Many aspects of the ancient Olympic Games would be perfectly familiar to fans at the games in Rio de Janeiro like elite international competition, cheering crowds, events like sprints, wrestling, discus, and javelin. Then as now, Olympic contenders often spent years training with expert coaches, and victors were showered with praise and wealth.
But other elements of the ancient games doesn't fit the modern spectators anymore.
Of course, sacrificing 100 oxen, or public whipping of athletes caught cheating, or race in full body armor are just a few of those ancient practices that is kinda hard to imagine doing now. This also includes examining the entrails of sacrificed animals to see if they prophesied victory, and were rewarded only for winning an event.
Also, there were no prized for second and third place.
The first recorded Olympic was held in 776 B.C. at the site of Olympia in the Western Peloponnese. They likely developed from the practice of holding funeral games to honor fallen warriors and local heroes. It was also said in myths that it was the Greek demigod Heracles who founded the games.
The games continued without interruption once every four years for almost 1,200 years. They were then abolished in A.D. 393 by the Empreror Theodisius, a Christian who saw the worship of Zeus throughout the games as a pagan abomination.
The practice of warfare in the ancient world inspired many Olympic events.
In the hoplitodromia, or race in armor,a field of 25 athletes ran two lengths of the 210-yard-long (192-meter-long) stadium at Olympia wearing bronze greaves and helmets and lugging shields that may have weighed 30 pounds.
Contestants in the target javelin event hurled javelins at a shield fixed to a pole while galloping on horseback, a standard military practice documented by the historian Xenophon.
Chariot races with teams of two and four horses were incredibly dangerous but popular. The four-horse chariot race was one of the oldest events in the games, first introduced at Olympia in 680 B.C. This game was mostly between the wealthy since they're the only ones that can maintain the horses and afford chariots. They generally hire charioteers to play for them.
Boxing, wrestling, and a combination of both called pankration were also practiced in the games. Boxers wore thin gloves made of leather thongs and fought on the open ground. if the bout lasted on for hours, the boxers could agree to exchange undefended blows which can cause sudden death.
Wrestling and pankration could also be brutal. Wrestlers had to throw their opponents to the ground three times to win. Back then, there were no weight classes so the largest wrestlers always have an advantage.
In pankration, everything but biting and gouging was allowed. One fighter, nicknamed "Mr. Fingertips," was known for breaking an opponent's fingers at the start of the match to force immediate submission. Another fighter would twist his opponents' ankles from their sockets.
As brutal as they may seem, the games served as temporary peace between the frequent warring Greek city-states.
The king of the Greek gods was also honored by lavish sacrifices of oxen and dedicatory statues. By the second century A.D., the pile of accumulated ash from centuries of sacrifices stood 23 feet or seven meters tall.
On the opening of the games, athletes swore an oath before Zeus, "Keeper of Oaths." The brothers, fathers, and trainers of the athletes took the oath as well, promising to uphold all the rules and guaranteeing that they had been training for at least 10 months.
Cheating was a very obvious and common act back then. Wrestlers rubbed themselves with olive oil so they could slide from their opponent's grasp. Judges and even fellow competitors were bribed. Those caught were publicly whipped and fines. Their shame was immortalized on inscribed statues lining the route athletes walked to enter the stadium.
I guess you probably know now why these ancient games and practices doesn't include in the modern Olympic games.
Source: National Geographic
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