Ancient Greeks' Olympics Didn't Start Out In The Nude

AP ^ | 8/19/04

[harrycarey]

Ancient Greeks' Olympics Didn't Start Out In The Nude

POSTED: 8:23 am EDT August 19, 2004 UPDATED: 11:10 am EDT August 19, 2004

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece -- The ancient Greeks may have been famous for competing in the nude.

But they apparently didn't start out that way.

Historian Lamros Lambracos says the earliest runners wore little skirts. In one race, he says, a runner lost his skirt and won the race.

That ushered in the era of naked Olympics, he said.

Lambracos, who has taught at New York University and the University of Athens, worked as a volunteer at the ancient stadium in Olympia.

Other historians say the unfortunate runner did not win -- that he lost his loincloth and tripped on it.

[harrycarey]

Other historians say the unfortunate runner did not win -- that he lost his loincloth and tripped on it.

That's why I stopped running in the nude.

[Socratic]

"That's why I stopped running in the nude."

I thought the neighbors were part of that decision.

[harrycarey]

The judge was the biggest part of that decision.

[Socratic]

"The judge ...."

LOL I thought so, but I was being (ahem), "discrete."

[Rammer]

Lambracos, who has taught at New York University and the University of Athens, worked as a volunteer at the ancient stadium in Olympia.

How old is this guy, anyway?

[Sacajaweau]

Don'tcha just love historians!! He won. He lost. He tripped. Next thing we'll hear is that when he tripped, another dude fell on top of him and they renamed the Stadium

"The Purthenon"

[E Rocc]

Don'tcha just love historians!! He won. He lost. He tripped. Next thing we'll hear is that when he tripped, another dude fell on top of him

Hence the phrase "Beware of Greeks baring 'gifts' ".

-Eric

[Aracelis]

How old is this guy, anyway?

Magnificent! Best laugh of the day...

[dukeman]

I don't know about this Olympics in the nude stuff. There are just some things a guy shouldn't do while naked-- like slamming shut dresser drawers!

[harrycarey]

Yeah, I think the Olympics are revealing enough.

[Rammer]

Thanks.

Don't get me started on that beat up old building in Athens they keep showing on tv.

Come on, the whole world is watching, can't you clean up your city a little?

[Verginius Rufus]

Thucydides says that the Spartans were the first to strip naked when they engaged in athletic exercises, "for in early times, even in the Olympic games, the athletes wore drawers around their private parts when they competed" (1.6.5).

Plato a little later says that the Cretans began naked athletics and the Spartans followed (Republic 5.452C).

Later there was a tradition that Orsippos of Megara was the first to run naked at the Olympic Games (Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.44.1).

[nikos1121]

gymnastics is derived from the Greek word "gymnos" which means "naked"...

Nick The Greek

[gcruse]

Special Olympdics

[SunkenCiv]

just adding it to the GGG list of articles, not sending a general distribution.

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