A brief history of the Olympic Games
[Chronology] [The games] [The judges]
Entrance to the stadium. Olimpia today.
The first Olympic games were originaly held in Olimpia in 776 BC.The only event held was a stadion race. This games were not actually the first ones, since athletic events were organized during religious festivals. In the next years, other events were also held like: chariot races, horse rases, jump, penthathlon (Stade Race, Javelin Throw, Jump, Diskos Throw, Wrestling).
The Olympic games were constant in the Ancient Greek word. They were even held during the Persian wars (480 BC).
After the Battle of Chaironeia in 338 BC, kingPhilip of Makedon gained control over the Greek city-states. They erected the Philippeion (a family memorial) in the sanctuary, and held political meetings at Olympia during each Olympiad.In 145 BC, Romans took control of Greece and thus of the Olympic Games. The Roman emperor Sula moved thr 175 Olympiad to Rome.
The games were held every four years from 776 BC to 393 AD, when they were abolished by the ChristianByzantine Emperor Theodosius I.
The Olympic games were held during a religious festival and ment a lot for the Greek people. Excellence (areth in Greek) for male greek aristocrates, showed clearly as a competative value during the games.Emphasis was given on physcial fitness, competition and public recognition by other men, things showing the greek masculine ideal of the times. The city-states of Greece were not sending representative teams, as it happens today.Each noble young man was participating as an individual.
The athlets were not receiving any financial rewards. The only rewar was a crown from olive branches, taken from the holy olive tree situated in the sanctuary, which was believed it was planted from Hercules himself. But when they returned to their home town they were treated as the modern sports celebrities. There are evidence that some city-states, were bringing down part of the cities wall in order to make an entrance to the heroe.
Men were exersizing and competing naked. Thus the name of their practise place for the games was named "gymnasion" (gymnasium in latin I think) from the greek word "gymnos" which means naked.
Married women were not allowed in the game, on the penalty of death. They had their own religious festival in Olympia to honour Zeus and Hera, mother and father of the gods.
All judges of the Olympic games were Eleans from Elis the local area which included Olympia. Their number increased to 10 as the events were growing in number. The Elean people had the best reputation for fairness that an Elean cheating at the Games was a shock to other Greeks.
More history to be added soon
