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N.S.Gill's Ancient History Blog

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide to Ancient History since 1997

Women at the Olympic Games

Wednesday August 18, 2004
A Passage from Pausanias explains the expected punishment for women attending the Olympic games:
It is a law of Elis to cast down it [the Alpheius] any women who are caught present at the Olympic games, or even on the other side of the Alpheius, on the days prohibited to women. However, they say that no woman has been caught, except Callipateira only; some, however, give the lady the name of Pherenice and not Callipateira. [8] She, being a widow, disguised herself exactly like a gymnastic trainer, and brought her son to compete at Olympia. Peisirodus, for so her son was called, was victorious, and Callipateira, as she was jumping over the enclosure in which they keep the trainers shut up, bared her person. So her sex was discovered, but they let her go unpunished out of respect for her father, her brothers and her son, all of whom had been victorious at Olympia. But a law was passed that for the future trainers should strip before entering the arena.

Source: Perseus - Pausanias 5.6.7-8

Comments

July 23, 2008 at 10:49 pm
(1) julie-anne says:

i rekon dat its stupid dat women weren’t allowed to compete in the olympic games!
guys were probly ujst jeliouis of us. bbye

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