A Brief History of the Olympic Games

2004

Central GV23 YP52. (Permissions kindly granted by Blackwell Publishing)

Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing

For just over a thousand years from 776 BC, the ancient Olympic Games took place, almost continuously, every four years until about 390 AD. The Games, in honour of the god Zeus, were held at the ‘religious precinct’ of his cult at Olympia, on the Peloponnesian peninsula. The events of the Games, open only to male citizens, included running races, with or without armour; pentathlon; discus; long-jump; javelin; wrestling; boxing; poetry and music; equestrian events including chariot races; and pankration – an ancient ‘ultimate fighter’ contest with only eye-gouging and biting forbidden. All these events are familiar to us today and many are still included in the modern Olympic Games.