Ancient Olympic Games and Women

To begin with, women were not allowed to participate in the ancient Olympic Games. There is no documented reason for the same but the following are some of the probable reasons –

The Olympic Games were conceived as games which were played by men and something manly. Women in those days were confined to indoors and household activities. Women did not venture into anything that was a man’s domain, like governance, administration, teaching, etc. Basically all outdoor activities were meant for men. Also, women were expected to be beautiful, buxom and voluptuous in the then world of men. Participating in such games would mean training, and training would give then a muscular look, which was not something that women were meant to be. Even if this seems chauvinistic, let us understand the fact that this was a different time and feminism or equality of the sexes was not an established concept.

Another aspect was that these games tested ones military and heroic skills, which again was not a domain of females. Further, it is said that many athletes would stay away from home to undergo special training for months ahead of the games (some say for about ten months prior to the Games), something a women could not afford due to her household, foremost of which was the child bearing and rearing responsibilities.

The other reason could be that the participants, i.e. men were to participate in the nude. The Greeks worshiped beauty and seeing a male in his raw athletic form was not considered to be voyeuristic, but an act of appreciation of the perfection of body-sculpting. Besides, nudity was not quite a taboo in those days.  Women viewing men in such a form and that too in public would not be considered virtuous for women, and thus they were kept out of it.

There is an interesting story about why even the trainers were supposed to be in the nude during the games in the stadium. According to this story, a mother named Kallipateira (or Pherenike), from a well known family of athletes accompanied her son to the Games dressed as a trainer. However, when she was trying to get out of the trainers area, her private parts were exposed and it was revealed that she was a woman. From that day onwards, even the trainers had to be in the nude. However, what is surprising was that the woman was not punished and she was allowed to go. According to the custom, women were not supposed to be anywhere close to the stadium and if any woman was caught witnessing the games, then she would be killed by throwing her off the cliff of Mt. Typaion!

Priestess of Demeter

However, to all the above, there was an exception. Only one lady was allowed to witness the games and that was the Priestess of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility. Many scholars feel that this was to ensure that the rituals were carried out properly as the cult of Demeter is supposed to predate the Olympics and thus the significance of the Priestess.

Besides women, many slaves and foreigners were kept out of the games. This probably goes on to show that women were second class citizens and the games were only for free Greek males. However, I would like to re-iterate once again that the concepts of feminism were unknown to them, till at least the Romans took over, who initiated many changes in the format of the Games.

Finally, it is said that the women had their own games, which were held in the honour of Hera, Zeus’s consort, known as the ‘Heraia Games’ and took place in the non-Olympiad years.

To conclude, I don’t want to get into the fairness of the reasons of keeping women out of the Olympics, but one must not see everything ancient from the prism of modernity. The past had its own thought process and justifications and that should be respected for the times. What is important is that the anomaly (as we see it today) was corrected in due course of time, and women now participate in large numbers. To quote Times of India, dated 27/07/12, “4847 Women athletes, the highest number in any Olympics, are participating in the 2012 London Olympics. Nearly every participating country has women in its team”. This amounts to close to 48.5% of the total number of athletes participating this time – that’s a good score for equality!

So cheer up ladies, you are making up well for all the lost time!!

Next we will read about another aspect of the Olympic Games.

Demeter & Persephone

According to the Greek Mythology, Demeter was the goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness, especially of corn. She represented the products of soils and seasons and the generative forces that directed their abundance. Demeter was the goddess of the harvest and she taught man how to grow crops. Traditionally, the first loaf of bread of the season is sacrificed to her.

Demeter lived in the mountains and was known as the protector of the fields. She was known as the fair haired earth goddess who blesses all phases of the harvest. She walks the furrowed fields dressed in green.

Demeter had a very close bond with her daughter Persephone. Persephone was the goddess of the underworld, spring and harvest. She also represented all the elements of the earth.

Persephone was very beautiful. Once the God of the underworld, Hades saw Persephone and fell deeply in love with her. He trapped Persephone and abducted her to the underworld.

After the disappearance of Persephone, Demeter began to look high and low for her daughter. Demeter was so distraught, that she wandered the earth for nine days, denying herself of all forms of food, drink and comfort. She renounced her divine functions as a goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness, in search of Persephone.

Seeing this Zeus decided to intervene. He sent his messenger to speak to Hades to release Persephone from the underworld. But as luck would have it, Persephone who had revolted all these days by not having anything to eat or drink and had just tasted a few seeds of Pomegranate and had thus become one of the underworlds, as per the rules of the underworld.

So a compromise had to be struck, that Persephone would spend two-thirds of the year with her mother, Demeter, and one-third as the queen of the underworld.

From that day onwards, while Persephone lives with Hades, the days are short and dark and cold. Demeter, who could not forgive Hades, allows the earth to go barren during the months when Persephone resides with him. But her return to earth is marked by the spring season when there is the warm, bright light of summer, and the flowers start to bloom, the leaves to bud and the birds to sing in the sky.

Herein lies the secret of seasons, explained so painfully through the love of a mother and daughter!