Transcript Challenges in Physical Education and sports

The Greeks and the
Ancient Olympic Games
776 (1,000) B.C.E. – 394 A.D.
KIN 375 –Dr. D. Frankl
The Greeks
• The Minoan civilization controlled the Aegean sea
and the lands it touched for 1,600 years. About
1,400 B.C.E. the Mycenaean people became the
dominant culture in that same region. Some two
hundred years later, they attacked and destroyed
Troy. As the Dorian people gradually conquered
Mycenaean controlled lands, the region entered
what is now known as the “Dark Ages” or the
Homeric Age of Greek history.
Bull Leapers
Image source:
http://www.best.com/
~singer/crete.html
The Homeric Age
1,200 B.C.E. – 700 B.C.E.
• The earliest documented
literature is the work of a
blind Greek writer. The
Iliad and The Odyssey
(~850 B.C.E.) provide a very
revealing window into the
lives, believes and culture
of the early Greeks. In the
Iliad, Homer provides the
Homer
earliest known account of
sport competition as he
describes the “funeral
Image source:
games” initiated by
http://library.thinkquest.org/
Achilles in memory of his
warrior friend, Patroclus.
Ancient Greece
Map source: http://www.britanicca.net/
The Early Athenian Period
776 B.C.E. – 480 B.C.E
• The Ancient Greek’s emphasis on
the importance of a strong and fit
body is best demonstrated by the
Ancient Olympic games.
• What started as a stadion race in
776 B.C. (single course sprint event)
evolved by 520 B.C. into several
running, combat, and combined
events spread over five days of
Olympic competition.
The Spartan Period
• The Spartans were a small (5,000 – 9,000)
yet dominant military force for several
centuries.
• As many as a quarter million helots (slaves)
maintained the Spartan economy, while
Spartan males devoted their life (age 7 – 50)
to military training and service.
• In war time and during the peaceful Olympic
Games, the Spartans best represented the
“All for one, and one for all” concept. The
purpose of their existence was to serve and
protect Sparta.
Spartan Physical Education
• The world’s first known totalitarian citystate had a one sided educational system.
They achieved their narrow goal at the
expense of intellectual pursuits. In a time
and place that produced some of the most
remarkable thinkers of all times, Sparta
had no philosophers, and made practically
no intellectual contribution to the great
Greek civilization. Still, Spartan courage,
tenacity and obedience are admired by
many to this day.
» Forbes (1973)
The Later Athenian Period
• The early days of the later
Athenian period are also
referred to as the “Golden Age
of Greece.”
• Great emphasis was placed
self-expression and individual
freedom.
• Constant Panhellenic internal
conflicts led to the eventual
decline of this great culture.
Socrates
470 – 399 B.C.
Extent of Athenian Empire
Image source: http://www.britanicca.net/
Plato and his Philosophy
• Plato adopted many
traditional religious images,
such as, the music of the
spheres, the migration of
the soul, the soul's
remembrance of its
celestial origin, and the
idea of rewards for the
righteous and punishment
for the wicked.
Plato
"The safest general characterization of the European
philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of
footnotes to Plato"
A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929
Ancient Olympics
• What may have originated as a religious
tribute to Zeus around 1,000 B.C.E. in
the small town of Olympia on Mt.
Olympus, later became the celebration
of the ancient Olympic Games.
Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia
Image source: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/
Who Could Compete?
• Male citizens of one
of the many Greek
city states with no
criminal record and
who swore they had
trained for at least
ten months prior
competition were
eligible to compete
in the Ancient
Olympic Games.
Runners
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics/
Who Controlled
the Games?
• From the very beginning, the
city of Elis (30 miles to the
north) and the small
neighboring town of Pisa
were engaged in disputes
over the control of the
Sanctuary of Zeus at
Olympia
• Those who controlled the
Games had prestige,
economic advantages and,
most importantly, political
influence.
Zeus Coin
Paxa Olympica – Olympic Truce
The Olympic Games’ organizer city-state of
Elis instituted Paxa Olympica to protect
against military incursions which
interrupted the Games. Every four years,
special heralds from Elis were sent out to
all corners of the Greek world to announce
the approaching Olympic festival and
games. Along with this news, they would
announce the Olympic Truce, which
protected athletes, visitors, spectators
and official embassies who came to the
festival from becoming involved in local
conflicts.
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics/olympicpolitics.html
Ancient Olympics and Politics
• In 665 BC, according to Pausanias (a 2nd
century AD Greek traveler), Pheidon, the
powerful tyrant of Argos was asked by the
town of Pisa to capture the Sanctuary of
Zeus from the city-state of Elis. Pheidon,
with his army well-trained hoplites (armed
soldiers), marched across the
Peloponnesos, secured the Sanctuary for
the town of Pisa, and personally presided
over the conduct of the games. But Pisa's
control of the Sanctuary was brief: by the
next year Elis had regained control.
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics/olympicpolitics.html
Ancient Olympics
• Perhaps the most notable example of a
military incident occurring during the
ancient Olympic Games was in 364 BC. In
that year, Elis had again lost control of the
Sanctuary of Zeus to the neighboring town
of Pisa which was directing the festival
and the Olympic Games. Elis chose
precisely this time to attack the Sanctuary
of Zeus. Xenophon, a contemporary 4th
century historian, gives us a firsthand
account of the situation:
Ancient Olympics
The horse race had been completed, as well
as the events of the pentathlon which were
held in the dromos. The finalists of the
pentathlon who had qualified for the
wrestling event were competing in the
space between the dromos and the altar...
The attacking Eleans pursued the allied
enemy... The allied forces fought from the
roofs of the porticos... while the Eleans
defended themselves from ground level.
Hellenica
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Olympics/olympicpolitics.html
Was the Marathon Race an
Event of Ancient Olympics?
• The marathon was NOT an event of
the ancient Olympic games. The
marathon is a modern event that
was first introduced in the Modern
Olympic Games of 1896 in Athens, a
race from Marathon northeast of
Athens to the Olympic Stadium, a
distance of 40 kilometers.
Modern Olympics: The
Marathon Race
• The race commemorates the run of
Pheidippides, an ancient
"day_runner" who carried the news
of the Persian landing at Marathon of
490 B.C. to Sparta (a distance of 149
miles) in order to enlist help for the
battle. According to the fifth
century B.C. ancient Greek historian
Herodotus, Pheidippides delivered
the news to the Spartans the next
day.
The Positive in Ancient
Greek Athletics
• love of and joy in participating in physical
•
•
•
•
activities;
sport contests took place in nature, thus
nature was cherished and preserved;
children never fought against stronger peers
and were forbidden to fight without adult
supervision;
a wide range of sport activities contributed
to a well balanced and perfectly shaped
body;
the love and care of one s body, the
responsibility to society, bravery, wisdom-were all accomplished through physical
education and athletics.
The Negative in Ancient
Greek Athletics
• Education, physical education and
sports were not available to
everybody. Only those who were
Greek by blood could participate. In
430 B.C.E. only 20 % of the Athens
residents were also citizens with full
rights. Slaves comprised 75% of
Athens population and the remaining
5% were foreigners.
• Over emphasis on professional
orientation and winning (especially
during the later Athenian period)
What Can We Learn From
The Greeks?
• "The Greeks considered physical development and
training an important and absolute dictate of the
gods. Health of body; beauty, perfection and
strength of limb; endurance in competition and
combat; a clear, courageous eye; and that
confidence which comes only through facing
danger: these were considered by the Greeks as
being no less essential than mental development,
shrewdness and artistic talent. The achieving of a
balance between the physical and intellectual life,
and the harmonious development of all natural
powers and talents were the aim of Greek
education."
Ernst Curtius