History of Olympics
Hercules and Pelops were the sons of Soyuz, the King of Gods. Once Egias, the King of Elissa made a bet with Hercules. The bet was to clean the cowshed within a day. If Hercules succeeded in this task, he would be gifted one tenth of the cows. It was considered to be an almost impossible task to clean the dirty cowshed within such a short time. But Hercules was wise enough to do the job. He diverted a river and cleaned the cow shed. However, Egias was not ready to honour his promise. Thus, Hercules waged a war with Egias and killed him. He took away all the cows.
To celebrate his success, a sports festival was organised in Olympia. The name Olympics originated from the name Olympia. This is a story in Greek epics.
According to another story, there was a temple for the Greek Goddess Riya in Olympia valley. People used to run to light a lamp at the altar of this temple. This was later developed into a competition.
Olympics was the victory of Hercules’ brother Pelops over the King, is another version of the story.
Again, it is believed that the Olympics was organised in honour of the King Petross’s funeral who faced a heroic death on the battlefield. All these are the epic stories which people love to believe.
Whatever be the origin of Olympics, it is now the greatest international sports celebration in the world.
