SECURITY CONCERNS, PLUS CHEATING AND SCANDALS, ARE NOTHING NEW AT THE OLYMPICS — ACCORDING TO ANCIENT OLYMPIC EXPERT DAVID GILMAN ROMANO

Penn Museum Updates Award-winning Ancient Olympics Website
in Time for 2004 Olympics in Greece

04/22/2004

PHILADELPHIA, Spring 2004—With only months before the summer 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece begin, concern about security for the athletes and visitors grows. Terrorism and terroristic threats, so much a part of the world today, have added an unpleasant new element to the high-profile games. Oh for the simple days in ancient times, when the Olympics were free of outcast politics and terroristic threats, right?

Not quite so, says Dr. David Gilman Romano, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Adjunct Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, and a leading expert on the ancient Olympic games.

"The threat of a terrorist attack at the modern Olympic Games this summer in Athens is nothing new to scholars who study the ancient Olympic games," Dr. Romano explained. "Although there was a long-standing truce established in antiquity to protect travelers of all kinds going to and returning from the Olympic Games, there were serious violations of this truce. On more than one occasion Greek hoplite soldiers stormed the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. In one instance they interrupted the pentathlon event of the Olympic games. Wars were fought between rival Greek city-states over the control of the sanctuary."

The allegations of greed, bribes, and cheating by officials and athletes alike, allegations that plagued the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia and the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, however, were certainly symptoms of modern-world corruption--yes?

Of corruption: "It’s an age old tradition," notes Dr. Romano. And when he says old, he means OLD—2780 years or so old, starting back at the very beginning of the Olympics.

While there is no known evidence of athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs to win in ancient Greek times, breaking the rules at Olympia, according to Dr. Romano, was well known. In fact, in lieu of statues depicting victorious athletes, statues of Zeus, complete with written apologies in stone, were sometimes erected at the games to make examples of cheating athletes.

"Even the ancient myth that describes the origins of the Olympic games is a tale of cheating and bribery," Dr. Romano noted. The Greek poet Pindar tells that young Pelops accepts the king's challenge to a chariot race to win the hand of the king's daughter. To ensure his victory, Pelops bribes the king's charioteer to replace the bronze linchpin in the wheel of the king's chariot with one made of wax. To celebrate his victory, Pelops establishes the Olympic Games. This myth was depicted larger than life in sculpture in the pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

Other examples of ancient greed, bribes and scandals? In A.D. 67, Roman Emperor Nero paid one million "sesterces" to the council of judges overseeing the Olympic games, persuading them to hold Olympic games out of sequence and in a year not scheduled for the contests so he could compete and win. Nero received what would be the equivalent of six gold medals in today's Olympics.

Dr. Romano knows what he's talking about. He is author of the Penn Museum’s popular, award-winning website "The Real Story of the Ancient Olympic Games": http://www.museum.upenn.edu/olympics The site, chock full of sometimes myth-breaking facts about the early Olympics in Greece, has just been updated in anticipation of summer 2004 interest. One new section includes modern myths about the ancient Olympics, while another section boasts images from the ancient Olympia stadium. Yet another lists the most famous athletes from ancient times and their accomplishments.

In addition to the ancient Olympics website, Penn Museum displays a perennial selection of ancient Greek artifacts pertaining to athletics, games and the Olympics in the recently refurbished "Ancient Greek World" gallery, part of "Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans" Mediterranean world suite of galleries. On display are about a dozen items, including ancient vases depicting athletes in a variety of sports, and an ancient "strigil" used by athletes to scrape oil and sand from their bodies.

An archaeologist who has worked for many years at Corinth in Greece, Dr. Romano's current excavation work is in the ancient Greek region of Arcadia: the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, a Penn Museum/University of Arizona/Fifth Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Sparta joint effort. Renowned as a sanctuary of the Greek god Zeus, the site features an ancient stadium and hippodrome in which athletic games for the Lykaion festival were held. The Sanctuary of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion is only 17 miles from its more famous neighbor, the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. A website details the project: http://corinth.sas.upenn.edu/lykaion/lykaion.html

Dr. Romano is author of a script for a 1999 audiotape, "Greed, Bribes and Scandals: The Ancient Olympics," and a 1996 videotape, "The Ancient Olympics: Athletes, Games and Heroes," both produced by the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Cincinnati mailto:studies@usa.net He also has taught a popular Penn course on "Ancient Athletics" since 1983. He has published through the American Philosophical Society an award-winning book, "Athletics and Mathematics in Archaic Corinth: The Origins of the Greek Stadion." A former physical education instructor, track coach and distance runner in college and graduate school, he was selected, in 1973, to attend the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece as a representative of the U.S. Olympic Committee. He continues to coach a youth cross country and track team, the Dashers.

Olympic organizers are finding the history of the games increasingly important—and relevant. Several years ago, Dr. Romano was contacted by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002. The committee wanted to make cultural programs an integral part of the 2002 Olympic games, and members wanted to know if this would be a great departure from the ancient games. He supplied the Committee with an essay—posted on the official Olympic website—outlining the many ways that music, dance, art and athletics came together at the ancient Olympics. His perspective on adding cultural events to the programming mix: do it! After all, it was nothing new.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South Street in Philadelphia, is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity. Founded in 1887, the Museum has sent more than 400 archaeological and anthropological expeditions to all the inhabited continents of the world. With an active exhibition schedule and educational programming for children and adults, the Museum offers the public an opportunity to share in the ongoing discovery of humankind's collective heritage. The Museum’s website is http://www.museum.upenn.edu/ For general information, the phone number is 215/898-4000.


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TO THE MEDIA: IMAGES, INCLUDING 300 DPI JPEGS OF ANCIENT GREEK ARTIFACTS DEPICTING ANCIENT ATHLETIC EVENTS, FROM THE MUSEUM'S "ANCIENT GREEK WORLD" EXHIBITION, AND IMAGES OF ANCIENT GREEK STADIUMS, COURTESY OF DAVID ROMANO, ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST BY CALLING THE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE AT 215.898.4045 OR EMAIL PKOSTY@SAS.UPENN.EDU

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