The Importance of Religion in Ancient Hellenic Games

Abstract

The religious background of a structured society no doubt constitutes a very important element for the consolidation and the knowledge of a civilization. The objective of the current thesis is the study and the presentation of the role and the importance of religion in all the aspects of the sporting events and rituals of the Ancient Greece. The collection of the elements comes mainly from the priceless cultural heritage of the great ancient Greek writers and also from the remarkable publications, books and articles of the modern era. The presence of the religious manifestations is proven and taken for granted. The question that remains to be answered is to which extent religion affected the sporting events of the Ancient Greek era. In the Minoan period, the dominant element of the religion was the great Goddess of nature and fastility who was worshipped with the sport games. In the Mycenaean period, the athletic games were part of the worship of the dead and later they become part of the hero-worship. During the historic times, which include the Archaic, Classic, Hellenistic and Roman era, the role of the religion in the athletic games was significant. During the antiquity, there were many different fests and games held, some of them with regional character and some others with pan-Hellenic character. However, four of them had the greatest glamour and attracted the interest of spectators and athletes: Olympia, Pythia, Isthmia and Nemea. The issue of the birth of the Olympics is still bothering researchers and writers. There are various legends and myths about this matter and what makes the issue complicated is that every theory shakes down the others. The four more prevalent legends regarding the derivation of the Games are related with Hercules Dactylos, Oenomaos and Pelops, Hercules and Zeus. In Ancient Greece all the athletic games were linked with the temporary inhibition of the armed conflicts. The Sacred Truce was a very important institution and generally was respected by all the city-states and within the 1200 years of the organization of the Ancient Olympics only a few violations are reported. The winners of the Games were honoured with official victory celebrations (epinikia) such destruction of the wall of the cities, the winning processions, the sacrifices, the statues and the winning odes. Furthermore, there were the victory ceremonies as the wreath, the taping procedure, the fyllovolia and periagermos. Taking into account all the aforementioned elements, the role of religion was of great importance in all the sporting competitions of the Greek antiquity and in every chronological period. The presence of religion was intense in every single activity of Ancient Greeks. Historians, archeologists and theologians agree that every element and every activity of ancient Greeks involved the sense of the sacred, the holy and the worship.