MUSEO DO IES FRANCISCO ASOREY: Olive wreath, Nº 11

sábado, 18 de marzo de 2017

Olive wreath, Nº 11

The Acient Olimpic Games were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of Greece city-states. The first Olympic was dated to 776 B.C in Olympia.

The Acient Olympic Games were every four years. In theese, there were less events than in Olympic Games and only could participate the men that spoke Greek.

The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The olive wreath was a branch of the wild olive tree that grew at Olympia interwined to form a circle or a horse shoe.
The branches of the sacred wild-olive tree near the teample of Zeus were cut by a boy whose parents were both alive with a pair of golden scissors.

Then he took them to the teample of Hera and placed them on a gold-ivory table. From there, the judges of the Olympic Games would take them, make the wreaths and crown the winners of the Games.

The olive wreath was introduced by Hercules in honor of his father Zeus.

The last Acient Olympic Games was in 393 B.C, because the emperor Teodosio banned them.