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| Ancient Greek Wrestling (Photo by MatthiasKabel) |
These accusations not only reflect some modern-day wrestling practices, but also harken back to the very roots of Olympian sport. The Epoch Times presents a popular legend of how the Olympics first began. This legend begins with Chaos, which the Ancient
Greeks believed existed before time and the universe itself.
Chaos eventually "gave birth" to Gaia (Earth), a Titan. Gaia then
birthed Uranus (Sky), with whom she later parented other Titans such as Ocean, Stars, Moon, Fate and Intelligence. So far, so good. But
then Cronus, the youngest Titan of all, came along.
Cronus was destined to overthrow his father, Uranus (with some edgy help from a blade that Gaia had fashioned to drive this point home). Gaia (literally)
had her own ax to grind against Uranus since he "hated all
of his children" and even trapped some of them way underground.
Using his mother's blade, Cronus castrated Uranus "and declared himself ruler over heaven and earth." (But not for long - what goes around comes around…)
It was prophesied that an offspring of Cronus would do unto him as he did unto Uranus. That offspring turned out to be Zeus, the youngest child of Cronus and his Titan sister/wife Rhea. Cronus had tried to outsmart this prophecy by swallowing one offspring after another. However, Cronus himself ended up being outsmarted when Rhea substituted a swaddled-up rock for Zeus. Cronus unwittingly swallowed the rock, and the rest is Olympian history.
Zeus lived on to save the day (for himself) by (literally) wrestling Cronus out of power. Thus began the age-old tradition of Olympic wrestling. (Modern-day tactics seem mild by comparison...)
Resources
http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingFeatures/dec23_religion.html
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/life/olympic-olympics-gods-greek-mythology-2325.html
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