Panhellenic Games

The Panhellenic games is a collective term for the four primary athletic festivals in ancient Greece. These four festivals are as follows, ordered by their earliest recorded dates:

The Heraean Games and Panathenaic Games are not typically included in this group, likely because they weren’t as popular as the other four. In addition, there is almost no information regarding the Heraean Games festival, severely limiting its study and discussion. For more detailed information, see the respectively linked articles.

Spectators from all over over the Mediterranean region would gather to watch athletes compete in these competitions. For the greater part of the history of these festivals, only Greek men were allowed to compete. However, likely under pressure of Roman influence at the turn of the current era, non-Greek athletes were allowed to participate various Panhellenic games at some unspecified point. This invitation extended even beyond Roman citizens, as the Persian king Varazdat, Egyptian philosopher Horus, and likely several other foreigners were allowed to compete before the suppression of these games under the Roman emperor Theodosius I in 393 AD.

Olympiad Cycle

These four games were held at specific intervals during a four-year period called the Olympiad, a unit with which the Greeks often measured time (e.g., “two Olympiads” would mean “eight years”). The year of the Olympic Games marked the beginning of the Olympiad, with the other three festivals taking place in the following three years. The cycle would then repeat. The timing of the four festivals was as follows:

Events

The Panhellenic games incorporated a slew of athletic events (as well as some artistic competitions, such as music and poetry, at most of the festivals). The Isthmian Games seemed to focus primarily on combat sports, while the other three festivals incorporated a larger pool of events. The primary athletics events featured among the four festivals were as follows: