A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics

Nonfiction, Sports, Olympics, History, Ancient History, Greece
Cover of the book A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics by Dr. Neil Faulkner, Yale University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Dr. Neil Faulkner ISBN: 9780300160291
Publisher: Yale University Press Publication: May 1, 2012
Imprint: Yale University Press Language: English
Author: Dr. Neil Faulkner
ISBN: 9780300160291
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication: May 1, 2012
Imprint: Yale University Press
Language: English

What was it like to attend the Olympics in 388 B.C.? Would the experience resemble Olympic festivals as we celebrate them today? This remarkable book transports us back to the heyday of the city-state and classical Greek civilization. It invites us to enter this distant, alien, but still familiar culture and discover what the Greeks did and didn't do during five thrilling days in August 2,400 years ago.

In the Olympic Stadium there were no stands, no shade—and no women allowed. Visitors sat on a grassy bank in the searing heat of midsummer to watch naked athletes compete in footraces, the pentathlon, horse and chariot races, and three combat sports—wrestling, boxing, and pankration, everyone's favorite competition, with virtually no rules and considerable blood and pain. This colorfully illustrated volume offers a complete tour of the Olympic site exactly as athletes and spectators found it. The book evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of the crowded encampment; introduces the various attendees (from champions and charlatans to aristocrats and prostitutes); and explains the numerous exotic religious rituals. Uniquely detailed and precise, this guide offers readers an unparalleled opportunity to travel in time, back to the excitement of ancient Olympia.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What was it like to attend the Olympics in 388 B.C.? Would the experience resemble Olympic festivals as we celebrate them today? This remarkable book transports us back to the heyday of the city-state and classical Greek civilization. It invites us to enter this distant, alien, but still familiar culture and discover what the Greeks did and didn't do during five thrilling days in August 2,400 years ago.

In the Olympic Stadium there were no stands, no shade—and no women allowed. Visitors sat on a grassy bank in the searing heat of midsummer to watch naked athletes compete in footraces, the pentathlon, horse and chariot races, and three combat sports—wrestling, boxing, and pankration, everyone's favorite competition, with virtually no rules and considerable blood and pain. This colorfully illustrated volume offers a complete tour of the Olympic site exactly as athletes and spectators found it. The book evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of the crowded encampment; introduces the various attendees (from champions and charlatans to aristocrats and prostitutes); and explains the numerous exotic religious rituals. Uniquely detailed and precise, this guide offers readers an unparalleled opportunity to travel in time, back to the excitement of ancient Olympia.

More books from Yale University Press

Cover of the book Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women's Human Rights by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book The Other God by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Indigenous London by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Religious Pluralism in America by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Power Without Responsibility by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Sleeping Beauty, a Legend in Progress by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book A Different Democracy by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Belief in God in an Age of Science by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Ivan the Terrible by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book The Recording Machine by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book Copycats and Contrarians by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book The Voices of Morebath by Dr. Neil Faulkner
Cover of the book The Master and His Emissary by Dr. Neil Faulkner
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy