THE MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES MANY CERTAINLY LOOK VERY DIFFERENT TO WHAT TOOK PLACE HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO, BUT THE UNDERLYING ETHOS HASN'T CHANGED IN MILLENNIA.
The ancient heroic code, was as the epic poet
Homer put it, to strive always to be the best, superior to others, hence the
modern Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Strong “ .
The ancient Greek World consisted of about
1,500 economically independent city-states, dotted around the coastlines of the
Mediterranean and Black Seas, and these states were often at war with one
another. Nevertheless, they all thought of themselves as Greeks, and they
invented sport, and international festivals such as the Olympic Games, as
opportunities to test themselves against their peers without shedding blood-or
not too competitors and spectators could travel in safety. So, every four
years, thousands made their way to the Peloponnese, the southern peninsula of
Greece, where Olympia was situated. Like today, athletes completed for a
combination of individual land national glory. The origins of the games are
lost in the mists of time: like other games in ancient Greece, the Olympic festival
probably began in celebration of the
death of a local hero – perhaps Pelops himself, after whom the Peloponnese is
named “ the island of Pelops”. But the Greeks themselves said that games began in
776 BCE, and took that years as the start of the first Olympiad.
The years 2012 begins the 30th
Olympiad of the modern era (since the competition restarted in 1896) , but –technically
– it begins the 697th Olympiad. The 2012 Olympics recently took place in London,
with the 2016 event being held in Rio de Janeiro
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