Olympic Games - they are awaited with special trepidation, they have been preparing for them for many years and it is at 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 were originally held. Let's talk about that.
Greek Homeland
The birthplace of the Olympic Games is Ancient Greece. It was there, in the sacred place of Olympia, that these competitions first originated. The name of the games came from the name of the place. It was located on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, in its northwestern part.
The first competition was held in 776 BC. The games did not have a purely sporting character, they were arranged as a special ritual of honoring the supreme god Zeus. Appeared as competitions of local importance, they quickly acquired a large-scale character. Athletes from all the policies of Greece came to the huge oblong stadium in order to first train, and then measure their strength. The birthplace of the Olympic Games hosted people fromall cities, from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
Ancient legends
There are several legends about how the idea of such games came about. According to one of the most famous versions, the country of the Olympic Games was immersed in endless wars for a long time. 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 festive games pleasing to the gods, and unite all of Greece in them. Ifit listened to the words of the priestess, and together with the reformer Cliosthenes and the legislator Lycurgus established the order of the sacred games. The question of which homeland of the Olympic Games would be chosen was quickly resolved - it was Olympia, proclaimed a sacred and peaceful part. Anyone who entered its borders with a weapon 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 would compete.
Organizational matters
Not everyone was allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. The athlete had to be a freeborn Greek citizen. Only men were allowed to participate. Persons of non-Greek origin, or as the barbarians then called them, as well as disenfranchised slaves, criminals (even of Greek origin) did not haveparticipation rights. The participants of the competition 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 Hellanodic commission (competition judges). Having passed the Olympic standard, the athletes got to train with the Helladonics themselves, this training lasted about a month.
The homeland of the Olympic Games, represented by the judges, carefully monitored the honesty of all participants. Before starting the competition, each of the participants had to take an oath of a fair fight. Cheating in competitions led to title deprivation, fines, and even corporal punishment. Women during the games in Olympia were not allowed, and they could not enjoy the sports 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. The men entered the games for free.
Program
At first, the birthplace of the Olympic Games did not please the audience with its diversity. Running was the only competition, then other disciplines gradually began to be added. For 18 games, wrestling and pentathlon were added to the program, including wrestling, running, discus and javelin throwing, as well as running. Fist fights, chariot races, horseback riding, martial arts followed. Along with the expansion of disciplines, the duration of the competitions also increased. If at first they took a day, later a week, theneventually came to a full month.
Honourable victory
The country that is the birthplace of the Olympic Games, with special respect for the victories of athletes. The winner traditionally received the Olympic wreath (symbol of the 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 released from many state duties. The athlete who won was called the Olympian.
First Olympic champions
The birthplace of the Olympic Games for the first time immortalized the memory of an athlete from Elis named Koreb. He won his victory on the run. Following him, young men from all over the great and huge Greece began to win. And in 532 BC. the legendary athlete from Croton, the wrestler Milon, became the winner by right. True, then no one had any idea that he would become legendary. A young man was born in a Greek colony, and was even honored to become a student of Pythagoras. But he found his calling in the Olympic arena and soon began to be called "the strongest among the strong." He won the Olympic Games six times. Even when he was forty years old, he still took part in them, but younger competitors 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 - they all showed the world not only theirmind, but also excellent physical data.
Decay
The Olympic Games gave rise to many other competitions. Thanks to them, the Nemean, Pythian games, as well as the modern sports Olympics, appeared. But, unfortunately, their collapse was inevitable. Along with the decline of all ancient Greece came the decline of games. Having appeared initially as a worship of a deity, a sacred competition in a peaceful place began to turn into an entertainment program. When Hellas began to obey Rome, one of the main rules of the games was violated - citizens of other countries, in particular the Romans, became participants. 394 AD was decisive for the games, they were banned. This was facilitated by Emperor Theodosius I, who forcibly imposed Christianity. The Games of Olympia were declared pagan.
And now, 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 issue of creating international sports competitions similar to the ancient Greek Olympic Games. In 1896, the first ever international Olympics took place in the homeland of the competition.
