The Pentathlon of the Ancient World

Frank Zarnowski is a visiting professor of economics at Dartmouth College and was previously dean of the Graduate Program of Business at Mount St. Mary’s College, Maryland. He has been a television sports commentator since 1983 and was an NBC analyst for both the 1992 and 2004 Olympic Games.

Table of Contents


Preface

Historical Timeline

Introduction

Part One—The Pentathlon

delete1. The Nature and Origin of the Event

delete2. Orchestrating the Pentathlon

delete3. How the Winner Was Determined

Part Two—The Events

delete4. The Discus

delete5. The Jump

delete6. The Javelin

delete7. The Sprint

delete8. Wrestling

Part Three—A History of the Event

delete9. The Story of the Ancient Pentathlon

Part Four—Winners, Recognition and Reward

 10. The Creation of a Pentathlon Record Book and Register

 11. Pentathlon Statues of Ancient Greece

 12. Extant Pentathlon Odes

 13. Rewards for Pentathlon Victors

Part Five—The Ancient Pentathlon and Modern Track and Field

 14. Return of the Ancient Pentathlon

 15. Why the Ancient Pentathlon Matters

Appendix A: Order of Events in Ancient Pentathlon by a Sampling of Modern Writers

Appendix B: Order of Modern Track and Field Combined Events

Appendix C: Summary of Modern Scholars’ Opinions on How the Winner Was Determined

Appendix D: Number of Possible Ancient Pentathlons

Appendix E: Odysseus the Athlete

Appendix F: Pentathlon Victor Statues at Olympia

Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Greek Writers

Notes

Bibliography

Index