AQA GCSE Ancient Olympics and Pantathenia NOTES

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The Olympic Games were the most important Panhellenic Games, having been banned by the Christian emperor Theodosius I in 393, being a manifestation of the pagan rituals.

An important source about the games is Pausanias (second century AD), author of the book Description of Greece, a guide of Greece based on his travels around the territory. Another important source is a treatise the exercise of Lemnos (II-III century AD).

The sculpture and Greek ceramics represented not only the athletes as their own sports. With regard to sculpture, which had in bronze and marble the beloved materials, many works have survived only as copies of the Roman era. Some statues was only the base, where recorded entries relating to the athlete, providers of information. Finally, the coins minted in certain polis portray particular sport in which the city stood.

The practice of sparring in Ancient Greece dates back to the eighth century BC. Just could strike with fists and competitors involved fingers with leather straps. There were no assaults or categories based on the weight of the athletes. The game ended when one of the athletes was unconscious or put a finger in the air in sign of giving up.

The pankration was a combination of fighting and sparring, and its result an extremely violent event, whose competitors could even come to die. Everything was allowed, except for sticking fingers in the eyes, attacking the genital region, scratch or bite. The victory occurred when one of the athletes could no longer continue fighting, raising a finger at the judge realized.

For each of these sports, there was evidence reserved for adult men and boys.

Pentathlon [edit | edit source]

An athlete performs the long jump equipped with two dumbbells

The pentathlon of the ancient Greeks was different from the modern pentathlon, being composed of the discus throw, javelin, long jump, the stadium race (similar to 200 m) and the fight.

The album released by athletes weighed about 9.5 kilograms and could be made of stone, iron or bronze. The winner was the one who could throw the disc as far as possible and the winner was also considered a hero. As for the dart had the height of a man and was made of wood. In the long jump it is resorted to four dumbbells that drove the athlete on the climb and were then thrown when this went down.

If an athlete had won the first three events of the pentathlon, they are held the last two.

Date of introduction of evidence [edit…

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