Sparta News

MEDIA COVERAGE:www.kozan.gr/news.php?extend.1273 http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11380&subid=2&pubid=6996865 http://wwwgreekinsight.com/article.php?id=30050 http://au.greekreporter.gr/?p=503 http://www.athina984.gr/node/70053 http://www.ahgf.com.au/pdf/AHGO%2009%20Sydney%20Paper.pdf Download Sparta News Hoplitikon 2007 (.pdf)http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/all-dressed-up-and-somewhere-to-go-20100627-zbif.html http://exarc.net/issue-2014-3/mm/ancient-hoplitikon-poorer-cousin-history-academia-or-alternative-xxi-century-interpretation-history

http://ancientwaysblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/an-ancient-greek-symposium.html.

Annual Symposium Jan 2023

In the third Equinox of the Summers day, we perform the ritual  Homeric Hymns and Libations to Zeus & Apollo before the Symposium. 

APOLLON Boedromia 2010 Festival in honour of the Protector of Warriors, Apollon Boedromos (run to help someone, to run, cry for aid, hasten to help).Boedromia (bohdromia), Boedromion (bohdromiwn).This is the month where the Greater Eleusian Mysteries are performed, where the year began which was so vital to the Greeks. Celebrated on the 7th day of the month of Boedromion (September). The nameBoedromos by which Apollo was called in Boeotia and other parts of Greece, seems to indicate that by this festival he was honoured as a martial God, who either by his actual presence or by his oraclesafforded assitance in the dangers of war. The origin of the festival is, however, traced by different authors to different events in Greek history. Plutarch (Thes.27) says that Theseus, in his war against the Amazons, did not give battle till after he had offered a sacrifice to Phobos; and, that in commemoration ofthe successful battle took place in the month of Boedromion, the Athenians, down to his own time, continued to celebrate the festival of the Boedromia. The Ancient Hoplitikon has continued the ritual and will be celebrated annually. Colours: Red and Gold,Element: Fire, Altar: Upon cloth of red and gold place a fiery sun, two crossed spears, and three torches. Offerings: Song and Music,Daily Meal: Food of yellow and red,Boedromia Invocation: APOLLON

65th Olympiad in 520 BCE (Before Common Era) the 'Hoplitodromos' was introduced to the Olympic program.

HOPLITODROMOS (Race in Armour)

This was the last of the foot-races, competitors wore a helmet and greaves and carried a round shield, although it is possible that in later years both helmet and greaves were discarded. Twenty-five runners were allowed to take part, for whom a set of shields was kept in the Temple of Zeus. Presumably this was to ensure that each athlete carried a shield of the same weight. In some of the games contestants were decked out in armour from head to foot. A curious. clanking race, it must have had both serious and comic connotations : Serious because all athletic training was devised to keep the male citizen population physically fit for war. It's position at the very end of the festival left a final reminder of this to the assembled crowds.

However amusing mishaps and collisions inevitably occurred on scenes from pottery we often see athletes who have dropped their shields and are stooping to pick them up. The Greeks themselves must have considered it something of a persion since when Peisthetairos, a character in Aristophanes 'Birds', sees the chorus advancing in their feathered costumes, he likens the motely crew to the armed runners in the Hoplitodromos.

At Olympia and Athens the Hoplitodromos track, was a single lap of the stadium (or Two stades; about 350-400m ) At Nemea the distance was doubled to Four stades (about 700-800m) and at Plataea in BOEOTIA the race was 15 stades in total. The original 400-meter length of the Hoplitodromos coincides with the effective area of the Persian Archers' Zone of Fire, suggesting an explicit military purpose for this type of training.

HOPLITODROMOS Scene, Red Figure Column Krater by the Syracuse Painter ca. 460 BCE