What Did The Early Olympians Wear? -Speedskating Santa Barbara

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What Did The Early Olympians Wear? c. P. J. Baum, November 2000. 7/13/2001

Origin of the Games

Although the ancient Olympic games were first recorded in 776 BC, they originated at least a century before that and possibly as early as the 13th century BC. One Greek legend said that Herakles (Hercules, in the Roman form) won a race at Olympia, a plain in the small state of Elis, and then decreed that the race should be re-enacted every four years. Another said that the God Zeus himself had originated the festival after defeating Cronus for the sovereignty of heaven.
The Greeks based their chronology on four-year periods called Olympiads, and the Olympic festival marked the beginning of each Olympiad. Evidently, the festival was reorganized in 776 BC, which was considered the start of the first Olympiad.
The men's festival was a religious gathering to celebrate the god Zeus. Married women were not allowed to watch the men's games but single women were invited to watch. While matrons were forbidden (under pain of death) to attend the Games, the Priestess of Demeter was required and presided over the men's games. Women had their own "separate but equal" games called the Heraean Games at Olympia or the Games of Hera. Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of marriage and protector of married women. The Temple of Hera is an important component of Olympia.
A gold and ivory statue of Zeus by Pheidias was placed inside Zeus' temple at Olympia. At 42 feet high, it was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. The Olympics predate all of the seven wonders except for the Egyptian pyramids.
Forms of Ancient Greek Dress (or undress)
Greeks were constantly in search of the "Ideal". Their "Ideal" was "a body capable of enduring all efforts, either of the racecourse or of bodily strength. This description of the "Ideal" person given by Aristotle reflects the attitude of the majority of ancient Greeks. People were not judged solely on their minds but rather strong emphasis was given to the body. This emphasis given to the body was given to the nude body. It was commonplace for Greek men to exercise, go to war, and generally go about their daily business in the nude or scantly clothed.
While male nudity was straightforward and hiding nothing, female nudity was more reserved. The first fully nude female sculpture, Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxitales c. 350-340BC., appeared several hundred years after the first Olympiad. Before that female statues were draped in some way so that there was no lower body female nudity.
Some examples of ancient greek dress are shown below. These are from early drawings and statues.
When men did where clothes they resembled the outfit on the left which is a loosely draped sort of dress with support over one shoulder. It seems to be common for one or more breasts to be exposed for both men and women. Minoan Women wore skirts that fell straight from the hips and then filled out. Above the skirt they wore a tight-fitting short sleeved bodice. In most cases, the breasts were entirely exposed with the bodice laced up below the bust. A situation similar to this is pictured where the lower dress ties around the upper waist to uplift the breasts. This seems to be their idea of a support bra.
Dress of Ancient Olympians
Olympic athletes originally wore shorts but, according to one ancient writer, Pausanias, a competitor deliberately lost his shorts so that he could run more freely during the race in 720 BC, and clothing was then abolished. Now this account is common but too oversimplified I think. Pants were not invented in Greece and the Greeks were known to despise them in all their forms including shorts and underwear. This account is more likely correct: During the early games, the athletes wore loincloths called zomas. But, the story goes, in the 15th Olympics (720 BC), a Spartan named Acanthus began a new tradition by competing naked. Others say it was an athlete named Orsippus who let his zoma fall so he could run more easily. Whoever started it, from that time on, the male athletes competed competely naked (hence the word gymnasium, from the Greek word meaning naked, gymnos). The zomas or loincloth is wound around the hips and drawn between the legs, with one end hanging down before and one behind. Should they slide down the hips they would interfere with running and probably didn't hide anything by the end of a race.
Pausanias described the women's games-- They run in the following way: their hair hangs down, a tunic reaches to a little above the knee, and they bare the right shoulder as far as the breast.

This translation also suffers I think. The tunic was a Roman innovation and not Greek. It comprised a piece of cloth, with a slit for the head at its centre point. More likely he was describing a dress-like form of Greek clothing shown in the picture above where the strap covers one shoulder and the loose clothing covers one breast and exposes a lot of the other hooter. Again we must take into account the fact that Greek dress changed over time and that there was considerable diversity of dress among the greeks of the same time. As described above it was a Spartan male who decided to compete naked. The Spartan women were known to be equally daring and the proper Athenians considered the Spartans to be beneath them. Spartan girls were more agressive than the Athens girls and the girls from Sparta wore fewer clothes. The Athenians were particularly irritated that the Sparta girls were fond of slit skirts which were very revealing. One example of the "slit skirt" is shown in the picture above. It seems to answer the question of whether or not they wore underwear. More than likely some Sparta girls competed in slit "tunics". Considering the looseness of the clothing and the widespread acceptance of upper body nudity it is unlikely that the Sparta girls hid much during competition. If Nancy and Tonya had competed in the early Olympics Nancy would represent Athens and Tonya would represent Sparta.

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