[lit-ideas] Re: Gumnasia -- from Akanthos to Orsippos and Back
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:03:24 EST
Now it's Julius Africanus who is also involved. And, if you ask me, I would
not object to _his_ wearing a loin-cloth.
Thank you for your post, Simon. As you see, the list-owner did say, "1:0.
You win", and I sent to the list my post like 3 times, to no avail. It's pretty
frustrating that one's scholarship be not be allowed to be shared with the
online community like that. Still, speranza salta eterna, as they say in the
Liguria.
I hope you are not thinking I'm anal-retentive as to the 'tripple' as I'm
not. I just happened to be curious as to your careful checking with the good
old
sod -- three of them, if we go by the 'tripple' editorship -- and wanted to
see what the OED had to say about it. You are right that it's nothing
convincing. It wouldn't be that 'tripple' got shortened into 'trip', but
rather that
there's this 'freq.' suffix --le, that does the trickle. Geary will probably
know that for any verb in the English language, there is a corresponding
freq. verb adding -le to it, even tripple, can become tripplele, etc. I
believe
freqs. were used in Roman rather freely, as in 'florescere', etc. 'flourish',
since a flower will flower every year provided it's perennial.
Anyway, I should be doing more research into the gymnasia but you fail to
comment on naturism -- is it good, is it bad? Surely the passion that some
scholars get into the discussion of nudity in athletics must have to do with
this. In my case, I confess, it has to do with some knowledge of the 'fine
arts',
were the category 'nude' is technically considered for some explorations
that no scholar would care to consider if the figure is wearing anything as
briefy as a jock-strap. Art students are the worst type.
Allow me to quote from the two references (in the index) to 'nudity' in my
hard-back book, "The olympic games in Ancient Greece":
p. 48. on Sparta:
"Their [Spartans'] physical training made them into good athletes, so that
they won the crown of victory from the very earliest Olympiads."
"The first Spartan Olympic victor known to us was Akanthos, who won the
_dolichos_ in the 15th Olympiad (720 B. C.) [mentioned by Dion. as being the
first who did athletics naked. JLS -- and hence opening the subject line of my
post]".
"... and of the 81 known Olympic victors between that date and 576 B. C., 46
were Spartans, while 21 of the 36 winners in the stadion came from Sparta."
"This could not have been due only to the athletes' physical build, but
certainly presupposed correct methods of training."
"In this light, special significance attaches to the statement of Thucydides
that the Spartans were the first to introduce two innovations in the games
and the training of the athletes, which constituted fundamental features of
Greek athletics:
"First, the complete nakedness of the athletes in the games." (1.5.6) The
Spartans 'were the first to bare their bodies and, after stripping openly, to
anoint themselves with oil when they engaged in athletic exercise'.
"Second, the habit of anointing the athletes' bodies with oil."
(Sources:
(a) Thuc. 1.5.6) "The Spartans 'were the first to bare their bodies and,
after stripping openly, to anoint themselves with oil when they engaged in
athletic exercise."'
(b) Dion. Halic. (7.72.3) 'The first ephebe who undertook to strip and ran
naked at Olympia, at the fifteenth Olympiad in 720 B. C. was Akanthos the
Lacedaemonian').
----
(p. 124)
"Rules of the Competition"
"Gymnic Competitions"
"The athletes taking part in ALL the competitions *had to be* naked. It is
not absolutely certain from what date this custom prevailed, or who imposed it
first, for the ancient sources are confused on the point. Pausanias (1.44.1)
makes reference to Orsippos of Megara who whon the "stadion" race [not the
_dolichos_ that Akanthos won] om the 15th Olympiad (720 B. C.)."
"Orsippos's loin-cloth fell during the race, but he continued to run and won
the contest."
"Pausanias himself voices the suspicion that the loin-cloth did not fall off
by accident, but that Orsippos let it fall deliberately in order to run
unimpeded."
Here I adjunct the text by Pausanias (1.44.1)
"de tethaptai plêsion Orsippos, hos periezôsmenôn en tois agôsi kata dê
palaion ethos tôn athlêtôn Olumpia enika stadion dramôn gumnos: dokô de hoi
kai
en Olumpiai to perizôma hekonti perirruênai gnonti hôs andros periezôsmenou
dramein rhaiôn estin ephebe gumnos."
"Orsippos who won the footrace at Olympia in 720 B. C. by running naked when
all his competitors wore girdles. 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."
----
"Julius Africanus states that the first man to run naked was the Spartan
Akanthos" [this reported by Dion.?]
"Thucydides, however, observes that *not many years* have elapsed since the
athletes at Oympia *ceased* to wear loin-cloths around their private parts.
The explanationmay be that it was only the _runners_ who abandoned the
loin-cloth from the 15th Olympiad, while the competitors in the other events
did so
at a later age."
"Later, in 388 BC. it was decreed that the _trainers_ [or as I prefer
coaches. JLS] also should enter the stadium naked during the games".
[Geary knows more about this regulation than I do]
"Philostratos believes that the Eleans compelled the trainers to go naked
because they wanted them to be well-made and strong, living examples to their
athletes, and strong enough _to endure and to be burnt_ -- that is, able to
withstand the great heat at Olympia"
---- I append the two alternative reports of Orsippos that make him a
'loser':
From Schol ad 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.
"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.)
References here being:
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."
I think Eric Yost overreacted to your post by quoting some insulting verse
by some American Catullian. There's only one Catullus, who wrote in Latin, and
no attempt in a 'modern' language can do justice to that. Why, if it were not
for the classics having to be classics and having to be read _regardless_ we
would have American academia having students reading only literature from
the Civil American War onwards and all in English translation and satires!
Cheers,
JL Speranza
"A Touch of Classic"
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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