Greek Footraces and Field Events

Abstract

Greek athletic contests have some Bronze Age and Homeric precedents. Games in myth and literature suggest funeral games and festival contexts. The Peloponnesian sanctuaries of Zeus at Olympia and Mt Lykaion evidence Bronze Age origins for the cults and perhaps the games. Discussed here are the stadium (stadion) and its footraces—stade (a stadium’s length), diaulos (two lengths), hippios (four lengths), dolichos (a distance race of up to twenty-four lengths), and hoplite (in which the athletes wore armour); also treated are the pentathlon (jump, javelin, discus, running, and wrestling), boxing, pankration, the Heraea footrace for girls, and torch races.