The Ancient

Olympic Games
 The Greeks invented athletic contests and
held them in honor of their gods.
•The Isthmus Games were staged every two years
at the Isthmus of Corinth.
•The Pythian Games took place every four years near
Delphi.
•The most famous games were those at Olympia, a
town in south- western Greece. These took place every
four years.
During the Olympic Games,
which were were held from 776
B.C. to A.D. 393, all fighting
stopped. No matter how long or
how fiercely a battle had raged,
every soldier in the battlefield put
down his weapons and traveled to
Olympia to compete in or watch
athletic games designed to honor
Zeus and the other Greek gods.

Zeus
Once in Olympia,
the participants were
no longer soldiers at
all, but athletes.

The word athlete is from ancient Greek and means

"one who competes for a prize" and was related to
two other Greek words, athlos meaning contest and
athlon meaning prize.
Ancient Olympia: reconstruction
The first day of the festival was devoted to sacrifices. On
the second day, the foot-races, the main event of the
games, took place in the stadium, a rectangular area
enclosed by sloping banks of earth.

The Stadium
 The Olympic Truce
For seven days before and
seven days after the Games
(and for the period of the
Games, of course), no
fighting was allowed.
Fighting would have been
considered disrespectful to
the gods.
Soldiers were allowed to
travel safely from the
battlefields to the Olympic
Games without fear of
being attacked by anyone.

Why did this happen?

Historians have found

several reasons:
1. The most important reason is that the Olympic
Games were a religious festival. The Greeks
considered it their religious duty to attend the
Games, and duty to their gods was more important
than duty to their city-states, which were fighting the
wars in the first place.
2. Many of the best athletes
were soldiers whose
commanders would not
want them to leave the
fighting. With the truce in
place and the fighting
halted, these soldier-
athletes were free to
compete in the Games and
then return to the fighting
when the Games had
finished
Since war was so much a part of life in ancient Greece,
victorious soldiers came to be heroes for their city-states
and role models for the young.
Not all athletes were soldiers,
though.
Holding the Olympic Games
and showcasing the athletic
talents of men who were not
soldiers allowed city-states to
celebrate heroes and role
models who might not be the
best fighters.
The athletes competed for themselves, not their city-
states. For example, if Demetrius of Corinth won the
running race, then he was celebrated as Demetrius--just
Demetrius--not Demetrius of Corinth. This was to make
sure that battlefield prejudices didn't spill onto the
Olympic athletic fields.
The Olympics of ancient Greece weren't exactly the
worldwide spectacle that we have today:
-only Greeks took part
-there were only nine events

Stadium
entrance
 1. Boxing
Those who boxed wore a sort of glove made of straps
of soft ox-hide. They didn't fight people of similar
weight; opponents were chosen at random. Boxing
matches had no time limit and ended only when one
boxer held up his hand or fell to the ground.
 2. Discus
The throwers of the discus
originally threw a circular
stone and then later a disc
made of iron, lead, or
bronze.
The movements and
techniques of ancient
discus throwers were very
similar to those of today's
athletes.
 3. Equestrian Events
Horse racing took place in a hippodrome, a large
stadium that contained a racetrack very much like
today's track and field ovals. The athletes would ride in
war chariots that were rigged for either two or four
horses.
A second type of horse-race involved riders rather than
chariots.
4. Javelin
The Ancient Olympic
Games featured two kinds
of javelin events:
•throwing for distance
•throwing at a target
(for which an
athlete would throw
from horseback at a
specific distance).
 5. Jumping
This was long jump only, and the main difference in
ancient times was that the jumper carried a weight
in each hand. He would swing these weights as he
ran down the ramp, jump, then release the weights
just before he landed. All of this was designed to
increase the distance of the jump.

halteres
 6. Pankration
This was a sport that
has been lost. It was a
combination of boxing
and wrestling that was
extremely rough. The
only things outlawed
were biting and gouging
out an opponent's eyes!
Athletes didn't wear
boxing gloves, but they
could hold an opponent
with one hand and hit
him with another, unlike
in boxing. Two versions
of the pankration were
offered. In the first,

whoever hit the ground first lost; in the second,

whoever lost consciousness first lost.
Soldiers were usually very good at this
sport, and it was not unusual for pankration
athletes to be seriously injured or even die.
7. Pentathalon
This event combined five
other events: -
discus -
javelin -
long jump -
running -
wrestling The
pentathalon showcased the
all-round athlete.
 8. Running
The three running races were usually very popular. The
three distances were 200 m, 400 m, and a long-distance
race of 1400 to 1800. Various running races took place,
including one in which athletes wore armor.
 9. Wrestling
This, too, was similar to wrestling
today. The object was to get an
opponent to fall to the ground. The
first man to fall three times lost.
Hitting, as in boxing, was not
allowed, nor was biting or gouging
eyes. Tripping was allowed,
however. Also, no weight classes
were involved, meaning that the
smallest man might have to take on
the largest man.
All of the athletes were men, of course, as was always the
case in ancient Greece. All of the men competed nude, so
women weren’t even allowed to be spectators

(in case it
offended their
delicate eyes!!)
However, along with the
athletic contests held at
ancient Olympia, there
was a separate festival in
honor of Hera (the wife
of Zeus). This festival
included foot races for
unmarried girls.

Female Athlete
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.

Coubertin
 The Olympic Rings
The modern Olympic rings, first used in 1920,
symbolize the 5 continents athletes travel from
to compete.
The Americas are combined into one, Australia,
Europe, Asia, and Africa. They interlock which is
symbolic of the games bringing everyone
together.
Today’s Olympics include all
countries, both genders, and
too many sports to count. Not
much like ancient Greece.

Unfortunately,
the Olympic
Peace doesn’t
exist today either.
https://www.brainpop.com/health/personalhealth/oly
mpics/
4 Min Brain Pop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdHHus8IgYA
3 min Ted Ed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L_vq5JYQlE
2 min Comparing Olympic sprinters over time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlRvxEp2Y88
7 min Goofy Olympic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4ErzQBlPcI
5 min Discovery Ed Ancient Olympics
 Bibliography
Ancient Greece: www.ancientgreece.com

Archaeonet: www.archaeonet.nl

Greek Sports: www.hellenism.net

Greek Travel Destinations: www.greeceathensaegeaninfo.com

Social Studies for Kids: www.socialstudiesforkids.com

Story of the Ancient Olympics:
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/Olympics/olympicorigins.shtml