The ancient Greeks, who staged the first formal Olympic Games in 776 B.C., gave the world the idea of organized big-time sports events as entertainment for arenas full of spectators. More than that, they were the first culture in which people idolized their favorite athletic superstars, to a level that even today’s most fanatical sports fans might find extreme. Lunt cites the example of Theagenes of Thasos, a champion boxer, runner and competitor in Pankration, the ancient equivalent of mixed martial arts, who was so idolized for his athletic prowess that archaeologists in the 1930s found an altar at which he was venerated, centuries after his death. As Lunt says, “They were pretty crazy for these athletes.”
