Assemble for the Games

Olympic Games are big, huge … and old. Nearly every child in western world will know that Olympic Games are “something” from old Greece. But certainly they will not know much more.

The Spirit of Olympia

So did I until the moment I entered the old place of Olympia. Yes, it still exists for those who don´t know. It is not alone the site itself which was attracting my interest - it was much more. This was the place where people form all ancient world assembled. Assemble “just” for sports, but for this purpose changing the global political situation of that world just for the “games”. So enjoy to learn a bit more about the Games and its modern followers, and enter into the world of old Greece as well.

This is the entrance to ancient stadion of Olympia (Source:Own pic)

Historical Context

We must first say that Olympic Games have a very distant origin in ancient times and it is very hard to set a date “official” of their creation. Although we often hear about 2000 years of Olympic spirit, it is no less certain that the Games have an even more ancient origin according to some historians.
Before lead to the creation of games, it is important to trace the epic about sport and competition of yesteryear.
We can say that athletics is born of the struggle for life led by men of the early ages. Indeed, the caveman, hunter or seasoned man has meant to use his abilities “sports” for food, defend or flee ahead of ferocious beasts. Inevitably, he slowly began to understand he had a talent for running, to throw or to cross natural barriers. He began to play a competition unique to himself for his sake and to measure its strength. He then measured the other hunters.
Although primitive, it is not impossible to say that the spirit of competition had an effect of increasing the peoples and eventually also to challenge each other in a sporting manner. Athletics was born then.
Evidence dating from 3500 BC shows that in Egypt, men were already racing, swimming, jumping and making other activities that are currently found in athletics and Olympic disciplines. There is no doubt that the Egyptians before the Greeks in the field of athletic invention.
The ancient Greeks were very regularly practicing sports and various disciplines. The Greeks brag about themselves, believing that gymnastics made a fundamental difference between them and barbarous nations.
The main reasons to participate in these sports were for military purposes more than anything else. Basically, it was to train their warriors.
Moreover, the Games were constantly reviewed, they were replayed several times between 2500 BC and 776 BC. Historians consider that Pisati were the first creators of the Games because they were the first owners of the valley of the Alpheus in the region of the Peloponnese in Greece. Moreover, it was not far from the land of Olympia and their inhabitants held the the Games until the beginning of the 6th century BC. Pisa was then destroyed by the many wars that were present at the time.

Wrestling Gym (Source: Own pic)

The Olympic Truce

From 2500BC to 776BC, the Games were re-imposed by important figures from ancient Greece:

• Clyménos king of Minyens (about 1500 BC)
• Endymion King of Elis (about 1100 BC)
• Iphitos Élide king (884 BC)

In 884 BC, war broke out in the peninsula and Iphitos, King of Elis, wanted to remedy. To do this, he dealt an agreement Lycurgus (king of Sparta): a truce would be imposed between the two cities during a holiday called “Olympics”.
So at this point those games of Olympia, the sacred city, were re-established. However, the creation date of the Games is most often reduced to 776 BC. Simply because it is from that date that the Games were the most often and most regularly celebrated. We may indeed say that the Games became “national” in 776 BC. And that lasted for nearly 1200 years.