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Hist215(2) The Olympics: Lecture Outline
Intro
Sanctuary of Zeus
Olympia, in the city-state of Elis.
776BCE-393CE Olympic Festival
Every 4 years for over a thousand years
Panhellenic = "All Greek"
all greeks participated, they all venerated the same olympian gods, shared
mythology, and food, all elites heard homer's epics, from early age and embraced the
heroism of the Iliad
I The Polis (Greek city-state)
several hundred city states, each had a citadel and acropolis, and marketplace and
agura and country side
Acropolis = citadel
Agora = market place
Ecclesia = assembly
Boule = council
Archons = magistrates
Metics = foreign residents, merchants, bankers, traders, and doctors
most strictly followed their own constitutions,
II Slavery
⅓ were slaves, greeks usually only enslaved non-greeks,
Natural Slavery: Aristotle (384-322BCE), Politics
if a master does the tasks of a slave, the master would become the slave
Slavery and Sport
slavery affected sports, distinguished 2 different groups, aristotle made sport a
preservation of the aristocracy, masters were free to practice sport since slaves did
all the work
Sparta & the Helots
these slaves did all the farming and hard labour so spartans can spent time
exercising and training, helots vastly outnumbered the spartans, 7 helots to 1
spartan, the training become tougher for spartans bc they were afraid the helots
would rebel, constant labour would wear the slaves out, masters forbid slaves from
practiing martial arts
, 2
Okinawan karate
Brazilian Capoeira
these forms of dancing came from slaves in efforts to hide their combat training and
martial arts skills form their masters
Rugby vs. football
III Modern Olympics 1896-
Ottoman Greece 1500-1833, 1453 constantinople fell, they occupied greece,
greece did not exist as a country for like 400 years under them, only in 1833 did the
greeks push the ottomans out, athens then became the capital
Modern Greece 1833-today
1875 Archaeological excavations in Olympia
excavations started to revive their culture,
Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) "father of the modern Olympics", he wanted
to revive the olympic games, he saw it as a cure for modern, social, and political
stress, added ideals of international peace and harmony, especially greek national
pride
Greek Nationalism & the Hellenic Revival in intellectuals,
Lord Byron (1788-1824), British poet and lover of Greece
1896 The first modern Olympics in Athens, not Olympia, differed in
organization, competition, and ideology, ancient games had no medals, no second
and third place, no weight classes, no teams, no water, no women, no winter games,
no ring symbols
IV Modern Olympics: new Rituals and new Events, he designed the rings in 1912,
1) Torch lighting and Relay
lightning of the flaming cauldron introduced in amsterdam olympics, the torch and
relay, this is a ritual, this is an invention from hitler
1936 Berlin, Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi Olympics
Leni Reifenstahl, Olympia (1936) - famous Nazi documentary-propaganda
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8QY_y40aCE
= torch relay section
Hist215(2) The Olympics: Lecture Outline
Intro
Sanctuary of Zeus
Olympia, in the city-state of Elis.
776BCE-393CE Olympic Festival
Every 4 years for over a thousand years
Panhellenic = "All Greek"
all greeks participated, they all venerated the same olympian gods, shared
mythology, and food, all elites heard homer's epics, from early age and embraced the
heroism of the Iliad
I The Polis (Greek city-state)
several hundred city states, each had a citadel and acropolis, and marketplace and
agura and country side
Acropolis = citadel
Agora = market place
Ecclesia = assembly
Boule = council
Archons = magistrates
Metics = foreign residents, merchants, bankers, traders, and doctors
most strictly followed their own constitutions,
II Slavery
⅓ were slaves, greeks usually only enslaved non-greeks,
Natural Slavery: Aristotle (384-322BCE), Politics
if a master does the tasks of a slave, the master would become the slave
Slavery and Sport
slavery affected sports, distinguished 2 different groups, aristotle made sport a
preservation of the aristocracy, masters were free to practice sport since slaves did
all the work
Sparta & the Helots
these slaves did all the farming and hard labour so spartans can spent time
exercising and training, helots vastly outnumbered the spartans, 7 helots to 1
spartan, the training become tougher for spartans bc they were afraid the helots
would rebel, constant labour would wear the slaves out, masters forbid slaves from
practiing martial arts
, 2
Okinawan karate
Brazilian Capoeira
these forms of dancing came from slaves in efforts to hide their combat training and
martial arts skills form their masters
Rugby vs. football
III Modern Olympics 1896-
Ottoman Greece 1500-1833, 1453 constantinople fell, they occupied greece,
greece did not exist as a country for like 400 years under them, only in 1833 did the
greeks push the ottomans out, athens then became the capital
Modern Greece 1833-today
1875 Archaeological excavations in Olympia
excavations started to revive their culture,
Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) "father of the modern Olympics", he wanted
to revive the olympic games, he saw it as a cure for modern, social, and political
stress, added ideals of international peace and harmony, especially greek national
pride
Greek Nationalism & the Hellenic Revival in intellectuals,
Lord Byron (1788-1824), British poet and lover of Greece
1896 The first modern Olympics in Athens, not Olympia, differed in
organization, competition, and ideology, ancient games had no medals, no second
and third place, no weight classes, no teams, no water, no women, no winter games,
no ring symbols
IV Modern Olympics: new Rituals and new Events, he designed the rings in 1912,
1) Torch lighting and Relay
lightning of the flaming cauldron introduced in amsterdam olympics, the torch and
relay, this is a ritual, this is an invention from hitler
1936 Berlin, Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi Olympics
Leni Reifenstahl, Olympia (1936) - famous Nazi documentary-propaganda
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8QY_y40aCE
= torch relay section
