In ancient Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean region, people often held grand gatherings and carried out various recreational and competitive activities during festivals and harvest seasons, which were very lively. At first, this activity was scattered all over the country, and it was not regular, but the gathering in Olympia was the biggest.
In 884 BC, war broke out in ancient Greece, and wars were raging everywhere, plagues were rampant, and agricultural crops failed. Greek civilians were very eager for peace and missed the celebrations of that year. So, the king of Elis city-state where Olympia is located contacted the kings of other city-states, and reached an agreement to hold sports meetings in Olympia on a regular basis, and stipulated that "Holy Truce Day" should be implemented in the sports year. The period of "Holy Truce Day" is three months. In the meantime, no one is allowed to use the sword to start. Even the two sides at war have to lay down their weapons and prepare to go to Olympia for the sports meeting. Since then, there has been an all-Greek tournament. By 776 BC, the safety names of the winners were recorded in words for the first time. This is what later generations called the first ancient Greek Games. After that, this kind of competition will be held every four years. Therefore, the venue of the competition is Olympia, also known as the ancient Olympic Games, or the ancient Olympic Games for short. From 776 BC to 349 AD, the ancient Olympic Games were abolished by the emperor of the Roman Empire, and the ancient Olympic Games were held for 293 times.
The ancient Olympic Games did not mean joy to ordinary Olympic spectators. A typical Olympic spectator, if he starts from Athens, must wade across most of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, along a rugged ancient pilgrim road, with the scorching summer sun in the Mediterranean above his head, and it takes him two weeks to walk more than 3 kilometers from Athens to Olympia by foot or with the help of mules and horses. If you come from an overseas colony, it will take longer to go by sea.
When the exhausted audience finally arrived at Olympia, the real test had just begun. The infrastructure of Olympia is extremely simple, with only a decent hotel, which is only open to diplomatic missions and officials. The nobles with insufficient rank can only set up their own tents to solve the accommodation problem. As for the other 8, ordinary spectators-nearly half of them were vendors selling food and souvenirs-they had to help themselves in the wilderness near the temple of Zeus. As a result, during the Olympic Games, it became a campsite with poor sanitation.
There is no audience in the stadium of Olympia, and there is no shade. Because of religious reasons, spectators are not allowed to wear hats in the Olympic Games. People can only stand in the middle of the dusty stadium from morning till night and expose themselves to the hot sun. Because the river is cut off in summer, the supply of well water is in short supply, and the audience is dehydrated and heatstroke occurs from time to time. At that time, there was no perfect sewage system in Greece, and the dry river bed became a temporary toilet for tens of thousands of people. The garbage was piled up on the spot, and the sanitary situation was imaginable. It was under such conditions that the ancient Olympic Games were held for more than 1 years. It is said that the mess of the Olympic Games is so shocking that there is a saying that the master will say to the unruly slave in a threatening tone: If you don't obey, you will be punished to watch the Olympic Games in Olympia!
Olympic anthem