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
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