Ancient Olympic Fun Fact 15

2012 is significant in that it is a presidential election year, a leap year, and a summer Olympic year! The modern Olympics, of course, were inspired by the ancient Greek Olympics, a subject I’ve been researching for my work in progress. So in these months leading up to the 2012 London Games, I’ll be posting weekly tidbits about the original athletic festival that started it all.

Here’s this week’s fun fact:

A month of compulsory training took place the month before the Games.

Just as modern athletes undergo a qualifying process to enter the Olympics, the ancient Games had their own sort of preliminaries. This took place in Elis, the city-state that organized the Games (Olympia lay in Elean territory). Having the athletes gather in advance allowed officials time to weed out weak candidates and verify eligibility. In addition, there was a psychological aspect to bringing in the athletes early.

The Olympic Judges supervised the training, and they used to opportunity to reinforce their absolute control over the Games. Sessions were grueling, and athletes had to obey the Judges’ every word and eat only what they provided. And although trainers and relatives might accompany competitors to Elis, they could in no way interfere with the proceedings.

A consequence of this month-long boot camp was that it limited the pool of individuals who could enter. For most citizens, taking an entire month off wasn’t affordable (and by the way, that didn’t include travel time or the actual Olympic festival itself). So unless you were a person of means or had sponsors, clearing this first hurdle to the Games was difficult.

Tune in next week for more about the ancient Olympics!

Research Ramblings: Ancient Elis, Part 2

When I took the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment, it listed among my top five strengths something called Input. For a long time, I thought it was a mistake; people with Input tend to be collectors, but when it comes to stuff, I’m a tosser. Once I started writing novels, however, I discovered I’m actually an avid hoarder – of facts. I’m always collecting random pieces of information that I hang onto “just in case,” and my “Research Ramblings” highlight some of these bits I’ve discovered along the way.

As mentioned in Ancient Elis, Part 1, my characters were moving to a new town, and I was able to find details about said town in an ancient source. Specifically Book 2 of Pausanias’ Description of Greece. However, even with this information the work of world building continued for two main reasons:

1. Pausanias wrote his work in the second century A.D., a few hundred years after the era of my story. As ancient as ancient history is, there are different levels of ancient. So customs current to Pausanias might not have existed in the early fourth century B.C. The same goes for buildings and other landmarks.

2. The Description of Greece is entirely in text. In other words, no maps, and generally no mundane details like structure dimensions. Here’s an excerpt:

One of the noteworthy things in Elis is an old gymnasium. In this gymnasium the athletes are wont to go through the training through which they must pass before going to Olympia. High plane-trees grow between the tracks inside a wall…The track for the competing runners, called by the natives the Sacred Track, is separate from that on which the runners and pentathletes practise…There is another enclosed gymnasium, but smaller, adjoining the larger one and called Square because of its shape. Here the athletes practise wrestling, and here, when they have no more wrestling to do, they are matched in contests with the softer gloves.

This is nice in that I have knowledge of at least two gymnasiums and the activities that took place in them. The bad news is that, even knowing that these gyms were in close proximity, I don’t know what part of town they were located or how big they were. There is truth to the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and things would be a lot easier if the Description of Greece came with sketches of the gyms and town layout.

Fortunately, archaeology is on my side. I mentioned in Part 1 about some photos of the Elean dig. Greece is popular with archaeologists, and while Elis’ following isn’t as large as Athens’ or Olympia’s, it does have a dig and museum. And thanks to the Internet, I  found this archeological website with details on the ancient city, including:

The theatre, a striking monument with a characteristic earthen cavea and a well-preserved stage building, occupied the north end of the agora. It enjoyed views of the river, which, in antiquity, ran very close by, along the city’s north limits. A bridge crossed the river near that point and a strong embankment protected the city against floods. The Bouleuterion and the city’s two gymnasiums were most probably located near the theatre, on a terrace by the riverbank.

Well, isn’t that lovely? Problem solved! At least where these gyms are concerned. And now I’ve got a better picture of my new setting.

But there will be gaps which neither ancient texts nor archaeology can fill, and once I’ve exhausted my sources, those are the places I give my imagination permission to take off (within reason, of course). And that, I suppose, is one of the benefits of writing historical fiction.

Research Ramblings: Ancient Elis, Part 1

When I took the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment, it listed among my top five strengths something called Input. For a long time, I thought it was a mistake; people with Input tend to be collectors, but when it comes to stuff, I’m a tosser. Once I started writing novels, however, I discovered I’m actually an avid hoarder – of facts. I’m always collecting random bits and pieces of information that I hang onto “just in case,” and my “Research Ramblings” highlight some of these factoids I’ve discovered along the way.

So last week, I started a new chapter which also involved a location change. Prior to that, all action took place in Sparta, a place which I had the extreme fortune to visit a few years ago. But then things wrapped up and the action moved to Elis. Elis, unfortunately was not part of my Greek tour. (Modern Elis isn’t exactly a destination location.) But even if I could afford to travel back there, much has changed in the centuries that have passed between my era of interest and now. So where is a writer to go to create a setting?

Pausanias’ Description of Greece!!! [Trumpet fanfare]

Never heard of it? That’s okay. I’d never heard of it either until I started researching ancient Greece.

One thing I’ve learned about the field of history is that historians regularly reference what other people say. After all, it’s not like a modern biographer writing about Abraham Lincoln can interview the guy. As I read up on ancient Greece, Pausanias’ name kept popping up in the references. Some even quoted the guy. So after a while, I thought I’d better look at the actual source, and thanks to the Tufts University Perseus Digital Library, I was able to access an English version with handy footnotes from the comfort of my home.

Pausanias is described as a second century Greek traveler and geographer. With those credentials, you might think the Description of Greece is all about topography and political borders, but it’s much more than that. Pausanias also writes about local customs and legends, architectural landmarks, and other points of interest of the places he visited. I find it to read like a travel guide, a predecessor to Lonely Planet, if you will. (And by the way, travel guides can be a valuable source of information for writers, too! I’ve got a beat up 1985 Fodor’s Greece that I go to from time to time for information on climate and flora and fauna). The Description covers a range of areas ranging from Athens to Ozolian Locri, and conveniently enough, Elis is on the list!

So between Pausanias’ chapters on Elis and some pictures I found of the Elean archaeological dig, I had my setting! Or at least the start of it. More about Elis in my next Research Ramblings.