Page 68 - Key to Social Studies 4

Let’s Observe

The Olympic Games in Ancient Greece

The Olympic Games were held every four years, as they

do nowadays, for religious and athletic activities. The

games had athletic and combat sports like wrestling and

racing events.

The games were held in the city of Olympia, and the

legend says that Hercules built the stadium for the

games, the Olympic Stadium, to honor his father Zeus.

The Olympic Games had very high importance to the

Greeks, as they considered it as a religious event for

making sacri ces to Zeus and even stopped whatever
Panathenaic Stadium at
con icts were happening until the games were over.
Ardittos Hill, Athens, Greece

The Ancient Greek Theater

Ancient Greeks considered the theater and plays as the best

way for storytelling, as their wise men and famous thinkers

believed that things written had no power to improve and

change without being acted.

From the time the theatre started in 700 B.C.E., it had huge

signi cance for the Greeks, especially in Athens, which was

the city of art and democracy at the time.

One of the theatrical events held by the ancient Greeks was

Dionysia, made to honor the god Dionysus, and the Greeks

ful lled that honor by comedy, tragedy, and satire plays. Theatre of Dionysus,
Athens, Greece
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