From disorder to order: The Olympic mythical archetype

May 09 2003 | 3:15 PM

The foundation of the Olympic Games is directly derived from the mythical world of ancient Greece and its symbolic products: the stories of gods and heroes. In Greek mythical cosmogonies and theogonies, gods are involved in contests, which determine world’s destiny. The crucial battle between them is concluded with the successors’ supremacy and the establishment of the new divine order. This struggle symbolizes the effort required in the progress from disorder to order and its result signifies the triumph of order represented by the victorious Zeus, which was celebrated in the Olympic Games.


Introduction: The Mythical World and the Oympic Games

Myth represents a symbolic system, a primitive language, in which man tried to utter his conception of the world and his position in it. Therefore, myths are structured in accordance with both metaphysical and ethical content of life, that is, they represent views on the origins of life and the cause of the existence, but they also symbolize fundamental laws of life, derived from religious, cultural, political and social reality. Hence, the symbolic meaning of myths indicates the concealed value of every manifestation of life and human activity.

The foundation of the Olympic Games is directly derived from the mythical world of Ancient Greece and its symbolic products: the stories of gods and heroes. In Greek mythical cosmogonies and theogonies, gods are involved in contests, which determine world’s destiny. The early mythical divinities try to maintain their dominance beyond their authority , by preventing the natural succession of a new divine generation. The crucial battle between them is concluded with the successors’ supremacy and the establishment of the new divine order. This struggle symbolizes the effort required in the progress from disorder to order and its result signifies the triumph of order represented by the victorious Zeus. This triumph was celebrated by Greeks in a glorious festival, in which they praised Zeus as the principal of an ordered world by representing his venture in athletic activity, which was under his auspices. This festival was of course the Olympic Games.


From Disorder to Order

Greek theogonies convey the idea that the world is a rigid hierarchy of forces personified as deities, which has been structured upon their opposed and conflicting actions and the final resolution of their contradiction. Nevertheless, the process from irrepressible conflicts to a balanced cosmos is not presented as a foreseeable consequence, but rather as an agonising and violent struggle between forces of evolution and those of retrogression. The hard effort involved in that battle corresponds to the athletic contest and the win derives from Zeus himself, since he embodies the apotheosis of victory. Greek deities challenge humans to imitate them and the Olympic winner possesses all the qualities that a god could give to a mortal .

In this respect, Greek theogonies contains the symbolic speculum of the Olympic Games and the divine succession from Ouranos to Kronos and - finally – to Zeus elucidates the concealed dimensions of their meaning.


a. Stage One: The Repressive Ouranos

In the beginning was Chaos. This mysterious area of an unknown vacuum or chasm is soon to be fulfilled by Gaea – “the solid pedestal of all” . Gaea gives birth to Ouranos and mates with him. Henceforth, the apparent world becomes fertile and capable to create the elemental forces through successive unions. Gaea signifies the evolution of the material world by means of natural reproduction. This vital progress is being interrupted by a malevolent intervention: Ouranos, represses their children inside Gaea’ s womb in fear of their power and causes a universal suffering. His violence is an action against life and against the natural order of things. An insatiable and iniquitous spirit stands against necessity.

Gaea will entrust her younger son, Kronos, with the task of re-establishing justice. Two qualities are involved in their attempt: Gaea’s ingenuity and Kronos’ courage will result in Ouranos’ dethronement. Kronos’ involvement is a violent rebellion, literally bloody: he castrates Ouranos and thus he deprives him of his power. The first feat towards cosmic order has been accomplished. New forces are unleashed and a new divine order has risen. The rebel Kronos is now ruler of the world.


b. Stage Two: The Devouring Kronos

In his collapse, Ouranos prophesied Kronos defeat by one of his children with Rhea. Kronos, too, displays an insatiable desire to retain his dominance beyond his limits and, like his father, prevents the natural evolution by swallowing his children immediately after they are born. Both Ouranos and Kronos are drawn by an unmanageable desire to rule the world and a destructive denial of their natural successors. Both of them are also deceived by female deities, who exercise their intellectual power against untamed animality. This time Rhea deludes the devouring Kronos into swallowing a stone in place of his newborn descendant. Kronos lacks of the ability to distinguish between living Beings and inanimate Things. He is unable to classify the fundamental elements of the universe and therefore he is condemned as both unjust and incompetent .

The survivor infant Zeus is safely transferred to Crete in Kronos’ ignorance. Kronos vomits up the stone, which is later placed at Delphi by Zeus and becomes a symbol of his supremacy. The era of a world governed by pure and unbridled power is about to reach to an end. The story of the saved child will become the myth of battle and victory of justice. Zeus returns to fight against his father and succeeds the overthrow of his lawless status quo. From this time forth, every four years Greeks will revive at the stadium Zeus’ combat and triumph to honor him .


c. Stage Three: Zeus’ Cosmos

Even from his birth, Zeus holds a close connection to the idea of fair contest. As an infant, he is guarded at the Mount Ides by five brothers – Idei Daktyli. Under the leadership of the elder brother, Heracles , the five men compete in a race. Hence, he is considered to be the mythical founder of the Olympic Games.

But Zeus will not obtain control over the world, before he utterly defeats all his vicious enemies and until he is declared the victor in three main battles: against Titans, Giants and Typhon. These are all strictly mythological, monstrous figures that represent the unknown and dark, destructive forces either of nature or of unconscious mind. By defeating them after hard effort, Zeus signifies the process towards enlightening knowledge and creative order. Their overthrow is a symbol of the penetration of the wild forces of nature by a spiritual subject, who uses intellectual means to dominate them. His combats represent the hard effort required in the process to evolution and his triumph inaugurates a brand new world, ruled by order, justice and beauty.


The Olympic Archetype

In this light, the institution of the Olympic Games reconnects with the prime cause of its foundation. The stadium is a cosmos, eager to release its forces, in order to compete against its other. Athletes fight under effective rules and contend for the grace of Zeus, who will place the winner under his auspices for his victory in a fair contest. Win arises from the defeat of others, and therefore records are worthless, whereas the defeated becomes indispensable for the Olympic world to be completed. The public will cheer the winner, because he conveys the message of a supremacy accomplished by fair and vigorous effort. He will receive public respect and admiration, because he achieved divine qualities, the same qualities that disposed the world to be in order and therefore conceivable and meaningful. The triumphant evolution from disorder towards order is thus praised within the Olympic Games.