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Ancient Olympic Games - Essay

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Ancient Olympic Games - Essay
History and Origin of the Ancient Olympic Games

Stephanie Butcher
History 301 History of Ancient Greece
05/26/2012
Introduction

The ancient Olympic games represent a part of Ancient Greek history that the world continues to celebrate today. Every four years world nations gather at a specific site to compete in the Olympic games. This coming together of world nations symbolizes a time of peace and unity among the world. With every victory came honor, glory and pride for the winning athlete and their country.
The history and origin of the Olympic games includes religious celebrations, mythical stories as well all embracing Greece’s’ love and respect of pure athleticism. This paper will discuss the history and origin of the ancient Olympic games. It will elaborate upon the fact that the history and origin of the Olympic games include religious celebrations, mythical stories as well as embrace Greece’s love and respect of pure athleticism.
Establishment of Games in Olympia The Olympic games pertain to a key event on the international level, which features winter, and summer sports and invites thousands of athletes for the purpose of participation in various competitions. The Olympic games are acknowledged as the leading competition of sports globally, in which there are over 200 nations as participants[1]. The Ancient Olympic games were established in Olympia in 776 BC, creating an institution that would continue throughout the world for thousands of years. Initially, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD, the ancient Olympic games got their origin in Olympia, Greece. Many studies give an account of the ancient Olympics, which, according to their observation, were held in Greece approximately 3,000 years back. Though they were very ancient in origin, they started being considered and called as “classical games” already by the end of the 6th century BC. By that time, there were three sporting festivals, which had gained remarkable



Bibliography: 1. ”Ancient Olympic Games”, Olympic.org. 2012. http://www.olympic.org/ancient-olympic-games 2 [2] Olympic-Legacy, “Myths & Legends”, http://www.pe04.com/olympic/olympia/legends_o.php [3] Valerie Vaughan, The Origin of the Olympics: Ancient Calendars and the Race Against Time (Amherst, MA: One Reed Publications, 2002).

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