The Olympic Games whose legendary founding by Heracles was recounted by Pindar - regarded as one of the greatest poets since antiquity and whose prose was immortalised by Picasso - find their roots some 3,500 years ago in Ancient Greece. Their duration spanned for over 1,000 years beginning in 776 B.C. and ended in 393 A.D. by decree of the Christian Roman Emperor, Theodosius I, as their ancient associations with what were considered pagan gods had become irrelevant.
Indeed, the original Olympic Games were more than a just a platform for athletes to compete against each other, they were an opportunity to assemble and accomplish the various rituals and sacrifices in the name of Gods – and in this case Zeus. This was not an isolated case, for by the end of the sixth century B.C there were four major festivals featuring organised athletic competitions – the Olympic Games at Olympia in honour of Zeus; the Pythian Games at Delphi honouring Apollo (the most celebrated of the pan-Hellenic festivals); the Nemean Games also in honour of Zeus at Nemea; and the Isthmian Games honouring Poseidon at Corinth. However, the Olympic Games were not limited to Olympia, with later editions also taking place in many locations throughout the Greco-Roman world, including Rome, Naples, Antioch, and Alexandria.
Nonetheless, neither rain, hail, political unrest, nor war could dampen the Olympic spirit, with every edition being religiously held over the 1037 year span. Each edition was spread over five days, with a relatively stable programme as of the fifth century BC, although the occasional addition and withdrawal of a discipline was not uncommon.
The horse and the many accolades which ensued first made their appearance at Olympic Games in 680 B.C. when chariot racing was introduced. It was by far the most exciting and spectacular event on the programme, while the winners of these events went on to be highly acclaimed and revered. The chariots had two wheels and were, when initially introduced pulled by four horses, although the programme would at one point extend the equestrian events to also include horse racing and as well as chariot races for two horses and races for foals – although for the last two, their Olympic status was only short lived.
You can imagine with 30 chariots drawn side by side, staggered starts and 12 death defying rounds, amounting to over 9km of nail biting tremors and dolby gasps form the crowds, it was only natural the winner be showered in praise. Well, only natural in so far that the proclaimed winner was neither the driver nor rider but the owner. Indeed, these were the only events in the ancient Olympic programme which did not recompense the athletes. Interestingly, a very important milestone was borne out of this odd exception.
The very first woman to win at the ancient Olympic Games was a Spartan princess named Cynisca born around 440 B.C. in the four-horse chariot race in 396 B.C. and again in 392 B.C. And while it does, on one level, defy all the odds as women were not even allowed to compete in the Olympic events, it can be explained by the fact that it was the owners of the horses proclaimed winners of the event, and thus a female owner meant a female winner. She was the sister of Spartan king Agesilaus II. It is interesting to note that whilst most women in the ancient Greek world were kept in seclusion and forbidden to learn any kind of skills in sports, riding or hunting, Spartan women by contrast were brought up from girlhood to excel at these things and to disdain household chores.
When the Games were abandoned in 393 AD, the mythical and heroic site of Olympia became largely forgotten until an English archaeologist named Richard Chandler discovered the site in 1766. By that time, it was mostly ruins and much, if not most, had been irrevocably lost, destroyed, and pillaged.
Excavations were then ensued by various teams, a French archaeological team in 1829, but, ultimately it was not until the work of a German team from 1875 to 1881 that brought the site to the light of day and annual reports began to surface on the progress made. They raised the curiosity of one man, who then visited Olympia in October 1894. None other than the father of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, but of course, as you know the rest is history…
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