Subject World Cultures I \"Ancient Greece and Athletics\" Please respond to the
ID: 3443696 • Letter: S
Question
Subject World Cultures I
"Ancient Greece and Athletics" Please respond to the following, using sources under the Explore heading as the basis of your response: Describe the ancient Greek competitive character, and compare the ancient Olympics (as a festival featuring athletics) to the Olympics today, identifying any major differences. Explain what the Olympic rules regarding females and evidence, such as the "running girl" artifact, reveal about female status and Greek athletics in particular Greek city-states. Explore Ancient Greek Athletics and Female Status Chapter 4 (p. 118), Olympics. Chapters 4 (pp. 113-114), women in Sparta; For Athens later, see pp. 137-8. British Museum’s Running Girl artifact at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/b/bronze_figure_of_a_girl.aspx Philadelphia’s Penn Museum on Women and Greek athletics at http://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicsexism.shtml
Explanation / Answer
i).The original Olympic Games are always held in one place only that is in Olympia, Greece.
Today’s modern Olympic Games is held anywhere in the world. In the original Olympic Game, each sporting competition is only open to Greek citizens and athletes from the Mediterranean countries. No other nationalities are able to join any competitions. But today’s modern Olympic Game, athletes and countries from all parts of the world are encouraged to join and complete.
In the ancient Olympic Game, only the men are allowed to compete. While in the modern Olympic Game, sport events for women athletes had now become a major part of the game. Female winners also receive the same honors as men do.
And lastly, a more recent development of the modern Olympic Game is some variations like the Winter games, Youth games, Paralympics games. These games were held in different occasions with different set of athletes competing in different sporting events. In the ancient Olympics Games however, these cold-weather sport competition have never developed in the warm climate like Greece.
ii) One of the main themes of sport in ancient Greece is that of separation of the genders. The genders were divided and the society emphasized different traits in both males and females. A great statesman of Greece wrote on the female gender saying that "Fame will be great...for the woman whose reputation for excellence or blame is least known among males." Instead of encouraging females to participate and attend athletic events, women were extremely discouraged to participate in sports and extreme laws were in effect to stop women from attending the Olympics. Adult women (those who were married) were prohibited from attending the Olympics by the laws of Ellis (the city that hosted the games). If a female participant was caught in the Olympic stadium, the city of Ellis stated that they were to be thrown into the river from Mount Typaion.
One artifact that stands out to me is the bronze statue of a running girl which is on display at The British Museum. The bronze statue suggests there was a sport that women were allowed to compete in, a foot race.
iii) Not every woman was barred from the Olympics though, as maidens and prostitutes were allowed to attend (in order to facilitate these women in finding a male as a husband or a lover). There was also a big exception to the priestess of Demeter. Even though the priestess may have been married, she was allowed to attend the event at a place of honor (it seems to be both because of her position as priestess and due to the location of her temple which was at the center of the stadium seating).
No women were allowed to participate in the sporting events of the Olympics. To ensure that a male was competing, athletes would be nude when they participated in the games. There was one really big exception to this rule which allowed one woman to not only participate in the games but win twice.
When women practiced sport and did athletic activity, they were subject to different rules and procedures than that of the men. One of the more noticeable differences would have been the required clothing. Men were allowed to, encouraged, and even bound to (if they were competing at the Olympics) do athletic activities in the nude. Women were required to wear chitons during such activities. Pausanias describes female athletic appearances in that “their hair hangs down, a tunic reaches to a little above the knee, and they bare the right shoulder as far as the breast.”This difference of clothing seems to stem from societal appreciations of male beauty over female beauty of the time. In fact, to suggest that females were to do athletic events in the same fashion as males (nude) would seem absurd to the people of Ancient Greece.
As metioned in the question to give sources, it was partially taken from :
http://faculty.elmira.edu/dmaluso/sports/greece/greecewomen.html
http://sportscorner.expertscolumn.com/major-difference-between-old-and-modern-olympic-games