Editing Pythian Games (section)

== Overview ==
Unfortunately, the testimonials and documents covering the Pythian Games were mainly destroyed by human violence and natural catastrophes. All the remaining resources highlight the glory and glamour of the Games. The records of [[Aristotle]] present an overview of the festivities: the Games lasted for six to eight days and were started by a reenactment of the victory of Apollo over Python. In a festive and glamorous procession, a ritual sacrifice was performed in the [[Temple of Apollo (Delphi)|Temple of Apollo]]. After four days of festivities, the Games began.

===Events===
The athletic and equestrian events were the same as those at Olympia, apart from the lack of the four-horse chariot, and the addition of running races for boys.<ref name="Paus 10.7" />

Unlike at [[ancient Olympic Games|Olympia]] where there was a separate festival for women (the [[Heraean Games]]), women were allowed to compete at Delphi in both athletic and artistic events. The only recorded female victor is Tryphosa, winner of the girl's [[stadion (running race)|stadion running race]].<ref name=Segrave /><ref>Spears, Betty. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/43609020 "A Perspective of the History of Women's Sport in Ancient Greece."] ''Journal of Sport History'', vol. 11, no. 2, 1984, pp. 32–47. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.</ref>

The athletic competition included four-track sports: [[Stadion (running race)|stade]], [[Diaulos (running race)|diaulos]], [[Dolichos (race)|dolichos]] and [[hoplitodromos]] (racing encumbered with pieces of [[Hoplite]] armor), as well as [[wrestling]], [[boxing]], [[pankration]], and the [[pentathlon]]. These sports were introduced to the games gradually over time. The final day of the games was dedicated to equestrian races which gradually came to include harness racing, [[synoris]] (a chariot drawn by two horses), a chariot drawn by four horses, and racing with a horse (without a chariot), held in a [[hippodrome]] in the plain of Krisa, not far from the sea, in the place where the original stadium was sited. (ref: [[Pindar]]) The other athletic contests took place in the Stadium.

In the Roman period theatrical competitions were introduced, carried out in the late-[[Hellenistic]] [[Roman theatre (structure)|theater]].

====Music====
[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] writing in the 2nd century AD, says the oldest contest at Delphi was the singing of a hymn to Apollo, god of arts and music. The first Games run by the [[Amphictyonic League#Delphic Amphictyony|Delphic Amphictyony]], which he dates to the third year of the forty-eighth [[Olympiad]] (i.e. 586&nbsp; BC) featured contests of singing accompanied by [[cithara]] (a lyre), and separate contests for playing the [[aulos]] (a [[double reed|double-reeded]] wind instrument) solo, and accompanied. The latter of these was abolished by the second Games because the music was considered "ill-omened" with dismal tunes accompanied by lamentations.<ref name=" Paus 10.7"/> Pythocritus of Sicyon was aulos victor at six consecutive festivals, the only player so to distinguish himself. He accompanied the pentathlon at the Olympics where a statue was erected to him.<ref name="Paus 6.14">[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. ''Description of Greece'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:6.14 6.14] Translated by W.H.S. Jones, and H.A. Ormerod. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.</ref>

Pausanias ascribes the introduction of the cithara contest without vocals to the eighth Pythian Games.<ref name=" Paus 10.7">[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. ''Description of Greece'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.7 10.7] Translated by W.H.S. Jones, and H.A. Ormerod. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.</ref>

====Poetry, prose and drama====
Poetry and prose contests were another feature of the Pythian Games. A panel of judges chose victors. Contests of [[Tragedy|Tragic acting]] probably involved both individual performances and dramatic productions.<ref name=Segrave>Segrave, Jeffrey O. ''The Pythian Games: The Real Modern Olympic Games''</ref>

====Painting====
Painting competitions were introduced in the mid-5th century BC.<ref name=Segrave />

===Prizes===
No monetary prizes were awarded to winners in the Games. Instead they received a wreath of [[bay laurel]], sacred to Apollo, from the Vale of [[Vale of Tempe|Tempe]], in [[Thessaly]]. This is similar to the practice in the other Panhellenic games, which were all on this account called "stephanitic" ("crown") games. Smaller versions of the Pythian Games were celebrated in many other cities of the [[Levant]] and Greece.