Posted on 07/30/2004 6:18:16 PM PDT by MikalM
Imagine Plato, a noted fan of ancient Greek athletics, providing color commentary for the upcoming Olympic Games:
"Why in Zeus' name are they wearing clothes?" he might ask.
The Olympics are returning to their original home in Greece next month but not to their original dress code. "This may be the most obvious and striking difference between today's athletes and the ancient Greeks," UC Berkeley archaeologist Stephen Miller says in "Ancient Greek Athletics," his new book on the ancient games. So embedded was competing in the nude that our word gymnasium comes from the Greek gymnos for "naked," Miller notes in the book, an in-depth account of a culture that loved to watch the well-proportioned bodies of young men, their skin glistening with olive oil, compete not for medals but for a sprig of olive or bunch of wild celery.
On a deeper level, Miller said, nude competition helped foster one of ancient Greece's best-known contributions to posterity -- democracy. Nudity, he said, erases marks of rank and privilege.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
San Francisco Chronicle... predictable
They used to have weddings in the nude. You could always tell who was the best man.
It's funny they would be the ones to make this observation... The one place on earth (Frisco) where nudity would probably be the most dangerous.
"Nudity, he said, erases marks of rank and privilege."
That ain't necessarily so...
Could we conclude that there was a lot of juggling competition at their Olympics?
Nice bod....but what small feet you have!!
Only women's figure skating should be in the nude. And maybe women's trampoline jumping.
The REAL reason nudity was eventually rejected: "Uh-oh. Looks like another runner is being dragged. That baton-pass needs a real tweeking."
Slow motion on TV would make gymnastics, women hurdles, oh hell, any sport popular.
LOL!
No, it doesn't. I saw a show on French TV about families spending their vacations at a nudist camp, and one of the things they liked about it was that it erased social classes. Yet, even without clothing, it was obvious these people were upper middle class. Body shape, posture, general bearing--there are a lot of ways people show their standing in society that have nothing to do with clothing.
Arggh, the mental image!
The female gymnasts might be of interest.
I can see why Cacique always preferred to Romans to the Greeks.
Whoa, what happened to get Presidio9 banned? I always liked him.
Anyone who has actually gone to the ancient stadium will know only a select few of the events were done in the nude.
Th western universities are renowned for getting ancient greek history and culture just plain wrong.
BTW the ancient games started in 776. (1776?)
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