The Olympics!

Archaeologists don't know exactly when the Olympics began they do however estimate it to have started around 776 B.C.E. The Olympics first started as a festival to honor the god Zeus. At first only male Greeks were allowed to participate; if you were a woman, foreigner, or slave you could forget it! Something that i find interesting is that for several centuries woman were not only barred from competing but they weren't even allowed to watch! However, some woman still tried to by disguising themselves as men, this of course was very risky because if you were discovered you would be put to death.


During the first decades after the games began the only sporting events were footraces soon however more sports were added such as chariot races, wrestling, boxing, and pancratium were some of the earliest forms of Olympic sports.
During the Games five days of continuous parades, feasts, and religious rituals were held. The Olympics was also a great place to negotiate treaties because many important people from many areas of Greece were there to watch.
During 100 B.C.E. the Roman Empire conquered Greece and took over the games. War and trade were more important the religious rituals so eventually the Olympics lost all its sacred value. As this text describes it "Contestants had once competed to honor the god and win their blessings; now they wanted to win for themselves. They began to demand prizes and money for competing. With money rather than spiritual rewards at stake, cheating and bribery increased among the athletes and officials. The games themselves became a brutal from of entertainment." I think that its horrible how in only a couple centuries a great and happy festival created to honor gods had turned into a brutal meaningless event. By A.D. 426 Theodosius II ordered the Olympic stadium to be torn down. For the next 15 hundred years there was no Olympics!
During 1863 - 1937 Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin began to try and reincorporate the Olympic games. Ever since the Olympic games have been going on in different countries every four years starting in Athens, Greece in 1896. The only time they have been cancelled is during World War I and World War II.

Bibliography:

Knight, Theodore. "The Ancient Olympics ." The Ancient World . 1st edition ed.
2010. Print.