The Olympic Games were created in honor of their gods. The Isthmos Games took place every two years at the Isthmos of Cornith. The Pythian Games took place every four years near Delphi, the famous games that took place in Olympia in the south-west of Greece. From what has been found the Olympic Games started in 700 BC in the honor of Zeus. As some of you may know, women were not allowed to participate or watch the Games and only the Greek people could participate.
The Games started off with only a one-day festival of wrestling and athletics to a variety of sports (modern times). By 472 BC the Games had expanded to a five day festival with many more sports to participate in. The order of the festival is not known, but it was something like this:
The first day were sacrifices to the Gods, on the Middle day 100 oxen were sacrificed in honor of a god. Sometimes the athletes would pray and make sacrifices themselves... what they sacrificed no one knows....
On the second day, the foot-race, the main event of the Games, took place in the stadium. The track was a ellipsoidal area enclosed with earth. There were 4 different types of races: one was where they racers ran one stade (192 m) which is the length of the stadium, a 2-stade race (384 m), a long distance run which ranged from 7 stades to 24 stades (1,344 m - 4,608 m) and the fourth race was for military purposes. The fourth race asked the racers to wear full armor and run 2-4 stades (384 m- 768 m) and as used to build up speed and stamina.
Other days included: wrestling, boxing and a pancratium a combination of the two. In wrestling the objective of the game was to throw down your opponent three times on their back, hip or shoulder. In Ancient Greek wrestling biting and genital holds were illegal. Boxing became more and more brutal. First soft leather was wrapped around the peoples hands so the blows would be harder. But later the players used hard leather that sometimes had metal wrapped in it. In the pancratium, the most vicious sport of all continued until one of the players admitted defeat.
Horse-racing was also one of the sports. Though it was restricted to the rich, it was still a popular attraction. The course was six laps around the track. It was only wealthy people that could pay for training, equipment and grooming for the horse. So that is why, if the horse wins, both owner and horse get the Olive wreath. There were also chariot races that consisted of 2-horse races or 4-horse races, with separate tracks for each chariot pulled by foals. There was also a race which was a chariot pulled by two mules and had to take 12 laps around the track.
The Games started off with only a one-day festival of wrestling and athletics to a variety of sports (modern times). By 472 BC the Games had expanded to a five day festival with many more sports to participate in. The order of the festival is not known, but it was something like this:
The first day were sacrifices to the Gods, on the Middle day 100 oxen were sacrificed in honor of a god. Sometimes the athletes would pray and make sacrifices themselves... what they sacrificed no one knows....
On the second day, the foot-race, the main event of the Games, took place in the stadium. The track was a ellipsoidal area enclosed with earth. There were 4 different types of races: one was where they racers ran one stade (192 m) which is the length of the stadium, a 2-stade race (384 m), a long distance run which ranged from 7 stades to 24 stades (1,344 m - 4,608 m) and the fourth race was for military purposes. The fourth race asked the racers to wear full armor and run 2-4 stades (384 m- 768 m) and as used to build up speed and stamina.
Other days included: wrestling, boxing and a pancratium a combination of the two. In wrestling the objective of the game was to throw down your opponent three times on their back, hip or shoulder. In Ancient Greek wrestling biting and genital holds were illegal. Boxing became more and more brutal. First soft leather was wrapped around the peoples hands so the blows would be harder. But later the players used hard leather that sometimes had metal wrapped in it. In the pancratium, the most vicious sport of all continued until one of the players admitted defeat.
Horse-racing was also one of the sports. Though it was restricted to the rich, it was still a popular attraction. The course was six laps around the track. It was only wealthy people that could pay for training, equipment and grooming for the horse. So that is why, if the horse wins, both owner and horse get the Olive wreath. There were also chariot races that consisted of 2-horse races or 4-horse races, with separate tracks for each chariot pulled by foals. There was also a race which was a chariot pulled by two mules and had to take 12 laps around the track.