Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 31, 2012 · 12:05 am

Contests at the Ancient Olympics

The first formal Olympic Games were held at Olympia in Greece in 776 BC. The games were held in the wooded valley of Olympia in Elis. The festival and games occurred every four years in a cycle called the Olympiad. A truce was called across Greece and its colonies to allow travel to and from Olympus. Athletes arrived a month ahead to prepare. All free male citizens of Greece were eligible to participate. Married women could not attend or participate, but single women were allowed to attend.

In earliest times, the event lasted only one day and offered only one event – the stadia (a 200-yard dash). Later a 400 yard two-stadia race was added, followed by a 24-stadia race. The pentathlon and the wrestling competitions were held later still and was extended to five days. The pentathlon was a five-event competition that included running, discus throwing, javelin toss, wrestling, and leaping. The winners of the events were crowned with olive wreaths from a sacred tree located behind Zeus’ temple. They paraded around the area to the music of a flute and to the songs of the observers. NOTE: the victor on the base is being crowned with a wreath by the goddess Nike who was the Greek goddess of Victory.

Next Post, Conduct of the Games Rita Bay

The Ancient Olympics: Founding

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia in Greece is one of the Ancient Wonders of the World. The sculpture was considered the most famous artistic work in all of Greece and the pagan Greeks believed the statue of Zeus on Olympus was the god himself. It was created by the famous Greek sculptor Phidias circa 450 BC. The statue was located at the site of the Olympic Games where once every four years since 776 BC truce was declared across Greece to give safe passage to the athletes to travel to compete in the holy games.

In the 2nd century AD, Pausanias wrote a very detailed description of the sculpture and its throne. Images of the statue survive on ancient coins. The seated statue of Zeus itself was about 43 feet tall and 22 feet wide. The technique by which the statue was constructed is chryselephantine, where gold-plated bronze and ivory sections were attached to a wooden frame. The figure’s skin itself was of ivory and the beard, hair and robe of gold. Zeus’ cedar wood throne was adorned with gold, ebony, ivory and inlaid with precious stones. Zeus held the figure of crowned Nike, the goddess of victory and his left hand held a scepter with an eagle perched on the top. Carved into the chair were figures of Greek gods and mystical animals.

The statue was damaged by an earthquake in 170 BC and repaired. In the early 4th century AD, the Emperor Constantine ordered that all gold be stripped from pagan shrines. One story claims that after the Olympics were abolished in 392 AD by Theodosius, a Christian Emperor who viewed the games as a pagan rite, it was taken to Constantinople where it was destroyed by fire in 475 AD. Others claim that it burned with the temple in 425. In the 1950s, the workshop at Olympia was discovered where Phidias sculpted the statue. Among the tools and moulds, a cup was discovered inscribed “I belong to Pheidias.”

Next Post, more on the Olympics Rita Bay

Happy Fourth of July

This presentation of the Declaration of Independence to the members of the Second Continental Congress was painted by John Turnbull in 1817 and hangs in the Capitol Rotunda.

On this day that we celebrate our independence, remember also those who have given their lives to keep our independence.

Our freedom has a price. Rita Bay

I’m Back!!

I haven’t posted since the first week in June but sometimes life gets in the way. My writing career was interrupted by a death in the family, a rat bastard burglarizing and trashing my mama’s house, and the difficult decision to make permanent a joining of households – all while living for the last month in an internet dead zone. Couldn’t have done it without my husband Steve working REALLY hard to pull things together.

Everything should be back to normal in the next few weeks but I couldn’t wait to catch everyone up on everything. I was recently notified that His Obsession (Click cover on left to buy) received a 5-Cup Review from Coffee Time Romance AND was awarded Reviewer Cherokee’s “Coffee Time Reviewer’s Recommend” Award for the month.

Into the Lyons’ Den, a paranormal shapeshifter novella, is scheduled for release by Champagne Books in August. Champagne also contracted to publish The Aegis in April, 2013. The Aegis is the first novella in Light Warrior series in which a race of immortal Light Warriors and their shield-bearing lifemates defends mankind from the evil vampires who happen to be their kin. Check out the excerpts on my book pages.

Today I’m blogging about “A Window into the Paranormal World” which suggests elements of world building for paranormal stories. Check it out at http://thewritersvineyard.com/ . Still can’t manage daily posts yet but promise several each week. RitaBay