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There is a general agreement that the Ancient Olympics were the oldest Pan-Hellenic games and provided a model for the remaining three festivals, which — according to the Greek tradition — were created roughly two centuries later. It is generally believed, too, that most of the Athletic contests, especially, track and field, were originally introduced into the Olympic program and then adopted by the other great festivals. Modern scholars, even if they are not certain about the chronology transmitted from Antiquity, and especially if they question the date of the first Olympics or the names of the first victors, rarely can suggest any positive solutions to the puzzle, which the surviving victors’ lists pose.

Thus, the long run, commonly known as the dolichos was believed to be introduced into the Olympic program during the 15^th games (in 720 BC). This date we owe to a number of sources, which, however, are much later. The early Olympic chronology was originally worked out by Hippias of Elis. The fullest record can be found in the Olympic Victors (Olympionikai) by Eusebius of Caesarea. Eusebius has Acanthus as the first winner of the dolichos, which was run naked.[1] Unfortunately, Eusebius’ direct sources are not easy to identify.[2] Yet, the same or similar information can be found in a number of authors. Among them, the most competent was probably Flavius Philostratus, late second-century/early third-century AD sophist and rhetorician, who authored the specialized treatise On gymnastics. He states that in the next Olympics (after the 14^th games) a long-run contest was established and won by Acanthus of Sparta.[3] Acanthus opens a long series of 44 Spartan winners in the Olympic Games that abruptly became less frequent after 580 BC.[4] Still, this fact may be much more important for the history of Greek athletics, since according to one of the Greek traditions Acanthus was the first Greek athlete running naked.[5]

However, there existed a contradictory tradition at Delphi, which derived the name of the dolichos from an otherwise unknown Dolichos of Delphi. The only clear trace of this Delphic story is a fragment of an otherwise unknown author, Apollonios quoted in the Lexicon of Photius.[6] This Apollonios was classified by Felix Jacoby as a local historian of Delphi, [7] and this classification might convince. Apollonios’ note remained unnoticed in the modern treatments of the Ancient Greek games. It seems worth re-considering whether the evidence allows us to keep the traditional view that the Olympic dolichos was introduced at so early a date, before the Delphic long-run contest.

I mentioned that the importance of the Acanthus’ date for Greek history results from the fact he was believed to be the “first inventor” of athletic nudity in Greece. Admittedly, there were more candidates. Pausanias, who seems to agree with other authors that Acanthus was the first long run runner in Olympia, [8] makes Orsippus of Megara, the winner of the stadion during the same Olympics, the inventor of Athletic nudity. In the latter case, Pausanias tells a typical aition, beyond doubt — unreal as a story of a hero turning an accident that should handicap his chances into his benefit, although consisting of realistic elements. Pausanias rationalises the aition and suggests that Orsippus deliberately let his clothes fall down.[9] This version was certainly coined at Megara, by and for the Megarians, and it was attacked by the supporters of Acanthus of Sparta as the first naked competitor with a counter-story about the sudden death of Orsippus because of his clothes falling down.[10] Augusta Hönle believed that Orsippus had been the true first inventor, since his race had been the opening event of the games. However, she thought that all runners of the Olympics 720 had competed naked. [11] Luigi Moretti also thought that Orsippus had been the inventor of athletic nakedness, because an epigram inscribed in the Antonine period praises him as such.[12] He thinks that the inscription is a re-publication of an earlier monument,[13] which is, however, impossible to prove. In antiquity the epigram was attributed to Simonides but included in the Greek anthology without any name (app. 272). This attribution may indeed support an early dating of the tradition that Orsippus had invented athletic nudity. Rather, we should think, that once the invention of athletic nudity was associated with the 15 ^th Olympics, there was a natural tendency to credit the best known competitor of these games for this invention. Orsippus, the stadion-winner of these Olympics, was the obvious candidate.

Yet, serious objections were already in Antiquity raised against an introduction of athletic nudity at so early a date. Thucydides agreed that it was the Lacedaemonians who were the first to contend naked and, after stripping openly, to anoint themselves with oil when engaged in athletic exercise, yet also remarks that formerly, even in the Olympic contests, the athletes contended wearing belts that covered their privy parts; and it is not many years since that the practice ceased (translation C.F. Smith, Loeb Classical Library).[14] Undoubtedly, Thucydides, while writing about not many years that elapsed from the introduction of Olympic nudity to his times, could not be thinking about a period of ca. 300 years. Since a passage in Plato’s Republic Book V[15] seems to support Thucydides’ statement, the date of introduction of nakedness into Greek games and gymnasia is repeatedly discussed.[16] Homer, who does not know this phenomenon, provides a terminus post quem in the eighth century BC. Archeology (statues of gods, heroes and — it is still debatable — heroised men; vase paintings) may suggest that the invention of athletic nudity is a bit later, and the terminus ante quem should be looked for during the sixth century BC.[17] A (prevailing) low-dating of Greek athletic nakedness combined with a conviction that the long run was the first contest, in which athletes were unclothed, resulted in a recent interpretation placing the introduction of the dolichos into the Olympic program in the early sixth century BC.[18] Of course, this date does not fit in the Ancient Olympic chronology at all. Admittedly, most of today’s scholars agree that the early Olympic chronology is construed, and hardly mirrors the actual dates or changes in the Games’ schedule.[19] Even the date of the first Olympics is debatable, [20] the institution of the pan-Hellenic agon according to the most recent research may be delayed until the seventh century BC.[21] Still, it seems prudent to conclude with Catherine Morgan that in the present state of evidence “the question of the date of the institution of the Olympic Games must remain open”. [22] We can attempt, however, to understand how the Ancient Greeks construed the early Pan-Hellenic games in the centuries to come.

There may be a little doubt that the beginnings of early Pythian games, held for the first time in the early sixth century BC were better known in Antiquity than the origins of the Olympics.[23] At least, the dates of new contests, although controversial, seem more reliable, and it is likely that the year 582 BC we have mentioned as the ancient date of the first Delphic athletic and stephanitic games is true.[24] Pausanias reports that the Delphians copied the Olympic schedule, and added two running contests for boys: the diaulos and the dolichos.[25]

Of course, we cannot accept Apollonios’ rationalisation of the long run’s name. No man called Dolichos was behind the first long run contests. [26] We are in the sphere of myth or legend, therefore. We may indicate another Dolichos present as a significant hero in the early Eleusinian myth[27] and at the Eleusinia. [28] This Eleusinian Dolichos is absent from the surviving part of the sacred calendar as restructured by Nikomachos at the turn of fifth century BC.[29] It was suggested that Dolichos had been in Eleusis an epithet of Pluto, and not a distinct deity or hero.[30] Still, there is at least one more Eleusinian — Delphic analogy: Eleusinian Telesidromos[31] has his Delphic counterpart Eudromos. [32]

If we accept that the first dolichos in the Pan-Hellenic games was held at Delphi in 582 BC, the earliest possible date for the introduction of this contest into the Olympic program is 580 BC with the 50^th (fiftieth) Olympic Games. As we have seen, almost all sources place this event in the 15^th (fifteenth) Olympics in 720. I believe that we should seriously consider a possibility that an early compiler of the Olympic victor list (why not the very first one, Hippias) did emend (rather than mistake) πεντήκοντα or πεντηκοστή to πεντεκαίδεκα or πεντεκαιδεκάτη. Such an emendation certainly satisfied Hippias’ of Elis conviction that the Olympic Games were always senior in comparison with other Pan-Hellenic games. Furthermore, there were certainly contesting traditions about who actually won one or another contest, and a number of names Hippias was to fit into his chronology was very likely greater than the number of actual victors. Thus, he gained an additional thirty five games to accommodate the number of winners’ names into a new extended chronological framework.[33] The example of the dolichos casts some light, I believe, on the way in which Hippias composed his list.

Needless to say that this new date of institution of the dolichos at Olympia (in 580 BC) corresponds better with the traditions that link the introduction of athletic nudity with the first long run at Olympia and with the iconographic evidence that shows a complete victory of athletic nakedness first in the early sixth century BC. In it concurs also with numerous premises in Pausanias and other sources that the Olympics underwent significant changes c. 580 BC,[34] perhaps possible due to the Elean seizure of Olympia and advanced by the appearance of the Pythian, Isthmian and the Nemean Games.[35]

[1] Eusebius, Olympionikai, [Π]εντεκαιδεκάτη. Ὄρσιππος Μεγαρεὺς στάδιον. Προσετέθη δόλιχος. καὶ γυμνοὶ ἔδραμον. ἐνίκα Ἄκανθος Λάκων — The fifteenth. Orsippus of Megara won stadium. The long run was added, and they ran naked. Acanthus of Laconia won. See ll. 73–5 in the edition of P. Christesen, Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History, Cambridge 2007, Appendix 4.1 on pp. 386–407.

[2] The scholarly debate over Eusebius’ sources and methods of work is neatly summarized in P. Christesen Olympic Victor Lists (n. 1) 232–76, who leaves the question without pursuing any definitive conclusions.

[3] Fl. Philostratus, On gymnastics 12: (κατὰ δὲ τὴν) μετ’ ἐκείνην δολίχου ἀγὼν καὶ ἐνίκα Σπαρτιάτης Ἄκανθος.

[4] A. Hönle, Olympia in der Politik der griechischen Staatenwelt. Von 776 bis zum Ende des 5. Jahrhunderts, Bebenhausen 1972, 128–31, n. 3; M. Meier, Aristokraten und Damoden: Untersuchungen zur inneren Entwicklung Spartas im 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. und zur politischen Funktion der Dichtung des Tyrtaios , Stuttgart 1998, 31–2.

[5] Dion. Hal. 7.72.3: ὁ δὲ πρῶτος ἐπιχειρήσας ἀποδυθῆναι τὸ σῶμα καὶ γυμνὸς Ὀλυμπίασι δραμὼν ἐπὶ τῆς πεντεκαιδεκάτης ὀλυμπιάδος Ἄκανθος ὁ Λακεδαιμόνιος ἦν — the first man who undertook to strip and run naked at Olympia, at the fifteenth Olympiad, was Acanthus the Lacedaemonian (translation E. Cary, Loeb Classical Library). The same tradition was known to Eusebius, who, however, missed an opportunity to name the first inventor of athletic nakedness, see above note 1.

[6] Photius, Lexicon, s.v. ᾽Αμφίδρομος δαίμων· οἷον ὁ γενέθλιος· οὕτως Αἰσχύλος. καὶ ὁ δολιχὸς δρόμος· Δολίχου δέ τινος Δελφοῦ πολλάκις τοῦτον νικῶντος κληθῆναι δολιχόν· οὕτως ᾽Απολλώνιος ἐν τῶι Περὶ Δελφῶν — Amphidromos is a daimon, the spirit of birth is the same, so Aischylos. And the long run: after a certain Dolichos of Delphi had won this run several times it was called the dolichos; thus Apollonios in the book on Delphi .

[8] Paus. 5.8.6, as it was conjectured by H. Hitzig and H. Blümner, Des Pausanias Beschreibung von Griechenland vol. 2.1, Leipzig 1901, 310–1. Otherwise, we should suppose that Pausanias listed two first winners of diaulos, and did not include dolichos in his dossier of the contests.

[9] Paus. 1.44.1: Ὄρσιππος, ὃς περιε ζωσμένων ἐν τοῖς ἀγῶσι κατὰ δὴ παλαιὸν ἔθος τῶν ἀθλητῶν Ὀλύμπια ἐνίκα στάδιον δραμὼν γυμνός, φασὶ δὲ καὶ στρατηγοῦντα ὕστερον τὸν Ὄρσιππον ἀποτεμέσθαι χώραν τῶν προσοίκων· δοκῶ δέ οἱ καὶ ἐνὈλυμ πίᾳ τὸ περίζωμα ἑκόντι περιρρυῆναι, γνόντι ὡς ἀνδρὸς περιεζωσμένου δραμεῖν ῥᾴων ἐστὶν ἀνὴρ γυμνός — [ Near Coroebus is buried] Orsippus who won the footrace at Olympia by running naked when all his competitors wore girdles according to ancient custom. They say also that Orsippus when general afterwards annexed some of the neighboring territory. My own opinion is that at Olympia he intentionally let the girdle slip off him, realizing that a naked man can run more easily than one girt (translation W.H.S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library).

[10] Noted in Schol. ad Iliad 23.683: κατὰ τὴν δεκάτην καὶ τετάρτην Ὀλυμπιάδα ἐφ’ Ἱππομένους Ἀθήνησιν ἄρχοντος Ὀλυμπίασι στάδιον θεόντων ἐν περιζώμασι συνέβη ἕνα αὐτῶν Ὄρσιππον ἐμποδισθέντα ὑπὸ τοῦ περιζώματος πεσεῖν καὶ τελευτῆ σαι· ὅθεν ἐθεσπίσθη γυμνοὺς ἀγωνίζεσθαι — In the fourteenth Olympiad, when Hippomenos was archon of Athens, and the runners ran a stadion in girdles it happened to one of them, Orsippus, whose clothes slipped down, that he fell and died. From that time onwards it was decided to compete in nudity.

[11] Hönle, Olympia (n. 4) 30–2.

[13] L. Moretti, Olympionikai, i vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici, Roma 1957, 61–2, entry no. 16 Orrhippos.

[14] Thuk. 1.6.5: ἐγυμνώθησάν τε πρῶτοι καὶ ἐς τὸ φανερὸν ἀποδύντες λίπα μετὰ τοῦ γυμνάζεσθαι ἠλείψαντο· τὸ δὲ πάλαι καὶ ἐν τῷ Ὀλυμπικῷ ἀγῶνι διαζώματα ἔχοντες περὶ τὰ αἰδοῖα οἱ ἀθληταὶ ἠγωνίζοντο, καὶ οὐ πολλὰ ἔτη ἐπειδὴ πέπαυται.

[16] Since the literature on this aspect of Greek life is immense, it seems reasonable to send readers to a good review of earlier scholarship in M. Golden, Sport and Society in Ancient Greece, Cambridge 1998, 65–9. He follows Larissa Bonfante,Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art, AJA 93 (1989) 543–570, and Myles McDonnell, The Introduction of Athletic Nudity: Thucydides, Plato, and the Vases, JHS 111 (1991) 182–93, who convincingly shows that Plato developed Thucydides’ remark on the Greek athletic custom, and — after the analysis of archaic vases — suggests that nudity dominated in Athens in the mid-sixth century BC, and probably even before that in Sparta and Olympia. Yet, it is reasonable to conclude with Bonfante (p. 553) that we can trace rather stages than the date of introduction of athletic nudity. Iconography is not consistent, and although it is possible to enumerate many seventh-century vases representing nude males at sport activities, this way of representing sportsmen dominates first in the mid-sixth century BC.

[17] See: Golden, Sport and Society (n. 16) 66–7, and more explicitly Christesen, Olympic Victor Lists (n. 1) 354. In another work Christesen connects the institution of nudity in the games with the hoplite-fostered democratization of the Greek society in the later Archaic period, see: P. Christesen, The Transformation of Athletics in Sixth Century Greece, in: G.P. Schaus, S.R. Wenn (eds.), Onward to the Olympics: Historical Perspectives on the Olympic Games, Waterloo (Ontario) 2007, 59–68.

[18] Y. Kempen, Krieger, Boten und Athleten: Untersuchungen zum Langlauf in der griechischen Antike, Sankt Augustin 1992, 130–3; 161–2.

[19] Chr. Wacker, Das Programm der antiken Olympischen Spiele, in: W.-D. Heilmeyer, N. Kaltsas, H.-J. Gehrke, G.E. Hatzi, S. Bocher (eds.), Mythos Olympia: Kult und Spiele, Berlin 2012, 269.

[20] Twenty five years ago A. Mallwitz, Cult and Competition Locations at Olympia, in:
W. Raschke (ed.), The Archeology of the Olympics, Madison 1988, 79–101, 101, argued even for a series of annual games starting in 704 and antedating the introduction of chariot racing during the first big, four-years games (24^th).

[21] The earliest known water-supplying wells in Olympia suitable for larger numbers of visitors were created in haste, of easily datable contemporary material in the early seventh century BC, H. Kyrieleis, Die frühe Geschichte Olympias — Mythos und archäologische Forschung, in:Mythos Olympia (n. 19) 61–5, on p. 64, see also H. Kyrieleis, Olympia: Archäologie eines Heiligtums. Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie, Darmstadt 2011, 133.

[22] C. Morgan Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC, Cambridge 1990, 48.

[23] Marmor Parium I 38, Paus. 10.7.3.

[24] Still, ancient traditions did not allow modern scholars to decide whether the first crowned games took place in 582 or already in 586 BC. A scholarly debate on this issue has a long record since the late 19^th century, and it is sufficient in this place to recall recent voices in this discussion, Stephen Miller arguing for 586 (S.G. Miller, The Date of the First Pythiad, CSCA 11 [1978] 127–158) and Alan Mosshammer defending 582 (A. Mosshammer, The Date of the First Pythiad — Again, GRBS 23 [1982] 15–30).

[25] Paus. 10.7.5: ἔθεσαν δὲ καὶ ἆθλα τότε ἀθληταῖς πρῶτον, τά τε ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ πλὴν τεθρίππου καὶ αὐτοὶ νομοθετήσαντες δολίχου καὶ διαύλου παισὶν εἶναι δρόμον — On that occasion the Delphians founded for the first time prizes for athletes, too, the competitions being the same as those at Olympia, except the four-horse chariot, and they themselves decreed that there should be running-races for boys, the long course and the double course (translation W.H.S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library).

[26] δολιχὸς, simply: long, was the most obvious name for the long run in Greece (the word deriving from a common Indoeuropean root for long things), see: P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Paris ²1999, 291–2.

[27] Homeric Hymn to Demeter 155.

[28] IG I³ 5, l. 5 from c. 500 BC: [Πλούτο]ν̣ι Δ[ολί]χοι θεοῖν τρίττοαν βόαρχον ἐν τε̄ι ἑορ[τε̄ι ---] –To Pluton, Dolichos and the Goddesses (one should give) in the feast a triple sacrifice starting from ox. Cf.: H. von Prott, Ein ΙΕΡΟΣ ΝΟΜΟΣ der Eleusinien, MDAI(A) 24 (1899) 241–66, 252.

[29] K. Clinton, IG I² 5, the Eleusinia and the Eleusinians, AJPh 100 (1979) 1–12, 7; F. Graf, Zum Opferkalender des Nikomachos, ZPE 14 (1974) 139–44.

[30] von Prott, Ein ΙΕΡΟΣ ΝΟΜΟΣ (n. 28) 255. Clinton, IG I² 5 (n. 29) 4 n. 12; 7, accepts this view with some reserve. Let us note, however, that Ludwig Ziehen finally expressed a doubt if the beginning of l. 5 may be restored as [Πλούτο]ν̣ι. On the other hand, he could not find a better restoration of the following letters than Δ[ολί]χοι, see: L. Ziehen, Zu den Leges Sacrae: I, Hermes 79 (1944) 214–9, 215.

[32] H.T. von Prott, L. Ziehen, Leges Graecorum Sacrae, Leipzig 1906, no. 73 (p. 217), but see: F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, Paris 1969, no. 76 (p. 152).

[33] On the other hand, we have very little information of the Olympic victor list in dolichos from the period before 484 BC (the later games are covered by POxy 222 = FGrHist 415). The only known long-race winner between Acanthus and 484 is Phanas of Messenia, contemporary to Aristomenes, mentioned in Pausanias (4.17.9). He belongs, however, to the sphere of the Messenian political myth.

[34] The data have been collected and critically exposed in Christesen, Olympic Victor Lists (n. 1), 491–504. An unusual co ncentration of changes in early sixth century BC led Weniger to the conclusion that there was a new start to the Olympics in 576 BC, see: L. Weniger, Olympische Studien: Wann wurde die erste Olympiade gefeiert?, ARW 20 (1921/2) 41–78.

[35] See: P. Siewert, Die wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Bedeutung der Bronze-Urkunden aus Olympia. Mit der Erstedition einer frühen Thearodokie-Verleihung als Beispiel , in: H. Kyrieleis (ed.), Olympia 1875–2000. 125 Jahre Deutsche Ausgrabungen. Internationales Symposium, Berlin 9.–11. November 2000, Mainz 2002, 359–70, 361 (dating the birth of the Elean-written Olympic bureaucracy to the middle third of the sixth century BC) and Olympic Rules, in: W. Coulson, H. Kyrieleis (eds.),Proceedings of an International Symposium on the Olympic Games, Athens 1992, 113–7, 114. Also M. Kõiv, Early History of Elis and Pisa: Invented or Evolving Traditions?, Klio 95 (2013) 315–368, esp. 351–2, finds important arguments for the Elean overtake of Olympia in the late Archaic period.