Panathenaic Stadium: Difference between revisions

In the 4th century BC the Athenian statesman [[Lycurgus of Athens|Lykourgos]] (Lycurgus) built an {{convert|850|ft|m|adj=on}} long stadium of [[Poros]] limestone.<ref name="Dinsmoor"/> Tiers of stone benches were arranged around the track. The track was {{convert|669|ft|m}} long and {{convert|110|ft|m}} wide.{{sfn|Darling|2004|p=133}} In the ''Lives of the Ten Orators'' [[Pseudo-Plutarch]] writes that a certain Deinas, the owner of the property where the stadium was built was persuaded by Lykourgos to donate the land to the city and Lykourgos leveled a ravine.<ref name="Miller et al"/>{{sfn|Romano|1985|p=444}} [[Inscriptiones Graecae|IG II²]] 351 (dated 329 BC), records that Eudemus of Plataea gave 1000 yoke of oxen for the construction of the stadium and theater. According to Romano the "reference to the large number of oxen, indicating a vast undertaking, and the use of the word charadra have suggested the kind of building activity that would have been needed to prepare the natural valley between the two hills near the Ilissos."{{sfn|Romano|1985|p=444}} The stadium of Lykourgos is believed to have been completed for the Panathenaic Games of 330/329 BC.<ref name="culture.gr"/><ref name="Wycherley"/><ref name="hoc history"/><ref name="Miller 2006"/><ref name="Britannica">{{cite web|last1=Abrahams|first1=Harold|authorlink1=Harold Abrahams|title=Olympic Games|url=http://www.britannica.com/sports/Olympic-Games/History-of-the-modern-Summer-Games#ref364516|website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|quote=The track-and-field events were held at the Panathenaic Stadium. The stadium, originally built in 330 bce, had been excavated but not rebuilt for the 1870 Greek Olympics and lay in disrepair before the 1896 Olympics, but through the direction and financial aid of Georgios Averoff, a wealthy Egyptian Greek, it was restored with white marble.}}</ref> Donald Kyle suggests that it is possible that Lykourgos did not builtbuild but "renovated or embellished a pre-existing facility to give it monumental stature."<ref>{{cite book|last=Kyle|first=Donald G.|title=Athletics in Ancient Athens|date=1993|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004097599|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qw4NAn5z1lwC&pg=PA94&dq=lykourgos+panathenaic+stadium 94–95]}}</ref> According to [[Richard Ernest Wycherley]] the stadium probably had stone seating "only for a privileged few."<ref name="Wycherley"/>