Ancient Olympian Music

Moray Luke bag with a flute

When it comes to the Olympics, whilst it is a sports contest , its opening ceremonies provide pop culture moments we will never forget.  Emeli Sande’s rendition of Read All About It at the London 2012 Olympic games was a huge moment of 2010s British pop culture. Another moment from my childhood is Tiesto's 2004 performance  at the Greek Olympics triggered an early passion for EDM. 

However for many people, the music they associate with the Olympics is Vangelis' theme from Chariots of Fire. The Greek composer score for the film has been symbolic and commonly associated with the modern iteration of the Olympics but what about the Panhellenic games? What was ancient Olympian music's role in the ceremony?

The Panhellenic games were a prelude to the Olympics. A set 4 of games set across the Greek world; the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games during the Archaic period. 

During the Archaic Period, ancient Greece was organised into city-states called polis.  Each polis functioned as an independent, self-governing entity with its own government, laws, military, and customs. The Archaic period of Greece was a time of greatness. Polis (city states were created), Sparta got Homer's Iliad and Odyssey came out of this time and so did the 4 Panhellenic games that made Greece unite, laying a groundwork for the Classic period.

Whilst our modern Olympics, (post 1948 which we will get to later) has little in regard to music being in the actual sports arena, the original Olympic element of the Panhellenic games does which included music competitions in the arena. 

Image credit the Met; Kitharode on an Archaic periodvase

The most famous musician of the Archaic period was a musician called Terpander. Terpander who was known to borrow poetry from Homer for his melodies gained notoriety for playing the lyre and being a citharode. A citharode (or kitharode) was a musician in ancient Greece who specialised in playing the cithara, a type of lyre.  Around the 26th Olympiad, which spanned from 676 to 673 BCE, Terpander  established a significant citharodic contest as part of the Carneia festival. This festival was a major religious and cultural event in Sparta.

What's notable is that Terpander didn't just organise these competitions; he also participated and triumphed in the very first Carnelian contest himself. His victory not only solidified his reputation as a master citharode but also underscored his role in shaping the competitive and cultural landscape of music in ancient Greece.

Another instrument that was a staple of the panhellenic games? The salpinx. Herodorus of Megara, a trumpeter who won a trumpeter's competition nine times between  328 BD to 296 BC played a salpinx, an ancient aerophone that is said to derive from the Etruscans, an ancient culture that predated the Romans.  According to Nikolaos Xanthoulis from the Hellenic Open University the salpinx was not only used for competition but it was a military instrument, it was used to convey commands and signals across the battlefield, aiding in coordination and communication among troops.

When Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games in 1896, during the Romantic period,  he envisioned the modern Olympics as a blend of sports and arts. From 1912 to 1948, the ‘neo-Olympics’ included arts competitions in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. These events aimed to reward works inspired by sport however this was replaced in 1948 with something called the Cultural Olympiad. 

The Cultural Olympiad is a series of cultural programs and events that run along the Olympic Games,however in contrast to ancient Olympics, they are separate from the sporting competitions. The Cultural Olympiad is an opportunity to showcase the host country’s cultural heritage and foster global cultural exchange through various forms of art like exhibitions, installations, workshops, readings, dancing and differs quite greatly from the original Panhellenic games.