Start of the Olympic Games:
Like so much of ancient history, the origins of the Olympic Games are shrouded in myth and legend (see: Games, Rituals, and Warfare). The Greeks dated events from the first Olympiad in in 776 B.C. -- two decades before the legendary founding of Rome.
Olympics as a Religious Occasion:
The Olympics were a religious event for the Greeks. Olympia was a site dedicated to Zeus.
End of the Games:
In A.D. 391 the Emperor Theodosius ended the games.
Cheating at the Olympics:
According to Emeritus Classics Professor Matthew Wiencke, when a cheating competitor was caught, he was disqualified. In addition, the cheatng athlete, his trainer, and possibly his city-state were fined. Their fines were used to build bronze statues to Zeus lining the tunnel leading to the stadium. Clearly, cheating was anticipated.
Victory at the Olympic Games:
An Olympic victor was crowned with an olive wreath (laurel wreath was the award for another of the Panhellenic games -- the games at Delphi) and had his name inscribed in the official Olympic records. Some Olympic victors were fed for the rest of their lives by their poleis, although they were never paid. They were considered heroes who conferred honor upon their city-states.
Participants:
Participants included all Greek men, except slaves, certain felons, and barbarians during the Classical Period. By the Hellenistic Period, professional athletes competed. Married women were not allowed to enter the stadium during the games and might be killed if they tried. A priestess of Demeter was present, however. Even without competing, women could be named victor in equestrian events if they owned the winning horse. There may have been a separate race for women at Olympia.
Ekecheiria:
The period of sacred truce for the duration of the Olympic Games had a special name -- ekecheiria. The first truce was made for a month between Iphitos of Elis, Kleosthenes of Pisa and Lykourgos of Sparta, according to Olympics Through Time:
- All hostilities ceased
- Arms and armies were not allowed to enter Elis.
- During the truce there were no executions.
The Olympic Games Essentials:
Representatives of each polis (city-state) could attend the ancient Olympics and hope to win a victory that would confer great personal and civic honor. So great was the honor that cities considered Olympic victors to be heroes and sometimes fed the victors for the rest of their lives. The Olympic festivals were also important religious occasions and the site of the Olympics was more a sanctuary to Zeus than a city proper. In addition to competitors and their trainers, poets, who wrote victory odes for the winners, attended the games.
We don't know how the Olympics started, but the traditional date is 776 B.C. Greece used the Olympics for its dating system. For the first 13 Olympiads the only event was a footrace. The stadion was a sprint a stadion long (about 192 m) or the length of the stadium. The women's racecourse was shorter than the men's by about a sixth. In the 18th Olympiad, the pentathlon and wrestling were added.
