The ancient Greek considered sports to be an essential part of children's education. Since in their eyes education lasted until someone's forties, you could say sports was an essential part of most Greek people's life.
Origins
Typical ancient Greek sports were
athletics and
combat sport. Some say it were the Greek who invented athletics, but others deny this.
E. Norman Gardiner (the
authority on ancient Greek sport a century ago) states that all sports practiced in
ancient Greece originates from there. There is, he says, absolutely no indication that athletics could spring from
Mycenae or
Crete. But his successor
H.A. Harris thinks it's reasonably certain the inhabitants of Mycenae practiced sports and he criticizes Gardiner's "indignant and
dogmatic denial of a possible Cretan origin of Greek athletics".
Education
Even for
children, combat sport was important. The perfect physical condition children received through competing would be very important for real combat and
war in a later stage of their lives. On most athletics events, there were seperate
youth games. Some editions of the
Olympic Games included two, three and even five age categories.
Blood
Although everyone backed the importance of combat sports, in some regions people were horrified by the
bloody fights. Combat sports were clearly more bloody then we could stand now, it was even a
recommendation. Combatting till
death wasn't exceptionally rare. An inscription celebrating Greek boxer
Agathos Daimon, who died during the ancient Olympics, says: "
Here he died, boxing in the Stadium, after praying to
Zeus for either the crown or death, aged 35.
Farewell".
The Games
The status of the modern Olympic Games probably seduces anyone to the thought that this festival would have the same impact in ancient times. Other cities had similar events that were possibly at the same level: the
Isthmian,
Pythian and
Nemeian Games, maybe also those of
Delphi. The latter might have been equal in size or prizes, but the first four Games had proven status. An athlete that would manage to get a win under his belt on every of these '
Grand Slams' would receive the honorary title
periodonikes. Literally this means something like
circuit victor.
Five sports were present at practically every event: boxing, wrestling, pankration, foot race and pentathlon. The latter is a combination of five contests (just like the decathlon consists of ten), namely javelin, discus, long jump, foot race and wrestling. Pankration was mix of boxing and wrestling. Kicking was allowed, even in the genitals, which was in fact a popular tactic. You might agree with me that it's quite typical that Greek considered wrestling a way "to picture the triumph of civilisation and science over barbarism and brute force", as Gardiner puts it.
In case you're wondering: yes, the Greek really practiced sports in the nude. That is to say, this started around 700 BC but no expert can give a clear view on the underlying reasons for this.
The athletes
The
Muhammed Ali's and
Bob Beamon's of ancient times were Milo of
Kroton, Diagoras of
Rhodos, Theogenes of
Thasos,
Kallias of Athens and Euthymos of
Lokri. Of course they earn their fame thanks to written tradition (like that of
Homer and
Herodotus), which could exclude maybe even better athletes. Little is known about women events. It is common knowledge that the Games were just for men. Women weren't even allowed to watch. The Games of
Hera (the wife of Zeus) were meant especially and exclusively for the ladies and some sources mention sporadic mixed events. During the Hera festival, unmarried (!) girls competed in a foot race. And oh no fellows, no
nudity here!
Decline and fall
As has been common since
Gibbon, regarding ancient Greek sports historians also point out a decline and fall. The essence originally lay with the athletes' pleasure. Starting somewhere around the fifth century
BC, introducing
price money changed this.
Foul play and
corruption took over and sports became monopolized territory of
professionals. A win in the insignificant Games of
Aphrodisias would earn a wrestler approximately 2000 day's wages and a pankration athlete even 3000.
Sources: E. Norman Gardiner, Greek athletic sports and festivals.
H.A. Harris, Greek athletes and athletics.
Donald G. Kyle and Gary D. Stark ed., Essays on sport history and sport mythology.
David Matz, Greek and Roman sport.
Oxford Classical dictionary.
Michael B. Poliakoff, Combat sports in the ancient world. Competion, violence and culture.