1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson, joined today by staff writer Joshua 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,440 Speaker 1: m Clark. How's it going, josh, Let's going well, Candice? 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: How are you fabulous? So? Candice? I know you and 6 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 1: your fiance still love to run marathons? Right? Do you 7 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: watch the Olympics? Are you excited about the Olympics coming? Well? Okay, 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: I have a question for you today about some of 9 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:35,599 Speaker 1: the early Olympics. The first Olympics, Um, the first recorded 10 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: Olympics was what's right? Okay, But there's evidence that it 11 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: goes back, you know, two fifty years before that, Yeah, 12 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: to like Greek god times when the zoos battled it 13 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: out and became king of the gods because he won 14 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,479 Speaker 1: an Olympic events. And most of the evidence we have 15 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:56,480 Speaker 1: is just legend, and we've had to discern you know, 16 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: what happened originally from just looking at pottery basically, right, 17 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: and a couple of poems written by people like Pliny 18 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 1: the Elder, Right, Okay, But but ultimately, um, we we 19 00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: know that all of these legends, all these descriptions all 20 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 1: go back to the Olympics being started as a tribute 21 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 1: to Zeus, the god of gods on Mountain Olympus. Right, okay, Well, 22 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 1: so with the Olympics. Originally, UM, it was a one 23 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 1: day event and it was actually just a single event, 24 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: the stadium race, okay, which is them running six feet 25 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: and it was one day. I can't imagine that took 26 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: very long to to to hold that event, but UM 27 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: ultimately it caught on in such popularity that all these 28 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: generally warring city states that neighbored one another UM would 29 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: take on an Olympic truce during the Olympics and all 30 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: fighting would stop, all feuds would be off, so that 31 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 1: these UM Olympic athletes could come into Olympus where they 32 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: held the Olympics. Right, logically enough, UM and UM compete 33 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 1: for that one day. So they took it pretty seriously. 34 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: Right now, I've I've read your article pretty thoroughly and 35 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,400 Speaker 1: I loved it on how how the first Olympics worked. 36 00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: But I noticed that it was very male centric there. 37 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,799 Speaker 1: There wasn't too much talk about women, and I had 38 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: heard that UM women actually were very much discouraged from 39 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: you know, even watching the Olympics, that they could be 40 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,639 Speaker 1: killed for doing so. Is that fact or is that fiction? 41 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,360 Speaker 1: Can you clear that up? That's actually a fact. Young 42 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: virgins could watch the Olympic events, but married women absolutely 43 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,000 Speaker 1: were forbidden, and the punishment for sninking in and watching 44 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: the games was actually death. Women were hurled off the 45 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: pinnacle of Mount Type Hand, which stands about four ninety 46 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 1: feet high. And there's actually a pretty famous legend about 47 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: Collie Pittera who trained her son to compete in the Olympics, 48 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: and she herself came from a long line of Olympic victors, 49 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:54,800 Speaker 1: and she snuck in. She was determined to watch her 50 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,919 Speaker 1: son compete, and when he won, she was so excited 51 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,839 Speaker 1: that she ran forward to congratulate, and her clothes were 52 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: ripped off of her in the process, and obviously it 53 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,919 Speaker 1: was revealed that she was a woman, but because again 54 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,639 Speaker 1: she had such Olympic routs, they decided to pardon her. 55 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: And there's actually no archaeological evidence that anyone was thrown 56 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:15,640 Speaker 1: off the mountain. I guess they were looking for bones 57 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,359 Speaker 1: at the base of Taipeian and they couldn't find them, 58 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:21,359 Speaker 1: but women pretty much stayed away. They learned their last time. 59 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:25,120 Speaker 1: Would do it for me it's yeah, pretty high. And 60 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: also toward the eighth century, a lot of the athletes 61 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,839 Speaker 1: started competing naked. And maybe this was for momentum or 62 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: or you know, less traction when they were running, but 63 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: also it could have been an effort to discern whether 64 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: the competitors were men or women competing in disguise. I 65 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 1: imagine it just felt good. Yeah, you know, I get 66 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: the breeze in there. So if you want to learn 67 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:45,880 Speaker 1: more about the First Olympics, you can read How the 68 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: First Olympics Worked on how stuff works dot com for 69 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: more on this than thousands of other topics. Because at 70 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, let us know what you think. 71 00:03:56,040 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.