Ancient Olympics 2

International Sports Hall of Fame and Olympic Museum

ANCIENT OLYMPICS 2

Traveling to the Olympics, which was actually a Religious Festival, was save for 30 days before, until 30 days after the games and was called "The Olympic Truce", which was agreed and honored by all Greeks, although there were three known exceptions. In 570 BC when Elis took control of Olympia from the Pisatans, then the next one was in 431 B.C. when Sparta invaded Elis during the Olympic Truce and had to pay a heavy fine to Elis and again in 364 B.C. when Arcadians entered the sanctuary and fought Elis in midst of the Olympic Truce, but the Festival, which despite wars, went on uninterrupted from 776 B.C. even when King Phillip of Macedonia took control of Greece in 338 B.C. and four years later his son Alexander the Great, who began his campaign of conquests across the East using Greek rules, only to die eleven years later intoxicated during a victory celebration in Babylon. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C. Hellenistic and Roman periods influenced the Olympics and pagan Festivals. The first Roman incursion came in 229 B.C., with Roman rules. When Greeks rebelled in Corinth in 146B.C., Romans leveled the city, executed all males and sold all women and children as slaves. After that, there were many more uprisings against Roman armies, which repeatedly marched across Greece, pillaging the sanctuary of Olympia. In 80 B.C. Roman General Sulla again pillaged Olympia during the civil wars in Greece, who was at a very low ebb, as the Roman armies repeatedly kept marching across Greece, until the battle of Actium, off Greece's west coast in 31 B.C. which ended with Mark Anthony's defeat, followed by his and Cleopatra's death. that ended Rome's civil wars. During the turmoil from 146 to 31 B.C. the Olympics kept taking place as usual every four years and in 27 B.C. the Emperor Augustus declared the "Pax Romana", starting a reign of peace and tranquility. Greek Culture and Athletic Festivals were imported into Italy. In A.D. 66, Emperor Nero, who was devoted to Greek culture, visited Olympia and in A.D. 67, took part in Olympics, adding poetry to the roster. He took part in the Chariot races and although he fell off his Chariot, still got awarded first prices for all the events, by the Judges, which when he was murdered in Rome a year later were taken away from him and his records were erased as if he never participated in the Olympic Games in Olympia at all.

Around A.D.100, thanks to some Roman Emperors who admired Greek Culture, a second Golden Age emerged for Olympia, when emperors such as Hadrian lavished Olympia with gifts and buildings and by A.D.150, for the first time in its history, an efficient water system had been installed, ending centuries of the worst discomforts and health conditions for everybody. In A.D. 267 the Heruli tribe, barbarians from South Russia invaded the Greek Peloponnesus, but Elis built a double wall in the Sacred Grove and defended the Sanctuary. But in A.D.312, as paganism faded, the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire and with the Romans adopting Christianity as their only religion, the Olympics, which were foremost a pagan celebration in honor of Zeus, with bloody pagan rituals and free and open sex orgies that held no place in a Christian Empire, the prestige of Olympia declined rapidly and the Olympics come to an end with Olympia being doomed. Lists of victories, by not being accurately recorded, were getting uncertain and incomplete and finally they stopped all together and the prestige of the Olympics was coming to an end. In A.D. 365, the last Victor on record was the Armenian Prince Varazdates who won the Boxing event of the 291st Olympiad. The next Olympiad was the 292nd in A.D. 369 and as much as 24 years later in A.D.393, the 293rd and very last official Olympiad of Ancient Greece, but there are no records or Victor's lists for the 24 year gap between the 292nd and 293rd Olympics, which have been lost, but as is believed, did take place in Olympia, possibly even with Roman approval. And it is known, that even after Romans abolished the pagan festivities, sporting events kept going on in several parts of Greece, most likely even in Olympia itself.

In A.D. 394, Emperor Theodosius I officially abolished the Olympics and baned all pagan festivals. He sent Phidias' statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the world, to Constantinople, where it was displayed at the Emperor's Palace, which fifty years later was destroyed by a fire inside the Palace. In A.D.426 by orders of Theodosius II, the Temple of Zeus is being burned down in Olympia and some malicious, evil fanatic Christians destroy the Sanctuary. During the next ten centuries, starting in A.D.522, several devastating earthquakes and floods from the rivers Alpheus and Cladeus, bury Olympia under fifteen feet of mud and silt, which marks the physical end of Olympia, until German Scientists began excavating the ruins starting in the late 1800's. Although the Olympics in Olympia were over, Sports and Athletics went on in Greece, Rome and in Europe and new sports were being born and the sports that took place in Olympia became more sophisticated, with the rules changing and 1500 years later the first Olympics of the modern era are taking place in Athens in 1896, through the ingenuity of Baron Pierre de Coubertain, the father of the modern Olympics, at which time the entire world and especially nations that attended, had many dedicated Officials and excellent Athletes, continuously breaking new records.

The Program of the Ancient Olympics lasted five days and hardly changed after 470 B.C. It was a full day's event, with morning and afternoon sessions, which started on DAY 1, with the OPENING CEREMONIES and Athletes, Coaches and Judges taking the Olympic Oath in the Bouleuterion, the Council House and the Olympic Headquarters with all the ten Judges standing under the towering statue of Zeus Horkios, God of Oaths where the Athletes came inside the temple for the solemn "Swearing In" Ceremony, while the first contests for the Heralds and Trumpeters at the Echo Colonnade took place. Athletes consulting the Oracle, made their private sacrifices to the Gods. The afternoon was free to explore the Sacred Grove of Zeus, view Statues, Paintings, Literary events, Poetry, Philosophy and History, or do less morally correct pursuits, available at the Carnival-like Festival Fringe. DAY 2, 6.00 A.M. A lot of activities that day, starting with the Equestrian events at the Hippodrome. Horse races, two and four Horse Chariot races and bareback races with Colts, a very dangerous bloody affair, that many times ended with dead riders. At 12.00 P.M. Pentathlon at the Stadium, combining Discus, Javelin and Long Jump as core events, adding Running and Wrestling for the complete series of Penthatlon, in which only the top Athletes took part. At night there were Victory Parades, Coral Hymns a Banquet for Champions of the all the Day 2 events, that lasted through the whole night, becoming a wild Bacchanal. DAY 3 AM. Coinciding with a full moon, started with the festival's religious ritual, a procession to the Great Altar of Zeus and sacrifice of one hundred Oxen, a bloody and gory affair and mass slaughter, I will not describe further, while events for boys and girls under age 18, which were not permitted at the religious festivals, was taking place in the Stadium. Later that evening was the gigantic public banquet for all, from the sacrificed meat which again, as usual, went on through the entire night. DAY 4, A.M. Running, the oldest sport event in Olympia, from 776 B.C. with Sprints of 192m, 384m and the long distance race of the 3,600 meters. 2.00 P.M.: The very painful contact sports: Wrestling, Boxing and especially the extremely rough and dangerous Pankratian and as a last event, the Hoplitodromia, or the Race-in-Armor of men in full bronze armor, running a double lap of the Stadium. And after the sports events ending day 4, another long night of partying, including drinking and wild sex orgies, with utmost sexual perversities. DAY 5, CLOSING CEREMONIES: Dignity returns to Olympia. Olive wreaths, cut by a boy at a ritual of the sacred tree of Zeus, planted by Hercules at the Altis, is presented to the Olympic Champions, as they enter the Sanctum Sanctorium of Olympia, the firm and strict Judges, fulfilling the ancient ordinances of Hercules, setting a grey wreath of Olives upon the Victor's hair and being announced to Zeus. When the Champions reemerge, they are carried around by friends and family at the sacred grove of the Altis and later escorted to the private feast at the banquet hall of the Prytaneion, the Administrative Center of the Olympic Games, hosted by the Judges. This was the building where on one wing the eternal Olympic Flame burned and on the other, housed the Olympic Archives, dating back to 776 B.C. It also had a museum with memorabilia and artifacts from famous Champions and events, like discuses, javelins, gloves and other items from heroes of the past. Former Champions were welcome at the banquet, mixing with the new ones, which was a great way to end the five day Olympics.

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