all classes and professions also converged on Olympia, the sacred site of the Olympiads, which first took place in 776 b.c. and every four years thereafter for more than a thousand years.
Religious rites were an important part of the games. A sacred truce was declared throughout the Greek empire in order to enable Greek citizens to travel to and from the games; contestants took sacred oaths in front of a huge statue of Zeus; an official sacrifice to Zeus marked the high point of the five-day festival; and the victors of the games would dedicate their olive crowns of victory to their peoples’ gods and goddesses. Winning was considered pleasing to the gods; cheating was an insult.
Chariot races, horse races, and a pentathlon took place on the second day of the Olympiad. The pentathlon consisted of the discus throw, long jump, javelin throw, stade race (a sprint down the length of a stadium), and upright wrestling. With his tall, slim figure and strong torso and legs, the pentathlete was considered the ideal of Greek youth and beauty. Lampis of Sparta, a victorious pentathlete of the eighteenth Olympiad in 708 b.c., timed his discus and javelin throws to the rhythm of flute music.
After the great sacrifice to Zeus on the morning of the third day, the boys’ events took place. These consisted of some of the same events staged for older athletes: the stade race, wrestling, boxing, and the pankration, a mixture of boxing and wrestling. The fourth day of the Olympiad saw a return to adult competition, with three different types of foot races, upright wrestling, boxing, a pankration, and the hoplite race (a race in armor).
On the fifth day, the victorious athletes processed to the great Temple of Zeus and exchanged their palm branches for olive crowns. The enormous gold statue of the god was also crowned with olive leaves to salute his victory over the old gods at Olympia. A banquet for all the victors ended the festival, with the main course consisting of the hundred animals that had been sacrificed to Zeus on the third day of the Olympiad.
Critical Context
Shirley Glubok, both individually and in her joint works with husband Alfred Tamarin, is noted for her consistent ability to distill intellectual rigor and scholarly authority into an appealing and easily understood text for young people. Always readable, clear, and lively, her books do not oversimplify their subject matter or employ faddish gimmicks in their presentation of information. These qualities have earned for her books numerous awards and citations as well as inclusion on prestigious professional bibliographies such as the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults.
Like Glubok’s many other works of nonfiction, Olympic Games in Ancient Greece shows how art reflects the history and values of its culture. Unlike her books about art history, such as the series beginning with The Art of Ancient Egypt (1962), it emphasizes a particular ritual of a society and uses art exclusively as illustrative material rather than as a focus of the text itself. Unique to this work, too, is the device of presenting information in a dramatized form.
Olympic Games in Ancient Greece is an extensive account of the ancient games for young readers. Before its publication, no other treatment of this topic had attempted its comprehensive approach to the artistic, historical, and cultural context of the ancient sports. In years when the Olympics are held, demand for this title typically increases, according to the publishers. With the timeless appeal of sports as its focus and the added impetus of the interest created by modern-day Olympiads, Olympic Games in Ancient Greece is likely to remain a widely read classic of nonfiction for children and young adults.