Ancient Sporting Festivals
The origins of many aspects sporting festivals may date to funeral games of the Mycenean period. Early examples are known such as those held for Patroclus by Achilles, described by Homer and in Book 5 of Virgil's Aeneid, in which Aeneas organizes athletic contests on the anniversary of his father's death. Along with the great Olympic stadium at Olympia, an ancient stadium dating to the Iron Age exists in Telltown in Ireland that myths and legends suggest was the site of the Tailteann games. Labib Boutros, former director of athletics at the American University of Beirut has conducted recent studies of an ancient stadium in Amrit, Syria (ancient "Marathos") and suggested that its construction may date back as far as 1500 BC, saying that the Amrit stadium held festivals that were "devoted to sports in Phoenicia several centuries before the Olympic Games"
Read more about this topic: History Of Sport
Famous quotes containing the words ancient, sporting and/or festivals:
“Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“I once heard of a murderer who propped his two victims up against a chess board in sporting attitudes and was able to get as far as Seattle before his crime was discovered.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Why wont they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, cant they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping—rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year’s and Easter and Christmas—But, goodness, why need they do it?”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)