Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games were an athletic and religious celebration held in the Greek town of Olympia from (historically) as early as 776 BC to 393 AD.

History

The Games were held in Olympia, Greece, a sanctuary site for the Greek gods near the towns of Elis and Pisatis (both in Elis on the peninsula of Peloponnesos).

Related Topics:
Greek gods - Pisatis - Elis - Peloponnesos

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The Sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia housed a 12 metres high statue in ivory and gold of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods, scuplted by Phidias. This statue was one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World.

Related Topics:
12 metre - Statue in ivory and gold of Zeus - Phidias - Seven Wonders of the World

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The first written accounts of the Olympic Games date from 776 BC, although it is sure that these Games were not the first ones to be held. The Olympic Games were held in four year intervals, and later the Greek method of counting the years even referred to these Games, using the term Olympiad for the period between two Games. The Greeks in historical times used the Olympiads to count years, much as we today use AD and BC. Thus, by that chronology, the first Olympiad would have taken place in 919 BC.

Related Topics:
776 BC - AD

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The only competition held then was the stadion race, a race over about 190 metres, measured after the feet of Hercules.

Related Topics:
Stadion - 190 metre

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The word stadium is derived from this foot race.

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Several groups fought over control of the sanctuary, and hence the Games, for prestige and political advantage.

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The Greek traveller Pausanias writes that in 668 BC, Pheidon of Argos was commissioned by the town of Pisa to capture the sanctuary from the town of Elis, which he did and then personally controlled the Games for that year. The next year Elis regained control.

Related Topics:
Greek traveller Pausanias - 668 BC - Argos

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The Athenian writer Xenophon in 364 BC gives a contemporary record of an Elean attack during the Pentathlon final of the Games themselves, as the Pisans were again in control. The Eleans pushed the defenders almost to the altar before retreating due to missiles being thrown at them from the porticos. During that night the defending Arcadians constructed defensive palisades, and the next morning on seeing the strength of the defence the Elians retreated.

Related Topics:
Xenophon - 364 BC - Pentathlon

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In 12 BC Herod the Great gave financial support to the Games to enable its future survival.

Related Topics:
12 BC - Herod the Great

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The Olympic Games were part of the Panhellenic Games, four separate games held at two- or four-year intervals but arranged so that there was at least one set of games every year. The Olympic Games were the most important and most prestigious of these.

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Finally, in AD 394 the Olympic Games - one of the foundations of Greek religion, with their polytheistic observances - fell victim to the religious campaign of the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius I, which consisted of the violent obliteration of all surviving Pagan institutions.

Related Topics:
AD 394 - Roman - Theodosius I

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