Greek Mythology and the Olympics

[Astiryu1]

I had a thought while in a conversation the other day. The Gold, silver and Bronze medals in the modern Olympics may have left one out...Iron. In my readings I have come across a passage of Hesiod's "Work and Days" explaining the four ages or races of man. Respectively Gold,Silver, Bronze and Iron.
So my thought was "Is there a connection between the two?"

P.S- I assume that "Iron" is our current age. :wink:

[Athena Areias]

"Between the two" what? The ancient Greek games awarded crowns of foliage (olive leaves, laurel leaves, wild celery (my fav), pine "leaves" to the winners. You might have gotten free lunches and some kind of cash "thank you" when you got back to your city-state, but that was not official. The official prize was greenery.

I'm not sure where the modern medals came from.

[Astiryu1]

"Between the two" what?

The Modern Olympic Medals and Greek Mythology... Was there a conscious decision based on Hesiod's literary works of Mythology?

[Epictetus]

I doubt if there was a conscious decision to use Hesiod. Instead, Hesiod probably used the already-known relationships between the metals for his purposes. The ancients realised that gold was rarer and more valuable than silver, which in turn was rarer and more valuable than bronze. I would guess that this was known for thousands of years.

This relationship was used by a variety of authors throughout the ages. Plato, for instance, terms his guardians as “gold,” his auxiliaries as “silver” and farmers and craftsmen as “brass” and “iron.” He utilises the already known relationship between the metals for an allegory of sorts between the different categories of citizens in his republic.