From rdunkle@erols.com Mon Oct 2 09:09:05 2000 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id JAA137642 for ; Mon, 2 Oct 2000 09:08:48 -0700 Received: from smtp02.mrf.mail.rcn.net (smtp02.mrf.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.61]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id JAA02788 for ; Mon, 2 Oct 2000 09:08:47 -0700 Received: from 207-172-201-155.s28.as3.xnb.nj.dialup.rcn.com ([207.172.201.155] helo=ifu.ifu.net) by smtp02.mrf.mail.rcn.net with smtp (Exim 3.15 #2) id 13g88z-0004TX-00 for classics@u.washington.edu; Mon, 02 Oct 2000 12:08:46 -0400 Message-ID: <004a01c02c8b$2212af20$9bc9accf@ifu.net> From: "Roger Dunkle" To: References: <001001c02bd9$3c662a80$c9ee1ec4@default> Subject: Re: 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 12:09:22 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Just one small correction to Terrence Lockyer's otherwise illuminating response to Dave Abbott's question ("The Panathenaic games seem to have been unusual in having prizes that had intrinsic, rather than symbolic, value"). Even in the archaic era there were many chrematitic ('awarding money or valuable objects as a prize') athletic festivals (see David Young's *The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics*, Chicago, 1984, 113-14). Valuable prizes for athletic events are the norm in Homer and Hesiod. Roger Dunkle ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terrence Lockyer" To: "Classics List" Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2000 2:55 PM Subject: 1st, 2nd and 3rd place > On Sat, 30 Sep 2000, Dave Abbott wrote: > > : There is no point in checking the official Olympics > : website for the answers as they seem to be of the > : impression that the ancient games took place > : amongst the lions and gladiators of the Coliseum > : (re: the Coliseum-like image on the prize medals > : themselves). Oh, well :-) > > The stadium on the 2000 medals has been discussed here before, on which > occasion it was, I believe, pointed out by David Meadows (I think) that the > generic stadium that features on all modern Olympic medals is supposed to be > based on the Athens Colosseum, site of events in the first modern Olympics. > It seems that the designer simply used one Colosseum instead of another. > > 'Coliseum' is a modern (and apparently almost exclusively American) > misspelling of the Latin Colosseum. This itself is (according to OCD3, s.v. > 'Colosseum') a name first used in medieval times for what in ancient times > was called the Flavian Amphitheatre (or Amphitheatrum Flavium), because it > was built in the period of the Flavian Emperors (Vespasian, Titus and > Domitian, 69-96 CE). It was dedicated in 80 CE. The name Colosseum derives > from a large-scale statue ('colossus') of Nero that stood nearby. > > The sequence of gold, silver and bronze for first (or best), second (or next > best) and third (or next after that) has a long history. One of the > earliest Greek uses of this sequence may be found in Hesiod (Works and Days > 109-55), who describes how the gods created three successive kinds (the > Greek word is GE/NOj) of mortals, the first of gold, the second of silver > and the third of bronze, each of which was less perfect and less long-lived > than its predecessor. The bronze age was, in Hesiod's version, succeeded by > an age of heroes, which included the seven against Thebes and those who > attacked Troy. The age of heroes was, in Hesiod's version, the last before > Hesiod's own. > > The idea of medals, however, seems to be a distinctly modern one. Victors > in the ancient Olympic games received crowns of olive, and the prizes at the > other three major Greek athletic festivals (the Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian > games) were similar. Victors in events at the Panathenaic games, a lesser > festival held at Athens, received prizes of money or amphorai (of a special > design, known as Panathenaic) containing olive oil. These amphorai usually > bore on one side a depiction of the goddess Athena, and on the other one of > an athletic event (perhaps that for which the amphora was awarded). The > Panathenaic games seem to have been unusual in having prizes that had > intrinsic, rather than symbolic, value. > > > Terrence Lockyer > Johannesburg, South Africa > .