Syracuse

The Ancient Olympic Games have a long history. It all began about 3,000 years ago, according to known sources, when the first Olympic Games were celebrated in 776 BC. The Games were named for their location at Olympia, a sacred site located near the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece.

Legend has it that Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, founded the Games, which by the end of the sixth century BC had become the most famous Greek sports festival. The Ancient Olympic Games were held every four years between 6 August and 19 September during a religious festival honouring Zeus.

The Ancient Olympic Games were part of a wider set of athletic competitions, called the Panhellenic Games. These Games were special because they brought the Greek world together at a time when Greece was a series of city-states. The other three games were the Pythian Games at Delphi, the Nemean Games at Nemea, and the Isthmian Games held on the Isthmus of Corinth. Each Games was dedicated to a specific god – Apollo, Heracles, Poseidon or of course Zeus. Despite this, the Olympic Games were still considered the most important of these games.

Before the Ancient Olympic Games began, messengers went from city to city to announce a “sacred truce” and the dates of competition. This meant that during the Truce period, the athletes, artists and pilgrims going to the Games could travel safely to Olympia. This tradition of the “Olympic Truce”, or “Ekecheiria”, was established in Ancient Greece in the ninth century BC through the signing of a treaty by three kings.

Participation in the Ancient Olympic Games was initially limited to freeborn male citizens of Greece; women were not allowed to participate in the Games and married women were not even allowed to watch the Games. There were no gold, silver or bronze medals, and winners were given a wreath of olive leaves and a hero's welcome when they returned home. Athletes competed for the glory of their city, and winners were seen as being touched by the gods.

The Games lasted five days by the fifth century BC, and the sporting contests were a central element. The competition programme consisted of individual sports only (running, pentathlon, boxing, wrestling, pankration and chariot racing), and the events took place in the stadium, the palestra, the gymnasium or the hippodrome. At least 40,000 spectators would have packed the stadium each day at the height of the Games’ popularity, in the second century AD.

After the conquest of Greece by Rome in 146 BC, a period of decline began. Most sources mention the 393 AD decree of Emperor Theodosius I, who converted to Christianity and abolished all pagan cults and centres, as contributing towards the ending of the Games. Nevertheless, other sources also highlight the deteriorating state of the site of Olympia and the possible role of Theodosius II, who ordered the destruction of all pagan temples in the eastern empire in 426 AD.

The educational kit “The Olympic Games in Antiquity”, produced by The Olympic Museum, is a must-read resource that provides many details on every aspect of the Ancient Olympic Games discussed above.

To facilitate your research on the topic, we have compiled the most important official publications, a list of links and a wide range of academic articles for you on this page. This is just a selection of the resources available; so be sure to check out the full list of resources available in the OWL via the link at the bottom of the page, or search in the full catalogue for other topics of interest.