The first Olympian: what was there to celebrate about Heracles?

However great the achievements of athletes at the Olympic Games – and even more so the Paralympics – there will always be those who have their doubts about their real value.

Some ancient Greeks certainly felt like that about their Olympics. Complaints were made that an athlete’s physical fitness did nothing for the public health. No boxer would order the city better or stock her granaries, and surely it was valour in war that counted. A satirist pointed out that naked wrestlers covered in olive oil would not be much use in the front line of battle.

Others expressed concern about the character of the Games’ founder, Heracles, the greatest mortal ‘winner’ of them all. True, his famous 12 labours were celebrated on the 12 metopes of the massive temple of Zeus Olympios next to the Olympic stadium – six panels above the front door, six more at the back. But was that the whole story?

The name Heracles meant ‘the glory/fame of Hera’ (wife of Zeus).