Olympics | Olympics

The Olympics were an important event honoring Zeus, the Greek god of all gods and goddesses in a religious festival and physical competition. The Olympics were only celebrated every four years, between the 4 years was a different event honoring a different god each year. The Olympics were so important that many religious practices were made during the festival.

In 776 B.C. the Olympics started in Olympia, the home of all gods and goddesses. Olympia is featured in the western Peloponnesus and Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in all of Mainland Greece. The Olympics was featured in the late summer and was always in Olympia, because Zeus was the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus. The city-states picked the most physically fit to compete among men from other city-states. The winners of Olympics were given olive wreaths from the pentathlon. The pentathlon included 5 events, run, throw discus, jump, hurl javelin, and wrestle. In the Olympics there were no ball or water sports, or weight lifting. There were no weight classes, or teams, because it didn't matter if someone was bigger than another person, the competition was man against man. No medals were given either, because it was about their pride and loyalty to Zeus.

The Olympics was a religious festival honoring Zeus and a competition for men. Life revolved around religion and sports, but the Olympics were a way to celebrate both. Every four years the Olympics would take place. The Olympics was the biggest event of the year for the Greeks. During the competition Greeks would enjoy elite competition and appreciated the culture to honor Zeus. All Greek city-states competed against each other, it was very important to win for their city-state to show Zeus they honored him.

The Olympics was important to Greeks by the way they made sacrifices, important practices, how it made an Olympic winner a hero for its city-state, and how it affected war. When the Olympics were in session and a war was on session too, the two enemies had to call a truce. This was due to the importance of the games or more to the gods. If a war was not stopped then the city-state would need to pay a fine. Once when Sparta did not call a truce they had to pay a fine and this was considered being unlawful to the gods. The Olympics was for men only because to the Greeks it was men that were thought to be more important. Since Zeus was important, and Zeus was a man, they thought that men were allowed only. Important practices they had done before and during the festival they had to sacrifice 100 oxen on the altar near Zeus' temple. Some Greeks from Spain and Turkey came to witness the important games. Olympic winners were known to the city-states as heroes. The winners had parades in honor of them and poems were made after them for their glorious victory. City-states even gave free meals for a year to winners. Many rituals were done for the Olympics or more importantly Zeus, this was done, because Greeks felt very strong about their culture.

The Olympics held a very important position in Greek religion. The Olympics had many affects on everyday Greek life with religion, sacrifices, sports, war, etc. It also played an important event in religion, physical competition, and coming together as a country. It held a great number of importances to all of ancient Greece and now today all over the world for everyone.