Eros and Greek AthleticsAncient Greek athletics offer us a clear window on many important aspects of ancient culture, some of which have distinct parallels with modern sports and their place in our society. Ancient athletics were closely connected with religion, the formation of young men and women in their gender roles, and the construction of sexuality. Eros was, from one perspective, a major god of the gymnasium where homoerotic liaisons reinforced the traditional hierarchies of Greek culture. But Eros in the athletic sphere was also a symbol of life-affirming friendship and even of political freedom in the face of tyranny. Greek athletic culture was not so much a field of dreams as a field of desire, where fervent competition for honor was balanced by cooperation for common social goals. Eros and Greek Athletics is the first in-depth study of Greek body culture as manifest in its athletics, sexuality, and gender formation. In this comprehensive overview, Thomas F. Scanlon explores when and how athletics was linked with religion, upbringing, gender, sexuality, and social values in an evolution from Homer until the Roman period. Scanlon shows that males and females made different uses of the same contests, that pederasty and athletic nudity were fostered by an athletic revolution beginning in the late seventh century B.C., and that public athletic festivals may be seen as quasi-dramatic performances of the human tension between desire and death. Accessibly written and full of insights that will challenge long-held assumptions about ancient sport, Eros and Greek Athletics will appeal to readers interested in ancient and modern sports, religion, sexuality, and gender studies. |
From inside the book
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Page 5
... beauty , and communication or transition . The first two of these , the domains of Heracles and Eros , are two primary concerns here , the ago- nistic and erotic spirits . The third god represents a third thematic concern with ath ...
... beauty , and communication or transition . The first two of these , the domains of Heracles and Eros , are two primary concerns here , the ago- nistic and erotic spirits . The third god represents a third thematic concern with ath ...
Page 10
... beauty , all objects with a " body locus , " and that not so much the possession of these goods as fame itself , the more stable and enduring product of them , constituted the superior honor in that society . The ideology of the athlete ...
... beauty , all objects with a " body locus , " and that not so much the possession of these goods as fame itself , the more stable and enduring product of them , constituted the superior honor in that society . The ideology of the athlete ...
Page 15
... beauty that was axiomatic in Greek love poetry for an essential quality of sexual attractiveness . The famous physician Galen , Lucian's contemporary , vehemently denied the alleged benefits of health and beauty from athletics ...
... beauty that was axiomatic in Greek love poetry for an essential quality of sexual attractiveness . The famous physician Galen , Lucian's contemporary , vehemently denied the alleged benefits of health and beauty from athletics ...
Page 16
... beauty were commonly valued as by - products of the athletic life . These are personal benefits . Following the general lines of Plato's arguments for inclusion of athletics in education in the ideal state ( Rep . 3 , 403c - 404e , 410b ...
... beauty were commonly valued as by - products of the athletic life . These are personal benefits . Following the general lines of Plato's arguments for inclusion of athletics in education in the ideal state ( Rep . 3 , 403c - 404e , 410b ...
Page 21
... beauty contest , were known by such an epithet ( Ath . 13.609f ) . Aidōs is therefore particularly important for women of all ages , as it is for boys , since all of these are socially subordinate to adult males . Apart from the rare beauty ...
... beauty contest , were known by such an epithet ( Ath . 13.609f ) . Aidōs is therefore particularly important for women of all ages , as it is for boys , since all of these are socially subordinate to adult males . Apart from the rare beauty ...
Contents
| 3 | |
| 25 | |
THE ECUMENICAL OLYMPICSTHE GAMES IN THE ROMAN ERA | 40 |
ATHLETICS INITIATION AND PEDERASTY | 64 |
RACING FOR HERAA GIRLS CONTEST AT OLYMPIA | 98 |
ONLY WE PRODUCE MENSPARTAN FEMALE ATHLETICS AND EUGENICS | 121 |
RACE OR CHASE OF THE BEARS AT BRAURON? | 139 |
ATALANTA AND ATHLETIC MYTHS OF GENDER | 175 |
EROS AND GREEK ATHLETICS | 199 |
DRAMA DESIRE AND DEATH IN ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE | 274 |
CONCLUSIONSTHE NEXUS OF ATHLETICS RELIGION GENDER AND EROS | 323 |
ABBREVIATIONS | 335 |
NOTES | 337 |
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY | 435 |
INDEX | 449 |
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Common terms and phrases
agōn altar ancient Ancient Greece Arkteia Arrigoni Artemis ARV² associated Atalanta Athenaeus Athenian Athens athletic athletic contests athletic festivals Attic red-figure beauty boys Brauron bronze Cambridge chariot race chiton Classical competition Cretan cult culture dance death depicted desire Dionysus discussed Eros erotic evidence female figure footrace fourth century B.C. fragment funeral games Greece Greek Greek athletics gymnasia gymnasium Hera Heracles Heraia Hermes hero hippic Hippodameia Hippomenes Homer homosexual honor initiation initiatory inscriptions Kahil kylix later LIMC III.1 lover maidens male Moretti Museum myth nude Olympia Olympic victor origin paideia Painter palaestra Panathenaia Panhellenic Panhellenic Games participants Paus Pausanias pederasty Peleus Pelops period Pindar Plato Plut Poliakoff prize red-figure ritual Roman Rome runners sanctuary scenes sexual short chitons sixth century B.C. social Spartan Spartan girls stadium statuette status strigil suggests symbolic tion torch race University Press vases women wrestling young youths Zeus καὶ
Popular passages
Page 65 - the term initiation in the most general sense denotes a body of rites and oral teachings whose purpose is to produce a decisive alteration in the religious and social status of the person to be initiated.
Page 295 - Once his basic needs are satisfied (indeed, sometimes even before), man is subject to intense desires, though he may not know precisely for what. The reason is that he desires being, something he himself lacks and which some other person seems to possess. The subject thus looks to that other person to inform him of what he should desire in order to acquire that being.
Page 208 - ... are to be assigned to the women, who are the weaker natures, but in other respects their duties are to be the same. And as for the man who laughs at naked women exercising their bodies from the best of motives, in his laughter he is plucking A fruit of unripe wisdom...
Page 297 - And since these words of a famous philosopher are often quoted, it is necessary to labor the obvious and say that no nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling, even though it be only the faintest shadow— and if it does not do so, it is bad art and false morals.
Page 207 - ... the ludicrous effect to the outward eye vanished before the better principle which reason asserted, then the man was perceived to be a fool who directs the shafts of his ridicule at any other sight but that of folly and vice, or seriously inclines to weigh the beautiful by any other standard but that of the good.
Page 5 - Power is not an institution, a structure, or a certain force with which certain people are endowed: it is the name given to a complex strategic situation in a given society'33 - then we can also grasp the possibilities of resistance.
Page 225 - Habrocomes' age — he was around sixteen, already a member of the Ephebes, and took first place in the procession. There was a great crowd of Ephesians and visitors alike to see the festival, for it was the custom at this festival to find husbands for the girls and wives for the young men. So the procession filed...
Page 208 - Then let the wives of our guardians strip, for their virtue will be their robe, and let them share in the toils of war and the defence of their country; only in the distribution of labours the lighter are to be assigned to the women, who are the weaker natures, but in other respects their duties are to be the same.
Page 207 - ... were of the opinion, which is still generally received among the barbarians, that the sight of a naked man was ridiculous and improper; and when first the Cretans and then the Lacedaemonians introduced the custom, the wits of that day might equally have ridiculed the innovation.