The Olympic Games of Antiquity were an exclusively male event, and women were prohibited from attending, whether as athletes or spectators; at least the gynaikes (married women), since Pausanias seems to indicate that the parthenai (unmarried young women) could indeed be in the stands. However, Spartan women enjoyed greater freedom, and just as their education included a physical component, there were also cases of participation in the games. The first to achieve victory was Princess Cynisca, in the chariot races, although not in the way we might think.

First of all, it’s important to clarify this exclusion of women, which was the result of a patriarchal social conception spread throughout Greece, as reflected in Homeric literature. This situation was general; women lacked citizenship and therefore civil rights: property, voting, and inheritance, with their role being to have children and take care of the home, where there was a space reserved exclusively for them and the servants called the gynaeceum. Additionally, certain factors like age, marital status, and social class also played a role, since, paradoxically, young women and those of humble origin were not subjected to such strictness.

Thus, in the Greco-Roman world, women had a worse status than in other ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptian. However, it’s important to note that this view is based primarily on documentary references, most of which refer to Athens, so it’s possible that in other city-states it wasn’t as extreme. In this sense, many readers might be surprised to learn that Sparta, despite the strictness of its society, was a marked exception for women, who could indeed inherit property and manage the family economy.

The region of Laconia, in the southern Peloponnese, with the locations of Sparta and Olympia
The region of Laconia, in the southern Peloponnese, with the locations of Sparta and Olympia. Credit: Marsyas / Rage against / Rowanwindwhistler / Wikimedia Commons

Spartan girls were educated with the same goals as other Greek girls, but through a different system because physical activity was considered important for growing up strong and healthy. The agogé (state educational system) excluded them from military training and allowed them to be taught in their own homes, but it required them to practice athletic exercises that toughened their bodies and reduced sentimentality, which was considered secondary to the view of marriage as a tool for producing offspring.

Thus, Spartan girls wore a peplos open on the sides, which drew ridicule from other Greek women, especially the Athenians, who derogatorily called them phainomerides (“those who show their thighs”). Of course, it was worse during festivals and religious ceremonies, where they would go naked. They also did not wear clothes, like the Greeks in general, when practicing sports: gymnastic events, wrestling, etc. Naturally, these practices never went beyond the educational realm and never reached the level of public sporting events.

In fact, as mentioned earlier, women were not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games for centuries. They had to wait about two hundred years until, in the 6th century B.C., they could compete in an event created by and for themselves (and, here, they did wear a short tunic). These were the Heraean Games, whose legendary founding is attributed to Hippodamia, a character halfway between reality and mythology, who sought to honor the goddess Hera (hence the name) for helping Pelops, her husband, win a chariot race against her father, thereby securing her hand in marriage.

Greek woman in a chariot (illustration by William Hamilton, 1791)
Greek woman in a chariot (illustration by William Hamilton, 1791). Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

The discovery of a series of inscriptions and bronze statues of female victors in the temple of Hera in Elis, along with the documentary contribution of Pausanias, demonstrates the existence of the Heraean Games. Obviously, all those victors were Spartan, like Cynisca. However, we mentioned earlier that her victories were in the Olympic Games, not the Heraean Games. This is due to the freedom that Spartan women enjoyed and the unique way they understood the attribution of victories.

Cynisca was born around 442 BC, inheriting the nickname of her grandfather Zeuxidamos, known as Ciniscus, of Doric origin; thus, the granddaughter’s name could be translated as “female puppy,” possibly derived from the family’s fondness for hunting or the breeding of hunting dogs, a passion of the dynasty. She was the daughter of the Eurypontid king Archidamus II and his wife Eupolia; therefore, she had Agesilaus II as a brother and Agis II as a half-brother, both of whom would succeed their father on the throne (the Spartan monarchy was dual).

She was, therefore, a girl from the social elite who, not needing to work, could dedicate herself to leisure; that is, she didn’t need to work—the helots took care of that—and after completing the corresponding educational stage—with physical exercises, as we saw, including the family tradition of hunting—she devoted her time to the great passion that captivated her from childhood: chariot racing. This would have been impossible had she been born in Athens, for example, where she would have been prohibited from doing something she could do as a Spartan: raising horses and forming teams. This is important because Cynisca did not build her fame as a charioteer but as a trainer and owner.

Cynisca in an illustration by Sophie de Renneville
Cynisca in an illustration by Sophie de Renneville. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Women were still deprived of the ability to run, throw, jump, and fight in the games, but they could compete in equestrian sports—at least Spartan women could—as long as they didn’t do so personally. And since in the past, unlike now, trainers were also rewarded, Cynisca had the opportunity to join that group of stephanites (crowned with a laurel wreath).

Such was the fame she achieved that a heroon (an honorific sanctuary, usually located at the tomb of the commemorated person) was erected in her honor near the exercise field for young Spartan men, indicating that she also garnered male admiration.

Speaking of fame, when the Egyptian queen Berenice II—the first to mint coins with her image—won a chariot race at the Olympic Games in the early 3rd century BC (she had previously won at the Nemean Games), she commissioned the poet Posidippus of Pella to write a laudatory epigram in which she claimed to have surpassed Cynisca in fame.

The heroon was a type of monument that took very different forms. Here we see one preserved in Crete.
The heroon was a type of monument that took very different forms. Here we see one preserved in Crete. Credit: Aeleftherios / Wikimedia Commons

It wasn’t true because she didn’t need any rhapsode (the Greek poetess Zoé Karelli did sing of her virtues, but in the 20th century) to be known throughout Hellas, but the work of Posidippus, which is part of the Milan Papyrus—containing six hundred verses and one hundred and twelve epigrams—achieved great popularity.

We are gentlemen, inhabitants of Pisa, Macedonia, who crowned the Olympic Berenice, who is legendary and has lasting fame, even surpassing that of Cynisca of Sparta.

On the other hand, Cynisca was the first, paving the way for others less celebrated, such as Zeuxo, Encrateia, Hermione, Timareta, Theodota, or Cassia. The Spartan Euryleonis, daughter of a horse breeder, and the Argive Bilistiche, concubine of Ptolemy II, took up Cynisca’s mantle and also won races a few years later. She did so twice, in 396 B.C. and in 392 B.C., employing male charioteers. By then, she was already past her youth, as she would have been around forty years old. During her youth, according to Xenophon and Plutarch, she was encouraged in this pursuit by her brother Agesilaus.

Model of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. Around it, dozens of monuments erected by the victors in the games can be seen
Model of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. Around it, dozens of monuments erected by the victors in the games can be seen. Credit: Steve Swayne / Wikimedia Commons

The reasons for encouraging her are unclear, and historians propose two interpretations. One suggests that Agesilaus, like many men, believed there was no merit in winning without participating, unlike in the male competitions; doing so would only demonstrate wealth—there were Spartan women who also had their own stables—and even a lack of masculinity. This would place Agesilaus in a moral context, following what Xenophon wrote on the subject in his work Agesilaus:

In turn, isn’t it admirable and noble-hearted that he adorned his own house with works and goods appropriate to a man, raising many hunting dogs and warhorses, and persuaded his sister Cynisca to raise racehorses and demonstrated, through her victory, that such breeding is not a sign of manly virtue (andragathia) but of wealth?

The other hypothesis is the exact opposite: he wanted triumphs that would elevate the Eurypontid dynasty and thus promote his political profile, gaining popular support. Let’s not forget that Agesilaus inherited the throne and was one of the most renowned monarchs of that time, despite the first signs of Sparta’s decline.

The fact is that, according to Pausanias, Cynisca aspired to win at the Olympic Games since she was a child; it was logical, then, that when she achieved this, she followed the custom of erecting statues of herself. The Greek historian says they were made of bronze, representing her with her horses, her chariot, and her charioteer, and were placed at the entrance of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, next to the throne dedicated by Arimnestos, king of Etruria. The artist was the sculptor Apellas of Calchis.

Pedestal of Cynisca's statue erected in Olympia. The verses of the inscription can be seen at the top
Pedestal of Cynisca’s statue erected in Olympia. The verses of the inscription can be seen at the top. Credit: Peter J. Miller / Wikimedia Commons

They were accompanied by inscriptions on the pedestal indicating that she was the first woman to win, the perfect sublimation of Spartan philotimia (love of glory). We know the text because she made a copy to place in Sparta, and it also appears as a poem in the Palatine Anthology, a collection of brief Greek and Byzantine epigrams that allowed the completion of the fragments that had been lost:

Kings of Sparta are my parents and brothers.
Cynisca, victorious with a chariot of swift horses, I set up this statue. And I declare myself as the only woman in all of Greece who has won this crown.

Likewise, in her city, a heroon was built for her, the first one dedicated to a woman because, until then, they had only been made for men (in fact, only kings). Finally, it should be added that Pausanias records an anonymous epigram considered the most beautiful ever written to praise the exploits of the Spartan kings; earlier, we mentioned that she did not need such publicity, but Pausanias lived three centuries later.

Judging by the accounts, Cynisca lived a long life; about eighty-four years, so her death is estimated around 362 B.C. She would be delighted to know that today, several sports teams around the world bear her name.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on August 16, 2024: Cinisca, la espartana que fue la primera mujer en lograr una victoria en los Juegos Olímpicos

SOURCES

Pausanias, Descripción de Grecia

Plutarco, Vidas paralelas: Agesilao

Jenofonte, Obras menores: Agesilao

Nicolas Richer, Esparta. Ciudad de las armas, las artes y las leyes

Mark Cartwright, La mujer en la Antigua Grecia

Adolfo J. Domínguez Monedero, La mujer en Atenas y Esparta

Sarah B. Pomeroy, Spartan women

Mark Golden, Greek sport and social status

Wikipedia, Cinisca

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