by Stefan Stanford, All News Pipeline:

The ancient Olympic games were held in Olympia, Greece, in honor of the Greek god Zeus.

The original games date back to 776 B.C. and ran for a millennium until 393 A.D. The games were held every four years and initially only permitted first-born Greek men to participate.

Artists and poets presented their works, and the ancient Olympics had a definite political flavor, even thousands of years ago. Early sports included running, boxing, chariot racing, wrestling, and pentathlon.

The Olympics went dark in the 4th century A.D. until the first modern games in Athens in 1896.