my reference to the type of Olympic competition was not for anything of this century. I was referring to the ancient history of the Olympics posted by mrhockey at 2:56 PM CST on February 24 The Olympic Games were held every four years from 776 B.C. to A.D. 394, making them the longest-running recurring event in antiquity. We have a very sentimental attitude toward the ancient games. But this romanticized image with gentlemanly behavior and chivalry was largely devised by Victorian scholars in the 19th century. Perhaps the most inspiring ancient ideal was the moratorium on war during the games, a sacred truce that allowed travelers to safely get to the games. But the ancient Greeks were not as idealistic as to try to stop all wars. They just didn't want anything that interfered with the operation of the games. If you wanted to have a war in Sicily, the truce wouldn't stop you at all. There were times when the truce fell apart. In 364 B.C. the regular organizers lost control of the games, because they had become involved in politics. To get revenge, they attacked the games' new organizers in the middle of a wrestling match. They had this pitched battle going on inside the sanctuary, with archers up on the temples. The fans took it in stride. They stopped watching the wrestling match and instead watched the battle, applauding as if these were opposing teams at a sports match. Athletes represented themselves first and their city-state second. There was no second place in the ancient games, no Victorian ideals of a handshake and gentlemanly slap on the back for a game well played. If you lost, you'd scamper home through the back streets. Your mother wouldn't even talk to you. It was the sheer spectacle of it. Sports were one part of a grand, all-consuming extravaganza. It was first and foremost a religious event, held on the most sacred spot in the ancient world. It had this incredible aura of tradition and sanctity. Today's Olympics is a vast, secular event, but it doesn't have the religious element of the ancient Olympics, where sacrifices and rituals would take up as much time as the sports. And there were all these peripheral things that came with the festival: the artistic happenings, new writers, new painters, new sculptors. There were fire-eaters, palm readers, and prostitutes. This was the total pagan entertainment package. The Athletes had to appear at the nearby city of Elis a month before the games. This was the first Olympic village. There, they had to submit to a grueling training regime designed to weed out those who weren't up to Olympic standards. While there was no shame in dropping out before the games, athletes who dropped out during the actual games were humiliated. There is a story of one huge wrestler showing up for training. As soon as he took his clothes off, all the other athletes dropped out because they all knew they couldn't beat this guy. The ancient Olympic Athlete was there to win Fame and most important Fortune. Compared to the life afforded the average Greek of the time an Olympic Champion was the most honored (hence wealthy) man of his generation. Many given entire counties of land and store houses of the most valuable objects and slaves available. T.O. is a pauper in comparison. They were as close as you could get to being a demigod in the mortal world. You would gain incredible prestige and wealth from an Olympic victory. Officially, the winner was given an olive wreath. But your home city would give you piles of money, honors like front seats at the theater, lifetime pensions, vats of olive oil, maybe even priesthood. Your name would be passed down from generation to generation. You became part of the very fabric of history. Normally the Greeks didn't get terribly drunk. But this was like five days of living it up. People didn't sleep much at all. Students would organize these symposia that turned into drunken orgies. The debauchery of the Ancient Olympic Games so concerned the Christian Emperor Theodosius I he outlawed all pagan festivals in in A.D. 394. The Olympic Games were the most hated pagan festivals by the early Christians especially for their debauchery and idol worship of the human body. This attempt at portraying the ancient games in any kind of honorable light is merely a Christian Victorian Construct from the late 1800's. The Olympic Torch itself was 1st introduced by the Nazi's in 1936, thankfully it has transcended that awful beginning. The ancient games didn't actually have a marathon. The three-mile [five-kilometer] dolichos was the longest running event in the early ancient games. The marathon is a Victorian invention, based on a story about the Battle of Marathon. A courier, Philippides, who fought in the battle, dashed from the battlefield to bring news of the Greek victory to Athens. Once there, he collapsed and died. The 26.3-mile [42.3-kilometer] distance from Marathon to Athens is the length of the modern marathon races around the world. Their are many other modern myth surrounding the Ancient Olympics probably the one furthest from the truth is this ideal of Amateurism. It would be a concept totally foriegn to the Ancient Athlete. Attempt to use this arguement of "Ancient Amateurism" is building your argument upon a false premise and we all know what that leads to.

posted by skydivedad at 09:06 PM - reply - flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive