Panathenaic Games - First Great Panathenaea

First Great Panathenaea

The first Great Panathenaea was held during the rule of Peisistratos in 566 BC, and was modelled on the Olympic Games. Peisistratus also added music and poetry competitions, which were part of the Pythian Games but not the Olympics. The games were divided into games for Athenians only, and games for Athenians and any other Greeks who wanted to participate. The games for all Greeks were essentially the same as the Olympics, with boxing, wrestling, pankration, pentathlon, and chariot racing, but chariot racing was the most prestigious of these, unlike the Olympics where the stadion (foot race) was more important.

These games in which only the Athenians were allowed to participate were somewhat different. These included a torch race from the Piraeus to the Acropolis (the supposed ancestor of the modern Olympic torch relay that takes place prior to the Games, though in reality the modern torch race was invented as propaganda for Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympic Games), mock infantry and cavalry battles, a javelin throw on horseback, the apobatai (a chariot race in which the driver had to jump out of the chariot, run alongside, and jump back in), the pyrriche (apparently military exercises accompanied by music), and the euandrion (essentially a beauty contest among the athletes). The prestigious event was a four-horse chariot race and the winner received a prize larger than for any of the athletic contests. In later years there was also a rowing competition.