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Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 6
Lesson 1: A beginner's guide to ancient Greece- Ancient Greece, an introduction
- Introduction to ancient Greek art
- Contrapposto explained
- Classic, classical, and classicism explained
- Introduction to Greek architecture
- The classical orders
- Greek architectural orders
- Black Figures in Classical Greek Art
- Greek sanctuaries as artistic hubs
- Olympic games
- Victorious athlete: The Vaison Daidoumenos
- Prize amphora showing a chariot race
- A competitor in the long jump
- Sprinter on a vase from Rhodes and a bronze running girl
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Sprinter on a vase from Rhodes and a bronze running girl
The greatest Olympic runner of all was Leonidas of Rhodes who won all three running events at each of the four successive Olympiads between 164 and 152 BC. Women competed in foot races at Olympia, but these were not part of the Olympic Games. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.
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When were women able to start watching and then participating?(5 votes)
They weren't but they had there own in Olympia like she says in the video.(1 vote)
Why couldn't women compete? Is it some mythological rule?(1 vote)
Actually according to the video, women did compete at their own contests that were scheduled at a different time of the year.(5 votes)
Didn't Leonidas rule Sparta? He was a Spartan himself, right?(2 votes)
Yes because the rulers had to be born in the same area. We got the Democracy from Athens but they Had a part in Democracy too.(2 votes)
could the statue of the running girl have been that of the girl from the greek myth? i'm sorry, i can't remember her name; i haven't read the myth in so long. it was the myth a bout the girl who raced a prince but the prince had three golden apples from aphrodite which he would drop so that he could distract the girl from winning? what was the name of that story?(1 vote)- The girl's name is Atalanta, and the prince is Hippomenes. There's a little section on Wikipedia about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atalanta#Footrace
Also, I think that's a very good theory.(2 votes)
when were the girl competitions(1 vote)- There were female competitions as mentioned in the video above, but I don't believe anyone knows what time of the year they were held.(2 votes)
- Why where women not able to do things that boys could do in the past?(1 vote)
At the middle of the video why did they keep the name of people on calanders?(1 vote)
Video transcript
this file shows a sprinter we know he's a sprinter because of the way his arms and legs are going furiously to and fro and this kind of windmill pose was what was conventionally used to show speed in antiquity the vars was made in East Greece between about 515 525 BC the sprint was the most important race in the Olympics in fact it was the only event for the first 13 Olympiads and it was so important that the Greeks kept their calendar based on the names of the winners in that race on the other side of the rowers there's another runner and a similar pose so they're actually chasing each other endlessly around the pot this is a little of bronze figure of a running girl and it's interesting and important because women were not allowed to compete at the ancient Olympics and in fact for some of the history of the games they weren't even allowed to watch but women did actually have their own contests at Olympia but at a different time of year