Ancient Olympic Games

HISTORY 

The Ancient Greek Olympic Games are thought to have begun in 776 BC.

The games were staged in the wooded valley of Olympia in Elis. Here the Greeks erected statues and built temples in a grove dedicated to Zeus, supreme among the gods. The greatest shrine was an ivory and gold statue of Zeus. Created by the sculptor Phidias, it was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The palaestra of Olympia, devoted to the training of athletes. By User: Bgabel

The games were always held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations as is the practice with the modern Olympic Games.

To begin with, the Olympic Games were confined to one day - the day of the first full moon after the summer solstice.

During the first 13 Games recorded, the foot race was the sole event. The stadion sprint was a race over about 190 metres (620 ft), measured after the feet of Hercules. The word stadium is derived from this race.

The custom of nude sprinting began in 720 because one runner's loin cloth fell off; he won, so others copied him.

In 716BC two more races were added to the Olympic Games, a two-stadia sprint (1200 feet) and one where 24 lengths of the stadium was run.

Three runners featured on an Attic black-figured Panathenaic prize amphora. By Marie-Lan Nguyen 

The first Olympians in Greece celebrated victory wearing wreaths of bay and parsley from a sacred olive tree that grew behind the temple of Zeus. According to tradition this tree was planted by Hercules, founder of the games. The winners marched around the grove to the accompaniment of a flute while admirers chanted songs written by a prominent poet.

EVENTS

Wrestling is recorded as being introduced at the 18th Olympiad in 708. Three throws were necessary for a win.

The pentathlon was also added in 708. This pentathlon was a five-event match consisted of running, wrestling, leaping, throwing the discus, and hurling the javelin.

Ancient Olympic javelin throwers would wrap a leather throng around the javelin that would act as a kind of sling, applying spin to the javelin to aid distance.

A special event was known as the Pancratium, from the Greek, meaning "all strength," in which the entire body served as a weapon. The fighters were naked and used methods of boxing and wrestling; they hit, strangled, and twisted the limbs of the opponent. To kick the other man in the stomach or to break his fingers was fair. Only gouging and biting were disallowed.

The bout ended only when one of the contestants yielded or, as was frequently the case, with his death. The Greeks invented sports medicine in response to this event. Realizing the cruelty of the Pancration, the Greeks eventually omitted it from their programs.

Pankration scene: a pankriatiast tries to gouge his opponent's eye; From an Attic red-figure kylix

The chariot race was probably the Ancient Olympics' most dangerous sport. It was so popular that it replaced sprinting as the opening event of the games.

ATHLETES

Through each of these contests the emphasis on winning was paramount and the champions were treated as celebrities.

The first Olympic champion listed in the records was a cook, Coroebus of Elis. He won the sprint race in 776 BC.

Athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate, although the Hellanodikai, the officials in charge, allowed king Alexander I of Macedon to participate in the games only after he had proven his Greek ancestry.

Arrhichion was a champion pankratiast, a martial art blending boxing and wrestling.  He died while successfully defending his championship in the pankration at the 54th Olympiad (564 BC), when his opponent suffocated him, but didn't realize that he had killed Arrhichion and surrendered due to his injuries. He is the only person to have won an Olympic event while dead.

Cynisca, the daughter of King Archidamus II of Sparta, was the first woman to win at the Olympic Games. Princess Cynisca first entered the Olympics in 396 BC, where she won first prize competing in the sport of chariot racing, with a team of horses she had trained herself. 

Leonidas of Rhodes' Olympic Record of 12 individual victories (164 - 152 BC) stood for over 2100 years before being eclipsed by Michael Phelps in 2016.

The Roman emperor Nero won a number of Olympic titles for horse riding, tragedy and harp, singing competitions and declamation. In all these cases the competition finished with a crown adorning his head, a "feat" probably achieved by bribing the judges.

Athletes who made false starts in running races were publicly whipped and humiliated.

The Greeks used onions to fortify their athletes for the Olympic Games. Before competition, athletes consumed many pounds of onions and drunk onion juice.  Furthermore, they rubbed onions on their bodies in preparation.

Competitors found cheating were fined. The money would pay for a statue of Zeus with a plaque shaming the offender, and placed on the road to the stadium.

Women were banned from competing, mainly because the Greek men competed naked, although there were victorious women chariot owners.

SPECTATORS

Crowds of up to 40,000 people were attracted to the stadium at Olympia to watch the Olympics.

An artist's impression of ancient Olympia

In the month before the ancient Olympics no wars were permitted so that spectators could travel from across Greece unharmed.

The only married woman allowed to watch the ancient Olympics was the Priestess of Demeter. Any other married woman spectator was threatened with being thrown to her death from a cliff.

ABOLISHMENT

Under Roman rule the Olympic Games continued to be held. However, after an existence of almost 1,200 years, the decline of Greek culture led to the deterioration of the event.

The new Christian teaching of the sinfulness of the body, and its abhorrence of heathen practice, dealt the deathblow to the Games, which were finally banned in AD 393 by the Christian Emperor, Theodosius I, as he believed they encouraged "pagan idolatry."

When Theodosius I's grandson, Theodosius II, learned that in spite of the prohibition the contests were still being held at Olympia, he had its buildings burned to he ground and the last physical traces of the Olympics thus disappeared.

Sources Compton's Encyclopedia, Europress Encyclopedia

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist was Charles Dickens's second novel. He wrote it while living at 48 Doughty Street, near Russell Square, Clerkenwell, London at a little table in the first floor living room. Dickens was frequently chatting to visitors as he penned his story.

The story was originally published by Richard Bentley in monthly installments in the Magazine Bentley's Miscellany from February 1837 to April 1839.

Oliver Twist first appeared in book form six months before the initial serialization was completed. They were published by Richard Bentley in three volumes, under the author's pseudonym, "Boz."

Frontispiece first edition "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist tells the story of an orphan boy and his adventures among London's slums. He meets the Artful Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal, Fagin.

British book illustrator George Cruikshank provided one steel etching per month to illustrate each installment in Magazine Bentley's Miscellany .

George Cruikshank's original engraving of the Artful Dodger introducing Oliver to Fagin

Oliver Twist may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of hardships as a child laborer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s.

The original of the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist was a young pickpocket whose trial Dickens attended and whose sentence the author regretfully recorded as a journalist (He got 7 years transportation).

The sinister villain Fagin was also the name of Charles Dickens best friend Bob Fagin.

Mr Brownlow in Oliver Twist was based on a real Mr Brownlow who was secretary of the Foundling Hospital for 58 years.

Charles Dickens made the first ever reference to fried fish when he referred to a "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist.

Lionel Bart wrote a musical based on the book titled Oliver!, which premiered in the West End in 1960. It was a huge hit from the beginning, becoming the first modern British musical to be transferred successfully to Broadway.

The Broadway version of Oliver! at the Imperial Theatre

As a result of the success of Oliver!, Lionel Bart was earning £16 a minute. To finance his musical Twang!! (based on the Robin Hood story) the composer signed away all rights to Oliver! The new show flopped badly and Bart estimated he lost about £100 million in that and in the lost rights to Oliver! He filed for bankruptcy in 1972 with debts of £73,000.

Oliver! a 1968 British musical drama film based on the stage musical of the same name was released on September 26, 1968. It took $77,402,877 worldwide, making it the seventh highest-grossing movie of 1968.

Oliver! (1968 movie poster) Wikipedia

At the 41st Academy Awards for 1968, Oliver! was nominated for eleven Oscars and won six, including Awards for Best Picture, and Best Director for Carol Reed.

Oliver! is the only G-rated film (since the development of the MPAA rating system in 1968) to have received an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Olive oil

Olive oil is the juice made by crushing olives. It is considered to be healthier alternative to sunflower oil.

Olives in olive oil

Archaeological evidence shows that olives had been turned into olive oil by 6000 BC in the Middle East..

One of the earliest evidence of the use of olive oil in the Middle East, was unearthed in December 2014, when  organic residue on pottery shards excavated in the Lower Galilee, was found to be olive oil. The vessels were dated around 5800 BC, indicating that it was a diet staple 4,000 years before the time of the biblical patriarchs.

Olive oil in biblical times was made by shaking the olives shaken from the tree then trampling them into the press. The oil was then drained into vats and jars and allowed to settle.

Olive oil was prized for anointing the body in Greece during the time of Homer.

Ancient oil press Turkey By Georges Jansoone  Wikipedia

Olive oil has traditionally been used as fuel and was even used to light the earliest Olympic torch.

There is an artificial hill in Italy, over 100 feet tall, made entirely of empty olive oil pots, carefully placed over a period of 250 years by ancient Romans.

The Italian Calabrian Mafia’s Piromalli clan pulled an elaborate heist involving olive oil, using adulterated and chemically treated oils and labelling their containers as extra virgin. The profit margin of this heist was said to have "three times the profit margin of cocaine."  33 suspects were arrested in February 2017.

Spain became the world’s largest olive oil producer in 2014 taking over from Italy.

Christianitytoday.com

Olive

Wild olives were collected by Neolithic peoples around the Mediterranean as early as the 8th millennium BC,  It is not clear when and where olive trees were first domesticated.

Olives appeared in one of the earliest cookbooks ever discovered. This was a text written by a Roman gourmet named Apicius in the first century A.D.

The fruit of an Olive Tree by the Dead Sea in Jordan. Nick Fraser Wikipedia

The average life of an olive tree is between 300 and 600 years, but they can live for more than 1,500 years.

The world's oldest olive tree is over 3,000 years old, dating back to Minoan times between 1350 - 1100 BC. You can find it in Kavousi, Crete, Greece.

Branches from a 3,000 year old, still living, Greek olive tree were used to weave victors' wreaths for the winners of the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

An olive tree on the island of Brijuni (Brioni), Istria in Croatia, is said to be about 1,600 years old. It still gives fruit (about 30 kg or 66 lb per year), which is made into top quality olive oil.

The olive tree grows to a maximum of 50 feet tall.

The olive flower is white and only flowers after four years.

Olive trees take a very long time to bear fruit. They are generally harvested for the first time after around 15 years.

It was the Phoenicians who first brought the olive tree to Spain, but the Ancient Romans are credited with establishing vast farms of olives, often owned by absentee landlords who lived back in Rome.

Storing olives on Dere Street; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century,

In 2011 there were about 9.6 million hectares planted with olive trees. Only coconut trees and oil palms command more space.

The ten largest producing countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, are all located in the Mediterranean region and produce 95% of the world's olives. In 2011 Spain produced just under 40% of the total.

Olive plantation in Andalucía, Spain

The olive garnish is what makes the Martini Cocktail, shaken or stirred.

Olives are essentially inedible when picked. It takes an extensive curing process for them involving  ye, a powerful corrosive, to become edible. There is no history of how an inedible fruit became such a popular fruit.

For thousands of years the olive branch has been used as a sign of peace and goodwill and ancient Greek brides wore or carried an olive wreath.

In Christianity, too, the olive branch is seen as a symbol of peace, dating back to the Old Testament where a dove brought an olive branch to Noah to show that the flood was over.

The term “to extend an olive branch” means an offer of peace or reconciliation.

Cats love green kalamata olives. They contain a compound similar to that in catnip.

Source Olivepress.es/

Old age

In his book about a utopia, Republic, Plato pictured the ideal state where men live to a healthy old age on a vegetarian diet of bread (wholemeal bread ground from local wheat), cheese, fruit, vegetables and olives.

The words "senile" and "senator" are based on the same Latin root word meaning "old man" .

Queen Elizabeth I of England was subconscious in her old age about her black teeth so she stuffed a silk handkerchief into her mouth before appearing in public.

The first recorded instance of a person living in three centuries was that of Margaret Ann Neve, a woman from the British island of Guernsey who lived from 1792 to 1903.

Sogen Kato was believed to be the oldest man in Tokyo at the age of 111 until it was discovered he died at 79 in 1978 and the family lied about it to keep receiving his pension.

The word "whiskey" comes from the Gaelic word "usquebaugh", which means the "water of life" because alchemists were convinced that whiskey was the long-sought cure for old age.

That "old person smell" is actually caused by a chemical, called 2-nonenal, that old people secrete through their skin.

One in four people will be drawing pension by the year 2029.

Four out of five people over 100 years old are women.

Old Woman Dozing by Nicolaes Maes (1656). Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels

The State of New Mexico exempts people 100 years of age or older from paying income taxes.

100 year old citizens of Barbados have their portrait printed on postal stamps to celebrate their anniversaries.

Japan is considered a "super-aged" nation since more than 20% of the population is over 65.

Okinawa is the main island of the Ryukyu group, which lies approximately halfway between China and Japan. It has some of the longest living people on earth, and the highest rate of people over a hundred in the world. Two thirds of them are still living independently at the age of 97.

By 2050, the world’s population of centenarians (people who are 100 years old or older) will grow to eight times its current size.

The Book  of Proverbs: "Grey hairs are death's blossoms."

Mark Twain: "When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old."

On his 100th birthday the jazzman Eubie Blake (1883-1983) said: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long I'd have taken better care of myself."

Sarah Knauss was an American supercentenarian who held the title of the world's oldest living person for a brief period. She was born on September 24, 1880, in Hollywood, Pennsylvania, and lived a remarkable life spanning three different centuries. Sarah Knauss passed away on December 30, 1999, at the age of 119 years and 97 days, just 2 days shy of the year 2000. She is still the oldest living American.

Corporal Frank Buckles was the the last surviving American soldier from World War I, passing away in 2011 at age 110. When he was asked his secret for living so long, his advice was simply "when you start to die... don't".

In China, there is an "eldery rights" law which makes it illegal for anyone who has parents over 60 not to visit them regularly.

South Korea's government organizes dance parties for elderly people with the sole purpose to tackle loneliness and prevent dementia in the rapidly aging country.

Bob Hope; "You know you're getting old, when the candles cost more than the cake."

Olaf II of Norway

Olaf was born in Ringerike, Norway in 995. His mother was Åsta Gudbrandsdatter, and his father was Harald Grenske, great-great-grandchild of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway.

Olaf saw it as his call to unite Norway into one kingdom, as his ancestor Harald Fairhair had largely succeeded in doing. After spending his teenage years in Denmark and England, he returned to Norway in 1015 and declared himself king, obtaining the support of the five petty kings of the Uplands.

Coin of Olaf dated 1023–28.

At the Battle of Nesjar, which was fought off the coast of Norway on March 25, 1016,  Olaf Haraldsson was victorious over former co-regent Sweyn Haakonsson confirming his status as King of Norway.

Olaf had been converted to Christianity in Rouen, Normandy whilst in the service of the exiled King Ethelred II of England. Before leaving, Olaf was baptized in the pre-romanesque Notre-Dame Cathedral by the Norman duke's own brother Robert the Dane, archbishop of Normandy.

After taking the throne of Norway in 1015, Olaf started building churches throughout the land and completing the conversion of the Norwegians began by Olaf I.

Missionaries recruited by Olaf II were preaching the gospel with some success in Iceland. Unfortunately civil war broke out between those who accept and those who oppose Christianity. The matter was referred to a wise old man for decision and after much thought he pronounced the new religion to be good.

During his lifetime Olaf was known as Olaf 'the fat' or 'the stout' or simply as Olaf 'the big'.

In 1026 King Olaf II and King Anund Jakob of Sweden took advantage of the commitment of Danish King Canute to England and began to launch attacks on the Danish in the Baltic Sea. The Battle of the Helgeå was fought between joint Danish and English forces and a combined Norwegian and Swedish force, at the estuary of a river called Helgeå in Sweden. Canute's victory left him as the dominant leader in Scandinavia.

In 1029, King Canute invaded Norway supported by the Norwegian nobles and Olaf II was forced to take refuge. When Olaf tried to claim the throne back, he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Stiklestad on July 29, 1030.

Olav den Helliges død Peter Nicolai Arbo (1859)

Olaf swiftly became Norway's patron saint; his canonization was performed only a year after his death by Bishop Grimkell in Nidaros (Trondheim).

Olaf's canonization was confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1164, making him a universally recognized saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma was purchased from France in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase and was originally called the Indian Territories.

The name of the state comes from the Choctaw words okla and humma. It means "Red People".

Map of Indian Territory (Oklahoma) 1889. Britannica 9th ed. By DigbyDalton - Wikipedia

On April 22, 1889, the western part of the state was opened to almost 50,000 settlers for the Oklahoma Land Run. At high noon on April 22, thousands rushed to claim a piece of the available two million acres (8,000 km2) in the Unassigned Lands. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie were formed with populations of at least 10,000.

During this land run Oklahoma got its nickname, "The Sooner State". The moniker came from the settlers who crossed the territory's borders before the land was opened by the government.

Deliberations to make the territory into a state began near the end of the 19th century, when the Curtis Act continued the allotment of Indian tribal land. On November 16, 1907, the western and eastern territories joined together and Oklahoma was established as the 46th state in the Union.

Flag of Oklahoma

The new state became a focal point for the emerging oil industry, as discoveries of oil pools prompted towns to grow rapidly in population and wealth. Tulsa became known as the "Oil Capital of the World" for most of the 20th century.

During the 1930s, northwestern Oklahoma began suffering the consequences of poor farming practices, extended drought and high winds known as the Dust Bowl. This caused thousands of farmers to go into poverty and forced them to move to other parts of the United States.

The Dust Bowl sent thousands of farmers into poverty during the 1930s.

The world’s first parking meter, Park-O-Meter No. 1, was installed in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935.

Sylvan N. Goldman of Humpty Dumpty Stores and Standard Food Markets developed the folding shopping cart so that people could buy more in a single visit to the grocery store. He unveiled his invention in Oklahoma City on June 4, 1937.

In 1948 meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City issued the world's first tornado forecast after noticing conditions similar to another tornado that had struck five days earlier.

Oklahoma was the first US state to name an official state reptile, the collared lizard, in 1969.

Oklahoma has an average of 54 tornadoes each year. This is one of the highest rates in the world
In 1948 meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City issued the world's first tornado forecast after noticing conditions similar to another tornado that had struck five days earlier.

The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was devastated by an F5 tornado in 1999, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. This tornado also produced the highest wind speed ever recorded anywhere on our planet, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h).

Oklahoma experiences more earthquakes than anywhere else in the world.

Oklahoma City and Tulsa are the main economic areas of Oklahoma. 58 percent of Oklahomans live in these two metropolitan statistical areas.

Oklahoma City is the state's capital and largest city. By Urbanative - Wikipedia

In 2007, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives declared the watermelon to be the state vegetable despite the fact that most people see it as a fruit.

In Oklahoma, it's actually illegal to take a bite out of another person's hamburger.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without the supervision of a licensed engineer.

Oklahoma is the only state to have an official state meal (not just a state food). It consists of BBQ pork, grits, biscuits, sausage and gravy, corn, chicken-fried steak, squash, cornbread, fried okra, black-eyed peas, strawberries, and pecan pie.

Oklahoma buys more fast food than any other state.

Oklahoma’s capitol building is the only one in the world that sits on an active oil well—there’s even an oil rig out front.

The Oklahoma State Capitol located in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma is known for having more man-made lakes than any other state in the USA. All of Oklahoma’s 200 lakes are man made by making dams. These lakes cover more than 1,000,000 acres (404,686 ha) with water.

Collectively, the population of Oklahoma spends about 3.5 million days hunting each year.