Sport in the Ancient World

The Sports in Ancient Greece were more than just sports, but functioned as a job, entertainment, and first and foremost as a tribute to the Gods. Before any Greek Athlete could compete, he had to swear to Zeus that he had been through intensive training and that he was prepared to work a final month under the supervision of Olympic Judges. Olympic judges played a big part in the sports. For example, if one of the runners in the sprinting event crossed over the line before it was time to start, the runner would be whipped (like a slave) in front of the whole crowd by the Judge. That however is just one rule for one event.

In the video, sprinting appeared to be the main and longest living sport among the Greeks. I found it extremely interesting that the Greeks found such direct correlation between the athletes body and religion. Everyone has come across or seen examples of Greek sculpture and the perfect bodies displayed. This is how the Greeks thought the human body should look and athletes went under a lot of rituals before and after practice. Before the athlete practiced, someone would rub oil all over their body and sprinkle yellow dust in order to form a cloud-like image around him. This was a symbol of divinity because of the sweet smelling body odor it created. After practice, someone would use a scrapper and scrap off all of their dust and sweat. These remnants were then used in medicines.

Another thing I found extremely interesting was the participants in Greek sports were all freeborn Greeks that were aristocrats and laborers. People from the poorest background made full time commitments to athletics which proves just how important it was to the Greeks.

As time went by, the Greeks added a dozen more sports. There was the discuss thrower, the triple jump, boxing, race in a helmet and armor, a four horse chariot race, and the Javelin. At these sporting events, the only woman that could attend was a priests goddess, which was the sister of zeus. The Greeks invited the first multi-sport event in olympian games which was called the Pentathlon. The first event was the triple jumpers who carried weights as they jumped. Then came the Discuss throwers who threw their disc's without spinning like the modern players. Last was the Javelin throwers. If one man won the race was over. However, if one man did not one win, there was a race and wrestling match to break the tie. During the Boxing match, the object of the game was not to kill the other man because if he did the dead man would be buried with and olive wreath.

At the last even there was a race of athletes with armor. Then there were ceremonies to celebrate the olympic athletes. All of modern day olympic games stemmed from the Ancient Greeks.