Olympic Event For 13 Games example essay topic

Andrew Blue Mrs. Harris 18 March 2005 World History 1 History of the Ancient Olympic Games The Ancient Greek Olympics were not only sporting events, it was a celebration to honor the great and powerful Zeus. The Ancient Olympics were held every four years at the famous Olympia, a district of Elis, here all free Greek men were allowed to compete. The first record of the Olympic Games was held in 776 B.C. The main sports were the Pentathlon, the Equestrian Events, Pankration, and Boxing. The Pentathlon was the name for the five events in Greek gymnastics: running, jumping, wrestling, discus throwing, and javelin throwing which began with the 18th Olympiad. In the wrestling event, wrestlers were anointed with oil, dusted with powder, and forbidden to bite or gouge one another.

Wrestling was looked upon as a weapon-free military exercise. Since there was no weapons wrestlers that competed used their weight and strength as an advantage especially since there were no weight categories. The Javelin was thrown in the same form back in ancient times as it is thrown today. The first recorded Olympic Games had one event, a race, called the state which is a measure of the distance of the length of the track.

By 724 B.C. a two-length race was added and by 700 B.C. there were longer distance races. By 720 B.C., men participated naked, except in the foot race in armor that weighed between fifty to sixty pounds. The outfit included a helmet, greaves, and a shield that helped young men build speed and stamina in preparation for war. The Pentathlon included three running events such as the Stade, the Diaulos, and the Dolichos. The Stade was a 200 yard foot race, was the first and only Olympic event for 13 Games.

The was a variable length foot race averaging twenty states or four thousand yards for the fifteenth Olympiad. The Diaulos was a four hundred yard foot race that was instituted for the next Olympic Games. The discus was considered by ancient Greeks, an event of rhythm, precision, and finesse of a competitor to throw the discus was as important as his strength. The discus was made of stone, iron, bronze, or lead, and was shaped like a flying saucer.

The Sizes were different for the boys' division, since the boys were not expected to throw the same weighted discus as the men. The athletes who competed in the jump event used lead or stone jump weights called halter es shaped like telephone receivers to increase the length of their jump. The halter es were held in front of the athlete during his way up, and forcibly thrust behind his back and dropped during his descent to help propel his body further. The Jump weights also doubled as weight lifting equipment during training to help the competitor jump further. The Equestrian Events included Chariot racing and Riding added to the Olympiad in 648 B.C. In The Chariot races there were both two horse chariot and four horse chariot races.

There were separate races for chariots drawn by foals. Another race was between carts drawn by a team of 2 mules. The course was 12 laps around the stadium track which was nine miles long. The Riding event had separate races for full-grown horses and foals. Jockeys rode without stirrups. Only the wealthy upper class people could afford to pay for the equipment, training, and feed of both the driver or jockey and the horses.

As a result, the owner received the olive wreath of victory instead of the jockey. The course they navigated was six laps around the track which was 4.5 miles. Boxing was added to the Olympics in 688 B.C. It was held to honor Patroklos, the slain companion of Achilles. Originally the boxing gloves were thongs wrapped around the hands and arms, but evolved into less time consuming oxen pre-wrapped thongs known as him antes, held in place by leather straps wrapped around the forearm. The Pankration was a punishing combination of boxing and wrestling. It was a battle where Punches were allowed, although the fighters did not wrap their hands with the boxing gloves called him antes.

The only rules outlawed biting and gouging an opponent's eyes, nose, or mouth with fingernails. Attacks such as kicking an opponent in the belly, which are against the rules in modern sports, were perfectly legal. Like boxing and wrestling, among others, this event had separate divisions for both men and boys. The Clothing of the ancient Olympics included two reasonably standard articles of clothing, such as the 'chiton' and the 'himation' which were used by both men and women.

The clothing of the men consisted essentially of the chiton, the woolen or linen undergarment used as a shirt and the himation thrown over it. This may be described as a large four-cornered piece of cloth which was thrown over the left shoulder or the left arm. The mild climate often enough permitted the competitors to dispense of the himation, and to go out in the simple chiton. On the contrary, many dispensed with the chiton and went out only wearing the himation. Although there seems to have been little change over the centuries with respect to male clothing, this was not the case for women. Indeed, in the pre-Greek Minoan civilization of Crete Licht notes that for upper-class women: The upper part of the body was covered by a fairly tight-fitting garment, like a jacket, provided with sleeves.

From this garment the breasts protruded, totally bare in their full roundness. The origin of the Olympic Games is linked with many myths referred to in ancient sources, but in the historic years their founder is said to be Oxy los whose descendant Ifitos later rejuvenated the games. According to tradition, the Olympic Games began in 776 B.C. when Ifitos made a treaty with Lycourgos the king and famous legislator of Sparta and Cleisthenes the king of Piss a (Coote p. 13). The text of the treaty was written on a disc and kept in the Hera ion. In this treaty that was the decisive event for the development of the sanctuary as a Panhellenic centre, the 'sacred truce' was agreed, that is to say the ceasing of fighting in the entire Greek world for as long as the Olympic Games were on. As a reward for the victors, the, which was a wreath made from a branch of wild olive tree that was growing next to the of the temple of Zeus in the sacred Alt is, was established after an order of the Delphic oracle.

Bibliography

Coote, James. A Picture History of the Olympics. London, England: Tom Stacey Limited, 1972.
Kristy, Davida. Olympics How the Games Began. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company, 1995.
Grolier, the Associated Press. The Olympic Story. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Enterprises INC., 1979.