Greek
Olympic Games
WHAT IS The OLYMPIC GAMES IN ANTIQUITY?
In Antiquity, the Greeks regularly devote
to called sporting competitions Olympic Games. These plays
proceed in the city of Olympie where is located the most significant furnace
bridge dedicated to Zeus, god of the Sky and sovereign of the gods of
Olympe. It is known that the first Olympic Games were held into 776 before J-C,
but other competitions probably already took place in older times still. They
disappear into 391 after J-C, when the Roman emperor Théodose I er prohibits them.
WHEN SE DO THEY UNROLL?
the stage of Olympie
Built to
O C century before J-C, the
stage of Olympie is the place of the first test of the ancient Olympic Games,
the race with foot. The length of the stage (192,27 meters) corresponds,
according to the legend, with 600 times the foot of the Héraclès hero.
The ancient stage of Olympie, located in the Peloponnese (in Greece), was
cleared since 1958 by a team of German archaeologists.
The Olympic Games gather all the Greek
cities and are the occasion of crowned trêve during which nobody has the right to make the
war. They are held every four years, in summer, and last five days. The period between
two plays is called a olympiade; it is used as system of dating (of calendar)
to the Greeks.
WHO TAKES PART In It?
To take part in the Olympic Games, it is
necessary to be a free man, citizen of the Greek world. The women
for example do not take part in it. Before the plays, envoys traverse the Greek
world to invite the quote-States to take part in it. To take part in the plays
is a manner of paying its tribute with the Zeus god.
The athletes arrive one month before the
opening of the plays and start to involve themselves in the gymnasium.
WHICH ARE THE VARIOUS TESTS?
After a first day devoted to the
religious ceremonies in the honor of
Zeus, the sporting competitions start. They are athletic, horse tests and of
combat:
a race with foot
–the
races with foot, which take place in the stage (it measures 600 times the
foot of the Héraclès hero, i.e. 192,27 m). One of the races, very appreciated
of the public, has the characteristic to be made vêtu of an armour;
–competitions
of combat, in particular the fight, boxing and the pancrace (a combination
of the two precedents);
a race of tanks
–races
of tanks and horses, which take place in the hippodrome. These tests are
reserved for richest because its horse should be had;
–the
pentathlon finally, which is a series of five tests: race, long jump,
throwing the javelin, throwing the discus and fight.
The winners of each test gain a crown of
olive-tree. On their return in their city, they are accomodated triumphantly
and again rewarded.
Do There EXIST OTHER PLAYS THAT With
OLYMPIE?
The Olympic Games are most famous and most
honorary of the ancient plays to which the Greeks deliver themselves. However,
there is different, the also prestigious one:
the Pythiques plays take place with Delphes in the honor of
Apollo; the Isthmiques plays proceed
in Corinthe in the honor of Poséidon; the Néméens plays are practised in Némée in the honor of
Héraclès.
The Olympic Games of the Greeks of
Antiquity are the ancestors of the Olympic Games of today.
