Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode we will be going back to the times they refer to as classical antiquity, which is the period of history before the Middle Ages around the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD, where in-between, the Ancient Olympic Games took place for over 1,000 years.

The first games took place in Olympia, Greece in 776 BC. Competitors came from the numerous Greek city-states of which there was over 1,000. The Olympic Truce known as Ekecheiria was declared for the games to ensure safe passage for all athletes and spectators.

For the first 13 years of the Ancient Games the Stade race was the only event, which was a sprint around the stadion track of 192 metres.

From here events were added as the games evolved. With the games and the prestige that accompanied them heroes and legends were made. Koroibos of Elis was the first Olympic champion, Leonidas of Rhodes won three events, Chionis of Sparta was a three-time stadion/diaulos winner and champion jumper, while Milo of Croton was a legendary six-time winner in wrestling.

As Roman influence increased the games were viewed as paganism and eventually banned in order to promote Christianity. And it wasn’t until 1896 some 1,503 years later that the games were revived under what we call, the Modern Olympic Games

Today’s mnemonic will be on the top six facts of the Ancient Olympic Games.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Restoration_of_old_Olympian_fields_at_time_of_Olympic_games,_B.C_(NYPL_b13537024-56615).jpg

Wikipedia Summary

The ancient Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ta Olympia[1]), or the ancient Olympics, were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece.

They were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, in honour of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC.[2] The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies.

These Olympiads were referred to based on the winner of their stadion sprint, e.g., "the third year of the eighteenth Olympiad when Ladas of Argos won the stadion".[3] They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archaeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date.[4][5] The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.[6]

During the celebration of the games, the Olympic truce (ekecheiría) was announced so that athletes and religious pilgrims could travel from their cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rival city states. Politicians would announce political alliances at the games, and in times of war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory.

The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sculptors and poets would congregate each Olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons.

The ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and for many years only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate,[7] although there were victorious women chariot owners.

The games were always held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations like the modern Olympic Games.[9] Victors at the Olympics were honoured, and their feats chronicled for future generations.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Olympic_Games]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Long_jump_Ancient_Greeece.jpg

Mnemonic

The Ancient Olympic Games – Top 6 Facts Mnemonic – FALCRO

(Picture volunteers with their felcro secateurs pruning all the olive trees around the Olympic site to make the wreaths for the victors)

1. First Ancient Olympic Games took place in 776 B.C.

2. Athletes competed in the nude

3. Last Ancient Olympic Games took place in 393 A.D.

4. Celebrated at Olympia in Greece

5. Romans cancelled the games as they were deemed paganistic

6. Olive leaf wreaths or crowns were the prize for the victors

Five Fun Facts

1. The Olympics were named after Mount Olympus. They were held at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Olympia in Greece’s western Peloponnese region. It was a sacred area with a giant statue of the god Zeus, while the stadium could hold around 45,000 people.

2. The origins or reason behind the ancient Olympics is disputed. One theory is that it was a religious festival in honour of Zeus. While the other, is that the ancient Olympics were actually funeral games held in honour of deceased local heroes. Both are plausible, however, given that athletic contests were one way that the Greeks honoured their gods, and that sporting events were often associated with funeral rituals I will have to leave that one to the experts.

3. Before each Olympic Games a truce between Greek city-states would be established. Messengers called ‘spondophoroi’ were sent out across the Greek world to announce the truce which was otherwise known as ‘Ekecheiria.’ This ensured safe passage and was initially for one month but later extended to three.

4. Participants of the games was open to all free male citizens regardless of their social status. Women were not permitted, but could in fact win one of the events. A loophole existed where in the chariot racing the horse owner and not the rider was declared the Olympic champion, and anyone was allowed to own a horse. Thus Kyniska who was the daughter of the King of Sparta was the first woman Olympic winner in 396 BC.

5. Events at the Ancient Olympics varied over time. For the first 13 Olympics, the only event was a footrace of around 192 metres or 210 yards, which was one length of the stadium called a ‘stade’. Following this, events such as wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, and pentathlon emerged. The pentathlon consisted of five different events which included running, wrestling, long jump, discus, and javelin. The most vicious and ferocious event was ‘pankration’ which was a combination of wrestling and boxing where the only rules were no biting and eye gouging.

Now, just in regards to these events, for me, I think the sprinters always got the games off on the right foot. The boxers always punched above their weight and the high jumpers would always raise the bar. But if there is definitely a favourite event for me, it’s the long jumpers who are always leaps and bounds ahead!