The Olympic Games of Antiquity
In the Antiquity of the Greek humanism and contrary to global theocracy, the organized Olympic Games were the most important of all Greek and International Games. At the same time they were the greatest sporting and religious celebration in honor of Zeus.
Apart from their athletic and religious character, the Games had political content as well. This is because during the Games political discussions were also organized every year in the three sanctuaries of ancient Greece, that Delphi, the Isthmus and Nemea, and every fourth year at Olympia. In this manner the Greeks did politics and diplomacy.
The fame of the sanctuary of Olympia was spread throughout the Greek world and flourished as a center nationwide, in which the Greeks had the opportunity to communicate with each other, exchange ideas, form opinions, to teach and to be taught. The Olympics highlighted the ethnic, cultural and spiritual unity of the ancient Greeks. During the games hostilities ceased, exalting them into the Panhellenic symbol of peace and unity.
In the historical evolution of mankind, the Olympic Games were held for the first time in 776 BC in Ancient Olympia and were held every four years during the summer months (July-August). They lasted five days and included the following sports: road racing, Wrestling, Boxing, Pankration, Chariot and the pentathlon, which consisted of the sports: road racing, Jumping, Fighting, Discus and Javelin.
They were conducted at the Stadium, the Palestra and the Hippodrome in front of thousands of spectators from all the cities of the known Greek world. The winners were crowned with a wreath of wild olive branch, the kotinos, and enjoyed special honors from their homeland. The participants followed common sporting rules, which were established for the conduct of the games.
They were abolished in 393 AD by decree of Emperor Theodosius, when the Byzantine Empire was at the height of theocracy. Thus, an entire athletic culture of the Greek anthropocentric movement with its extensions, which lasted 1,169 years, vanished.
The modern Olympic Games
In 1896 revive in Athens the Olympic Games only in terms of their athletic part, in the form of international sports competitions, following the actions of Demetrius Vikelas and Pierre de Coubertin.
In the first modern Olympic Games, that took place with great splendor in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, participated 295 athletes from fifteen countries.The sports included in the competition were both part of the ancient Olympic Games as well as the then modern athletics. Thus, with the new athletic data, the Olympic spirit, the spirit of sportsmanship, peace and humanism did not stay in its native Greece, but spread around the world. In 1936 was introduced the lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame in Olympia and its transfer to the stadium were the Games would take place by means of torchbearers.
After the revival of the Olympic Games there was a continuous modernization of sports, which gradually removed them from the Olympic athletic tradition. At the same time, significant are the economic, social and political dimensions they indirectly received through the years. In the hundred and more years of their existence they have gradually acquired gigantic proportions and evolved following the dynamic growth of the athletics and the socioeconomic and political conditions in the modern era. In this way the Olympics have become the most important sports event of mankind, in which thousands of athletes participate from almost all countries of the world and are watched by billions of viewers. However, the evolution, gigantism and commercialization of the modern international Olympic Games take place at the expense of the Olympic ideal. We have now been removed from the Olympic ideal; we have lost the values of tradition.
Patras, June 2013
Prof. Dr. Pantelis Georgogiannis
University of Patras, Department of Primary Education
http://classicolympics.eu/history/
