Title: Ancient Olympic Games - World History Encyclopedia
Headings: Ancient Olympic Games
Ancient Olympic Games
Definition
Origins of the Games
The Spectators
The Athletes
The Stadion Footrace
Other Sporting Events
Greek Chariot
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)
Competition Rules & Judges
Olympic Prizes
Famous Olympians
End of the Games
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Content: Ancient Olympic Games - World History Encyclopedia
Ancient Olympic Games
Definition
by Mark Cartwright
published on 13 March 2018
Send to Google Classroom: Translated text available in: French, Greek
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Greek Wrestlers
Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)
The ancient Olympic Games were a sporting event held every four years at the sacred site of Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, in honour of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek religion. The games, held from 776 BCE to 393 CE, involved participants and spectators from all over Greece and even beyond. The Olympic Games were the most important cultural event in ancient Greece and they ran for 293 consecutive Olympiads. So important were the Games in the ancient world that they were even used as a basis for the calendar. Remove Ads
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Origins of the Games
Sporting events were originally associated with funeral rituals, particularly those of heroes and the fallen in battle, for example, the games for Patroklos in Homer 's Iliad. At Olympia, in particular, some mythological accounts credit Zeus with beginning the Games to celebrate his victory over Kronos whilst other accounts state the hero Pelops began them in honour of Oinomaos. In any case, sport, a healthy body and the competitive spirit were a large part of Greek education and so it is hardly surprising that organised athletic competitions would at some point be created, as they had been in the earlier Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. Sport, a healthy body & the competitive spirit were a large part of Greek education.