Visualizing world peace through the Olympic truce

At the ancient Olympic Games, the Greeks grounded their athletic endeavors in their polytheism. Starting with the first foot race in 776 BC in the sacred space of Olympia, men—all men, though regardless of wealth or stature—saw athletic competition as a means of honoring the Olympian gods, particularly Zeus. Through their physical accomplishments, the humans believed they could gain some sort of immortality.

The connections between body and soul seem endless. What made the ancient Olympics unique, however, is how those religious rituals connected directly to the diplomatic relations of the day. Central to their creation was the spirit of ekecheiria, or truce. In an effort to stop the ongoing wars of the Greek states, King Ifitos consulted the oracle at Delphi, which advised him to introduce sport every four years as a means to disrupt the cycle of wars. The truce—which lasted months—allowed safe travel for athletes and spectators to and from the games, suspended the death penalty, ended wars for a time and made it possible to visualize peace.

The ancient games came to an end in 393 when Emperor Theodosis, a Christian, banned all pagan cults, including athletics. But when Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the idea of the Olympics in the late 19th century, their potential impact on global relations was not lost on him. Various rituals and ceremonies saturate the modern version of the Olympics, helping to create the necessary transformation that separates the everyday—and all of the conflict that accompanies it—from the Olympic.