Ancient Greek culture was a culture of poets, philosophers, warriors, and most importantly of all: athletes. As most young men today would wake up in the morning and go to school, young men from ancient Greece would wake up and go to their city’s gymnasium where they would workout and prepare for the highlight of every ancient Greek persons life: the ancient Olympic Games. The Olympic Games was an event so grand that it could be compared to the modern day Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, and Macy’s day parade put together! The ancient Olympic Games were also highly representative of ancient Greek culture at the time of its occurrence. These similarities were seen through many ways such as expressing the already established rivalry between Greek city-states, …show more content…
However, these parties weren't just an excuse to get drunk and dance on tables, but a way to wine, dine and engage in organized conversations-some parties even had conversation guides who would direct a conversation and be in charge of the topics to be discussed at the party/banquets (Perrottet, 119). The ancient Greek culture of partying was heavily incorporated into the Olympic Games. The feasts during the Olympic Games had a plethora of Greek dishes, erotic dancing, thoughtful conversations, and at the end of the night-fine wine, accompanied with other worldly pleasures (Perrottet, 119). The Fringe was another aspect of the Olympic Games that brought partying to a whole new level. Streets were covered with tents that individual merchants/entertainers had set up. There were acrobats, brothels, dancers, sword swallowers, and even professional storytellers (Perrottet, 74). The sex market was also an integral part of the Olympic Festival. “Pornai”, or buyable women, were quite in demand for the Olympic Games. Ancient Greek’s believed in the notion that having relations with prostitutes during religious celebrations would strengthen monogamy during the rest of the year (Perrottet, 76). In fact, prostitution was such a huge part of the festival that merchant ships arriving from Asia Minor and Egypt every four years carried cargoes of women instead of wine! (Perrottet, 77). Additionally, there were different types of prostitutes that men could …show more content…
The role (or lack thereof) of women during the Games was much comparable to actual ancient Greek life for females. In Greek society, women were only seen as a necessity to produce male heirs and were treated like dependents- a necessary burden. This notion was highlighted by the role of women during the Games. Married women weren't allowed in the Stadiums to watch the events due to ancient Greece’s “conservative” morales. This rule was highly important because if a married woman was found inside any of the athletic events, it would be punishable by death, more specifically, being flung off a cliff. Unmarried women, however, were allowed to attend events. In fact, many fathers would bring their unmarried daughters to find a victor to marry them off to. The Games were a very good representation of the limits that were put on Greek women in their day to day lives. While married women watched the Games from afar (on top of a mountain), their husbands were off having sexual relations with other women, drinking, and watching the Olympians among the roaring and exhilarating crowd. Since the Games occurred during ancient times and was held in the ancient Greek city-state of Olympia, every notion of the existing culture in Greek society was present in the Games. Occasionally, you would get a cynic such as Peregrinus (Perrottet, 184) who would say that the
The first Olympic games were held all the way back to 776 B. The site where the ancient Olympics were held is called “Olympia” it is in the western part of the Peloponnese. The site holds many amazing, ancient structures such as buildings, shrines and ancient sporting facility’s. The ancient Olympics had 13 sports, all free men were allowed to attend or compete , woman was not allowed to attend the Olympics if they were married. The ancient Olympic nearly continued for 12 centuries, until Emperor Theodosius banned the games in 393 A.D.
Ancient Greek women and girls were not expected to do much physical work for amusement purposes.The Ancient Greeks also played games that did not involve much physical activity, such as marbles, dice, checkers and knucklebones. The Greek version of checkers was kind of like what the current game of backgammon is. The Ancient Greek
For a vast number of Greeks and Romans, either taking part in or observing sports was a fundamental part of life. In 776 B.C. the ancient Olympics began and are now viewed as the formal beginning of Greco-Roman sports, the Olympics were the most famous and long-lasting of all ancient games. The athletic contest initially included running, jumping, and throwing. During the first several Olympiads there was not a formal stadium available for the athletes instead, the judges drew a line in the dirt to mark the start and another line to mark the finish. Unlike the Olympics now, the only people that could participate in the ancient Olympics were free white males. Women and slaves could not even watch the games, but by the first century B.C. women were permitted to watch the games and even participate in a few women’s only events. Wrestling and boxing were some other popular sports that became evident in Ancient Rome, wrestling was so important in Greece that by the fifth century, almost every town had a wrestling facility and became the most important component of physical education. Greeks and Romans only practiced who types of wrestling upright and ground. Boxing was the most dangerous of the two sports and the goal was to pound one’s opponent into submission. Lastly, back
The Olympic games provided ancient times with entertainment. "spectators came not only from mainland Greece, but also from as far as what are, today, the countries of Spain and Georgia" as stated from paragraph 7. People from far away lands would come to watch. The chariot races "were both exciting and dangerous"
One exceptionally significant custom of the Greeks still observed today is the Olympics. These ancient games incorporated a concept of free athletic competition without bloodshed. If the Greeks
Around 3,000 years ago in 776 BC the first Olympic games were held. Of course this soon became a popular and well known event that made many people all over Greece want to see and try it. Unfortunately though, not everybody could participate or even watch the competitors strive to win glory. This caused many people to react in different ways, especially if there were rules that differed between the different genders.
The Olympic Games were held every four years at the same place, the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, to honor Zeus. Most Greeks believed in the same group of Gods, though they did acknowledge that Zeus was the king of the Gods. That is why they worshiped him at the Games, by worshiping him at his holy city, they were honoring all of the Gods together. The competitors in the Games were either professional athletes or Aristocrats. There were no amateurs or women participating in the games. The spirit and the actual Games itself was good for the people. Most saw it good for the public’s spirit and a positive release of
Every two years we crowd around our televisions for a month, watching the greatest athletes in the world compete to see who is the best. During this time our lives revolve around the games and the athletes competing in them. Thousands of years ago, from 8th century BC to 4th century AD, the Olympics were held in Olympia,Greece. Any person could compete in these, as long as you were a free, male, Greek citizen. Married women weren't even allowed to watch the games, but unmarried could. These games were religious, held for their God Zeus. Every four years the games took place in Olympia, and there were never more than 10 events that were held. They only lasted for a day, but over time they increased to five days. Either on the last day, or at
There has always been different ways humans have shown their joy and pride through the cultures they live in. The Olympic Games that were held in ancient Greece were forms of celebration and entertainment for Greeks. These ancient games have ranged from a variety of sports such as boxing and wrestling. The energy and pleasure that these ancient games have had have also influenced the way philosophers and women saw them. In addition, these traditional games have been going on for thousands of years and they have drastically been through numerous changes. However in the end, these games have became a major aspect of the overall Greek culture people know today.
The Olympics is a cultural event still going on today. The Olympics in Greek Mythology was honored all to Zeus. It represents the true warriors, athletes, and men of the country. It first started when Zeus, God of the sky, defeated Kronos in a battle for king and royalty. The event happened every four years for the Olympics. The Nemean games happened every other year at the shrine of Zeus. Again to honor him, in a city called Nemea, a place in Peloponnesus. Those were the two of the four games. The others were Isthmian Games and the Pythian games. The competition had athletic and musical contests. The first ever games held were in 573 BC. Greeks enjoyed lots of sports and competitions. Archeologists have found lots of artifacts from these times and noticed that the athletes worked hard to earn the right to be known as, “the great one,” or the ablest. Gymnasiums were discovered by archaeologist all over the cities and were used for training like jumping, running, wrestling, boxing, javelin throwing, and conditioning. Their trainers were called paidotribes because they helped them get stronger and have lots of stamina. If the rules were not followed they would get whipped. These games and events
Today the Olympic Games are the ultimate sporting even that takes place every four years and is comprised of men and women whose commitment and dedication to the be the very best is truly inspiring. What toll does this is sort of dedication take on the athletes over a period of time and furthermore what kind of toll does it on the rest of the populace, who watches these athletes in utter awe. As a population do we look at these people as one of us or something entirely different and if so, was it always that way? The origins of the Olympiad reveals that the games not only changed the lives of the men and women who competed but also the average citizen, who only spectated the games. A work on the entire history of the Olympic Games would be both entertaining and very tedious therefore, this work will be an analysis of the Olympic Games from creation, which is around 776 B.C. to about 396 B.C. This range will still be able to show how the Olympic Games changed many different aspects about life. This work will include a general overview of the Greek Olympics. This overview will include how/ why the Greek Olympics began and a description of the games that were played and what caused the expansion of the games. Next, will be a description of the games. The description of the games will include three separate accounts of the Greek Olympics from the people who experienced it. After that, will be how male and female athletes were treated by society at this time. Finally, how the
In ancient Greece athletic activity in the ancient world fell into 2 categories: competitive athletics in public religious festivals (victors won prizes and honored with statues and poems) or sporting events in a gymnasium.
The ancient Olympic event was all about glory, athleticism and total representation of one's own country. It
The first ancient Olympic games were held in Olympia, Greece in 776 BC. The Greek people worshipped the gods, and the idea of these games came from the need to have something to dedicate to them. The Greeks used the city of Olympia as a place for worship, and as a meeting place for religious and political practices. At first, the games were only played for one day, but in 684 BC they were extended to three days, then during the 5th century BC, the games were changed to last five days. Status was not a factor when it came to who could participate in the games; any free male citizen was allowed to participate. Women, however, were forbidden to participate in, or be a spectator at, the games if they were married, but women who were unmarried were allowed to be spectators. The ancient Olympics only consisted of seven events: long jump, discus throw, running, shot put, boxing, horse and chariot races, and pankration (a mixture of boxing and wrestling in a type of martial arts) (Ancient Olympic Games). In 708 BC, a pentathlon, a
The social patterns of the Temple of Hera consist of the political association we believe was rudimentary. There were no great rulers like Minos or Agamemnon, practicing distant control but there was a larger amount of kings and chiefs of a particular area (Wycherley, 3). Marinatos stated that dating from the beginnings of the early sixth century, four of the main sanctuaries, Olympia, Nemea, Delphi and Isthmia, all came together to form the soul of a festival cycle which in turn many other festivals would occur. Little to no archeological evidence has survived (26). So you can tell that sporting events were very popular in those times for the Greek culture. Marinatos goes on to say that when isthmian games were originally formed during the