THE OLYMPIC GAMES: The First 1,166 Years a 60-minute presentation by Anthony F. Milavic, takes its audience back to the birthplace of the Olympic Games. Experience a pictorial journey through the evolution and conduct of those Games, in which a cook, a princess, and a corpse were crowned champions and champions became heroes and even gods.

The birthplace, located in the Valley of Olympia in the Greek Peloponnese, is richly described with maps and photography. Recent photos are paired with those of a scale-model recreation for a then-and-now comparison of the world’s first Olympic Village. Milavic goes on to demonstrate how the temples, statues, and monuments of the religious sanctuary influenced the athletic contests. The athletic and support facilities of this ancient site are also shown and explained.

Milavic traces the Games to their roots in funeral games, religion, and other facets of Greek culture from the earliest of times. The evolution and conduct of the Olympic Games, from a one-day local event to a five-day Greece-wide festival, is described and illustrated with imagery on ancient figure-vases, statuary, rare coins--including coins depicting unique information on the conduct of ancient Games--and other artifacts, with modern-day drawings and artwork complementing the antiquities. Running, boxing, wrestling, and the discus are some of the familiar events included in this lecture. However, more-unusual ancient sports are also described: the pankration, in which a corpse was once crowned the winner; the long jump in which the athlete carried weights; the javelin with finger thong; the two-mule cart race; and the ride-and-run horse race. The reality and myth of the Olympic prize concludes this journey.