[lit-ideas] Re: Gumnasia -- from Akanthos to Orsippos and Back
- From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:53:54 -0000
Having just spotted JL's closing remark, I felt fortunate, considering this is
a duplicate posting, and as such obligated, to start thrashing at the keyboard
in a belated attempt to live up to said Argentinian's riculously Olympian
posting protocols. Additionally, I was shocked that Andreas, current gatekeeper
of the Argentinian's posting habit, was so lax as to waste one post on a
duplicate.
I vote for one more JL post today.
All of which is no answer to JL's exhaustive response to my vole-like attempts
at whimisical smut. I am, naturally, self-ridiculed - if such a statement is
possible - and if it isn't, I stand to be corrected in a humiliating manner.
May my testicle cover fall off in public, but if possible I'd like to keep my
feet for a few years more.
Regards
Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 11:41 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Gumnasia -- from Akanthos to Orsippos and Back
Thanks to S. Ward for his comments.
Indeed, the document, pdf. and thus difficult to print or copy and paste, but
I'm giving it some energy for the real love and sake of scholarship, is
available at
http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1985/JSH1203/jsh1203b.pdf.
The relevant passage reads:
"Thucydides (1.5.6) wrote that the Spartans 'were the first to bare their
bodies and, after stripping openly, to anoint themselves with oil when they
engaged in athletic exercise'. Dionysios of Halicarnassos (7.72.3) believed
that 'the first man who undertook to strip and ran naked at Olympia, at the
fifteenth Olympiad, was Acanthus the Lacedaemonian'. (*) There is a rival
tradition told by Pausanias (1.44.1) about Orsippos of Megara, 'who won a
foot-race at Olympia running naked at a time when athletes used to wear
loincloths in the old style'. There is a Hellenistic epitaph about Orsippos
that was inscribed on the athlete's tomb in Megara saying that he was the first
of the Greeks in Olympia crowned naked and that before him all athletes girded
themselves during the games. It is evident that the Megarians were making a
counterclaim to Sparta's and wanted to show that a native of Megara was the
first naked victor. The story about Orsippos seems ambiguous and doubtful since
there are a number of different stories about his performance in the race.
According to the Homeric scholiasts (on Iliad 23.683)
Orsippos not only lost the race but he tripped,
fell, and died when his loincloth came adrift.
A different tale mentions Orsippos not as a winner in the race but as a loser
because he became entangled in his shorts (G 7. 52. J. Fortenrose the Hero as
Athlete, California Studies in Classical Antiquity 1 (1968): 93; F. Bohringer,
'Cults d'athletes en Grece Classique: propos politique, discours mythiques'.
Revue des Etudes Anciennes 81 (1979)14."
--- My phrasing "testicle coverer" should better read "testicle protecter"
(alla "The Visiters", that nice little novel). The Greek lexical item is
difficult to translate but that was the function, of the referent, I suppose,
to 'protect' rather than 'cover' for the sake of 'cover' the balls. The Greek
lexical units -- there were various -- mentioned the 'zoon', which I take to be
metonymic for 'spermatozoon', i.e. what's inside the balls.
I would think a functional argument can be provided in defense of the jock
strap -- Balls tend to balance a bit too much if you're doing the short run,
not so much the long. But then, if it's a rule, it must be abode.
I would think (in fact _know_) that the best areas to anoint are precisely
those that this 'thingy' was or is meant to 'protect', so I rather go
unprotected and balancing them rather than clumsily cover. Geary prefers the
gird.
Cheers,
JL Speranza
Gymnosophist, etc.
----
de tethaptai plêsion Orsippos, hos periezôsmenôn [ball-protecter. JLS] en
tois agôsi kata dê palaion ethos tôn athlêtôn Olumpia enika stadion dramôn
gumnos, phasi de kai stratêgounta husteron ton Orsippon apotemesthai chôran tôn
prosoikôn: dokô de hoi kai en Olumpiai to perizôma [ball-protecter. JLS]
hekonti perirruênai gnonti hôs andros periezôsmenou [ball-protecter. JLS]
dramein rhaiôn estin ephebe gumnos.
"When in Megara, do not miss the grave of Orsippos who won the footrace at
Olympia in 720 B. C. by running naked when all his competitors wore 'girdles'.
[Snippet as to how glorious he generalship was and how much land he gained from
stupid neighbours. JLS] My own opinion is that he intentionally let the girdle
slip off him, realizing that a naked ephebe can run more easily than one
'girt'.” 1.44.1.
The other versions are interesting in the sense that S. Ward perfectly
understood how interesting they are. The reporter reads:
According to the Homeric scholiasts (on Iliad 23.683)
"Orsippos not only lost the race [surely you cannot win a race if you die.
JLS]
but [1] he tripped,
[2] [he] fell [down] and
[3] died when his loincloth came adrift.
[3] I don't understand. How can you just _die_ because your ball-protecter
'comes' adrift? Either he had too big a pair of balls that he couldn't run
unless these things were 'tightened', or the 'ball-protecter' (or girdle, if
you must) was so big, that Orsippos became entangled in the jockstrap and hit
the dust forcefully and, say, went into coma.
The reporter's third version goes:
"A different tale mentions Orsippos not as a winner in the race but as a
loser [is this necessary? Surely to say he's not a winner _entails_ he is a
loser, even _pace_ E. Dean. JLS]
"because he became entangled in his shorts" (G 7. 52.)
Now, this doesn't seem serious. What shorts are we talking about. Surely not
"Nike". I hate this type of anachronism.
In any case, I do think that 'gymnasia' is best if naked.
The problem with the Romans is that they objected to it because they were too
practical and thought that the ephebes in the gym, wearing nothing, were
encouraging eroticism of a sort that the Romans found unpractical for their
bloody Empire. My sources here are in this book "Arete", but they are too Roman
and boring to quote right now. Also, it seems that nudity in ROMAN sports was
pretty generalised; otherwise we wouldn't have ONE Roman orator after the OTHER
criticising it! It's like you cannot _criticise_ lesbianism unless you see one
and then another and then another and then some.
I hope 'triple' is not ambiguously understood. Ditto for 'ball-protecter',
which is meant to mean 'protecter of two balls'. One example I discussed with
L. Horn to tears was the monothematic reference of univocity in the expression,
"My ball itches"
--- Does this _entail_ or merely *implicate* that the utterer has only _one_
ball?
Female gymnasts have nothing to protect, so there (but cf. Geary and his
'breast-trainer').
Cheers,
JL
-----
JL related how, "Orsippos actually found his testicle-cover falling, he
trippled, and died -- and thus lost his race."
Interestingly it was the 'actually' that got me thinking rather than the
quaint typo, 'trippling'. (Just to be sure I checked my 'Shorter OED' and am
satisfied that a typo is the appropriate explanation.)
The 'actually' suggests a moment of surprise, an occurance that either was so
rare that it was unheard of or else an eventuality that was strangely never
experience but happened in any case.
For instance, we might have: JL found that his testicle-cover had fallen. In
much the same way as most people, we might expect, the cover fell but wasn't
experienced. Thus we must assume that Orsippus did not tripple because he fell
over his testicle-cover, but did so because of the surprise in actually
experiencing the fall.
We must hope that in between the trippling and dying, Osippus had sufficient
time to fondly remember, and perhaps even relate to a third party, the
exquisite moment when his testicle cover fell for the first time.
Regards
Simon
--- Simon, you should better reply to this if only for the sake that my
reply goes onlist, knowing Andreas is _SO_ busy.
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