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The Games grow with the centuries. By the 5th century BCE, the festival is a five-day spectacle of human limit:

For over a thousand years, the flame burned every four years, until the Roman Emperor Theodosius I silenced the Games in 393 CE. Yet, the spirit of the gymnasion and the dream of the "Sacred Truce" survived, waiting in the soil of Olympia to be reborn in the modern era. The Games grow with the centuries

: A grueling test of jumping, flinging the heavy bronze discus, hurling the javelin, wrestling, and running. : A grueling test of jumping, flinging the

: A "no-holds-barred" combat where only biting and eye-gouging are forbidden. It is the ultimate display of alké (strength). On the final day, you stand before the Temple of Zeus

On the final day, you stand before the Temple of Zeus. There is no prize money. Instead, the judges place a simple wreath of wild olive leaves ( kotinos ) upon your head.

The dust of Elis rises in a golden haze as thousands of travelers, from the rugged mountains of Macedon to the sun-drenched shores of Rhodes, converge on the sacred grove of Altis. It is the midsummer of 776 BCE, and the are about to begin.

As you return home, your city-state tears down a portion of its defensive walls to let you enter—for what need has a city of walls when it is guarded by an Olympic champion? Your name will be carved in stone, your meals will be free for life, and poets like Pindar will sing of your glory long after the fire at Olympia has flickered out. The Legacy