2nd edition (2017) revised and enlarged, updated to include new historical and archaeological research and new photographic material from the many sites and monuments where excavation and restoration works have provided fresh insights. This book celebrates the athletes, the games, the sanctuaries, the cities and, above all, the inspiring spirit of the ancient Greeks over a span of a millennium and a half—from the earliest mentions of athletics in Homer’s Iliad and other literary sources, through the Classical age, and into the Hellenistic, Roman and late antique periods. Modelled on the physical exercises and competitions that existed in earlier Near Eastern cultures, hundreds of athletic games took place in Greek antiquity, extending across every area of the Mediterranean in which Greek culture flourished. In these five games the magnificent culture and ideology of Greek antiquity flourished, and the spectacle of the games gave rise to a sporting tradition that engages the world to this day.