Elis

(Travellers | Cities | Routes | Trade Goods | Themes)

by Jason Konig

Elis was a city to the northwest of Olympia in Ancient Greece, which played an important role in the Olympic festival. For most of its history, the festival was under the control of Elis, although the home for the festival was contested at various times.

The town was dominated by its athletic buildings. The ten hellanodikai (Olympic judges), elected for each festival, would undergo ten months of preparation and instruction in a special building known as the Hellanodikaion.

Elis was also the venue for the month of compulsory training for all athletes before the beginning of the games. At the end of this month, athletes and officials would process along the road to Olympia, a journey of more than 30 miles by road. Pausanias, the great second-century AD travel writer describes the buildings at length (6.23ff).

Every four years, for that one month the town must have been packed with visitors from all over the Greek world—several hundred athletes and their entourages—often including families and trainers; fans and other casual visitors.

We have one vivid description of the experience from the second-century AD satirist Lucian, from his work, the Peregrinus. He describes philosophers haranguing the crowds in the gymnasium, and complains about the way they are distracting him from the athletes. Clearly the large influx of people brought in plenty of hangers-on who weren’t there just for the sport.