Ancient Olympics

vs.

Today’s Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Salisbury

8^th Grade World Studies

 

Oneida Middle School

 

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 Lesson Plan

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Olympics

Mr. Salisbury- World Studies

Oneida Middle School

 

Essential Question: How do sports impact a society?

 

I.        Title

Where did the Olympics begin?

II.     Content Focal Points

-         Concepts

o       Origin: 1) something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin  2) rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word 3) the first stage of existence; beginning: the origin of Quakerism in America  4) ancestry; parentage; extraction: to be of Scottish origin

 

o       Compare / Contrast: This skill is used to discover and understand the differences and similarities between two ideas, themes, and etc.

 

-         Generalizations

o       The Olympics do not have a specific origin.  However, we do know that they were created in Greece and were used to honor their religion.  It is said that they were created between 550 and 750 BCE.

o       The Olympics of ancient Greece and those of today differ in many different ways.

 

-         Skill (s) and/or process (es)

o       Students will read for understanding about the origin of the Olympics.

o       Students will compare and contrast the Olympics of Ancient Greece and those of today.

 

III.   Statements of Intent

1.      Students will use reading skills to learn about the origin of the Olympics.

2.      Students will use compare and contrast skills to learn about the differences between the Ancient Olympics and Current time.

IV.  Procedures

 

Introduction

 

Theme- What is behind door #1?

Assessment- Formative

 

Steps: (ETA)

 

1. (1-3 minutes) Greet the students and take attendance.  List the agenda for the class on the board.                           Date-/-/-

1.      Game Show

2.      What is this?

3.     

 

 

(transition to body)

Body

Theme- Pre-game

Assessment- Formative

 

2. (17-19 minutes) Introduce the game show and the rules.  First, divide the class into four groups.  Have the students count off by fours.  2^nd Pass out game show sheet. (Appendix)  Play the game with the students.  (The purpose of this game is to get the student thinking about the common sports that surround them.  Despite the fact that the game may seem easy, the origin question for each of the sports will present a challenge.)
3. (9-11 minutes) Bonus Round!  After the students have completed the Game Show of sports they will now begin to brainstorm about the Olympics.  The last door contains an item that represents the Olympics.  Students will use the back of the Game Show Sheet (Appendix) to write everything they know about the Olympics.  Each group will share what they have written.
4. ( 3-5 minutes)  The origin of the Olympics is not set in History.  However, we may generalize that they were created for religious reasons.
5. (~ duration of class) Students will now read an article called the Olympic Games (See appendix) which was taken from ABC-CLIO from the Schenectady Library.   Students will finish reading this for homework and complete the Olympic Games study sheet.  (See appendix ).

 

~Day Two~

6. (mini intro) (7-9 minutes) Collect homework.  Have students take out the Olympic Games article and give them five minutes to read it over.  “When you skim through the article think about the current Olympic games that just happened in Beijing.  What are some of the similarities and differences?”
7. (17-19 minutes) Facilitate a discussion of the similarities and differences of the ancient Olympics and the Olympics of today.  Utilize a Venn diagram on the board.  Also pass out the Compare/Contrast Venn Diagram.  (Appendix)  Have students fill out their sheets both before the discussion and while the discussion is going on.  )This will serve as a prewriting activity for a compare and Contrast Essay the students will write.  When discussing the differences and similarities between the two eras remember to bring it back to the essential question, “How do sports impact a society?”  Also, how did sports impact ancient times?

 

8. (~duration of class)  Ask students to begin thinking about writing a compare/contrast essay.

 

~ Day 3~

 

9. (mini intro)( 3-5) Students finish their Venn diagrams and prepare to write the compare/contrast essay.  Pass out the essay assignment to the class.  (See appendix)
10. (~Duration of class) Instruct the students to write the compare/contrast essay

 

~Day 4~

 

11. (mini intro)( 3-5) Students finish their Venn diagrams and prepare to write the compare/contrast essay.  Pass out the essay assignment to the class.  (See appendix)
12. (~Duration of class) Instruct the students to write the compare/contrast essay

 

 

(transition to conclusion)

 

Conclusion

 

Theme- Wrapping up Response

Assessment- Formative

13. (last 3 minutes of class)  Introduce the create your own Olympic Game project for the upcoming week.

 

 

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Handouts/ Teacher Materials

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Team Name:

Team Members:

Each Square is worth 4 points. 

Each question is worth 1 point.

32 points total.

 

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Team Name: KEY

Team Members:

Each Square is worth 4 points. 

Each question is worth 1 point.

32 points total.

 

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Olympic Games

The ancient Olympic Games, known to us from ancient literature and art and from modern archaeology, were the oldest and most prestigious athletic competition of antiquity. The greatest writer of victory odes for athletes, Pindar, wrote that Olympia is to other games as the sun is to the stars; there is no more glorious "place of festival" than Olympia. To whatever degree they have inspired the modern Olympics, the ancient games must be seen in their own ancient Greek cultural context.

Despite common misperceptions, the ancient Olympics differed from their modern counterpart in organization, events, and ideology. Always held at Olympia, the ancient games had no ball sports, no water sports, no weight-lifting, no weight classes, no teams, and no oval tracks. There were no winter Olympics, no women's events, no medals, no second or third places, no Olympic rings symbol, no torch-passing ceremony, and no decathlon or marathon, all of which are modern inventions. The ancient Olympics are important in their own right, not merely as an anachronistic model or moral touchstone for the modern games.

With sacred rituals and wreaths of olive leaves as prizes, the ancient Olympic games were part of a great religious festival in honor of the Greek god Zeus, held every four years in late summer at the same site, the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. At the games, Greeks assembled to venerate their gods, enjoy elite competition, and appreciate their common culture. The Olympics even provided the classical Greeks with a shared chronology, for happenings were dated by reference to years of the games. Each set of games was named after the winner in the men's sprint race, and an "Olympiad" was one set of games or the interval between the close of one games and the start of the next.

Archaeology suggests that major games were not an original part of early festivals at Olympia. Scholars have variously described the earliest Olympian contests as funeral games, initiations, offerings to gods, sacred rituals, or reenactments of heroic labors or myths. Olympia was the site of a local and rustic Zeus cult by the 10th century BC, and games may simply have emerged gradually and naturally. Historically, the traditional date of 776 as the first Olympic Games refers not to the first games but to the first attested Olympic victor, Koroibos of Elis, victor in the stadion (a sprint estimated at between 180 and 192 meters, around 210 yards), the only event in the earliest games.

By the early fifth century, Olympia emerged as the pinnacle of a circuit (the Periodos) of four great Panhellenic (all-Greek) games at Delphi, Isthmia, and Nemea, with the Olympics as the finale. In the Classical era (roughly 500–323 BC), the Greeks reveled in their athleticism, and Olympia's facilities were expanded. In the fourth century and the Hellenistic era (323–331 BC), the Macedonian kings, beginning with Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, patronized but also politicized Olympia. The financial needs of the early games had been modest, and for religious reasons, the games never had admission fees; the later more elaborate facilities and games depended on benefactions and contributions.

The permanent home of the ancient Olympics was an isolated religious sanctuary on the Alpheios River in the territory of the state of Elis in southwestern Greece. Before each games, heralds from Elis spread throughout Greece announcing the upcoming games, inviting athletes, spectators, and missions of gift-bearing envoys from Greek states and proclaiming a sacred truce. Initially of one and later three months' duration, the truce forbade the entry of armies into Elean territory and ordered safe passage through any state for all travelers to and from the games, in effect as religious pilgrims. The orator Lysias said the games were founded to promote Panhellenic friendship, but the truce has been romanticized. It did not stop wars: Sparta was fined for attacking Elean territory in 420, and Arcadians even invaded the sanctuary in 364.

Except for equestrian events, contests took place in the Olympic stadium, which was in use, with Hellenistic and Roman renovations, for several centuries. It had no assigned and no stone seating, except for a small area for officials, and water was provided only by small channels at the edge of the track. Similarly, there were no formal accommodations for spectators at Olympia; having camped out as best they could nearby, spectators came to the stadium early and stayed long, standing or sitting on the banks. Sources complain about the heat, noise, crowds, and poor sanitation, but the Greeks accepted the discomfort for the sake of viewing the greatest celebration of their love of athletics and competition.

The classical games were supervised by highly revered officials (10 by the mid-fourth century) called the "judges of the Greeks," the Hellanodikai, nobles chosen from the state of Elis who took an oath to be fair. Assisted by priests, whip-bearers, and crowd monitors, as referees and censors they controlled the preparations and decorum of athletes, decisions of victory, and prize giving. Their orders and judgments were absolute and irrevocable. Conspicuous for their purple robes and the forked sticks they carried, the judges could expel, fine, or scourge athletes for cheating or lying. Textual evidence shows that rules against foul play in wrestling were established by judges as early as the sixth century.

Greek athletic events demanded speed, strength, and stamina. For 50 years after 776, the earliest games had only the 218-yard sprint, but thereafter, the program expanded before settling down to a fairly stable list of events by the late sixth century. These included various races, pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, wrestling, horse and mule racing, and contests for heralds and trumpeters. The pentathlon consisted of five contests: a jump, the discus, the javelin, a run, and wrestling. Combat sports were called "heavy" contests because heavier athletes dominated. The pankration, or "all powerful" combat, was a brutal free-for-all combining boxing and wrestling. Athletes who unintentionally killed opponents had legal immunity.

The equestrian events were the most spectacular. Young jockeys rode horses bareback through the hippodrome, and chariot races were even more hazardous as large fields of 40 raced over 12 laps and made sharp hairpin turns. Owners did not have to drive their own teams and usually hired drivers, a circumstance allowing Alcibiades of Athens to enter seven teams in 416. Owners did not even need to be present, thus allowing even female victors. A Spartan princess named Kyniska won the tethrippon in 396 and 392 BC.

Ancient Olympians represented many Greek states but only one Greek culture. Competitors had to be free (non-slave), male Greeks (non-"barbarians," although Romans were permitted later), not otherwise excluded by grave religious sin or Olympic sanctions. Early games drew locally, and Sparta dominated; however, with the age of colonization, athletes came from the Black Sea to North Africa. Southern Italy and Sicily became prominent, as did Alexandria later in the Hellenistic era. Athletes usually represented their native states, but they could declare themselves as representatives of other states.

Athletes swore a solemn oath that they would abide by the rules and that they had been in continuous training for the previous 10 months. All athletes (and trainers) in the stadium, and jockeys but not charioteers in the hippodrome, competed nude. Women were barred from Olympia during the games, ostensibly on pain of death.

After the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla pillaged the site in 85 BC, the Greeks honored Herod the Great of Judaea as president of the games in 12 BC for his financial help. The games adjusted to the wider imperial circumstances of the Roman Empire but were disrupted by German invasions in AD 267. Around AD 391, the Christian emperor Theodosius I banned pagan cults and by the end of the fourth century, the games were also prohibited.

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Ancient Olympic Games

Study Guide

 

Name: ____________________

 

Directions:  Please answer each of the following question in 2-3 compete sentences.  Be sure to read the read the article Olympic Games carefully and use it to answer the following questions.

 

1.      According to the article, when and where were the first Olympic games said to be held?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.      Why were the Olympics created?

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.      What was the original prize for an Olympic champion?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.      What events was part of the early Olympics?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.      What were the conditions like for the spectators during the ancient games?

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.      What were the criteria to be an Olympic athlete in ancient times?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.      Were women allowed to watch the ancient games?  What was the consequence if they did?

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.      What did the uniforms look like in the ancient Greek Olympic games?

 

 

 

 

 

 

9.      What was one difference between the ancient games and those of today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.  What was one similarity between the ancient games and those of today?

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Ancient Olympic Games

Study Guide (Key)

 

Name: ____________________

 

Directions:  Please answer each of the following question in 2-3 compete sentences.  Be sure to read the read the article Olympic Games carefully and use it to answer the following questions.

 

1.      According to the article, when and where were the first Olympic games said to be held?

A: Historically, the traditional date of 776 BC as the first Olympic Games refers not to the first games but to the attested Olympic victor, Koroibos of Elis, victor in the stadion (a sprint estimated at between 180 and 192 meters, around 210 yards>. (Paragraph 4)

 

 

2.      Why were the Olympics created?

Religious reasons, To honor Zues

 

 

 

 

 

3.      What was the original prize for an Olympic champion?

Wreath of Olive Leaves

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.      What events was part of the early Olympics?

218-yard sprint, pentathlon (a jump, the discus, the javelin, a run, and wrestling), wrestling , boxing, chariot racing, horse and mule races

 

 

 

 

5.      What were the conditions like for the spectators during the ancient games?

7^th paragraph

 

 

 

 

 

6.      What were the criteria to be an Olympic athlete in ancient times?

11^th paragraph- free (no-slave), male Greeks (non-barbarian), not excluded by a major religious sect

 

 

 

 

 

7.      Were women allowed to watch the ancient games?  What was the consequence if they did?

12^th paragraph- no, they would be killed

 

 

 

 

 

8.      What did the uniforms look like in the ancient Greek Olympic games?

11^th paragraph- the athletes competed naked to show off their bodies

 

 

 

 

 

9.      What was one difference between the ancient games and those of today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.  What was one similarity between the ancient games and those of today?

 

 

Writing Assignemnt with Rubric and Graphic Organizer