Ancient Greek Olympics

1. Where it happened?
- Back story of Mt. Olympus where Zeus was supposed to have
resided.
- Sacred city of Olympia, Olympiad being a measurement of 4 years
2. Why it happened?
- An all-male competition worshipping a male god (Zeus)
- Religious festival in honor of Zeus
3. Sacrifice
- The game begins with a ritual sacrifice of a black ram
4. The development of the games
- At first only the Sprint was there, the winner of which would have
the entirety of the years games dedicated to their name
- However, later a long distance sprint was added, after which racing
with armor was added.
-

Tidbits:
The athletes used to wear a loin cloth during the events however
during one of the games a famous athlete name Orsippuss ???
shorts fell down and he eventually won the race leading other
athletes to believe that running nude was the reason for his victory.
This lead to all athletes playing their respective games nude except
for Chariot racing where they wear ???
Married women were forbidden to watch the games as the men
competed nude. This act was punishable by death.

5. Sequence of the games ? not that important

6. Pentathlon
-The field events were part of the pentathlon before becoming
individual events
- Discus a sculpture dedicated to a discus player
- Javelin
- Jump
- Running
- Wrestling
-

Tidbits:
The victories were documented on vases by artists on which some
of the current information that we have is based

Professional poets attended the games to write odes about the

winning heroes so as to commemorate their victories for
generations
- Victorious athletes were awarded by their hometowns with free
meals for the rest of their lives, cash, tax breaks, honorary
appointments or leadership positions in the community
- Victories were memorialized in statues and odes were written by
famous poets to immortalize the heroism
7. Importance of the games?
- The first 200 years of the games were only for religious worshipping
- Announcement of political alliances
- Ritualistic killings to appease the Gods for victory
- The festival was meant to celebrate achievement of human body
- Olympic truce
8. Combat games
- Wrestling
- Boxing
- Umpires stood by to punish offenders
- Matches that went on for too long were kickstarted by the judges by
limiting the space that the players could fight in resulting in a
victory for one side
- Pankration everything was allowed except for biting, gouging and
attacking genitals
- A legal hit resulting in a death during pankration would result in no
repercussion for the athlete
- Famous combat athletes talk about Diagoras and his family
Tidbits:
-

The winners did not receive a substantial monetary sum so the

athletes competed solely for the glory of achievement
Not all athletes however valued the code of excellence. Athletes
caught cheating had to pay for a bronze statue of Zeus to be
erected. The statues were inscribed with the offenses of the athlete
The Olympics took place during a time of war hence there was an
Olympic truce to ensure the safety of the spectators. The truce held
before and during the games.
Wars were suspended, armies were forbidden to enter Elis, death
sentences were forbidden to be carried out

9. When and why did the Olympics end?

- The games continued even when Greece came under the Roman
rule, however emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in 393 AD as

part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the state of religion

of Rome
Banned because it was thought to be a pagan event