Analysis Of Organized Greek Games By William J. Baker

In the article, Organized Greek Games, William J. Baker describes the difference between Ancient Olympic Games and Modern Olympic Games, relationship between religion and Olympics, and Greek philosopher’s thought on the role of athletics. Athletic festivals were an essential part of Greek civilization for thousands of years. Moreover, the history of organized athletics can tell us the history of Greek. There were hundreds of athletic festivals which are the mixtures of athletic competition and religion ceremony held around the country including its colonies such as Egypt, Bosporus and Sicily. Out of all these festivals, The Olympic Games was the most influential and oldest and it was for honor of Zeus. Olympic Games were held every four year in
The afternoon was for different contest, pentathlon. In the morning of third day, religious ceremony were held in honor of the hero god Pelops. But on the afternoon, the footraces began. There was 200 meters contest, 400 meters and finally longest distance which is 4,800 meters. The fourth day of the Olympic came up with all the heavy and brutal events such as: boxing, the pancration, wrestling and armored footraces. The first three contests were expression of strength and will which means they were brutal and violent. There were only few rules and no ring and no time limit. In addition to their rules, there were no weight limit that means the toughest and best muscled guys would participate. Wrestling was mild event compared to boxing because it had some rules such as no biting and no gouging. In boxing, there was no timing break until one of the competitors was knocked out or exhausted. Competitors would focus on the opponents face rather than body. The Pancration was even tougher than others. There would do anything they could in order to win the game that means they were allowed to do everything. And after all these brutal contests, there were 400 meters armored