Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener Discretion advised one quick
Speaker 1: announcement before we start today's podcast. If you are a
Speaker 1: listener of the show, you might be interested in the
Speaker 1: fact that I have a book coming out in May.
Speaker 1: It's a book by sd Coverly, which is a pseudonym
Speaker 1: very cleverly of my first initials transposed that I co
Speaker 1: wrote with a friend of mine, and the book is
Speaker 1: called The r Kane Arts. It's a dark academia sort
Speaker 1: of romantic fantasy novel about magic and a graduate student
Speaker 1: and a professor doing illegal secret magic. It's a really fun,
Speaker 1: sexy adventure thriller time not for kids, which is also
Speaker 1: part of the pseudonym explanation. But if you're a listener
Speaker 1: of the show, I really think you would like it,
Speaker 1: and if you're interested in it at all, I would
Speaker 1: beg you, actually please to pre order it. Pre Orders
Speaker 1: are the number one way you can support an author.
Speaker 1: If you have friends writing books, really forego their Christmas
Speaker 1: and Birthday and anniversary gifts just pre order their books.
Speaker 2: So look it up. The Arcane Arts. It's in the
Speaker 2: episode description a link and if you're interested, please preorder.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. In twenty thirteen, Queen Elizabeth the
Speaker 2: Second of England achieved a major coup at the Royal Ascot.
Speaker 2: She won the Gold Cup with her horse, whose name,
Speaker 2: in fittingly nonsensical fancy horse fashion, was named Estimate. The
Speaker 2: Royal Ascot consists of many different horse races, but the
Speaker 2: Golden Cup is the oldest and arguably the most prestigious,
Speaker 2: so winning was certainly a feather in Queen Elizabeth's well structured,
Speaker 2: pastel colored hat, but it's not the only race her
Speaker 2: horses have won. Queen Elizabeth's horses have given her over
Speaker 2: two dozen Royal Ascot victories across decades, from a horse
Speaker 2: named Choirboy in nineteen fifty three to more recently a
Speaker 2: horse named Tactical in twenty twenty. Queen Elizabeth the Second's daughter,
Speaker 2: Princess Anne, shared the late Queen's interest in horses. In
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six, Princess Anne actually competed at the Olympics
Speaker 2: in Montreal in the equestrian events. Unfortunately for Princess Anne,
Speaker 2: though she came in seventh in dressage. During the cross
Speaker 2: country event on the second day, of the equestrian competition.
Speaker 2: Her horse got bogged in mud and fell with Anne
Speaker 2: riding him after hitting a fence. Anne suffered a concussion,
Speaker 2: but they managed to finish the course, albeit with no
Speaker 2: hopes of making it to the podium. Even so, I
Speaker 2: think you'll agree there's still something dazzling about a princess
Speaker 2: at the Olympics, romantic even But would you believe me
Speaker 2: if I told you that Princess Anne wasn't actually the
Speaker 2: first princess to compete in those prestigious games. In fact,
Speaker 2: someone had beaten her to it by more than one
Speaker 2: thousand years. I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood.
Speaker 2: The Olympics as they exist today, literally today in Italy
Speaker 2: as I record this podcast, are actually relatively more modern
Speaker 2: than you might think. The Olympics as we know them
Speaker 2: only came about in eighteen ninety six, but a lot
Speaker 2: of the imagery, like the Laura leaves that are used
Speaker 2: now on the medals, and a lot of the events
Speaker 2: purposefully harken back to the ancient Olympics in Greece. Incidentally,
Speaker 2: in order to pay respect to that, Greece is always
Speaker 2: allowed to go first in the procession of countries during
Speaker 2: the opening ceremony, while everyone else mostly goes in alphabetical order.
Speaker 2: The ancient Olympics date back to seven hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: six BC, when we have the first recorded victor, Kuoibos
Speaker 2: of Ellis, who won a foot race. Technically, the entire
Speaker 2: competition was known as the pan Hellenic Games, with festivals
Speaker 2: taking place at multiple locations around Greece, but the largest
Speaker 2: and most prestigious competition was at Olympia, the Olympics honoring Zeus.
Speaker 2: It was the festival at Olympia that took place every
Speaker 2: four years, with the other games at Isthmius, Nemea and
Speaker 2: Delphi held in between. The pan Hellenic Games continued for
Speaker 2: a millennia, even through the second century. After Greece came
Speaker 2: under Roman rule in three hundred and seventy three, the
Speaker 2: Roman emperor Theodosius the First banned the festivals as pagan,
Speaker 2: but inscriptions and literary sources indicate that the games continued
Speaker 2: on into the early fifth century, and it truly was
Speaker 2: a pan Hellenic event, uniting people from various city states
Speaker 2: and athletes from all over the Greek Empire. Since the
Speaker 2: competition was open to all free born Greeks, whether they
Speaker 2: be Athenian, Corinthian, Spartan, what have you. But it's Sparta
Speaker 2: that were actually most interested in today, particularly one Spartan athlete, Siniska,
Speaker 2: a princess who became the first woman to ever win
Speaker 2: at the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, as is the case for
Speaker 2: a lot of women in ancient history, much of what
Speaker 2: we know about Siniska's life comes from filling in the
Speaker 2: empty spaces in the stories of the men in her life.
Speaker 2: Her father was King Arkademus, the second of Sparta, and
Speaker 2: she was likely born around four hundred and forty BC.
Speaker 2: We're not even certain that Siniska's real name was actually Siniska.
Speaker 2: It's possible it was a nickname. Its translation is like
Speaker 2: female puppy or little hound, and it's likely the feminization
Speaker 2: of her grandfather's nickname, which had been Siniskos. If Siniska
Speaker 2: was a nickname, it probably communicated that she was a
Speaker 2: sporty and athletic girl who enjoyed hunting. And though as
Speaker 2: daughter of a king she was certainly born into a
Speaker 2: position of exceptional privilege, Spartan women were actually comparatively given
Speaker 2: more freedom than their Athenian counterparts. Spartan women could legally
Speaker 2: own and inherit property, and from anecdotes about Spartan soldiers
Speaker 2: receiving letters from their mothers, we can infer that women
Speaker 2: could read and write. A lot of what we know
Speaker 2: about Spartan women comes from people in other places writing
Speaker 2: about them from the outside. Their reputation was as promiscuous
Speaker 2: and domineering, loud, dominant sexual. The poet Prepacious wrote about
Speaker 2: how much he wished his own mistress felt free to
Speaker 2: openly live with him, like a Spartan woman who would
Speaker 2: walk out in public with her lover. And as you
Speaker 2: might imagine from what ideas you have about Sparta, maybe
Speaker 2: from a film and the fact that this episode is
Speaker 2: about the Olympics, Spartan women were also quite athletic. Young
Speaker 2: men in Sparta were required to train in state sponsored
Speaker 2: athletic programs. It's very possible that there were similar programs
Speaker 2: in place for young women, though they wouldn't be training
Speaker 2: in combat. There were laws requiring women to be quote
Speaker 2: fit as their brothers, and young unmarried women could be
Speaker 2: horseback riding, wrestling, running, and doing what we consider to
Speaker 2: be track and field events. Of course, all that gallivanting
Speaker 2: around stops when you get married. But while other young
Speaker 2: women in Greek city states might get married around fourteen,
Speaker 2: almost certainly to someone much older, young women in Sparta
Speaker 2: were getting married around eighteen or later to men around
Speaker 2: their age. But before we start imagining Sparta as some
Speaker 2: comparatively feminist paradise, it's important to remember the only reason
Speaker 2: young Spartan women were free from the confines of domestic
Speaker 2: labor in the way they're say Athenian counterparts weren't was
Speaker 2: because Sparta had a robust system of slavery where most
Speaker 2: of the population was enslaved. So when we're talking about
Speaker 2: Spartan women, most people aren't thinking of the many, many
Speaker 2: women in Sparta who were quite literally enslaved and had
Speaker 2: none of the freedoms we're talking about. But we can
Speaker 2: imagine that Siniska, as a free woman whose father was
Speaker 2: king and whose brothers would be kings after him, grew
Speaker 2: up privileged, active athletic, running around and competing alongside other
Speaker 2: young women with the relative freedom that came from not
Speaker 2: needing to marry extremely young. But Siniska wanted to compete
Speaker 2: on a bigger stage. Siniska might have been a Spartan
Speaker 2: woman but she was still a woman, which meant that
Speaker 2: she wouldn't actually be allowed to compete in the Olympics.
Speaker 2: There's actually a pretty healthy debate among historians today still
Speaker 2: about whether or not women were even allowed to attend
Speaker 2: the Olympic Festival at all, even as spectators. But there
Speaker 2: was a loophole for Seniska. Women could technically compete in
Speaker 2: the Olympics. In the chariot races. They couldn't be the
Speaker 2: ones driving the chariots, but they could be the ones
Speaker 2: who owned and trained the horses, And in the chariot races,
Speaker 2: the person who owned and trained the horses was the
Speaker 2: actual competitor. Why did Siniska enter the Olympics, Well, according
Speaker 2: to some sources, she was encouraged to compete by her brother,
Speaker 2: the future King A Jesselis the Second. It seems like
Speaker 2: a nice, encouraging brotherly thing to do, but according to
Speaker 2: some contemporary sources, A Jesseleis was actually a sporting purist
Speaker 2: who thought that chariot racing as an Olympic event was
Speaker 2: fundamentally unmanly and only showed off how wealthy someone was.
Speaker 2: Winning just because you were able to own and train
Speaker 2: fast horses was quote victory without merit, and so, according
Speaker 2: to some, he encouraged his sister to enter the competition
Speaker 2: in order to prove that the entire thing was a
Speaker 2: sham to shame any men who might want to compete.
Speaker 2: After all, how legitimate could their sport be if a
Speaker 2: mere woman might be able to win? But we have
Speaker 2: to take those accounts with a grain of salt. The
Speaker 2: writers almost certainly had their own agendas, and in my
Speaker 2: personal opinion, that seems like the sort of post hawk
Speaker 2: anecdote designed to make a Jesseleis look manly and clever
Speaker 2: after the fact, because it truth. After Siniska won, he
Speaker 2: certainly didn't do a see girl stink victory lap. She
Speaker 2: became famous and honored and made their family all the
Speaker 2: more famous and acclaimed. If he did convince her to
Speaker 2: enter the chariot race, it's distinctly possible he just believed
Speaker 2: in his sister, wanted her to win, and wanted to
Speaker 2: use an Olympic champion sister to bolster up his own
Speaker 2: career in politics. Whatever the motivation, in three hundred and
Speaker 2: ninety six BC, Siniska entered the Olympic competition with a
Speaker 2: team of four horses that she had trained herself. She won.
Speaker 2: Four years later, in three hundred and ninety two, she
Speaker 2: entered again second time, and again came in first place.
Speaker 2: Historians aren't sure whether she was actually even allowed to
Speaker 2: be present at the Olympic event where she won. As
Speaker 2: I mentioned early, there's still a healthy scholarly debate about
Speaker 2: whether women or maybe unmarried girls, were allowed to attend
Speaker 2: the Olympics. But when she did, and in order to
Speaker 2: commemorate her victory, Siniska commissioned a set of bronze statues
Speaker 2: for the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, statues of herself,
Speaker 2: her charioteer, and the horses that ran them to victory.
Speaker 2: She accompanied the statues with a plinth and an inscription quote,
Speaker 2: Kings of Sparta are my father and brothers. I Siniska,
Speaker 2: victorious with a chariot of swift footed horses, have erected
Speaker 2: this statue. I declare myself the only woman in all
Speaker 2: Hellas to have won this crown. A monument commemorating her
Speaker 2: victory with the same inscription was erected in Sparta, and
Speaker 2: though the hero Shrine at the Planetree Grove in Sparta
Speaker 2: had previously only ever been an honor granted to Spartan men,
Speaker 2: mostly kings. Siniska became the first woman to receive that
Speaker 2: honor too. It's a legacy that proves that when Siniska
Speaker 2: achieved victory at the Olympics, just like today, her countrymen
Speaker 2: back home were extremely proud of her. That's the story
Speaker 2: of Siniska, the first woman to ever win at the Olympics.
Speaker 2: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear
Speaker 2: a little bit more about what made the ancient Olympics special.
Speaker 2: It's a commonly repeated misconception that during the ancient Olympics
Speaker 2: everyone called off their wars. It's not quite true. Not
Speaker 2: even the promise of a fun discus event could stop
Speaker 2: warfare in the ancient world. But the Olympic Truce was
Speaker 2: a real thing. The truce or Ekkyria translates to the
Speaker 2: holding of hands, and it was inscribed on a bronze
Speaker 2: disc displayed at Olympia. As I said, it didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: mean that the countries themselves weren't fighting. That might have
Speaker 2: been the idea promoting peace among the Greeks. But what
Speaker 2: the Olympic Truce really did was served to protect athletes
Speaker 2: and religious pilgrims who were making their way to Olympia
Speaker 2: to compete or to watch whether they were traveling through
Speaker 2: enemy territories or war zones. If someone was coming production,
Speaker 2: I admitted to traveling and grim and mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 2: Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional
Speaker 2: writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy
Speaker 2: Hit and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced
Speaker 2: by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il KLi and
Speaker 2: executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.