What Is The Significance Of The Olympic Games Essay

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Most at times do not really realize how important history and its events greatly influence the way we live and what we do today! Every four years we celebrate the beginning of something that was brought up long ago, the Olympics! This great event in which, now the whole world participates in started way back in the year 776 BC. It started from people playing for the God Zeus to people playing for their country and a medal, the Olympic Games sure did evolve as the time and beliefs changed. How the Olympic Games arose was a very important part of Greek history. Though no one really knows how exactly these games began and how this whole competition came to be, there are clues to help us somewhat understand how these games and its history is used in today 's modern world. These games took part during the time Greece was facing its Dark Ages. It wasn’t until then that the Greeks learned once again how to read and write. This time though they used the Phoenicians alphabet, which is where our alphabet is derived from. Given that at this time they knew how to communicate is a …show more content…

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

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