Ancient Olympics

There are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games; the most popular of which identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the Games. According to the legend, Zeus held sporting events in honor of his defeat of Cronus, and succession to the throne of heaven. Heracles, being his eldest son, defeated his brothers in a running race and was crowned with a wreath of wild olive branches. It is Heracles who first called the games Olympic, and established the custom of holding them every 4 years. The legend diverges at this point. One popular story claims that after Heracles completed his 12 labors, he went on to build the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to Zeus. After the stadium was complete, he walked in a straight line for 200 strides and called this distance a "stadion" (Greek: στάδιον, Latin: stadium, "stage"), which later also became a unit of distance. Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of Olympic truce (ἐκεχειρία, ekecheiria). The most widely held estimate for the inception of the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC.
From then on, the Olympic Games quickly became very important throughout ancient Greece. They reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance. They featured sport events and ritual sacrifices honoring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia. Pelops was famous for his legendary chariot races with King Oenomaus of Pisatis.The number of events increased to twenty and the celebration spanned several days. Winners of the events were admired and immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, known as an Olympiad. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their units of time measurement.
The Games enjoyed immense success. Victors were treated as conquering heroes, their statues adorned Athens and their home towns. Gradually though, the Games began to declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence in Greece. In 393 AD Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the religion of the Empire. After over 1000 years in existence, the Olympic Games were banned due to their roots in paganism. The Olympics were not seen again until their rebirth 1,500 years later.