Pankration

Nicholas Palatucci Professor Spar World Civ. 12 December 2014 Ancient Greek Olympic Games Throughout the history of human civilization, various peoples around the world have developed their own games and contests where they compete with one another. No such contests were as interesting or well documented as the Olympic Games that occurred in ancient Greece. While visiting the MET, I discovered the Terracotta Panathenaic Prize Amphora. This is a vase that is from the Greek period at about 500…

There is a rich and vast history of athletics in the Greek world, but what most history overlooks, is what the winners went through to compete in the Olympics and if they win where would they end up. Through the 12 centuries, each Olympic winner would be seen as an immortal demi god. Even After a winner’s death legends would be told of his victories. How was life after winning the Olympics and what affect did it have on Greeks? Not all men could compete in the Greek games only free Greeks were…

How many people in the world have not heard of the Olympics? Not many. Olympic athletes come from nearly every country in the world and have all different talents. Athletes like these have been around for a very long time and will continue to stay around. They started out in the Ancient Olympics with sports like the Chariot Races and the Javelin throw, but have moved on to things like gymnastics and figure skating. Despite being very different from Modern Olympics, the Ancient Olympics were…

The believed origin date for the first Olympiad is 776 BC however it is has been the subject of intense debates for historians for a long time (Spivey 2004, 206). When trying to come to a date for the first Olympiad a decision was made by fixing a list of victors at Olympia, after which they counted backward in quadrennial units (Miller 2004, 20). The main concern with trying to figure out the origin date is if it is accuracy for the emergence of Greek athletics. Scholars have looked for the…

Ancient Greece Olympics Today’s Olympics have changed a lot. The Olympics in Greece focused mainly on the gods. The greeks made sacrifices to the gods on the first and third day of the Olympic Games (“Ancient Olympics in Olympia Greece”). That is not how they focus today at all. In fact, many people don’t believe in the gods being more than myths made up by desperate people in desperate times. The athletes have changed as well, there are female athletes as well as male athletes in today's…

the Greek Olympics were only a one day event. Then, 668 B.C. they extended it to being three day event. In the 5th century B.C. it was extended to five days for the event. The Greek Games included running, long jump, shot put, javelin, boxing, pankration and equestrian events. In the Greek Olympics, no women were allowed to watch the Greek games and only Greek nationals could participate in the games. People always competed nude. The prize was a crown of olive leaves . The crown of olive…

“Skeleton racing involves plummeting head-first down a steep and treacherous ice track on a tiny sled. It is considered the world’s first sliding sport” (“Skeleton”). The current definition, which is widely accepted, brings into question the validity of some olympic events being called olympic sports. The definition also needs to change due to the nature of language, which is that it changes. The current definition of a sport needs to be changed to better capture the essence of what a sport is.…

Arenas bring together a vast diversity of people, all for a single purpose: to entertain. Arenas attract people of all different cultures, genders, and socioeconomic classes, as well as from various different walks of life. Arenas during the Roman era, as well as today, are gathering places where people of all different backgrounds go to partake in an event. However, modern day sports arenas serve a wider variety of purposes than Roman arenas, and, due to modern technologies, have various…