The Competitive Character Of The Ancient Greeks

The Olympic games originated in Athens in 776 B.C. The more popular modern day Olympic games began nearly 2300 years later in 1896. The games no longer represented a religious festival, but a sports competition instead. The games can be studied via multiple aspects such as political, social, and economic, but this paper will concentrate on the economic aspect of the games and more specifically, the macroeconomic impacts the games possess.

The modern Olympic movement has been shaped by many differentiating factors over the years. It has been altered by social, political, and economic factors. More specifically, warring times, changes to social structures, and economic activity that varies by country have been the overall leading factors that have shaped the Olympics over the years.

Miller’s purpose for writing the book Ancient Greek Athletics is to teach the audience about ancient Greek Games and how this important subject can teach us more about our own world. He accomplishes this goal by using the artifacts he has studied along with the history itself to guide the audience in their journey toward appreciating Greek heritage. In this book, Miller addresses the Olympic Games that began more than twenty-five hundred years ago. I learned many different things throughout this book including: the participants, all the different athletic

Ever since its inception in 1896, the Modern Olympics has hosted an invisible sport: politics. The Olympics calls for “a halt to all conflicts … [and to] strive towards a more peaceful world,” but politics soon spoiled its biennial message. “As the Olympics continue to dissolve into … a political competition … they no longer … justify the time and trouble,” Dave Anderson, Pulitzer Prize winner for his sports column, wrote in the New York Times in 1984. The Olympic spirit has routinely been used as an outlet for political agendas. With political and Olympic ambitions intersected, the great international sports festivity negatively affects all nations involved.

The reasons for the Greek victory against the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC was a mixture of exceptional leadership, skilful tactics and strategy, superior weapons and soldiers, and Greek unity. Strong leadership was the most important aspect of the Greek defence, as without the intelligence and bravery of the leaders, the Greeks would have been easily defeated. As a result of the excellent leadership; Greek tactics, strategy, and unity were greatly strengthened. Combined with their better weapons and soldiers, the Greeks held the advantage and seized opportunities at the perfect moment. Also, with each

Many things gave the Greek culture some advantages. Like any culture, they obtained goods, traded, and made things to make their life better and further the advance of their culture. Thought the Greeks were not about progress such as the romans, they were still human in that they wanted a decent quality of life. During the period of the 8th century B.C., there were wars going on. The Greeks did not use guns, they did not use bombs, and they did not even use any kind of gas. They used spears, swords, and knives. The kinds of weapons they used were not based on technology or electronics. They were sharp and made for fighting face to face. The exception for this would be bows and arrows. The Greeks had bows and arrows and only those were used for long range. They had armor that was made of metal and not bullet proof vests as society has today. Overall, war was quite different but a battle was still a battle. They fought to kill and conquer, as the goal is

The Greeks, Trojans, and Spartans were very resourceful and strategic when in battle. The Spartans were one of the many armies in Greece, and they rose to the top through tactics and strategies. Greek tactics and strategies were very successful due to how many wars they won. However Trojans were out of the “box” thinkers, and were not always an easy fight.

There are quite a few factors that shaped the modern-day Olympics from 1892 to 2002. Pierre de Coubertin states that he wanted to create the Olympics to spread world peace. He does this by substituting war for friendly sports competitions (doc 1). Of course, there were some bumps in the road while trying to achieve this utopia. Some factors that have changed the Olympics are the allowing of women being able to compete in the Olympics, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions (doc 2-7).

There are multiple elements that shaped the modern Olympic movement from 1892 to 2002. The concept of the modern Olympic movement was to create a global brotherhood using a common interest of all the country’s to bring them together. There were three main factors that shaped the modern Olympic movement, women’s suffrage, economy, and intercountry politics. Feminism helped to shape the Olympic movement because feminism brought women into the Olympic movement because they wanted to prove they could do anything. Nationalism helped to shape the Olympic movement because it brought back rivalries between country’s that were once at war, and the feelings of those country’s due to the outcome of the wars they were in. economics helped shape the Olympic

As a sporting mega-event, the Olympic Games have numerous social impacts on the people, not only on those from the host country, but on individuals all over the globe.

In Greek society, athletics represented a way of expressing one’s own personal arête, as well as maintaining the strength of society. The Olympics was the embodiment of the value placed on athletics and the glory they bring to the individual along with the polis. Men were able to compete for their

The Greek games were very nationalistic and it is said that “states were said to have

The Olympics is where the most skilled athletes compete at the highest level of sporting abilities and it is a massive deal to compete in,

After the 1984 Los Angeles Games showed for the first time that mega-events could produce an economic surplus, mega-sport events, particularly the Olympic Games, acquired central status for city and national government development agendas (Andranovich, Burbank and Heying, 2001). And the appeal of hosting a mega-event, or more specifically a mega-sport event, has grown significantly over the

Since the Greeks were separated into several islands, they often fought, but they honored the same gods and spoke the same language. They also created the Olympic Games, still played today. Greek architecture influenced many empires and societies throughout the world, too. However, Greeks were usually hostile towards the outside world, and they had a good military, as well, to combat any invaders. One of the most successful empires in the ancient societies was the Persian Empire. The reason the Persians were so successful was because, “The Persians developed an enormous empire that was remarkably tolerant of other traditions, which was a key to their success” (Creation of Empires in North Africa and Southwest Asia, Topic 5). The Persians even went further, and restored traditions that previous empires in the region had destroyed. In a sense, the people that lived in the different regions of the Persian Empire had their own unique ways of living life. The Persians however, where more expansionists and the fact that they were tolerant helped keep them a large and strong empire. The