Olimpic Games History

(The palaestra of Olympia, a place devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes)

They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin.

(His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin)

(Three runners featured on an Attic black-figured Panathenaic prize amphora. 332-333 BC, British Museum)

( Pankration scene: the pankriatiast on the right tries to gouge his opponent's eye; the umpire is about to strike him for this foul. Detail from an Attic red-figure kylix c.490-480 BC, British Museum )

The ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate,although there were victorious women chariot owners. As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate, although the Hellanodikai, the officials in charge, allowed king Alexander I of Macedon to participate in the games only after he had proven his Greek ancestry. The games were always held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations as is the practice with the modern Olympic Games. Victors at the Olympics were honored, and their feats chronicled for future generations.

( The "Discobolus" is a copy of a Greek statue c. 5th century BC. It represents an ancient Olympic discus thrower )

( The Parthenon in Athens, one of the leading city-states of the ancient world )

( Ancient list of Olympic victors of the 75th to the 78th, and from the 81st to the 83rd Olympiads (480–468 BC, 456–448 BC).)

( "Cave of Zeus", Mount Ida (Crete). )

( Laurel-wreathed head of Zeus on a gold stater, Lampsacus, c 360–340 BC (Cabinet des Médailles). )

( Roman cast terracotta of ram-horned Jupiter Ammon, 1st century AD (Museo Barracco, Rome).)

( Roman cast terracotta of ram-horned Jupiter Ammon, 1st century AD (Museo Barracco, Rome).)

(Zeus as Vajrapāni, the protector of the Buddha. 2nd century, Greco-Buddhist art. )