-
The
ancient Olympic
Games
(
Ancient
Greek
:
τ?
?λ?μπια
–
ta
Olympia
) were a series of
athletic competitions
among
representatives
of
various
city-
states
of
Ancient
Greece
.
They
were
held
in
honor
of
Zeus
,
and
the
Greeks
gave
them a
mythological
origin
. Historical records
indicate that
they
began
in
776
BC
in
Olympia
.
They
continued
to
be
celebrated when Greece
came under
Roman rule
, until
the
emperor
Theodosius
I
suppressed them in 394 AD as part
of the campaign to impose Christianity
as the
state religion
of
Rome
. The games were usually held every
four years, or
olympiad
,
which
became
a
unit
of
time
in
historical
chronologies.
During
the
celebration
of
the
games,
an
Olympic
Truce
was
enacted
so
that
athletes
could
travel
from
their
countries to the games in safety. The
prizes for the victors
were
wreaths
of
laurel
leaves.
The
games
became
a
political tool used by city-states to
assert dominance over
their rivals.
Politicians would announce political alliances at
the
games,
and
in
times
of
war,
priests
would
offer
sacrifices
to
the
gods
for
victory.
The
games
were
also
used
to
help
spread
Hellenistic
culture
throughout
the
Mediterranean.
The
Olympics
also
featured
religious
celebrations and artistic competitions.
The
statue of Zeus
at
Olympia
was counted as one of the
seven wonders of
the
ancient
world
.
Sculptors
and
poets
would
congregate
each
olympiad
to
display
their
works
of
art
to
would-be
patrons.
The ancient
Olympics had fewer events than the modern
games,
and
only
free
men
who
spoke
Greek
could
compete
(although
a
woman
Bilistiche
is
also
mentioned
as
a
winning
chariot
owner).
As
long
as
they
met
the
entrance
criteria,
athletes
from
any
country
or
city-state
were allowed to participate.
The games were always held
at Olympia rather than alternating to
different locations as
is the tradition
with the modern
Olympic
Games
.
[1]
Victors
at the Olympics were highly honored and
praised, and their
feats chronicled for
future generations.
An
artist's impression of ancient Olympia
To the Greeks it was important to root
the Olympic Games
in
mythology.
[2]
During the
time of the ancient games their
origins
were attributed to the gods, and competing legends
persisted
as
to
who
actually
was
responsible
for
the
games'
genesis.
[3]
These origin of
traditions have become
nearly
impossible
to
untangle,
yet
a
chronology
and
patterns have arisen that help people
understand the story
behind
the
games.
[4]
The
earliest
myths
regarding
the
origin of the games are
recounted by the Greek historian,
Pausanias
. According to the
story, the
dactyl
Herakles
(not
to
be
confused
with
the
son
of
Zeus
)
and
four
of
his
brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius
and Idas, raced at
Olympia
to
entertain
the
newborn
Zeus.
He
crowned
the
victor
with
an
olive
tree
wreath,
(which
thus
became
a
peace symbol) which also explains the
four year interval,
bringing
the
games
around
every
fifth
year
(counting
inclusively).
[5][6]
The
other
Olympian
gods
(so
named
because
they
lived
permanently
on
Mount
Olympus),
would
also
engage
in
wrestling,
jumping
and
running
contests.
[7]
Another
myth,
this
one
occurring
after
the
aforementioned myth, is
attributed to
Pindar
. He
claims the
festival
at
Olympia
involved
Pelops
,
king
of
Olympia
and
eponymous hero of the
Peloponnesus
, and Herakles,
the
son
of
Zeus.
The
story
goes
that
after
completing
his
labors
,
Herakles
established
an
athletic
festival
to
honor
his
father. Pelops, using trickery, and the help of
Poseidon
,
won
a
chariot
race
against
a
local
king
and
claimed
the
king's
daughter,
Hippodamia
as
his
prize.
[8]
A
final
myth,
also
attributed
to
Pausanias
is
dated
by
the
historian
at
776
BC.
[9]
For
some
reason
the
games
of
previous
millennia were
discontinued and then revived by
Lycurgus
of
Sparta
,
Iphitos of
Elis
, and Cleoisthenes of
Pisa
at the
behest of the
Oracle of
Delphi
who claimed that the people
had
strayed
from
the
gods,
which
had
caused
a
plague
and constant war.
Restoration of the games would end the
plague, usher in a time of peace, and
signal a return to a
more traditional
lifestyle.
[10]
The patterns
that emerge from
these myths are that
the Greeks believed the games had
their
roots in religion, that athletic competition was
tied to
worship of the gods, and the
revival of the ancient games
was
intended to bring peace, harmony and a return to
the
origins
of
Greek
life.
[11]
Since
these
myths
were
documented by
historians like Pausanias, who lived during
the reign of
Marcus
Aurelius
in the 160s AD, it is likely
that
these stories are more fable than
fact.
[12]
The
origins
of
many
aspects
of
the
Olympics
date
to
funeral games
of the
Mycenean
period and
later.
[13]
Early
examples are known such as those held
for
Patroclus
by
Achilles
,
described
by
Homer
and
in
Book
5
of
Virgil
's
Aeneid
, in which
Aeneas
organizes athletic
contests on the
anniversary of his
father's death.
[
edit
] History
The games were held to be one of the
two central rituals in
Ancient
Greece
,
the
other
being
the
much older
religious
festival, the
Eleusinian
Mysteries
.
[14]
The games started in Olympia, Greece,
in a sanctuary site
for the
Greek deities
near the towns
of Elis and
Pisa
(both
in
Elis
on the
peninsula of
Peloponnesos
).
The first games
began
as
an
annual
foot
race
of
young
women
in
competition for the position of the
priestess for the goddess,
Hera
[15]
and a
second race was instituted for a consort for
the
priestess
who
would
participate
in
the
religious
traditions at the
temple.
[16]
The
Heraea
Games
,
the
first
recorded
competition
for
women in the Olympic
Stadium, were held as early as the
sixth century BC. It originally
consisted of foot races only,
as
did
the
competition
for
males.
Some
texts,
including
Pausanias's
Description
of
Greece
, c.
AD
175,
state
that
Hippodameia
gathered
a
group
known
as
the
Women
and
made
them
administrators
of
the
Heraea
Games,
out of gratitude for her marriage to
Pelops
. Other
texts related to the Elis and Pisa
conflict indicate that the
Sixteen
Women
were
peacemakers
from
Pisa
and
Elis
and,
because
of
their
political
competence,
became
administrators of the Heraea. Being the
consort of Hera in
Classical
Greek
mythology
,
Zeus
was
the
father
of
the
deities in
the
pantheon
of that era.
The Sanctuary of
Zeus
in
Olympia housed a
13-metre-high (43 ft)
statue in
ivory
and gold of
Zeus
that had been sculpted by
Phidias
circa
445
BC.
This
statue
was
one
of
the
ancient
Seven
Wonders of the World
. By the
time of the Classical Greek
culture,
in
the
fifth
and
fourth
centuries
BC,
the
games
were restricted to
male participants.
The historian
Ephorus
, who lived in the
fourth century BC,
is
one
potential
candidate
for
establishing
the
use
of
Olympiads to count years, although
credit for codifying this
particular
epoch
usually
falls
to
Hippias
of
Elis,
to
Eratosthenes,
or
even
to
Timaeus,
whom
Eratosthenes
may have
imitated.
[17][18][19]
The
Olympic Games were held
at
four-year
intervals,
and
later,
the
Greek
method
of
counting the years even referred to
these games, using the
term
Olympiad
for
the
period
between
two
games.
Previously, every
Greek state used its own dating system,
something
that
continued
for
local
events,
which
led
to
confusion
when
trying
to
determine
dates.
For
example,
Diodorus states that there was a solar
eclipse in the third
year of the 113th
Olympiad, which must be the eclipse of
316 BC. This gives a date of (mid-
summer) 765 BC for the
first
year
of
the
first
Olympiad.
[20]
Nevertheless,
there
is
disagreement
among
scholars
as
to
when
the
games
began.
[21]
The
reserved
for
the
judges
at
Olympia
on
the
north embankment of the stadium
The only competition held then was,
according to the later
Greek
traveller
Pausanias
who
wrote
in
175
AD.,
the
stadion
race,
a
race
over
about
190
metres
(620
ft),
measured after the feet of Hercules.
The word
stadium
is
derived from this foot race.
The Greek tradition of
athletic nudity
was
introduced in 720
BC,
either
by
the
Spartans
or
by
the
Megarian
Orsippus
,
and
this was adopted early in the Olympics as well.
Several
groups
fought
over
control
of
the
sanctuary
at
Olympia,
and
hence
the
games,
for
prestige and
political
advantage.
Pausanias later writes that in 668 BC, Pheidon
of
Argos
was
commissioned by the town of Pisa to capture
the sanctuary from the town of Elis,
which he did and then
personally
controlled
the
games
for
that
year.
The
next
year, Elis regained control.
The Olympic Games were part of the
Panhellenic Games
,
four separate games held at two- or
four-year intervals, but
arranged so
that there was at least one set of games every
year. The Olympic Games were more
important and more
prestigious
than
the
Pythian
,
Nemean
,
and
Isthmian
Games
.
Finally,
the
Olympic
Games
were
suppressed,
either
by
Theodosius I
in AD 393 or
his grandson
Theodosius II
in
AD 435,
[22]
as
part of the campaign to impose Christianity
as a
state
religion
. The site of
Olympia
remained until an
earthquake destroyed it in the 6th
century AD.
[
edit
] Culture
The
BC. It represents an ancient Olympic
discus thrower
The ancient Olympics
were as much a religious festival as
an
athletic
event.
The
games
were
held
in
honor
of
the
Greek god
Zeus
, and on the middle day
of the games, 100
oxen would be
sacrificed to him.
[1]
Over
time Olympia, site
of the games, became
a central spot for the worship of the
head
of
the
Greek
pantheon
and
a
temple,
built
by
the
Greek
architect
Libon
was
erected
on
the
mountaintop.
The
temple
was
one
of
the
largest
Doric
temples
in
Greece.
[1]
The
sculptor
Pheidias
created
a
statue
of
the
god made of gold and
ivory. It stood 42 feet (13 m) tall. It
was placed on a throne in the temple.
The statue became
one
of
the
seven
wonders
of
the
ancient
world
.
[1]
As
the
historian
Strabo
put it,
the festal assembly
and of the Olympian Games, in which
the
prize was a crown and which were regarded as
sacred,
the greatest games in the
world. The temple was adorned
by
its
numerous
offerings,
which
were
dedicated
there
from all parts of
Greece.
[1]
Artistic
expression
was
a
major
part
of
the
games.
Sculptors,
poets
and
other
artisans
would
come
to
the
games
to
display
their
works
in
what
became
an
artistic
competition.
Sculptors
created
works
like
Myron
's