Ancient Olympic Games Ancient Olympic Games The ancient Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration of and for Zeus; later, events such as a footrace, a javelin contest, and wrestling matches were added. The Olympic Games (, "Olympia", "the Olympics"; also , , "the Olympiad") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor
Ancient Olympic pentathlon all five of the events. This method is impractical, for the prize would have hardly ever been awarded. Another hypothesis is that perhaps an athlete who was victorious in just three events, was declared the overall winner. One of the more common theories is that only a certain number of competitors would qualify for the final event, wrestling, based on their performance in the previous four events. Ultimately, the victor of wrestling would be deemed the champion of the entire pentathlon. Ancient Olympic pentathlon The Ancient Olympic pentathlon () was an athletic contest at the Ancient Olympic Games, and other