Реферат: Olympic Games Essay Research Paper

beat Oinomaos in the chariot race. Pelops and Myrtilos secretly replaced the

bronze linchpins of the King’s chariot with linchpins made of wax. When Oinomaos

was about to pass Pelops in the chariot race, the wax melted and Oinomaos was

thrown to his death. Pelops married Hippodamia and instituted the Olympic games

to celebrate his victory. A different version of the myth refers to the Olympic

games as funeral games in the memory of Oinomaos. Another myth about the origin

of the Olympic Games comes from the Tenth Olympian Ode of the poet Pindar. He

tells the story of how Hercules, on his fifth labor, had to clean the stables of

King Augeas of Elis. Hercules approached Augeas and promised to clean the

stables for the price of one-tenth of the king’s cattle. Augeas agreed, and

Hercules re-routed the Kladeos and Alpheos rivers to flow through the stables.

Augeas did not fulfill his promise, however, and after Hercules had finished his

labors he returned to Elis and waged war on Augeas. Hercules sacked the city of

Elis and instituted the Olympic Games in honor of his father, Zeus. It is said

that Hercules taught men how to wrestle and measured out the stade, or the

length of the footrace. Although the exact origin is unknown the Ancient Olympic

Games were held in a sacred valley at Olympia in Elis near the western coast of

Greece and the earliest recorded Olympic competition was in 776 B.C. So

important were these contests that time was measured by the four-year interval

between the Games with the term "Olympiad" describing this period. It

is a well established fact that religious festivals in honor of Olympian Zeus

had been observed in the sacred valley for several centuries previous to that

remote date. The Greek Games were celebrated in the belief that "the

spirits of the dead were gratified by such spectacles as delighted them during

their earthly life"(Gorman 79). During the Homeric age, these festivals

were "simply sacrifices followed by games at the tomb or before the funeral

pyre"(White 49). Gradually they grew into religious festivals observed by

an entire community and celebrated near the shrine of the god in whose honor

they were instituted. The idea then developed that the gods themselves were