As we attempt to assess the celebrity of athletes in Ancient Greece, and specifically in the 6th, 5th, and 4th centuries BC, we have to keep in mind that, even though we meet today at Olympia – the most celebrated of ancient athletic competition sites – there were actually three other sites which approached the status of Olympia: Delphi, Isthmia, and Nemea (where I have worked for 45 years – you may note a tone of pride in my voice whenever I mention Nemea).

These four games had differences, but there were many common aspects that united them. They were panhellenic or open to all Greeks. They were stephanitic or “crown games” where the token of victory was a crown of vegetable matter: olive here at Olympia, laurel at Delphi, pine at Isthmia, and wild-celery at Nemea. They also shared in common an ekecheiria or sacred truce which meant, in effect, a cessation of war during the time of those games.

The history of classical Greece is largely a history of war between the states; Sparta and Athens are only the best known. But when the time of the games came, a truce showed the extraordinary political power of these games.

They also shared another feature. The best athletes of antiquity were those who won at least once, at each of them. There was a special name for such a victor: periodonikes or “circuit winner”. A sort of “grand slam” winner whose place in the ancient hall of fame was assured.

But any individual victory was also a cause of celebration, and of celebrity.

The winner was proclaimed publicly on the spot after the trumpet had signaled the announcement, and he was awarded a ribbon (tainia) around his head and a palm branch (klados phoinikos). He would then take a victory lap around the stadium (periageirmos) and the crowd would shower him with flowers and ribbons (phyllobolia) – a kind of foreshadowing of today’s ticker-tape parade. He was an instant celebrity with his name on the lips of thousands of people.

At the end of the Games the winners were taken to the Elean Town Hall (prytaneion) here in Olympia – you may visit its remains northwest of the Temple of Hera – awarded their olive victory crowns and hosted for a banquet. And then they returned home. But their celebrity did not end, for they made a triumphal entry (eiselasis) into their home towns, sometimes through a section of the city wall that was torn down to receive them, and paraded to the local town hall (prytaneion) where they were rewarded with a free meal at state expense every day for the rest of their lives. In Athens, where the decree is preserved on marble, this reward was given to any Athenian who had won at Olympia or Delphi or Isthmia or Nemea.

The honors extended beyond this, for the winner of the Olympic stadion race – a sprint down the length of the track – gave his name to the whole Olympiad which was the only common time-reckoning system across the Greek world. For example, if someone referred to the second year of the Olympiad when Dandis of Argos won the stadion, and looking at the list of stadion victors, one found that Dandis won, by our reckoning, in the summer of 472 BC, then the reference is to the following year counted from the summer solstice, that is 471/470 BC. Such lists were international and meant that Dandis’ name was immortal. Indeed, because of this use of the victor’s name to identify the Olympiad, we know the names of the Olympia stadion victor for more than a thousand years. If this is not celebrity, it is certainly immortality.

But such records were not confined to the stadion victors. We know that by the end of the 5th century BC, complete lists of the winners in all the competitions at Olympia were widely available. There is a fragmentary list of victors on a piece of papyrus from Egypt. It dates from about 250 AD, and it shows how widespread and accessible such lists were even in the Roman period.

The best preserved part is the left-hand column, and it gives the winners here at Olympia from the second half of the 75th Olympiad (the first half is not preserved) through almost all of the 78th Olympiad. Note that our friend Dandis won the diaulos or double stadion race in the Olympiad four years before his stadion triumph. He must have been a celebrity at least in Argos.

Although such lists are best known from Olympia, an inscription from Delphi documents that sometime before 327 BC a list of Pythian victors was assembled by Aristotle who had already done an updated version of the Olympic victors list. Perhaps you can make out his name in the sixth line of the Delphic inscription followed by that of his nephew and collaborator, Kallisthenes. We think of Aristotle as a philosopher, or “lover of knowledge”, and so he is here– a veritable research scholar. We may also conclude that victor lists were of great importance, particularly to historians. I should think that, in addition, they were important to family and compatriots of the victors who once again were celebrated and achieved a kind of immortality.

When Aristotle and his colleagues set out to assemble victor lists, what sources did they have at their disposal? One category was that of victor statues such as the one seen here which belongs stylistically to the early archaic period in the first half of the 6th century BC. It also belongs to that same time historically, for an inscription on it tells us the athlete’s name: Arrhichion from the city of Phigaleia in the mountains of Arcadia who competed in the pankration. This statue was found here in Olympia and it clearly formed a part of the Olympic Hall of Fame. Arrhichion was a celebrity because of his victories, but especially because of how he won the last time. Pausanias, who toured Greece and wrote a guide book to its antiquities around 150 AD, did not see this statue, but a very similar one in the city of Phigaleia and he tells the story:

Arrhichion won two Olympic victories before the festival of the 54th Olympiad [564 BC]. At this latter festival, he won a third time, partly due to the fairness of the judges, and partly because of his own arête (excellence). As he was fighting with the last remaining of his opponents for the olive, his opponent, whoever he was, got a grip first and held Arrhichion with his legs squeezed around Arrhichion’s midsection and his hands squeezing around his neck at the same time. Meanwhile, Arrhichion dislocated a toe on his opponent’s foot but was himself strangled and expired. At this very instant, however, Arrhichion’s opponent – unaware of Arrhichion’s death – gave up by signaling with his index finger because of the pain in this toe. The Eleans proclaimed Arrhichion the victor and crowned his corpse.

Can a dead man be a celebrity? Arrhichion was a celebrity in life, but his lasting fame came after and because of his death. 2,682 years after that death we know his story and we see his image.

Let us look at another example: Theagenes from the island of Thasos who won the pankration at Olympia in the 76th Olympiad (of 476 BC) as we see on the fragmentary papyrus victors’ list. Theagenes had already won the boxing in 480 BC, and he was credited with three victories in that competition at Delphi, plus nine at Nemea and ten at Isthmia. Indeed, it was said that he won perhaps another 1,350 victories at local games around the Greek world. His compatriots were extremely proud of him and erected a statue in his honor.

But he also had an enemy who, after Theagenes died, went to the statue every night and whipped it as if he were whipping Theagenes himself. One night the statue fell over and killed the whipper. It was convicted of murder and sentenced to exile which was accomplished by throwing it into the sea. Immediately Thasos was afflicted with drought and famine. The Pythian oracle was consulted and she said the Thasians should recall their exiles which they promptly did. But the drought continued. They returned to Delphi, and the Pythia said: “You do not remember your great Theagenes.”

The Thasians did not know how they were going to retrieve the statue, but luckily fishermen caught it in their nets and brought it back to town. The Thasians realized that there was something magical about Theagenes, and made a shrine to him as hero – that is, in ancient Greece, a mortal who has become a demi-god with supernatural powers.

In the ancient agora of Thasos there are the lower steps of a circular monument.

On it rested this marble cylinder, now in the archaeological museum of Thasos, with a deep hole in the top, and the cuttings for a door from the side that intercepted the bottom of the hole. An inscription informs us that it was the Altar of Theagenes where worshippers were to deposit monetary gifts to the hero. Those funds were to be used annually for maintenance of the shrine of Theagenes. The inscription and the altar date to about 100 AD, more than 500 years after Theagenes’ athletic career. He was a celebrity but became an immortal hero with supernatural healing powers, but not because he was an athlete.

Our papyrus fragment gives us the name of another Olympic victor in boxing, Euthymos of Lokroi in southern Italy. He actually won in 484, and again, as we see here in 476 and 472 BC. His loss in 480 BC was to his rival, Theagenes of Thasos, who was judged to have entered the boxing in order to beat Euthymos. Hence, in 476 Theagenes entered the pankration but was not allowed to enter the boxing.

The Lokrian compatriots of Euthymos claimed that his real father was not Astykles, but the Kaikinos River – again, a supernatural origin. The statue base found here in Olympia adds a tantalizing item. It reads:

Euthymos of Lokroi, son of Astykles, having won three times at Olympia, Set up this figure to be admired by the mortals. Euthymos of Lokroi Epizephyrioi dedicated it. Pythagoras of Samos made it.

Note, however, that the last part of the second line of the inscription (“to be admired by the mortals”) had a different text originally, for it is inscribed in a part of the marble that was erased. When an ancient Greek wanted to change a text that had already been inscribed, the original text had to be “erased” by carving away the stone with the previously inscribed letters. The result was that a part of the surface of the stone was cut into at a level lower than the remainder of the surface. It is within this so-called rasura that a new text can be inscribed, and so “to be admired by mortals” is the later replacement for an earlier set of words that we cannot now recover. In other words, Euthymos acknowledged and continued to acknowledge that his father’s name was Astykles, but his image (and therefore he himself) is later set apart from mere mortals. The urge for celebrity is great, but even greater for immortality.

Perhaps 200 metres from where we now sit, at the bottom of the steps that lead up to the Academy’s Dining Hall, is this modern statue of an older man carried on the shoulders of two young men. This man is Diagoras of Rhodes –Olympic victor in boxing in 464 BC. There are many stories about him some of which we will examine presently, but first we need to look at what Pindar had to say, and we need to remember that Pindar and Bacchylides and Simonides and other poets celebrated many ancient athletes and their victories especially at the Four panhellenic sites. Indeed, and not surprisingly, there was a rivalry between poets and sculptors. At the beginning of his 5th Nemean ode, Pindar says: “I am no sculptor who carves statues doomed to stand on their bases. I send forth my sweet song on every merchant ship and every mail boat...”

In Pindar’s 7th Olympian ode (dedicated to Diagoras) he makes a statement that I would share with you:

O father Zeus, give honor to this hymn for a victor at Olympia, and to his now famous aretê in boxing.Grant him grace and reverence among his townsfolk and among foreigners.

He travels the straight path which despises hubris, and he has learned well the righteous precepts of good forefathers.

Two words are critical to understanding Pindar’s Diagoras: arête and hubris – excellence or virtue and arrogance. Diagoras exemplifies the first and avoids the second. He travels the straight path and has learned well the righteous precepts of good forefathers: he is a good man as well as an accomplished and celebrated athlete.

There is embedded here a part of the explanation of this sculpture. Diagoras had three sons and two grandsons who were all victors here at Olympia, and at many other games. The eldest son, Damagetos, won the pankration in 452 BC and again in 448. The second time he was joined by his brother Akousilaos who won the boxing. They took a joint victory lap (periageirmos) with their father on their shoulders. We are told that as the two sons paraded their father around the track, the crowd went wild and showered the three Olympic victors with an extraordinary amount of flowers (phyllobolia). At that point a Spartan shouted out to the father “Die now Diagoras! You will never be happier”. We can be certain that Diagoras was a celebrity who set a standard for his family and his society.

Diagoras had other children. His youngest son, Doreius, was victorious here in 432, 428, and 424 BC. One of Diagoras’ daughters, Kallipateira, had a son named Eukles who won the boxing here in, probably, 404 BC, and the other daughter, Pherenike (“bring the victory), had a son named Peisirodos who won the boxing in the boys’ category, perhaps also in 404 BC. There were statues of all the victors in this family in front of the Temple of Zeus, fragments of the bases of several survive, but the only one in a good condition today is that of Damagetos, the oldest son of Diagoras. This was not a single athlete as celebrity, but a whole family spanning three generations.

There is no evidence of a cult, like that of Theagenes, or of a claim of supernatural quality, like that of Euthymos, but in fact Diagoras lives on today. In 1905 on the island of Rhodes there was formed a club named for him. You see its symbol here. The club has had its ups and downs – perhaps the greatest success can be placed in 1985/86 when Diagoras won the First Division Greek National Football Championship. It now plays in the Third Division, but Diagoras lives on, inspiring his local fans.

The same cannot be said of Milo from Croton in southern Italy. Let me say that this is not a statue of Milo – it comes from the Athenian Akropolis, but its relevance will soon be seen. Milo was a wrestler who won six times here at Olympia. His 7th appearance in 512 BC was not a success, but his Olympic accomplishments were overshadowed by other displays of strength. One ancient author says that, “at Olympia he hoisted a four-year-old bull on his shoulders and carried it around the stadium, and then butchered it and ate it all alone in one day.” A Bull – not a calf.

It was also said that “he would hold a pomegranate in his hand and dare anyone to take it away”. No one could, and yet when Milo released the pomegranate, he had not bruised it by squeezing too hard. He was also said to stand on a greased discus and no one could knock him off. Milo would tie a cord around his head and then hold his breath until the veins in his head swelled with blood and broke the cord. He would let his right arm hang down along his side to the elbow, but turn his forearm out at the elbow with his thumb up and his fingers in a row stretched out straight so that the little finger was the lowest, and no one could force the little finger away from the other fingers.

But for all his strength of body, Milo did not become a hero as the manner of his death shows. Walking down a road near Kroton, he happened on a driedup tree trunk which was being split by wedges. Milo, arrogant in his strength, stuck his hands into the trunk and began to pull it apart. The wedges slipped out and the tree snapped shut on his hands. Milo was caught in the trunk until wolves discovered him.

This part of the story of Milo has excited sculptors and painters in more recent times such as in this statue in the Louvre by Pierre Puget in 1681. The wolves have become a lion, and Milo has only one hand caught in the tree trunk.

The same changes were made a century later in this painting now in a private collection.

I think we can conclude that Milo was – and is – a celebrity but largely because of the moral of his story – arrogance, hubris, even as Pindar warned, leads to a bad end, even for athletes.

There are many more examples, but I would like to conclude with one that is not so well known – Plato the son of Ariston of Athens. There is a portrait of Plato – so labeled – from the Roman period. I discovered it in the basement of the Women’s Gymnasion at the University of California at Berkeley where it had been for nearly a century. Why? Because it had been labeled a fake. Why? Because a ribbon was tied around its head and its ends fell down over the shoulders. Today the ribbons have been broken away in the middle, but they are easily restored in our mind’s eye.

We have seen that such ribbons are to be associated with victory at thegames, but people ignored the evidence in our sources – admittedly late sources– that state that Plato was an athlete, and specifically a wrestler who had won at Nemea and at Olympia. He is also said to have participated at Delphi and Isthmia, but without any record of victory at those two sites.

Modern scholars have objected that, had Plato been an athletic victor, he would have told us about it. But ancient descriptions of Plato say that Plato was good-looking, with beautiful eyes, a finely-shaped nose, and a modest demeanour. I would suggest that the modesty of his demeanour came from inside, from his basic character which avoided the hubris that Pindar warns of, and which finished Milo of Croton.

As further evidence of Plato’s celebrity –athletic and moral– let me quote from the final words of his masterpiece, The Republic:

We should always adhere to the upward path and pursue justice with wisdom in every way so that we will be friends to ourselves and to the gods, while we remain here, and afterward when we receive our reward, just as the victors in the games do their periageirmos.

Indeed, even today victors at our revived Nemean Games show their arête and avoid hubris. They are celebrities and role models.

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Bibliography

Christesen, P.: Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History (Cambridge 2007).

Kefalidou, Eurydice: ΝΙΚΗΤΗΣ: Εικονογραφική μελέτη του αρχαίου ελληνικού αθλητισμού (Thessaloniki 1996).

Miller, S. G.: Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources3 (2nd printing Berkeley 2012, with new foreword by Paul Christesen).

Miller, S. G.: Ancient Greek Athletics (Yale University Press 2004).

Moretti, L.: Olympionikai, I vincitori negli antichi agoni Olimpici (1957: Atti della academia nationale dei Lincei 1957, Memorie, Classe di Scienze morali, storiche efilologiche series 8, volume 80).

Papahatzis, N.: ΠΑΥΣΑΝΙΟΥ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΠΕΡΙΗΓΗΣΙΣ 3, Μεσσηνιακά-’Ηλιακά (Athens 1979).

Valavanis, P.: Games and Sanctuaries in Ancient Greece (2nd ed. Athens 2017).

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Miller Sthephen, "Athletes as Celebreties in Ancient Greece", in:K. Georgiadis (ed.), Challenges an Olympic Athlete faces as a Role Model, 58th International Session for Young Participants (Ancient Olympia,16-30/6/2018), International Olympic Academy, Athens, 2019, pp.64-73.

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