The Rise of Athens

Marriage was handled in a typically unappealing manner. Men were fined if they failed to marry. The would-be husband, who had to be at least thirty years old, carried off his intended by force. A bridesmaid shaved her head and dressed her in a man’s cloak and sandals. She was then made to lie down on a rush mattress, alone and in the dark. After dining with his comrades in the mess, the groom slipped away surreptitiously and carried his bride to the marriage bed. He spent a little time with her and then went back to his barracks as if nothing of any consequence had taken place.

And this was how he continued to act. He spent his days with his comrades, and slept with them at night, visiting his wife briefly, secretly and after dark, full of dread that they would be found out. Plutarch writes:

and they did not carry on like this for a short time only, but long enough for some of them to become fathers before they had seen their own wives in the light of day.

Married couples were to be neither jealous nor unduly amorous.

Brothers were allowed to share their wives. The techniques of animal breeding were applied; husbands could give another man permission to sleep with his wife, if he believed he “would fill her with noble sperm.” He would happily adopt the consequential offspring and bring them up as if they were his own. Once they had their own families, women were expected to manage their households when their husbands were away at war, as they often were.

The name of one independent-minded great lady has come down to us. This was Cynisca, sister of a Spartan king (for more on the monarchy see below on this page). Born about 440, she was an expert horsewoman and, being royal, had plenty of money. She was the first woman to score a victory at the ancient Olympic Games. The games were almost entirely a men-only affair and women were only allowed to compete in equestrian events—not directly but by owning, breeding, and training horses.

Cynisca won the four-horse chariot race, but she would not have witnessed her victory for only men were allowed to be spectators. She was very proud of her achievement and commissioned a statue of herself, which stood in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The inscription on its stone base reads:

I, Cynisca, victorious with a chariot of swift-footed horses,

Have erected this statue. I declare myself the only woman

In all Hellas to have won this crown.

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A grove sacred to Zeus stood in a pleasant, grassy, and wooded plain in the northwest of the Peloponnese. Here at Olympia in the summer of the year 756 an international athletic competition was held for the first time in honor of the god. These were the Olympic Games and they were staged every four years through the next millennium. They were soon joined by others, which were also quadrennial, and filled in the empty years—the Pythian Games at Delphi, the Isthmian Games at Corinth, and the Games at Nemea between Argos and Corinth. These were genuinely Panhellenic events and attracted crowds of visitors from across the Greek world.

So that competitors and audiences could reach Olympia safely a sacred truce was declared for one month (later extended to two and then three months). Heralds called spondophoroi or truce-bearers, wearing olive wreaths and carrying staffs, were sent out to every Greek state to announce the date of the festival and proclaim the truce. States taking part in the Games were forbidden to wage war, to enter into legal disputes, or to put anyone to death.

Women were allowed to participate neither as athletes nor as spectators (although apparently virgins were not refused admission to the games, perhaps because of their ritual purity). They had their own four-yearly Games of Hera, at which competitors took part in three foot races for different age groups.

The Olympic Games lasted for five days. There were various foot races, including one in armor. Other sports featured were throwing the discus and the javelin, the long jump, wrestling, and boxing. The most extreme event was the pancration. This was a combination of boxing and wrestling, with almost no rules except that gouging and biting were banned (although in practice contestants sometimes tried to get away with both). It was not unknown for competitors to lose their lives. The pentathlon challenged all-around athletes with five tests—discus, jumping, javelin, running, and wrestling. Only those with the deepest pockets, such as Cynisca, could afford to enter teams for the chariot races.

To win at the Games was to be favored by the gods. The prizes at Olympia were only crowns of olives, but a victor was a celebrity for life. His polis showered him with honors, among them free board and lodging at the city hall and best seats at the theater. A poet such as Pindar wrote odes in his honor and sometimes he was commemorated by a life-size statue of him in bronze or marble.

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