Olympics: In Antiquity, The Polished Marble Games

[Primus Pilus]

ATHENS In the good old days of the ancient Games, Olympia was the honorable playground of noble athletes, a theater of sacred peace, fair play and somber processions among white marble temples, right?

 

Wrong. The ancient Games were loud, smelly, sometimes scandalous, every bit as political as their modern counterparts and once even saw a full-scale battle in the middle of a boxing match.

"The games of antiquity were not the hallowed celebrations of amateur athletics which we are often led to believe," said David Gilman Romano, adjunct professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania. "The ancient Games were in many ways very much like the modern Olympics: intrinsically political, nationalistic and commercial."

 

"The games of antiquity were not the hallowed celebrations of amateur athletics which we are often led to believe," said David Gilman Romano, adjunct professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania. "The ancient Games were in many ways very much like the modern Olympics: intrinsically political, nationalistic and commercial."

 

From International Herald Tribune