The Ancient Olympics

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Term Paper Title	The Ancient Olympics
# of Words	1029
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.12

The Ancient Olympics

The ancient Olympics were a festival that had probably been going on long before the first champion was ever crowned. The Olympics were not just for athletic competition; the festival was also for music, poetry, and other art forms.  When the events were revived in the early 19th century the art festivities were not revived with them (Girardi).

     The Olympics took place at Olympia, located in a wooded valley in the western Peloponnese. The area is surrounded by hills on three sides with a river to the south.  The ancient Olympics had a very close connection to religion.  The landscape of Olympia was covered with many statues, shrines, and temples.  Two of the greatest temples of the ancient world were at Olympia.  The temple to Zeus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the oldest sanctuary in Greece the temple of Rhea, the mother of gods, was also here (Macmillan).

     Nobody knows for sure when the Olympics actually started but the first known games took place in 776 BC.  The ancient events were held every four years just like the modern ones.  The first 77 meetings of the games had only one event, a one stade (about 200 yards) long foot race (Macmillan).  More games were eventually added to the festival; the long run in 720 BC, the pentathlon in 708 BC, boxing in 688 BC, chariot racing in 680 BC, the pancratium in 648 BC, and the foot race in armor was added in 580 BC (Columbia). After other events were added the games had to be lengthened to five days.  The first day of the games there was animal sacrifices, the taking of the Olympic oath, swearing in of judges and athletes, and a trumpeter’s contest.  The second day had all the contests for boys.  The boys competed in the same events as the men.  The men and boys were separated by physical appearance.  On the third day the men competed in foot races, wrestling, boxing, pancratium (a mixture of boxing and wrestling), and racing in armor. The fourth day had the men’s pentathlon, and chariot and horse races. The fifth day had more animal sacrifices and banquets in honor of the winners.  The winners were awarded only a crown of wild leaves from a sacred olive tree.  However when the athletes returned to their hometown they were treated as heroes.  There were statues of them erected, and they were given a place of honor at all public events.  They received free board at the Prytameam in Athens.  They usually received gifts of money and land from their villages, an...

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