Historical Time-Line of the Ancient Olympics

Those of you following the Athens Olympics of TV will see a lot of travel-writer Tony Perrottet in coming days, as he is slated to appear on NBC, CNN, ESPN and MSNBC to share insights from his book, The Naked Olympics. Those wishing to see him in person can catch him next Monday, August 16th, at the Half King (505 West 23rd St, corner 10th Ave) in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. The event starts at 7 p.m., and Tony will discuss his book, examine erotic ancient vase paintings and play rediscovered fragments of classical Greek music. The evening, he promises, will “allow New Yorkers to get into the festive pagan spirit of the Greeks, without all the agony of actually traveling to Athens.”

In keeping with the Olympics theme, today I’ll share a time-line from the pages of Tony’s book, which gives one the sense of how the ancient games developed over the yars:

The story of ancient Greece — and thus Western civilization — is intimately bound with the story of the Olympics. The Games went through many ups and down in their twelve-hundred-year history, but were never once canceled. By contrast, the modern Olympics have been suspended due to war three times since their revival — in 1916, 1940, and 1944.

• c. 2500 B.C. — First settlement in Olympia region.
• c. 1280 B.C. — Approximate date of Trojan War.
• c. noo B.C. — Olympia becomes a cult site for Gaea, goddess of the earth, with agrarian and fertility festivals attended by local villagers.
• c. 1000 B.C. — Worship of Zeus grows at Olympia, related to his oracle, which gives predictions on war; some casual athletic events take place at festivals.
• c. 900-800 B.C. — Growth of the polis, or “city-state,” in Greece, independent cities ruled by different forms of government