Milo of Croton

The story of the most famous southern Italian athlete

Buona Domenica (Happy Sunday),

We hope you’re having an incredible Thanksgiving weekend. And are cuddled up somewhere nice and warm. Especially since today, we’re taking another trip down history lane.

Before we dive in… We’re having a SALE: 20% OFF EVERYTHING on our website, this includes:

• Olive Oil Gift sets

• Our book

• The Olive Oil Club (which is open!)

*Discount automatically applied at checkout.

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In our last (paid) newsletter we explored the ancient Greek Calabrian city of Crotone, AKA The City of Pythagoras. Pythagoras was the Greek mathematician and philosopher responsible for creating the Pythagorean Theorem and the founder of the religion and philosophy Pythagoreanism. Read more in the previous newsletter.

Milo of Croton by Joseph-Benoit Suvee, Groeninge Museum, Bruges

Today we’re still visiting Crotone, but discussing a different historical fixture.

Milo of Croton was a famous Olympic wrestler who graced this earth with his presence during the late 6th century B.C. He was born and raised in Crotone and was alive at the same time as Pythagoras. In fact, it’s believed that Milo was a follower of Pythagoreanism. It’s also believed he was over 2 meters (6’ 6”) tall and extremely large and muscular. Which probably helped with all that wrestling.

In order to win, Milo had to train. And there are local stories in Crotone that he regularly ran and trained on a white sand beach near the town of Le Castella. One that is still used today. And when you see pictures of it, that actually makes a lot of sense because it’s a long stretch of beach that we can confirm is perfect for running.

But there are loads of other legends and stories about the ways Milo of Croton used to train including….

• He would carry a baby calf from the time it was born until the time it was a full-grown ox. Google says the average ox weighs 1,500 - 3,000 lbs. So you do the math.

• He would stand on a greasy disk and challenge people to push him off of it. I wonder if he used olive oil.

• He would hold his hand out and splay his fingers. Then challenge folks to bend his little finger. They never could.