Resumo de The Ancient Olympics

The Ancient Olympics covers more than just the
quadrennial games which were held at Olympia
from a putative beginning in 776 BCE through to around 400 CE. Spivey begins
with a survey of athletic competitions in the ancient world, going back to
Hesiod and Homer and touching on ideas from Lucian, Aristotle and Plato,
exploring links to military prowess and the extent to which competitions were
"war minus the shooting".

Next comes a look at the gymnasium, covering its architecture, its place in
social and civic life, and its links to philosophy, "pederasty" and
aesthetics.

In the ideal Classical city, the paragon-citizen, whose
voting rights originated from his availability for military service, kept
himself in conspicuously good shape as a matter of political duty, not personal
vanity. Yet the gymnasium ambiance was charged with the atmosphere of sexual
selection. Even if the obligation to practise combat sports for imminent
call-up faded ? especially after the development of professional armies,
pioneered by the Macedonians in the fourth century BC ? the battlefield values
of strength (rhome) and endurance (karteria) were maintained
as essential factors of manliness (andreia: see Xenophon, Symposium
8.6ff.). So Classical gymnasia became the sites of exercise for the sake of
looking good in that time-honored way. If erotic attention came about from
attaining such looks, that was almost incidental. Beyond war, beyond sex, lay
the peculiar but pervasive Classical Greek belief that beauty was invested with
morality; that to look good was necessarily also to be good.

At Olympia Spivey describes the scrutiny, the taking of oaths and the
drawing of lots, and the accommodation and facilities.

The seasonal timing of the festival alone was enough to make
it unpleasant for all concerned. ... An over-heated, land-locked valley,
blighted by flies and dust

He describes the events ? chariot-racing, the pentathlon,
wrestling, boxing, the pankration, running ? and considers the participation or
presence of women and the significance of nudity.

Crowning with olive leaves, victory parades and civic receptions were the
immediate rewards of the victorious. The two methods that worked best for
sustaining glory into posterity were the victory ode and the victory statue.
Spivey presents a translation and analysis of Pindar''s Eighth Olympian Ode and
discusses ? and illustrates with halftones ? the creation, inscription and fate
of statues.

The games began as a local affair, but extended first to the Peloponnese and then to encompass the entire Greek world.
They were intensely political, with a role in conflicts between Elis and its neighbors,
links with colonies, especially in the west, and in the fifth and early fourth
centuries with the rhetoric of Panhellenism; an actual battle occurred at the
Olympics in 364 BCE. Under the Macedonians and Romans the Games became an
opening for civic vanity and for the presentation of honors to and by rulers.

Something of the origins of Olympia
can be teased out of mythology, archaeology, and the invention of tradition.

By the mid-eighth century BC, Olympia was a site already sacrosanct to
local people over many decades ? though without formal temple neither
structures, nor any established facilities for regulated athletic contests.
During the eighth century, there was a marked increase in numbers of
worshippers at this site, generating interest, status, and revenues for the
sanctuary. As part of the sanctuary''s development, elementary challenges of speed
and physical prowess were gradually incorporated into a periodic celebration of
Zeus and other Olympian deities. However these athletic challenges came about,
they soon gained a religious, social, and political significance far beyond Olympia itself. By the
late sixth century BC, the Olympic Games were institutionalized at Olympia, paradigmatic of honor to Zeus at large, and a
ing point for Greeks and Greek city-states across the Mediterranean.
The origins of this extraordinary development were obscure even then. And so it
was all mythologized.

Spivey concludes with a glance at the afterlife of the Games: the discovery
of Olympia, its
archaeological exploration, and the revival of the modern Olympics.

All these different approaches come together to place the Olympics in their
broader context. Spivey works around both modern preconceptions and the
rhetoric of ancient sources; he draws on ancient stories and anecdotes, but
makes their limitations clear.

It won''t appeal to those narrowly interested in the Olympics, but anyone
curious about the Classical world more generally should enjoy The Ancient
Olympics. It is a lively account which doesn''t assume a background in
classical history, but which may draw readers into that. And it has plenty for
those already familiar with the period.

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