Posted on 02/10/2018 10:22:11 AM PST by SunkenCiv
To the west of the Temple of Zeus was a modest fifth-century B.C. facility where the Olympian athletes bathed... A 5-foot-deep swimming pool, measuring 79 feet by 52 feet, lay adjacent to the baths; this pool also dates to the fifth century B.C.
In the third century B.C. a palaestra was added... a large open-air courtyard enclosed on all four sides by a colonnade, which was surrounded by rooms. The Greek word "palaestra" means "the place of wrestling," so wrestling and other events were probably practiced in the courtyard.
In the second century B.C. a large gymnasium was constructed to the north of the bath facility... included a roofed racecourse, 600 feet long, allowing runners to train under cover... also... a large open-air courtyard for practicing the discus, javelin and long jump...
Archaeologists have found starting lines carved in stone at both ends of the dromos, 600 feet apart... Spectators used the northern slope of the Cronus Hill to view the contests. By the mid-fifth century B.C., the dromos was surrounded on four sides by artificial earth embankments on which 45,000 spectators could watch the contests.
Spectators at Olympia stood while watching the games. The word stadion, in fact, may have originally meant "the standing place" ...
The hippodrome -- for equestrian events -- was located south of the stadium, in the broad, flat plain north of the Alpheus River... was probably about 2,000 feet long and 650 feet wide. One lap of the hippodrome would have been about three-quarters of a mile long...
An Olympic champion was the man most pleasing to the god, and the qualities that made him attractive to the god were aidos (modesty and self-respect), sophrosune (moderation) and arete (excellence).
(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalarchaeology.org ...
Oh sure, emphasize the dark side — at least they had a rule, “eat what you bang”, and they had a huge cookout at the end of each day, enjoying the meat of the violated animals in a different way.
...the stadium, in the broad, flat plain north of the Alpheus River..."...Where Alph, the sacred river ran, through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea."
I think that was just a mansion built by a rich lesbian.
LOL!
there’s an Egyptian wall painting showing submission wrestling holds and such, there’s an interesting several minutes about the practice in Bettany Hughes’ rant about “Helen of Troy”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5H3zxCHU3I
If they didn’t have beer, then no, they didn’t have curling.
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