INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

The Olympic victor and the polis: the economy of kudos
As a meeting-point for elites from all over the Hellenic world,
Olympia and its Games provided an opportunity for elite individuals
to compete not only for sporting glory but also for political status.
Olympic victors were particularly well placed to misuse their
enhanced status within the community. Individual elites and their
wider families vied for power and influence within their respective
states. At a pan-Hellenic site like Olympia, such individuals were
connected to each other by points of commonality, such as ritualised
friendship (xenia), which transcended civic, regional and even ethnic
boundaries. An aristocrat’s network of friends and contacts could
extend far beyond the arbitrary limits prescribed by membership of
one particular polis. These powerful individuals, seeking to use the
Games as an arena for self promotion and for the acquisition of kudos
and status threatened the balance of any community. Most famous was
the abortive attempt at tyranny by the Athenian Cylon in 632 B.C., the
first truly historical event we know of in the history of the Athenian
city-state. An influential aristocrat with a powerful nexus of contacts,
Cylon was reputed to be the son-in law of Theagenes, the tyrant of
Athens’ neighbour and rival, Megara. According to the historian
Thucydides, Theagenes supplied Cylon with troops. It was clearly
important to Thucydides, and also to Herodotus, that Cylon was a
former Olympic victor.
Alternatively, of course, individuals could instead attempt to ‘cash
in’ on their victory in the political domain. In the sixth century, for
example, the Athenian aristocrat Cimon dedicated an Olympic victory
in the chariot race to the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus and thereby
gained a recall from exile. However, the most powerful example of
the delicate and volatile relationship between a community and its
most outstanding individuals is that of Alcibiades of Athens. Living in
the late fifth century, this flamboyant and famous aristocrat was a
successful general and an Olympic victor after his victory in the
chariot race at the Games of 416, when he entered seven chariots and
placed first, second, fourth and possibly also third. While Alcibiades’
status and charisma were very great, he was hardly a model citizen
and his interests ultimately transcended those of his community: soon
after his great victory, for example, he shied away from an impending
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