The Ancient Olympics

                                                      

                                   The Ancient Olympics

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
Knight, Theodore. The Ancient Olympics. The Ancient Olympics. Vol. 2010. New York.

My first thought when I took a look at this quote was that people don't need to win in everything and be perfect, the important thing is that they take part in it; because sometimes people may lose and then feel depressed while they have no idea how much more improtant it is to take part in something. The second part of a quote is just the same but in different words with a different example.


The article that I was assigned to read was fairly interesting. It talks about the Ancient Olympics, and how it developed over time until it was finally gone and destroyed by the Ancient Romans.


The Olympics was placed on a very sacred site- in a valley in western Greece at a place called Olympia (you can immediately guess it from the actually word: Olimpic).
Corobeus, the first to win a race in Olympia in 776 BC, was rewarded with a wreath of olive branches. Isn't that cool? Corobeous is very famous because he was the first runner starting at the Ancient Olympics.
Competitions at Olympus were very strict/serious- only wealthy people could take part in it. They had to swear that they had been training for 10 months otherwise they wouldn't be able to participate. They were also strict because women were barred not only as competitors but also as spectators, and if they didn't follow this rule, they could die. For example, one story tells how a mother of a young runner named Pisidorus was teaching him how to run and win when his father died. When he won, she was so happy, that she was screaming very loudly. So, of course, she got noticed by others. At this moment, I was thinking of how they would kill her, but when I found out that she has not been killed, I was surprised. Nobody knows why she had not been killed. Anyway, as time passed by later, the rules changed and women were allowed to compete and watch games as well.


As years proggresed even more, Olympic events increased more and more, but we still don't know when each event happens. Some of the events in the Olympics include Boxing, Pancratium, Wrestling, Running,  Pentathlon, Chariot races, Pancratium (a brutal sport), biting, kicking, gouging, and strangling. In the penthalam, people got injured quite a lot because contestants threw discus and javelin at. Records indicate that wrestling, boxing, and pancratium competitors had a lot of impatient and enthusiastic crowds. This is why they were most dangerous.


1. Wrestling: Wrestling back then was just like today, including three successful throws to win a match. Biting and genital holds were illegal though.

2. Boxing: Unlike today's boxing, there were no rounds and no rules against hitting an opponent on the ground. They fought until a man was knocked down, or when one man gives up.

3. Pancratium: This was a comnination of boxing and wrestling, because they were allowed to punch, but not too seriously like for examples using your nails to scratch, or hitting the opponenet's eyes or stomach was illegal.



Finally, when the Olympics came to a decline by the Romans in 100 B.C, Roman culture and belief replaced the Greek way of life. This is how it ended.