Palaestra at Olympia

Two other martial arts were taught there: Greek πυγμή (pygme), Latin pugnus, "fist, boxing," and Greek παγκράτιον, Latin pancration or pancratium, "any method," which was free-style, or hand-to-hand, including grappling, kicking, punching, or any unarmed method whatever, no holds barred.

Be that as it may, none of the games were conducted without rules, umpires, and judges, who did not hesitate to stop contests, fine contenders with in some cases amounts prohibiting future participation, or bar flagrant violators.

The layout is standard military similar to that of a camp hospital, which placed patients in the outer rooms and grew medicinal herbs in the quadrangle.

The ultimate authority on the features of ancient Olympia is generally considered to be Pausanias, who lived and wrote under the "good emperors" in the 2nd century; that is, he was least subject to imperial ideological terror.

His Description of Greek covers his first-hand observations recorded during his expeditionary travels, Olympia being described under Elis, Books 5 and 6.

Unless Pausanias repeated himself, the dromeis must have been long-race runners, which fact would leave the stadium with no purpose, unless the gymnasion were only for training.

[3] Entrants could then turn left to the palaistrai or right to the dromoi,[4] an area dubbed the gymnasion by the archaeologists for convenience.

At this point Pausanias becomes enigmatic, mentioning the oikeiseis that "turned to the southwest," one possibility being that they continued around to the south side of the palaistra.

Evidence acquired after 3000 suggests that there was another dromos approximately in the current bed of the river, which is also believed to have been its original, natural location.

Most of the wall remains buried, along, no doubt, with foundations of the western portico, now so far below the water table (like the hippodrome) as to be unexcavateable.

An ideal type was presented by Vitruvius, Roman architect, in De architectura ("On Architecture"), Book 5.11.1 – 5.11.4, although at that time he admitted palaestrae were "not usual in Italy.

One might well question whether he had actually built any to ideal specifications, or if this is an imaginary model from which to select real features.

[note 4] Vitruvius constructs a definition of a palaestra, beginning with “a square or oblong peristyle” (peristylia quadrata sive oblonga), which was the preferred plan for any large-area building, as it kept the roof to a minimum and distributed natural daylight to each room.

[9][note 6] These six plans (including Olympia) form Emme's base for defining his palaestral type.

These philosophers of the palaistra are similar to the general peripatetic population who might be wandering about the xysta, and are prevented from interfering with the runners by the step-downs, at least in winter.

Noting that different palaistrai have different numbers of function rooms, and that most of Vitruvius' rooms remain otherwise unknown,[12][note 15] Emme completes his definition of a palaistra by adding the minimum number of known archaeological features possessed by his basic set of palaistrai.

They typically provided it in public baths, where for a small price any citizen could anoint himself with oil, scrape it off with the dirt using a strigil, sweat in the heated steam room, wash in hot water, take a cold plunge in the cold room, and spend as much time as he had lounging in the swimming pool enjoying the company of fellow citizens, many of whom were nude women taking a dip.

Palaistrai, which were relatively late in the classical period, if not connected to thermae, incorporated some of these bath facilities in their rooms, perhaps a furnace for heating water, perhaps a cold plunging pool, perhaps washrooms with basins.

There were a number of thermae scattered on the periphery of the Altis, a hotel with a central swimming pool and other buildings, probably private clubs, with various water facilities.

[13] The masses that arrived in July and August, the hottest months of the year, unrelieved by rain, apparently suffered the most.

In the middle of the 2nd century an unplanned accident drew the attention of the scholar, civil engineer and philanthropist Herodes Atticus, to the water problems at Olympia.

Vitruvius presents the view that, while Roman soldiers are huddling in their winter camps, and all games and all military campaigning are suspended until the spring season, Olympian athletes are outdoors in the freezing wind blowing through the porticos in light clothing at best, if not naked, slipping over the ice and through patches of snow.

Based on the climate, it is probably safe to say, only on rare warm days were there any hardy runners on the tracks in the gymnasium of Olympia, and they were not likely to be children.

Both training and games were seasonal, and the runners did not run in the pouring rain, sleet, or snow, even in the porticos.

There is no evidence that the people of classical times had any immunity from pneumonia or hypothermia, or that mothers were inclined to expose their young runners to the conditions causing these deadly physical states.

The building is entered through the south side through two separate doorways, each with Corinthian columns distyle in antis, thus immediately establishing symmetry within the plan of the structure.

The entire north side of the palaestra has deep rooms, a feature mentioned by Vitruvius, which offered shelter from the sun.

Also in the north side of the building is a doorway that leads directly into the rest of the adjoining gymnasium space.

This was probably a sort of bowling alley, as suggested by a similar pavement found at Pompeii with heavy stone balls on it.

The ancient Greeks recorded in their honorific inscriptions and chronologies the holding of Olympic games once every four years, listing the victors for each type of contest.

Grandiose (Corinthian) entrance building to the gymnasion, palaestra on left, dromoi on right.
North end of dromoi in the gymnasion. The portico here is believed by some to have been a covered alternative to the uncovered running track for use when it rains. If not that then it shelters spectators or anyone: athletes or trainers, from the sun. North entrance to park seen on upper right. On the far left are modern walls delineating the excavation from private land.
The south stoa of the gymnasion shown running into the brush on the left bank of the Kladeos, as though terminated by it.
Step-up to the raised portico at the gymnasion of Olympia. Before this step is the remains of a water channel. It was not a drain, but a source of fresh water from the nymphaeum. Whatever is left of the portico's pavement is under the dirt. The track before the step was unpaved. There is no stadium on the north, and the matching western portico is believed to have been taken by a change in the course of the Kladeos. There was no cross-portico; i.e., the east and west porticos were stand-alones for east and west dromoi.
From a 1914 translation of Vitruvius. The archaeological gymnasion to the left is guesswork, as the excavation ends along the west side of the palaistra, and further west is the river. The xysta are also guesswork. [ note 14 ]
Fairly intact Roman baths at Bath, Great Britain, which was never abandoned
Herodes Atticus, Louvre
Kryovrisi, Elis, in the mountains north of Olympia, in the winter. The mountains are totally snow-covered.