The Olympics and Ancient Greece

Greek and Roman Gallery shot

Read more about how the ancient Greek games inspired the Olympics of today.
 

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Olympic Mythology

olympics origins
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Olympic Origins

This page was created to capture the social media campaign honoring the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.



Thank you to the Carlos 2021 Summer intern, Amina Hull, for her invaluable contributions to this page and the campaign. Each post is represented in the nine topics above and can be found in their chronological order below: 

 


July 22nd: 
Over the next sixteen days, the Carlos Museum will be posting all about the Olympics games in ancient Greece in honor of the #Tokyo2021OlympicGames. Follow us over the next weeks to learn about the origins, mythology, religious aspects, ancient competitions, and much more all related to the Olympics in the ancient world!
#Tokyo2021 #OlympicGames #CarlosMuseum #CarlosCelebratestheOlympics


July 23rd (Opening Ceremony):

  • Black-Figure Band Cup, Greek, Attic, ca. 540-530 BCE, Ceramic, 1990.004.001
  • Happy #OpeningCeremony! During the ancient Olympics, the games would kick off with a procession from the city of Elis to the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. On the way, the Hellanodikai, the ten judges overseeing the games, were anointed with the blood of a sacrificed boar. That’s one way to make an entrance! Want more information about the wacky things ancient Greeks got up to during the Olympics? Visit…