1. The Ancient Olympics V. Aishwarya lakshmi II Year, CSE 101
B.Tech computer science
Shiv nadar university

2. Ancient Olympics

3. Introduction
The Olympic Games is a very challenging subject to study with any accuracy unless one takes time to read the literature extensively.
The reason for this is that evidence on the Olympics is so scarce, difficult to interpret, and scattered throughout such a long period of time that very few accurate generalities can be made.

5. Introduction
The Olympic Games are an international sports festival that began in ancient Greece.
The original Greek games were staged every fourth year for several hundred years, until they were abolished in the early Christian era.
The revival of the Olympic Games took place in 1896, and since then they have been staged every fourth year, except during World War I and World War II (1916, 1940, 1944).

7. The History !
According to historical records, the first ancient Olympic Games can be traced back to 776 BC.
They were dedicated to the Olympian gods and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia.
They continued for nearly 12 centuries, until Emperor Theodosius decreed in 393 A.D. that all such "pagan cults" be banned.

8. The oldest myth which concerns the beginning of the Olympic Games is that of Herakles.
According to other myths, Zeus, the father of humanity, fought and defeated Cronus in a struggle for the throne of the gods.
He staged games in Olympia in honour of Zeus, because the latter had helped him conquer Elis when he went to war against Augeas.

9. There were four sets of athletic games held in Greece that were Pan-Hellenic, that is, contestants from all of Greece could participate.
These were: the Olympic Games held in Olympia, the Pythian Games held near Delphi, the Nemean games held near Nemea, and the Isthmian Games held near Corinth.

11. According to Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, the Olympic athletics were performed from time unknown.
However, until they first started reckoning Olympiads, the games were not held on a regular basis. He states that Iphitos renewed the Olympics as a regular festival; however Lysias asserts that it was Herakles who instituted the Olympic Games to bring peace among the Greeks.
Originally the Olympic Games were eclipsed by those at Delphi (the Pythian Games), but by the 7th Century they had become the most prominent athletic competitions in Greece.

12. Discus Thrower – Marble 2nd Century

16. How do we know the dates ?
Since they were held every four years, wecan date the first Olympics by counting backwards from an Olympic year contemporary to an event with a known date.
For instance, Diodorus states that there was a solar eclipse in the third year of the 117th Olympiad, which must be the eclipse of 310 BC.
This gives us a date of (mid-summer) 776 for the first year of the first Olympiad.
The Olympics continued through the Roman times until either AD 394 during the reign of emperor Theodosius I or AD 435 in the reign of his grandson Theodosius II.

17. Olympia
Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games, is in the western part of the Peloponnese which, according to Greek mythology, is the island of "Pelops", the founder of the Olympic Games.
Imposing temples, votive buildings, elaborate shrines and ancient sporting facilities were combined in a site of unique natural and mystical beauty.
Olympia functioned as a meeting place for worship and other religious and political practices as early as the 10th century B.C. The central part of Olympia was dominated by the majestic temple of Zeus, with the temple of Hera parallel to it. 

19. The layout of Olympia, like the reconstruction of many other parts of the Olympic games, is very complicated.
Archaeologists have found many structures, buildings, and statues – yet many of these come from different strata and cannot all be thought of as belonging together as though they were used in every century that the games were performed.
What is evident though is that the facilities at Olympia grew along with both the popularity of the festival and the number of events that took place at the games.
One example of this is the apparent increase in wells in Olympia as the festival became more popular.

21. Qualifications
There were several requirements for participating in the ancient Olympic Games.
One had to be a male Greek freeman of over eighteen years of age.
The male in question would have to swear that he had been training for the games for a period of ten months prior to the games in question.
Apparently those who were competing in the Olympic Games had to send notice that they would be arriving and could be fined if they arrived at the games late. In Roman times the excuses for being late were shipwreck, pirates, or sickness.

22. Once boys’ events were introduced, only boys under eighteen could enter those events. Judgment of their age was made based upon looks, since there was no way to prove exactly when one's date of birth was.
There were no divisions in ancient sport between professionals and amateurs. Many athletes while not professionals nevertheless competed along side them.
However, because training generally produces a better athlete, professional athletes began to dominate the games.

23. Spectators
Although the Olympic festival was religious in nature, not everyone could watch the athletics - for the participants competed naked.
Married women and slaves were forbidden from watching as the Olympic Games took place.
The penalty for married women who were caught watching the games was death.

24. Olympics and religion
The Olympic Games were closely linked to the religious festivals of the cult of Zeus, but were not an integral part of a rite.
Indeed, they had a secular character and aimed to show the physical qualities and evolution of the performances accomplished by young people, as well as encouraging good relations between the cities of Greece.
According to specialists, the Olympic Games owed their purity and importance to religion.

25. Events

26. Events
The ancient Olympic Games were initially a one-day event until 684 BC, when they were extended to three days. In the 5th century B.C., the Games were extended again to cover five days.
The ancient Games included running, long jump, shot put, javelin, boxing, pankration and equestrian events.

27. Running contests included:
Pentathlon
The Pentathlon became an Olympic sport with the addition of wrestling in 708 B.C., and included the following: 
Running
Running contests included:
the stade race, which was the pre-eminent test of speed, covering the Olympia track from one end to the other (200m foot race),
the diaulos (two stades - 400m foot race),
dolichos (ranging between 7 and 24 stades).

28. Jumping Discus throw Wrestling Boxing
Athletes used stone or lead weights called halteres to increase the distance of a jump. They held onto the weights until the end of their flight, and then jettisoned them backwards.
Discus throw
The discus was originally made of stone and later of iron, lead or bronze. The technique was very similar to today's freestyle discus throw.
Wrestling
This was highly valued as a form of military exercise without weapons. It ended only when one of the contestants admitted defeat.
Boxing
Boxers wrapped straps around their hands to strengthen their wrists and steady their fingers. Initially, these straps were soft but, as time progressed, boxers started using hard leather straps, often causing disfigurement of their opponent's face.

29. Pankration
This was a primitive form of martial art combining wrestling and boxing, and was considered to be one of the toughest sports. Greeks believed that it was founded by Theseus when he defeated the fierce Minotaur in the labyrinth.
Equestrian events
These included horse races and chariot races and took place in the Hippodrome, a wide, flat, open space.

30. Events Order

31. Order of events
The order of events and even the days on which events occurred is much debated in modern scholarship, though one can find reconstructions of the Olympic program in almost any book discussing the Olympics.
The reasons for this are, first, that there is no complete schedule listed in the literature and, secondly, that the program changed from time to time throughout its thousand year history.
What we do know is that at a certain point in the fifth century, the Olympic festival may have consisted of five days of religious and athletic activity.

32. Day 1: Day 2 Day 3: ~The Oaths
~ Dokimasia (the judgment between men and boys and foals and horses)
~ Non-Athletic contests (of Heralds and Trumpeters)
Day 2
~ Equestrian Events
~ Pentathlon
Day 3:
~ Sacrifices to Pelops (The great Greek Hero)
~ The Great Sacrifice to Zeus (The greatest of Greek gods)
~ Boys' contests

33. Day 4: Day 5: ~ Running events
~ Heavy Events (boxing, wrestling, pankration)
~ Hoplite race
Day 5:
~ Awards Ceremony
~ Banquet

34. Penalties Any athlete found to be cheating had to pay fines.
These fines paid for bronze statues that were set up all along the road on which athletes had to travel to get down to the fields for competition in order to discourage them from cheating.
These statues had inscriptions below them stating who paid the fine for the building of the statue, and what they did wrong.
Interestingly, the cheaters could keep their victories for that set of games!

35. Prizes
Originally the prizes given for the winners of the athletic contests were very substantive, but eventually (and it is not clear when) only a crown of olive leaves was given to the victor.
Although the official prize for victory in historic times was only a wreath, the cities to which the victors belonged gained great prestige from their winning and so would give great financial rewards to them.
Often good athletes would hire themselves out to the highest bidder and so would come from "different" cities during different Olympiads.

36. Modern Olympics

37. Revival
The revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, unlike the original Games, has a clear, concise history.
Pierre de Coubertin (1863 – 1937), a young French nobleman, felt that he could institute an educational program in France that approximated the ancient Greek notion of a balanced development of mind and body.
The Greeks themselves had tried to revive the Olympics by holding local athletic games in Athens during the 1800s, but without lasting success.
It was Baron de Coubertin's determination and organizational genius, however, that gave impetus to the modern Olympic movement.
In 1892 he addressed a meeting of the Union des Sports Athlétiques in Paris.

38. Despite meager response he persisted, and an international sports congress eventually convened on June 16, 1894.
With delegates from Belgium, England, France, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United States in attendance, he advocated the revival of the Olympic Games.
He found ready and unanimous support from the nine countries.
De Coubertin had initially planned to hold the Olympic Games in France, but the representatives convinced him that Greece was the appropriate country to host the first modern Olympics.
The council did agree that the Olympics would move every 4 years to other great cities of the world.

39. Nastiest Event
Probably the pankration or all-in wrestling was the nastiest event. There were hardly any rules.
The Pankration allowed any moves, even strangling your opponent!
Biting and poking people's eyes were officially banned, but some competitors did both!
While it does not seem very sporting to us, all-in wrestling was very popular.
Boxing allowed people to hit the opponent even after he was knocked down.

41. Fun Facts
The famous wrestler Milo was said to train by carrying a calf every day. As the calf grew heavier, his muscles got stronger.
Horse races involved lots of falling-off, because Greek riders had no stirrups. It was easier to drive a chariot.
At the first recorded Games in 776 BC, a man named Coroebus won the foot race.
Most of the competitors at the Olympic Games were naked, except for perhaps a coating of oil.
Big sunhats were banned, because they blocked other spectators' view.

42. Quote from someone who saw the fight: "Once a wrestler broke his opponent's fingers at the beginning of the fight. He won."
One mother was so keen to see her son compete that she broke the no-women rule, and got in disguised as a man!
The Greeks called their measurement a stade - from which we get the word "stadium".
An athlete called Exinetos won the short sprint at two Olympics in a row. Back at home in Sicily he was met by 300 chariots each pulled by a pair of white horses.

43. Conclusion
The ancient Olympic games only allowed people of Greek descent to participate.
Only men were allowed to compete in the ancient Greek games. Athletic training in ancient Greece was part of every free male citizen's education.
The first women to compete in the Olympics were Marie Ohnier and Brohy in the 1900 Olympics.
The ancient Olympics yielded only one winner unlike today.
Winter Olympics are a modern invention. The ancient Greeks never thought of featuring skiing or other cold-weather events (for obvious reasons). The first winter Olympics was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. 

44. Its all about the spirit !