Olympia
Ancient Olympia lies 10 km. east of Pirgos, in a valley between wooded
Mt. Kronos, the Alfios River and its tributary, the Kladeos.
A brief history of
the Games
According to legend, this area was inhabited by the Pisans. Their
King was Oinomaus, whose daughter Hippodameia had married Pelops.
There are indications that already by 1000 BC games were being held
in honor of the couple.
Though exclusively local at the start, the games began gradually to
attract the interest of the other towns in the vicinity. In 776 BC,
the leader of the Eleians, Iphitos, rededicated the games to the honor
of Zeus. This date marks the first Olympiad; afterwards every four
years Panhellenic contests were held attracting athletes from all
the Greek, city-states. While the Games were taking place, the Olympic
Truce was in force and all hostilities suspended. The victor's prize
was a crown made from a wild olive branch, which was always cut from
the same tree, the Kallistefano. "Tinella kallinike" - Well done,
glorious victor - shouted the crowd in praise of the winner.
Back in his birthplace, people would knock down the city walls. The
Olympic Games, which included the foot-race, wrestling, the Pankration,
the Pentathlon, chariot racing and horse racing, as well as artistic
and literary competitions, came to an end in 393 AD, with the prohibitory
edict of Theodosios I. Fifteen centuries later, in 1896, they were
revived where they had been born, in Greece, by the French historian
and educator Pier de Coubertin. Since then every four years a torchbearer,
like the ancient heralds, starts out from Olympia bearing the sacred
flame to the place where the Games are held. To overse the organization
of the Games, an International Olympic Academy was founded with headquarters
since 1961 in Olympia. |
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Olympia
Ancient Ruins Olympia |
