Ancient Greeks gave culture a sporting chance

Whatever happened in reality, the Spartans' participation in the Olympic Games that year was prohibited, and the decision was significant given Sparta's reputation as one of the most powerful and militaristic city-states of Greece.

"The Olympics became symbolic of peace thanks to the truce, and the symbolism has continued to date ever since the Games' revival in 1896 by the International Olympic Committee led by Pierre de Coubertin," says Guan.

Whenever there was a war, there were deaths, sometimes countless ones. In ancient Greece, annual funerary games were organized for those fallen on the battlefield, as in the case of the 192 Athenians who died in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

Some scholars believe that although the ancient Olympic Games had been held in Olympia, the sanctuary dedicated to Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, it was these funerary games that are at the core of its origin. And that had added another human dimension to a game closely associated today with the celebration of humanity.

On display at the Nanjing Museum exhibition is an ancient Greek grave stele dating to a period between 400 BC and 375 BC. Depicted on the stele's preserved relief are a naked youth trying to balance a ball on his right thigh and his naked servant boy holding a strigil and aryballos.

According to Guan, it was a Grecian funerary tradition for the deceased to be represented as a young athlete. And it resonated deeply with the Grecian psyche.

In Homer's Iliad, Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors in the Trojan War, was given a choice between a long, uneventful life and a short, glorious one.

Achilles chose the latter.