Whence 776? The Origin of the Date for the First Olympiad

Bibliographic Data

ID11720622
AuthorsPaul Christesen (Dartmouth College, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume26
Issue2
Pages161-182
Publication date2009-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of the History of Sport (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-3367 • E-ISSN: 1743-9035
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09523360802511029
OpenAlexW1985657274
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

This essay explores the origin of the date of 776 bc for the first Olympiad. That date was established by Hippias of Elis c.400 bc when he compiled the first complete list of Olympic victors. Contrary to what one might expect, Hippias did not arrive at the date of 776 on the basis of written records pertaining to the Olympics or to Olympic victors. Instead, he calculated the date of the first Olympiad by associating that Olympiad with a famous Spartan lawgiver named Lycurgus, who was a member of one of the Spartan royal families and who was believed to have helped organize the Olympic Games. Hippias used a list of Spartan kings to determine the number of generations between his own time and that of Lycurgus. He then assigned a fixed number of years to each generation and ended up with a date for Lycurgus and hence the first Olympiad. The inaccuracies inherent in this approach mean that the date of 776 for the first Olympiad is at best an approximation. The excavators at Olympia have suggested a date closer to 700

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Olympiad · Spartan · Ancient Near East History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Computer Science · Historical and Literary Studies · History

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