In Their Own Words

In Their Own Words 3.1

Read Pindar’s first Olympian Ode, which was composed for Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, to celebrate his horse’s victory in the horse race of 476, here. What can we learn about the games and the importance of the foundation myth of Pelops from this poem?

In Their Own Words 3.2

Read Herodotus 8.26 here. What does this (Greek) account of a Persian conversation suggest about the Greek attitude to the sacred games?

In Their Own Words 3.3

There are two famous passages from Greek literature which describe a chariot race. Read Sophocles’ Electra, lines 680–763 here, and Homer’s Iliad, 23.262–650 here. What can we learn about the event from these passages?

In Their Own Words 3.4

Read Theocritus’ Idyll 22, which describes a mythic boxing match, here. What can we learn about the sport from this poem?

In Their Own Words 3.5

Two passages from Homer describe sporting games – the funeral games for Patroclus in Iliad 23.651–897, and in Odyssey 8.104–255 when Odysseus is invited to take part in athletic events by his Phaeacian hosts. What might we learn about Greek sporting contests of the early Archaic Age from these passages? Read them here and here.

In Their Own Words 3.6

In book 6 of his Guidebook to Greece, Pausanias describes many of the victors’ statues set up in Olympia in his day, and also relates stories about some of the athletes concerned. Read about Diagoras of Rhodes and his family (6.7.1–7 here), Glaucus of Carytus (6.10.1–3 here), Theagenes of Thasos (6.11.2–9 here) and Milo of Croton (6.14.5–8 here). What can we learn about the games and their competitors from these passages?