The Ancient Greek Olympic Games | A Kick Of History

Hi everyone! Welcome to A Kick Of History! In today's post we will talk about an amazing event in history that you would probably want to go back and see if you could. We are going to be talking about the Ancient Greek Olympic Games! Before we get on with it, please follow or subscribe to my blog! Then you will get a notification whenever I post, so you can learn more and more about the history of our world! Now let's get on with it! All my info is from this site: https://www.olympic.org/ancient-olympic-games  

The Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions that was among the representatives of the city -states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. The Olympic Games were held to honor Zeus the King of The Gods. The first Olympic Games were held on 776 BC. The Games were the sporting, social, and cultural highlight of the year on the Ancient Greek Calendar for almost 12 centuries.

The Games took place for every fours years from the years 776 BC to at least the year, 392 AD. All the free Greek males were allowed to participate, it did not matter if they were farmhands or royal heirs. But, most of the Olympians that participated were soldiers. Woman were not allowed to compete or even attend the tournament. However, there was a loophole to this rule. Chariot owners, not the riders, were declared as Olympic champions, and anyone could own a chariot. The daughter of the Spartan King, Kyniska, took advantage of this rule. She therefore claimed victory wreaths on the years 392 BC and 396 BC.

Now that you know a little bit more about the background and some facts about the Olympic Games, let us get onto the history of it!

Paul Christesen, a professor of Ancient Greek History at Dartmouth College in the USA, said that, “At its heart the Ancient Olympic Games was a religious festival held in a religious sanctuary.” She also went onto saying that the Olympics were not just the plain matter of playing sports. 

The Olympic Games was originated from Olympia, which was in the north-western corner of Peloponnese. This place is currently in the Western Greece Region. It is said that Zeus, the King of the Greek Gods, had lived in Olympus around 1200 BC which was when the Eleans conquered the surrounding area. This fearsome deity marked his ascension by throwing a thunderbolt into the sacred grove from his home on top of Mount Olympus. 

The city state called Elis, which was about a day's walk north of Olympia, ran the Olympics throughout most of it's life, with the Eleans taking full control from their local rivals in the Pisatans in 572 BC. Although the Olympic stadium held 40,000+ people during it's height of popularity, in the second century AD, it remained a very rural setting. 

From the first edition in 776 BC until 550 BC, the Olympic Games hade taken place among the sanctuary itself.  The sacred olive tree of Zeus, which victory wreaths we made, marked the finish line for all of the Olympic Races. The first stadium, a simple affair utilizing the natural beauty of the surrounding hills, had remained inside the defied area as well. Also, the discovery that there are more that 150 wells that date back to that time, shows that even in it's early ages the Olympic Games caused enormous attention. 

By the middle of the fourth century the third incarnation of the stadium was built. It was spacious and had a more modern feel to it. The attendance of people went up 50%. With this incarnation the position that the stadium was in, changed. The events no longer finished at the altar of Zeus. However, the site lost no religious potency during the 1000+ years of the Ancient games. It's diversity was the key to it's survival. 

The fourth incarnation of the Olympic stadium came in the first century as it was fuelled by the return of chariot racing in 17 AD. From this, the popularity of the Olympic Games soared upwards. The interest reached a huge pinnacle and in the following century the fifth, and final renovation was made. In 393 AD Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, wanted a ban on all "pagan" festivities. This ended the Olympic Game tradition after 12 centuries, only for it to come back 1,500 year later. 

Seven Facts about the Ancient Greek Olympic Games:

• All Contestants competed naked
• Wrestlers competed covered in oil
• Corporal punishment was given to those who made a false start on the track
• Boxers were told to avoid hitting the on-display men genitals
• There were no points, no time limits, and no weight classifications when it came to wrestling
• Athletes in the combat sports had to say their surrender by raising their index fingers, sometimes they died before they could do this

Well, that is it my friends! I hope you enjoyed this post about the Olympic Games! Enjoy your day, and I will see you in the next post!