Difference Between Ancient Olympic Games

One difference between the ancient and modern Olympic Games is that the ancient games were played within the context of a religious festival. One of the more intriguing true stories about ancient Greece and the Olympics of ancient Greece would have to be that during the Olympic Games, all fighting stopped. No matter how long or how fierce a battle had raged, every soldier in the battlefield put down his weapons and travelled to Olympia, there they would compete in athletic games designed to honour Zeus and the other Greek gods. The festival and the games were held in Olympia, a rural sanctuary site in the western Peloponnesus a village in a sacred valley, approximately 500 km south west of Mount Olympus.

For seven days before and seven days
This was another way in which the Olympic Games shifted in emphasis away from the city-state. If Demetrius of Corinth won the running race, then he was celebrated as Demetrius and not Demetrius of Corinth. This was to make sure that battlefield prejudices didn't spill onto the Olympic athletic fields.

The ancient Olympic Games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honour of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The Ancient Olympic Games were held as a religious, sporting and cultural festival. The Ancient Greeks believed that both the body and mind needed discipline and that those who practised this discipline could best honour Zeus. A sacrifice of 100 oxen was made to the god on the middle day of the festival.

Athletes prayed to the gods for victory, and made gifts of animals, produce, or small cakes, in thanks for their successes. The innumerable offerings of the 7 th- 6 th centuries B. C. were placed outside on trees, altars or in alcoves of the sanctuary. The most important of the offerings were bronze tripods and cauldrons of excellent quality, war loot (hanging on poles) and other art objects and instruments for the