Olympic ladies

Caburus

Active Member
Artemis enjoyed the hunt, so she must have enjoyed chasing over hill and dale in persuit of game. Atalante was a proficient runner.
Are there other female sportswomen in Greek myth? I'm excluding the Amazons, Athena or other martial ladies here, and just thinking of activities that might be included in today's Olympics (running, jumping, horse riding, swimming etc).
Okay, maybe I'll include the Amazons as horse riders.
 

krugos

New Member
Atalanta is the only one I know of, there may be others though. Deianira was also a rebel and she drove a chariot (chariot racing was part of the ancient Olympics), but I don't think she participated in games as Atalanta did.
_
As for the Olympic games (outside of mythology) the problem is that women were not allowed to watch, even less to take part in the games, they could be punished severely, even with death (I think), for watching, so there would be no reason to place mythological women in them. Women had their own games (Heraean) celebrated in Olympia, but I don't remember reading about these games in mythology. Not sure about their role in other important games. The mythological Atalanta took part in funeral games for king Pelias, and defeated Peleus, father of Achilles.
 

Caburus

Active Member
As for the Olympic games (outside of mythology) the problem is that women were not allowed to watch, even less to take part in the games, they could be punished severely, even with death (I think), for watching...
Thats what made me wonder about Atalante and Artemis. A runner and an archer; definately be in todays Olympic team, even if excluded from the ancient games.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Hippodameia, who was princess of Pisa in Elis, wife of Pelops, and empress of Peloponnesos, inaugurated the Heraia, the games of Hera at Olympia in Elis, which constituted a series of unmarried women's footraces, as a thank-offering to Hera for her marriage to Pelops. Hippodameia's niece Meliboia (a daughter of Amphion and Niobe who was renamed Khloris after her siblings' death) was the winner of the first contest. The contestants, clad in tunics reaching above their knees, ran with their hair unbound and their right shoulders bared. The youngest girls ran first, followed by two other groups in increasing order by age. As at the Olympian Games, held in the same stadium and starting the day afterwards, the winners were rewarded with crowns of wild olive, though their racetrack was shortened by a sixth of the Olympian's length. They also received a portion of a cow sacrificed to Hera, and named statues of them could be dedicated. A group of married women called the Sixteen presided over the games, and those who attended to them were also married women. Every four years, at the time of the games, these Sixteen would weave Hera a robe, and it was also Hippodameia who had instituted this group.

A Thracian king named Harpalykos (son of Hermes?) trained Herakles, during his boyhood, in boxing. As was characteristic of Thracians, Harpalykos was particularly warlike and, after the death of his wife, he suckled his baby daughter Harpalyke on the teats of heifers and mares, and she grew up to become a faster runner than horses. Harpalykos also trained her in the arts of war and she fought alongside him in his battles. Presumably she received training similar to Herakles in the sport of boxing.

The personification of wrestling, or of the palaistron (wrestling-circle [or ring]), was a daughter of Hermes named Palaistra. As the personification of victory, Nike was a goddess of sports in general. The gods and Titans are sometimes said to have instituted the Olympian Games in Elis by becoming the first competitors in the various games. We only have mention of male deities and Titans participating but perhaps there was more to it than just the few mentioned in surviving documentation.
 
Last edited:

krugos

New Member
Very interesting information, Alejandro, as always! I wish I had you as consultant for the work I'm writing, lol, it would had saved me hours and hours of research.
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
I am interested in the palaistron for my own writing. Could you tell me a bit more about it? Anything and everything you know! :)
 

Alejandro

Active Member
There're a few more interesting details about the Thracians Harpalykos and Harpalyke that I hadn't come across at the inception of this post. Harpalykos was the king specifically of a Thracian tribe called the Amymnaiai [Amymnaeans]. Come fighting-time his game-face was so grim that none dared to challenge him. After the end of the Trojan War, as Neoptolemos was passing through Thrace, he attacked Harpalykos and severely wounded him. Harpalyke retaliated and put the enemy to flight, thus saving her father. Perhaps as a reward from the rescue, Harpalykos announced to his people his intention for his daughter to succeed him on the throne. Apparently unaccustomed to the idea of female rule - and that much averse to the notion - the people treacherously murdered their king. Harpalyke was then forced into a life of brigandage in which she took advantage of her ability to run outstandingly fast and made her living plundering the local herds of cattle. One day a group of shepherds or herdsmen captured her in a snare and killed her.
 
Last edited:

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
There're a few more interesting details about the Thracians Harpalykos and Harpalyke that I hadn't come across at the inception of this post. Harpalykos was the king specifically of a Thracian tribe called the Amymnaiai [Amymnaeans]. Come fighting-time his game-face was so grim that none dared to challenge him. Presumably he and his people once went to war against the Myrmidones (if Harpalykos trained Herakles in his youth then this would have been when the ruler of the Myrmidones was Aiakos?) and got in trouble with them because his daughter Harpalyke is supposed to once have "delivered him from the Myrmidones." Perhaps as a reward from this wartime delivery, Harpalykos announced to his people his intention for his daughter to succeed him on the throne. Apparently unaccustomed to the idea of female rule - and that much averse to the idea - the people treacherously murdered their king. Harpalyke then disappeared into the wilds and resorted to a life of highway robbery in order to survive. One day a group of shepherds captured her in a snare and killed her.
Thanks for the bedtime story. I, uh, really liked the ending. :rolleyes: Reeeeeeaally happy. :(

E. M.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Shame, I feel bad for the lady! Didn't mean it as a bedtime story :eek:... Granted that if at any given time we're talking Greco-Roman myth (or most fairytales from around the world which've been turned into happy bedtime yarns in our time) the ending's most unlikely to be that feel-good Hollywoood vibe :oops::(
 

Misa

Member
- Kyrene, a huntress who caught the attention of Apollo while protecting her father King Hypseus's herds by wrestling a lion. Her father may have been the river god Peneios, her mother was Khlidanope. Apollo whisked her away near the Hill of Myrtles and had two sons by her Aristaios and Idmon. Diomedes may also have been her son by Ares. This same Kyrene was favored by Artemis:

"What heroines hast thou [Artemis] taken for thy companions? . . . Kyrene thou madest thy comrade, to whom on a time thyself didst give two hunting dogs, with whom the maiden daughter of Hypseus beside the Iolkian tomb won the prize."Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis

- Camilla, of the Volsci was the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla, promised to Diana (Artemis), she helped her ally, King Turnus of the Rutuli, fight Aeneas and the Trojans in the war sparked by the courting of Princess Lavinia. Arruns, a Trojan ally, stalked Camilla on the battlefield, and, when she was opportunely distracted by her pursuit of Chloreus, killed her. Diana's attendant, Opis, at her mistress' behest, avenged Camilla's death by slaying Arruns. She was a swift runner.

-Bendis, Thracian goddess of the moon and hunting. She might be the same as Kotus/Cotys or Kotuttô/Cotytto.

-Britomartis, (also called Diktynna) Cretan virgin goddess of hunting and nets used for fishing, fowling and the hunting of small game. So likely swimming too.

-"Daphne, the daughter of Amyklas, is related. She used never to come down into the town, nor consort with the other maidens; but she got together a large pack of hounds and used to hunt, either in Lakonia, or sometimes going into the further mountains of the Peloponnese. For this reason she was very dear to Artemis, who gave her the gift of shooting straight" Parthenius, Love Romances

-Procris, the daughter of Erekhtheus who, as a young girl, was a hunting-companion of Artemis. Later in life, when her husband had abandoned her for love of the goddess Eos, she returned to Artemis who helped her win back his love with a ploy and two fabulous gifts: a hunting-dog whom no prey could escape called Lailaps and a javelin which never missed its mark. She and her husband were either reconciled, or she was killed by him with the javelin or a arrow when she startled him when he was calling for "Aura" a breeze and she thought it a lover. There are a few versions of them.

-Loxo, Hekaerge, Oupis/Opis, Arge, daughters of Boreas who came from Hyperborea to offer gifts at the birth of Artemis at Delos and became her (first?) virgin goddess companions, they presided over the various skills of archery--aim (opsis), trajectory (loxos), slanting (arge) and distancing (hekaergos).

-Antikleia, the mother of Odysseus is said to have been a companion of Artemis in her youth. She like her son was a archer.

-Phylonome, the daughter of Nyktimos and Arkadia, hunted with Artemis until Ares ( in the guise of a shepherd) had twin sons by her Lycastus and Parrhasius; in fear of her father's wrath, she cast the newborn twins into the river Erymanthus. They did not drown and were washed into the hollow of an oak tree, where a she-wolf found and suckled them, giving up her own cubs. The twins were then adopted and raised by a shepherd named Glyphius, and eventually succeeded to the throne of Arcadia.

I note a few sources (via Wikipedia and Greek Mythology Link, Hyginus) that say Neoptolemus was the king of the Myrmidones who attacked King Harpalycus and that he was saved from death by his daughter Harpalyce in that battle as she made a attack against them. I think it less likely that Harpalyce was suddenly announced to be his successor after and that this caused a revolt; as the people must have noticed a lack of sons from their king and that (as no other wife is mentioned) there would not be any other children, as well as being raised to take the throne and participating in leadership role in at least one battle. Thace is noted for it's many tribes and scant history given that there is only this mention of the Amymnei/Amymnaiai that I can find the revolt may have been over anything. Further, I find some amusement with the names looking like "amymon" meaning blameless or noble, and "harpe" being a sickle-shaped sword.

Hm. I think Aphrodite should also get a mention, because firstly she bested Hermes in the Pythian Games of Delphi. Not sure if it was in music or athletics or both (myth does not say) but given that Hermes was a patron god of both, I imagine there is a foundation for Aphrodite's standing in it. Eros, her son, was also worshiped in the gymnasium - perhaps not only as a god of comradeship, but also for his archery. Eros is not always named as a son of Ares, sometimes as Aphrodite's son alone. For her love of Adonis, Aphrodite also dressed up like Artemis and went hunting with him.

I see figure skating as a sort of dance (as there is usually some kind of music to it), so the Muse Terpsikhore for the art at least, as well as the Kharites who were goddesses of dance and grace. Artemis was a dancer too.

It's likely that the fifty Nereid were also very good swimmers.
 
Top