The sprint was the top event for athletes, but for the wealthy it was the chariot race. Then, as now, it took serious money to train a team for this event.
Alcibiades, the brilliant and unstable aristocrat of 5th century Athens, felt he had brought glory not only to himself and his political career, but also to his city, by getting several wins in the Olympics.
If you were tyrant of the Sicilian city of Syracuse, and won, you commissioned the best poet to write an ode in your honour. Pindar was the best known of these poets.
This particular pot looks to me (I took the picture a long time ago) like a Panathenaic amphora, one of the big jars filled with olive oil which were given as prizes in the games at Athens (not the Olympics - you only got a wreath there for winning). If this is a Panathenaic amphora, then on the other side there is a picture of the goddess Athene in armour. The event that the prize was given for was always pictured on one side of the amphora, and the patron goddess of Athens on the other.
