Summer Olympic Games

The 2016 Games and subsequent events are to-be-determined. A few of them are:. The 2012 Summer Olympics are to be held in London, United Kingdom. As with films, the Devil (or some nearly identical character) has appeared in numerous video games. The 2008 Summer Olympics are to be held in Beijing, China. Among these are:. The games were appreciated for their excellent quality, from the point of view of their organisation, hospitality, the excellence of the competition, and the image transmitted worldwide. Many films and television programs have portrayed the Devil in one form or another.

Yet, none of those fears became a reality. The Devil is a common theme in an extreme form of underground music known as Black Metal. Greece spent at least $7.2 billion on the Games, including $1.5 billion on security alone -- an enormous sum that will take many years, if not decades, to pay off. A few songs that make reference to the Devil are:. Also, as these were the first games after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, there were many fears about terrorist attacks taking place. Among the most famous are:. Many doubted the city would be ready to host the games in time. Many writers have incorporated the character of Satan into their works.

2004 saw the games return to their birthplace, in Athens, Greece. Moreover, research into Ugaritic texts revealed that the names of the Jewish god were the same as separate gods worshipped in the same region; Yahweh is cognate to Ugaritic Yaw who is there the god of chaos, evil, and world domination. Eric "the Eel" Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, had a memorably slow 100 m freestyle swim that showed that, even in the commercial world of the twentieth century, some of de Coubertin's original vision still remained. Early Gnostics called the Demiurge Yao, the Aramaic cognate to the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (Yahweh). The 2000 Games were held in Sydney, Australia, and showcased individual performances by local favourite Ian Thorpe in the pool, Briton Steve Redgrave who won a rowing Gold medal in an unprecedented fifth consecutive Olympics, and Cathy Freeman, whose triumph in the 400 m united a packed stadium and provided a bridge between white and aboriginal Australians. The medieval Cathars believed that the Old Testament Yahweh was, in fact, the devil, based partially on ethical interpretations of the Bible and partially on the beliefs of earlier gnostic sects (such as the Marcionists) who regarded the god of the Old Testament as evil or as an imperfect demiurge. (In June 2003, the principal suspect in this bombing, Eric Robert Rudolph, was captured.). Prince of Darkness and Lord of Darkness are also folkloric names, although they tend to be incorporated to Christian tradition.

The atmosphere at the Games was marred however when a bomb exploded during the celebration in Centennial Park. It should be noted that the name Mephistopheles is used by some people to refer to the Devil, but it is a mere folkloric custom, and has nothing to do with Christian demonology and Christian tradition. television. Christian demonology, in contrast, does not have several nicknames for Satan. The latter event took place not at the boxing ring but in the basketball arena, at the demand of U.S. Belial is held by many to be another name for the Devil. There were also emotional scenes, such as when Muhammad Ali, clearly affected by Parkinson's disease, lit the Olympic torch and received a replacement medal for the one he had discarded in 1960. The Enemy, The Evil One and The Tempter are other elliptic forms to name the Devil.

This was popularly felt to be an appropriate recompense for the previous national disgrace involving Ben Johnson. Christian tradition differs from that of Christian demonology in that Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan and Beelzebub all are names that refer to "the Devil", and Prince of this World, The Beast and Dragon (and rarely Serpent or The Old Serpent) use to be elliptic forms to refer to him. Canadians savoured Donovan Bailey's record-breaking gold medal run in the 100-metre dash. One hypothesis is that this might have been an attempt to establish a hellish trinity with the same person, akin to the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, but most demonologists do not carry this view. In the stadium in 1996, the highlight was 200 m runner Michael Johnson annihilating the world record in front of a home crowd. Later, for unknown reasons, Christian demonologists appeared to designate "Satan", "Lucifer", and "Beelzebub" as different entities, each with a different rank in the hellish hierarchy. It was also widely rumoured that the Coca-Cola company was highly influential in the 1996 Games being hosted by their home city of Atlanta, Georgia. Though this word, Heilel, has come to be translated as "morning-star" from the Septuagint's translation of the Scriptures, the letter ה in Hebrew often indicates singularity, much as the English "the," in which case the translation would be ה "the" ילל "yell," or "the wailing yell.".

By then the process of choosing a location for the Games had itself become a commercial concern; allegations of corruption rocked the International Olympic Committee, in particular with reference to Salt Lake City's bid to host the Winter Olympic Games. The Hebrew Bible word which was later translated to "Lucifer" in English is הילל (transliterated HYLL). basketball's "Dream Team." 1992 also saw the reintroduction to the Games of several smaller European states which had been incorporated into the USSR since World War II. Lucifer became another name for Satan and has remained so due to Christian dogma and popular tradition. In evidence there was increased professionalism amongst Olympic athletes, exemplified by U.S. Thus, early Christian tradition interpreted the passage as a reference to the moment Satan was thrown from Heaven. The 1992 Barcelona Games were cleaner, although not without incident. While this information is available to scholars today via translated Babylonian cuneiform text taken from clay tablets, it was not as readily available at the time of the Latin translation of the Bible.

On the bright side, drug testing and regulation authorities were catching up with the cheating that had been endemic in athletics for some years. This is because the Babylonian king was considered to be of godly status and of symbolic divine parentage (Bel and Ishtar, associated with the planet Venus). This decision in particular would lead to a total overhaul of the judging process before the next games. Isaiah 14:1-23 is a passage largely concerned with the plight of Babylon, and its king is referred to as "morning star, son of the dawn". This culminated in local light-middleweight Park Si-hun being awarded the gold medal despite being conclusively outboxed in the final by American Roy Jones, Jr. When the Bible was translated into Latin (the Vulgate), the name Lucifer appeared as a translation of "Morning Star", or the planet Venus, in Isaiah 14:12. There was an additional scandal in the boxing ring, where Korean fighters were awarded dubious decisions by the judges. Both claims are false, as the words are etymologically derived from pre-existing languages.

The outcry reached its zenith when Ben Johnson, the Canadian winner of the men's 100 m sprint, was discovered to be a steroid user and disqualified. There are some who erroneously claim that the word 'devil' is from 'd'evil' -'of evil.' Some also believe that because the word 'evil' itself is 'live' spelt backward, the word originated through the nature of evil being "against living things," or the antithesis of life itself. Despite splendid drug-free performances by many individuals, the number of people who failed screenings for performance-enhancing chemicals overshadowed the games. However, the actual Abaddon mentioned in the Book of Revelation is the name of an angel "holding the key to the Abyss", so the original text does not originally point to Satan. The 1988 Seoul games were sadly tainted when many of the athletes failed mandatory drug tests. Abaddon or Apollyon: Referred to in Revelation 9:11, commonly interpreted as the name of Satan in Hebrew and Greek respectively. Again, the games lost a measure of their appeal by the absence of one of the superpowers. The Beast (Book of Revelation 13:1-18) is a term John the Evangelist used to refer to a "puppet" of the dragon's (Satan); this name appears several times in the book of Revelation, and it became another nickname for Satan.

The games were again viable, but had become more commercial. The Dragon or The Old Serpent: These epithets are used extensively in the Book of Revelation. These games were perhaps the first games of a new era. 12:9). In 1984 the Soviet Union, and 14 Eastern Europe countries, reciprocated by boycotting the Los Angeles games. The Devil, diabolos: This name is ascribed to Satan at least 33 times in the Christian scriptures and indicates that Satan is an accuser or slanderer (Rev. This contributed to the 1980 Games being a less publicised and less competitive affair, which was dominated by the host country. In the Christian worldview, Satan is the adversary of both God and humanity.

Notably, Great Britain and Greece did not withdraw. 1 Peter 5:8--"Your adversary the devil." By adversary is meant one who takes a stand against another. Following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, 66 nations, including the United States, Canada, West Germany and Japan, boycotted the 1980 games held in Moscow. "What agreement does Christ have with Belial?". The Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci won the women's individual all around gold medal with a succession of perfect scores, thus giving birth to a gymnastics dynasty in Romania. In 2 Corinthians 6:15 the Devil is referred as Belial. There was also a boycott by African nations to protest a recent tour of apartheid South Africa by a New Zealand rugby side. In John 12:31 and 14:30 Satan is called Prince of this World (Rex Mundi); this became a nickname for him.

For a time, it seemed that the Olympics might no longer be a viable financial proposition. Abrahamic religions generally regarded sin as a physical manifestation of opposition to God, and therefore evil; dissent only comes from the topic of 'where does sin come from?'. There was no such tragedy in Montreal in 1976, but bad planning led to the Games' cost far exceeding the budget. This title suggests that Satan is one who is wicked himself. Some memorable athletic achievements did occur during these Games, notably the winning of a record seven gold medals by United States swimmer Mark Spitz, and the winning of three gold medals by 16-year-old Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut. 6:13; 1 John 5:19. After much debate, it was decided that the Games would continue, but proceedings were obviously dominated by these events. 13:19--"Then cometh the wicked one." Matt.

In the firefight that followed, 15 people, including the remaining nine Israeli athletes and all but one of the terrorists, were killed. The wicked one: Matt. Eventually the captors, still holding their hostages, were offered safe passage and taken to an airport, where they were ambushed by German security forces. "Lord of the Flies") has now come to be analogous to Satan. When the Israelis refused to make concessions, a tense stand-off ensued while negotiations continued. In Matthew 10:25 and 12:24, Mark 3:22, and openly in Luke 11:18-19 there is an implied connection between Satan and Beelzebub (originally a Semitic deity called Baal-zebul, one of the Baals.) Beelzebub (lit. The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous Arab prisoners. He is continually soliciting men to sin.

An extreme Palestinian terrorist group named Black September invaded the Olympic village and held several members of the Israeli weightlifting team hostage, and killed two of them. The tempter: Matthew 4:3--"And when the tempter came to him." None escape his temptations. Politics again intervened at Munich in 1972, with lethal consequences. The Hebrew Bible views ha-satan as an angel ministering to the desires of God, acting as Chief Prosecutor. Politics took centre stage in the medal ceremony for the men's 200-metre dash, where Tommie Smith and John Carlos made a protest gesture on the podium against the segregation in the USA; their political act was condemned within the Olympic Movement, but was praised in the American Civil Rights Movement. Zechariah 3:1--"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and ha-satan standing at his right hand to resist him." This reading has since been erroneously interpreted by some to mean Satan, "the Devil", but such is not the case. The 1968 Games also saw the introduction of the now-universal Fosbury flop, a technique which won American high jumper Dick Fosbury the gold medal. There is no unambiguous basis for the Devil in the Torah, the Prophets, or the Writings.

In a previously tight competition, US athlete Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 m, destroying the world record and, in the words of fellow competitor and then-reigning champion Lynn Davies, "making the rest of us look silly." Beamon's world record would stand for 23 years. The article was lost and this title became a proper name: Satan. No event was affected more than the long jump. Originally, only the epithet of "the satan" or "the adversary" was used to denote the character in the Hebrew deity's court that later became known as "the Devil". Performances at the 1968 Mexico City games were affected by the altitude of the host city. A Devil-like figure in Buddhism is Mara. The 1964 Games were thus a turning point in the global visibility and popularity of the Olympics. Kroni, the spirit of Kali Yuga is said to be omnipresent in this age and that is why one of the reasons, followers of Ayya Vazhi, like some Hindus, believe that the current yuga, Kali Yuga is so degraded.

These games were the first to be broadcast live on television, enabled by the recent advent of communication satellites, and helped introduce the world to colour television. Eventually, the Ekam with the spirit (the spirit taken by Narayana only for incarnating in the world) of Narayana incarnates in the world as Ayya Vaikundar to destroy the final manifestaion of Kroni, Kaliyan. The 1964 Games held in Tokyo are notable for heralding the modern age of telecommunications. In response to such manifestation of evil, believers, in Ayya-Vazhi religion believe that God, as Vishnu manifests in His avatars, Rama, Krishna, to destroy evil. Other performers of note in 1960 included Wilma Rudolph, a gold medallist in the 100 m, 200 m and 4x100 m relay events. Kroni, according to Ayyavazhi is the primordial manifestation of evil and manifests in various forms of evil, i.e., Ravana, Duryodhana, etc., in different ages or yugas. The 1960 Rome Games saw the arrival on the world scene of a young light-heavyweight boxer named Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, who would later throw his gold medal away in disgust after being refused service in a whites only restaurant in his home town. Ayyavazhi, officially an offshoot of Hinduism, in Tamil Nadu, believes in a Satan-like figure, Kroni.

The 1956 Melbourne Games were largely successful, barring a water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union, which political tensions caused to end as a pitched battle between the teams. The Hebrew word for evil used above is usually translated as 'calamity', 'disaster' or 'chaos'. Pacing himself by chatting with the other leaders, Zátopek led from about half way, slowly dropping the remaining contenders to win by two and a half minutes, and completed a trio both of wins and Olympic records. In fact, the Book of Isaiah, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Deuteronomy all have passages which God is credited for creating both the good and the evil of this world. Having first won both the 10,000 and 5,000 metre races, he also entered the marathon, despite having never previously raced at that distance. There is no evidence in Torah, or in the books of the Prophets and other writings, to suggest that God created an evil being. At the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland made a legend of an amiable Czech army lieutenant named Emil Zátopek, who was intent on improving on his single gold and silver medals from 1948. In the epilogue Job's possessions are restored and he has a second family to "replace" the one that died.

Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals on the track, emulating Owens' achievement in Berlin. At the conclusion of this book God appears as a whirlwind, explaining to all that divine justice is inscrutable with human intellect. The first post-war Games were held in 1948 in London, with both Germany and Japan excluded. The righteous man is afflicted with loss of family, property, and later, health, but he still stays faithful to God. The Games of 1940 and 1944 were cancelled due to World War II. After God points out Job's piety, ha-satan asks for permission to test the faith of Job. The tale of Hitler snubbing Owens at the ensuing medal ceremony is a fabrication. In essence ha-satan has no power unless humans do evil things.

In particular, the black sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals. In Judaism ha-satan does not make evil, rather points out to God the evil inclinations and actions of humankind. The result, Olympia, was a masterpiece, despite Hitler's theories of Aryan racial superiority being repeatedly shown up by non-Aryan athletes. In the book of Job (Iyov), ha-satan is the title, not the proper name, of an angel submitted to God; he is the divine court's chief prosecutor. The ruling Nazi Party commissioned film-maker Leni Riefenstahl to film the games. In Hebrew, the biblical word ha-satan means adversary or obstacle, or even "the prosecutor" (recognizing that God is viewed as the ultimate Judge). The 1936 Berlin Games were seen by the German government as a golden opportunity to promote their ideology. (For a more detailed account, see (Iblis or Shaitan.).

Louis games. Allah gave them a strong warning about Iblis and the fires of Hell and asked them and their children (humankind) to stay away from the deceptions of their senses caused by the Devil. This was in stark contrast to 1932 when the Los Angeles games were affected by the Great Depression, which contributed to the fewest competitors since the St. Initially, the Devil was successful in deceiving Adam, but once his intentions became clear, Adam and Eve repented to Allah and were freed from their misdeeds and forgiven. The 1928 Amsterdam games were notable for being the first games which allowed females to compete at track & field athletics, and benefitted greatly from the general prosperity of the times alongside the first appearance of sponsorship of the games, from Coca-Cola. This caused him to be expelled by Allah, a fact that Iblis blamed on humanity. "The Flying Finn", won three team gold medals and the individual 1,500 and 5,000 metre runs, the latter two on the same day. However, Iblis, adamant in his view that man is a worthless being, never bowed his head before any other than Allah.

This record only stood until 1924, when the Paris Games would involve 3,000 competitors, the greatest of whom was Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. Even the other angels showed a degree of suspicion when Allah informed them about the creation of man as the regent (caliph) of all things on Earth, but they ultimately prostrated before Adam to show their homage. The 1920 Antwerp games in war-ravaged Belgium were a subdued affair, but again drew a record number of competitors. He claimed to be superior to Adam, on the grounds that man was created of earth unlike himself. The scheduled Berlin Games of 1916 were cancelled following the onset of World War I. He was expelled from the grace of Allah when he failed to pay homage to Adam, the father of all mankind. They were reinstated in 1983, 30 years after his death. The ones who succeed in this are rewarded with Paradise (jannath ul firdaus), attainable only by righteous conduct.

Thorpe had previously played a few games of baseball for a fee, and saw his medals stripped for this breach of amateurism. Thus, humankind is warned to struggle (jihad) against the mischiefs of the Shaitan and temptations he puts them in. The Games continued to grow, attracting 2,500 competitors to Stockholm in 1912, including the great all-rounder Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. He intends to discourage humans from obeying God. He was helped over the finish line by concerned race officials, but later he was disqualified and the gold medal was awarded to John Hayes, who had trailed him by around 30 seconds. Shaitan's single enemy is humanity. At the end of the 1908 marathon the Italian runner Dorando Pietri was first to enter the stadium, but he was clearly in distress, and collapsed of exhaustion before he could complete the event. Unlike the Zoroastrian beliefs, all good and bad deeds are from Allah himself and only he can save humanity from the evils of his universe and his creations.

At the six Olympic games between 1900 and 1920, the marathon was raced over six different distances. The Qur'an does not depict Shaitan as the enemy of Allah, for Allah is supreme over all his creations and Iblis is just one of his creations. The marathon had been 40 km for the first games in 1896, but was subsequently varied by up to 2 km due to local conditions such as street and stadium layout. The Devil is also referred to as one of the Djinns (genies), as they are all created from the smokeless fires. This distance was chosen to ensure that the race finished in front of the box occupied by the British royal family. After that, he will be put into the fires of Hell along with those whom he has deceived. The 1908 London Games saw numbers rise again, as well as the first running of the marathon over its now-standard distance of 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards). According to the verses of the Qur’an, the Devil's mission until the Qiyamah or Resurrection Day (yaum-ul-qiyama) is to deceive Adam's children (mankind).

Anyway, they certainly positively contributed to the success of future games after the less successful 1900 and 1904 Games. The primary characteristic of the Devil, besides hubris, is that he has no power other than the power to cast evil suggestions into the heart of men. These games are not currently recognised as being Olympic Games by the IOC, though most historians do see them as such. According to the Qur'an, God (called Allah in Islam) created the Devil out of "smokeless fire", while he created man out of clay. As it also turned out to be the last, the reason for the games is now sought in the "tenth birthday" of the games. In Islam the Devil is referred to as Iblis, also called the Shaitan (a word referring to evil devil-like beings). There followed a smaller games in Athens in 1906, the first of an alternating series of games to be held in Athens. Tolkien characters Melkor and Sauron.

In contrast with Paris 1900, the word Olympic was abused for many contests, such as those for school boys or for Irish-Americans. R. Louis, USA, due in part to the lengthy transatlantic boat trip required of the European competitors, and the integration with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's fair, which again spread the event out over an extended period. R. Numbers declined again for the 1904 Games in St. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters and Space Trilogy), and the J. It is still disputed which events exactly were Olympic, since few or maybe even none of the events were advertised as such at the time. S.

The Games were integrated with the Paris World's fair and lasted over 5 months. The epic poem by John Milton, Paradise Lost, has a stylized depiction of the devil that influenced C. Four years later (in 1900) the Paris games attracted more than four times as many athletes, including 11 women, who were allowed to compete for the first time, in croquet and tennis. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." (Revelation 12:7-9). Nevertheless, no international events of this magnitude had been organised before. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. The first games, held in Athens in 1896, attracted just 245 competitors, of whom more than 200 were Greek, and only 14 countries were represented. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.

The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1894 when Pierre Fredi, Baron de Coubertin sought to promote international understanding through sporting competition. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. . "And there was war in heaven. The football World Cup attracts more global interest, as measured by the larger television audience. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?" (Isaiah 14:9-17 - this is commonly held to be a dual prophecy about the King of Babylon and Satan). Though the most diverse sporting event in the world, the Olympics are perhaps not the most popular. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

The special case of Taiwan was handled by having it compete as Chinese Taipei, to avoid the issue of Taiwanese independence. How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. In general only recognised nations are represented, but a few non-sovereign countries are allowed to take part. They will all respond, they will say to you, "You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us." All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. National anthems and flags accompany the medal ceremonies, and tables showing the number of medals won by each country are widely used. The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you — all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones — all those who were kings over the nations. Competitors are entered by a National Olympic Committee (NOC) to represent their country of citizenship. Commonly-quoted Bible-texts are:.

Medals are awarded in each event, with gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition which started in 1904. Were the craftsman's hand the rule itself engraving, he could not engrave the wood otherwise than rightly; but if the rightness of engraving be judged by another rule, then the engraving may be right or faulty." (ST I.63.1, italics added). Olympic victory is widely considered to be the most prestigious achievement in sports. That act alone, the rule of which is the very virtue of the agent, can never fall short of rectitude. The Olympics are the most prestigious of such events in the world. The reason of this is, because sinning is nothing else than a deviation from that rectitude which an act ought to have; whether we speak of sin in nature, art, or morals. The Summer Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event held every four years, organised by the International Olympic Committee. "An angel or any other rational creature considered in his own nature, can sin; and to whatever creature it belongs not to sin, such creature has it as a gift of grace, and not from the condition of nature.

2012 - Games of the XXX Olympiad - London, United Kingdom.
Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, said:. 2008 - Games of the XXIX Olympiad - Beijing, China / Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China (Equestrian events). The key fact in understanding the devil is that he was originally a holy being who was corrupted by pride. 2004 - Games of the XXVIII Olympiad - Athens, Greece. He was Lucifer, an angel in authority before the Creation (theology) who fell because of pride and because he waged a war against God. 2000 - Games of the XXVII Olympiad - Sydney, Australia. Unlike Manichaeism which teaches a coeval dualism, Christians see the devil as a corrupted or fallen angel.

1996 - Games of the XXVI Olympiad - Atlanta, United States. Christianity understands the Devil in the context of the Old Testament. 1992 - Games of the XXV Olympiad - Barcelona, Spain. . 1988 - Games of the XXIV Olympiad - Seoul, South Korea. All strikingly similar to the story of Ahriman. 1984 - Games of the XXIII Olympiad - Los Angeles, United States. Christianity views Satan as an angel cast from heaven by God, whom was prideful, deceitful, and the temptor.

1980 - Games of the XXII Olympiad - Moscow, Soviet Union (now Moscow, Russia). Accordingly, humans are urged to align themselves with Ohrmazd and his Yazata's ("angels") and to shun His adversary whom is the ruler of darkness and his demons, so that they may facilitate the final renovation (Frashō-kereti). 1976 - Games of the XXI Olympiad - Montréal, Canada. In a final battle between the forces of good and evil, human souls will be judged in a fiery ordeal of molten metal where the good will pass through as if it were warm milk and those who chose evil will be purified and all will be reunited in the new perfected world. 1972 - Games of the XX Olympiad - Munich, West Germany (now Munich, Germany). Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord"), also later known as Ohrmazd in Middle Persian, is the God of light, or Truth, and Angra Mainyu ("Evil Spirit"), also later known as Ahriman in Middle Persian, is the primeval Spirit of darkness, or the Lie. 1968 - Games of the XIX Olympiad - Mexico City, Mexico. Much like classical monotheism, Zoroastrianism has one supreme God, and an evil spirit whom chose to be evil, locked in a cosmic struggle where both are more or less evenly matched, though from the beginning Ahura Mazda's triumph is foretold; making Zoroastrianism an ethical dualism.

1964 - Games of the XVIII Olympiad - Tokyo, Japan. Some scholars believe that the notion of a central supernatural embodiment of evil, as well as the notion of angels, first arose in Western monotheism when Judaism came into contact with the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. 1960 - Games of the XVII Olympiad - Rome, Italy. However, a "diva" is not a devil. 1956 - Games of the XVI Olympiad - Melbourne, Australia / Stockholm, Sweden (Equestrian events). In other languages devil may be derived from the same Indo-European root word for deva, which roughly translates as "angel". 1952 - Games of the XV Olympiad - Helsinki, Finland. The term devil can refer to a greater demon in the hierarchy of Hell.

1948 - Games of the XIV Olympiad - London, United Kingdom. The English word devil derives from the Middle English devel, from Old English dēofol, from Latin Diábolus, from Late Greek Diabolos, meaning, slanderer, from diaballein, to slander: dia-, dia- + ballein, to hurl. 1944 - Games of the XIII Olympiad - London, United Kingdom- Cancelled due to the still raging World War II. In classic demonology, however, each of these alternate names refers to a specific supernatural entity, and there is significant disagreement as to whether any of these specific entities is actually evil. 1940 - Games of the XII Olympiad - Helsinki, Finland - Cancelled following the onset of World War II. This entity is commonly referred to by a variety of other names, including Satan, Asmodai, Beelzebub, Lucifer and/or Mephistopheles. 1936 - Games of the XI Olympiad - Berlin, Germany. The Devil is the name given to a supernatural entity, who, in most Western religions, is the central embodiment of evil.

1932 - Games of the X Olympiad - Los Angeles, United States. Engaging, wide-ranging and good-humored (and out-of-print for thirty years), this "classic" was re-printed in 1989. 1928 - Games of the IX Olympiad - Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Devil in Legend and Literature, by Maximilian Rudwin (Open Court, La Salle, Illinois, 1931, 1959) is a compendium of "the secular and sacred adventures of Satan". 1924 - Games of the VIII Olympiad - Paris, France. The following volumes are, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, and Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World. 1920 - Games of the VII Olympiad - Antwerp, Belgium. Accessible and engaging, full of photographs illustrating the text, this is the first of a four volume series on the history of the concept of the Devil.

1916 - Games of the VI Olympiad - Berlin, Germany - Cancelled following the onset of World War I. The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, by Jeffrey Burton Russell (Meridian, New York 1977) is "a history of the personification of evil" which, to make things clear, he calls "the Devil". 1912 - Games of the V Olympiad - Stockholm, Sweden. Augustine,Hail Satan. 1908 - Games of the IV Olympiad - London, United Kingdom. Forsyth tells the Devil's story from the Epic of Gilgamesh through to the writings of St. 1906 - Intercalated Games - Athens, Greece. The Old Enemy: Satan & the Combat Myth, by Neil Forsyth (Princeton, New Jersey 1987) seeks to show how Satan emerged from ancient mythological traditions and is best understood not as a priciple of evil, but as a narrative character in the context of "the Combat Myth".

Louis, United States. She discusses how Satan becomes a figure that reflects our own hatreds and prejudices, and the struggle between our loving selves and our fearful, combative selves. 1904 - Games of the III Olympiad - St. The Origin of Satan, by Elaine Pagels (Vintage Books, New York 1995) explores the development, the "demonization" of the character of Satan against the background of the bitter struggle between the early Church and the Synagogue to be the legitimate heir of ancient Hebrew religious tradition. 1900 - Games of the II Olympiad - Paris, France. Tekken. 1896 - Games of the I Olympiad - Athens, Greece. Ghouls 'n Ghosts.

Includes Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. Ghosts 'n Goblins. Wrestling - every edition except 1900