Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The ancient Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ta Olympia [1]), or the ancient Olympics, were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece.
The first major games to have been played at the Olympia stadium were said to have first begun in the 720s. These prestigious ancient games took place during the festival of Zeus at Olympia. Olympia was a sanctuary, but it was within the independent state of Elis, and since the Eleans managed the games, there was sometimes bias.
A papyrus list of Olympic victors, 3rd century A.D., British Library The current list of ancient Olympic victors contains all of the known victors of the ancient Olympic Games from the 1st Games in 776 BC up to 264th in 277 AD, as well as the games of 369 AD before their permanent disbandment in 393 by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
Just how far back in history organized contests were held remains a matter of debate, but it is reasonably certain that they occurred in Greece almost 3,000 years ago. . However ancient in origin, by the end of the 6th century BC at least four Greek sporting festivals, sometimes called "classical games," had achieved major importance: the Olympic Games, held at Olympia; the Pythian Games at ...
Ancient authors agreed that other Olympics had been held before the race won by Coroebus but disagreed on how many; the convention was established to place Coroebus's victory at a time equivalent to the summer of 776 BC in the Proleptic Julian calendar, and to treat it as Year 1 of Olympiad 1.
The warriors did not have any specialized training for the Olympics. Each polis in ancient Greece had its training program for soldiers, which was the only preparation they had. However, to train for war, the ancient Greeks would exercise the whole body, which is a principle that many later ancient Greek athletes lived by.
The palaestra at Olympia (Greek παλαίστρ-α, -αι, "wrestling ground or grounds," Latin palaestr-a, -ae, with Greek ἐν Όλυμπία, Latin in Olympia) is the ground or grounds in ancient Olympia where πάλη, Doric πάλα, "wrestling," was taught and performed for training purposes; i.e., "wrestling-school." Two other martial ...
The Heraea was an ancient Greek festival in which young girls competed in a footrace, possibly as a puberty or pre-nuptial initiation ritual. The race was held every four years at Olympia. The games were organised by a group of sixteen women, who were also responsible for weaving a peplos for Hera and arranging choral dances.