Olympic Games - they are awaited with special trepidation, they have been preparing for them for many years and it is for them that people from all over the world come together to measure their strength and sports skills. But in order to fully understand them, you need to know which country is the birthplace of the Olympic Games and how they took place initially. We’ll talk about this.
Greek homeland
The birthplace of the Olympic Games is Ancient Greece. It was there, in the sacred place of Olympia, that these competitions first arose. From the name of the place the name of the games came about. It was located on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, in its northwestern part.
The first competitions were held in 776 BC. The purely sporting nature of the game was not worn, they were arranged as a special ritual of veneration of the supreme god Zeus. Appearing as competitions of local importance, they quickly acquired a large-scale character. Athletes gathered from all Greek policies to a huge, oblong stadium in order to first train, and then measure their strength. The homeland of the Olympic Games hosted people from all cities, from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
Ancient legends
There are several legends about how the idea of such games came. According to one of the most famous versions, the country of the Olympic Games has long been immersed in endless wars. As a result, the king of Elis Ifit, having seen enough of the suffering of the entire Greek people, decided to find a way of peaceful coexistence. And he managed to find a solution in Delphi, with the help of the priestess of the cult of Apollo. She conveyed to him the will of the gods: arrange athletic holiday games that are pleasing to the gods, and unite all of Greece into them. Ifit heeded the words of the priestess, and together with the reformer Kliosthenes and the legislator Lycurgus established the procedure for holding the sacred games. The question of which homeland of the Olympic Games will be chosen was quickly resolved - Olympia became it, proclaimed a sacred and peaceful part. Everyone who entered its borders with weapons was recognized as a criminal.
But as mentioned earlier, the myth is not the only one. According to another legend, the founder of the Olympic Games was Hercules, the son of the great Zeus. He brought an olive branch to Olympia and instituted games in which athletes will compete.
Organizational matters
Not everyone was allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. The athlete was supposed to be a free-born citizen of Greece. Only men were allowed to participate. Persons of non-Greek origin, or as barbarians called them then, as well as powerless slaves, criminals (even of Greek origin) did not have the right to participate. Competitors even resented the desire of Alexander the Great to take part in the competition, but he, in turn, was able to prove his Greek origin. Athletes during the year before the start of the games underwent special training, and after that they passed the exam of the commission of the Ellanodics (competition judges). Having passed the Olympic standard, the athletes fell into training with the elladonics themselves, this training lasted about a month.
The homeland of the Olympic Games represented by judges carefully monitored the honesty of all participants. Before starting the competition, each of the participants had to swear an honest fight. Competition fraud led to the loss of title, a fine, and even corporal punishment. Women were not allowed during the Olympics, and could not enjoy the sporting performance. However, there was still an exception to the rule, it concerned the priestess of the goddess Demeter. She proudly watched everything from the marble throne. Men entered the games for free.
Program
At first, the homeland of the Olympic Games did not really please the audience with variety. Running was the only competition, then gradually other disciplines began to be added. At 18 games in a row, wrestling and pentathlon were added to the program, including wrestling, running, discus and spear throwing, as well as running. Next came fist fights, chariot races, horseback riding, martial arts. Along with the expansion of disciplines, the duration of the competitions has also increased. If at first they took a day, later a week, then in the end it came to a whole month.
Victory of honor
The country, the birthplace of the Olympics, was particularly respectful of the victories of athletes. The winner traditionally received an Olympic wreath (a symbol of games) and a purple ribbon. But his laurels did not end there. This merit allowed him to become one of the circle of the most important persons of the city, which he represented at the competitions. In addition, he was exempted from many state duties. The athlete who won was called Olympionik.
The first Olympic champions
The homeland of the Olympic Games for the first time immortalized the memory of an athlete from Elis named Koreb. He won his run. Following him, young men from all over the great and great Greece began to win. And so in 532 BC the winner was the legendary athlete from Croton - the wrestler Milon. True, then no one even knew that he would become legendary. A young man was born in a Greek colony, and was even honored to become a pupil of Pythagoras. But he found his calling in the Olympic arena and soon became known as “the strongest among the strong”. He won the Olympics six times. Even when he was forty years old, he still took part in them, but younger rivals did not allow him to win the seventh award.
Knowing which country is the birthplace of the Olympic Games, it is easy to guess which of the great people of antiquity managed to participate in them. Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Demosthenes and Pythagoras - all of them showed the world not only their mind, but also excellent physical data.
Decline
The Olympic Games gave rise to many other competitions. Thanks to them, the Nemean, Pythian Games appeared, as well as the modern sports Olympiad. But, unfortunately, their collapse was inevitable. Along with the decline of ancient Greece came the decline of games. Appearing initially as a deity worship, a sacred contest in a peaceful place began to turn into an entertainment program. When Hellas began to obey Rome, one of the main rules of the game was violated - citizens of other countries, in particular the Romans, became participants. AD 394 became decisive for the games, they were banned. This was facilitated by the emperor Theodosius I, forcibly imposing Christianity. Olympia's games were recognized as pagan.
And so, several centuries later, in 1887, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman by birth, began to return the Olympic Games to the world. First, he created a committee whose main task was to promote physical education. After he raised the question of creating international sports competitions like the ancient Greek Olympic Games. In 1896, the first ever International Olympiad was held in the homeland of the competition.