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Essay about the ancient olympic games
Essay about the ancient olympic games
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The prompt that I have selected is the idea of hubris and the ancient games and comparing it to the modern world to see its similarities and differences. The text we will be looking at is Herodotus and we will also look at the sculpture The Diskobolos created by Myron. Off of these two we will discuss the idea of hubris and the Olympic games from Ancient Greece and compare it to the regular world. I wanted the ancient Greek games to our modern Olympic games which has changed from an event about honor to a commercialized event filled with cheating athletes. We will also talk about hubris in which we will compare the mighty Xerxes to our modern time Carolina Panthers. Something that is unchanged from ancient Greek times until modern times is the idea of hubris and the story of the underdogs.
In Ancient Greece they formed the Greek Olympics in the year 776 B.C in which participants participate to honor the gods and demonstrate their physical abilities. What was amazing was that those who participated were only participating in honor and not prizes. Something that they would win was the olive wreath which was basically winning the honor and recognition of the people and the gods. Comparing to the ancient time and now is that there are now commercialized, endorsements, and sponsorships for athletes to represent companies in the Olympics. However, the Olympics still hold true to the idea that it is still a place for participants compete with the best in the world for the honor (gold,silver, and bronze medal). Also, if we look at the sculpture of the Diskobolos made by Myron of Eleutherae it represented the general athlete in motion and would symbolize the ancient times athlete. But something that is different about now and the Greek ...
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...iring and “the Broncos led from start to finish” (Denver Dominates Super bowl) against the Panthers who fell to hubris. Ultimately, hubris brought down the unstoppable offense of the Panthers when they met their match, the amazing shutdown and immense pressure defense of the Broncos.
In conclusion, hubris leads to the ultimate downfall of great powers and people. Also, comparing modern times to ancient Greek times, with topics light the Olympics and times where you could see hubris you can see many similarities and differences. The Olympics now are different from it is a commercialized stage, but still it is a place where people demonstrate their physical abilities for the honor. Finally, hubris and the underdog mentality are so impactful in our lives I think it should remind us to be humble and respect everyone we encounter or it might come to bite us in the rear.
In Histories, Herodotus’ uses a variety of themes to narrate historical events and a common theme revolves around hubris. Extremely common amongst Greek literature and Greek mythology, hubris appears to be the infamous human trait. Greek mythology sees hubris as a great atrocity and results in an unrelenting punishment. The idea of hubris is that an individual with an authoritative position, a strong or influential leader, becomes extremely proud of his exceptional qualities and forms a delusion of his position to be on par with even the Gods. This blinds the hubristic individual into believing he can defy the Gods and elude ones inevitable fate. Herodotus’ Histories is no exception to containing individuals that display hubristic qualities similar to many other significant historical entities. In Histories, the theme of hubris assists the reader in making a connection between the excerpts from the end of book 1 (1-204-206) to other books and excerpts in Herodotus’ Histories.
Civic implications were also apparent in ancient Greek athletics. The ancient world was one of constant conflict and political turmoil, and it was necessary for each city-state to possess a strong military in order to preserve their autonomy.
“There is no safety in unlimited hubris” (McGeorge Bundy). The dictionary defines hubris as overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance. In The Odyssey, Homer embodies hubris into the characters Odysseus, the Suitors, and the Cyclopes. Odysseus shows hubris when he is battling the Cyclopes, the Cyclopes show hubris when dealing with Odysseus, and the Suitors show it when Odysseus confronts them at his home.
Since 776 BCE, the Olympics have been a way for people of different cultures to come together and compete in friendly competition. In 1892 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, although it had been over a thousand years since the last game it still had brought together an assortment of different religions and ethnic groups together. Many factors shaping the Olympic Games reflect the changes that have taken place in our world since the last game in 393 CE in Greece such changes include woman’s suffrage, global economy, world wars, and proving competency.
“It is universally accepted that 776 B.C. was the year the festival at Olympia, in honor of Zeus, became known as the Olympics, and the period of four years between celebrations became an Olympiad (Zimmerman 1984).” Yet the precise circumstances surrounding the creation of the ancient Olympics are still shrouded in mystery. Several myths encompassin...
Professor Chris Pelling of UCL wrote The Ancient Olympics. In addition, the author is a member of the UCL Department of Greek and Latin. In this article, the author describe and explain how sports were more than a competition in the ancient Greece. His hypothesis was that sports were a way to get honor and power instead of just competing. It represents more than a simple crown of leaves and olive-branch at the Olympics. It gave power, fame and honor to the athlete and their home city. In addition, they were awarded with many material rewards such as money, and women. For instance, the primary method employed in this research consisted
What is Hubris? Hubris is the excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance (Dictionary.com). Hubris is a significant theme because it is a weakness and downfall of some of the ancient heroes, warriors and kings. The gods punish and put to shame these heroes and kings known for being arrogant. Also, hubris tends to occur when a person has power or money or have something that others do not have. In the ancient literature Oedipus the King written by Sophocles, king Oedipus was known for being arrogant or having egotistical. He was also known as a hero for saving Thebes by giving the correct answer to the riddle of the Sphinx. In the story, Oedipus showed hubris to an old blind prophet called Teiresias. Even though Oedipus showed hubris and insulted the prophet, Teiresias still warned Oedipus that his pride would be his downfall, and his children and he would be of the same rank. Yet, Oedipus didn’t believe the prophet and kicked him out of his house. One illustration of hubris in Oedipus the King was when the strophe said “If a man walks with haughtiness of hand or word and gives no heed to justice and the shrines of Gods despises may an evil doom smite him for hiss ill-starred pride of heart” (Oedipus the king, part 1, lines 1010- 101) This quote means that if a man is showing too much hubris without any care for justice and shrines of gods, he should be punished severely because his pride. Oedipus was
The Ancient Greeks strived for Aréte in many different ways. One of the ways was athletics. Competitions were held at Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia. Those were more of the big competitions. The more local competitions, like the Panathenaic games held in Athens. If you won a competition, you did not get a prize. instead you brought upon honor to yourself, your family, and the place you came from (even though only Greek were able to participate). Even though you did not get a prize, you could get a statue sculpted for you, or poems about you winning, also
In Greek mythology Hubris means to have excessive pride or self-confidence from the hero. This excessive pride often leads to the hero’s downfall and is often their fatal flaw. Hubris causes the hero to disregard the gods. The hero’s don’t make good decisions. Their ability to make decisions is often hurt because their pride blurs what is a good and bad idea.
One of the main topics discussed in various history courses are the Greeks. This article goes a step further into the Greek culture by discussing lengthy about the importance of the Olympics (Baker, p. 59). In addition, Baker brings in other historical topics to help justify the ancient Greek Olympics. Baker does this by explaining how the Greeks were not the only ones who interest in sports. He does this by elaborating how the World Cup and the Super Bowl were important to modern day societies (Baker, p. 59). The article also provided numerous dates, which are crucial when it comes to discussing about historical
The Olympic Games have been around for many centuries. They are interesting and thrilling to watch. However they're have been many changes since the first ever Olympic Games.
Modern Day Olympics are a huge tradition that sweeps the screens of televisions across the world. Competitors take the arena with uniforms that dawn their countries colors and designs that are meant to resemble their designated flag. For months the news is centered around the games; the preparation, the athletes, and of course the competition. Countries aren 't obsessed, they are inspired and full of pride seeing athletes from their country compete and show their incredible skill. This tradition dates back to ancient Greece where the games began. Tony Perrottet writes about the traditions of the ancient game in his book The Naked Olympics.
Sport and politics have been interlinked from the very beginning. In Allen Guttmann’s (2002) insight into Olympic history, the founder of the modern Olympics which took place in Athens in 1896 was the Frenchman, Baron de Coubertin. Angered by the French defeat to the Prussians, he went about looking for ways to get back pride in the French army and state. He seen how Muscular Christianity had had a profound effect in England with Thomas Arnold and decided to adopt some of these principles, and this influenced him into founding the modern Olympics in 1896 (Guttmann, 2002). This proves that politics has been linked with sport from its origin and that the statement is inherently flawed. In more recent times this statement can be shown to be flawed just as much.
A story that is widely known about how the Olympics came to be is one in which Heracles was the creator and he was the one who made the stadium as an honor to his father Zeus after completing his twelve labors. The winner would be crowned victorious with the same olive wreath that the future Olympic participants would wear if victorious. Though now an olive wreath may sound insignificant this award was sacred to them. It was also considered to be a symbol of wisdom, peace, glory, and prosperity. In the 2004 the summer Olympics came back to Athens, Greece where they had their own interpretation of the traditional games. Such things as awarding the winner with the olive wreath were repeated in honor of the old ways and the fact that that was where it all started made it obviously more
Ancient Olympics The ancient Olympics had some differences from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete, instead of athletes from any country. Women where not allowed to even watch the games on penalty of death let alone play in them.. Also, the games were always held at Olympia in Greece instead of being moved around to different sites every time. But also they had some similarities to our modern Olympics, winning athletes were heroes who put their home towns on the map, and became financially sound for life. The conflict between the Olympic's ideals of sportsmanship and unity and the commercialism and political acts which accompany the Games where also present in ancient times. "Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans."