<P> The Olympic Games was originally meant as a festival , or celebration of / for Zeus ; later , events such as a footrace , a javelin contest , and wrestling matches were added . The Olympic Games ( Ancient Greek : Ὀλύμπια Olympia `` the Olympics '' also Ancient Greek : Ὀλυμπιάς Olympias `` the Olympiad '' ) were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city - states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece . They were held in honor of Zeus , and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin . The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC . They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule , until the emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in 393 AD as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome . The games were held every four years , or olympiad , which became a unit of time in historical chronologies . </P>
when was the first olympic games held in ancient greece
776 BC