THE OLYMPICS

THE OLYMPICS

1. Held every 4 years

   • Original Olympic Games began in 776BC
   • Held in Olympia, stadium held 40,000 people!
     • lasted 5 days
   • EVENTS:- running, discus, javelin, long jump and boxing
     • OTHER EVENTS:- running in armour, horse racing and chariot racing, no holds barred wrestling where everything was allowed except biting and eye gouging!
     • Most important event was the pentathlon, which included running, discus throwing, long jump, javelin, throwing and wrestling! An athlete had to compete in all five.

2. Focus of a religious festival in honour of Zeus, King of the Gods.

   • Because it was a religious festival, pilgrims would visit the temple of Zeus, where there was an ivory and gold statue of Zeus, 13 metres high!
     • Worshippers would take gifts and animals would be sacrificed to Zeus.
       • In the opening ceremony an athlete would light the fire on the altar to Zeus and all the athletes would swear to complete fairly

3. Truce (stop) on war was declared so that people could travel safely to Olympia

4. Only Men who were citizens were allowed to take part.

   • Married women were not even allowed to enter the stadium to watch on pain of death!!
     • Unmarried girls had their own games, held at a different time - the Heraia
   • Men would compete naked and would clean themselves afterwards by covering themselves in olive oil and scraping it off with a strigil

5. Greeks admired excellence in sport, Prizes were presented on the last day and included ribbons, olive wreaths and palm branches. On their return home the winners were hailed as heroes, their cities would give them free means and put up statues of them!