There were few qualities more prized than the perfection of physical performance, and kalok agathia, the combination of beauty and goodness.

For over a thousand years, there was no higher expression of those virtues than victory in the sacred Games at Olympia; an athlete and religious spectacle that was venerated from Athens and the Aegean Islands to the Hellenic outpasts of the Near East and Asia Minor.

Since the Ancient Olympics began in 776.b.c, until they were banned in A.D 394, the ancient games at Olympia were held every four years without interruption, despite grave threats of invasion and nearly constant warfare among the city-states of Greece.