Olympic History

First-Year Students (2nd Semester)

Department of Physical Education, Soran University

Dr. Zaman Salih hassan

Ancient Olympic Games

The palaestra of Olympia, a place devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes The ancient
Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration, of and for Zeus; events such as a footrace,
a javelin contest, and wrestling matches were added later. The Olympic Games (Ancient
Greek: Ὀλύμπια, Olympia, "the Olympics" also Ὀλυμπιάς, Olympias, "the Olympiad") were a series
of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic
Games of ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them
a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC, They continued to be
celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in
AD 393 as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome. The games
were 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 cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. 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. 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 freeborn Greek men were
allowed to participate,[9] although there were victorious women chariot owners. As long as they met
the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate,
although the Hellanodikai, the officials in charge, allowed king Alexander I of Macedon to
participate in the games only after he had proven his Greek ancestry.[10][11] The games were always
held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations as is the practice with the
modern Olympic Games. Victors at the Olympics were honored, and their feats chronicled for future
generations.
Origins:

To the Ancient Greeks, it was important to root the Olympic Games in mythology. 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 genesis of the games.
These origin traditions have become nearly impossible to untangle, yet a chronology and patterns
have arisen that help people understand the story behind the games.
 The earliest myths regarding the origin of the games are recounted by the Greek
historian, Pausanias. According to the story, the dactyl Heracles (not to be confused with the son
of Zeus and the Roman god Hercules) 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 wreath (which thus became a peace symbol), which also
explains the four-year interval, bringing the games around every fifth year (counting
inclusively). The other Olympian gods (so named because they lived permanently on Mount
Olympus) would also engage in wrestling, jumping and running contests.
 Another myth of the origin of the games is the story of Pelops, a local Olympian hero. The story
of Pelops begins with Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, Greece, who had a beautiful daughter
named Hippodamia. According to an oracle, the king would be killed by her husband. Therefore,
he decreed that any young man who wanted to marry his daughter was required to drive away
with her in his chariot, and Oenomaus would follow in another chariot, and spear the suitor if he
caught up with them. Now, the king's chariot horses were a present from the god Poseidon and
were therefore supernaturally fast. Pelops was a very handsome young man and the king's
daughter fell in love with him. Before the race, she persuaded her father's charioteer Myrtilus to
replace the bronze axle pins of the king's chariot with wax ones. Naturally, during the race, the
wax melted and the king fell from his chariot and was killed. At the same time, the king's palace
was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes, save for one wooden pillar that was revered in
the Altis for centuries, and stood near what was to be the site of the temple of Zeus. Pelops was
proclaimed the winner and married Hippodamia. After his victory, Pelops organized chariot races
as a thanksgiving to the gods and as funeral games in honor of King Oenomaus, in order to be
purified of his death. It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the beginnings of the
 Olympic Games were inspired. Pelops became a great king, a local hero, and he gave his name to
the Peloponnese.
 One (later) myth, attributed to Pindar, states that the festival at Olympia involved Heracles, the
son of Zeus: According to Pindar, Heracles established an athletic festival to honor his father,
Zeus, after he had completed his labors.
 The games of previous millennia were discontinued and then revived by Lycurgus of
Sparta, Iphitos of Elis, and Cleisthenes 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.
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.
Since these myths were documented by historians like Pausanias, who lived during the reign
of Marcus Aurelius in the AD 160, it is likely that these stories are more fable than fact. It was often
supposed that the origins of many aspects of the Olympics date to funeral games of
the Mycenean period and later.[21] Alternatively, the games were thought to derive from some kind of
vegetation magic or from initiation ceremonies. The most recent theory traces the origins of the
games to large game hunting and related animal ceremonialism.

Events at the Olympics

Olympiad Year Event first introduced

1st 776 BC Stade

14th 724 BC Diaulos

15th 720 BC Long distance race (Dolichos)

18th 708 BC Pentathlon, Wrestling

23rd 688 BC Boxing (pygmachia)

25th 680 BC Four horse chariot race (tethrippon)

33rd 648 BC Horse race (keles), Pankration

37th 632 BC Boys stade and wrestling

38th 628 BC Boys pentathlon

41st 616 BC Boys boxing

65th 520 BC Hoplite race (hoplitodromos)

70th 500 BC Mule-cart race (apene)

93rd 408 BC Two horse chariot race (synoris)

96th 396 BC Competition for heralds and trumpeters

99th 384 BC Tethrippon for horse over one year

128th 266 BC Chariot for horse over one year

131st 256 BC Race for horses older than one year

145th 200 BC Pankration for boys

Contrary evidence, both literary and archaeological, suggests that the games may have existed at
Olympia much earlier than this date, perhaps as early as the 10th or 9th century BC.

A series of bronze tripods have been found at Olympia, some of which may date to the 9th century
BC, and it has been suggested that these tripods may in fact be prizes for some of the early events at
Olympia. Source: Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Athen

The marathon was NOT an event of the ancient Olympic games. The marathon is a modern event
that was first introduced in the Modern Olympic Games of 1896 in Athens, a race from Marathon
northeast of Athens to the Olympic Stadium, a distance of 40 kilometers.

The race commemorates the run of Pheidippides, an ancient "day-runner" who carried the news of the
Persian landing at Marathon of 490 B.C. to Sparta (a distance of 149 miles) in order to enlist help for
the battle. According to the fifth century B.C.ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Pheidippides
delivered the news to the Spartans the next day.

The distance of the modern marathon was standardized as 26 miles 385 yards or 42.195 km. in 1908
when the Olympic Games were held in London. The distance was the exact measurement between
Windsor Castle, the start of the race, and the finish line inside White City Stadium.

NUDITY AT THE GAMES?

There are two stories relating to the question of nudity at the ancient Olympic Games. One story
states that it was a runner from Megara, Orsippos or Orrhippos who, in 720 B.C. was the first to run
naked in the stadion race when he lost his shorts in the race. Another tradition is that it was the
Spartans who introduced nudity to the Olympic Games in the 8th century B.C. as it was a Spartan
tradition. It is not clear if the very first recorded victor at Olympia, Koroibos, who won
the stadion race in 776 B.C. wore shorts or not. It seems fairly clear that by the late 8th century nudity
was common for the male contestants.

FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN

Although the ancient Games were staged in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC through 393 AD, it took
1503 years for the Olympics to return. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in
1896. The man responsible for its rebirth was a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who
presented the idea in 1894. His original thought was to unveil the modern Games in 1900 in his
native Paris, but delegates from 34 countries were so enthralled with the concept that they convinced
him to move the Games up to 1896 and have Athens serve as the first host.
THE OLYMPIC FLAME

The idea of the Olympic torch or Olympic Flame was first inaugurated in the 1928 Olympic Games
in Amsterdam. There was no torch relay in the ancient Olympic Games. There were known, however,
torch relays in other ancient Greek athletic festivals including those held at Athens. The modern
Olympic torch relay was first instituted at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.