Ancient Greek Olympics :: essays research papers

Ancient Greek Olympics     Reporting todays Olympic games is like a technological masterpiece.The athletes compete in many events, their times and scores are tallied andsent worldwide by satellites and high-tech computers within seconds. Each eventis guardedly watched and recorded with a sense of history. There was no suchsense of history or records when the first Games began in Ancient Greece.     The first recorded wiz in Greece was a sprinter, Coroebus, he wasa cook in a near by Greek city called, Elis. He ran naked on a sanded course infront of thousands of spectators. The course was about 630 feet long "or onestad-from which the word stadium was derived." His victory won him a wreath ofolive leaves.     That was in 776 BC and this year became very important to later GreekHistorians. In 300 BC all time was dated by Olympiads, a time span of four yearsbetween the games. The Olympiad began with the first recorde d foot race.     As far plunk for in Greek time as anyone can remember, the human body was avery beautiful thing. "A body of a man had glory, as well as his mind, that both demand discipline, and by that such discipline men best honored Zeus." Fromtime to time the Greeks held ceremonies of Games in honor of their god Zeus.They held these ceremonies for the areas in which they took place. These placeswere, Pythian, Isthmian, Nemeam, and of course, Olympian. The Olympian games goback to the time of the first people to live in the valley of Alpheas River.There in Elis, in the western Peloponnesus was Olympia, "the fairest spot inGreece." This land was filled with dishful and snowcapped mountains. This areawas a perfect spot for the ceremonies held every four years, for Zeus.In 1875, the most important ruins of Ancient Greece were uncovered. Oneimportant ruin that was discovered was the temple of Zeus, that was in useabout 2,500 years ago. Near it was the temple for his wife, Hera that was evenolder. It was used about 2,900 years ago. Another important discovery was thefinding of the statue of Hermes. Hermes was etched by the Praxiteles. Thisstatue was found in the Heras Temple. Contained in the Temple of Zeus was oneof the Seven Wonders of the World, it was a statue of Zeus sitting on histhrone, it was larger then a two-story house. This great masterpiece was made by,Phidias, it was made of ivory and gold.     Soon everyone wanted to win the favor of their god, Zeus.