Ancient Olympics

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• ST

  

  StevieLorna

  Jan 20, 2024

  Id love to know what you are typing into a search engine.

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• NU

  

  nudony

  Jan 20, 2024

  Here's what I've gleaned from some research:
  
  [em]"Hurwit's newly published research shows that the Greeks did walk around in the buff in some situations. Men strode about free of their togas in the bedroom and at parties called symposia, where they would eat, drink and carouse. Nudity was also common on the athletic fields and at the Olympic games. (Because there are so many images of Greek athletes, some lay people have assumed the Greeks were in their birthday suits all the time.)"[/em]
  [em]"Greek males, it is generally agreed, did not walk around town naked, they did not ride their horses naked, and they certainly did not go into battle naked," Hurwit said. "In most public contexts, clothing was not optional, and in combat nakedness was suicidal."[/em] A little more specifically:The story goes that the Homeric athletes in The Iliad and the first ancient Olympians in 776 BCE originally wore loincloths to compete in. It was only later that a runner named Orsippus (or Orhippus) from the city of Megara decided to go naked, probably at the fifteenth Olympiad of 720 BCE in order to win the one-stade race (NB: a stade was the length of a stadium, which was often around 185 meters). The 5th c. BCE historian Thucydides suggests that this shift to nude athletic competition perhaps happened a bit later, closer to his own time. To him, athletic nudity was a show of civility in the face of the barbarism displayed by the Persian enemies to the East of Greece. Ancient Persians traditionally thought it against decorum to appear in the buff, and thus Greek nudity was an affront to their social mores. It was a symbol of Greekness at that time first associated with Spartans and then with many other Greek city states. It was said that even Spartan women worked out in the nude.That's our history lesson for the day.

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• J.

  

  J.

  Jan 20, 2024

  [quote]Hurwit's newly published research shows that the Greeks did walk around in the buff in some situations. Men strode about free of their togas in the bedroom and at parties called symposia, where they would eat, drink and carouse.[/quote] Sounds more fun than the modern day symposium. From now on I will call any dance at Solair a symposium, since we eat, drink, and carouse free of our togas. :)

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• TD

  

  Tom DOriginal Poster

  Jan 20, 2024

  [quote]Here's what I've gleaned from some research: "Hurwit's newly published research shows that the Greeks did walk around in the buff in some situations. Men strode about free of their togas in the bedroom and at parties called symposia, where they would eat, drink and carouse. Nudity was also common on the athletic fields and at the Olympic games. (Because there are so many images of Greek athletes, some lay people have assumed the Greeks were in their birthday suits all the time.)" "Greek males, it is generally agreed, did not walk around town naked, they did not ride their horses naked, and they certainly did not go into battle naked," Hurwit said. "In most public contexts, clothing was not optional, and in combat nakedness was suicidal." A little more specifically: The story goes that the Homeric athletes in The Iliad and the first ancient Olympians in 776 BCE originally wore loincloths to compete in. It was only later that a runner named Orsippus (or Orhippus) from the city of Megara decided to go naked, probably at the fifteenth Olympiad of 720 BCE in order to win the one-stade race (NB: a stade was the length of a stadium, which was often around 185 meters). The 5th c. BCE historian Thucydides suggests that this shift to nude athletic competition perhaps happened a bit later, closer to his own time. To him, athletic nudity was a show of civility in the face of the barbarism displayed by the Persian enemies to the East of Greece. Ancient Persians traditionally thought it against decorum to appear in the buff, and thus Greek nudity was an affront to their social mores. It was a symbol of Greekness at that time first associated with Spartans and then with many other Greek city states. It was said that even Spartan women worked out in the nude. That's our history lesson for the day.[/quote] So it sounds like the Persians thought the Greeks were barbarians because they were often nude, and the Greeks felt the same way about the barbarians because they were not.

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• TD

  

  Tom DOriginal Poster

  Jan 20, 2024

  [quote]Hurwit's newly published research shows that the Greeks did walk around in the buff in some situations. Men strode about free of their togas in the bedroom and at parties called symposia, where they would eat, drink and carouse. Sounds more fun than the modern day symposium. From now on I will call any dance at Solair a symposium, since we eat, drink, and carouse free of our togas. :)[/quote] But the Greek symposia were by and large male only, while I would assume there are women at the Solair dances.

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• BB

  

  Balazs B. J.

  Jan 21, 2024

  The Naked Olympics by Tony Perottet is good book on the subject.

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• EA

  

  EarlD

  Jan 27, 2024

  Read chapter six of Aileen Goodson's book Therapy, Nudity & Joy: The Therapeutic Use of Nudity Through the Ages from Ancient Ritual to Modern Psychology for some research on nudity in Ancient Greece

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• ST

  

  StevieLorna

  Jan 28, 2024

  [quote]Read chapter six of Aileen Goodson's book Therapy, Nudity & Joy: The Therapeutic Use of Nudity Through the Ages from Ancient Ritual to Modern Psychology for some research on nudity in Ancient Greece[/quote] Ah, you are making the same mistake I did. Not realising soon enough that some people stoped with literature after being read The Hungry Caterpillar.

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• EA

  

  EarlD

  Jan 29, 2024

  Still trying to give the benefit of the doubt on occasion though it gets increasingly difficult

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