This book is a comprehensive examination of Olympic victor lists. The origins, development, content, and structure of Olympic victor lists are explored and explained, and a number of important questions, such as the source and reliability of the year of 776 for the first Olympics, are addressed.

The word 'athletics' is derived from the Greek verb 'to struggle for a prize'. After reading this book, no one will see the Olympics as a graceful display of Greek beauty again, but as war by other means. Nigel Spivey paints a portrait of the Greek Olympics as they really were - fierce contests between bitter rivals, in which victors won kudos and rewards, and losers faced scorn and even assault. Victory was almost worth dying for, and a number of athletes did just that. Many more resorted to cheating and bribery. Contested always bitterly and often bloodily, the ancient Olympics were not an idealistic celebration of unity, but a clash of military powers in an arena not far removed from the battlefield.

A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity presents a series of essays that apply a socio-historical perspective to myriad aspects of ancient sport and spectacle. Covers the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Empire Includes contributions from a range of international scholars with various Classical antiquity specialties Goes beyond the usual concentrations on Olympia and Rome to examine sport in cities and territories throughout the Mediterranean basin Features a variety of illustrations, maps, end-of-chapter references, internal cross-referencing, and a detailed index to increase accessibility and assist researchers

While today's Olympic victors are awarded with the iconic gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals, Olympic champions in the ancient Greek world were memorialized in monuments erected at Olympia and elsewhere. In this 1921 volume, Walter Woodburn Hyde provides a thorough study of statues and other works of art completed in honor of Olympic victors, examining the general characteristics of victor statues found in Olympia and other Greek sites, the features of victor statues represented at rest, and the elements of victor statues represented in motion (think the famous "Discus Thrower.") For art historians, historians of ancient Greece or anyone just curious about the perks of being a famous athlete in the ancient Greek world, this richly illustrated work offers an interesting look at this little-known aspect of the ancient Greek Olympics.

A comprehensive study of how and why athletic contests, a characteristic feature of ancient Greek culture, disappeared in late antiquity.

In this book, Catherine M. Keesling lends new insight into the origins of civic honorific portraits that emerged at the end of the fifth century BC in ancient Greece. Surveying the subjects, motives and display contexts of Archaic and Classical portrait sculpture, she demonstrates that the phenomenon of portrait representation in Greek culture is complex and without a single, unifying history. Bringing a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic, Keesling grounds her study in contemporary texts such as Herodotus' Histories and situates portrait representation within the context of contemporary debates about the nature of arete (excellence), the value of historical commemoration and the relationship between the human individual and the gods and heroes. She argues that often the goal of Classical portraiture was to link the individual to divine or heroic models. Offering an overview of the role of portraits in Archaic and Classical Greece, her study includes local histories of the development of Greek portraiture in sanctuaries such as Olympia, Delphi and the Athenian Acropolis.

For more than a millennium, the ancient Olympics captured the imaginations of the Greeks, until a Christianized Rome terminated the competitions in the fourth century AD. But the Olympic ideal did not die and this book is a succinct history of the ancient Olympics and their modern resurgence. Classics professor David Young, who has researched the subject for over 25 years, reveals how the ancient Olympics evolved from modest beginnings into a grand festival, attracting hundreds of highly trained athletes, tens of thousands of spectators, and the finest artists and poets.

For instance, he shows that the four main ethnic subcategories of the ancient Greeks - Akhaians, Ionians, Aiolians, and Dorians - were not primordial survivals from a premigratory period, but emerged in precise historical circumstances during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.

For over one thousand years between 776 B.C. and A.D. 395, princes, statesmen, and famous athletes gathered every four years at Olympia in western Greece to compete for the olive crowns of the ancient Olympic Games. Judith Swaddling traces the mythological and religious origins of the games and describes the events, religious ceremony, and celebrations that were an essential part of the Olympic festival. The book also features a large, detailed model of the site of ancient Olympia, where, alongside religious and civic buildings, there grew an elaborate sports complex with a stadium for 40,000 spectators, indoor and outdoor training facilities, hot and cold baths, a swimming pool, and a race course. This fascinating description of Ancient Olympia and the Games is superbly illustrated with vases, sculpture and other works of art, views of the site and photographs of the unique model.

The purpose of this work is to cast more light on some key aspects of the long jump and especially to fill the lacuna which has become ever more evident in the literature on the topic and is related to the kind of long-jump in the ancient pentathlon. This study is completely different or has very little in common with the theories proposed previously. For almost 200 years the long jump in the ancient pentathlon has remained a field of controversy. Scholars have admitted that the subject is confused and presents a great number of unanswered questions, essential and important for any understanding of the event: What significance can be attached to the supposed feats of the two ancient Greek athletes Chionis and Phayllus? What exactly was the long jump in the ancient pentathlon? Where did the long jump have its roots? What and where was the ancient skamma? What was the ancient bater and where was it located? Did athletes drop the halteres just before landing in the skamma? Did all athletes use the same halteres in the same games? How many attempts was each athlete allowed at the jump?