Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece

Copyrighted Material Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece Ancient Greece was the model that guided the emergence of many facets of the modern sports movement, including most notably the Olympics. Yet the process whereby aspects of the ancient world were appropriated and manipulated by sport authorities of nation-states, athletic organizations and their leaders as well as by sports enthusiasts is only very partially understood. This volume takes modern Greece as a case-study and explores, in depth, issues related to the reception and use of classical antiquity in modern sport, spectacle and bodily culture. For citizens of the Greek nation-state, classical antiquity is not merely a vague "legacy" but the cornerstone of their national identity. In the field of sport and bodily culture, since the 1830s there had been persistent attempts to establish firm and direct links between ancient Greek athletics and modern sport through the incorporation of sport in school curricula, the emergence of national sport historiographies as well as the initiatives to revive (in the 19th century) or appropriate (in the 20th) the modern Olympics. Based on fieldwork and unpublished material sources, this book dissects the use and abuse of classical antiquity and sport in constructing national, gender and class identities, and illuminate aspects of the complex modern perceptions of classicism, sport and the body. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport. Eleni Fournaraki is Assistant Professor in Modern Social History at the University of Crete. Her research interests focus on normative discourses on gender difference in 19 th century Greece, especially within the field of education. She has edited an anthology of sources on gender and education, Girls’ Education and Training: Greek Discourses (1830-1910): An Anthology (Historical Archives of Greek Youth – General Secretariat of Youth: Athens 1987) and published many scholarly articles on the history of physical education and sport in 19th century Greece, the history of women’s periodicals, gender history and citizenship. Zinon Papakonstantinou is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Athens. He has authored Lawmaking and Adjudication in Archaic Greece (Duckworth: London 2008) and edited Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World: New Perspectives (Routledge: London 2010). He has also published numerous scholarly articles on ancient Greek law, sport, commensality and alcoholic drinking. Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece Edited by Eleni Fournaraki and Zinon Papakonstantinou Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material First published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2011 Taylor & Francis This book is a reproduction of the International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 27, issue 12. The Publisher requests to those authors who may be citing this book to state, also, the bibliographical details of the special issue on which the book was based. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN13: 978-0-415-66753-1 Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books Disclaimer The publisher would like to make readers aware that the chapters in this book are referred to as articles as they had been in the special issue. The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen in the course of preparing this volume for print. Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Contents Series Editors’ Foreword Historical Perspectives series pages Sport in the Global Society series pages 1. Prologue: Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece Zinon Papakonstantinou 2. From Antiquity to Olympic Revival: Sports and Greek National Historiography (Nineteenth – Twentieth Centuries) Christina Koulouri vii ix xi 1 10 3. Bodies that Differ: Mid- and Upper-Class Women and the Quest for ‘Greekness’ in Female Bodily Culture (1896–1940) Eleni Fournaraki 49 4. ‘Resurrecting’ Ancient Bodies: The Tragic Chorus in Prometheus Bound and Suppliant Women at the Delphic Festivals in 1927 and 1930 Antonis Glytzouris 86 5. Rallying the Nation: Sport and Spectacle Serving the Greek Dictatorships Gonda Van Steen 117 6. Fanning the Flame: Transformations of the 2004 Olympic Flame Eleana Yalouri 151 7. Epilogue: New Directions in Classical Reception, Sport and the Body in Modern Greece Zinon Papakonstantinou 180 Index Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 183 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD On January 1, 2010 Sport in the Global Society, created by Professor J.A. Mangan in 1997, was divided into two parts: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Perspectives. These new categories involve predominant rather than exclusive emphases. The past is part of the present and the present is part of the past. The Editors of Historical Perspectives are Mark Dyreson and Thierry Terret. The reasons for the division are straightforward. SGS has expanded rapidly since its creation with over one hundred publications in some twelve years. Its editorial teams will now benefit from sectional specialist interests and expertise. Historical Perspectives draws on IJHS monograph reviews, themed collections and conference/ workshop collections. It is, of course, international in content. Historical Perspectives continues the tradition established by the original incarnation of Sport in the Global Society by promoting the academic study of one of the most significant and dynamic forces in shaping the historical landscapes of human cultures. Sport spans the contemporary globe. It captivates vast audiences. It defines, alters, and reinforces identities for individuals, communities, nations, empires, and the world. Sport organizes memories and perceptions, arouses passions and tensions, and reveals harmonies and cleavages. It builds and blurs social boundaries, animating discourses about class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Sport opens new vistas on the history of human cultures, intersecting with politics and economics, ideologies and theologies. It reveals aesthetic tastes and energizes consumer markets. By the end of the twentieth century a critical mass of scholars recognized the importance of sport in their analyses of human experiences and Sport in the Global Society emerged to provide an international outlet for the world’s leading investigators of the subject. As Professor Mangan contended in the original series foreword: “The story of modern sport is the story of the modern world—in microcosm; a modern global tapestry permanently being woven. Furthermore, nationalist and imperialist, philosopher and politician, radical and conservative have all sought in sport a manifestation of national identity, status and superiority. Finally for countless millions sport is the personal pursuit of ambition, assertion, well-being and enjoyment.” Sport in the Global Society: Historical Perspectives continues the project, building on previous work in the serious and excavating new terrain. It remains a consistent and coherent response to the attention the academic community demands for the serious study of sport. Mark Dyreson Thierry Terret vii Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY Series Editors: Mark Dyreson and Thierry Terret SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Sport in the Global Society: Historical Perspectives Series Editors: Mark Dyreson and Thierry Terret Titles in the Series Encoding the Olympics The Beijing Olympic Games and the Communication Impact Worldwide Edited by Luo Qing and Giuseppe Richeri The Balkan Games and Balkan Politics in the Interwar Years 1929-1939 Politicians in Pursuit of Peace Penelope Kissoudi Gymnastics, a Transatlantic Movement From Europe to America Edited by Gertrud Pfister Sport Past and Present in South Africa (Trans)forming the Nation Edited by Scarlet Cornelissen and Albert Grundlingh Militarism, Hunting, Imperialism ‘Blooding’ The Martial Male J.A. Mangan and Callum McKenzie The Beijing Olympics: Promoting China Soft and Hard Power in Global Politics Edited by Kevin Caffrey Post-Beijing 2008 Geopolitics, Sport, Pacific Rim Edited by J.A. Mangan and Fan Hong The History of Motor Sport A Case Study Analysis Edited by David Hassan Representing the Nation Sport and Spectacle in Post-Revolutionary Mexico Claire and Keith Brewster The Politics of the Male Body in Sport The Danish Involvement Hans Bonde The Rise of Stadiums in the Modern United States Cathedrals of Sport Edited by Mark Dyreson and Robert Trumpbour Rule Britannia: Nationalism, Identity and the Modern Olympic Games Matthew Llewellyn Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece Edited by Eleni Fournaraki and Zinon Papakonstantinou The Visual in Sport Edited by Mike Huggins and Mike O’Mahony Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World New Perspectives Edited by Zinon Papakonstantinou Women, Sport, Society Further Reflections, Reaffirming Mary Wollstonecraft Edited by Roberta Park and Patricia Vertinsky Sport in the Pacific Colonial and Postcolonial Consequencies Edited by C. Richard King x Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Sport in the Global Society Past SGS publications prior to 2010 Africa, Football and FIFA Politics, Colonialism and Resistance Paul Darby Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School The Emergence and Consolidation of an Educational Ideology, New Edition J.A. Mangan Amateurism in British Sport ‘It Matters Not Who Won or Lost’ Edited by Dilwyn Porter and Stephen Wagg Australian Beach Cultures The History of Sun, Sand and Surf Douglas Booth Amateurism in Sport An Analysis and Defence Lincoln Allison Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players A Sociological Study of the Development of Rugby Football, Second Edition Eric Dunning and Kenneth Sheard America's Game(s) A Critical Anthropology of Sport Edited by Benjamin Eastman, Sean Brown and Michael Ralph Beijing 2008: Preparing for Glory Chinese Challenge in the ‘Chinese Century’ Edited by J.A. Mangan and Dong Jinxia American Sports An Evolutionary Approach Edited by Alan Klein Body and Mind Sport in Europe from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance John McClelland A Social History of Indian Football Striving to Score Kausik Bandyopadhya and Boria Majumdar British Football and Social Exclusion Edited by Stephen Wagg A Social History of Swimming in England, 1800–1918 Splashing in the Serpentine Christopher Love Capoeira The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art Matthias Röhrig Assunção A Sport-Loving Society Victorian and Edwardian Middle-Class England at Play Edited by J.A. Mangan Crafting Patriotism for Global Dominance America at the Olympics Mark Dyreson xi Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY SERIES PAGES Cricket and England A Cultural and Social History of Cricket in England between the Wars Jack Williams Europe, Sport, World Shaping Global Societies Edited by J.A. Mangan Flat Racing and British Society, 1790– 1914 A Social and Economic History Mike Huggins Cricket in Colonial India, 1780–1947 Boria Majumdar Cricketing Cultures in Conflict Cricketing World Cup 2003 Edited by Boria Majumdar and J.A. Mangan Football and Community in the Global Context Studies in Theory and Practice Edited by Adam Brown, Tim Crabbe and Gavin Mellor Cricket, Race and the 2007 World Cup Edited by Boria Majumdar and Jon Gemmell Football: From England to the World Edited by Dolores P. Martinez and Projit B. Mukharji Disciplining Bodies in the Gymnasium Memory, Monument, Modernity Sherry McKay and Patricia Vertinsky Football, Europe and the Press Liz Crolley and David Hand Disreputable Pleasures Less Virtuous Victorians at Play Edited by Mike Huggins and J.A. Mangan Football Fans Around the World From Supporters to Fanatics Edited by Sean Brown Doping in Sport Global Ethical Issues Edited by Angela Schneider and Fan Hong Football: The First Hundred Years The Untold Story Adrian Harvey Emigrant Players Sport and the Irish Diaspora Edited by Paul Darby and David Hassan Footbinding, Feminism and Freedom The Liberation of Women’s Bodies in Modern China Fan Hong Ethnicity, Sport, Identity Struggles for Status Edited by J.A. Mangan and Andrew Ritchie France and the 1998 World Cup The National Impact of a World Sporting Event Edited by Hugh Dauncey and Geoff Hare European Heroes Myth, Identity, Sport Edited by Richard Holt, J.A. Mangan and Pierre Lanfranchi Freeing the Female Body Inspirational Icons Edited by J.A. Mangan and Fan Hong xii Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY SERIES PAGES Fringe Nations in Soccer Making it Happen Edited by Kausik Bandyopadhyay and Sabyasachi Malick Making European Masculinities Sport, Europe, Gender Edited by J.A. Mangan Making Men Rugby and Masculine Identity Edited by John Nauright and Timothy J. L. Chandler From Fair Sex to Feminism Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras Edited by J.A. Mangan and Roberta J. Park Making the Rugby World Race, Gender, Commerce Edited by Timothy J.L. Chandler and John Nauright Gender, Sport, Science Selected Writings of Roberta J. Park Edited by J.A. Mangan and Patricia Vertinsky Militarism, Hunting, Imperialism ‘Blooding’ The Martial Male J.A. Mangan and Callum McKenzie Globalised Football Nations and Migration, the City and the Dream Edited by Nina Clara Tiesler and João Nuno Coelho Militarism, Sport, Europe War Without Weapons Edited by J.A. Mangan Italian Fascism and the Female Body Sport, Submissive Women and Strong Mothers Gigliola Gori Modern Sport: The Global Obsession Essays in Honour of J.A.Mangan Edited by Boria Majumdar and Fan Hong Japan, Sport and Society Tradition and Change in a Globalizing World Edited by Joseph Maguire and Masayoshi Nakayama Muscular Christianity and the Colonial and Post-Colonial World Edited by John J. MacAloon Native Americans and Sport in North America Other Peoples’ Games Edited by C. Richard King Law and Sport in Contemporary Society Edited by Steven Greenfield and Guy Osborn Leisure and Recreation in a Victorian Mining Community The Social Economy of Leisure in North-East England, 1820–1914 Alan Metcalfe Olympic Legacies – Intended and Unintended Political, Cultural, Economic and Educational Edited by J.A. Mangan and Mark Dyreson Lost Histories of Indian Cricket Battles off the Pitch Boria Majumdar Playing on the Periphery Sport, Identity and Memory Tara Brabazon xiii Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY SERIES PAGES Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism British Culture and Sport at Home and Abroad 1700–1914 Edited by J.A. Mangan Soccer in South Asia Empire, Nation, Diaspora Edited by Paul Dimeo and James Mills Rain Stops Play Cricketing Climates Andrew Hignell Soccer’s Missing Men Schoolteachers and the Spread of Association Football J.A. Mangan and Colm Hickey Reformers, Sport, Modernizers Middle-Class Revolutionaries Edited by J.A. Mangan Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation Kicking off a New Era Edited by Fan Hong and J.A. Mangan Rugby’s Great Split Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football Tony Collins Sport: Race, Ethnicity and Indigenity Building Global Understanding Edited by Daryl Adair Running Cultures Racing in Time and Space John Bale Sport and American Society Exceptionalism, Insularity, ‘Imperialism’ Edited by Mark Dyreson and J.A. Mangan Scoring for Britain International Football and International Politics, 1900–1939 Peter J. Beck Sport and Foreign Policy in a Globalizing World Edited by Steven J. Jackson and Stephen Haigh Serious Sport J.A. Mangan’s Contribution to the History of Sport Edited by Scott Crawford Sport and International Relations An Emerging Relationship Edited by Roger Levermore and Adrian Budd Shaping the Superman Fascist Body as Political Icon – Aryan Fascism Edited by J.A. Mangan Sport and Memory in North America Edited by Steven Wieting Sport, Civil Liberties and Human Rights Edited by Richard Giulianotti and David McArdle Sites of Sport Space, Place and Experience Edited by John Bale and Patricia Vertinksy Sport, Culture and History Region, Nation and Globe Brian Stoddart Soccer and Disaster International Perspectives Edited by Paul Darby, Martin Jones and Gavin Mellor Sport in Asian Society Past and Present Edited by Fan Hong and J.A. Mangan xiv Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY SERIES PAGES Sport in Australasian Society Past and Present Edited by J.A. Mangan and John Nauright Sporting Nationalisms Identity, Ethnicity, Immigration and Assimilation Edited by Mike Cronin and David Mayall Sport in Europe Politics, Class, Gender Edited by J.A. Mangan Superman Supreme Fascist Body as Political Icon – Global Fascism Edited by J.A. Mangan Sport in Films Edited by Emma Poulton and Martin Roderick Terrace Heroes The Life and Times of the 1930s Professional Footballer Graham Kelly Sport in Latin American Society Past and Present Edited by Lamartine DaCosta and J.A. Mangan The Balkan Games and Balkan Politics in the Interwar Years 1929-1939 Politicians in Pursuit of Peace Penelope Kissoudi Sport in South Asian Society Past and Present Edited by Boria Majumdar and J.A. Mangan Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World New Perspectives Edited by Zinon Papakonstantinou The Changing Face of the Football Business Supporters Direct Edited by Sean Hamil, Jonathan Michie, Christine Oughton and Steven Warby Sport, Media, Culture Global and Local Dimensions Edited by Alina Bernstein and Neil Blain The Commercialisation of Sport Edited by Trevor Slack The Cultural Bond Sport, Empire, Society Edited by J.A. Mangan Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism The Asian Games Edited by Fan Hong Sport Tourism Edited by Heather J. Gibson The First Black Footballer Arthur Wharton 1865–1930: An Absence of Memory Phil Vasili Sporting Cultures Hispanic Perspectives on Sport, Text and the Body Edited by David Wood and P. Louise Johnson The Football Manager A History Neil Carter The Future of Football Challenges for the Twenty-First Century Edited by Jon Garland, Dominic Malcolm and Mike Rowe xv Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY SERIES PAGES The Games Ethic and Imperialism Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal J.A. Mangan The Politics of South African Cricket Jon Gemmell The Race Game Sport and Politics in South Africa Douglas Booth The Global Politics of Sport The Role of Global Institutions in Sport Edited by Lincoln Allison The Rise of Stadiums in the Modern United States Cathedrals of Sport Edited by Mark Dyreson and Robert Trumpbour The Lady Footballers Struggling to Play in Victorian Britain James F. Lee The Magic of Indian Cricket Cricket and Society in India, Revised Edition Mihir Bose The Tour De France, 1903–2003 A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values Edited by Hugh Dauncey and Geoff Hare The Making of New Zealand Cricket 1832–1914 Greg Ryan This Great Symbol Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins of the Modern Olympic Games John J. MacAloon The 1940 Tokyo Games: The Missing Olympics Japan, the Asian Olympics and the Olympic Movement Sandra Collins Tribal Identities Nationalism, Europe, Sport Edited by J.A. Mangan The Nordic World: Sport in Society Edited by Henrik Meinander and J.A. Mangan Women, Sport and Society in Modern China Holding up More than Half the Sky Dong Jinxia xvi Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Prologue: Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece Zinon Papakonstantinou It is no secret that the modern Olympics have become a major crowd pleaser. Assisted by ever growing technological capabilities, the popularity of the Olympic Games is perhaps rivalled only by the FIFA World Cup. In recent years the Olympics also mark the occasion for a spate of conferences, publications and exhibitions which capitalize on scholarly and popular interest on ancient Greek sport. This trend reached its climax in 2004, the year when the summer Olympics were held in Athens. At the same time, it is estimated that courses on ancient Greek sport taught in universities around the world are now more numerous and popular than ever. Even though the increasing interest on ancient Greek sport is a welcome development for devotees of the subject, and constitutes a corrective to the almost comprehensive scholarly indifference for the subject until the 1980s, it has always appeared incongruous in the eyes of historians of modern Greece. That is not only because Greece, since gaining independence as a nation-state in 1832, has had an interesting albeit chequered relationship with sport and other expressions of bodily culture. It is also because modern Greek sport was to a great extent defined with reference to its perceived ancient predecessor, an aspect of classical reception that has been largely neglected both by classicists and historians of modern sport. The volume at hand aims at partially filling this gap by addressing issues related to sport and bodily culture in modern Greece. Our definitions of ‘sport’ and ‘bodily culture’ are wide and include not only sport in the form of physical exercise and competition, but also sports historiography, the symbolism of athletic events and even dances and popular festivals that articulated references to Greek antiquity and national identity. This having been said, the purpose of the present volume is not to provide a comprehensive history of sport in modern Greece. Instead, it aims at examining in depth aspects of the history of athletic and other bodily activities, as well as their ideological exploitation, during the period in question. Besides the physical aspect, the element that connects all the different manifestations of bodily culture examined in this volume is their direct and explicit 1 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE association with classical antiquity. It is no exaggeration to argue that at least since the emergence of the modern Greek nation-state, and in many cases even before that, Greeks, as a self-defined group or as an identity imposed from above, have lived in the shadow of their ancient ‘predecessors’. This attitude can be traced back to the middle ages when, after the dominance of Christianity over ancient paganism was solidified, the study of classical antiquity became a scholarly field of study largely independent from the passions and conflicts of religious doctrines. [1] The trend to idealize and idolize ancient Greece surfaces very distinctively also in the works of Western scholars and travellers who, starting primarily in the Renaissance and continuing throughout the Ottoman period, visited Greece in great numbers out of antiquarian interests or with the purpose of collecting antiquities. To these itinerant scholars and/or looters of antiquities, modern Greeks appeared servile, uneducated, ugly, in short a debased version of their glorious ‘ancestors’ who the northern Europeans so much admired and studied. [2] Similar attitudes, albeit usually without the rampant racist and patronizing overtones, were current in the works of Greek scholars working in the context of the Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment. Furthermore, during the same period the rapid and prolific development in Western Europe of the scholarly field of classical studies, with its emphasis on the ancient Greek ‘legacy’, intensified even further the contrast between the glorious ancient versus the uncouth modern Greeks. Hence, in the eyes of the world Greeks of the early modern and modern eras have constantly struggled, and almost always failed, to fill in the shoes of their famous classical ‘ancestors’. Given this background, it was almost inexorable that perceptions of Greekness that emerged in the early nineteenth century in connection with the Greek war of independence and the establishment of the Greek nation-state were heavily indebted to the firmly established, romanticized views of Greek antiquity. Thus, the classical world became a model and a point of reference for the embryonic Greek state which strived to revive the ‘glory that was Greece’ in the context of the modern world. Soon after independence, the missing link of historical continuity between ancient, Byzantine and modern Greece (with antiquity retaining the symbolic primacy) was firmly established by nationalist scholarly historiography and was duly adopted as the mainstream national historical discourse. [3] As such, it was disseminated through schools, the military and other state-sponsored institutions and provided the framework within which the overwhelming majority of Greeks perceived their place in history. Hence starting in the nineteenth century, Hellenicity and national historical continuity constituted the cornerstones of Greek identity. Nationalist discourses on antiquity and national identity were articulated with reference to what was considered as unequivocally ‘Greek’. Antiquarianism as state ideology was manifested in a myriad of ways, even before the establishment of the ideological construct of ‘national continuity’. For instance, soon after independence, state-sponsored efforts were underway to transform ancient ruins into archaeological sites of national memory. [4] Regarding sport and the performative arts (e.g. theatre), the ancient Greek ‘precedents’ were so 2 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE strong that they became fixed points of reference for the development and legitimization of these activities. Revivals of ancient comedies and tragedies were staged [5] while in the field of sport already during the 1830s there were calls for the revival of the Olympic Games. [6] In a nutshell, since the early days of political emancipation manifestations of sport and bodily culture were in Greece closely connected with notions of Hellenicity, national identity and a pervasive antiquarianism. In the context of the historical background outlined above, the papers contained in the present volume engage with a number of prominent themes in the history of Greek sport and bodily culture, while at the same time suggesting novel research topics and approaches. It is usually the case that nation-building, in the sense of the creation of the idea of the nation as a collective imaginary, precedes the creation of a nation-state. Nationalist historiography, scholarly and popular, plays a pivotal role in this process. Historically, Greece was no exception: soon after Greece became an independent nation-state, historians were hard at work in order to refine the precepts of Greek national identity. In this context the ideology of the historical continuity of the Greek nation, now considered a cornerstone for Greek identity, emerged. Sport was a constitutive element in the process of nation-building in nineteenth century Greece. As we have already pointed out, much before the emergence of the IOC Olympic movement, Greeks were very aware of the athletic ‘legacies’ of the ancient Greeks, including the Olympics. It was therefore inevitable that sport and physical education found their way into the nationalist historical discourses, both in general histories of the Greek nation as well as in the form of national histories of sport and physical education. Koulouri’s paper examines in detail the shifting role of sport in Greek national historiography until the 1970s. In the works of C. Paparrhigopoulos and S. Lambros, both prominent academic historians of the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries, sport was depicted as a catalyst for cultural unification among the politically divided ancient Greek city-states. Even though the above-mentioned historians were ardent supporters of the paradigm of national historical continuity, they merely glossed over sport and physical exercise in Byzantine and modern periods. In their works, as well as in the works of other historians of the same period, the history of Greek sport was almost synonymous with the history of ancient Greek sport, and especially the ancient Olympics. It was in this ideological climate that the various attempts (e.g. Zappas) to revive the Olympics in nineteenth century Greece occurred, attempts that emphasized primarily the contribution of eventual Olympic revivals to the concomitant ‘renaissance’ of the recently emancipated Greek nation. Eventually, the Byzantine, Ottoman and early modern periods were incorporated into the mainstream national historical narrative, a fact that had implications also for the history of sport. Even though sport in Byzantium, due to the predominantly Christian character of the latter, was viewed with ambivalence by some quarters, the Ottoman period Greek bandits and the fighters of the war of independence were 3 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE almost unanimously presented as embodiments of the ancient Greek athletic spirit which contributed, it was argued, to the military success of the war. Koulouri also points out that the development of independent tertiary education institutions of physical education led to a separate branch of sports historiography that covered, in addition to competitive sport, the history of physical exercise. Once established by academic historiography, by the late nineteenth century the tenets of historical continuity were quickly adopted and overwhelmingly permeated journalism, literature and state ideology. Fournaraki’s paper examines the articulation of the notions of Hellenicity and historical continuity in connection with female sport and bodily culture, as expressed in the middle- and upper-class Ladies’ Journal. Advocating a feminism of ‘equality through difference’ the Ladies’ Journal provided on the occasion of the 1896 Athens Olympics and the 1906 Athens Intermediate Olympics a commentary on the state of Greek women’s physical education and participation in sport. The same journal also promoted particular constructions of femininity that were perceived as in keeping with ancient Greek traditions and values, thus inventing a Greek female athletic tradition and at the same time re-affirming the historical continuity of the nation. Many women active in the Ladies’ Journal were also involved in the establishment of the Lyceum of Greek Women in 1911. This group was extensively involved in staging large-scale spectacular reconstructions of facets of Greek antiquity in the form of parades and dances. The female body was on these occasions the conduit whereby perceptions of Greekness were re-enacted. By the early twentieth century, ‘traditions’ of the nation were thus articulated in feminist literature and performed in front of a mass audience. The so-called Delphic festivals constitute another prominent instance of spectacular display of Hellenic historical continuity during the inter-war period. These festivals were conducted at the archaeological site of Delphi, a famous ancient interstate oracle sanctuary, in 1927 and 1930 at the initiative of the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos and his American-born wife Eva Palmer-Sikelianos. The organizers’ social and cultural standing, combined with their persistent efforts to promote their so-called ‘Delphic Idea’, guaranteed that the events conducted in Delphi received wide publicity at the time. Fuelled partly by romantic ideas of the survival of the true ancient Greek ‘spirit’ among the contemporary inhabitants of the Greek countryside, as well as by the notion of the intrinsic superiority of the Greek race, the Sikelianos’ couple and their associates put up a motley display of athletic contests, scholarly lectures and theatrical performances. Even though the endeavour was short-lived (it was not repeated after 1930), it is important, among others, in that it is representative of bourgeois attitudes towards classical antiquity and its reception in the first half of the twentieth century. Glytzouris’ paper examines how the staging of the chorus in the performances of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound and Suppliant Women tragedies during the 1927 and 1930 Delphic festivals articulated perceptions of ancient Greek revival and national historical continuity. He documents how, in an instance of obsequious adherence to 4 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE representations in late archaic and early classical (late sixth – early fifth-centuries BC) black and red-figure vases, ancient visual evidence provided the basis for the extremely complicated and cumbersome choreography. Despite the numerous practical difficulties involved and the dubious results, it was believed by the organizers and many spectators that the performances in question re-enacted ancient Greek theatre in its true, original form. The same notion permeated the conduct of other physical events of the Delphic festivals, including the athletic contests (which were presented by the organizers as a ‘response’ to the increasingly misguided, as they perceived it, modern sports movement) and the performance of the ‘pyrrhic’ dance, an ancient Greek dance which was re-enacted for the occasion. Glytzouris acknowledges the debt that large-scale events like the Delphic festivals owed to the early twentieth century extravagant performances of the Lyceum of Greek Women in the Panathenaic stadium in Athens. It can be argued that the Lyceum’s festivals created a blueprint of spectacular representation of Greek historical continuity that was welcomed, adopted and exploited by Greek authorities in the twentieth century. This was especially the case for nationalist spectacles conducted under the auspices of the totalitarian regimes of Metaxas and the 1967– 1974 military junta (also known as the ‘colonels’ dictatorship). Van Steen’s paper constitutes the first scholarly attempt to interpret the spectacles conducted in the Panathenaic stadium in Athens during the colonels’ dictatorship. While borrowing extensively from the themes of Hellenic nationalism established by the Lyceum and the Metaxas period spectacles, the military leaders were keen to portray a more ‘militarized’ version of Greek bodily culture and historical past. Recreated mostly through a series of re-enactments of famous historical battles, which terminated with the ‘victory’ of the dictators themselves over their largely imaginary communist foes, the main historical agent that emerges from these series of spectacles is the Greek virile and valorous male, that is, the prototype of patriotic soldier. In this way, masculinity and physical exertion are made to conform to the ideals that the regime leaders espoused and promoted. The collapse of the junta and the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1974 ushered a period of relative political and social stability as well as a multifaceted growth of the field of sport. With particular reference to the issues examined in this volume, during the period in question nationalist fervour as well as references to the ancient Greek athletic ‘pedigree’ accompanied sport on every suitable occasion, for example, the successes of Greek clubs or individual athletes in international competitions. Yet this recent version of Greek athletic antiquarianism was more emphatically stressed on the occasion of the engagement of Greece, first as a candidate and then as a host, of the Olympic Games. Little noted at the time, Konstantinos Karamanlis’ [7] 1976 proposal to hold the modern Olympics permanently in Olympia became in the late 1980s and 1990s the banner of Greek efforts to ‘repatriate’ the IOC summer Olympics. Following an abortive bid for the 1996 summer games, in 1997 the IOC awarded the 2004 summer games to Athens. The 2004 summer Olympics were without a doubt a pivotal moment in Greece’s 5 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE modern sport history. Several aspects of these games, including the staging of events in or around portentous archaeological sites (Olympia, Marathon) as well as the rhetoric of the return of the games to their ‘birthplace’, quite vividly highlighted the persistent link between Greek antiquity and modern Greek sport. [8] What was particular about the 2004 summer games was that the Hellenic continuity discourse, whose prominence is usually confined to the Greek nation-state, was for the first time projected on a global stage. This was because the 2004 Olympics were perceived by the Greek organizers as an opportunity to propagate to a massive audience what has been accepted in Greece as an unquestionable historical orthodoxy. Within this context, the torch-relay of the Olympic flame took pride of place. Invented in connection with the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the lighting of the flame ceremony in Olympia and the subsequent torch-relay have been perceived by the Greek public as proof of the ancient origins of the modern games as well as tokens of the symbolic debt that the world owes to Greece as the inventor of Olympism. Until 2004, the ceremony and torch-relay had received limited publicity outside Greece and the country hosting the games. The torch-relay itself was conducted partially in Greece and partially in the host country. But for the Athens 2004 games, the organizing committee upped the stakes considerably by initiating a worldwide torchrelay that was to pass through all the countries that have ever hosted modern Olympics as well as other places of interest. Hence in a single stroke, the audience and global interest on the torch-relay and its ancient Greek symbolism was massively enlarged. In her paper, E. Yalouri dissects aspects of the meanings and perceptions generated in Greece by the Olympic flame and the torch-relay of the 2004 summer Games. As she points out, by tracing [the flame’s] mobility, and by following the variable meanings attributed to it at different times and places, the flame can guide us in the exploration of aspects of the social relationships and the negotiations of power in which it is involved or plays a leading part. (p. 2156) Appropriating aspects of the Hellenic historical continuity discourse, the flame lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia and the worldwide torch-relay were persistently portrayed as integral parts of the proclaimed ‘homecoming’ of the Games to Greece, a claim that emphasized and legitimized in the eyes of its advocates the link between ancient and modern Games as well as their indisputable ‘Greekness’. This perception clearly emerges from Yalouri’s analysis of the coverage of the 2004 Athens Games in the Greek media as well as from the results of her fieldwork research in Greece before and during the games. Nonetheless, the use of Greek past as symbolic capital in the process of legitimizing the hosting of the 2004 summer Games was far from unanimous. In Greece, various dissonant voices expressed their concerns regarding continuously increasing costs and other logistical issues. Moreover, some quarters opposed the idea of hosting the 6 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE 2004 Games on the grounds of their extreme commodification which, the same quarters argued, was against the ancient ‘spirit’ of the games. Such views are closely connected to the perception of classical antiquity as ‘inalienable wealth’ that needs to remain untainted from commercialism and feed a recurring Greek debate over the ‘debased’ nature of the modern Olympics that many Greeks, as self-perceived creators of Olympism, feel entitled to conduct. This was especially the case in 2004, the year that, in addition to the summer Olympics in Athens, the Greek soccer national team unexpectedly won the European nations cup, thus spurring countrywide jubilation and uninhibited invocations of Greek (ancient and modern) athletic valour and superiority. Thus, we have come full circle since the timid but prophetic early nineteenth century attempts to revive the ancient Olympics and thus resurrect the ‘nation’. For almost two centuries, the integration of ancient Greek symbolism in national ideology, including in the field of sport, has partly compensated for the modern Greek deficiencies in the fields of politics, economy and technology. There is nothing in sight to suggest that the situation will change soon. In the midst of an unprecedented fiscal crisis, Greeks celebrated on 19 April 2010 the annual ‘Phillelenism’ day. On this occasion, in the peroration of his speech presented in the parliament, the majority spokesman stressed that ‘the debt of the civilized world to the land of science, freedom, democracy and the arts, is a debt that can never be repaid’. [9] The allusions to ancient Greece are unmistakable. Antiquity in the service of nationalism is here to stay. [10] Acknowledgements The editors of this volume wish to express their sincere thanks to Professor Mangan for giving them the opportunity to publish this collection of essays as well as for his constant guidance and encouragement. They also extend sincere thanks to all the contributors for their hard work and professionalism. Notes [1] See Kaldellis, Hellenism in Byzantium.; idem, The Christian Parthenon. [2] For a survey of early modern western visitors’ attitudes on Greeks see, for example, Constantine, Early Greek Travellers; Stoneman, Land of Lost Gods; Yakovaki, Europi meso Elladas. [3] See, for example, Politis, Romantika hronia; Gazi, Scientific National History. [4] See, for example, Athanassopoulou, ‘An ‘‘Ancient’’ Landscape’; Hamilakis, The Nation and its Ruins. [5] Van Steen, Venom in Verse. [6] Decker, Praeludium Olympicum. A few years after the early calls for an Olympic revival Evangelis Zappas, a wealthy Greek diaspora merchant, bequeathed a legacy for the establishment of Olympic Games. The so-called ‘Zappas Olympics’ were conducted in 1859, 1870, 1875 and 1889 with various degrees of success. See Young, The Modern Olympics; Koulouri, ‘On the Path to Revival’. 7 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [7] The patriarch of Greek conservatives in post Second World War Greece. Served several terms as Prime Minister, before and after the colonels’ dictatorship, as well as two terms as President. Karamanlis made in 1980 a renewed call, which was received more sympathetically in the aftermath of the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott, for ancient Olympia to permanently host the modern Olympics. See Rich, ‘The Legal Regime for a Permanent Olympic Site’, especially 3–9. [8] Even though Olympic Games existed in the ancient Greek world, they comprised a significantly different set of activities and meanings compared to the modern IOC Olympics. Hence to claim that the modern Olympic Games are somehow a continuation of the ancient games is at the very least problematic. Similar attitudes, which have been adopted enthusiastically since the late nineteenth century by promoters of the modern Olympic movement around the globe, are symptomatic of a wider tendency to overlook aspects of the history of ancient Olympics in order to make them conform to modern presuppositions. Examples of this trend include the modern ideology of athletic amateurism or the recent initiatives for the establishment of an Olympic truce, both of which were presumably inspired by ancient Greek practices but which are in fact based on distorted readings of the ancient games. For amateurism see Young, The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics; for the Olympic truce see especially Golden, Greek Sport and Social Status, 136–9. [9] Quotation from the official transcript of the speech, posted at http://www.cpapoutsis.gr/ Document.aspx?ID¼1128 (accessed 19 April 2010). [10] My thanks are due to this volume’s co-editor, Professor Eleni Fournaraki, for her assistance in the preparation of the Prologue as well as for her professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment to this project. Regarding the Greek primary source material and scholarly works, an attempt has been made throughout the volume to make them partially accessible to a wider audience through transliteration and translation of titles. Given the complexities of Greek grammar, no universally agreed rules for transliterating Greek characters into Latinbased alphabetic characters exist. Hence individual authors were given latitude in transliterating the Greek materials they used. References Athanassopoulou, E. ‘An ‘‘Ancient’’ Landscape: European Ideals, Archaeology, and Nation Building in Early Modern Greece’. Journal of Modern Greek Studies 20 (2002): 273–305. Constantine, D. Early Greek Travellers and the Hellenic Ideal. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Decker, W. Praeludium Olympicum. Das Memorandum des Jahres 1835 von Innenminister Ioannis Kolettis an König Otto I. von Griechenland über ein Nationalfest mit öffentlichen Spielen nach dem Muster der antiken panhellenischen Agone. Hildesheim: Weidmann, 2006. Gazi, E. Scientific National History: The Greek Case in Comparative Perspective (1850–1920). Frankfurt am Main and New York: Peter Lang, 2000. Golden, M. Greek Sport and Social Status. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2008. Hamilakis, Y. The Nation and its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007. Kaldellis, A. Hellenism in Byzantium. The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Kaldellis, A. The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Koulouri, C. ‘On the Path to Revival’. In Athens in the Late Nineteenth Century. The First International Olympic Games, edited by A. Solomou-Prokopiou and I. Vogiatzi, 13–43. Athens: Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, 2004: 13–43. 8 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Politis, A. Romantika hronia. Ideologies kai nootropies stin Ellada tou 1830–1880 [Romantic Years. Ideologies and Mentalities in Greece 1830–1880]. Athens: EMNE-Mnimon, 1998. Rich, F. ‘The Legal Regime for a Permanent Olympic Site’. Journal of International Law and Politics 15 (1982): 3–53. Stoneman, R. Land of Lost Gods: The Search for Classical Greece. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Van Steen, G. Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. Yakovaki, N. Europi meso Helladas: Mia kampi stin europaiki autosyneidisi 17os-18os aionas [Europe via Greece: A Turning Point in European Consciousness, 17th–18th Century]. Athens: Hestia, 2006. Young, D. The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics. Chicago: Ares, 1984. Young, D. The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. 9 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material From Antiquity to Olympic Revival: Sports and Greek National Historiography (Nineteenth – Twentieth Centuries) Christina Koulouri This study investigates the evolution of the historiography of Greek sport from the foundation of the Greek state (1830) until 1982 and its links with Greek national history, which also took shape primarily during the nineteenth century. The gradual ‘nationalisation’ of sport as an element of Greek national character since antiquity corresponded to changes in perceptions of the national past reflected in historiography. The ancient Olympic Games, Byzantine contests and exercises, the competitions of the klephts and armatoloi (militia soldiers) during the Ottoman rule and the modern revival of the Olympic Games were all successively integrated in a national history of sport confirming national continuity and unity. However this particular genre of national historiography did not gain academic recognition until recently. The authors of histories of physical exercise and sport were amateurs or physical education instructors and could not ensure to their work the authority of a separate discipline. Introduction In 1830, when the Greek state was founded after a successful war of independence against the Ottoman Empire, the first interest – albeit marginal – in physical exercise on medical and pedagogic grounds had already emerged. At the same time, the idea of the revival of the Olympic Games was already current. [1] The publication, mainly in Western Europe, of works by ancient Greek authors had also revealed ancient Greek culture to modern Greeks, who felt linked to it as descendants. Consequently, in the late eighteenth century the interest which was aroused in the ancient Greek past as that of ‘ancestral history’ was virtually self-evident. During the nineteenth century, a coherent interpretation of national history in conjunction with the 10 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE building up of the Greek national identity emerged. Physical exercise constituted one of the minor constituents of the ‘invented’ national past. [2] In the second half of the nineteenth century interest in modern sports of Western origin developed, sports clubs and gymnasiums were set up and contests began to be held in the capital Athens as well as in the major urban centres. From the 1870s onwards, the demand for the introduction of gymnastics into the school curriculum was voiced more systematically and the professional group of physical education teachers, who from 1882 trained in special colleges, took shape. Since the establishment in Athens in 1884 of the first provisional ‘School of Gymnasts’ a ‘History of Gymnastics’ course was included in all the curricula of the physical education colleges. The four Zappas Olympics (1859, 1870, 1875, 1889) consolidated the idea of athletic contests conducted on the ancient Greek model in a modern setting. However, the turning-point for Greek sport is definitely the year 1896 when the first international Olympic Games were celebrated in Athens. This milestone had a decisive influence on the history of Greek sport, both academic – articulated by historians, archaeologists and physical educators – and amateur – practised by scholars, journalists and figures in the world of sport. A basic consequence has been the disproportionately large place occupied by the Olympic Games in the history of Greek sport, and an imbalance in favour of antiquity. Moreover, given that the history of sport was regularly taught in physical education colleges, the relevant literature was inevitably bound up with the development of these educational institutions: from being secondary education institutions they became tertiary higher education establishments (1929), and, finally, university departments (1982). Throughout almost the entire twentieth century, those concerned with the history of athletics have been almost exclusively either physical education teachers or figures in the world of sport, and it was only on the occasion of Olympic events (or of bids for them) that this interest had also touched representatives of the intelligentsia and academia with no direct connection with sport. The year 1982 has been chosen as a terminus ante quem for a review of the history of Greek sport; it was in this year that the Departments of Physical Education and Sport were set up, marking an important point in the development of the history of physical education and sport: increased teaching needs in these departments created an increased demand for textbooks on the subject; student essays, postgraduate and doctoral theses were produced. Furthermore, the ensuing period (1982–2004) was marked by a plethora of publications on the occasion, on the one hand, of the centenary of the first Olympic Games in Athens (1996), and, on the other, of the Olympics of 2004. In the present study, an attempt will be made to investigate the content of the history of Greek sport since the foundation of the modern Greek state and how sport historiography is linked with Greek national history, which also took shape primarily during the nineteenth century. The history of sport may include the history of physical education (linked with the wider development and history of education), the history of the Olympic Games (the ancient Games and their modern revival), and the history of sports (as social and cultural history but also as history of sports clubs and 11 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE particular events). Nevertheless, these three subcategories can have entirely different characteristics and a clearly discrete function in relation to national historiography. Furthermore, a basic question which will be examined is how far national historiography incorporates sport into its narrative and how it is connected with the national history of sport. The History of the Greek Nation The most recent synthetic History of the Greek Nation, [3] published in the 1970s and covering Greek history from antiquity to the present articulates the basic, dominant paradigm with regard to the position of sport within the framework of Greek national history. Sport as such is to be found only in Volumes II to VI on antiquity (up to the Roman period). By way of contrast, in the three volumes which cover Byzantine history (VII–IX), the only discussion of the subject fills just four pages and it is only peripherally related to sport. It deals with the demoi as political institutions and analyses their transformation from ‘originally, organised popular groupings of an athletic character’ into political organizations. [4] As far as the modern period is concerned merely one page – out of a total of six volumes – is devoted to the Athens Olympic Games of 1896. [5] The chapters on antiquity were written by archaeologists, [6] and represent the ancient games and athletics in general as a feature of the Greek national identity. More specifically, it is stated that the ‘spirit of competition’ is ‘closely bound up with the idiosyncrasy of the Hellene’, [7] while the unifying function of the games is also noted: The contribution of the panhellenic contests, and particularly of the Olympic Games, to the political history of Hellenism and the shaping of the national consciousness was invaluable. The Greeks scattered throughout the Mediterranean region and living next to barbarous nations became aware through their participation in the games that they were members of the same nation whose heart beat at Olympia. [8] Moreover, during the Hellenistic and Roman periods athletic festivals and the gymnasia are represented as fulfilling a double role: on the one hand, they were vehicles of a ‘civilising process’ through the ‘imposition and inculcation of Greek civilisation among other nations’, and, on the other, in preserving the Greek national identity in a period of political weakening of the Hellenes. [9] It is in this particular chapter that we find the sole account in the entire History in which ancient athletic meetings are compared with those of modern times: The character of the local athletic-religious festivals of ancient times has been retained down to our own times in the form of the later and contemporary fairs [panegyria]. And not only has the very ancient word ‘panegyris’ been retained intact [. . .] but the occasions and basic reasons for the institution have remained unchanged. [10] 12 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE This kind of interpretation of sport and the Olympic Games in antiquity was introduced into Greek national historiography by Constantinos Paparrhigopoulos (1815–1891), [11] a leading exponent of romantic historiography, and professor of history at the University of Athens. It is worth noting that the discoveries of archaeological and literary research in the twentieth century are used in the History of the Greek Nation volumes to confirm and not to call into question the interpretative schema which Paparrhigopoulos composed on the basis of a few primary data and a secondary bibliography. In his five-volume History of the Greek Nation (1861–1874), Paparrhigopoulos writes that the Panhellenic games were ‘the strongest moral and social bond’ which linked the entire Greek nation. [12] He concludes: If at that time the Greek nation lacked common political governance, nevertheless the moral and social ties by which it was bound together were so many and of such a nature that of modern states, only France perhaps can be reckoned as having the national unity of ancient Greece. [13] This paragraph sums up the basic position of romantic national historiography on Greek antiquity: in spite of the absence of political unity, there was, however, national (i.e. cultural) unity. It was meant as a response to the dominant schema of the nationalist ideology of the nineteenth century, according to which the existence of a nation is confirmed through its integration in a state, and, consequently, if ancient Greece was not a unified state entity, it could not have formed a unified national group. The romantic historian is therefore, dissociating national from political existence. Paparrhigopoulos’s positions had, of course, incorporated the views of foreign historians, who had been writing histories of ancient Greece since the late eighteenth century. The 1821 Greek War of Independence undoubtedly served as a catalyst for the writing of a ‘systematic history of ancient Greece’, [14] with the result that during the first half of the nineteenth century noteworthy compilations on ancient Greek history, written by German and British historians, were published. However, the work which exerted the greatest influence on his age and which influenced Paparrhigopoulos himself was the History of Greece by the British liberal banker and Member of Parliament George Grote (1794–1871), which was published in 12 volumes in London between 1846 and 1856. [15] Already in 1853, in the short History which he wrote for use in schools, Paparrhigopoulos adopted the distinction made by Grote between mythical and historical Greece, and used the year 776 BC (when the names of the Olympic victors began to be recorded) as a starting-point for Greek history. It was, in any event, precisely this distinction which he employed in his extensive, multi-volumed History. Paparrhigopoulos thus, adopted Grote’s methodological proposal which maintained that history should be written in the light of a painstaking study of the sources. Nevertheless, because of his monarchist sympathies, he did not agree with Grote over the British historian’s admiration for Athenian democracy and his critical assessment of Philip and Alexander. It is, however, important for the place of ancient athletics in historical narrative that 776 BC was chosen by Paparrhigopoulos as the starting-point of Greek history, a 13 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE fact that underscores the significance of the Olympic Games in national selfdefinition. Moreover, as early as 1853 in his first school edition of the History of the Greek Nation the same historian includes physical exercise among the constituents of the national character. [16] Nonetheless, if in Paparrhigopoulos’s History of the Greek Nation physical exercise finds its place in the narrative of ancient Greek history, the same cannot be said of medieval and modern history. More specifically, there are brief, scattered references within the framework of the continuity of the Greek nation established by the ‘national historiographer’. On the basis of this pattern, in the Hellenistic period, Greek civilization, including athletic ‘panegyreis’, was disseminated in the East. [17] In the medieval period, these contests found their continuation in the hippodrome of Constantinople. Paparrhigopoulos writes: The hippodrome represents most accurately all the features of which medieval Hellenism was composed, because you could see there Roman and Eastern and pagan and, above all, Greek traditions. [18] For the period of Ottoman rule, Paparrhigopoulos uses Fauriel to describe the ‘private life, so to speak’ of the klephts (bandits): ‘in their hours of leisure, these men trained themselves above all by means of various exercises useful to their occupation’. [19] Thus, in Paparrhigopoulos’s work the basic positions on continuity of physical exercise from antiquity to the present day are to be found in an embryonic state. It remains for us to examine whether these views were shared by his contemporaries, whether there were already, before Paparrhigopoulos, relevant publications, and how these positions evolved in the twentieth century thus, leading to the paradigm put forward by the History of the 1970s. Historical Continuity and National Unity Spyridon Lambros (1851–1919), professor of Ancient History at the University of Athens and an exponent of historical positivism in Greece in the late nineteenth century, [20] was the history professor with the most connections with sport and the one who systematically linked the national idea with the athletic ideal. President of the Panhellenic Gymnastic Club (1896–1898), first President of the Union of Greek Sports and Gymnastics Clubs (1897–1905), General Secretary of the Hellenic Olympic Committee (1903–1917), Honorary President of the Travellers’ Club (founded in 1899), Lambros was also a member of the Committee for the Preparation of Greek Athletes for the Olympic Games of 1896, and of the Organizing Committee of the Intermediate Olympic Games of 1906. [21] A devout royalist in the period of the National Schism, he was sworn in by King Constantine as Prime Minister and Minister of Education (1916–1917), but then when the Venizelists came to power he was dismissed from the University, was exiled, and finally fell ill and died. 14 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE This multi-faceted activity of Lambros and his institutional involvement with Greek sport raises the question of whether these are reflected in his work as a scholar. To answer this question one should take into account an elementary distinction between the historian’s overall output of both academic and popular works. In spite of his criticism of other parts of Paparrhigopoulos’s work, [22] Lambros confirms the paradigm on the place of sport in Greek national history which Paparrhigopoulos had elaborated. Whereas Paparrhigopoulos wrote his History with reference to Grote, Lambros chose to translate, some 30 years after its first publication, a work of history which was a reply to Grote, [23] namely the Greek History of the German scholar Ernst Curtius. Although it was already outdated, [24] the work of Curtius was a respectable point of reference because the author had been associated with the excavation of ancient Olympia. Having expressed the demand for this undertaking in his famous speech in Berlin in 1852, it was Curtius who directed the excavations from 1874 to 1881 by virtue of an inter-state agreement between Germany and Greece. According to Lambros, the chief merit of the work was ‘the explanation of the ancient Greek world by comparison with the modern’, and ‘the perception of Hellenism as a single unity, retaining the national character, the language, and the customs unaffected by the various vicissitudes, in the same natural environment through the ages’. [25] With regard to sport, the work of Curtius contains the basic position which constitutes a commonplace in the Greek national historiography that the ancient games were not only a constituent of ancient Greek civilization but above all, a factor for national unity. The sentence which sums up the overarching spirit of the German professor’s History is typical: Thus developed the concept of Hellenic and national education, which more than anything else distinguishes the Greeks from the barbarians both of ancient and modern times, and has to do equally with the body and the soul. [26] In his own six-volume History of Greece, which he published almost in parallel with the translation of Curtius, Lambros adopts the position that the panhellenic games were a factor for unity of the ancient Greeks, regardless of differences and quarrels which may have existed between them. Lambros writes: In spite of the division of the Hellenes into tribes, in spite of the quarrels which divided the cities and the wars which tore them apart, the Greeks had the sense of a common origin and, in the absence of political unity, a moral unity with its basis in the identity of the language, the similar nature of the customs, the affinity of religion, the shared institutions, the oracles, the amphictyonies and the games stemming from religion. [27] The concept of unity, in space and time, occupied a central place in Greek national historiography of the nineteenth century. It was a concept since the mid-nineteenth century and was bound up with the Megali Idea (Great Idea): the unity which had 15 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE characterized the Greek nation during the course of its history was a desideratum for the future, since in the present the Greek nation was seen as divided between the free state and the enslaved Greeks of the Ottoman Empire. The concept of unity had an additional aspect: it served as a reply to the stereotype of discord as a feature of the character of the Greek nation, a stereotype which was to be reinforced by Greek civil strife in the twentieth century. National historiography thus, undertook a task of proof: to discover over time all those features which constituted the bonds of unity of the Greek nation. Spyridon Lambros recognized the centrality of sport in the life of the ancient Greeks. [28] Nevertheless, as far as other historical periods are concerned, in the many volumes of his History, he did not attach a great importance to sport and physical exercise – merely a few pages that deal with gymnastics and athletic contests. In his coverage of the Roman period he states very briefly that the Greeks retained their language and other features of their national identity such as athletic games, but for the Byzantine period there is no such reference. The description of the Byzantine hippodrome contains no ‘athletic’ element, as it is seen as ‘a place of spectacles, and [. . .] the last relic of the ancient agora’. [29] Hence Lambros does not incorporate sport organically in his historical narrative in the History of Greece, except in the period of antiquity. In light of his popular articles, however, one could argue that he adopts and projects the concept of the continuity of Greek sport. But this tends to be a view which, contrary to the principles of positivist historical method which he served, is not documented by sources and primary research. Sport was not for this important historian a self-contained object of historical research and elaboration, except on the occasion of the revival of the Olympic Games. It is a fact that, whereas the first reference to physical exercise in a text by Lambros is dated to 1870, [30] he was to deal systematically with the subject of exercise in ancient times only on the occasion of the first IOC Olympic Games in Athens (decision on revival, and holding of the Games, 1894–1896). His views on the historical continuity of physical exercise were expressed in texts composed in the years 1895–1897. [31] It is clearly no accident that this was the same period in which he published both his own History of Greece and the translation of the ancient history by Curtius. In the same spirit, then, as in those two works the ancient Olympic Games are perceived as a means of forging the ‘national idea’, so that the athletes of Olympia would also be the victors in the Persian Wars. The linking of athletic contests with military success was an integral feature in the thinking of Lambros, who publicly supported Greek irredentist visions. Furthermore, his greatest success as a historian was ‘in turning the concept of the national locus into a methodological and even historiographical principle’. [32] His famous words are well-known: There is truly no solidarity greater than that between the desk of the historian and the tent of the military camp. Over both flies one and the same flag, the flag of the homeland. [33] 16 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE After the defeat in the Greek-Ottoman war of 1897, Lambros was among the most fervent supporters of the introduction of physical education as a compulsory subject in primary education based on the example of the German physical education model, which he judged to be the most suitable for the preparation of the nation for war. [34] Exercise in Ancient Greece and Greek National Identity Having analysed the work of the two most important Greek historians of the nineteenth century (Paparrhigopoulos and Lambros), we may conclude that sport was not promoted into a central subject for national history, but was incorporated into the schema of continuity of the Greek nation as a forger of identity. To attempt a subtle semantic distinction, one could argue that sport in Greek national historiography does not have an ‘athletic’ but an exclusively cultural content, and is limited to antiquity. Furthermore, it is not a matter pertaining to the history of physical exercise in general, but only to the ancient games – chiefly the Olympic Games. The fact that the history of physical exercise focuses on, and is in part exhausted by, antiquity and the games is confirmed by a large number of nineteenth-century publications. Since the emergence of classics as an academic subject in early modern Europe, there had been an international interest in antiquity which was partly translated in a spate of international publications on the subject. Many of these studies had been extensively used by Greek writers. Ancient Greek history was written primarily in the West, while for some time and with few exceptions Greek intellectuals did not concern themselves systematically with the study of ancient Greece. [35] In any event, many works were translated into Greek before original studies by Greek researchers had been published. In the nineteenth century, apart from Curtius’s History, the ancient histories of Oliver Goldsmith, Christopher Irving, Thomas Keightley, Victor Duruy, L. P. Ségur, Johann Gustav Droysen and Otto Abel were translated into Greek, some of them for school use. [36] At the same time, archaeological excavations and the development of archaeology constantly supplied new evidence for physical exercise in antiquity. As a matter of fact it was archaeology, much more than ancient history, that formed the basis for the development of the history of ancient physical exercise. Finally, the revival of the Olympic Games in the late nineteenth century and the development of the Olympic movement gave a new boost to the study of the ancient games at an international level. For modern Greece, antiquity was shrouded with an unrivalled prestige and served as a model in every sphere. The reference to the ancestral relation with the ancient Hellenes supplied the modern Greeks with self-confidence and provided them with the ‘passport’ [37] to acceptability in the family of modern ‘civilised’ nations. As a result, the high value attached to antiquity combined with the centrality of the concept of historical continuity led to an increasing number of scholarly publications 17 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE on ancient Greece at the expense of other historical periods. The great loser were the Middle Ages. But we will return to this matter later. As early as the time of the Renaissance, the publication of Pausanias’ ‘Description of Greece’ [38] and of the Victory Odes of Pindar widely disseminated knowledge of the ancient games and the sites where they were held. In the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries, Western travellers were attracted by Greece indirectly, through their ‘travel to the Levante’. The ‘travel to Greece’ itself was initiated in the eighteenth century. Actually, since the second half of the eighteenth century the European intelligentsia were fascinated by ancient art and classical civilization in general. Editions of ancient authors and popularizing works supplying knowledge of antiquity co-existed with travellers’ and philhellenic texts. The building up of the notion of the ‘Greek origin of Europe’, which means the conception as virtually ‘self-evident’ of the affinity between ancient Greece and modern Europe, created the framework for the acceptance in Greece itself of ancient Greece ‘via Europe’. [39] Reference to the Olympic Games as a part of Greek national history can be identified in books on Greece published in Europe since the end of the eighteenth century. In 1796, Georgios Sakellarios published in Vienna his Concise Archaeology of the Hellenes, with an extensive account of the Olympic Games. Moreover, the following year Rigas, a leading figure in the Greek and Balkan Enlightenment, published a translation of the theatre play ‘The Olympia’ by Pietro Metastasio, [40] a work chosen precisely for its subject, the Olympic Games, which alluded to the glory of ancient Greece. As Spyridon Lambros remarked, almost a century later, ‘Rigas considered that an account of the Olympic Games contributed to rise of the nation no less than military preparations, and this is why he translated Metastasio’s drama’. [41] In his introduction, Rigas produces in an elementary form the schema of the linkage of ancient and modern sport which was to mark later Greek historiography. On the one hand, he writes that ‘these contests were celebrated by our forefathers’, and, on the other, that ‘the foot race, wrestling, discus-throwing, the long-jump, the pankration have been practised up to the present in Thessaly and in the whole of Greece’. [42] Similar comments were made by Grigorios Paliouritis, who in 1815 published in Venice a Greek Archaeology, which contained a special chapter on the ancient panhellenic games (Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, Isthmian). Paliouritis compares the ancient games with the fairs held in his own time celebrated on the name-day of various saints, at which lambs and fish were awarded as prizes to the victors. He also compares the ancient events – wrestling, races, long-jump, throwing – with those held at these Christian fairs. [43] The comparison of the ancient events with the events of the period of Ottoman rule and the acknowledgement of an affinity between them was so influential that in fact constitutes a recurring feature of the Greek sports historiography until the present day. After the founding of the Greek state (1830), the history of sport was closely connected with the concern with physical education as part of the school curriculum, 18 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE on the one hand and the process of the revival of the Olympic Games on the other. The reference to antiquity operated in a legitimizing way in both instances. In the case of physical education, the innovative proposal for the introduction of gymnastics into the school curriculum was able to draw arguments from the ancient Greek model of kalokagathia. In a speech delivered in 1855 and which was entitled Address on gymnastics of the body as a part of perfect education with the ancients the physician and professor at the University of Athens Georgios A. Makkas called upon the Greeks of his time to follow the ancient example and establish gymnastics as a basic feature of the education of the youth. Gymnastics, according to Makkas, has pedagogic, therapeutic and preventive qualities. In the case of the revival of the Olympic Games, the imitation of the ancient example took on the characteristics of a national renaissance. ‘The idea of a national renaissance through exercises on the Archaic model’ [44] was part of the overall renaissance of the Greek nation since the war of independence. If 1821 marked the moment of the Greek renaissance after centuries of ‘slavery’, 1896 also marked the Olympic renaissance after the abolition of the Olympic Games in 394 AD by the Emperor Theodosius. The idea of the Olympic renaissance was initially linked with the national renaissance. In 1834, the poet Panaghiotis Soutsos, as adviser to the Minister of the Interior, Ioannis Kolettis, composed a memorandum in which he proposed the holding of annual panhellenic festivals on the model of antiquity (the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, Olympic Games) in order to honour the renaissance of Greece through the Revolution of 1821. [45] The concept of renaissance was in fact of pivotal importance for Greek identity and for the representation of the national past. It is worth recalling that the official opening of the first Olympic Games took place on a date which combined two traditional Greek holidays, that is, Orthodox Easter Sunday and Greek Independence Day (25 March 1896, date according to the Julian calendar). Both Easter Sunday and Independence Day made reference to the concept of the resurrection of the nation. With reference to the period 1830 to 1896 there are two works which correspond par excellence to the two aspects of development of the history of sport, that is, physical education and the revival of the Olympic Games, respectively: the Summary of Gymnastics (i.e. Physical Exercise) by Georgios Pagon (Athens 1837) and the French edition of the work ‘On Gymnastics’ of Philostratus by Minas Minoidis, published in 1858. [46] The book by Pagon, who had studied in Munich and had been influenced by the German gymnastics system of Guts Muths and of Jahn, was the first Greek book on gymnastics. Despite the fact that the ambition of the Summary of Gymnastics was to become a handbook on physical exercise training with practical instructions for teachers, Pagon included facts from the history of sport, and in the final chapter described the ancient games at Nemea, the Isthmus and in Olympia. [47] The history of gymnastics, according to Pagon, runs parallel to the history of mankind: ‘Physical exercise is as old as the human race’. [48] His discussion of ancient Greek sport includes references to Homer, Minos, Lycurgus, 19 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Solon and Plato, while the content of athletic training in antiquity is described. The conclusion is unequivocal: What is stopping us from imitating the ancient Greeks (from whom we have learnt so much!) in the art of physical exercise as well, and from introducing it for the education of our young people? [49] Minoidis published his book on the occasion of the first Zappas Olympics (1858), [50] linking it in his epilogue ‘Concerning the establishment of the Olympic Games in Greece’ with the argument in favour of a revival of the Olympic Games. Like Pagon, Minoidis in his introduction notes that there were physical exercises not only among the Greeks, ‘but among all the peoples of the world, even at the period when man was in a savage state’. [51] The introduction ends with a lengthy description of the ancient games and of the usefulness of physical education on the basis of Greek mythology and ancient authors. The emphasis on antiquity was reinforced in the ensuing decades by the German excavations at Olympia and the discovery of the site of the ancient games. Up until the inception of the excavations by the German Archaeological Institute in Olympia in 1875, historians of the ancient Olympics relied almost exclusively on ancient literary evidence. The archaeological campaigns and the detailed and scholarly publication of their findings changed that picture and contributed to the tremendous enrichment of the primary evidence available on the ancient Olympics. The book Olympia and the Olympic Games by Dimitrios Papageorgiou, published in 1890, was written in the context of these circumstances and aimed to serve as a visitor’s guide to the antiquities at Olympia. Based on the model of modern tourist guides and with references to the – always essential Pausanias, Papageorgiou compiled a comprehensive work in which he incorporated a history of the ancient Olympic Games. [52] This history is inscribed within the ‘political history of Greece’, which he uses as a reference for the division of Greek antiquity into historical periods. Furthermore, in complete harmonization with the ancient Greek historiography of the period, the high-school teacher from Pyrgos (in Peloponnese, near Olympia) projects the national character of the games. Even before the decision on the revival of the Olympic Games, the incorporation of the ancient games into national history was a commonplace, as demonstrated by the school textbooks of the period. As a typical example, we could cite the History of Ancient Greece for primary schools by Alexandros A. Papandreou, [53] which was published in 1893 and which devoted a relatively lengthy account to sport and panhellenic games within the context of ancient Greek history: The ancient Greeks, through their formation by physical exercises and the games, were shown to be the best and most glorious men in the world. They fought heroically against innumerable enemies; they vanquished them and saved the independence and civilisation of their dear homeland, making it great and glorious. [54] 20 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The First International Olympic Games in Athens (1896) and the National ‘Renaissance’ The decision to revive the Olympic Games and, above all, that they should be held in Athens triggered a series of publications on the history of the Olympic Games which systematized the views which had been expressed up to that point. In these publications, the concept of national ‘renaissance’ and its associations with the nation’s historical continuity held central stage. A similar focus permeates the works published on the occasion of the Intermediate Olympic Games of 1906, an event which was experienced in Greece as equivalent to the Games of 1896. In many cases works which were first published in 1896 were re-printed for the Intermediate Games. We shall not concern ourselves here with the host of articles and books which describe the Games of 1896 but only with those works which attempt a synthesis of the history of Greek sport. The ‘official’ publication on the Olympic Games was entitled The Olympic Games 776 BC–1896. It was published in two volumes, one on the ancient games and one on the Games of 1896, in four languages: Greek, French, English and German. The authors were Coubertin himself along with the General Secretary of the Olympic Games Committee, Timoleon Philemon, as well as Spyridon Lambros and Nikolaos Politis, both professors at the University of Athens. This publication did not, however, emphasise the continuity of sport down the centuries, but only the relation of modern sport with antiquity. The first volume, dedicated to the ancient Olympic games, consisted of merely two essays, one by Spyridon Lambros, in which the ancient Olympic Games were described, and one by Nikolaos Politis, in which there was a description of the site of ancient Olympia, as it has been revealed following the German Archaeological Institute excavations. On the occasion of the 1896 Olympic games, emphasis was placed on the direct affinity between ancient and modern Greece, without regard to the intermediate stages. Philemon’s words are typical: The modern International Athletic Games differ very little from those established by the ancients and are founded, in their entirety as well as in every detail, upon those eternal principles which the Greeks laid down as a criterion for assessment of the moral and physical progress of free Citizens. [55] Also confined to antiquity was the study in French and Greek by Greek expatriate in Paris Georgios Spyridis entitled The Illustrated Panorama of the Olympic Games. The author himself describes his work as a ‘historical’ study, drawn from his unpublished work on ‘A History of European Education over the centuries’. Spyridis’s Panorama provides a very detailed description of the ancient games as ‘the most magnificent institution of our ancestral heritage’, [56] while at the same time repeating commonplaces regarding the role of physical exercise in the training of children and the link between the tradition of competition and the victories in the 21 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Persian Wars. The innovative feature of his approach is, however, the systematic incorporation of the finds of the archaeological excavations at Olympia in such a way that his book could serve as a guide to the new ‘pilgrims’ – that is, the foreign visitors who would flow to the ‘New Jerusalem’. The admiration for Greek antiquity which imbues Spyridis’s work also results in the condemnation, as periods of historical decline, of both the period of Roman rule and the Byzantine Empire by reason of the ‘spirit, unfavourable in its very nature’ of the new Christian religion. [57] Consequently, although the paradigm of continuity is not essentially doubted, the history of sport is identified with the history of the ancient games. In any event, it is only ancient history that can serve as an exemplar, in accordance with the prevailing view that history ‘teaches’ people of modern times to imitate the examples of their forefathers (and to avoid their errors). The first to systematize the scattered and fragmented views on the historical continuity of physical exercise in a comprehensive work was Antonios T. Spiliotopoulos, [58] under the eloquent title The Olympic Games through the Centuries. The Games with the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Franks. Armatoloi and Modern Times. [59] The work contains eight chapters bearing the following titles: Importance of exercise with the Greeks, Olympic Games, Games with the Romans, the Byzantines, Jousting in the Middle Ages, Armatoloi Times, Modern Times, Athletic Life in England. This was not, therefore, a Greek history of physical exercise but a work which also incorporated European athletic history up to the present. However, the narrative is clearly hellenocentric, as Spiliotopoulos represents athletic activity in Western Europe since the eighteenth century with constant comparisons with ancient Greek physical exercise. What he writes regarding the spread of sport in Germany is typical: ‘the events of the ancients are repeated this time on foreign soil’, [60] while he describes the English as ‘the nation which has assimilated all the sporting life of the ancients; they have achieved this in accordance with their own manners and customs’. [61] The modern Greeks must themselves imitate the ancient example, and be inspired by their history, in order to ‘achieve their national ideal’ and to ‘solve their national problem’. [62] Moreover, in Spiliotopoulos’s work antiquity is evaluated as the most important period, while at the same time it accounts for the greater part of the book (90 pages of a total of 223). There are, nevertheless, three important new features: (1) there is a separate chapter on physical exercise in Byzantium; (2) there is a lengthy account of physical exercise in Western Europe (medieval and modern times); (3) a lengthy account is provided on the subject of physical exercise during the period of Ottoman rule. Thus, the book applies the ‘three-stage pattern’ of Greek national history introduced by Paparrhigopoulos to the history of physical exercise. Antiquity, Byzantium and Modern Hellenism articulate the chronological framework for a history of sport ‘from ancient times’ to the present. On this model, Byzantium was still approached with a degree of scepticism whereas the complete incorporation of the modern klephts and the armatoloi had been achieved. 22 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The ‘Hellenisation’ and ‘Athleticisation’ of Byzantium It is well known that the integration of Byzantium into Greek national history as the Greek Middle Ages was the outcome of a prolonged process and was primarily expressed through the work of two men: Spyridon Zambelios (1815–1881) and Constantinos Paparrhigopoulos. The Enlightenment tradition had elaborated a negative assessment of theocratic Byzantium. It was regarded as a period of slavery for the Greek nation, a view which affected Greek historiography until approximately the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In case of the history of sport, the incorporation of Byzantium in the nationalist historiographic discourse was seen as even more difficult, given the attitude of Christians towards the human body and the abolition of the Olympic Games by the Christian emperor Theodosius in 394 AD. In other words, as far as sport was concerned, Christianity constituted the most important obstacle to the nation’s historical continuity. In order to achieve such continuity, nineteenth-century historians had not only to ‘hellenise’ but also to ‘athleticise’ Byzantium. It was Spyridon Zambelios, an intellectual from the Ionian Islands and the author of lengthy works with a historical content, who maintained in 1852 that ‘whether we like it or not, we are children of the Middle Ages’, and that ‘the Middle Ages are the most substantive means and the articulating link piecing together, rationally and philosophically, what went before with what came after’. [63] He defended the importance of the Byzantine period, saying that ‘whatever decline is invoked is, in fact, nothing more than a transition’, [64] and he invented the term ‘HellenoChristianism’, a notion which became influential in determining modern Greek national identity. This innovative perspective on Byzantium and its organic integration into national history did not, nevertheless, translate into an acknowledgement of continuity of sport. The only Byzantine venue which could be described as athletic, that is, the hippodrome of Constantinople, was valued primarily for its political significance which rendered it a continuator of antiquity. In fact, as can be concluded from other historical accounts written during the nineteenth century, even though the hippodrome was negatively assessed as a site of sport spectacle, it was perceived positively as revival of the ancient agora. [65] ‘Entertainment with horseracing and vain spectacles’ [66] linked Byzantium with Rome, while the political functioning of the demoi linked it with ancient Athens. New Rome accepted the vanity and foolishnesses of the older without, however, accepting the majority of its virtues; particularly with regard to horse-racing and spectacles, the obsession of the Byzantines was developed to such a degree that bread and the circuses sufficed to make them happy. [67] In national historiography, the organic incorporation of Byzantium as an additional link in historical continuity did not automatically result in its legitimation. In other words Byzantium was treated in national historiography after 1860 as the 23 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Greek Middle Ages (Paparrhigopoulos speaks of ‘medieval Hellenism’), but it was not acknowledged that it had a cultural value similar to that of antiquity. Furthermore, a reduced scholarly concern with Byzantium was reflected in the limited number of relevant historical studies published in Greece and abroad, in contrast with ancient Greek history. It was only in 1892 that the first chair of Byzantine Studies was established at the University of Munich and the first Byzantinist journal, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, was published, whereas in 1899 the chair of Byzantine History was established at the Sorbonne. [68] This general attitude inevitably influenced the historiography of sport. The position of Lambros summarizes well this ambivalent attitude: The decline of sport in Byzantine times led in the end to the inevitable enslavement of the nation. And yet the Byzantines had the Hippodrome in which often the shouts of the demoi echoed and with which the beginnings of folk music and poetry are associated; they had the Tzykanisterion in which the medieval chivalry of the West, imitated those equestrian events whose echo sounds sweetly in the poetic pages of Erotokritos. [69] In the late nineteenth century the field of Byzantine studies in Greece was still in an embryonic and loosely organized state. At the University of Athens Byzantine history was taught not as a self-contained subject but as part of general Greek history survey courses. It was only in 1912 that the establishment of the chair of Byzantine Art and Archaeology was announced, and in 1924 the first chair in Byzantine History was established. During the same period, a different representation of athletic activities in the Byzantine period emerged. G. V. Tsakopoulos published an article on the Olympic Games which were held in Antioch from the second century BC to 520 AD, deliberately aimed at revising the negative approach to Byzantium which had been imposed by ‘a superficial and calculating critique’. In the view of Tsakopoulos, the Olympic Games of Antioch were closely linked with ‘the glorious ancient Greek world and with today’s hopeful renaissance of physical exercise in Greece and in Europe’, while they proved how much the Greeks of that period ‘were firmly and as a matter of honour possessed by the ancestral national civilisation’. [70] Nonetheless, Tsakopoulos’s paradigm appears to have been scholarly isolated and his efforts to ‘athleticise’ Byzantium were not successful. A number of factors including the strong cult of antiquity, the revival of the ancient games as a living experience, the system of values supporting contemporary physical exercise and the content of education which gave emphasis to ancient traditions prevented the smooth integration of the Byzantine period into the history of Greek sport. In the entry ‘sport’ (athletismos) in the Great Greek Encyclopedia which summed up scholarly knowledge in Greece in the inter-War years, it is clearly stated that: The darkness of religious prejudices and of ascetic dogmatism had extinguished the very last radiance of the divine Hellenic light. And during the Middle Ages, for long centuries, physical exercises were abandoned completely. [71] 24 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE According to this pattern, physical training was re-discovered by the West after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, when refugee Byzantine scholars carried ancient Greek thought to Europe. In exactly the same year, 1927, the unequivocal position taken up by Evangelos Pavlinis, whose work we could regard as the first comprehensive attempt at a national history of physical exercise compiled by an instructor of physical education, is exceptionally illuminating. [72] Pavlinis does not include Byzantium in his History of Physical Exercise (1927), but rather the Western Middle Ages. ‘With the abolition of the Olympic Games in 394’, he writes, ‘physical exercise had died’, and ‘we can [. . .] point to 394 AD as the year of death’. The hippodrome of Constantinople is not of interest to the history of sport. The focus of the history of physical exercise can be claimed by other events of the Middle Ages. And these are the contests of the knights. [73] According to Pavlinis, the bloody spectacles in the hippodrome were connected with Rome and not with ancient Greece. On the other hand, the contests of the knights were reminiscent of ancient nobility (kalokagathia), the difference being that the knights were warriors and their contests were ‘harsh military trials’. [74] Hence the attempt to ‘athleticise’ Byzantium by means of the hippodrome could not succeed for a number of reasons: (1) the contests in the hippodrome were clearly of Roman and not ancient Greek origin; (2) athletic activity during the period of Roman rule was undervalued, since, within the context of Greek national history, the Romans were regarded as culturally inferior to the Greeks; (3) the hippodrome was in total opposition to the ancient Greek ideals of physical exercise and the games. Thus, the route of athleticization had to pass via the identification of athletic activities which constituted a survival of ancient Greek events and contests. This was precisely what Tsakopoulos attempted to do in 1901, but it was a long time before such trends acquired currency among academic historians. The period of the inter-War years was decisive for a change of attitude towards Byzantium; it was then that its upgraded status as the ‘custodian’ of ancient Greek civilization and as protector of European civilization from the Asiatic invaders was established. This renewed interest focused on the evidence for the Greekness of Byzantium and was inspired by national expediencies, given that the legacy of Byzantium had also been claimed by other Balkan nation-states as well. Within this context, athletic events in Byzantium were additional evidence of its Greek character. Two professors in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Athens, Adamantios Adamantiou (1875–1937), a pupil of Spyridon Lambros and professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology since 1912 and Phaedon Koukoules (1881–1956), professor since 1932 in the Chair of Public and Private Life of the Byzantines, were mainly responsible for elaborating the history of physical exercise in the Byzantine empire. It is worth noting that both of the scholars were not historians but their scholarship and teaching focused on archaeology and folklore. 25 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Adamantiou was the author of the entry on physical exercise ‘among the Byzantines’ in the Great Greek Encyclopedia, an entry which contradicts the entry on ‘sport’ (athletismos) in the same encyclopaedia in which, as we have already pointed out the continuation of physical exercise in Byzantium is rejected. Adamantiou’s article does not refer at all to the hippodrome and rests upon two basic arguments: (1) that ancient sport survived in the Byzantine period in the form of contests and exercises; (2) that contests of knights in the West had been Greek-inspired. Byzantine sport is thus, presented as a continuation of that of ancient Greece. Moreover, Byzantine sport is represented as having inspired modern Western sports such as polo and tennis, which were handed on to Europe after the Crusades, ‘just as a host of other customs of life and forms of progress of Greek and Muslim civilisation were handed on to the peoples of the West’. [75] Koukoules, in his monumental Byzantine Life and Civilisation (6 vol., 1948–1973) was the first to truly elaborate, albeit unintentionally, a sports history of Byzantium. His main purpose was to revise the views that the features of ancient civilization – among which the athletic games – ceased to exist under Byzantium. Consequently, the key concept for the ‘athleticisation’ of Byzantium was that of survival. In the relevant chapters Koukoules incorporates the hippodrome ‘which in many ways points to the national tradition, and was [. . .] the mirror of Greek medieval society’, and he describes it as a site of spectacle which was a continuation of Roman spectacles (‘‘‘panem et circenses’’ were sought by the Byzantines as they were by the Romans’). [76] The athletic chapters par excellence are, nevertheless, included in the section ‘The games and events’, [77] in which he notes the survival of the ancient athletic and competitive traditions at least until the middle of the sixth century AD, in spite of the attacks to which sport sites were subjected due to their association with paganism. Koukoules regards the Olympic Games at Antioch, which he describes in detail, as an example of this survival. Nor does he omit to describe systematically other medieval contests, such as the tzykanion, klotsata, tzostra and tornemes which, since the early twentieth century, had been incorporated into Greek history, chiefly through the study of the ‘Erotokritos’, a Cretan folk poem of the seventeenth century. [78] The Klephts as Athletes of the Nation Unlike Byzantium which underwent a long process of ‘hellenisation’, modern Greek history, and above all the period of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1828), was understood from the beginning as the confirmation of the continuity of the Greek nation. A supreme event for the nation which was to lead it to state existence – the primary aim of nationalisms in the nineteenth century – the War of Independence was mythicized and its heroic figures were included in the national pantheon. Furthermore, the war was presented as further proof of the ancient Greek origin of modern Greeks through a process of legitimation which was based on the close parallelism of the two eras and on the interpretation of the Greek War of 26 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Independence as a ‘repetition’ of ancient glory. [79] Thus, just as Byzantium was diminished through its comparison with antiquity, the Greek War of Independence was given value through exactly the same comparison. It is noteworthy that the measure of the value of a historical period in national history as a whole was in every case antiquity. This valorization was also accompanied by early historiographical interest in the Greek War of Independence so that, apart from the memoirs of the protagonists, historical studies of that specific period of history were published by Greek authors as early as the 1830s. [80] With regard to the presence of sport in modern Greek history, as we have already pointed out, it was the activities of the armatoloi (militia soldiers) and klephts (bandits) which, according to historical studies in the course of the nineteenth century, represented the continuity of physical exercise in Greek national history. However, these groups were active during the period of Ottoman rule, a period neglected and undervalued by the historiography of the Greek War of Independence, because it was perceived as a period of ‘slavery’. Such a perspective, which distinguished the ‘glorious’ Greek Revolution from the ‘dark’ ages of Ottoman rule, was gradually altered in the nineteenth century so that around 1880, Ottoman rule had become the ‘prologue’ to the Greek Revolution and was approached entirely differently. More specifically, in the new narrative of Ottoman rule, the factors which contributed to the preservation of national identity were stressed (political privileges, education, the Patriarchate, and communities), while the Greeks were represented as having had a superiority of an intellectual (embodied by the Phanariots) and military (embodied by the klephts) nature. In this approach, the klephts took on a central role, though not yet in direct relation to sport. The crucial transition lay in the interpretation of the contests of the klephts not only as a part of their everyday life and their preparation for war but also as a survival and continuation of ancient physical exercise. This semantic change, however, was the work not only of history but also of folklore studies (laographia). Greek folklore studies developed on the model of the German Volkskunde [81] and had as its purpose the ‘self-awareness of nationhood’. [82] In the climate of romanticism, the scholarly field of folklore studies took on a national ‘mission’ which consisted in proving, by arguments from the life and language of the modern Greek people, the unbroken continuity of Greek civilization from antiquity to modern times. Continuity was sought in the so-called ‘living monuments’, an expression introduced in 1870 [83] and connoting first and foremost ‘linguistic monuments’, that is, folk or oral literature. Folksongs which had attracted the interest of foreign scholars since the early nineteenth century, were a privileged field for the new field of folklore studies. Apart from being an expression of a high-quality folk literature, the folksong was recognized at the same time as a historical witness to the resistance of the Greek nation to the Turks. [84] Furthermore, their parallelism with the Homeric epics provided the much-desired ‘bridge’ between ancient and modern Hellenism. [85] Folksongs were used as evidence which allowed the history of Ottoman rule and of its heroes – the klephts and the armatoloi – to be written. [86] Thus, the folksong was 27 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE an object of ‘recording’ and philological analysis but at the same time, also supplied the material for the description of ‘traditional acts and actions’ [87] during the period of Ottoman rule. The presumed authenticity of the content of these songs allowed nineteenth-century Greek ethnographers to bypass in many cases practices of eye-witnessing and fieldwork, both considered at the time as fundamental requirements of their discipline. In many folksongs there are in fact references to contests with the ‘sword’ and the ‘stone’ during festivals of agricultural communities. Fauriel, a systematic collector of folksongs from the early nineteenth century, describes these contests as military exercises which were useful for the preparation of the kelphts for war. [88] In the same spirit are the scattered references to the contests of the klephts by those who wrote the history of the period of Ottoman rule: the emphasis was placed on the role of the klephts as future fighters for Greek freedom. The acknowledgement of an ‘athletic’ content in these contests dates to the late nineteenth century when physical exercise had already been recognized as an integral part of education. Moreover, physical education had assumed the role of the preparation of future soldiers of the homeland. [89] Thus, the association of sport with a worthy military cause, which in historiographical terms took place gradually from 1830 and was completed after 1880, facilitated the perception of the contests of the soldier-bandits klephts as sport. The occasion of the revival of the Olympic Games provided further legitimation of sport and firmly established the ‘athleticisation’ of the klephts. During the same period Spyridon Lambros, in his speech delivered at the inauguration of the gymnasium of the Panhellenic Sports Club (8 January 1895), clearly formulated the new interpretation: Sport was destined to take on new life in the times when the nation was enslaved. [. . .] On the untrod mountains, free men, the armatoloi and klephts, engaged in exercises very similar to those of the ancients. [. . .] In such a gymnasium, in such an open-air military college in the mountains, the mountain-dwelling fathers of the heroes who gave us a free homeland were trained. [90] Systematic use of folksongs for the description of physical exercise during the period of Ottoman rule was made by Spiliotopoulos who, as we have already pointed out, published in 1896 the first comprehensive Greek history of physical exercise. In an extensive chapter (pp. 182–203) which contains numerous references to historical data and quotations from folksongs, Spiliotopoulos describes the ‘national contests of modern Greece’ in close parallelism with antiquity. Furthermore, he maintains that it was only at this period that sport had the same content as in antiquity: It is only on Greek soil, where it first bloomed, that we find this again in its true form. As exercise, that is, of the body, with the purpose of its perfection and ennoblement. [91] 28 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Exercise became, therefore, a means of national renaissance and contributed as much as intellectual renaissance to the shaping of the heroic generation that led the nation to its liberation. The role of exercise was not fully accounted for merely as preparation for war, but it also contributed in moulding fine bodies, worthy of admiration, like those of ancient statues. Exercise contributed to beautifying and rejuvenating the race, and as the ancient Greeks worshipped the fine and developed body, so during those knightly times in Greece the developed and magnificent body was worshipped and apotheosised. [92] The approach proposed by Spiliotopoulos, which coincided with the revival of the Olympic Games, was widely accepted. [93] The ‘athleticisation’ of the klephts and the armatoloi had already taken place, and the contests described by folksongs were evidence for the revival of ancient exercise. Some decades later Dimitrios Kambouroglous (1852–1942), in writing the entry on physical exercise under Ottoman rule in the Great Greek Encyclopedia, added a new feature to the established paradigm: the ‘alienation’ of the Greek nation – with the exception of the klephts – from physical exercise is attributed to the prohibition imposed by the Turks on the raya. [94] In this perspective, the argument formulated in the nineteenth century about Ottoman rule is re-discovered with considerable delay: the ‘backwardness’ (economic, educational, etc.) of modern Greece (‘civilised’ Western Europe being always a measure of comparison) was due to the centuries of ‘slavery’. Approximately a century later, this pattern was being applied to explain the absence of exercise and the physical decline of the nation. At the same time, starting the late nineteenth-century ethnographic vogue prompted local scholars to seek in the customs of their locality an affinity with antiquity. The fairs on the occasion of some religious festival where athletic contests were held attracted ethnographic interest. In his programmatic text on folklore studies published in 1909 Nikolaos Politis, included in the catalogue of the 20 subjects with which the Greek ethnographer should concern himself the ‘games and athletic contests’. [95] Even before Politis, in 1893 the Asia Minor classicist and musician Georgios D. Pachtikos published an essay on ‘Olympic Games in Bithynia’, in which he described athletic contests which were held in his native Ortaköy in Bithynia at the religious fair for the feast of St George, a well-known ‘athletic’ saint. These games, which he calls ‘Olympic’, were similar to those held at other fairs at the same period, and are described with the clear aim of proving continuity from antiquity. Pachtikos writes: At these religious fairs, when one examines them carefully one finds not only ancient Greek life largely preserved, and, with astonishment, discovers traces of ancient ideas, in total contradiction with the prevailing religion, but the very same original Homeric manners and customs preserved and still flourishing after the lapse of so many centuries! [96] In other words, during the late nineteenth century, studies written by scholars and historians, such as Spyridon Lambros, who aimed at finding evidence of national 29 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE continuity, jumble together physical education, the ancient games, folk games, collective modes of recreation practiced down the centuries and the revived Olympic Games. An attempt was made by professional physical education teachers who wrote histories of sport in the twentieth century to shed light on this confusing state of Greek sport scholarship. Without casting doubt on the concept of continuity, they consider the distinction between physical education and competitive games and revise the schema constructed by the intelligentsia of the nineteenth century. This critical stance probably had to do with the fact that the so-called ‘gymnasts’ (physical education teachers and coaches) were gradually forming a special professional group, and claimed the right to write their own history themselves. It was also connected with the fact that these ‘gymnasts’ focused on the pedagogic dimension of physical exercise, underscoring the relationship between sport and education, and rejecting the exaggerations of record-seeking sport cultivated by the sports clubs and competitive games. History Written by Physical Education Instructors The training of physical education instructors began systematically in 1882 with the establishment of the first college for physical education teachers, while in 1884 physical education was introduced as a compulsory subject in secondary education. A central figure in this period was Ioannis Phokianos (1845–1896), director of the first two colleges for physical education teachers in Athens (established in 1882 and 1884), and the person responsible for organizing the athletic contests of the two last Zappas Olympics. Phokianos was dubbed the ‘father of physical education’, by analogy with Jahn, the founder of the German Turnbewegung, who had also been called the ‘father of physical education’. The two first colleges operated only for 40 days each. It was only in 1899 that a two-year ‘school’ for the training of physical education teachers was established, while the first professional association of physical education teachers was founded. By 1916–1917, 209 physical education teachers had graduated. In 1918, the ‘school of physical education’ was transformed into Physical Education College with a three-year course for men and two years of study for women on the model of the Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm. As early as 1909 Swedish gymnastics had been introduced, on the proposal of Ioannis Chryssafis, into the Greek educational system. Gymnastics assumed the prestige associated with scientific knowledge, pedagogy and medicine, and ceased to be justified exclusively through its contribution to military preparedness. [97] In 1929 the Physical Education College was recognized as an institution of tertiary education, whereas up to then it had belonged within secondary education. The first phase in the development of physical education academic institutions ended in 1932 with the establishment of the Physical Education Academy which in 1939 was re-named the National Physical Training Academy, a name which it retained until 1982. It was at that time that the first university departments in the field of sport and physical education were set up called Departments of the Science of Physical Education and Sport. 30 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The early generation of physical education instructors, among which a leading role was played by Evangelos Pavlinis, [98] Sotirios Peppas, [99] Angelos Fetsis, [100] and Ioannis Chryssafis, [101], was extremely active in the fields of sport and were involved with the shaping of state policy on physical education. They were also quite prolific in writing and publishing. Chryssafis and Pavlinis were the authors of handbooks on sport in which the history of physical exercise was summarized. The physical education instructors of this generation had been trained initially in the German-Swiss and then in the Swedish system of sport and had been influenced by their values. There were ideological and political differences between them, but they agreed in rejecting the competitive record-seeking sport as they believed that it contradicted the aims of physical exercise. The conflict between this group of supporters of German or Swedish physical exercise and the group of supporters of sports of British origin had broken out during the preparations for the Games of 1896. [102] In order to understand the views of the professional physical education instructors on the history of physical training, it is necessary to know how in principle they defined such practices. Chryssafis’s 1930 concise albeit dense definition echoes the prevailing views: Physical training, i.e. the purposeful and methodical exercise of the body for the acquisition and safeguarding of health, well-being, strength, and physical beauty, contributes to the acquisition of courage, boldness as well as those virtues of the soul which follow almost as a rule in every healthy, robust organism which has undergone multifaceted exercise. [103] On the basis of this definition, which regards physical training as ‘purposeful and methodical’ exercise with a clear pedagogic aim, games and contests which have no purposefulness but are recreational activities inherent in almost all human societies should not be considered as ‘physical training’. It is on this distinction between pedagogic physical exercise and recreational contests that Evangelos Pavlinis based the writing of his History of Physical Education. And it was because of this distinction that Pavlinis, as we have already pointed out, excluded the athletic activities of the Byzantines from his historical composition. Pavlinis’s pattern is based on the alternation of periods when physical exercise flourished and when it declined. The basic criterion on which he organizes his narrative is to what extent physical exercise constituted a means of education which was not only physical but also spiritual (as a means of moulding the character). It is the same aim which games must serve, their function being supplementary to physical exercise. The model is classical antiquity, any deviation from which is defined as ‘perversion’ and ‘decline’. The ancient Greek model, furthermore, also constitutes the measure of comparison for later periods, as, for example, for the Western Middle Ages and for the modern Olympic Games. Pavlinis is exceptionally critical of the institution of the revived Olympic Games, in spite of the fact that he considered the revival in itself ‘the greatest athletic event of the 19th century’. He maintains that the result of this revival was ‘poor and pointless’ because ‘the 31 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE present-day world, either because it was not mature, or due to other special circumstances has not been proven capable of accepting the influence of the ancient spirit’ (p. 387). By way of contrast, he presents with enthusiasm the revival of Delphic festivals attempted by Angelos Sikelianos and Eva Palmer in which the athletic contests were ‘free of any barbaric stigma’ (p. 429). These views of Pavlinis echoed views prevailing among the Greek intelligentsia of the inter-War years who, after the defeat of the Megali Idea in 1922, were seeking to redefine the content of Greekness. The emphasis placed on the spiritual hegemony of Hellenism by means of a ‘national renaissance’ meant, for one section of Greek intellectuals, rejecting the duplication of foreign models – especially those coming from the West – and modernism. It is no accident that the ‘Delphic movement’ was not an isolated example of revival, particularly in the sphere of sport, where the criticisms of moral decline and the need for ‘renaissance’ on the basis of the values of ancient Greek athletics intensified. [104] In any event, the announcement of the Delphic Games stated specifically that the aim was ‘to bring back the Spirit of the Games from the industrial level to which it has fallen to the level of full moral spontaneity from which it started out’. [105] In 1927, the Hellenic Olympic Committee decided, for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the revival of the Olympic Games, to conduct International Classical Games which would ‘re-baptise amateurs in the spirit of Olympism’, and would bring back the ‘absolutely amateur Olympic spirit, inspired by a divine breath’. [106] In the same year, Coubertin came to Greece to attend the ceremony of unveiling of the marble monument which had been erected in his honour at Olympia. In his speech at the Parnassus literary society, he spoke of his plan for a revival of the ancient Greek gymnasium. [107] The second Delphic festivals were held in 1930, and the Classical Games in 1934. [108] The revival of antiquity, yet again, was linked with the renaissance of the nation. The high value placed on antiquity and ancient sport affected both the interpretation of the historical development of physical exercise and the structure of Pavlinis’s book. Out of the 428 pages of the first edition (1927) the greater part is devoted to antiquity: some 260 pages down to the fourth century BC, at which time the beginning of the ‘decline’ is dated. More specifically, Pavlinis describes an evolutionary pattern from purposeless exercise to playing, and from there to contests and, finally, physical exercise. Although the first stages were common to many peoples, the Greeks were the only people who consciously used physical exercise for the ‘advancement of soul and body of the race’ (p. 10), according to Pavlinis. His views echo the concerns about eugenics which circulated in the Europe of the rising fascisms. [109] The superiority of ancient exercise is constantly confirmed in the text, a characteristic example being the comparison of ancient and modern physical exercise (pp. 266–271). According to Pavlinis, the perfection of physical training which had been achieved in classical times underwent decline for a number of reasons which accumulated successively and distorted the content of exercise: initially, the 32 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE impairment of the educational ‘kalos kagathos’ ideal which was practiced to the benefit of spiritual and not bodily virtues; then ‘the interbreeding with peoples of the East’ during the period of the extension of Hellenism by Alexander the Great, which distorted the Greek competitive spirit; at a later stage, the Roman conquest, which accelerated decline because the Romans were ‘an inferior people’ (p. 324) and their games were ‘bloody, harsh, eccentric spectacles’ (p. 327). However, the ‘fatal blow to physical exercise’ was dealt by the new religion, Christianity, and its teaching on asceticism (p. 337). ‘State violence’ and ‘religious fanaticism’ persecuted ‘everything Greek’, so that 394 AD can be regarded as a ‘year of death’ for sport. Consequently, the Middle Ages were the period of decline. The knights’ contests were the sole exception, although they also fell in decline. The ‘revival of physical exercise’ is a separate chapter which begins with the Renaissance and the transfer of ancient Greek texts to the West by Byzantine scholars after the Fall of Constantinople. Nevertheless, the revival of physical exercices (as Pavlinis defined it) is not dated before the eighteenth century. This schema of the history of European physical exercise is also applied to the Greek case, so that Byzantium and the entire period from 394 AD to the nineteenth century are completely downplayed. Moreover, Pavlinis does not hesitate to censure publications by Lambros and Politis, who interpreted medieval contests as games analogous to those of ancient times (pp. 404–411). It is precisely within this framework that he discusses the contests of the klephts, to which he devotes just one page (p. 412). However, having completely rejected the schema of national continuity, he ‘gilds the pill’ by writing: In general terms, as we investigate the years from 394 to the present, we see that although there are no longer games in the ancient style in the Greek lands, the contests imported from Europe have not attracted the interest of the multitude, but on the contrary the Greek people has not ceased to love leisure activities, and has striven in those contests which they have practiced since mythical times. (p. 411) A few years later, in 1930, Ioannis Chryssafis reproduces the same pattern in connection with the rise and fall of physical exercise, from ancient perfection to the ‘duels and fights with beasts’, and reiterates the view that ancient exercise disappeared with the coming of Christianity, to be revived in Western Europe in the time of the Renaissance. [110] Nevertheless, the views of Pavlinis and Chryssafis are not totally identical. In any event, in the period of National Schism, they were in opposing camps: Chryssafis was a close associate of Venizelos, whereas Pavlinis was dismissed from his post because of his anti-Venizelist convictions. [111] Their political differences inevitably influenced their analysis of the past and the future of physical education. Chryssafis did not share the devotion of Pavlinis to the ancient world nor his views on the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896. It is not, in any event, a matter of chance that his most important work is a modern history of the Olympic Games, in which a very few pages, as an introduction, are devoted to the history of exercise 33 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE down to the nineteenth century. [112] Having studied in Sweden, and as a fervent supporter of the Swedish gymnastic system, President of the Physical Education College (1918–1921) and an official of the Ministry of Education under Venizelos, he expresses a liberal, modernizing ideology. He contributed to the shaping of the main laws on physical education which were voted by all the Liberal governments (1917– 1920 and 1928–1932). [113] By reason of his ideological and political convictions and the positions he adopted as a scholar on physical education in the years 1927–1930, in his capacity as Director of the Department of Physical Training of the Ministry of Education he was unfavourable and gave no support to the Delphic plan of the Sikelianos couple. [114] Pavlinis, on the other hand, who had not studied abroad although he knew at least French, was a recruit to the anti-Venizelist camp and was opposed to the modernizing trend and the Western model of development and sought inspiration exclusively in ancient Greece. It is no accident that he was an ardent supporter of the Delphic revival. His positions, moreover, on Christian Byzantium are reminiscent of views on the superiority of Hellenism over Christianity expressed by idealistic intellectuals such as Periklis Yannopoulos. [115] These two exponents of the history of physical exercise in the inter-War years thus, give expression to two different positions. Chryssafis’s view would be characterized as ‘modernising’, ‘pragmatic’ and ‘egalitarian’: it is based on a positive assessment of modern Europe and of contemporary Greece, sets as a priority the health of children, and seeks the dissemination of sport to all the strata of society. Pavlinis’s view could be described as ‘hellenocentric’, ‘spiritual’ and ‘aristocratic’: it regards as most important the moulding of the character and of moral standards through sport. Moreover, he adopts an idealistic approach to education, rejecting the ‘pragmatist’, health-orientated approach, despises modern Europe as ‘decadent’ and virtually ‘barbaric’, and looks back to the ‘purity’ of ancient Greece. From the Inter-War Period to the Post-Dictatorship Era: The History of Physical Education Versus the History of Competitive Sport The systematic interest in physical education, which in the first three decades of the twentieth century led to legislative reforms and the writing of original works, was to decline with the deaths of its two main advocates, Chryssafis (1932) and Pavlinis (1953). Although the standards of physical education were raised in the 1930s, publications on the history of sport were rather rare in the decades which followed until the 1960s. The systematic approach to the history of Greek sport attempted by Pavlinis and Chryssafis was not continued by other physical education specialists. Indicative of this state of affairs is the fact that in 1953, in the absence of relevant textbooks, the Office for the Publication of Schoolbooks republished Pavlinis’ History of Physical Exercise. The gap became even more apparent due to the proliferation of popular sport-related publications and a rising interest in sport events and news demonstrated by the general public. 34 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE From the very few works published we can conclude that the idealization of sport in combination with a cult of antiquity [116] continued until the 1960s, while the pattern of the three thousand-year continuity of Greek athletics was consolidated on a scholarly level and in popular publications. The systematic investigation of physical exercise in Byzantium by Adamantios Adamantiou and Phaedon Koukoules in the 1930s and 1940s provided, as we saw, the necessary documentation for the continuation of physical exercise. A characteristic example of the popularized history of sport in this period is Greek Sport through the Centuries by Nikolaos G. Christodoulou, President of the local committee of the Union of Greek Athletics and Gymnastics Clubs (SEGAS) in Thessaloniki. This book was a collection of Christodoulou’s speeches which had been aired by local radio stations in 1949–1950. As such, it is directed at the general public and its author was a Greek sports personality and not a professional physical education instructor. We can thus, presume that he echoes views that were commonly accepted with regard to the history of sport and which did not have to adhere to scholarly prerequisites. [117] It is moreover clear that Christodoulou is documenting the history of competitive sports and not physical exercise. In his work the historical continuity of athletics is presented as uninterrupted from prehistoric times until the present, even in periods of the nation’s ‘slavery’. The periodization of athletic history follows the changes in national history (prehistoric times, ancient Greece, Roman rule, Byzantium, Ottoman rule, modern times). The Byzantine hippodrome, although its Roman origin is acknowledged, is presented as Hellenized ‘by the Greek character and the elegant spirit of the residents of Constantinople’ (p. 24). Even so, Christodoulou acknowledges that ‘in the countryside every notion of organised physical exercise and the organisation of major athletics games had been eclipsed’ (p. 27). During the period of Ottoman rule, armatoloi and klephts had ‘as gymnasiums their hideouts and hoary klephts as their physical exercise instructors’ (p. 29). Furthermore, references are made to sport contests at local fairs. Ancient heroes, Byzantine borderline troops and klephts with their ‘unbelievable’ feats were the ancestors of the contemporary champions. The narration of the achievements of the athletics heroes over the centuries appears akin to the concept of the modern record, of exceptional performance, of reaching the human limits. The history of sport indirectly embodies the history of performance even if the concept is anachronistic with regard to all historical periods prior to modernity. Athena Spanoudi was writing as early as 1931 in her book eloquently titled Sport a Modern Religion: What else were Heracles, Theseus, fleet-footed Achilles – a sprinter we would say today – romantic Leander of Sestos, Dighenis and so many other mythical or real heroes? What were the Andreiomenos of the folk song and the Palikars of 1821, if not athletes and champions of eternal Greece? (p. 17) Both Christodoulou and Spanoudi wrote popular works on the history of sport in which they include the modern era, that is, the period after the creation of the Greek 35 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE state. Their interest in the contemporary sport records contributed to highlighting athletic ‘achievements’ during the recent periods of Greek sport. At the same time, the flourishing of sports clubs in the inter-War period and the rapid rise in the number of sports fans created the preconditions for the appearance of a new type of sports history – the history of sports clubs. [118] This history was purely modern and did not belong to the ‘specialists’. It was distinguished by a sentimental writing style and anecdotal narrative. A little before the middle of the twentieth century, therefore, two trends in the history of sport had been established: on the one hand there was the history of physical exercise as a means of education, and on the other the history of sports and games. This first type was cultivated by professional physical education professors teaching at physical education colleges. Their work was influenced to a great extent by the foreign bibliography on the historical development of physical exercise and aspired to scholarly credibility. The second type was not scholarly, was advanced by figures in the sporting world, journalists and intellectuals who were attracted to sports and focused their attention on athletic ‘feats’ over the centuries. While performance was not of interest for the history of physical exercise, in contrast the history of sport was based on performance. Despite their differences, these two historiographical trends were in agreement on the issue of the continuity of physical exercise as an element of national history. In reality, the evidence for continuity was either completely absent (as in the history of physical exercise) or it was not sufficient (as in the history of sport). Even so, and despite the lack of evidence, continuity is found not in athletics itself but in the love of physical exercise, which is alone considered an element of the national character over the centuries. The most important work on the history of sport in the Greek state (1830–1930) after that of Chryssafis was published in the 1960s. This was the work of Pavlos N. Manitakis, former Vice-President of SEGAS, A Hundred Years of Modern Greek Sport (Athens 1962). This extensive work (637 pages) constitutes an exhaustive, year-byyear record of the actual events of Greek athletics during the first century of the Greek state. Games, performances, clubs, sports press, legislation, Greek participation in the Olympic Games, athletes, personalities of sports and physical education, and the activities of SEGAS and the Hellenic Olympic Committee are recorded in detail with no references to sources or bibliography. It is, however, clear that Manitakis conducted scrupulous research in the SEGAS archives at least. Although reference is made of the place of physical education in the school curriculum, Manitakis’ work belongs to the history of games, as its title indicates. His heroes are Olympic victors and champions. Three of these (Louis, Georgantas, Tsiklitiras) [119] grace the cover. The study highlights modern Greek athletics, resting upon the schema of the continuity in exercise. In the brief introduction, Manitakis argues that only in Greece ‘has there essentially never been a pause in the cultivation of athletics’, in contrast with the rest of the world where athletics were reborn only in the nineteenth century. Consequently, 1830 is not the beginning but an intermediary point in the national 36 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE history of athletics, which has followed a continuous and uninterrupted path since antiquity. Ancient, Byzantine and klephts and armatoloi sport are succeeded by modern Greek sport and its achievements. The high value placed on modern athletics was the final addition to the national history of sport and can be credited to Chryssafis and Manitakis. Nonetheless, other publications from the 1960s and 1970s demonstrate that there is no coherent tradition in the field of the history of physical education and sport. Views that conflict with each other, [120] studies containing factual errors, [121] and a lack of quantitative and qualitative research are typical of historical works on sport of this period. The colonels’ dictatorship (1967–1974) put a complete end to legal reforms in the education system, physical exercise in particular, clearly affecting related scholarly activities. The junta gave emphasis to school parades and gymnastics displays, the cultivation of discipline through gymnastics classes, and promoting itself internationally by showcasing champions. Ethnocentric themes and festivals which sought to cultivate national pride marked this particular era. [122] Throughout the same period the only comprehensive scholarly book of Greek sport history was written by the physical education instructor Constantinos C. Blachouras (Athens 1975). This study, entitled The Physical Education of the Greeks (Historical Development of Physical Education from Ancient Times until Today) summarizes the basic positions of the national history of sport formulated in earlier works (by Pavlinis, Adamantiou and Koukoules). This was a history of physical education hostile to championships and records which proposed a return to the ideal of kalokagathia. Blachouras’s book was privately published. It was the norm that books on the history of sport were not published by publishing houses, given the limited interest in similar publications. [123] Moreover, as it can be deduced in the overview above, the number of publications on the history of physical education and competitive sport was extremely limited. [124] Hence the central figures of modern Greek sports history did not receive much recognition for their efforts. Their names, as well the names of those who worked to spread physical exercise in Greece did not find their way to scholarly Who’s Who encyclopaedias and biographical dictionaries. The National History of Greek Sport Sports historiography in Greece from the late eighteenth century until 1982 developed in conjunction with the integration of gymnastics as a part of the school curriculum as well as with the modern interest in sports. As a result, two parallel patterns emerge – on the one hand, the history of exercise and physical education in general, and on the other the history of sports and games. Their basic difference lies in the fact that the former is critical of championships while the latter is structured around performance. The history of the Olympic Games forms a third, distinct field which incorporates both the idealistic approach to ancient kalokagathia as well as the documentation of modern Olympic records. This field was to be particularly 37 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE developed in Greece given the position of the ancient games in national history and the symbolic weight of the revival of the ancient games for national identity. Indeed, the history of physical exercise was associated primarily with the process of composing the national narrative, as it was formulated within the context of the predominant schema of national historiography during the nineteenth century. Given the importance for the self-definition of the Greeks of the concept of continuity from antiquity until the present, the history of athletics was closely linked to national identity. Athletics and, primarily, the love of exercise and the games (something that does not require historical documentation) were highlighted as integral elements of the Greek character throughout the centuries. With the presence of antiquity and the Olympic Games acting as a catalyst, the remaining periods of Greek history were successively ‘athleticised’: the competitions of the klephts and armatoloi were recognized in the nineteenth century as a ‘revival’ of ancient athletics; in the twentieth century the games of the Byzantines were recognized as a ‘survival’ of the ancient games. As a matter of fact, ‘athleticisation’ followed Hellenization. Before the history of sport became ‘national’, all periods of Greek history (Byzantine empire and Ottoman rule) had been successively integrated in a coherent paradigm of national continuity and unity. Modern Greece – the period after the creation of the Greek state – was the last to be incorporated into the pattern of national sports history. The history of this period includes the history of the revival of the Olympic Games and it was to be developed, with the exception of Chryssafis, after the end of the period under consideration here. [125] The great delay observable in the consolidation of a cohesive interpretation of the Greek history of sport, in contrast with other developments in national history, should be attributed to the fact that physical education, although it gained a place in the educational system, did not enjoy academic recognition. Physical activities had always enjoyed low esteem by most researchers working within the framework of the Western rationalist tradition. As a result, the history of physical exercise was condemned as an ‘insignificant’ activity. The undisputed primacy of the intellect resulted in the lack of original research into physical education and sports and the indifference of professional historians for this field of history. It is not by chance that the physical education instructors who produced historical studies presented sport as essentially an intellectual and not exclusively a physical activity (Pavlinis in particular). A further characteristic of the history of athletics is its circumstantial nature. The history of physical education developed due to the establishment of schools for training physical education teachers (1882–1982) while the history of the Olympic Games and athletics in general benefited from specific events, such as the first modern Olympics in Athens (1896), the Intermediate Olympic Games of 1906, the revival of ancient contests (1927–1934), the centenary of the revival of the Olympics (1996) and the Athens Olympics (2004). This history of sports was associated with the spread of sports in Greek society and it did not seek legitimization in the distant past. Of a more journalistic nature, it documented the glory of the club. As such, it cannot be incorporated into the national history of sport. 38 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The arguments presented above can be further substantiated by a look at the position of sport in general Greek histories. National historiography may have incorporated athletics into its contents but left it marginalized with the exception of the ancient games. The concept of the historical continuity of exercise was claimed but it was not documented through original historical research. Moreover, physical exercise was initially a subject for archaeology and folklore studies, and not for history. From the first Greek archaeology handbooks, published at the end of the eighteenth century, until the History of the Greek Nation in the 1970s, physical education was understood as belonging to the ‘public and private life’ of the Greeks and, as such, was not incorporated into the sphere of history. As a rule, archaeologists research the ancient games, archaeologists write about the contests of Byzantium, ethnographers work on the contests of the klephts and the armatoloi through the study of the folksong. Until the growth of social and cultural history in Greece, the dominant historical school was indifferent to sport. Developments in the field of physical education are similar. Output after 1982 was much greater and significantly differentiated. Emanating primarily from the ranks of the faculty of the department of Physical Education and Sports Science, work was to be produced on the history of sport in all historical periods. Moreover, for the first time after the events of 1896, other researchers from the human and social sciences, apart from archaeologists, took an interest in physical exercise. These facts make the period 1982–2004 a distinct area of investigation that could be the subject of a separate study. [126] Notes [1] Koulouri, ‘On the Path to Revival’, 15–16. [2] For a comprehensive account of the relations between nationalism and identity in nineteenth-century Greece, see Gallant, Modern Greece, 54–74. For an analysis of Greece’s Olympic identity as part of its national identity, see Kitroeff, Wrestling with the Ancients. [3] The History of the Greek Nation – a work of reference on Greek history even today – was published in the years 1970–78 by Ekdotike Athenon in 15 volumes. The work of many contributors with considerable ideological and academic differences among themselves, it gives expression to the basic trends of Greek historiography in the late twentieth century. In 2000, the sixteenth volume, covering the period 1941– 2000, was published. [4] Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 7, 261–4. [5] Ibid., 14, 93. Furthermore, a brief reference to the idea of a revival of the Olympic Games and to E. Zappas is to be found in Ibid., 13, 178. [6] Dem. I. Lazaridis (Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 2, 472–507) and G.A. Papathanassopoulos (Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 6, 482–92). [7] Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 2, 472. [8] Ibid., 2, 501. [9] Ibid., 6, 483–4. [10] Ibid., 6, 484. [11] Constantinos Paparrhigopoulos (1815–91) was the major Greek historian of the nineteenth century. He begun lecturing on the ‘history of the Hellenic nation from ancient times to present’ at the University of Athens in 1851. His major work History of the Hellenic Nation 39 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] was published in 15 volumes from 1860 to 1875. It was the first attempt at synthesizing a coherent national history, which integrated all three historical periods (ancient, medieval and modern) in a continuous entity. Paparrhigopoulos’s historiographical scheme had a considerable impact on his contemporaries and launched a long-lived tradition in Greek history. About C. Paparrhigopoulos, see Dimaras, Constantinos Paparrhigopoulos. I epochi tou-i zoi tou-to ergo tou. Paparrhigopoulos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 1, 266. Ibid., 1, 267. Kyrtatas, Kataktontas tin archaiotita, 17. Momigliano, ‘George Grote et l’étude de l’histoire grecque’, 371–82. Paparrhigopoulos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous. I proti morfi: 1853, 51. In that book, Paparrhigopoulos used wrongly 777 BC as the date of the first ancient Olympic Games. However, he corrected his mistake in 1861: Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 1, 103. Paparrhigopoulos, Ta didaktikotera porismata, 1, 96. Ibid., 3, 81. Ibid., 2, 108. About Fauriel see below, n.88. Karamanolakis, I syngrotisi tis istorikis epistimis, 187–98. Koulouri, Sport et société bourgeoise. Les associations sportives en Grèce 1870–1922, 116–7. Karamanolakis, I syngrotisi tis istorikis epistimis, 255–6. Momigliano, ‘George Grote et l’étude de l’histoire grecque’, 374. Lambros himself in his foreword makes some critical observations on the basis of new facts which had emerged after the publication of the book (chiefly concerning the discovery of the Athenaion Politeia of Aristotle). See Curtius, Elliniki Istoria, I, x–xxiv. First German edition was published in 1857–67. Lambros had been Curtius’s student. Karamanolakis, I syngrotisi tis istorikis epistimis, 187. Lambros, ‘Preface’, in Curtius, Elliniki Istoria, I, xiv. Curtius, Elliniki Istoria, 2, 44. In the German original (Curtius, Griechische Geschichte, t.I, Berlin 1857, 408) we read: ‘So entwickelte sich also der Begriff hellenischer Volksbildung, welcher mehr als alles Andere die Griechen von den Barbaren alter und neuer Zeit unterscheidet; der Begriff einer Bildung, welche Leib und Seele in gleichem Masse umfasste’. Lambros, Istoria tis Ellados, 1, 290; Georgios Sotiriadis, who had studied in Germany and Switzerland, had taken part in archaeological excavations and in 1912 became professor at the University of Athens, also represents the games as a factor for national unity: Sotiriadis, Istoria, 98. Lambros, Istoria tis Ellados, 1, 311. Ibid., 3, 537. Lambros, To Panathinaikon Stadion kai en auto anaskafai. According to these articles, archaeology provides an answer which silences those who have doubts about the glory of ancient Greece. The Stadium is linked with the locations of ‘the gymnasia and public displays’ which adorned ancient cities, ‘because gymnastics is a far from insignificant part of a liberal training’ (p. 7). The ancient Stadium had been excavated by Ziller in August 1869– February 1870 and had hosted the Zappas Olympics of 1870 and 1875. Lambros, Sp., ‘Epi tois egainiois tou Gymnastiriou tou Panelliniou Gymnastikou Syllogou’ (text written in 1895); ‘393–1896’ (text written in 1897); The Olympic Games 776 BC – 1896. Part I. The Olympic Games in Antiquity. Gazi, Scientific National History, 85. Lambros, Neoi orizontes, 28. Kokkinos, ‘The Greek intellectual world and the Olympic Games (1896, 1906)’, 163–4. Kyrtatas, D.I., Kataktontas tin archaiotita, 129–31. Koulouri, Dimensions idéologiques de l’historicité en Grèce, 200–11. 40 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [37] ‘Every nation makes its appearance in the precinct of civilisation equipped, in a way, with a historical passport’. Zambelios, Asmata dimotika tis Ellados, 8. [38] See Yakovaki, Evropi meso Elladas, 129, 271. [39] Ibid. Cf. Schnapp, The Discovery of the Past. The Origins of Archaeology. [40] In the same year Rigas also published in translation The New Anacharsis by Abbé Barthélemy, in which there was also a reference to the ancient games (1797). [41] Lambros, Ta eleftheria, 97. Speech of 24 March 1905. [42] Rigas, Ta Olympia, 103. [43] Paliouritis, Archaiologia elliniki, 162–73. [44] Vokos, ‘Neoellinikos athlitismos’, 98. [45] See Koulouri, ‘On the Path to Revival’; Decker, Die Wiederbelebung der Olympischen Spiele, 60–73. [46] Minoidis, Filostratou Peri gymnastikis. In the same year the doctoral thesis by Herocles Vasiadis De Veterum Graecorum Gymnastice (Berlin 1858) was published. [47] This chapter was reprinted from the book written by Ath.Stageiritis, Ogygia i archaiologia [Archaeology], 3, Vienna 1817, 452–99. [48] Pagon, Perilipsis tis gymnastikis, 13. [49] Ibid., 11. [50] Koulouri, ‘On the Path to Revival’; Georgiadis, Olympic Revival: The Revival of the Olympic Games in Modern Times; Decker, Die Wiederbelebung der Olympischen Spiele, 78–99. [51] Minoidis, Filostratou Peri gymnastikis, v. [52] Papageorgiou, D., Olympia kai Olympiakoi Agones. Cf. Kokkinos, ‘The Greek intellectual world and the Olympic Games (1896, 1906)’, 144–6. [53] A primary-school teacher and subsequently a judge of first instance, A. Papandreou was also the author of another school textbook on the history of the Greek Revolution. [54] Papandreou, Istoria tis archaias Ellados, 28–29. [55] The Olympic Games 776 BC – 1896. Part I. The Olympic Games in Antiquity, preface. [56] Spyridis, To eikonografimenon panorama ton Olympiakon Agonon, 6. In connection with other works which were published on the occasion of 1896 and deal with the ancient games see Koulouri, ‘Introduction: Rewriting the history of the Olympic Games’, 16, footnote 8. [57] Spyridis, To eikonografimenon panorama ton Olympiakon Agonon, 68. [58] Born in Patra in 1869. Jurist and journalist, he wrote for the Akropolis newspaper and edited the Athens Neologos. He also served as Prefect of Lesvos and Messenia. He published many books on historical and folklore subjects as well as on the Macedonian Question. (Megali Elliniki Engyklopaideia, 22, 2nd ed. 1959–63). A fanatical opponent of Venizelos, he published a book/pamphlet against him containing views on ancient Greek history clearly influenced by the National Schism and the Asia Minor Catastrophe: The Evil Spirits of Greek History from Ancient Times to the Present, Athens 1925 (in Greek). [59] A short account containing a considerable number of historical errors, was incorporated in another work published on the occasion of the Olympic Games of 1896: Gagalis, Kazis, Ioannidis, Perigrafi ton proton diethnon Olympiakon Agonon. [60] Spiliotopoulos, Oi Olympiakoi Agones dia ton Aionon, 207. [61] Ibid., 212. [62] Ibid., [6]. [63] Zambelios, Asmata dimotika tis Ellados, 23. [64] Ibid., 17. [65] Lambros, Istoria tis Ellados, 3, 533–41. [66] Zambelios, Asmata dimotika tis Ellados, 221. [67] Stamatiadis, O ippodromos tis Konstantinoupoleos, 23. [68] Kioussopoulou, ‘I proti edra Vyzantinis Istorias sto Panepistimio Athinon’. 41 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [69] Lambros, ‘Epi tois egainiois tou Gymnastiriou tou Panelliniou Gymnastikou Syllogou’, 243– 4. [70] Tsakopoulos, ‘Oi en Antiocheia Olympiakoi Agones’, 1–11. [71] Megali Elliniki Engyklopaideia [Great Greek Encyclopedia], 2, supplement, Athens 1927, 309. The author of the entry was Stelios Sperantsas. [72] About Pavlinis, see further endnote no. 98. [73] Pavlinis, Istoria tis gymnastikis, 339–40. [74] Ibid., 341. The identification of the medieval exercises with the contests of the knights is also encountered briefly in the work of N. Pyrgos, Paidagogiki imiorganiki gymnastiki (Athens 1880), one of the first gymnastics textbooks to be published to support physical education. Pyrgos was a fencing master and teacher at the first college for physical education instructors (1882). [75] Megali Elliniki Engyklopaideia, 10, 1934, 972–3. [76] Koukoules, Vyzantinon vios kai politismos, 3, 11, 48. [77] Ibid., 81–147. [78] The debate which took place at that time regarding the identity of the poet and the question of Frankish influences which could be traced in the poem does not concern us here. This debate did not refer to the athletic content of jousting which is described in the poem, but it was related to the Western origin of such contests that occurred in Greece. Politis maintained the equestrian contests of Frankish origin such as kontaroktypimata, tzoustra, tornemes had been integrated into Greek customs: Politis, Erotokritos, 61. Cf. the opposite view expounded in Sotiriadis, Erotokritos. [79] Typical of this was the parallelism of the clashes of the ancient Greeks against the Persians with the Greek war of Independence against the Ottoman Turks within the context of the broader clash between Europe and Asia. [80] Phrantzes, Epitomi tis istorias tis anagennitheisis Ellados; Philemon, Dokimion istorikon. [81] Meaning ‘the knowledge we have of a people’, whereas the term ‘folklore’ means ‘the knowledge which a people has’. For the definition given by the ‘father’ of Greek folklore studies, Nikolaos Politis, see Politis, ‘Laographia’, 7. [82] According to the father of German Volkskunde Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl. KyriakidouNestoros, I theoria tis ellinikis laographias, 31. The term ‘laographia’ was created by N.Politis in 1884. [83] See the announcement by Parnassos literary society: Neoellinika Analekta, 3–5. [84] Politis, Romantika chronia, 54. [85] Ibid., 56–57. [86] See above, no.19. [87] Politis, ‘Laographia’, 9. [88] Politis, To dimotiko tragoudi. Kleftika, 152–5. Claude Fauriel (1772–1844) was a French scholar, member of the group of Ideologists in Paris. Fluent in many languages and versatile philologist, he is known as the author of the first collection of popular songs of Greece (2 vols., Paris 1824–25). Politis, Alexis, I anakalypsi ton ellinikon dimotikon tragoudion, 201–17. [89] The linking of sport and the military preparation of children was common throughout the whole of Europe in the late nineteenth century. Koulouri, Sport et société bourgeoise, 54–56. [90] Lambros, ‘Epi tois egainiois tou Gymnastiriou tou Panelliniou Gymnastikou Syllogou’, 244. [91] Spiliotopoulos, Oi Olympiakoi Agones dia ton Aionon, 182. [92] Ibid., 193. [93] Dimakis is copying Spiliotopoulos in many paragraphs: Anagnosma peri gymnastikis en Elladi. [94] Megali Elliniki Engyklopaideia, 10, 1934, 973–4. In his earlier work, Armatoloi kai kleftes (Athens 1916), Kambouroglous describes the exercises and the games of klephts without referring neither to sport nor to antiquity. 42 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [95] [96] [97] [98] [99] [100] [101] [102] [103] [104] [105] [106] [107] [108] [109] [110] [111] [112] [113] [114] [115] Politis, ‘Laographia’, 14. Pachtikos, Olympiakoi Agones en Vithynia, 6. Koulouri, Sport et société bourgeoise, 56–59, 63–68. Evangelos Pavlinis (1887–1953) began to study law, but turned his attention to physical education and took his degree as a physical education instructor in 1908. He worked as such at the Ambeteios School in Cairo and in Greek town of Veria. In 1921 he was appointed professor at the Physical Education College in Athens, and from 1934 to 1939 as well as from 1945 to 1949 served as General Inspector of Physical Education. He founded the Society for Physical Education Studies (1932), published the Elliniki Agogi journal (1933–36, 1946–47, 1949) and a series of essays on physical education. Born in Aegina in 1862, he worked as a primary school teacher in Athens. Starting in 1882 he worked as a physical education instructor. Beginning in 1898 he served as Director of the Special School of Physical Education Instructors. He was also General Inspector of Physical Education (1921–31). He died in 1935. Enisleidis, Morfai tis istorias tou ellinikou proskopismou, 24, footnote 2. Born in Lefkada in 1877 and died in Athens in 1968. He was a pupil of Phokianos and a longdistance runner; he took part in the Olympic Games of 1896. He studied at the Athens Law School (1896–98), but chose to register as well at the physical education instructors’ college (1900–02). He taught as a physical education instructor in Athens secondary schools and at the Physical Education College. In the years 1905–06 he went to Egypt, where he worked as coach at the Iphitos Greek sports club of Cairo. He was the publisher of the Niki journal (1909–28) and an official of Greek scouting and nature-lovers’ associations. Of Venizelist sympathies, he fell victim to the wave of dismissals when the anti-Venizelist party was in power. Ioannis Chryssafis (1872–1932), who did postgraduate studies in Sweden and introduced Swedish gymnastics in Greece, was for many years a teacher in colleges for physical education and a physical training inspector (1910–17). He left behind an important body of writings on the history of physical training, chiefly on the nineteenth century and the revival of the Olympic Games. Koulouri, Sport et société bourgeoise, 96–98. Chryssafis, Oi sygchronoi diethneis Olympiakoi Agones, 5. The positions taken up by the Athlitiki Evdomas journal (1928–29) are typical in criticizing the performances of the Greek delegation at the Amsterdam Olympic Games, and proposing the establishment of a Sub-Ministry of Physical Education. Papadaki, To ephiviko protypo kai i delfiki prospatheia tou Angelou Sikelianou, 112. Yiannitsiotis, ‘The Fortieth Anniversary in 1934 and the Classical Games’, 100. Koulouri, ‘Introduction: The Academy of Olympism’, 21. In 1934, the revival of the games (stadion, diaulos, pentathlon and hoplites dromos) was carried out by the students of the Physical Education Academy. The processions re-enacted the ‘main periods of the development of Greek civilisation’.Yiannitsiotis, ‘The Fortieth Anniversary in 1934 and the Classical Games’, 104. Mazower, Dark Continent, 76–103. Chryssafis, Oi sygchronoi diethneis Olympiakoi Agones, 10–12. Cheimarras, To olympiakon ideodes kai o Evangelos Pavlinis, 21. Chryssafis, Oi sygchronoi diethneis Olympiakoi Agones. This work by Chryssafis is the most systematic record of the history of the revival of the Olympic Games in the nineteenth century and of the first IOC Olympic Games (Athens 1896–St Louis 1904). As such, it has influenced many Greek and international historians of sport. Karantaidou, I physiki agogi stin elliniki mesi ekpaideusi, 130–4. Papadaki, To ephiviko protypo kai i delfiki prospatheia tou Angelou Sikelianou, 112–7. Tziovas, Oi metamorfoseis tou ethnismou, 37. 43 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [116] Sakellariou, Hellas kai Athlitismos. In this work are described Creto-Mycenean athletics, Homeric athletics and Olympic athletics, while the need ‘after the second Global Disaster [. . .] for a new Truce, new Amphyctionic, new Olympic and new Delphic games’ is emphasized. Cf. Kavvadias, Ai gymnastikai archai ton archaion Ellinon iatron kai philosophon. [117] Christodoulou did, however, have the work of historians in mind, despite that there were no references except for his specific citations of Adamantiou’s work on Byzantium. [118] For example: Christodoulou, O Gymnastikos Syllogos Thessalonikis ‘Hercules’; Stefanoudakis, Milon. [119] Spyridon Louis, a legendary figure and symbol of Greek athletics history, was the first Olympic Marathon victor in 1896. Nikolaos Georgantas (1880–1958) was an Olympic champion in the discus and throwing the stone at the Olympic Games of St Louis (1904), London (1908) and the Athens Intermediate Olympic Games (1906). Constantinos Tsiklitiras (1888–1913) was an Olympic champion at the Olympic Games of London (1908) and Stockholm (1912) in the high jump and standing long jump. [120] T.G. Karatasakis, general inspector of physical education and advocate of modern Swedish gymnastics, expressed views completely different from those of Manitakis, arguing that the conditions for the development of physical education in modern Greece were ‘unfavourable’, with the result that physical education was ‘insignificant for national education’. Karatasakis, ‘I physiki agogi eis tin syneidisin tis ellinikis koinis gnomis apo tis apeleftheroseos (1821) mechri simeron’. The idealistic approach to contemporary physical education is also proposed by K.G. Cheimarras in the two books that he wrote as commentary on E. Pavlinis’ work. [121] Anonymous, ‘I ekseliksi tis athlitikis ideas stin Ellada’, 463–512. In this work the Byzantine hippodrome returns as a continuation of ancient athletics and Frankish contests and revivals of games resembling those of antiquity are passed over in silence. Cf. Papakyriakou, Syntomos anaskopisis tis istorias tou athlitismou; Palaiologos, ‘O atlitismos eis tin Ellada kata ta chronia tis douleias’, 26–27. [122] Karantaidou, I physiki agogi stin elliniki mesi ekpaideusi, 93–96. [123] For example: Tsiantas, Ta agonismata ton kleftarmatolon kai i ethnegersia; Blachouras, I physiki agogi ton Ellinon. [124] In the period 1829–1934, only 35 publications from a total of 449 are historical studies. Kalfarentzos, Elliniki gymnastiki vivliografia 1829–1934. [125] Koulouri, ‘Introduction: Rewriting the history of the Olympic Games’, 17–18. 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O Gymnastikos Syllogos Thessalonikis ‘Hercules’ kai i ekseliksis tou athlitismou en Thessaloniki [The Salonica Sports Club ‘Hercules’ and the Development of Sport in Salonica]. Thessaloniki 1927. Christodoulou, N. K. O ellinikos athlitismos dia mesou ton aionon. Omiliai [Greek Sport Through the Centuries. Speeches]. Thessaloniki 1950. 44 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Chryssafis, Ioannis. Oi sygchronoi diethneis Olympiakoi Agones [The Modern International Olympic Games]. Athens: Vivliothiki tis Epitropis Olympiakon Agonon, 1930. Curtius, E. Elliniki Istoria, [Greek History]. Translated by Sp.Lambros, Vol. 1–5. Athens 1898–1900. Curtius, E. Griechische Geschichte. t.I, Berlin 1857. Decker, W. Die Wiederbelebung der Olympischen Spiele [The Revival of the Olympic Games], Peleus Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Griechenlands und Zyperns Band 42. 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Romaiou, 1852. 48 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Bodies that Differ: Mid- and Upper-Class Women and the Quest for ‘Greekness’ in Female Bodily Culture (1896–1940) Eleni Fournaraki This article discusses different expressions of mid- and upper-class Greek women’s use of classical antiquity in relation to female bodily culture. It focuses on two cases, connected with successive phases of the collective women’s action in Greece. The first case concerns principally the conjuncture of the Athens Olympic Games of 1896. The games offered the opportunity to the Ladies’ Journal, the weekly that gave expression to the first feminist group in Greece and its leading figure, C. Parren, to put forward a discourse which, by constructing a specific image of the ancient Heraia games for ‘maidens’, ‘invents’ a specific athletic-competitive ‘tradition’ on behalf of Greek women of their social class. The second case rejoins the same circle of women principally in the interwar years as leading figures of the Lyceum of Greek Women, the organization which distinguished itself by juxtaposing to the newly formed militant feminist organizations its ‘hellenic-worthy’ activity, by organizing monumental festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium, which, through displays of ‘national’ dances – folk and ‘ancient’ dances – and other ritual events, performed the ‘tradition’ of the nation from prehistory until today. Introduction Within the framework of Greek nationalism, the gradual appropriation of modern discourses and practices concerning physical exercise has been legitimized, since the first decades of the independent Greek state, primarily on the basis of an unflinching devotion to the ‘ancestral’ athletic ‘heritage’. There is no doubt that the alleged affinities of this ‘heritage’ with modern athletic values reinforced the claims of participation in Western civilization as opposed to the recent ‘oriental’ past of 49 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE ‘despotism’, ‘obscurantism’ and bodily-spiritual ‘degeneration’. However, at the same time, the nationalization of the ‘glorious’ athletic tradition of classical antiquity was an ideological process which contributed greatly to the broader quest for a pure ‘Greekness’ juxtaposed or even opposed to ‘Westernization’. In other words, the adoption of Western elements of bodily culture and sociability presupposed this ‘translation’ of the modernizing effects drawn by this adoption into the language of national authenticity and continuity (see Koulouri, present volume): that is, the language invoking the preservation of a genuine Greek national ‘character’, which had as one of its fundamental traits the ‘love’ for athletics and freedom, according to the liberal and patriotic or the more disciplinary and military but nonetheless manly values attributed to the ancient Greek athletic model. It is well known that, as part of the overall critical role that gymnastics and sport activities had in the creation of fundamental ‘stereotypes’ of Western masculinity, various perceptions of ancient athletics, especially those inspired by the ancient Greek plastic representations of the athlete, offered a productive field for the construction of aesthetic and moral models of manhood within Western modern civilization in general. What makes the difference in the case of modern Greece is the fact that the construction of a national identity was additionally at stake. As a matter of fact, the various discursive uses of the ‘ancestral’ athletic ‘heritage’ and the endeavours seeking to establish the continuity of the nation in the ‘love’ for physical exercise throughout the centuries constitute versions of a dominant narrative, which constructs the national identity together with that of manhood. In other words, any attempt to understand sport and the legitimizing mediation of ancient athletics as a constituent element of national history and identity involves a consideration of gender issues. Approaching the relevant discourses as being ‘neutral’ in terms of gender, only obscures the question of gender relations of power intrinsic to these discourses. In this respect, it is significant that the first women’s attempts in late nineteenthcentury Greece to advocate the right of their sex to the male-dominated universe of physical exercise and sport presupposed endeavours of an ‘appropriation’ of the ‘glorious’ national athletics past on behalf of women. It is also significant that some decades later and in a totally different setting, the quest of ‘Greekness’ in female bodily culture legitimized women’s claims for a renewed and dynamic, – that is, hegemonic – national role within the public sphere: that of shaping mass national culture and performing the ‘tradition’ of the nation. This article discusses these two very different cases of mid- and upper-class Greek women’s use of classical antiquity in relation to female bodily culture. The first case focuses on the discourse formulated on the occasion of the 1896 Athens Olympics (and to a lesser extend the Athens Intermediate Olympics of 1906) by the Ladies’ Journal (1887–1917), the periodical which gave expression to the first wave of middle-class women’s protest in Greece, and its editor Callirhoe Parren (1859–1940). Parren was the first to introduce feminism in Greece and to elaborate a moderate version of ‘emancipation through education and paid work’, before the vote was claimed by the organized feminist movement of the interwar period. [1] 50 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE This later period is mainly examined through the second case of this article. This analyses the spectacular ‘great national festivals’ organized by the Lyceum of Greek Women, a prominent organization which played host to a wide spectrum of social/ reformist activities of mid- and upper-class Greek women during this period. [2] The ‘revival’, standardization and diffusion of the Greek folk dances as ‘surviving remnants’ of the ancient dances, was one of the Lyceum’s prominent activities, which shaped the ideal of female bodily culture elaborated by the association and performed within the framework of its celebrations. In our analysis of these two very different cases of a quest for ‘Greekness’ in female bodily culture – the first concerning discursive practices while the second symbolic and performative ones – the notion of the ‘invented tradition’ will be a useful tool, especially for the second case. [3] Moreover, what principally leads our analysis is the attempt to point out that both cases constructed ‘bodies that differ’ in terms of gender, nationalism and social class. Besides, these two cases are connected through a more tangible historical given: C. Parren and her close female associates in the Ladies’ Journal were also the founders of the Lyceum of Greek Women. I. Inventing a National Female Athletics Past: The Ladies’ Journal, Women’s Emancipation and the Athens Olympics of 1896 and 1906 In accordance with the prominent modernistic, pedagogical paradigm of the time, in fin de siècle Greece the Ladies’ Journal was the principal medium in which the articulation of the discourse which advocated the necessity for an equal participation of male and female youth in physical education took shape. The main argumentation of the modernistic discourse can be summarized as follows: [4] On the one hand, collective gymnastics within school was a basic means of cultivating the feeling of participation into the imaginary national community; on the other, reinforcing physical training, properly adapted to the specificities of the age and sex of school population, would be a main channel of modernization of the whole educational system so far based on ‘scholastic’ and excessive intellectual work, alien to ‘practical’ and ‘useful’ needs, inadequate to the ‘vivid’ nature of childhood and youth and a serious threat to the health of the nation’s future generations. Within this discourse, female physical education, so far neglected even in private girls schools, constituted a special issue, mainly as it concerned adolescence: in the case of young girls, the excessive intellectual work was particularly questioned as infecting their capacity of reproduction and, by extension, the health and strength of the ‘race’. The linking of nationalism and irredentism with arguments drawn from the ideas of social Darwinism resulted in shaping a milieu and a trend particularly favourable for the promotion of girls’ gymnastics. It is indicative that this trend decisively and systematically passed from theory to educational practice, especially after the particular juncture of 1896–1897: that is, after the Olympic Games, in which the Greek athletes’ achievements in the stadium nurtured the expectations for ‘future victories in the field of battle’, while one year later, the humiliating defeat of Greece in 51 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE the Greco-Turkish war dramatically contradicted these expectations, leading to a real national crisis and collective trauma. This defeat was the first serious challenge of irredentism and the expansionist versions of the national ‘Great Idea’, the Megali Idea. In this climate, the health and physical development of future mothers of the nation gained a particular and unprecedented importance, mobilizing to some extend pedagogical circles, voluntary associations (gymnastics and sports clubs and women’s collective action) as well as the State. Overall, in the 1890s, after the necessity for equal access to physical exercise for both sexes was theoretically established through various arguments – nationalist, disciplinary, hygienist, medical, etc. – attention turned to a special field of gendered debate, that is, the normalization of physical exercise ‘proper’ for female youth, according to the ‘specificity’ of woman’s ‘nature’ and the social ‘predestination’ dictated by this ‘nature’; or, in other words, to the precise content of ‘difference’ in bodily culture between the sexes, according to various social constructs of ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’. [5] The Ladies’ Journal reproduces all facets of this debate for female physical exercise structured around the ‘difference’ of woman’s ‘nature’, mainly through translations of essays written by Western women pedagogues, doctors and hygienists. But at the same time it defends women’s access to physical exercise, as well as to knowledge, in the name of abstract common human rights and of equal individual needs between the two sexes. What distinguishes the journal’s discourse, especially its editor’s C. Parren, compared to dominant views in the domestic version of the discussion, is the association of the female physical exercise issue with the ‘woman’s question’ as a social question, that is, with the notions of equality and ‘emancipation’ as articulated by the journal. The so-called ‘natural’ female physiological-psychical weakness and excessive sensibility is strongly questioned and mostly attributed to social conditions and conventions of women’s existence, mainly within mid- and upper- urban social strata; it is, furthermore, considered as a symptom of women’s subordination within a longstanding and oppressive male order. This assumed ‘natural’ weakness is, then, perceived as the effect of deprivation from what is natural, as a result of alienation. In Parren’s discourse in particular, the frequent dynamic representations of trained young female bodies become basic metaphors of re-appropriation of the fundamental human substance, basic symbols of freedom and self-dependency, tokens of resistance to male oppression. However, in addition to their liberating qualities, these bodies, destined to fulfil the ‘beautiful and laborious task of maternity’, are praised as the safest guarantee of the future strength and flourishing of the race. Hence, more than a human right, women’s access to physical training becomes a patriotic duty, imposed by biology. [6] This argument tends to dominate the discourse of the Ladies’ Journal and the writings of its editor, after the defeat of 1897 onwards. But this is more than a simple reproduction of the dominant argument in favour of women’s physical exercise. In the context of the national crisis provoked by the defeat and in the breach opened into the hardcore of nationalist ideology by the first breakdown of the Megali Idea, C. Parren elaborates a broad ‘regenerative’ female mission in the public space, led by 52 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE women of the middle- and upper-social strata: it fell to their lot to reactivate the nation and to shape the coming generations with the ‘vital power’ of ‘Hellenism’, which, in Parren’s view, refers exclusively to the ancient Greek past and ideal. This ‘regenerative’ mission had motherhood in its core. It was legitimized in the name of the maternal ‘nature’ shared by all women, but motherhood was re-defined as a collective duty and service towards the nation-state. Thus, a claim to citizenship was justified on behalf of women, presupposing full possession of civil and social rights (political rights were left aside for the time being). This citizenship was concretized, according to Parren, through women’s own ‘politics’: that is, their voluntary philanthropic and educational activities which were directed to women and children of the petit-bourgeois and working-class strata. The entire ideological construct gave meaning to – and drew additional legitimization from – women’s mass mobilization during the war of 1897 and their multifaceted patriotic action which had established their collective presence within the public space. [7] Among the philanthropic and educational activities, the School of Women Physical Educators (Scholi Gymnastrion), founded by the Union of Greek Women in 1897 was directly associated to the defeat and to the ‘regenerative’ women’s mission by the Ladies’ Journal: the School’s girls, ‘those small battalions of women of tomorrow’, by making strong the female bodies and souls would actually reform the contemporary generation of men, whose ‘softness’ and ‘degeneration’, inherited of course by their mothers, had been so dramatically demonstrated by the war. [8] As we have argued elsewhere (Fournaraki, ‘The Olympism of the Ladies’), the tension that permeates the journal’s discourse between equality and difference, rights and duties, emancipation and motherhood, did not favour the entirely unreserved and unambivalent defence of ‘excessive’ athletic forms of exercise and sport on behalf of women; nor did it favour the full recognition, in women’s case, of competitive individualistic values of sport or of its purely recreational character as a free leisure activity; finally, it did not favour the formulation of any explicit demand of women’s participation in the Athens 1896 Olympic events. However, as it concerns the Olympic Games of 1896, in Parren’s discourse the sense of exclusion is clearly present. From the very beginning, she spoke of the ‘unjust and unreasonable proscription’ of her sex from the Games both of antiquity and of the modern world, a result not of the inadequate practice of physical exercise among women, but of the enduring male-dominated order of things, which imposes the rules here too. But the journal’s criticisms are principally directed against male partiality, which tacitly imposed women’s exclusion, regarding it as self-evident. [9] The Ladies’ Journal protest is particularly vivid as it concerns women’s exclusion from active participation in the cultural events that accompanied the Olympic Games of 1896, a stance which, according to Parren, completely underestimated Greek women’s collective action, that is, voluntary associations, as a constituent part of civil society. Thus, although the Ladies’ Journal did not advocate women’s right to participate as athletes neither during the 1896 Athens Olympic Games nor 53 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE during the Athens Intermediate Olympics of 1906, it developed a discourse which attempted to appropriate in a variety of ways the great athletic and cultural events of the games in question on behalf of the female sex. History, or to be more exact, that privileged imaginary field of indefinite time and space that supplies history mixed up with mythology, was fundamental for such a discursive and symbolic ‘appropriation’. The digressions into antiquity with which the editor of the Ladies’ Journal occasionally garnishes her discourse about the 1896 Olympics (and to a lesser extend about Intermediate Olympics of 1906) can be approached, regardless of their historical accuracy, as an attempt to (re)-construct a distant past in which women’s athletics and competitive activities had been possible or even socially acceptable; they can be approached, that is, as attempts to ‘problematize’ exclusion in the present time as well as to create an ideal of female athletics legitimized by the national past and consistent with the ethos of contemporary women of mid- and upper- social strata. In doing so, C. Parren was ‘engendering’ the dominant narrative of the ancient Greek athletic past. [10] Parren’s narrative of women’s athletic past begins with a reference to the dynamic mythical Amazons who frequently stand, in other Parren’s writings, as a metaphor for female beauty and freedom, see power, although not without some ambivalence. In her essay on women and the Olympics, the Amazons are represented as obscure and indeterminate creatures, equivalent to the most distant, mysterious and shrouded par excellence in myth past; they also acquire a negative connotation: their warlike nature made them fearless and independent, but also harsh and arrogant, particularly towards the male members of their tribe. But this warlike ‘nature’ is directly associated to excessive physical training: the Amazons owed this loss of basic feminine characteristics to their ‘greater devotion to bodily exercise’. [11] Thus, leaving behind these shadowy, masculine and somewhat exotic figures, leaving also behind the extraordinary but more ‘feminine’ figure of the mythical runner and hunter Atalanta, Parren’s discourse focuses on the sun-drenched and verdant land of sacred Olympia: on those Greek women who, without betraying the ‘virtues’ and the ‘dignity’ of their sex and their aristocratic descent, enjoyed the exceptional privilege of taking part, both directly and indirectly, in competitive events. More particularly, Parren refers to the women’s right to participate in the chariot-races of Olympia as owners of horses and discusses in detail the Heraia ‘foot-race for maidens’ held and performed – as she says – by women of ‘aristocratic families’ of Elis in Olympia, within the context of festivals in honour of Hera. [12] Indeed, every four years (not five, as Parren wrongly mentions), aristocratic women of Elis organized three footraces for three different age-groups of young women (not necessarily of aristocratic descent and probably not only indigenous), in the same stadium as the Olympic Games. [13] The reconstruction of the past of the Heraia becomes, then, the main channel for criticism of exclusion in the present. The modern organizers of the Olympic Games, ‘with all the equality of the two sexes that has been slowly albeit universally 54 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE acknowledged, with all the freedoms that woman has acquired’, ‘have spoken not a word about women, either in their invitations or in their programmes’; not a single article of the relevant regulations refers to ‘women athletes’, ‘nor has any exercise been appointed in which they would be able to compete, even among themselves’. On the contrary, the ancient founders of the Olympic Games, ‘with all the [. . .] restrictions to which women were condemned at that time, [. . .] set up special contests for women [. . .]’. [14] But what seems more important according to the editor of the Ladies’ Journal is the fact that in the Heraia games the women competed ‘on virtually the same terms as the men’. An image of total equality is, then, elaborated by the author: participation in the games demanded female bodies equally ‘well and systematically trained’; the prizes were awarded by women judges of aristocratic birth, and in the same ritual and reverential atmosphere; the victors were crowned, as were the men, with a wreath from the sacred olive. Above all, the victors at the Heraia were entitled to the same immortality among mortals: they had the same entitlement to honour and glory among relatives and fellow-citizens, but also to ‘jealousy’ between competitors. In other words, they shared equally with men all the powerful feelings produced by success, which accompany the victors for ever throughout their lives. [15] Nevertheless, according to this idealized image of the Heraia, these ancient Greek female runners had nothing masculine about their movements, which were full of ‘grace and freedom’. By way of contrast to the Amazons, the figures of the Heraia runners are represented either as elegant and ethereal, virtually dematerialized, ‘gliding rather than walking, flying rather than running’, or as strikingly female (read erotically provocative), with their light tunic to the knees ‘and so far off the right shoulder as to leave the breast almost bare’ and with their ‘hair abundant and loose’ covering ‘like a silk veil their snowy-white and sculpted shoulders’. [16] Brief, they provided an incomparable spectacle ‘of beauty and picturesqueness’, worthy of the characteristics of their sex. [17] Thus, in this ancestral model of women’s athletics, moderate and tasteful, even this public display of femininity, free and without bashfulness because of the needs of exercise, did not seem to threaten either female virtue or the dignity of high breeding. Hence, the Heraia were perceived as a spectacle of high aesthetics which, in addition to other events involving women in honour of the goddess of marriage, had a ‘much more sacred character’ than the men’s Olympic Games: in the contests of Heraia, ‘human blood was not spilt, nor noses broken, or teeth uprooted, or eyes gouged out, or ears and lips cut off’. [18] The contrast between the descriptions of these two models of competition is obvious in Parren’s discourse: on the one hand, the male Olympic Games, which turned ‘the sanctuary of the Altis into a wrestlingground of barbarians, where handsome youths in their prime were mutilated, swimming in their blood to the cheers and applause of the spectators’, and, on the other, the peaceful women’s festivals of the Heraia, which represented par excellence the values of beauty, moderation and reverence. The very origin of these festivals also attested the humane and peaceable feelings of the female sex since, according to the 55 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE myth reproduced by C. Parren, they had been established in order to honour the successful initiative of the women of Elis in reconciling their men folk with a hostile neighbouring community. [19] Through this argument, a special female ideal of competition was constructed which, being juxtaposed to the cruelty and inhumanity of the men’s games, appropriated the ‘true’ essence of competition and the most noble values created by ancient Greek civilization. Curiously, this negative representation of the ancient Greek Olympic Games was converted into a justification of the salutary effects attributed to the preservation of separate gender ‘roles’ and ‘spheres’ in ancient Greek society, according to a specific imaginary view of private-public relationship. It was precisely the ‘barbarity’ of male athletic competitions, together with the ‘total nudity’ of the bodies it required, that provided the editor of the Ladies’ Journal with the basis for a rational explanation for the austere prohibition of female attendance in the ancient Olympic Games: If ‘men of the genius and intelligence of our ancestors’, explains Parren, prohibited on pain of death even women’s physical presence at the Olympic Games, this was because, in honouring the particular feelings of women’s ‘nature’, their innate compassion and tenderness, as well as their inherent sense of modesty, they wanted to protect women from a spectacle that offended these feelings. [20] The sight of the ‘brutality’ of the men’s games, ‘arousing the love of humanity, innate in woman’s heart’, would prompt mothers to forbid their children to take part in them; but most importantly, through the force of habit and with the passage of time, these feelings would have been blunted, making women ‘harsh, inhuman, without pity’. [21] Within this framework, women’s role was actually perceived as the antithesis of the competitive male values of the public sphere (i.e. in war, politics, the market or sport) and consisted in safeguarding all those essentially different (read morally superior) ‘feminine’ values of peace, solidarity, friendship, inner tranquillity and prosperity – without the counterbalancing function of which the very essence of the male/public sphere would have been alienated and the complete dominance of its values would have been the cause of ‘ills’ or even of ‘hell’, as Parren writes. [22] Therefore, according to this argument, the strict female attendance prohibition from the Olympic Games of antiquity was converted into the necessary price which women had to pay in order to safeguard the values of their allocated private sphere and keep them intact from any intrusion of the public/male values, clearly perceived as non-autonomous and subordinate to those of private life. In the last analysis in Parren’s discourse, the private/feminine sphere is not simply the complementary antithesis of- and of equal value with the public/male sphere, it is its superior. As a result of a possible overthrowing of the division of gender ‘roles’, this ‘hell’ brought about by the invasion of public values into private life and, consequently, by the cancellation of the latter’s counterbalancing functions, would have disturbed the overall balance between public and private on which the social order seemed to be based. This is how the exclusion of women from a ‘manly’ activity (in this case from the war-like athletic games) was converted into a salutary strategy for the overall preservation of social order. 56 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Through the above gendered narrative of the most glorious national athletics ‘heritage’, a special female competitive-athletic ‘tradition’ was ‘invented’– if we may use the notion of the ‘invented tradition’ for a primarily discursive construct – and an ideal of female bodily culture was constructed, on behalf of women of middle- and upper-social strata. As a matter of fact, within the Ladies’ Journal discourse this ideal gained its full social meaning through its direct juxtaposition to the totally negative representation of the body of a woman ‘of the people’, Stamati(n)a Revithi (or Rovithi), the only woman who, according to all relevant evidence, attempted to take part in the first modern Olympic Games and did succeed in participating in the periphery of the event. The Athenian dailies refer to S. Revithi as a very poor woman from Piraeus (originally from the island of Syros), probably a widowed or unmarried mother of perhaps more than one children, who presented herself with her baby in her arms before the Olympic Committee at the end of February 1896, asking to compete in the marathon race with the hope of some kind of economic reward in case she succeeded. The members of the Committee rejected her application as ‘overdue’, while it seems that they also questioned Revithi’s ability to carry out such an endeavour, especially in conventional female attire. In spite of the official rejection Revithi did not give up, probably encouraged by some publicity that her case had won and the sympathizing attitude of some journalists, especially after she ran, by way of a trial, the distance from Marathon to the centre of Athens. In the end, seeing that the Committee would not permit her to participate in the Marathon race of 29 March 1896, she ran it alone the next day. She made sure that she acquired official documentation to substantiate her feat, including a certificate verifying the time of departure signed by the mayor, the judge and the teacher of Marathon as well as the time of arrival at the Olympic stadium, vouched with a signed statement by military officers that were stationed near the stadium. [23] Parren did not hide her strong disapproval of Revithi’s undertaking. Without doubt, her ideal of ‘hellenic-worthy’ female bodily culture, especially represented by the aesthetically idealized bodies of the maiden runners of the Heraia, had nothing to do with that regrettable, marginal appearance of a ‘woman of the mob’ who, ‘barefoot’, ‘dishevelled’, ‘in a full-length garment’, sought persistently to compete in the Marathon race, in the obvious hope of financial reward. [24] Within the Ladies’ Journal discourse, the image of Revithi, defined by the totally negative meaning assigned to her lower-class status and characteristics, stands out as the absolute opposite, the ‘countertype’ (G. Mosse’s term), [25] which permitted the further valorization of the ‘magnificent spectacle’ provided by the maiden runners of ancient Elis. This countertype also contrasted to modern bourgeois models of trained female bodies, with the ‘picturesque’ garments suitable for the occasion, and with all the beauty, the skill and the propriety which one would expect from these bodies. Undermining then, these models, Revithi’s exploit, which was inspired by ‘sordid’ financial incentives and had no noble ‘ambition’, stands out at the opposite extreme of amateur athletics as a hallmark of the middle- and upper-social strata. As Parren 57 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE sums up, ‘she is quite simply a woman of the mob, ugly, without even expressive features, without the motive of ambition for distinction and honour, competing alongside men. Quite simply, she sought to take part in the Games in the hope of a monetary reward, with which to provide for her daughter’. [26] As the undertaking of the Athens 1896 Olympics neared its completion, the initial concerns and doubts of the Ladies’ Journal about the success of the games and about Greece’s ability to be represented with dignity dissolved and the journal’s stance changed radically. Following the general trend, the discourse of the journal and its editor now turns towards the apotheosis of the athletic spectacle and of the trained male body while, as the victories of Greek athletes began, this body is more and more appropriated by the nationalistic rhetoric, is more and more ‘hellenized’. In the context of exaltation of national feelings provoked by the Greek athletes’ performance in the 1896 Greek Championship Games (9–10 March), which preceded the Olympics, interesting displacements and redefinitions in nationalistic rhetoric can be detected, expressed in a paradigmatic way by the Ladies’ Journal discourse. [27] The persistent invocation of the Greek nation’s achievements in letters and science as the safest ground for claiming a share in ‘progress’ and for forging a link with antiquity as well as with Western modernity was gradually abandoned. In its place, the cult of athletic achievements as a ‘predisposition’ that the Greek race, above all the other races, ‘inherited’ from the ancient ancestors unfolded. Thus, the previously despised lack of any athletic training and tradition is now converted into a great advantage: by presenting athletic performance as a result of ‘inherited’ physical and psychological qualities, this deficiency is turned into irrefutable evidence of the Modern Greeks’ ‘noble’ descent and of the ‘purity’ of the Greek ‘race’ – see, of its natural superiority. Within this nationalist rhetoric which drew upon the vocabulary of social Darwinism and eugenics, the concept of the superiority of the race is mediated, and symbolically reinforced, by the metaphors of ‘nobility’ and also of ‘manliness’ of body and soul, commonly attributed to physical exercise. In this context, natural robustness, manliness and aristocratic descent make up an indivisible entity of symbolisms of power and superiority. At the same time, motherhood is modified into the necessary and sufficient condition for women’s association with the Olympics and the imaginary national community itself. Within the Ladies’ Journal’s exemplary narrative of the athletics spectacle as a symbolic ritual of national unification it was women, among all spectators, who in the end would ‘carry off the greatest triumph’. [28] Thus, in Parren’s discourse, without it being necessary for women to compete or to provide any other ‘sign of life and existence’, they finally appropriated the event by the means of the very essence of their sex. Overall, this type of argumentation was displacing the centre of gravity from the principally cultural perception of national ‘continuity’, from the emphasis, that is, on cultural characteristics – such as letters, science, democracy – that make up the argument for the superiority of the ‘West’ and of the ancient Greek model as opposed to the ‘East’, towards the organic body itself, its qualities and tendencies, racial characteristics and the principle of heredity. Through this ‘biological’ language and 58 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE its assumed scientific authority, already established nationalist stereotypes invoking an ahistorical, fixed and unalloyed ‘Hellenic’ ‘character’ were reinvigorated, shaping the dominant legitimating argument of direct descent from the ancient Greeks and of the organic continuity of the nation. This ‘biologising’ justification of national descent and continuity reinforced the self-sufficiency of ‘Hellenism’ in the face of the ‘West’, as a general idea and more particularly as a justification for the development of Modern Greeks’ athletic competence: it was perceived as the necessary cultivation of an ‘indigenous’ quality and not as a process of apprenticeship in a modern Western institution. It is precisely this idea that dominated the Ladies’ Journal narrative of the Athens’ Olympics of 1896, formulating a discourse about sport that constructed the national identity in contrast not to the ‘backward’ ‘East’ but to the ‘advanced’ Western nations. What shaped the logical core of the argument in this discourse is the total dissociation of physical achievements from education, science and technique. This dissociation made Modern Greek’s athletic competence to appear as stemming exclusively from a fundamental and primary natural aptitude which is particular to the Greek ‘race’. This aptitude distinguished Greeks from the athletically advanced Western peoples whose more ‘industrialized’ athleticism is principally based on technique, method and hard training. Through such comparisons-juxtapositions, persistently reproduced in C. Parren’s narrative of the 1896 games, the journal’s editor constructs an essentially male, and specifically ‘manly’, Greek physical-athletic ‘character’, through which the more general national ‘character’ is manifested. Here, however, history plays its part. The fundamental traits of this ‘character’ were bequeathed to Modern Greek athletes – and generally ‘people’– first and foremost by their ancient Greek forefathers and the aesthetically strong taste of physical training they had developed. Moreover, inherent athletic ability was viewed as bequeathed by more recent ancestors as well: the heroic fathers of the period of the ottoman rule (i.e. the klephts/bandits) and of the Greek War of Independence, who ‘became men’ in fighting the conqueror, thus particularly developing the inclinations and abilities of the ‘battling nation’. [29] By investing various athletic events (‘ancient’ or ‘modern’) with specific meanings and values re-affirming the ‘inherited’ qualities, almost all sports, regardless of the success of Greek athletes in them, were appropriated on behalf of the Greek physical-athletic ‘character’ and ‘continuity’ with the forefathers – ancient and modern – was declared. These ideological constructs, serving the needs of Modern Greek identity as opposed to the industrialized nations of the West, are at the same time critical to some aspects of the modernity of sport. In contrast, principally, to the ancient Greek athletic model, which combines health and robustness with the ‘beauty’, the ‘harmony’ and the ‘plasticity’ of movement, modern Western sport is represented as based exclusively on the pursuit of record, the cultivation of technique and development of the ‘mechanical’ part of the exercise, and, by extension, the formation of the ‘body-machine’ of the present industrial age. This criticism, which was not exceptional in contemporary Greek discourses about sport, [30] in this case 59 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE was mostly founded upon a specific reconstruction of the ancient Greek model, the one inspired by the cult of the male athlete as represented in classical art. [31] Aestheticism, then, blended with elitism and some kind of racism, becomes the main channel of perception of modern sport; as we have seen, the identification of the very ideal of bodily strength and beauty with ‘distinguished’ social – or ‘racial’– origins was rife in Parren’s discourse, expressing concerns of social distinction through sport. Even though aestheticism and elitism were basic constituent parts of the evolving Olympic ideology of the late nineteenth century, in Parren’s writings are presented in opposition to other fundamental elements of Olympism and of modern sport in general, for instance the intensification of muscular strength which builds ‘character’. [32] Nothing illustrates better the Ladies’ Journal circumspection or ambivalence for modern sport than its editor’s sharp criticism of cycling, a principal modernistic symbol and at the same time, in the case of Western countries at least, one of the most popular sports and among the first to be opened up to the masses. In Parren’s descriptions of the 1896 Olympics, the cyclist appears as the absolute opposite, the ‘countertype’, of the ancient Greek ideal of beauty and harmony of the male body in training and as the extreme paradigm of the ‘body-machine’ shaped by the athleticism of ‘advanced’ Western people. [33] As such, the bicycle becomes even more ‘suspicious’ in the case of the female sex in general, and of mid- and upperclass Greek women in particular. Cycling appears as an ‘alien’ vogue, adopted for reasons of ostentation. It appears, furthermore, as an exercise threatening femininity. The argument typically illustrates, I believe, the strong influence of classicism, aestheticism and elitism in Parren’s perception of modern sport in general, and, in regard to women of her class, in particular. Ten years later, on the occasion of the Athens 1906 Intermediate Olympics, C. Parren would give very ‘eloquent’ evidence of her ambivalence concerning the relation of women – and woman’s ‘nature’ – to sport: in contrast to her enthusiasm over the spectacular display of Swedish gymnastics presented by the Danish professional women gymnasts at the opening ceremony of the games, she was completely silent regarding the first successful appearance of Greek women in an Olympic event, in tennis. [34] It is true that this novelty of young women of the Athenian ‘elite’ practising some ‘luxury’ sports such as tennis, rowing or horse-riding left rather indifferent the Ladies’ Journal. But more than women’s sportive activity itself, what mostly provoked C. Parren’s strong disapproval was the display of this activity in public. On the eve of the Intermediate Olympiad of 1906, C. Parren will categorically condemn the public display of athletic achievements in the case of future mothers: if young girls train, she says, it is because they ‘obey a natural law of health and robustness not only of our sex, but of the whole of our race’; but ‘there is no reason for them to descent into public arenas and demonstrate their progress and their success in sport’. [35] In fact, C. Parren had other expectations for female participation in this second international athletic festival of Athens, which gave her the opportunity to express her disappointment: since the 1896 revival of the Olympic Games the Western model 60 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE of sport had dominated to the detriment of the ‘resurrection of the cult of what is fine’, which characterized the ancestral model. Hence regarding the 1906 Intermediate Olympics she did not expect ‘victors in beauty’ to emerge, not even from among the Greek athletes, since for 10 years ‘the work of preparation of the gymnastics associations has been confined to the mechanical part of the exercises only’. [36] It is noteworthy that these views were now contextualized within a broader critique launched by the Ladies’ Journal in those years, which concentrated on the abusive uses of physical exercise of the youth; on the unhealthy effects, that is, caused by the excessive and irregular exercise of muscular strength, in view of the intensive preparation for a specific competition or a gymnastics display in school. However, what was basically at stake in Parren’s discourse about modern Olympics remained the neglect of beauty by modern sport practices and the invocation of the paradigmatic ancestral model. To counterbalance the under-representation of beauty at the Athens Intermediate Olympics, Parren proposed the ‘resurrection’ of the Panathenaic procession. This was the latest strategy put forward for the appropriation of the event by women, and, of course, by the nation, since it would seal the Olympics with a genuine Hellenic festival of ‘beauty’. Parren described in all its magnificence the re-establishment of aspects of the Panathenaea, the ancient Athenian religious and athletic festival, thus inventing a monumental ritual worthy to symbolize, within the Olympic institution, its Hellenic origins: hundreds of ‘maidens’ ‘from the most beautiful and stalwart’, in ancient costume and bearing baskets of flowers, would adorn the prize-giving ceremony with their presence, and would immediately afterwards accompany the prize-winners and the crowds in a sacred pilgrimage to the Parthenon. Such a bright ceremony would serve, furthermore, to blazon abroad Greece’s rightful demand of holding the Olympic Games permanently in the land which gave birth to them. [37] This proposal of the editor of the Ladies’ Journal went unheard at the time. It is noteworthy, however, that within the framework of the next Olympic festival held in Athens almost 30 years later, that is, the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Revival of the Olympic Games in 1934, together with the representation of ‘classical athletics games’, a variation of Parren’s original idea was to be materialized, containing this double ritual in the Panathenaic Stadium and in Acropolis: ‘wreathbearing maidens’ in archaic attire would crown all the countries’ flags in the Parthenon and processions would be performed in the Stadium (together with ‘national dances’). Officially responsible for these rituals on behalf of the Hellenic Olympic Committee (EOA) was the Lyceum of Greek Women (hereafter Lyceum), an organisation that Parren founded in 1911. [38] By 1934, the Lyceum had been established in public consciousness through monumental festivals, which, by means of processions, displays of costumes and dances of different eras of ‘Hellenism’, represented the ‘glorious’ past and the present of the Greek nation. According to Greek press reports, the first festival of the sort organized by the Lyceum in 1914 (see later) reminded of the ‘glorious’ days of the Panathenaic 61 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Stadium during the great Olympic events of 1896 and 1906. According to all accounts, this feminine organization was a pioneer in the use of the Stadium for this type of mass festive events. [39] More specifically, it was a pioneer in presenting, in a venue charged with strong antique symbolism, folk dances and costumes, not as an isolated event within gymnastics displays (practice rare before the 1910s), [40] but as an organic part of rituals performing the diachronic idea of ‘Hellenism’. II. Female Bodies and the Nationalization of Folk Dances: The Anthesteria of the Lyceum of Greek Women as a ‘Genuine’ Greek May Day Celebration (1911) The first significant public event sponsored by the Lyceum of Greek Women was its attempt to ‘restore’ the ‘authentic’ Greek May Day celebration. The festival Anthesteria organized by the Lyceum in the Zappeion Hall in 1911, clearly followed the logic of invented tradition: by invoking the homonymous ‘festival of the spring flowers’, which was celebrated in ancient Athens, the ladies of the Lyceum set as their expressed aim the establishment of an ‘official’ May Day ceremony in an indisputably Hellenic fashion (Parren, ‘Niki’), in contradistinction to similar festivities of ‘foreign origin’, involving the offering of flowers, parades of flower-bedecked floats and flower-fights, as well as to the usual popular festivities ‘with garlic, drums and blinddrunkenness’. [41] To the dispersed (geographically and socially) current practices of celebrating May Day, the Lyceum was to counter-propose the invention of a strictly standardized annual ceremonial. Combining a high degree of affectation and an overtly nationalunifying character, the Lyceum’s May Day festival would seek, through dance and music, to integrate contemporary folk customs of the Greek countryside with their ‘roots’ in the most remote and glorious ‘national’ past. If the source of inspiration for inventing a national ‘tradition’ of celebrating May Day was sought in Antiquity, the basic concept of the celebratory event was to present ‘our old and our new life in a lovely combination, a most picturesque and poetic fraternity’, as the Lyceum’s President, C. Parren, writes (Logodosia 1911: 29). Hence a combination of dance, music and costume was to provide the symbolic/ceremonial raw material which, with the appropriate artistic interventions, would serve this idea of co-fraternity of ‘old’ and ‘new Hellenism’, through the acceptance of one basic precept: the direct descent of the contemporary folk dances from the ancient ‘circle dances’. The refined, and in fact highly ‘Europeanized’, performance of the folk dances by ‘girls of our best families’ (Logodosia, op. cit.), most of them dressed in ancient-style garments, was the strongest symbolic code of this festive endeavour, [42] allowing the equally symbolic ‘catharsis’ of the dances from every trait of their Balkan, that is ‘Eastern’, past. This perception of the origin of Neohellenic dances was not without precedent. It had already been established in the approach to Greek folk songs since the early nineteenth century, [43] while it had been expressed in scholarly terms since the 1880s, by the new discipline of Greek Laographia, that is, ‘Folklore Studies’, which 62 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE adopted a nationalist and historical approach to the Greek people and its culture: the ‘manifestations’ of folk culture were apprehended as ‘monuments of Hellenic Antiquity that live on in today’s Greek people’, in the famous words of N. G. Politis, the founding-father of Greek Laographia. [44] However, for the first time in the Anthesteria in 1911, in a venue such as the Neoclassical Zappeion Hall and through the girls ‘of the high society’ of Athens, this concept was to acquire flesh and blood, in the framework of a public spectacle; for the first time it would be articulated entirely into a cohesive ceremonial performance that places on stage the diachronic idea of ‘Hellenism’. Here lies the innovative character of the endeavour, as well as the dynamic of invented tradition and not, of course, in the possibility of folk dances being seen by an urban public or the development of a ‘taste’ for dances of this kind by the middle classes. [45] Even though the celebration was based largely on ceremonial elements and ‘materials’ used in and familiar from public events and entertainments, as a whole it created a new narrative in the context of May Day. Through the set annual repetition of the Lyceum’s Anthesteria, the May Day celebration would become a central stage of participation, through performance, in the national community as well as a means of inculcating national values. This dimension underlies all the discourses articulated around the May Day event of the Lyceum and the work its members presented there. This ‘venerable monument of national education’, according to one newspaper reader, succeeded – as it is frequently pointed out – in moving everyone, ‘regardless of social positions’; [46] and as one other journalist characteristically asked: ‘How can it be conveyed, especially the unanimity of the joyous urge which brought there that countless crowd of all social backgrounds?’. [47] Indeed, nothing conveys more vividly the dynamic of invented tradition than the fact that in the Anthesteria of the Lyceum each one was able to ‘see’ what he/she wished. As emerges from the enthusiastic descriptions and comments in a broad ideological spectrum of the Athenian Press, advocates of the ‘adulation’ of Antiquity trend (‘archaists’), champions of the ‘demotic’ (vernacular) language (‘demoticists’) as well as admirers of the country life and customs were all able to appropriate in equal terms this highly eclectic and symbolically polysemous festive event that took place in the Zappeion. [48] However, as a matter of fact, the Lyceum’s approach was guided by the dominant concept of a ‘historical’ (not a ‘primitive’) ‘Greek people’ and the particular prism of Greek Laographia, which gave precedence to the antiquarian interest of modern folklore phenomena. The approach to the ‘image’ of those phenomena through the ‘mirror’ of antiquarianism [49] had been solidly embedded in the discourse and the practices of the Lyceum when it organized the Anthesteria. It is evidenced by the lecture delivered by Parren in the Hall of the ‘Parnassos’ cultural association shortly before the organization of the Anthesteria. In this lecture, the leader of the Lyceum ‘demonstrated’ the ‘identification’ of ancient and Modern Greek dances, on the basis of the similarity of their names and the affinity between the dance poses depicted ‘on ancient vases’ and contemporary dancing practices. [50] Concurrently, the Lyceum’s amateur dancers’ 63 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE visits to the Archaeological Museum in order to study poses depicted on vases at close hand – a practice known from representatives, such as Isadora Duncan, of the NeoRomantic current of reforming contemporary dance on the basis of the ancient Greek model [51] – bears witness to the objective of ‘ennobling’ and ‘idealizing’ the dances of the countryside through their ‘assimilation’ to Archaic and Classical models. The preceding words in quotation marks come from a publication concerning Greek dances, composed some years later (in 1914) by Anna (Nina) Krestenitou, dance director (ephor) of the Lyceum and basic contributor to the Anthesteria. [52] This publication studies extensively the ancient dances. Having embodied the concept of the ‘historical people’, the text has no need either to explain or to define its object: it goes without saying that anyone wishing to study the contemporary dances must turn to the ancient ones. With a strong dose of aestheticism and through reference to vague affinities with antiquity, [53] the text legitimizes the modern dances as ‘admirable relics’ of the ancestral ones; mainly, however, it legitimizes and establishes antiquarianism as a necessary process for the ‘correct’ understanding and, therefore, rendering and performing of contemporary folk dances. Callirhoe Parren, in her own version of the laographic perspective, makes apparent both the limits of evaluation of folk culture and the corrective dynamic of invented traditions: Many say that they did not know the Greek dances. You did know them disguised, incomprehensible, as the centuries corrupted them, as the graceless garment weighed them down, as the woman’s slavery overshadowed them. And she continues: You knew them not as Greeks, but as cosmopolitans. As men who had forgotten that Greece has its own autonomous existence, its own beauty, its own treasures, which had not only remained hidden under the earth and upon it in the beautiful and dismembered marbles, but also in this present soul of the race. The provinces and the villages from which the Greek dances had not been exiled entirely could not present them to you with the glory of their old beauty. (throughout the essay emphasis in the quotations is added, unless otherwise stated). [54] Presumably, only the modern progressive women of the bourgeois world could bring to fruition this task of drawing up the Greek dances from the depths of time and of the ‘soul of the race’. Moreover, according to Parren, this task presupposed a double purification: on the one hand, purification from the ‘corruptions’ the dances have suffered as survivals in the rural world (the centuries of ‘woman’s slavery’, referring perhaps also to the centuries of national bondage, heightens here the concept of corruption); and on the other hand purification from the sophisticated ‘cosmopolitan’ conception of folklore, a conception perhaps even more ‘twisted’, because it was external: it had no memory nor homeland to refer to. Through this argumentation is expressed a relatively new social demand in Greece: that of the dual 64 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE transformation of the dances and songs of the countryside into both a national and an artistic product; a product that is merged with the bourgeois aesthetic models and habitus as well as with nationalism, the latter being a basic element via which the social identity of the middle classes was expressed more widely in the modern Western world. [55] In the framework of multiple discourses articulated with reference to the Lyceum’s Anthesteria, the demand for this dual transformation of the folk dances of the countryside is sometimes expressed more explicitly and coherently. [56] In any case, the artistic ‘modification’ of the folk dances as well as the symbolic performance of their ancient Greek origin through the archaic-style attire was unanimously accepted. As the playwright and critic Gregorios Xenopoulos would characteristically say, only by means of such a ‘metamorphosis’, ‘only in such an artistic elaboration could the national [folk] dance be presented in Athens, in order for its revival to be possible’. [57] But this ‘metamorphosis’ of the peasant dances, their nationalization and at the same time their ‘aestheticization’, is perceived in close relation to the effect exercised by and upon the female bodies, namely the bodies of the girls of Athenian high society. Allusions to the ‘reformatory’ role effected by these ‘well-formed’ and ‘perfectly exercised’ bodies, that is, disciplined and civilized bodies, are rife in the descriptions of the Anthesteria; sometimes, however, this role is articulated with great clarity: ‘We knew them’, S. Melas was to say of the folk songs and dances of the countryside, but ‘as wild flowers, as primary rhythms of a people, imperfect as everything completely spontaneous, lovely as an animal’s gambol. But all these needed to be cultivated by the ladies of the Lyceum, to be studied and to be taught by people with superior sentiment, needed to be found in the civilized bodies of the Athenian maidens, disciplined to the concept of rhythm, full of feeling and soul, [. . .] for us to be able to understand in all its extent this classical creation which is called Greek dance’. [58] The social construction of the body of the Lyceum girls is expressed here with remarkable clarity. Through the conceptualization of the people, this time not as an historical people but as a ‘natural’, primitive, primordial people, the civilizing role of the upper-class female bodies gains its full meaning, while the class-defined female body is no more identified with ‘nature’, which here refers to the lower strata, but with ‘culture’. Or, perhaps, it can be argued that within the above excerpt the motif of women as mediators between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ is imprinted, revealing a deeper, anthropological, facet in the collective perception of the work of women as privileged ‘transformers’ of the folk dances and songs into national and aesthetic products. However, as a rule in the descriptions in the Press it is the female bodies that are ‘metamorphosed’ through performing the national dances. Sometimes they regain the ‘suppleness and the harmony of the classical’, sometimes they are assimilated to the ‘peasant’ bodies and are swathed in metaphors of health, vigour and ‘leventia’ (strapping comeliness) or ‘palikaria’ (bravado), that is of ‘manliness’ which is frequently attributed symbolically to popular social strata and culture. [59] In each case these bodies are transformed into ‘genuine’ national bodies. But only through opposition to the ‘mimesis’ of Western fashions and European bourgeois sociability and entertainment, 65 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE do the national female bodies acquire their full meaning. Through the stereotypical stigmatization of the ‘graceless’ and ‘seductive’, that is ‘depraved’, European dances of the ballrooms, [60] the Lyceum bodies appropriate the vigour of the Greek ‘race’ and with it the traditional Greek female virtue and modesty. Through the idealized representations of the dancing girls, Greek dance, now in the singular, becomes an archetypal form: ‘it ends up a natural phenomenon’, Xenopoulos argued, it touches the ‘deeper meaning and essence of all dance’. [61] In the framework of such a discourse, the characteristic traits of the folk dances that are attributed to their ancient Greek origin – the circular movements, the chain form, the ‘alluring’ monotony or their ‘gentle’ rhythm – are transformed into archetypal traits of every kinetic expression; and those traits, the argument continues, have been developed by the most perfect of the historical peoples, the Greek people. If the preservation of these elements, albeit ‘corrupted’, into the Modern Age by the peasantry of the countryside declared the diachronic existence of a ‘national soul’, those who ‘revealed’ the traits of this ‘soul’ in all their majesty, through the high aesthetic result they offered, were the young ladies of the Lyceum. With the mediation of aestheticism, embedded in the representations of the bodies of the ‘maidens’ of Athenian high society, the discourse on dances moved characteristically from the field of the historicist argumentation to that of the intrinsic talents of the ‘race’, which usually stem from Antiquity. ‘I do not know exactly whether today’s dances are the ancient dances’, wrote one scholarly spectator of the Anthesteria, ‘but this historical unity leaves me indifferent, since a dance of today is enough to give me the thrill of the ancient statues and to remind me of the friezes of the ancient temples’. [62] In any case, as the local dances were moving from the field of folklore study to that of national mass culture and spectacle, the axiom of their ancient Greek origin did not need any scholarly proof. As Parren was to write about the Anthesteria of 1911, our dancers, girls of our best families, in their lovely archaic dress, danced the Greek dances and confirmed with the grace of the movements and the nobility of the poses that truly the preserved dances are the circular ones of the ancient Greeks [. . .]. [63] In conclusion, apart from being an attempt at inventing the Greek ‘tradition’ of May Day, the Lyceum’s Anthesteria of 1911 were the first attempt to create in public a sophisticated ritual in order to perform a ripe demand for the nationalization of the peasant dances as well as for their aesthetic ‘upgrading’ to the domain of ‘high culture’, in accordance with the viewpoint and values of the middle- and upper-social strata. However, the ladies and the girls of the Lyceum who tried to put this demand into practice were also expressing a particular cultural habitus of a segment of these social strata. According to this habitus, both processes, the nationalization and the artistic elaboration of the folk dances, at least as expressed in the Anthesteria, passed through the symbolic language and the aesthetic of classicism, not only at the level of performance but also at the level of bodily culture, that is, the tendency towards 66 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE assimilation of the dance practices to some ‘ancient Greek’ model. As we shall see, in the course of the Lyceum’s public events and especially after the establishment of its mass festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium, the expression of this habitus was to gain independence from the performance of the ‘Neohellenic’ dances (as they were now called), and this role will be played mainly by the invention of specific ‘ancient dances’. In 1911, however, these two are not yet distinguished, while, as we have seen, the ancient Greek sources – iconographic and textual – are explicitly invoked by the Lyceum’s members in the quest for a model rendering of ‘national dances’. In practice, however, the manner of performing the Greek folk dances was influenced far more by the Western model, through the culture and taste of the mid- and uppersocial strata as well as through the European training and views of dance teachers, the basic ‘mediators’ in this process of transforming the dances. [64] The Lyceum, despite the clearly expressed intention to establish the Anthesteria festival as an ‘official’ and ‘authentic’ Greek May Day event, did not repeat the specific endeavour the following years, for reasons that are not clarified by the existing historical data. However, elements of inventing and performing the traditions of the nation can be detected in festivals of similar form to the 1911 Anthesteria and, primarily, of similar ideological and symbolic content. It goes without saying that among these the ‘great national festivals’ in the Panathenaic Stadium, as they were called, held pride of place. The historical material related to these festivals reveals a dimension, which other information in the Lyceum’s archives about the female bodily culture practiced by its members (‘European’ ballroom dances, ‘national’ dances and since 1924 rhythmic gymnastics for the young ladies) keeps rather in the shadow; it reveals, for the period under consideration, the specific gravity attached in this culture to the invention of ‘ancient’ dances, which was inextricably linked with the ceremonials and the symbolic ‘language’ of the Lyceum’s public festive appearances, especially those held in the Panathenaic Stadium. Aiming at pointing out this dimension, our analysis will concentrate exclusively on these festivals, including the inaugural attempt of the Lyceum to ‘conquer’ the Stadium in 1914, an endeavour which was not to be repeated until the inter-war years. III. Conquering the Panathenaic Stadium: Monumental Performance of the National Past and the Quest for ‘Greekness’ in Female Bodily Culture The Lyceum’s debut in the Stadium in 1914 had been planned initially, at the request of Queen Sophia, as an event in honour of her brother, kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who was expected to visit Athens during his stay in his estate in Corfu. The visit never took place, but the original plan was changed and as a result two Lyceum festivals occurred: the first was staged in Corfu, in the presence of the kaiser, on 19 April 1914, and the other was held in the Stadium, on 27 April of the same year. On both occasions, dances were performed in ‘traditional’ costumes and in ancient-style garments, while both events acquired a particular national importance: they were associated with the honours accorded to a European leader who had supported the 67 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Greek positions in the Treaty of Bucharest, in the face of the Bulgarian demands. [65] However, according to C. Parren these dance representations of ‘Greek life’ were more than a mere act of national gratitude; they had a direct political role in fighting by peaceful means for the ‘national rights’: they inspired in the powerful men of Europe, such as Wilhelm II, the superiority and the glorious future of an ancient ‘race’ which, over the course of the centuries and the passage of so many ‘of the earth’s barbarians’, had safeguarded its traditions and ‘all the aristocratic nobility of an artistic and beauteous past’. Thus, by enhancing the ‘cohesion of the great past with the glorious present’, these festivals added strong credentials to national demands. [66] In this context, on the morrow of the victory in the Balkan Wars the Lyceum, with royal encouragement and invoking a strengthened national role, organized its first festival in the Panathenaic Stadium. By the standards of the Lyceum’s public appearances to date, this was a big and bold undertaking, which largely surpassed the Lyceum’s own forces and which occurred thanks to an extensive network of collaborations. Over 40 kinds of Greek costumes were presented and, in addition to the musicians, some five hundred persons of both sexes participated, either in the dance group or the choir or the parades. [67] The audience was of analogous size. In the Press reports of the day, the spectators crowd is compared with that of the Olympic Games of 1896 or the Intermediate Olympic Games of 1906. [68] ‘We had to present all the Greek costumes, that is to compile a living ethnological exhibition of Old and New Greece together’, wrote C. Parren. [69] And so a brilliant spectacle of music and dance was organized: the ‘archaic’ parade of female ‘flute-players’ (aulitrides), ‘basket-bearers’ (kanephoroi) and ‘dancing girls’, in the vanguard; then the performance of syrtos in ancient dress that was followed by parades of groups of ‘villagers’ in local costumes; interposed between the processions were demonstrations of folk dances, to the accompaniment of choral and instrumental music: syrtos and trata ‘of the most ancient [dances]’, klephtikos [the dance of the bandits], ‘Cretan pyrrichios’ and pentozalis, the dances of the islands sousta and balos – ‘the lygistos of the ancients’ – and many others, among them those, such as the makedonikos (Macedonian) and the epirotikos (Epirot), which represented the New Lands annexed by Greece as a result of the Balkan Wars. [70] The co-ordination of all these participants and the artistic management of the Stadium space (complex problems which attracted some criticism in the press) provide a vivid demonstration of the great leap forward the Lyceum had taken in the field of public spectacles. In this ‘living ethnological’ exhibition of 1914, Medieval Greece was not yet represented. National time was shared once again between Antiquity and Modern Greece: in the printed programme of the festival (see: IALE, Efimera) we read that ‘the Greek dances are surviving remnants of our wonderful ancient dances’, while there are references to ancient sources, for the enlightenment of the public. The symbolic weight of Antiquity in the Lyceum’s choices is characteristically reflected in C. Parren’s attempt to legitimize the exclusive involvement of the Lyceum’s members with dance. In an article in the Ladies’ Journal, the Lyceum’s president refers to the 68 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE authority of the ancient Greek model of physical exercise and its distinctive unity: for the ancient Greeks dance was not an autonomous and isolated practice but was linked organically not only with religion but also with gymnastics and athletics; in fact, dance was the ‘climax of the aim of gymnastics’, since the ancient Greek model sets as its ultimate aim ‘harmony’, ‘eurhythmy’ and health, which are characteristic only of dance. ‘That is why’, Parren continues, ‘all the gymnastic contests concluded with dances in which, exceptionally, maidens also took part, whereas they were then banned from appearing in the Stadium’: so, Parren’s argumentation slips from aestheticism into the indirect acceptance of the absolute separation of physical exercise by gender. [71] It is therefore clear that Parren’s criticism to prohibitions – ancient or contemporary – imposed on women’s athletic-sporting activity was a thing of the past. Encouraged by the overall positive response to the Lyceum’s first mass festival in the Panathenaic Stadium, [72] the Board of the association decided to repeat the celebration the following year in honour of the king Constantine and, furthermore, expressed the intention to establish it as a permanent annual celebration. 21 May, the king’s name-day, was fixed as the date of this celebration. [73] The intention for institutionalization of the Lyceum’s festival in the Stadium did not materialize in subsequent years. If in 1915, a sudden illness of Constantine led to the postponement of the 21 May festival, after that the country’s embroilment in war as well as the exile of the Lyceum’s president to Hydra by the Venizelos regime affected the Lyceum’s activities overall and obviously impeded continuation of this celebration. [74] The Lyceum returned dynamically to the institutionalization of the festival in the Stadium one decade later, in 1925, when normality had been restored in domestic and foreign affairs, and new needs had arisen. In the second half of the 1920s, the basic ceremonial structure of this en-masse festive institution was elaborated and crystallized, combining two practices. The first practice is that which characterized the festival in the Stadium in 1914, namely the spectacular and populous parade of groups in national costumes, and the performance of Greek dances in which the ancient origin of the contemporary folk dances is symbolically underlined. The second practice was equally formed during the first decade of the Lyceum, in the context of the association’s festivals in theatres: in addition to the established performances of ‘national dances’ in folk and ancient-style costumes, these indoor events included tableaux vivants or static scenes representing the ‘finest pages in our national life’, that is, in national history. Within the framework of this practice, since 1914 the Byzantine era had been incorporated as one of these ‘finest pages’: in the Lyceum’s festival organized in that year in the Royal Theatre, a tableau vivant called ‘Byzantine Crown’, with the emperor as its central figure, was part of representations celebrating the victory in the Balkan Wars and the acquisition of new territories and recalling the Megali Idea dream of ‘taking back Constantinople’. [75] But Byzantium was here to stay in these indoor festivals of the Lyceum, together with ‘plastic images’ inspired by antiquity and representations of ‘neo-Hellenic life’ inspired by modern Greek art and literature. Henceforth, the basically academic concept of a tripartite scheme of the ‘historical continuity of 69 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Hellenism’ passed into the symbolic universe of the Lyceum’s festivals in theatres, an important moment in the process of forming mass national culture. From 1914 onwards, the tableau vivant representing images from Byzantine history was established in Lyceum’s festivals of this type. Moreover, these representations, exclusively inspired by the life of the Byzantine Court, were also performing the ‘tradition’ of royalty as a national institution, that is, an institution which could claim origins in the national past. Nevertheless, internal hierarchizations within the overall ceremonial structure of these Lyceum festivals tended to maintain the symbolical primacy of antiquity. [76] This symbolical primacy was especially the hallmark of the history of the Lyceum’s great festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium. The ‘middle period’ of ‘Hellenism’ and consequently the dimension of ‘continuity’ were absent from the 1914 festival and from the plans for the 1915 festival which, as mentioned earlier, was in the end cancelled, and from the first festival in the same venue, after the First World War. In fact, the festival in the Stadium, on 24 May 1925, was overtly enriched with inventions of ancient-Greek inspiration. To the strains of a march played by the army band, a grand ancient procession with various figures – ‘Hestiadai’ holding torches, children crowned with wreaths of ivy and myrtle, ‘Peplophoroi’, ‘orchestridai’ (dancing girls), ‘slave-girls’ and other females holding auloi (flutes), lyres and sistra – advanced towards the altar in the middle of the track, where the votive offerings were deposited and ‘rhythmical dances’ in ancient mode were performed: the dance ‘of the altar’, ‘of the Caryatids’, ‘of the Peplophoroi’, and the ‘Erotikos’ (‘ancestor’ of the balos). Impressive as lead dancer in these dances was the first teacher of rhythmical gymnastics to girls of the Lyceum, Marie Raymond, who ‘flies, coils like a snake’. In the second part of the festival, the baton passed to groups of ‘villagers’ in an array of local costumes who, having first paraded to the accompaniment of military music of the guards, performed ‘Neohellenic dances’. The whole event concluded, again to the strains of the opening march, as the ‘youth of Modern Greece proceeded with the air of conscripts towards the changing rooms’. [77] From the relevant reports in the press (see: IALE, Arheio Typou), it emerges that in this ‘phantasmagoria’, the abundance of ancient symbols, the monumental character, the disciplined military step of the parades, as well as the good order and standardization of the ancient procession, or the affectation of the rhythmical (‘ancient’) dances all seemed to jar with the relative spontaneity in the performance of the folk dances, which apparently aroused the audience’s enthusiasm: ‘After the Classical dances were over, a lively unpretentious Greek panigyri broke out. The circles of dancers open and proceed, dancing, first the calm syrtos and then the klephtikos, while the audience expresses its enthusiasm, forgets the stiff ‘‘poplin’’ collar, applauds, whistles, taps the rhythm with the feet, claps hands in time, is nostalgic for the village, glendi, Golfo, retsina . . . Viva Modern Greek reality!’. [78] Most of the above elements of form and content, which composed the monumental and national-patriotic character of these festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium, were kept throughout the interwar years. What changed was the performance of the national past: 70 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE the scheme of ‘continuity’, or rather an innovative version of this scheme was adopted, which, however, in relation to the prevailing ‘tripartite’ concept, permitted the Lyceum to preserve the symbolically paramount role accorded to Antiquity. In its Stadium festival of 1926, which coincided with the fifteenth year of the Lyceum’s existence, not only was the representation of the Byzantine Age incorporated; the performance of the national ‘tradition’ was furthermore enriched with the simultaneous introduction of the Minoan Age, as the ‘most distant past’ of the historically ‘unique’ Greek people. Thus, the Lyceum inaugurated in a festive context the scheme of ‘the four ages of Greek civilization’, with parades, processions and some representations of rituals from the ‘Minoan/Creto-Mycenaean’, the ‘Archaic/Classical’, the ‘Byzantine’ and the ‘Neohellenic’ age. The latter was constantly represented by the performance of folk dances, while concurrently the practice of inventing ‘ancient’ rhythmical dances was augmented. As a rule, the Lyceum was to remain loyal to this scheme throughout the interwar period and even after the Second World War. This expansion of the ‘national’ past into the depths of history decisively enriched performances with new symbols and ‘traditions’, capturing the growing interest in excavations that revealed remains of the prehistoric period in Greece and following the then current trend of Archaeology, expressed since the late nineteenth century, to ‘Hellenize’ this period. [79] Nevertheless, although the discourse articulated by the Lyceum is consistent with the appeal the impressive archaeological finds had for the general public, it does not seem to have sought any rational scholarly legitimization; rather it reproduced familiar stereotypes of the national ideology: ‘My ladies’, C. Parren was writing in 1926 (Logodosia 1925–26: 5), we thought that we should take recourse to the remote past, since the costumes and the representations of that period present the unique phenomenon of the civilization of a people, already advanced as soon as it appeared and which in its evolution, in the course of the centuries and despite so many conquerors, barbarians and others, has lost nothing either of the traits of the nobility of the race, or of the beauty and the harmony of line and colour. The Minoan Civilization was our starting point [. . .]. In the framework of the intense aestheticism and biologism which runs through this argumentation, the special contribution of the female sex to the long ‘continuity’ of Greek civilization, and consequently, the exclusively female competence for organizing such a festival is projected even more forcefully. The appeal of this female initiative of enhancing these festivals as a major public event, and the social dynamic of this mass national spectacle in Greek society of the interwar years, were promoted in the press of the day. On the morrow of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the massive influx of refugees and the final entombment of the irredentist Megali Idea (Great Idea), the ‘mass public mystagogy’ of the Lyceum’s monumental festivals in the Panathenaic Stadium was presented as a work of female ‘sensitivity’. The Lyceum festivals staged a new national narrative, through the quest for a diachronic ‘Greekness’ in various manifestations of Hellenic civilization from prehistory until contemporary folk customs. This new version of ‘Greekness’ was also 71 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE reflected in the female bodily culture, filling with ‘racial pride’ the throngs attending the Panathenaic stadium events. Mainly, however, these festivals offered also a modern means of patriotic propaganda, inculcating a spirit of national ‘participation’ and unanimity of purpose in a society in which the expected social cohesion was being increasingly negated due to explosive political conflicts and diverse social upheavals and oppositions; a society in which the ‘social question’ could no longer be exorcized as a ‘Western peculiarity’. [80] Indeed, this feeling of unanimity and of being incorporated into the imaginary community of the nation is intense in the press descriptions of the spectacle provided by the Lyceum’s festivals, especially of that of 1926. [81] As privileged contributors to national homogenization and social cohesion, the women of the middle- and upper-social strata were able, through a public intervention in the field of mass national culture and propaganda, to significantly upgrade their moralizing role in public space. With these monumental festivals the Lyceum, alongside its more conventional activities in the field of social reform, was able to re-instate the orthodoxy of ‘Hellenic-worthy’ female action to the assertive feminist activity of middle-class women which was dynamically growing as well in Greece during the interwar years. In other words, the Lyceum was thus able to differentiate itself from the newly formed women’s organizations which shaped the different trends of Greek feminism, in keeping with corresponding international currents. [82] By the beginning of 1920s, the distancing of the Lyceum from feminist claims and from the struggle for women’s suffrage had been publicly enhanced. In 1926, in anticipation of the Lyceum’s festival in the Stadium, the Press characteristically praised the ‘high service’ these festivals rendered to national sentiment and prestige, as ‘climax’ of the activity of an association of women who shunned both the ‘temptation of being socialites’ and the ‘extremity of feminism’ in favour of ‘conscious patriotism’. [83] Besides, the ‘high service’ the Lyceum rendered with these festivals was acknowledged also by the State, specifically by the Pangalos dictatorship: the 1926 festival was filmed at the behest of the General Security Services in order to be screened in schools and army camps (IALE, PDS, Session of 2 June 1926). According to the Lyceum’s historical archive, the association conducted over a dozen public events in the Panathenaic Stadium during the interwar years. Between 1925 and 1938, when the cycle of these Lyceum festivals ended, it is certain that six such events were organized on the exclusive initiative and responsibility of the Lyceum: five consecutive annual festivals between 1925 and 1929, and the festival of 1933. The remaining festivals were held in response to invitations from third parties to the Lyceum to (co)-organize or simply to take part in celebrations, usually anniversary events. The main and best-known of these is the festival of 6 April 1930, which the Lyceum organized as part of the events to commemorate the Centennial of Greek Independence, [84] and the two festivals that resulted from the Lyceum’s collaboration with the Hellenic Olympic Committee: one in 1934, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Revival of the Olympic Games (i.e. from the Paris 72 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Conference of 1894, where the relevant decision was taken) [85] and the other on 21 July 1936, on the occasion of the arrival of the Olympic flame from Olympia to the Panathenaic Stadium, during the torch race inaugurated in anticipation of the Olympic Games in Berlin. [86] At the end of the period under consideration, the Lyceum also took part in anniversary celebrations of the ‘4 August Regime’ (inaugural date of the Metaxas dictatorship). [87] Almost all the events in the Stadium that the Lyceum organized jointly with third parties, and which incurred for it certain economic costs, in practice were held in place of its annual spring festival in that venue. The association could hardly afford financially the participation in more than a single festival in the Stadium annually, whereas the continuous expansion of its activities –with displays of costumes, dances and sometimes tableaux vivants in a host of celebratory events in Greece and abroad – absorbed more and more the time and energy of its active members. Overall, in the span of 14 years from 1925 to 1938 the Lyceum did not appear in the Panathenaic Stadium only in 1931, 1932 and 1935. Throughout the interwar period, the ‘great national festivals of the Lyceum in the Panathenaic Stadium’, as they were dubbed by the association itself, were an almost annual event of mass popular entertainment and patriotic edification in the life of Athens with certain basic and constantly repeated elements crystallized in its ceremonial and symbolic structure. In accordance with the function of invented traditions, these elements contain values and behavioural models, and a relationship with history. Among these elements, the principal one and hallmark of these festivals of the Lyceum is the general scheme of the (usually four) ‘finest ages’ of ‘Hellenism’. But within this scheme, various individual repeated symbolic elements, practices and ceremonies, presupposed uses of the past and disseminated models and values: the parades of the ‘ages’ to the strains of marches; the creation of a universe of female figures of the past, historical and mythological, which was at once enriched and standardized; the phantasmagoric spectacle of the imperial court, which steadily intermediates the representation of Byzantium; the proclamation in numerous ways of the contemporary dances’ descent from the ancient ones; and the invention of ‘ancient dances’ which are performed exclusively by women and especially by the young ladies of the Lyceum. The combination of all these elements endowed these festivals and their principal agent, the Lyceum of Greek Women, with a distinctive identity and rendered them recognizable within the sphere of mass events of this kind, which began to develop during this period. It is characteristic that starting in the 1927 festival onwards the programme was enriched with new elements which intensified the distinct identity of these mass festivals of the Lyceum, and at the same time upgraded their spectacular, ceremonial, monumental and moral-didactic character. The introduction of dramatizations of allegorical content and/or telling a ‘story’ – with a rudimentary plot – relieved the standardization and monotony of the scheme parade – procession – dances and added thematic variety to the performance of the national narrative. These dramatizations were enriched with the performance of ‘national’ dances (‘ancient’ and Neohellenic), but in certain festivals they contained also one further interesting new element: the isolated performance of an athletic 73 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE activity, such as Nausikaa and her companions ‘throwing the golden ball’ in the dramatization inspired by the Odyssey in the 1927 festival, or the Nymphs of Artemis engaged in archery, in the 1928 festival. It should be noted, however, that these athletic displays were not enacted by young ladies of the Lyceum but by female students of the Physical Education College and of the Marasleion Teachers’ College, respectively. [88] Overall, these new elements of the Lyceum’s festivals in the Stadium reinforced both the possibility of utilizing the available national myths and symbols, and the dimension of artistic experimentation, which in any case surfaced in the Lyceum’s festivals. In this context, the inventiveness concerning the ‘ancient’ dances has been equally reinforced. The description contained in the printed program (IALE, Efimera) of the 1928 festival provides a typical example. In the first half, which corresponds to ancient Hellenism, the parade of ancient figures and the presentation of ancient dances are articulated in an allegorical ritual performance entitled ‘representation of the struggle between civilization and barbarity with the death and apotheosis of Orpheus’: Amazons armed with javelins and shields fight with Artemis and her ‘archer nymphs’, but the battle abates when Orpheus appears with the ‘woodland nymphs’, the ‘first herald of peace and love between men’. However, while the ‘basket-bearing maidens’ watch Orpheus’ intervention and the peaceful ‘dance of the Nymphs’, wild Maenads and Dryads are lying in wait. Soon afterwards, they suddenly invade and, after abandoning themselves to a ‘frenzied dance with cups, cymbals, drums and knives’, slay Orpheus. The dramatization ends with the intervention of Apollo as ‘deus ex machina’, the resurrection of Orpheus, his apotheosis and the celebratory ‘dance of the Muses’. A notable development is ascertained in the 1928 festival. In all the previous festivals of the Lyceum in the Stadium, the spectacle was organized on the basis of a distinction between the parades of various ages of ‘Hellenism’, on the one hand, and the performance of the host of Neohellenic dances, on the other. In the interludes between the two central parts, rhythmical dances in the ancient mode or folk dances in ancient-style dress were performed. In 1928, the structure changed so that each part of the festival (from which, exceptionally, the Minoan Age was omitted) corresponded to one of the ‘ages of Hellenism’, with a particular plot-dramatization for each age. In other words, in the performance of the scheme of ‘historical continuity’ the national time is allotted more equally, since each age constitutes an autonomous unit in the context of the whole spectacle. This becomes clearer in the quadripartite arrangement of the 1929 festival (see printed program in IALE, Efimera): each age of ‘Hellenism’ is represented by one theme-dramatization in which historicity is more clearly invoked: ‘religious procession and bloodless offering’ for the Minoan Age (Part I), ‘Lesser Panathenaia’ for the Classical Age (Part II), ‘choosing a royal bride’ for Byzantium (Part III) and ‘May Day festival’ for the Modern Greek Age (Part IV). In the printed programme of the festival, the invocation of the scholarly documentation, see authoritativeness, of the representations is stronger in relation to every other programme of a Lyceum festival (in the Stadium or in an indoor venue): 74 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE the arrangement of the processions (in the first three ‘ages’), the multitude of figures participating in these, and their roles, are recorded in detail, while in the case of the Minoan ceremonial there are references to specific wall-paintings and other kinds of finds from Knossos, Phaistos, Tiryns and Kadmeia (Thebes), on the basis of which the ‘faithful’ representation of the ceremonial was constructed. Additional proof of the authoritativeness are the names of the contributors to the event, which are written in the printed programmes of the Lyceum’s festivals, in particular the names of the external advisors and collaborators, distinguished scholars and artists: in the 1929 festival these included the Byzantinists G. Soteriou and Ph. Koukoules, while on the artistic side, the ‘sacred dance’ of the prehistoric (Minoan) period was taught by the Kanellos couple, well-known disciples of Isadora Duncan, who had had been invited from the United States to present the ancient Greek dramatic dance of Apollo with Python at the Delphic Festival in 1927 (see Glytzouris, present volume). [89] To be sure, the invocation of scholarly authoritativeness did not detract from the function of the festivals as ‘invented traditions’ of the nation. On the contrary, it offered the ladies of the Lyceum the necessary legitimization, so that upon an a priori documented historical basis, the symbolic-ceremonial structure of the ritual performances and the messages diffused through these monumental festivals in the Stadium could be developed more freely by the creative imagination of the organizers. Conclusion The public festivals of the Lyceum of Greek Women in the interwar period, and especially its ‘national festivals’ held in the Panathenaic Stadium, seen from the viewpoint of ‘invented tradition’ constructed and consolidated symbols and traditions, serving identities and values at the level of the nation, as well as needs of social distinction: through the symbolic narrative of the national past, they elaborated the ‘tradition’ of the female dimension of ‘Hellenism’, via which a part of women of the upper-middle classes sought to express their distinct social identity. In the context of these festivals, archaism, aestheticism and the exemplary use of Greek Antiquity were preserved steadfastly as principal elements of the performance of ‘Hellenism’. The invention of ‘ancient dances’ was key in this Lyceum’s endeavour, as they were an important symbolic element of the social construction of the association’s distinctive identity in the public domain; regarding this identity, the ‘ancient dances’ were possibly more critical than folk ones, even in their ‘more properly Hellenized’ form, which were for mass use and consumption. This devotion to classicism and aestheticism is a basic element which, especially through the personality of C. Parren, connects the Lyceum with the feminist circle of the Ladies’ Journal of the 1890s and 1900s. Overall, the activities of the Lyceum examined above constituted the principal element that differentiated its members, vis-à-vis diverse alternative forms of public activity, which were available to women of the middle classes in Greece in the interwar years; old forms – such as charitable works or social reform, which 75 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE continued to be pursued by sections of the Lyceum – but, mainly, new forms such as professional activity and, of course, feminist militancy. In these activities, we could add women’s involvement with organized competitive sport. From the late 1920s onwards, women’s sport in Greece was going through its first systematic thrust and constitution. However, this development does not seem to have shaken the Lyceum’s steadfast devotion to rhythmical and dance bodily practices, and to their specific symbolic uses in the context of mass public ceremonies. The wider habitus through which the particular social identity of the Lyceum’s ladies was expressed, just like in the case of the women’s circle of the Ladies’ Journal some decades earlier, did not include practices that referred to the typical ‘bourgeois’ recreational and individualistic values of sport. Throughout the period examined in this article, the tension between these values and female ‘nature’ was intrinsic to the beliefs and activities of these Greek women’s collectives of mid- and upper-social strata. Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Zinon Papakonstantinou for his advice on the idiom and style of the present paper and for his insightful remarks. But first and foremost I would like to thank him for his invitation to be his co-editor in this special issue. I really enjoyed collaboration with Zinon as well as with the other authors of the volume. I thank them all. Notes [1] For the feminism of ‘equality through difference’ of the Ladies’ Journal (it was published weekly from 1887 to 1907 and bi-weekly until 1917) and its editor C. Parren, see especially Varikas, I exegersi ton kyrion. For a historical approach to Parren’s version of the New Woman as presented in her novels about emancipation, see Psarra, ‘To mythistorima tis heirafetisis’. For Parren’s biography see Psarra and Fournaraki, ‘Callirhoe Parren’. [2] Although the Lyceum of Greek Women, established in 1911, was incorporated into the international framework of the Lyceum Clubs, it actually followed the standards of its predecessor, the Union of Greek Women (1897), which had been, until 1911, the ‘archetypical’ organization of women of middle- and upper-social strata in Greece. For the general profile and the social composition of the Lyceum of Greek Women, see Vasileiadou, ‘Syllogikes draseis, drastiries zoes’. For the history of the association, see Ekato Chronia Lykeio ton Ellinidon 1911–2011 and Bobou – Protopapa, To Lykeio ton Ellinidon. [3] Hobsbawm and Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition. [4] On the modernistic pedagogical discourse concerning school physical education of both sexes, see in particular: Fournaraki, ‘Genre et éducation physique en Grèce du XIXe siècle’, 114–24. For an overview of the institutional developments in the field of physical education in Greece of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, see Koulouri, Sport et société bourgeoise, 47–75. [5] On this debate, see: Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’. [6] Fournaraki, op. cit. [7] For an analysis of this ideological construct and especially for the ‘regenerative’ mission of women elaborated by Parren on the aftermath of the 1897 defeat, see: Avdela and Psarra, 76 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] ‘Engendering ‘‘Greekness.’’’ For the ‘female’ version of citizenship and ‘politics’ advocated by C. Parren and the Ladies’ Journal, see especially the analysis of Efi Avdela: ‘Between Duties and Rights’. For the School of Women Physical Educators of the Union of Greek Women (which filled the gap left by the state policy in the domain of training female gymnasts, from 1897 until 1918) and for the Ladies’ Journal’s discourse about this School, see in particular Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’. See especially: Parren, ‘Ai Ellinides kata tous Olympiakous Agones’, 1. Historical research about this first ‘wave’ of feminine – and in certain aspects feminist – protest as expressed by the Ladies’ Journal has pointed out the crucial role played by history in the reconstruction of women’s collective memory and in the legitimization of present demands and future liberating ‘utopias’: Varikas, ‘Gender and National Ideology in fin de siècle Greece’; Psarra, ‘Few Women Have a History’. Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Anoiktai epistolai I’, 4–5. Parren, ‘Ai athletriai eis tous Olympiakous Agonas’, 1–2 and ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Anoiktai epistolai I’: 6–7; see also Parren’s article on the occasion of the Intermediate Olympics: ‘Ai gynaikes eis tous agonas’. For the Heraia see Scanlon, Eros and Greek Athletics, 98–120. Parren, ‘Ai athletriai eis tous Olympiakous Agonas’, 1–2. Ibid. See also, Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Anoiktai epistolai I’, 6–7. It is noteworthy that the philologist and antiquarian Sevasti Kallisperi, first Greek woman who graduated from the Sorbonne (1891), gives exactly the same image of the maiden runners of Heraia – although in a less literary style and expressions – in her 1896 scholarly work concerning the ancient site of Olympia and the ancient Olympic Games. See Kallisperi, I Olympia kai oi Olympiakoi Agones, 34. Parren, ‘Ai athletriai eis tous Olympiakous Agonas’, 1 and ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Anoiktai epistolai I’, 7. Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Anoiktai epistolai I’, 6. Ibid. Ibid., 5–6. Ibid., 6. Ibid. Information about Revithi’s attempt to take part in the Olympic Games of 1896 and also about her life are to be found scattered among press articles of the period February–April 1896. See indicatively: Palingenesia (27 Feb. 1896), where we found an interesting description of Revithi’s appearance in front of the Olympic Committee: Anonymous, ‘Mia gini dromefs’; Acropolis (27 Feb. 1896) and (28 Feb. 1896); Acropolis (30 March 1896), where a kind of interview with Revithi conducted by a correspondent of the newspaper at Marathon, is published: Anonymous (signs as Ds.), ‘I paramoni tou marathoniou’. In fact, little else is known about Revithi’s undertaking (see especially: Tarasouleas, ‘Stamata Revithi’ and Skiadas, 100 Chronia, 123–4.) and it seems that this is the reason why this undertaking nurtured a convenient myth about the more ancient-sounding ‘‘Melpomene’’, a supposed pioneer woman of her time, who attempted to participate in the Marathon race in order to protest against women’s exclusion from the Athens Olympic Games of 1896. For this myth, see Tarasouleas, op. cit.; cf, Fournaraki, ‘The Olympism of the Ladies’, 354–55. Parren, ‘Ai athletriai eis tous Olympiakous Agonas’, 2. See: Mosse, The Image of Man, 56–76. Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Anoiktai epistolai I’, 4. For these displacements, outlined in the following paragraphs, see: Fournaraki, ‘The Olympism of the Ladies’, 365–72. 77 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [28] Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Epistoli IV’, 2. [29] See Fournaraki, op. cit., 360–8. [30] See also Koulouri, present volume; cf. Kokkinos, ‘The Greek intellectual world and the Olympic Games’. [31] See indicatively: Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Epistoli IV’, 1. On the cult of the artistic ancestral model of the new male athletic body as that unfolded in the narrations of the Games and, moreover, as a constituent of the athlete/national hero, see Koulouri, Athlitismos kai opses tis astikis koinonikotitas, 114–21. [32] See, by way of indication, the factors of Olympism as defined by Jean M. Leaper: ‘Women and Modern Olympism’, 150–9. [33] Actually, this criticism converted into a channel of general disapproval of new industrial times and peoples, who developed technology beneficially, ‘but the good, the beautiful does not, of course, preside over the creativity of the modern generations’: Parren, ‘Entyposeis ek ton Olympiakon Agonon. Epistoli VI’, 1. [34] The first three places in the women’s singles were won by Esme Simiriotou, Sophia Marinou, and Ephrosyni Paspati, while second and third place in the mixed doubles were won by S. Marinou and A. Matsa, respectively. For C. Parren’s enthusiastic perception of Danish gymnasts’ performance in the Athens Intermediate Olympics, see Fournaraki, ‘The Olympism of the Ladies’, 338–9 and 374. [35] Parren, ‘Kai ai gynaikes?’, 3. [36] Parren, ‘I pompi ton Panathenaion’, 2–3. [37] Ibid, 2–3 and Parren, ‘Kai ai gynakes?’, 3. [38] For the celebration in Athens of the fortieth anniversary of the Revival of the Olympic Games in 1934, see Yannitsiotis, ‘The Fortieth Anniversary in 1934 and the Classical Games’, 103–4. For the collaboration of the Lyceum of Greek Women with the Hellenic Olympic Committee on this occasion: IALE, PDS, Sessions of 27 March, 4 April and 18 April 1934. [39] Apart from the holding of the two big Olympic events (1896, 1906), during the two first decades of the twentieth century, the use of the Panathenaic Stadium was limited to the holding of athletic games and gymnastics displays of sports clubs and schools and performances of ancient drama: Papanikolaou – Christensen, The Panathenaic Stadium. [40] It should be also noted that the ‘national’ [folk] dances were definitely introduced at school in 1915. On this issue, see Antzaka-Weis, ‘Greek Dancing at School’. [41] C. Parren borrowed this sneering expression from one of the few men of letters, the poet P. Nirvanas, who had publicly doubted the eventual success of the Lyceum’s undertaking to establish this ancient-inspired festival as a mass celebration of May Day: Parren, ‘Niki’, 1586. Athenian newspapers describe the festive events that usually took place on May Day in the Greek capital. For example, on Sunday 1 May 1911 Athens was inundated by crowds of people, who either crossed it in the jam-packed trams, in order to go out into the countryside, where the great consumption of alcohol and beer was part and parcel of the popular celebration, or circulated in its streets in flower-bedecked automobiles, bought flowers and engaged in highly enjoyable flower fights. See indicatively: Scrip (1 May 1911). [42] In the flower-bedecked marble peristyle of the atrium and under the ‘watchful eye’ of the bust of Dionysos, the girls of the Lyceum, most of them in ‘archaic’ attire but some dressed as ‘Megaritisses’ (in the female costume of Megara in Attica), danced to the accompaniment of a band of mandolins and a string orchestra, the dance of the klephts (bandits), syrtos, the island dance (balos), kalamatianos, pentozali (Cretan dance) and other folk dances, while in the interludes folk songs or arias composed by Labelet, Kalomoiris or Milanakis, were sung. For a more detailed description of the ceremony and for a systematic approach to the manner of performing the dances and songs, see Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon’ and Idem, ‘Oi protes parastaseis ellinikon horon tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon’. 78 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [43] For the construction of this approach in relation to the process of constituting folklore interest in Greece as a component element of forming the national ideology and identity, see: Politis, Romantika Chronia2, 48–60. For the development of the interpretation of the Neohellenic ‘circle’ dances as descendants of those of Antiquity see also: Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon’. [44] For the institution and the characteristics of the discipline of Laographia in Greece, especially through the works of Nikolaos G. Politis, see in particular: Kyriakidou-Nestoros, I theoria tis ellinikis laographias: 99–110 and 148–58. For the relationship between the Lyceum’s proceedings and Greek Laographia, see specifically: Olympitou, ‘Anazitiseis kai prosanatolismoi tis ethnikis ideologias’. For the crucial contribution of Laographia in constructing the national athletic past and its ‘continuity’ see Koulouri’s paper in the present volume. [45] For the development of this ‘taste’ and interest, towards the end of the nineteenth century, and for the performance of folk dances as urban entertainment, see Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi protes parastaseis ellinikon horon tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon’, 191–4. [46] See especially Nikolopoulos, ‘Entyposis tou koinou apo tous ellinikous horous’; Parren, ‘Niki’, 1585. Cf. Logodosia 1911, 30. [47] See Anonymous, ‘I hthesini megali eorti’. [48] Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’. See characteristically the republication of descriptions and comments from Athenian newspapers in the Ladies’ Journal: EK 25/1004– 05 (15 April 1911–15 May 1911), 1585–1612. [49] See Kyriakidou-Nestoros, I theoria tis ellinikis laographias, 95–96. [50] Logodosia 1911, 7. [51] See Glytzouris, ‘Delfikes Yortes (1927–30)’, 150 and idem, present volume. [52] Krestenitou, Anakoinoseis peri ellinikon horon, 7. [53] See Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’. [54] Parren, ‘Niki’, 1585. [55] See more generally in Hobsbawm, ‘Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe 1870–1914’. [56] Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’. [57] Xenopoulos, ‘O ethnikos horos’, 1596. [58] Melas, ‘Anthesteria’, 1588. [59] For the popularization of the Lyceum dancer’s bodies, see especially the description of Anthesteria made by the ‘demoticist’ writer Zacharias Papantoniou, ‘I hthesini ton ellinikon horon’. [60] The attack on Western dances is a commonplace in the commentary on the Anthesteria; see indicatively: Nikolopoulos, ‘Entyposis tou koinou apo tous ellinikous horous’ and Spandonis, ‘Ethikis epivolis’; see also Xenopoulos, ‘O ethnikos horos’. This attack is part of a broader gendered discourse related to the construction of national identity as opposed, in particular, to cultural hegemony of the West. [61] Xenopoulos, ‘O ethnikos horos’, 1597. [62] Ahoros Theatis [Not-dancing spectator], ‘Oi horoi’, 70. [63] Logodosia 1911, 29–30. [64] Historical research has demonstrated the crucial role that the dance teachers played in the Lyceum’s work with the ‘national dances’. See Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon’. [65] For the circumstances in which this festival was organized, and its content, see in more detail, Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon’; cf Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’. [66] See: Parren, ‘Thriamvos’, 2569 and Logodosia 1913–14, 4. [67] Apart from the music, which was performed by students of the Athens Conservatory, the contribution of the students’ choir of the University of Athens and the participation in the folk dance groups of pupils of the Metaxas Greek-French School, the need of extra female 79 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] dancers was covered by about one hundred girls studying in the Professional and Household Economy School of the Union of Greek Women. See Logodosia 1913, 8 and Logodosia 1913– 14, 14. Anonymous, ‘I hthesini eorti eis to Stadion’; see also the press cuttings in IALE, Diafora, F. 1914. Logodosia 1913, 8. See the printed programme of the festival in IALE, Efimera. For the content of the festival see also publications in the Press: IALE, Diafora, F. 1914. Parren, ‘O horos eis to Stadion’, 2585. It must be noted, however, that criticisms began to appear in the daily Press, concerning the strong dose of ‘imagination’ in the Lyceum’s rendering either of the costumes or the dances themselves, an imagination which is not acceptable when it threatens to ‘adulterate and to distort the couleur local and character’. See indicatively: Kondylakis, ‘Eis to Stadion’ (the well known writer and critic uses the pseudonym ‘‘Diavatis’’ [Passer-by]). On the ‘corrective’ interventions that the Lyceum ladies, during the first decades of their activities, exercised upon the ethnological material as it concerns both the costumes and the dances, see respectively: Macha-Bizoumi, ‘I imatiothiki tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon’ and Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon’. See especially: IALE, PDS, Session of 28 April 1915 and Session of 7 May 1915. C. Parren was considered as being a ‘pacifist’, that is, as supporter of the king’s position in favour of Greece’s neutrality in the war. See Psarra and Fournaraki, ‘Callirhoe Parren’, 405. The festival opened and closed with two other tableaux vivants: the first was entitled ‘New Hellas’, in which were represented, against a backdrop with Constantinople and the church of Hagia Sophia, Epirus heavily armed, Macedonia with helmet, and Crete in traditional costume, while the last was a representation of ‘Nike’ [Victory], in the person of a white-robed Kore, against a backdrop of propylaia in the Doric order. For the 1914 Royal Theatre festival of the Lyceum, see the descriptions in the newspaper cuttings: IALE, Arheio Typou; cf. Logodosia 1913, 8. For the indoor festive events of the Lyceum, see Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’; cf. Antzaka-Weis, ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon’. For a description of the event in a newspaper, see: Anonymous [sings with the initial H.], ‘Phantasmagoriki anaparastasis archaiou kai neoterou hellenismou’. Anonymous [sings with the initial H.], ‘Phantasmagoriki anaparastasis archaiou kai neoterou hellenismou’. On the issue concerning the incorporation of the prehistory of Greek area into the European and the Greek historical narrative, see indicatively: Voutsaki, ‘The ‘‘Greekness’’ of Greek Prehistory’; McEnroe, ‘Cretan Questions’; MacGillivray, Minotaur. For the political and social issues in Greece of inter-war period, see: Mavrogordatos, Stillborn Republic; Hadziiosif (ed.), Istoria tis Elladas tou 20ou aiona. See in particular: Anonymous, ‘I hthesini eorti eis to Stadion. Anaparastasis ton diaforon epohon tou ellinismou’; cf. the Press clippings in IALE, Arheio Typou. On Greek feminism of the inter-war period, see: Avdela and Psarra, ‘Eisagogi’; Psarra, ‘Feministries, socialistries, kommounistries’. On the Lyceum’s attitude towards the woman’s issue and the feminist organizations, see in particular: Psarra, ‘‘‘Proton Ethikon Gynaikeion Synedrion’’’. Anonymous, ‘I eorti tou Stadiou. I proti dekapentaetia tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon’. See the printed programme of the Centennial festival of 6 April 1930, in IALE, Efimera. For the terms of the collaboration with the Hellenic Olympic Committee and the content of the festival (the presentation of the ‘four ages of Hellenism’ was reproduced), see IALE, PDS, Sessions of 27 March, 4 April and 18 April 1934. The Stadium festival of the 21 July 1936 was strongly hellenocentric and largely focused on Antiquity (in the Stadium, apart from the appearance of the Lyceum there was also a display of ancient contests), was once again combined with an ancient-style ceremony on the 80 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Acropolis, in which young girls of the Lyceum took part. As is well-known, the Lyceum presented a performance of ‘traditional dances’ at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Berlin. See: Detlion, per. II, iss. 1 (December 1937), 8 and IALE, Allilografia, F. 1936. [87] See Deltion, op. cit., 9. [88] See the printed programmes of the 1927 and 1928 festivals in IALE, Efimera. [89] The close collaboration of the Lyceum with Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, who, together with A. Sikelianos, organized the Delphic Festivals of 1927 and 1930, should also be noted. Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, who was a member of the Lyceum and participated also in other activities of the association, selected young ladies from its members to form the chorus of the Oceanids in Prometheus Bound (1927) and of the Danaids in Suppliant Women (1930) (see Glytzouris, present volume). This collaboration of the association with the American devotee of Greek Antiquity has a special importance. As is discussed thoroughly by A. Glytzouris, E. PalmerSikelianos systematically used and elaborated the method of copying poses from ancient iconographic-artistic sources (a method familiar to the Lyceum’s members since the 1911 Anthesteria), in order to reconstitute the ancient Greek dramatic dance. The Lyceum’s collaboration with E. Palmer-Sikelianos indicates that probably this method had been used all these years for the rendering of the ‘ancient dances’ by the Lyceum ladies. But this is an issue that lies beyond the scope of the present paper. Abbreviation List Deltion [period, number, year] ¼ Deltion tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Bulletin of the Lyceum of Greek Women]. Logodosia 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1914, etc. ¼ Logodosia tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Annual Report of the Lyceum of Greek Women]. EK ¼ Efimeris ton Kyrion [Ladies’ Journal]. IALE, PDS, Session of [date] ¼ Istoriko Arheio Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Historical Archive of the Lyceum of Greek Women], Praktika Synedriaseon tou Dioikitikou Symvouliou [Minutes of the Board Meetings]. IALE, Diafora, F. [year] ¼ Istoriko Arheio Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Historical Archive of the Lyceum of Greek Women], Diafora [Miscellaneous], Fakelos [File]. IALE, Efimera ¼ Istoriko Arheio Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Historical Archive of the Lyceum of Greek Women], Efimera [Pamphlets]. IALE, Arheio Typou ¼ Istoriko Arheio Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Historical Archive of the Lyceum of Greek Women], Arheio Typou [Press Archive]. IALE, Allilografia, F. [year], E. [number] ¼ Arheio Lykeiou ton Ellinidon [Historical Archive of the Lyceum of Greek Women], Allilografia [Correspondence], Fakelos [File], Eggrafo [Document] References Newspapers Acropolis (February–March 1896). Eleftheron Vima (1925–1926). Embros (1911–1915). Palingenesia (February–March 1896). Scrip (1911). 81 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Ahoros Theatis [Not-dancing spectator], ‘Oi horoi’ [The Dances]. Panathinaia 11/255 (15 May 1911): 67–70. Anonymous. ‘Mia gini dromefs’ [A Female Runner], Palingenesia (27 February 1896): 3. Anonymous (signs as Ds.), ‘I paramoni tou marathoniou’ [On the Eve of the Marathon Race]. Acropolis (30 March 1896): 4. Anonymous, ‘I hthesini megali eorti. Ta Anthestiria eis to Zappeion’ [Yesterday’s Great Festival. Anthesteria in Zappeion]. Embros (2 May 1911). Anonymous, ‘I hthesini eorti eis to Stadion. 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Proceedings of the 17th World Congress on Dance Research, Naxos 22-26/10/2003, edited by A. Raftis. Athens: IOFA Greek Section, n.d.: 17–21. Antzaka-Weis, E. [L.]. ‘Oi protes parastaseis ellinikon horon tou Lykeiou ton Ellinidon: to ideologiko plaisio kai ta praktika apotelesmata’ [The First Performances of Greek Dances of the Lyceum of Greek Women: The Ideological Framework and the Practical Results]. In Horeutika Eteroklita [Various Essays on Dancing], edited by E. Avdikos, R. Loutzaki, and Ch. Papakostas. Athens: Lykeion ton Ellinidon – Ellinika Grammata, 2004: 183–202. Antzaka-Weis, E. [L.]. ‘Oi ellinikoi horoi sto Lykeio ton Ellinidon. Oi yortes, oi daskaloi, to horeftiko repertorio. Ta prota peninta chronia’ [The Greek Dances in the Lyceum of Greek Women. The Festivals, the Teachers, the Dancing Repertoire. The First Fifty Years.]. In Ekato Chronia Lykeio ton Ellinidon 1911–2011 [A Hundred Years of the Lyceum of Greek Women]. 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Athens: International Olympic Academy, 2002: 99–104. 85 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material ‘Resurrecting’ Ancient Bodies: The Tragic Chorus in Prometheus Bound and Suppliant Women at the Delphic Festivals in 1927 and 1930 Antonis Glytzouris This essay aims at a systematic investigation of theatre performances of Prometheus Bound and Suppliant Women at the Delphic Festivals (1927, 1930) with particular reference to the art of dance. It attempts to analyse the artistic and ideological content of the tragic chorus such as conceived and implemented by Eva Palmer-Sikelianos. The article initially attempts to analyse her theoretical concerns and then attempts a detailed presentation of the Delphic performances. The revival of the tragic dance acquired an aura of ‘resurrection’, in the sense that it embodied a basic ideological component: the forging of Modern Greek identity upon alleged hereditary relations of ‘affinity’ between the ancient Greece and the Modern Greek folk culture. In order to illuminate this objective, the essay also examines: (a) similar approaches attempted in the Modern Greek stage from the end of the nineteenth century, (b) the Neo-Romantic roots of the initiative and (c) instances of American lovers of ancient and traditional Greece in the first quarter of the twentieth century. 1. The modern Delphic festivals were organized for the first time by the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos and his American wife Eva Palmer-Sikelianos in May 1927 at the archaeological site of Delphi in central Greece. In antiquity, the site had functioned as an oracle sanctuary dedicated to god Apollo and venue of the Pythian games, that is, the most prestigious after the Olympics athletic games in the ancient world. The modern festivals articulated the grand visions of the poet, dubbed ‘Delphic Idea’, as expressed in numerous lectures and publications since the early 1920s. [1] The objective of Sikelianos’ Delphic enterprise was to make Delphi once again the ‘navel 86 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE of the earth’ (it was reputed to be so in antiquity) through the establishment of a new world organization with Delphi as the headquarters, as well as through the foundation of a Delphic University. The revival of facets of ancient Greek culture was central in Sikelianos’ Delphic Idea: it was perceived as the means for the intellectual salvation of the human race worldwide. In this lofty effort modern Greece, as the perceived successor of ancient Greece, was to play a leading role. The first modern Delphic festivals lasted two days (9–10 May 1927). The program of the first day consisted of a tour at the archaeological site, modern Greek folk music performances, a presentation of the Hymn to Apollo and a performance of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound in the ancient theatre of Delphi. The second day consisted of a modern Greek folk art exhibit, a lecture by the German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld entitled ‘On Ancient Theatre’ as well as athletic competitions in the context of which amateur dancers, wearing reproductions of ancient armour, performed the ancient Greek dance ‘pyrrichios’. The activities of the second day were concluded early in the evening with a Byzantine music concert, a performance in dance form of the ancient Greek myth of the fight between Apollo and the Python, a repeat performance of the Hymn to Apollo as well as a torch-relay conducted in the Sacred Way by athletes. [2] The first Delphic festivals received wide publicity at home and abroad. As a result, they were eagerly repeated in 1930, this time complete with a dynamic advertising campaign. Besides Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, who incurred all the expenses for the 1927 festival, the state Greek Tourism Organization as well as a number of private sponsors contributed financially. The expanded second Delphic festival commenced on 1 May 1930 with a tour of the archaeological site, followed by a performance of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound (incorporating different actors and a new stage set, compared to the 1927 performance of the same play). The day was concluded with the customary presentation of the Hymn to Apollo. The second day included a modern Greek folk art exhibit, a performance of Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women as well as a lecture by Sikelianos himself ‘On the Delphic Enterprise’. The Pythian athletic games, dedicated to the warriors of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, were conducted on the third day, followed by a performance of the pyrrhichios dance. It should be noted that according to the official program, ‘during meals villagers will sing folk bandit songs, accompanied by the music of local instruments’. The entire program of the second Delphic festival was repeated twice (6–8 and 11–13 May). However, the Sikelianos’ efforts to permanently establish the Delphic festival proved to be in vain. Following the 1930 festival Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, the main financial sponsor of the events, had gone bankrupt. Soon afterwards, she returned to the United States in 1933. [3] 2. This paper will focus on a specific aspect of the Delphic festivals of 1927 and 1930, that is, the revival of the tragic chorus in the Aeschylus tragedies performed at the Delphi ancient theatre as part of the festivals in question. The set up was intimately 87 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE connected to a more holistic vision of the ‘resurrection’ of antiquity which, throughout the Delphic festival, positioned theatrical performances side by side with athletic events and craft fairs. The Delphic Revival ‘pursued the course of drama, art and social thought, with athletics as pieces of a more ambitious program’. [4] Thus, the sporting events were not separated from the theatrical performances. Similarly, the exhibition of folk-art weavings was not at odds with the Phyrric dance or the Septeria (the symbolic dance that represented the battle of Apollo with Python). A basic component of all these manifestations of Angelos Sikelianos’ Delphic Ideal was the exploration of a purely ‘Greek’ expression as a clear reaction to the modern Western culture. As Eva Palmer–Sikelianos put it in an interview to Photos Yofillis, ‘everything will be shown purified from foreign elements. You will receive only what is pure Greek: on the one hand ancient art and life and on the other popular art and life’. [5] The incorporation of sports at the Delphic Festivals of the 1927 constituted a kind of reply to the recent revival of the Olympic Games. Sikelianos, a staunch lover of antiquity was in this way reacting to the pernicious, as he perceived it, growth of modern mass sport. For this reason, it was prescribed that participation in the Delphic athletic events was restricted to young villagers of the mountain Parnassus area. As E. Palmer-Sikelianos wrote in 1924 in her application requesting permission to use the ancient stadium at Delphi for the modern Delphic festivals, these amateur athletes were the original heirs of a Greek competitive ‘tradition’, which was maintained virtually immutable over the centuries throughout Greece, and especially within the ‘virile people of Parnassus’; presenting the local games of the area as part of the Delphic Festivals would be ‘an excellent opportunity’ for the diffusion of the authentic Greek athletic ‘tradition’. [6] In a similar way, Eva Palmer-Sikelianos rejected off-the-peg clothing industry in favour of folk clothing as well as Swedish gymnastics which the then Greek director of Athletics [Ioannis Chrysafis] was promoting in the Ministry of Education. For Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, this was a type of gymnastics which created ‘thousands of mechanical dolls’ in an industrial manner. [7] Her vision of athletics aimed at an idealized model athlete who, in some way interconnected with the ancient dancer and was purified of modern degeneracy. [8] Viewed from the same perspective, Palmer-Sikelianos was also opposed to the independence of dance as an art form – the ‘tiresome stiffness of the ballet’ – or to the undulations of the body of the modern dancer (it is typical that even in the Pyrrhic dance she wanted ‘men with heavy armour which would force them into movements; there could be no graceful leaps or pirouettes’). [9] A thorough investigation of Palmer-Sikelianos’ concepts on the art of dance is directly related to the main theme of the present essay. Theatre performances were at the core of the programme of Delphic events, while the remaining activities were somewhat peripheral. Moreover, an elevation of the significance of the human ‘body’ was at stake, as well as an emphasis on dance, stage-direction and costume-design. All these issues went beyond the territory of verbal communication and tried to integrate 88 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE in a particular way this purely ‘Greek’ criticism of facets of modern culture. I believe that this shift of the centre of gravity from dramatic text to performance text had very serious consequences for the history of modern Greek theatre as well as for other issues related to the modern Greek ideological identity. Certainly, many aspects of the Delphic theatre performances are of broader artistic and ideological interest. However, it is no coincidence that, as all relevant sources indicate, the most significant event of the Sikelianos Delphic events was the revival of the tragic chorus. Moreover, all relevant sources acknowledge Eva Palmer-Sikelianos as the driving force behind the developments related to the tragic choruses. In 1924, this American lover of Greek antiquity made it her goal to make choruses the ‘heart of dramatic performances’ once more, ‘the chorus which sings and dances and expresses through its movements all the emotion of the drama’. [10] Palmer-Sikelianos’ theatrical past up until 1927 was exceptionally modest. [11] Her main occupations after 1907 were learning Byzantine musical theory alongside the composer Konstantin Psachos as well as practicing traditional weaving with the loom. [12] From 1924 until her departure from Greece in 1933, she dedicated herself to implementing her husband’s Delphic idea. Palmer-Sikelianos’ main approach to the ancient chorus was essentially based on an interpretation of Plato’s definition (that ‘the chorus is the unification of poetry, music and gymnastics’) and, second, on a reference of Aristotle’s Poetics (that ‘the chorus expresses in movement the ethics, passions and actions of the actors’). A derivative of the Aristotelian reference was her view that the ancients had, ‘a highly developed mimetic, pantomimic power’ in chorus and that ‘they expressed entire plots through movements’. Embedded in the Platonic triad was her belief that, ‘in ancient Greece there was no dance for its own sake’. [13] Paradoxically, the Platonic unity of the chorus predated tragedy and was an element in its creation. Eva Sikelianos believed also that ancient Greek dance emerged and flourished during the archaic period (ca. 800–480 BC). These views came into agreement with the deep appreciation she harboured for Aeschylus as being closer to the archaic period than the other two famous tragedians of the fifth century BC, that is, Sophocles and Euripides. [14] However, Palmer-Sikelianos was negative about the contribution of academia and in particular of scholars of ancient theatre to the issue of the revival of the ancient chorus. She alleged that it was not an issue for study and archaeological precision, but rather of internal enlightenment. [15] In reality, these views were not only related to the ancient past, but primarily to the present and future of the art of dance. The major boom in Western dance in the first decades of the century was immaterial to Sikelianos since, as a whole, modern dance violated the Platonic triptych of poetry, music and gymnastics. [16] In other words, the issue went beyond the bounds of a simple revival of performances of ancient Greek tragedy and aimed at forming a new art form which – based on a synthesis of Platonic elements – would resurrect the ancient form. [17] Palmer-Sikelianos was certainly neither the first nor the only one who, having started with ancient chorus, envisioned the reformation of the art of dance. At the 89 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE turn of the twentieth century, a similar undertaking had been advanced by Isadora Duncan. The famous American dancer and advocate of the European Neo-Romantic movement took as her starting point the view that she wanted both the ancient and the modern man to be a product of nature and she placed the eternal ‘solar plexus’ as the centre of his expression through dance. [18] For her compatriot Eva PalmerSikelianos, however, the aforementioned views did not refer to the prototype of archaic (or even classical) Greece, but to a later period of Hellenistic decline. [19] In her attempt to transcend this modern decadent state, Palmer-Sikelianos discovered – after her first encounter with modern Greece – that the ancient dance could not be revived through the channels of nature but through the river of history. [20] More specifically, Palmer-Sikelianos, in full agreement with basic tenets of Greek folklore, claimed that the elements of ancient Greek dance were alive in the sense that they had been preserved since antiquity in the Greek countryside – which was supposedly unaffected by modern Western civilization. [21] Thus, she argued, that in Greek villages, ‘the dance rhythms are all ancient and unknown in European music’. However, she also added that village dances, even if they were valuable ‘because they show the strength of the Greek tradition’, were ‘small relics of ancient dance on which no new development of the art could be based’. In her opinion, contemporary Greek dances incorporated the Platonic triptych, but lacked the pantomimic dimension. [22] The revival of ancient chorus should be based on history, but in a more original – or rather, more direct – manner. 3. In this way, Palmer-Sikelianos attempted to find a solution to the mimetic nature of ancient chorus whilst, at the same time, forming a purely ‘Greek’ form of gymnastics which would become the basis of the artistic expression of the dancer. For this reason, she turned to ancient pottery, relief carvings and sculptures, with the aim of bringing their forms to life. [23] Initially, this was because they coincided chronologically with the high-point of ancient dance, and second because they presented the figures with the legs and head ‘de profile’, and the body ‘en face’. Palmer-Sikelianos believed that this was not an iconographic convention but a real dance move which was later named by her as ‘the Apollonian movement in dance’. In this movement, the dancer had to aspire to ‘the isolating effect of keeping the head in profile with the chest ‘en face’ which is characteristic of archaic Greek art’. [24] The foundation for the revival of ancient chorus was music. [25] In this regard the historical continuity via Byzantine music was even more clearly ascertained: ‘Greek music is ancient’, and certainly, ‘the only art form which has remained alive since antiquity’, the only example which clearly demonstrates, ‘that the Greece of today is the continuation of the ancient’. [26] Byzantine musical tradition provided another important function for the revival of the Aeschylean text: ‘the unbreakable connection between speech and music’. [27] However, there was only continuity concerning the musical system which tradition had preserved. In other words, the 90 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE goal was not to adapt ecclesiastical hymns to the text of the tragedy, but to use one method which the church and the people had preserved by employing it in new artistic creation. [28] Therefore, even though Angelos Sikelianos wanted Manolis Kalomoiris to compose the music of Prometheus Bound, his wife reacted strongly and eventually she succeeded in imposing the selection of Psachos. [29] Thanks to her insistence, Psachos was pressured into writing the Prometheus score in a Byzantine-way music notation, offering ‘to all careful listeners the general idea of Greek music as a whole from ancient times until our days, both as far as music and rhythms are concerned’. [30] In early 1925, Palmer-Sikelianos began to select the members of the chorus of Oceanides with girls from the Lyceum of Greek Women and then continued to develop the choreography. [31] For this task she had the assistance of the work of Psachos as well as the sketches, drawn by Eva Sikelianos herself and the young sculptor Bella Raftopoulou, of pre-classical pottery iconography depicting dancing scenes. [32] More specifically, dance moves were selected from the ancient images whenever a pose or gesture matched the essential meaning of specific words or phrases in the text. [33] Once Palmer-Sikelianos had associated every word or phrase in poetry with the representations on pottery, she then had to put them in order and connect them to Psachos’ music. From the spring of 1926, when she again called the girls from the Lyceum, until early 1927, when the chorus had completed its Daedalean task, Palmer-Sikelianos taught the music orally and demonstrated specific movements for each word or phrase of Prometheus Bound. [34] This picture is completed by the handwritten choreographic guide to Prometheus, which is preserved at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens, Greece and which constitutes, from a historical perspective, probably the most important piece of documentation in connection with the staging of Prometheus. [35] The figures which have been sketched, as well as the comments which accompany them, refer to a pantomimic expression, dominated by gestures and bent knees while the body and head remain, generally, rigid. [36] A comparison of the sketches which were copied from ancient pottery with the notebook proves that in all cases, an effort was made to accurately transfer body positions, as depicted in ancient vases, to the choreography. The chorus would implement the ‘Apollonian movement’ hence achieving a strict stylization of dancing bodies: the legs and the head in a lateral position with the chest en face; a series of poses which highlight a sense of inflexibility and, in any case, not the free and fluid expression of the body in the orchestra of the ancient theatre. The overall result of the intense figurativeness came both from the stylistic choices and from the fact that the postures and gestures of the dancers were suffocatingly calculated in their attempt to ‘resurrect’ the pottery, mimicking the literal meaning of the words. Comparative measurements led to the unbelievable total of 285 alternate poses, something which means that each girl had to change into at least three positions in every verse in order to render the literal meaning of each word or phrase. [37] This highly stylized version of the chorus was also connected with the 91 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE steps involved, which were very modest during the performance and which also had a pantomimic character. [38] All the above is complemented and corroborated both by articles in contemporary press and by the visual material available: photographs of the performances and the film of the Delphic Prometheus by the Gaziadis brothers, the oldest preserved modern Greek documentary which provides us with a ‘visual code’ of priceless historical value. [39] A. D. Keramopoulos, Professor of archaeology at the University of Athens, gives us a vivid description of the chorus performance in Prometheus: Throughout the dialogue, namely the ‘episodes’, the chorus sat on the ground watching the developing action. However, when its turn came, they sang, danced and made a huge variety of movement of the body, and certainly of the hands, with these changing at each phrase. In order to understand its work, we must compare it to modern ballet. The prima ballerina now gives us the ideal of modern dance: Huge leaps, both in height and length, spinning the body until she is dizzy and then sudden immobile postures lead to resounding applause. Dizziness is the ideal [. . .]. The chorus at Delphi made no violent movements or jumps. Immediately after the action came the music, [. . .] the chorus danced calmly to the rhythm of the song, bending their bodies in various ways, their arms, necks, the wrists of one or both hands, this or that knee, making mimicked expressions through movements, making the meaning of the verses tangible, always in absolute agreement, forming at the same time various lines and clusters and filling the orchestra with superior aesthetic decorum [. . .] Dancing was based on numerous images from ancient works of Greek art, statues, reliefs and paintings on pottery. I observed that they also mimicked well-known positions of the arms – such as those of Achermos’ Nike found at Delos, which is a position opposed to the psychology underlying the movements and must be attributed primarily to the clumsiness of Archaic art and is not found in previous works from that period. [40] The truth is that in the chorus of Suppliant Women, which involved far more dancers compared to Prometheus Bound, more importance was given to grouping as well as to movements and arrangement in the orchestra. However, yet again, both reviews and photographs of the performance testify in general terms to its intense archaic appearance, and to a succession of positions with the legs and the head ‘de profile’ and the body ‘en face’. In all cases, witnesses speak of a ‘resurrection’ of ancient Greek sculptures and Egyptian pottery or liken the dance to an ‘archaic frieze which moves before our surprised eyes unfolding slowly like a ribbon’. [41] The method of combining intense stylization and mimetic expression of the literal meaning of the text was also followed in the Suppliant Women. [42] In this case too, this treatment of the chorus had another effect in terms of its deployment within the orchestra. Although the performance was not given in the picture-frame stage of the nineteenth-century theatre, the conception of the chorus was based on lines and not on volumes. As is generally the case, the outdoor theatre was used solely for the suggestive elements of the setting, such as the echo which was created by the Faedriades rocks, in what was again a ‘resurrection’ of the ancient landscape. [43] 92 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Nevertheless, almost all critics at the time recognized that for the first time in the history of modern Greek theatre they were seeing a disciplined tragic chorus, which sang and danced in harmony to the verses of Aeschylus. Everyone acknowledged that they had attended a performance of ancient tragedy, which for the first time placed the chorus ‘in the fullness of its elements’ at the centre of the ancient drama. More precisely, the chorus was the protagonist of the Delphic performances. [44] From this perspective, the Delphic performances constituted a turning point in the stage interpretation of the ancient Greek drama in Greece. [45] However, the most significant impact of the above conception of the chorus was the arbitrary downgrading of the verses into simple acoustic and visual units and the supplanting of any interpretative attempt of the role of the chorus. The presentation of the chorus which the spectators of the Delphic performances experienced was certainly an artistic innovation. However, the chorus episodes were almost autonomous musicaldance events, independent from the remaining body of the performance. [46] Moreover, the text of the tragedy itself was not perceptible, since the weight fell on pantomimic and musical-dance presentation. [47] The aestheticism which dominated the performance of the chorus episodes and the downgrading of the text does not mean, however, that Palmer-Sikelianos’ approach did not rely on a specific ideological position. 4. Returning to the choreography guide to Prometheus, we notice that a different deployment of the chorus appears in the choreography for six lines of the third stasimon. Moreover, the choreographic rendering of verses 887–90, inspired from the meaning of the verse (‘with those who he is related to by marriage’), proposes the following movement: ‘like a syrtos [modern Greek folk dance], each dancer with one hand on the shoulder of the next’. This is followed by two lines with pantomime and then, in order to render the following verses, the choreography guide indicates that the dancers ‘split into pairs and turn’ and ‘advance like a balos [modern Greek folk dance]’. The representation of the next verse has already been replaced by mimetic movements, but the insertion of the balos and the syrtos is particularly significant. Here, Palmer-Sikelianos’ model did not come from ancient pottery but from traditional Greek dances. The exceptionally brief use of folk dances is again related to the mimetic rendition of the meaning of the verses (related by marriage, wedding) which refers to a group expression. Moreover, the use of folk dances is not connected so much with dance conventions as with artistic compositions which complement the archaic-style dance moves presented in other parts of the play. Yet, the important point is that a connection between the meaning of the chorus’ verses from an ancient Greek tragedy and the modern Greek folk-dance tradition was materialized. The evidence of the choreography guidebook on this point is corroborated by other sources as well, according to which the link between ancient literature and modern Greek folk tradition may have been noted as the chorus entered the orchestra. [48] 93 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Throughout the duration of the performance, ancient and modern Hellenism certainly went hand in hand with the music of Psachos, which was another link between the ancient and modern Greek worlds. As at all Delphic events, folk music and village dances by traditional folk costume-wearers accompanied renditions of ancient dances such as the dance of Apollo with Python, or even the Pyrrhic dance performed at the ancient stadium at Delphi. As far as the Pyrrhic dance is concerned, it would seem that Angelos and Eva wanted to ‘resurrect’ it, but not only through the method of copying pottery. They therefore hired the aviator Thanos Veloudios, who undertook to teach the Pyrrhic dance to select soldiers, regarding it as a distant ancestor of the modern folk dance zeimbekikos. In order to revive it, he turned to ancient depictions but, above all, he studied the contemporary ‘skilled folk dancers’, and was absolutely certain of the continuity involved: The post-Byzantine Modern Greek rebetes [i.e. musicians who created the underground folk musical genre of rebetiko which flourished between 1920s and 1950s] and manges [i.e. dropouts of the Greek counterculture which appeared in the first decades of the 20th-century, closely associated to the rebetes], are the mystics and successors of a beautiful and glorious ‘Greekness’, He wrote three decades later (when, of course, to a certain degree, the world of Rebetika had also become firmly established in Greek intellectual life, see Veloudios, ‘Epitideigmi Pyrrihiou eis 9/8’, 125). [49] Regarding the tragic chorus in Prometheus, it should be highlighted that the feeling was somewhat different compared to the above-mentioned views. The 40-piece orchestra, hidden in Prometheus’ rock, or the two solos interpreted by the operatic contralto Maria Yagkaki, suggest that, in Tsarouchis’ estimate, ‘alongside the music with the pipes and drums’ which accompanied other Delphic events, Psachos’ music ‘seems weak and somewhat Lenten [anaemic]’. [50] However, no witness of the time doubts the fact that the music of the performances used melodies and rhythms from traditional Greek music. A similar approach was also on display in the silk costumes which adorned the bodies of the dancers. They were ‘heavy’ costumes which hindered the body when dancing: ‘it was a difficult garment, and a heavy one, which slipped from its correct position at every movement of the body’, recalled the leader of the chorus Koula Pratsika later. [51] Nevertheless, it had one great advantage: with its folds, it highlighted the stylized movement and the re-creation of the body positions taken from ancient pottery. A traditional production process, which was known by PalmerSikelianos, was used to manufacture the clothing: weaving on a loom. This factor, which sought to ‘dress’ the bodies of the members of the orchestra ideologically, was yet again integrated into a broader vision of the convergence between ancient and modern Greek folk cultures and complemented the folk art exhibition which accompanied the other events at the Delphic festivals. Certainly, Palmer’s interest in costume had begun from the bourgeois New York circles at the end of the nineteenth century, when she bought 94 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE many yards of very expensive crèpe [. . .] stuff that really came from China, but not at all like what is now called crèpe de Chine. It was heavy and supple, and therefore rather good for draping in Greek folds. [52] Later, her interests met with green-blue silken tunics in the Parisian performances of Symbolist dramas which would lead, finally, to the Delphic Festival in their historic maturity. [53] Palmer-Sikelianos consciously avoided archaeological accuracy in her attempt to create the costumes for the performances. Nonetheless, she ‘resurrected’ the ancient Greek figures in a different manner: ‘I knew that the ancient Greeks were supposed not to have silk, but I did not really care. I was not trying to be strictly correct’. The goal was to prepare ‘very elaborate dresses’ woven on a loom in such a way that the Oceanides dancing would make a reference to Greek reliefs. [54] Through the abovementioned Neo-Romantic European channels, and with Raymond Duncan as a very important link, Palmer decided, after 1907, to devote herself to the art of weaving in Greek villages. [55] This traditional method of weaving was ultimately used for the costumes in Prometheus and Suppliant Women, and therefore ‘it revived the lost folding of ancient Greek tunics and mantles’. [56] The issue was not therefore purely theatrical, as was also betrayed by the great exhibition of Delphic costumes which was organized by the Metropolitan Museum of New York in the summer of 1936. [57] From at least the beginning of the Inter-war period, Palmer-Sikelianos had begun to formulate opinions which supported the creation of a ‘traditional’ Greek clothing industry. After the Delphic Festival, this was transformed into a more coherent proposal. In her exceptionally interesting article dating in the summer of 1930, she proposed both the creation of a purely ‘Greek’ fashion in the off-the-peg clothing industry (as had happened with ‘Indian’ clothing) and the production model of small-scale ‘cottage industry’ as the basis of ‘economic progress’. Moreover, she considered it necessary to create a national bazaar for handmade ‘Greek’ clothing and to form a ‘national order for protecting the industry’ which would aim at attracting the interest of foreigners both in Greek antiquity and in the country’s folk culture. For aesthetic reasons, this initiative would develop a ‘Greek style’ and at the same time would position the country firmly in the international marketplace. This, again, was a more comprehensive cultural and business proposition based on ‘Greekness’. [58] 5. The intention of this essay is not, of course, to exhaustively describe the revival of the tragic chorus at the Delphic performances, but to define its artistic and ideological importance from the perspective of the aforementioned essential interpretative stance: the ‘resurrection’ of antiquity through the nationalistic historical conception of Hellenism and the emphasis on the relationship of Greek antiquity with modern Greek folk traditions. In this light it might be advisable to consider the limitations in place for a modernist revival of the tragic chorus or – more correctly – its 95 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE containment within an idealised ‘resurrection’ of ancient Greek elements which survived hidden in various inaccessible corners of the Greek countryside. The question is certainly not new, since it leads us to the first expression of folkloric interests in the nineteenth century. Even in the theatrical sphere, Palmer-Sikelianos was obviously not the first to think of introducing popular tradition to performances of ancient tragedy. Music with a Byzantine motif, composed by Ioannis Sakellarides, had already been used in performances (in ancient Greek language) by Georgios Mistriotis since the last years of the nineteenth century. [59] A connection between ancient Greek chorus and traditional Greek music was also noted in December 1903 in an even more interesting manner. Isadora Duncan (known to Palmer-Sikelianos since the beginning of the century) danced in Athens the third stasimon of Suppliant Women, ‘accompanied by a nasal music tone’ (i.e. in a Byzantine motif). It was sung by a 10-member black-clad choir of boys, headed by a cantor, a group which was probably a mixture of peasants and trainee monks from the Rizareios School. [60] Leaving the Greek capital, Duncan took with her the boys choir and together they gave performances as the chorus of Suppliant Women in Vienna and Berlin. However, the experiments into the historic revival of ancient dance quickly came to an end: the ‘Greek-Byzantine’ melodies were replaced by the chords of Wagner, and Duncan later described the attempt as ‘a glorious bubble’. [61] It was no coincidence that Eva Sikelianos saw the aforementioned attempt as an opportunity for the dancer to understand the ‘secret’, and ‘to face’ Apollo; an opportunity, however, which she did not make the most of. [62] Nevertheless, the use of folk Greek music in performances of ancient Greek tragedies in later years is witnessed by performances of her brother (the brother-in-law of Angelos Sikelianos), Raymond Duncan. [63] Since at least 1919, Vasos Kanellos (a student of Duncan) and his wife Tanagra had been combining popular music and traditional dances with ancient Greek subjects in dance and drama performances in the United States. [64] The list grows longer if one also takes into account the plethora of as-yet unexplored ancient dances which were performed by a host of Greek and foreign women dancers in Athens during the second decade of the twentieth century; [65] or the fact that the dances of Loie Fuller in 1914 brought thousands of spectators to the Panathenaic Stadium. [66] The filmed reports from many celebratory events in the Inter-war period are perhaps even more eloquent. These capture masses of Greeks in the Panathenaic Stadium who were thirsty for visions of the Great Idea, the ideology of Greek irredentism, watching parades with basket bearing Athenian women, Byzantine empresses and women peasants in folk costumes, in an illustration of all the centuries of Hellenism. In this respect the Lyceum of Greek Women was most important as it had formulated an ideological framework within which the co-operation with Palmer-Sikelianos later took place. The method of copying ancient pottery, for example, had been used as early as the Anthestiria Festival in 1911, where the girls of the Lyceum danced folk dances in an antique-looking dress. Beginning in 1925 and in the subsequent festivals of the Lyceum at the Panathenaic Stadium various ‘ancient dances’ were represented and associated with syrtos and balos. [67] The first 96 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE impression from all these cases is, however, that the efforts to recreate ancient dances were still fragmentary and incomplete. Palmer-Sikelianos’ major contribution was primarily to bring these elements together as a whole for the first time in performances of ancient tragedy, offering a unified theatrical experience: the spectators of the performances at Delphi watched a tragic chorus which wore stylish silk costumes woven in a loom, sang verses from an ancient Greek tragedy in the modern Greek language, danced to traditional music with Byzantine motifs, assumed archaic poses and sometimes danced the syrtos and the balos. This achievement was important because it revealed a consistent approach to the staging of ancient drama. In presenting these works in this way, Palmer-Sikelianos created an original director’s perspective which organically highlighted the idea of the continuity of Hellenism on stage: from the Archaic period until 1927. To be precise, ‘Hellenism’, without ever escaping the bounds of history, began at the same time to formulate a transcendent, almost ‘mystical’ entity within Delphic mythology. In other words, it began to be formulated both as a continuation of and as the intrinsic superiority of the Greek race. In his attempt to support the link of dances and music in the revival of ancient tragedy, Angelos Sikelianos attempted to overcome the conflict between Asian and Greek music, attributing the latter to a distant historic past: ‘the body of the Greek music tradition’, he wrote in 1930, ‘is rooted in an almost prehistoric ground, within which the Doric and Asian lyre – in other words, the East and real Greece – may have clashed at many points, but in the end, from the primeval Orphic years, they have been blended together naturally, organically and in technical terms’. This was, in essence, also the reason why ‘they could write the melodies of all peoples’ from the Danube to the Far East using Greek, Byzantine notation. For similar reasons, the Greek dance was superior to the dances of other peoples: it was a historic continuation of the archetypical Greek dance of Apollo with Python, which resulted from a Nietzschean composition. [68] As one is beginning to suspect, the Delphic revival of ancient dances did not stem so much from the ‘Greek’ element as from a specific ideological basis which offered the synthesis of the arts via the Platonic triad. This ideological background manifested itself in the musical construction of the performance, the move towards the enchanting irrationalism of the archaic age as well as the dismissal of academic tradition in the staged revival of ancient tragedy or the handling of the performance as a religious ritual for unifying the community by worshipping a ‘Christian’ Prometheus. When one reaches the last chapters of Palmer-Sikelianos’ autobiography, where the American lover of antiquity recollects, around 1938, her ideological fathers – Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche and her dancing prototype, Duncan – he/she realizes that her interpretation as a director was directly connected to the ‘fin de siècle’ Symbolism and Decadence; it was a product of the Neo-Romantic and irrational challenge to bourgeois culture, its scientism, its industrialisation, its mass modernist society. [69] Palmer-Sikelianos’ Neo-Romantic roots had been laid down at a young age in America, even before she became acquainted with Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. In the period 1889–1892, she recited poetry by Edgar Allan Poe and choruses from the 97 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE tragedies of Algernon Charles Swinburne in an attempt to force language ‘beyond melody’. [70] Furthermore, the central axis of the Delphic endeavour was the Wagnerinspired meaning of the ‘celebratory’ event, through which theatre would again acquire the ancient character of a collective and almost religious experience; it would again become the magical place where the primordial myths of the community are replicated. Thus, the attempt is included in a particular branch of French Symbolist theatre and Decadence which was led by well-known descendants of Wagnerism such as Edouard Schuré and Joséphin Péladan. [71] The similarities between the views of Sikelianos on machine-made Western dress and those which were exhibited through the Arts and Crafts Movement are also interesting. The relationship has not been thoroughly studied, although Arts and Crafts was a movement which had an enormous impact (primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States) from the last decades of the nineteenth century until the First World War. One of the arts promoted within this context, and certainly in connection to the discovery of folk culture, was weaving on the loom, with perhaps the most typical case being that of Ethel Mairet. The foundations of the movement were rooted, once again, in the idealistic Neo-Romanticism of John Ruskin, Walter Pater, William Morris and Thomas Carlyle, and flirted intently with the East from where it received inspiration (mainly from Japan, Persia and India). [72] Finally, one should not overlook the fact that these ideas relate to a specific historical context; an age when certain scholars, based on thinkers such as Oswald Spengler, began to seek out political solutions to the anti-parliamentarianism of ‘Greek community’ and ‘community consciousness’. [73] The Delphic Idea was also based on the ‘communalist’ proposal which expressed the ideals of the major AntiEnlightenment ideological movement: ‘a synthesis of the communities of the Arian race’ in that ‘diamond of the Earth’ (Greece) based ‘around the metropolis of Delphi’. [74] It was a full-scale attack on the French revolutionary tradition, on liberalism, on individualism and on parliamentary democracy. In spite of the best attempts of many researchers to disassociate Angelos Sikelianos from his relationship with the above reactionary political tradition (as the latter was a primary theoretical prerequisite for Fascism), a more level-headed historian can easily perceive the associations. [75] 6. The employment of Byzantine music in the Mistriotis and Duncan performances at the beginning of the twentieth century had been treated by a large section of the modern Greek intelligentsia with irony or awkward smiles. But the use of the same music in the tragic performances of the Delphic festivals in 1927 and 1930 won wide approval. [76] The Delphic Festivals’ influence was critical: they helped crystallize a redefinition of modern Greek nationalism, a redefinition desperately needed after the military defeat in Asia Minor and other events in 1922 which essentially signalled the end of most irredentist claims. In the case of the Delphic festivals, the new Greek nationalism materialized with the help of a certain perception of the Neo-Romantic 98 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE and Anti-Enlightenment European tradition. By enriching in this way the national Idea, Greek reality would come to be viewed all the more intensely via the ideological filter of ‘Greekness’: ‘Greek’ nature, ‘Greek’ light, ‘Greek’ style, ‘Greek’ speech. [77] One should also not forget that Palmer-Sikelianos did not base her work on any foreign director. Actually, no ‘Greek’ revival of ancient drama had taken place up until then using costumes woven on the loom, Byzantine music and the syrtos and balos dances. In reality, of course, her choices were not ‘Greek’ at all but that is something we know today with the benefit of hindsight. For Palmer-Sikelianos, who treated the Western bourgeois tradition with disdain, something in the cultural foundations of the country was being transcended by reading the domestic reality of Greece via a dynamic entity, ‘Greekness’, which could be utilized and capitalized upon internationally. In this way, the Modern Greek suggestion of how to revive ancient Greek theatre entered the international cultural environment, something which had not been feasible up until then. [78] Undoubtedly, the turning point was the use of domestic, folk tradition. When researchers read the pages of Duncan’s autobiography which recount the discovery of ancient civilization in the faces of the Greek villagers of the time, they are left with no doubt that the Duncans certainly believed they had found the exotic natives of a primitive tribe, who were the untouched descendants of the ancient Greeks. [79] Palmer-Sikelianos had a similar feeling when she first heard a Greek folk song sung by Angelos Sikelianos’ sister, and Raymond’s wife, Penelope. The first Greek-American wedding opened the horizons for reviving ancient tragedy based on Greece’s folk tradition. The second marriage between Eva Palmer and Angelos Sikelianos completed it. Of course, neither Duncan nor Palmer was the only Americans to ‘discover’ ancient Greek remnants in the culture of the Balkan natives which they could ‘resurrect’. This is indeed an area which is related to a new type of American philhellenism, a worship of both ancient and modern Greece, the latter being the heir of the former. In addition to Isadora and Raymond Duncan, the inscrutable figures of Prof. Von Oftendhal (or Oftenthal) and John Alden were integral in the burgeoning classical education offered by American universities. [80] A quick overview of the important activities of the American theatre manager George Cram Cook (‘Jig’) and his wife and dramatist, Susan Glaspell, in Greece show that the worship of ancient, un-urbanized and unindustrialized Greece was a result of a radical doubt of their Western, modern identity. [81] Moreover, when they all arrived in Greece they cast off their Western clothing and put on the chlamys or a fustanella and then tried to adopt a ‘Greek’ code of conduct, whether ancient or traditional. [82] From a similar perspective, the Greek language was treated by Palmer-Sikelianos as music in the sense intended by Schopenhauer. [83] Moreover, when Eva was watching traditional weaving techniques in the villages she noticed that spinning with the distaff was a social activity, a pleasant means of social interaction, which was much more pleasing that Western ‘tea-parties’. [84] The treatment of the body clearly had a specific socio-political dimension, that of ‘aestheticizing’ it. That dimension can also be detected in Greek ideological currents 99 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE of the Inter-war years. In his attempt to create an ideal form of gymnastics as the basis for modern dance which was based on ancient dance and which sought to purify the body, Raymond Duncan at first copied, as we noted above, the poses shown on ancient pottery. However, when he abandoned his study of pottery for a while and travelled to Epirus, he saw that the bodies of the shepherds stood out ‘for their amazing movement’, not when they danced but when they were simply climbing the mountains. When he then went on to deal with Greek labourers and farmers he realized that their movements when they worked ‘utterly resembled those which are depicted on the pottery’. [85] Similarly, Palmer-Sikelianos started early on to categorically reject the off-the-peg clothing industry. [86] When she first came to Greece, she settled with the vegetarian Duncans in the sui generis American ‘commune’ in Kopanas, near Athens, living there in ‘ancient Greek style’; [87] and some time thereafter the body of a Greek fisherman who used harpoons to fish in the islet of St Nicolas, Lefkada, reminded her of Poseidon since he portrayed a ‘movement older than Greek art’. [88] Precisely this experiment, to ‘resurrect’ the ancient Greek bodies, later materialized into the bodies of the tragic chorus members of the Delphic performances dressed in loom-woven clothes. It is illustrative that at first Palmer-Sikelianos had thought of selecting ‘either middle class girls or village girls’ for the chorus of Oceanides. However, the latter, despite being ‘beautiful in their simplicity’, were finally rejected since were not evenly tanned to be able to wear the ancient costumes; and ‘the result would not have been pretty – because the face would have been a different colour from the arms, and the neck another colour’. In the end she chose girls from the Lyceum of Greek Women who came from families of the Athenian elite although she was still hesitant about this. She was afraid that the ‘girls from the wealthy class’ were unsuitable because they had adopted Western mores and customs, and did not represent ‘truly the elements which had been preserved from ancient Greece’. [89] Similarly, Aestheticism compromised with the taste and strict conservative morals of society amateur actresses affected the design of the costumes used to dress the Danaids in the chorus of the Suppliant Women. Relying on Egyptian monuments, Palmer-Sikelianos claimed that the Egyptian-style dresses of the chorus ought to be transparent. However, she back down when faced with the reactions of the mothers of the girls participating in the chorus. [90] About the same time the ideology of ‘Ellinikotita’ (‘Greekness’) was closely associated with that of ‘Laikotita’ (‘Folkness’) of Photis Kontoglou, Yannis Tsarouchis and Karolos Koun (who dared to choose the actors for the Folk Stage in 1933 from the working class). [91] However, as Palmer-Sikelianos said, ‘the intelligentsia abroad admires and pays attention to Greece not because it resembles abroad but precisely because of the difference that exists with Europe and the similarity that exists with ancient Greece’. [92] This argument once again brought to the fore the old interface, which existed since the nineteenth century, between Greek ‘folklore studies’ (Laographia) and antiquarian studies and the love of antiquity. According to Greek ‘folklorists’, Greek folk culture existed as a cultural entity only in its capacity as the bearer of and continuation of ancient Greek culture. Although the 100 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE perception of ‘people’ within the Greek folklorist movement remained rather unchanged along the lines expressed by nineteenth-century scholarship, at the same time it was also clear that the Greek folk culture (and ‘Greekness’ as well) attracted now the interest of a foreign, international audience. The traditional folk arts, Byzantine music and village dances had been included in the directorial approach to the tragic chorus not because Palmer-Sikelianos treated them as artistic equivalents to the ancient texts but because she considered them to be part of the heritage of ancient Greek culture. For that reason the artistic basis of the chorus was fixated on archaic pottery, the Greek folk dance conventions were confined to just six verses, and the ‘Lenten’ music of Psachos instead of traditional music was used. Folk culture was not treated as a functional and artistically self-sufficient system of values but only with the awe and respect of an ark which had preserved the ancient Greek culture; and of course as a means of internationally promoting Greece. In that sense, one can detect in these developments the origins of the post-war exploitation of ancient Greek theatre in connection with the growth of mass tourism (which was encouraged as a substitute of ‘industry’ in this un-industrialized South-European country). The neo-Romantic roots of Palmer-Sikelianos’ exploration of how to harmoniously blend poetry, dance and music into a single piece of art were in large part due to the important shift in ideology about the continuity of Hellenism on stage from the words of the text to the ‘poetry’ of the living body. This new correlation between elements drawn from both the ancient Greek art and contemporary folk art, articulated in the inclusion of the art of dance and the dancer’s body in modern Greek ideological and artistic tradition, opened up new paths towards staging ancient drama in the inter-war years and the decades thereafter. No matter how much the directorial approach was a rearguard of the European Neo-Romanticism of the start of the century, by Greek standards it had managed to change the landscape when it came to the issue of revival. Perhaps Palmer-Sikelianos’ greatest contribution to the revival of ancient theatre in Greece was related to this difficult area of the presentation of the tragic chorus on stage. On the other hand, it was unavoidable that the same developments in Greece took into account Western developments in the field of dance; an art form which had entered the modern age in Europe and the United States via its exposure to the Symbolist environment. Besides Duncan’s achievements, it is perhaps sufficient to mention the theoretical views of Stéphane Mallarmé on dance or Edward Gordon Craig’s famous words: ‘the father of the dramatist was the dancer’. [93] To be sure, the possible influences of Indian dance, from the Indian dancer and friend of the couple, Kourshed Naoroji, must also be mentioned. They spent the summer of 1924 together and she danced and sang at their home in Sykia. [94] However, it is a fact that there was really no intention to experiment with a modern directorial interpretation based on the analogies between the traditional and anti-realistic theatrical conventions of the ancient Greek tragic chorus and the equally non-realistic artistic conventions of the Greek folk music/dance tradition. Viewed from this perspective, the endeavour simply sought to cultivate an extreme Aestheticism which 101 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE was responsible for some very serious contradictions. It is only from this standpoint that we can interpret the fact that the tragic chorus of the Delphic performances disdained the ancient text; that it was based on an arbitrary transformation of archaic artistic conventions into choric conventions, as well as a transformation of traditional folk-dance conventions into artistic conventions; or even that the director rejected the village girls because of their suntan, and used silk to weave the costumes on a loom. Moreover, Palmer-Sikelianos’ main purpose was not even dance or theatrerelated. She noted flatly in 1925: ‘I repeat that my objective is not primarily to play Aeschylus’ Prometheus but to take an unwavering decision to show that the centuries old elements of Greek culture are still alive’. [95] The much-vaunted revival of the tragic chorus was attempted by amateurs, led by an enthusiastic ‘noble ideologue’; [96] by people who had not developed serious relations with either the theatre or the art of dance. That is all the more true for Angelos Sikelianos, the person who inspired the Delphic Idea and stressed its non-theatrical character. Even the choice of Prometheus Bound was made because of the play’s relationship with the myth of Iapetus; in other words it served the ideal of an ecumenical renaissance. In reality, it related to a new, more spiritual resurrection of the Modern Greek nationalism of the nineteenth century in the Inter-war years, a re-definition of the Hellenic-Christian ideal and its re-affirmation as a key component of Greek ideology. [97] Behind that amateurism was a well-hidden fear of the threat of ‘decadent’ modernism; that is, the fear that the entire issue would end up as a theatrical and dance event, ‘the risk of making the Drama a simple theatrical performance’; or as Eva put it in 1930 after the Delphic Festival to the then Minister of Culture ‘I am not a ballet-master’. [98] Apparently, this was another attempt of ideological formulation of Greek elite. The criticism in the professional modern Greek theatre of the era, as well as the Greek upper-class reaction to mass sport, constitute clearly a continuity with the ideals of a native amateurism as a vehicle for the social distinction of elite from the middle classes. [99] The fact that the Delphic performances were a major society happening is one aspect which has been overlooked. Researchers are often in the awkward position of collecting information about the chorus and preparations for it from the society columns of the daily press. Readers of this paper need to take into account that all the cream of Athenian society had been involved into these events and that, under normal circumstances, the spectators in the audience (when not foreigners, scholars and journalists) were members of the capital’s ‘high’ society. [100] The handling of the ancient chorus in the difficult to comprehend theoretical texts of the artistic Sikelianos couple and in the orchestra of the ancient theatre undoubtedly entailed a dialogue between Neo-Romanticism, the requirements of ‘Greekness’ and authentic folk art. However, in the final analysis that was something completely compatible with the fact that in the mind of Athens ‘society’ and the readers of newspapers of the time, the artistic and ideological factors at play also included the talents of the then famous Greek beauty queen and Miss Europe, Aliki Diplarakou. Her presence at Delphi, as was expected, drew much attention. If one is to believe the artistic gossip of 102 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE the time, before leaving for the European competition Diplarakou had promised to take part in the chorus and had learned the requisite 500 movements, but winning the prize meant she had to cancel her participation in the performance. However, it did not prevent her from turning up one day in traditional Macedonian costume and the next day in an Oceanides costume. In this way, she managed to give to several people the impression that she had been ‘broken off from some masterly ancient relief’. Her obligations towards the Miss Europe contest did not stop her either from dancing ‘first the Greek dance with the fustanella-wearing villagers at Psila Alonia’. [101] It was also an opportunity for certain theories to be formulated about the relationship between the Greek pedigree and the female body in conjunction with US off-the-peg fashion of the day. The title of a relevant newspaper article speaks volumes: ‘Eternal Greek beauty. Delphi, Miss Greece 1930 and the Revival of Antiquity’. [102] Acknowledgements This paper is based on my two previous works published in Greek (Glytzouris 1998 and 2002), although these are strongly revised and augmented here and, at the same time, a more composite approach to the question is attempted. I would also like to thank Eleni Fournaraki and Zinon Papakonstantinou for their useful comments. Notes [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] Sikelianos, Pezos Logos, vol. II, passim. Sideris, To arhaio theatro, 320–62. Ibid., 405–26. Leontis, ‘Mediterranean Theoria’, 103. ‘Palmer-Sikelianos, Eva. ‘I Ellas odigitis tis Anthropotitos’. Excerpts from Palmer-Sikelianos’ application are cited by Papadaki, To ephiviko protypo, 112–3. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 110. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 149. For the vision of the ancient athlete in terms of the relationship between the concept of ‘health’ and the European fin-de-siècle Decadence, see Glytzouris, ‘Parakmi, mystikismos kai oi nekrofaneies tis ellinikis ratsas. O Asklepios toy Angelou Sikelianou’. See also Papadaki, To ephiviko protypo kai I delphiki prospatheia tou Angeloy Sikelianou, 51, 78–79, 113. For Chrysafis’ views see also Koulouri’s contribution in this volume. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 111, 183. Eva Sikelianos, ‘Eisigisis eis ton Promithea’ [Introduction to Prometheus], Vradyni, 12 Jan. 1925. Up until 1902 when she came to Europe, she took part in few student performances and recitations at US colleges. Between 1902 and 1906 she had two unsuccessful attempts at taking to the stage professionally in London and Paris. During the same period, she associated with Neo-romantic artists in Paris and appeared in a few amateur performances which were dominated by an extreme Aestheticism. See Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 35–43, 105–6; Papadaki, Grammata tis Evas Palmer-Sikelianou sti Natalie Clifford Barney, 15–19; Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, 50–54. From 1907 to 1927, 103 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] when she lived primarily in Greece, she appeared only once more on stage, which was in Paris in 1911, where she played the role of Hrysothemis in Sophocles’ Electra in a performance organized by Raymond Duncan and Penelope Sikelianos-Duncan (see note 55 below). Palmer-Sikelianos’ knowledge of traditional Greek music and the loom began in around 1904 in Paris, and was probably introduced to her by the Duncan couple. Her knowledge was later enriched and systematized in Greece. She attended music lessons with Psachos on an amateur basis from 1908 and more systematically after 1915. See Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 93–94; Dragoumis, ‘Konstantinos A. Psachos’, 311–12. Finally, Sikelianos, Epistoles tis Evas Palmer-Sikelianou gia to arhaio drama is exceptionally useful for her views on the revival of ancient tragedy after 1933. Eva Sikelianos, ‘I mousiki eis to arhaion drama’ [Music in the Ancient Drama], Eleftheron Vima, 5 Oct. 1931, Palmer-Sikelianos, Treis Dialexeis, 55, 58–59, ‘Prokirixi mousikou diagonismou gia tin melopoiesi ton horikon tis tragodias Iketides toy Aeschylou’ [Notice of a musical contest to set to music the chorus for the tragedy Suppliant Women by Aeschylus], Proı́a, 18 Jan. 1928, Sikelianos, ‘Ti einai megalo theatro?’, 39, Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 105–6, 188–90. She was thrilled when Suppliant Women was chosen for the second festival, not only because dance had a leading role, but because it was considered to be the oldest remaining tragedy. She noted that she would have been even happier if academics uncovered a work by Ferekydes, Pratinas or Thespis (Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 129–30). Tsarouchis later recalled that ‘she did not love Euripides, except for the Bacchae, which she considered an Aeschylean work. Finally, she considered Sophocles work to be merely good theatre, always below Aeschylus’ (‘Tha borousa na grapso selides ateleiotes gia tin Eva Sikelianou’, 234). Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 106–7, 113–4. For an example of academic approach to the staged revival of the ancient chorus in Suppliant Women and Prometheus Bound, see Webster, The Greek Chorus, 122–5, 130. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 186–7. For the German expressionist dance and its transcription in Greece as an ‘authentic’ model of the reborn ‘Greek’ dance, see Hasioti, ‘Politiki kai koinoniki diastasi tis shesis horou kai theatrou apo ton Mesopolemo mehri ta prota Metemfyliaka hronia’, 509–20. Palmer-Sikelianos, Treis Dialexeis, 7. See, for example, Daly, ‘Isadora Duncan’s Dance Theory’, 24–31 and Daly, Done into Dance, 23–87. Her views had been translated with great speed into Greek. For example, lengthy excerpts from her ‘manifesto’, The Dance of the Future (1903), were translated by G. Varounis and published in Panathinaia (D0 , 15 Oct. 1903, 6–7). Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 196. ‘We wanted to show’, wrote Eva probably at 1928/9, ‘that the chorus was not only the centre of the ancient drama and a reason for its existence, but also that the trend in modern art gropes along to rediscover the perfect form in the art, which the Greek race – or at least a part of this – had preserved the elements of’ ([Palmer-] Sikelianos, ‘I tragodia kata Sikelianon’, 67–68). See, for example, Kyriakidou-Nestoros, I theoria tis ellinikis laografias, 89–97, 148–85. Palmer-Sikelianos, Treis Dialexeis, 57–60. As well as weaving with a loom, Sikelianos had also learned the method of copying from ancient pottery and sculptures from Raymond Duncan, who used them for his sister’s dances (Duncan, My Life, 54, 65–66, Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 49–56). Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 182. In addition, music was the only substantial resource available to Palmer-Sikelianos for the revival of dance. Her husband’s proposal that she take over the choreography for Prometheus 104 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] Bound in 1924 certainly surprised her, and initially she responded as if it were ‘an application of Greek music to drama’. For her views, see her article ‘I elliniki mousiki’ [Greek Music], Philotechnos (Volou), I’, May 1927, 277–8. Palmer-Sikelianos, Treis Dialexeis, 69–71). Eva Sikelianos, ‘I idrysis sholis ellinikis mousikis’ [The Establishment of the School of Greek Music], Vradyni, 3 July 1930. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 107. Ibid., 107–8. See interviews with the composer in the newspaper Vradyni, 5 May 1927 and 19 May 1930. The Broader collaboration between Palmer-Sikelianos and the Lyceum, merits special research. See also Fournaraki, present volume, note 88. Initially, there was an idea of teaching the girls in the chorus the Byzantine musical notation so that they could learn to read the music of Psachos. At the same time, visits would begin to the National Archaeological Museum so they could develop a new type of gymnastics through studying the pottery. However, the girls seem to be bored and so, after only a few meetings, Palmer-Sikelianos abandoned the attempts (Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 109; Pratsika, ‘Anamniseis apo tis protes Delphices Yortes toy 1972’, 127–9). Pratsika, ‘Anamniseis apo tis protes Delphices Yortes toy 1927’, 126–7, Mavrommatis, Bella Raftopoulou, passim. A few unsigned sketches from pottery have also been preserved in the Historic Archive of the Benaki Museum (Athens). Raftopoulou was present at the Delphic Festivals (Mavrommatis, Bella Raftopoulou, 40 and Bouketo, 29 May 1930, 531), whilst her sisters were part of the chorus of the Oceanides. A number of sketches by Raftopoulou for Prometheus Bound were found in the Melpo and Octave Merlier Archive at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies (Athens). Above each figure was the word or phrase from the verse which it represented. The correlation of course took place with a reasonable amount of arbitrariness. For example, a sketch which presents two figures with the explanatory note ‘lamentation’ which was used for ‘I lament’ of line 397 of Prometheus could also have been used in any other passage of tragedy where the same word or a derivative of this comes up. There is, for example, a copy from a vessel in the Benaki Museum which depicts Hercules bent over to lift up the Earth, from the mythological event with Atlas. Two variants of the same sketch were used to illustrate two different phrases in the verses of different tragedies. The first, in the Centre for Asia Minor Studies, was to render line 429 of Prometheus (‘which always the weight of the Earth’ in I. Gryparis’ translation). The second, in the Mavrommati edition (142), accompanies line 475 of Antigone. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 109, Margariti ‘Delphikes Yortes’, Pratsika, ‘Anamniseis apo tis protes Delphices Yortes toy 1927’, 126. The general auditions and the final selection of the 14 girls for the chorus took place on 29 March 1927 at the large society meeting place of the time, ‘Délices’ (see letter from the management of the ‘Délices’ to Palmer-Sikelianos dated 23 March 1927 at the Historic Archive of the Benaki Museum and ‘The Society Card’, Vradyni, 30 March 1927). For Suppliant Women, chorus rehearsals began at the end of 1929 at the Archaeological Society and at Atelier, see Eleftheron Vima, 7 May 1930. The manuscript was probably compiled by Raftopoulou as a kind of memo, or as a guide to the positions and movements of the chorus in the orchestra, and is probably the first choreography notebook for a tragedy performance in the history of Modern Greek theatre. It has 27 pages and is available in photographic format at the Merlier Archive. It was located and published for the first time by Mavrommatis (Bella Raftopoulou, 42–59). The notebook covers the parodos (apart from verses 128–35, 182) and the stasima, and has been preserved almost complete. The choreography for verses 184–5 of the parodos, 559–60 of the second Act and 900–6 of the third Act has been lost (or has not been photographed). For the remaining parts, the choreography guide is accompanied by another single-page manuscript 105 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] by Raftopoulou, which gives very general indications as to approximately how the chorus should react to the episodes. Concerning the choreography notebook, Raftopoulou initially wrote out the verses of the Chorus clearly, using the Gryparis’ translation, leaving the lower part of the page blank to sketch small figures which indicated the postures of the chorus. Below the figures she noted the steps each dancer must perform and, next to these, explanations and clarifications of the posture they must make with their bodies. In addition, there are notes and sketches in the border, relating to the groupings and arrangement of the chorus in the orchestra, although there is no mention anywhere of the relationship between the dance and the music. Pantomimic expression is a demonstrative approach where the word is a person (towards the rock in Prometheus, towards the place from which the actress playing Io left, towards the skies of the ‘gods’) or part of the body (the chorus shows the heart, eyes, mind, etc. the corresponding parts of its body). In other cases some characteristic movement is adopted, for instance, when the word relates to an object (‘sharpened sword’, ‘knife’), or if it refers to an abstract concept (with the hands tied behind and ‘sitting on the pelvis’ or ‘bound by chains’, mimicking someone who lifts a weight for ‘labourer’, or lying down for the ‘bridal bed’, etc.). The journalist Sotos Petras calculated the movements of the chorus in Suppliant Women at 500 (Vradyni, 2 May 1930). For example, three continuous steps were used to render ‘footsteps’, or six continuous steps, with hands in an offering position, was noted to render the meaning of a sacrificial offering. For this subject, see Lambrinos, ‘I kinimatographisi ton Delfikon Yorton’, 135–44 and Glytzouris ‘I kinimatografiki eikona os pigi tis istorias toy neoellinikoy theatroy’, passim. From the first shot, when the chorus is shown moving slowly and rhythmically in the orchestra, one can determine the flawless coordination of movements and the stylization which had so impressed critics at the time. Furthermore, even when the shots show the chorus divided into four groups, it moves in serpentine shapes. The young ladies of the chorus, in their attempt to bring alive the images from ancient pottery with the head ‘de profile’ and the body ‘en face’, created an enormous range of shapes which unfolded, in meandering fashion, one after another. This ‘Art Nouveau’ arrangement of the chorus certainly continued even after the departure of Hermes, when a human ‘ribbon’ was created on the pathway on the rock. The ‘ribbon’ started at the crucified Prometheus at the top, and ‘winds’ down the mountain to reach its base. The chorus, always with the body ‘en face’ and the head ‘de profile’, walks with difficultly along the pathway of the artificial ‘mountain’ and then they quickly depart before the spectacular finale. Eleftheron Vima, 23 May 1927. Y. Miliades, Simera, 7, July 1933, 217, Vradyni, 6 May 1930, Ach. Mamakis, Ethnos, 2 May 1930, K. Ouranis, Eleftheron Vima, 3 May 1930, and others. ‘Focused on the verse and the movement, the song, the stance, rolling and unrolling like living scrolls of papyrus. The same Egyptian sculptures from tombs or obelisks, coming together and separating, they make rivers or tall palms with their hands blowing in the wind like branches’ (Eleftheron Vima, 26 April 1930). ‘But even if they wanted it to be so schematized on purpose, the chorus was so stylized’, complained Sophia Mavroeidi, ‘let us at least react more to the meaning of the whole attitude of the work and less to each phrase [. . .]. It ended up as a joke and not at all interesting. So you followed the parodos – and many went – and later you lost all interest. You know that the mountain will be depicted by a high curve, the sea by a wave of the hands, birds by a flapping, the path of a river with a touch below the feet and the famous Aphrodite with a touch of the ear and reflection’ (Elliniki Epitheorisis, 271, June 1930, 102). The ‘resurrection’ of the Delphic landscape could ‘magically’ influence the revival of ancient drama but, in the end, it probably impeded the artistic experiment. In any case, it is a very important part of the Delphic performances that must, however, form the subject of another paper. 106 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [44] ‘The chorus took back the place which, in all likelihood, had before: the first’, Alkis Thrilos told Nea Estia on 1 June 1927 (Thrylos, To neoelliniko theatro, 47). ‘For the first time we witnessed a performance of an ancient tragedy in the fullness of its elements, the speech, the music and the dance. It was truly something novel’ (Y. Miliades, Simera, 7, July 1933, 185). ‘It made us wonder how we could for so many generations have endured [ancient] theatre without the chorus which, singing and dancing and acting as an intermediary between the characters in the drama and us spectators’, remarked F. Dragoumis (Peitharhia, 31, 18 May 1930, 25). While Keramopoulos admitted: ‘I am not ashamed to say that at Delphi I understood well why the ancient Greeks classified dance among the fine arts’ (Eleftheron Vima, 23 May 1927). [45] Glytzouris, I skinothetiki tehni stin Ellada, 253–61. [46] Ibid., 493–94. [47] ‘I would have liked to try it’, proposed Keramopoulos despite all this, ‘at least in part, with more intense songs of the dancers, so that the feeling of the spectators would not have been focused only on the music and formation of the dances, but also on the meaning of the poet’s best verses. It seems to me that for the spectators, those who did not know Prometheus from their studies, or did not know the Greek language, the poet is discerned less than the music, while both must be honoured equally’ (Eleftheron Vima, 23 May 1927). Thrylos, on the other hand, also remarked that the chorus ‘did not express the words’, which ‘did not sound like words, but just like sounds’. Nevertheless, he considered that, in this way, the chorus expressed the ‘mood’ and the ‘musical atmosphere’ and thus ‘Prometheus was reborn as a musical drama’ (Thrylos, To neoelliniko theatro, 46–47). [48] Vasilis Rotas, for example, reported that the chorus ‘entering, danced a clear syrtos’ and then took stylized poses – supporting, certainly, the fact that the chorus should be arranged by a professional choreographer ‘to a motif from modern Greek dances (syrtos, tsamikos, pentozalis, trata, etc.), which were also danced with the head and legs ‘‘de profile’’ and the chest ‘‘en face’’’ (Ellinika Grammata, 127–34). Tsarouchis was recalling that PalmerSikelianos copied positions from pottery and ‘combined them together either with simple footwork, or with the rhythm of the balos or of the syrtos’ (‘Tha borousa na grapso selides ateleiotes gia tin Eva Sikelianou’, 233). Kakouri, who played Io, reported that ‘in the folkdance song, Eva and some of her specialized associates requested support for the rendition of the dances in the Aeschylean tragedy’ (‘Oi Delfikes Yortes’, 869). [49] Veloudios,‘Epitideigmi Pyrrihiou eis 9/8’, 125. [50] Tsarouchis, ‘Tha borousa na grapso selides ateleiotes gia tin Eva Sikelianou’, 234. Yagkaki interpreted the solos of verses 143–51 and 277–83 (Eleftheron Vima, 23 May 1927) and appeared a few weeks later as Azucena in Trovatore (Vradyni, 26 April 1927, 4 June 1927). The truth is that Palmer-Sikelianos did not want an orchestra but a chorus acting of its own volition, the leader of which would play the flute. Later she considered it a personal error that she had deferred to Psachos, who had written music for an orchestra. Therefore, for the performance of Suppliant Women, she took the initiative to get rid of half of the instruments the composition required, and to place a small orchestra of two harps and a few wind instruments in the recess of the theatre, in front of the first of the spectators’ seats. (See ‘I mousiki eis to arhaion drama’ [Music in the Ancient Drama] and ‘Arhaio drama kai mousiki’ [Ancient Drama and Music], Eleftheron Vima, 5 and 24 Oct. 1931; and PalmerSikelianos, Upward Panic, 115–6. [51] Pratsika, ‘Anamniseis apo tis protes Delphices Yortes toy 1927’, 126. [52] Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 47. [53] Sidonie Gabrielle Colette remembered Palmer playing Pierre Louÿs’ Dialogue au soleil couchant with her at the start of the century, wearing ‘a Greek chiton of blue-green, while I thought myself a perfect Daphne thanks to a crêpe de Chine the colour of the ground’. In 107 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] June 1906, Eva played the part of Timas alongside Penelope Sikelianos-Duncan playing Sappho in Natalie Clifford Barney’s two-act work Équivoque (Papadaki, Grammata tis Evas Palmer-Sikelianou sti Natalie Clifford Barney, 13–22 and Palmer-Sikelianos Upward Panic, 43). Ibid., 108–9. Hand-woven fabric had already been used in 1911 in performances of Electra in the original which was organized by Raymond Duncan (see note 3 above). In the above performances appeared actors of the former ‘Nea Skini’ [New Stage] (1901–06) which had been founded and directed by Konstantinos Christomanos, a major exponent of Aestheticism in modern Greek theatre (Angelos Sikelianos had also appeared as actor in this troupe in 1901). Other actors involved with this troupe were Eleni Pasagianni and Dionysios Devaris (later the cofounder, together with Karolos Koun and Yannis Tsarouchis, of the ‘Laiki Skini’ [Folk Stage]). See Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 55, and the memoirs of Raymond Duncan in the periodical Kainouria Epohi, Summer 1957, 19. Kakouri, ‘Oi Delfikes Yortes’, 870. See also the laudatory critique ‘Costume in Revivals of Greek Drama’, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXI, 6 June 1936, New York, 134–5. Two years later, PalmerSikelianos gave a lecture at the Museum of Costume Art in New York on the subject of ‘Ancient Greek Costume. Draping and Fabric’ (see Papadaki, Grammata tis Evas PalmerSikelianou sti Natalie Clifford Barney, 340). ‘I Ka Sikelianou omilei dia tin ellinikin moda. H epivoli tou ellinikou rythmou’ [Mrs Sikelianos Speaks about Greek Fashion. The Imposition of the Greek Style] and ‘I Ka Sikelianou synehizei tas skepseis tis dia tin ellinikin viotehnian’ [Mrs Sikelianos Continues her Thoughts on Greek Industry], Vradyni, 25 and 26 June 1930. See also her earlier discourse ‘I moda stin Ellada’ [Fashion in Greece] in Sikelianos Treis dialexeis, as well as Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic: 47–48, 75–80, 85–86, 141–42. It is worth noting the ideological coherence between PalmerSikelianos’ views and the views of Callirhoe Parren, President of the Lyceum of Greek Women, which since its foundation in 1911 had made the preservation and promotion of Greek women’s folk art one of its major objectives. Since 1921 the Lyceum of Greek Women organised women’s art and craft exhibitions; see the information and documents published in Eleni Bobou-Protopapa, To Lykeion ton Ellinidon, 1911–91, passim and especially C. Parren’s speech (128–31) at the inauguration of the first Lyceum exhibition of this kind in 1921. Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, a member of the Lyceum at that time, participated with her work in the 1921 exhibition and was especially praised by Parren. Sideris, To arhaio elliniko theatro sti nea elliniki skini, 139, 164. V. Vekiarellis, an ardent supporter of the Delphic idea, urged the Sikelianos couple to use Sakellarides ‘for his extremely Greek music’ at the next Festival (Elefteros Typos, 22 May 1927). The first appearance was at the Municipal Theatre in Athens on 28 November 1903, and was followed by two performances at the Royal Theatre on 11 and 15 December 1903. The event took place at a time when the Duncan family had come, via Karvasara, on a ‘pilgrimage’ to Greece, ‘our Mecca, which, for us, meant the splendor of perception’. The whole issue was connected to Duncan’s short-lived experiments towards the historical continuity of ancient music via the Byzantine tradition, a direction for which her brother and her sister-in-law, Penelope Sikelianos, must have been responsible (Duncan, My Life, 120). The chorus from Suppliant Women (part of a wider programme) displeased the Athenians of the time, even those who were enthusiastic about the American dancer (Kimon Michailides, Panathinaia, D’, 15 Dec. 1903, 150–2, Tim. Stathopoulos, Akropolis, 17 Dec. 1903, Estia, 12 Dec. 1903, Ang. Evangelides, Embros, 12 Dec. 1903, Duncan, My Life, 118–9, 121–2, Leontis, ‘Mediterranean Theoria: A View from Delphi’, 107–9 and Puchner, ‘I Isadora Duncan kai o ellinikos horos’, 87–92). 108 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [61] Duncan, My Life, 122. For her trip to Greece, with excellent illustrations, see Duncan, et al., Life Into Art, 50–59. [62] Duncan, My Life, 117–28 and Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 186. Here the subject is certainly discussed superficially. Duncan’s visits to Greece in 1903 (when, amongst other things, she took part in support of Mistriotis’ students in the violent events of the Oresteiaka) as well as in 1912, 1915 and 1919 (when she founded a school of Ancient Dance with the support of the Venizelos government) are highly significant for the subjects we are examining and require specialized study. [63] His troupe gave many performances of ancient tragedies in the United States and in Europe, which were accompanied by folk songs sung by Penelope Duncan. At performances of Electra and Alcestis, for instance, which were performed ‘in Ancient Greek’ in America, Penelope sang at the end of the performances ‘Greek songs of the mountain’ and chanted ‘pieces of ecclesiastical music’ (Panathinaia, 28 Feb. 1903, 303). [64] The couple came to Greece in 1927, at the invitation of Palmer-Sikelianos, to take part in the Delphic Festival, and danced Apollo’s dance with the Python. See Sideris, To arhaio elliniko theatro sti nea elliniki skini, 281, 286, 289, 290, 292, 293, 298, 312, 361 and Kanellos, I arhaia elliniki orhesis kai I Isadora Dougkan, passim. [65] There is a wealth of information which is exceptionally interesting, but piecemeal, and only a systematic study of the Press at the time can provide results. The dancer Artemisia Kolona appeared in Arniotes theatre in 1906. (Hadzipantazis, I athinaiki epitheorisi, 49). ‘Nausica’ danced ancient Greek dances in the revue Scating Ring (1909) by Timos Moraitinis (Sideris, To arhaio elliniko theatro sti nea elliniki skini, 236, Hadzipantazis, Ibid., 49). Terpsichore Thespis, of Hungarian descent, also studied the ‘representations on reliefs and pottery’ for her dance compositions in around 1910 (Sideris, Ibid., 244). The Misses Victoros appeared successfully at the Municipal Theatre of Athens in 1912 (Sideris, Ibid., 252). From 1926 onwards, the relevant records become more frequent (Sideris, Ibid., 313, 317–8, 321, 388, 426). [66] Fuller did not fail to express her admiration for Greek folk dances (Sideris, ‘Kosmiki erasitehnia kai theatro’, 37–38). [67] For this matter see also Glytzouris, ‘I kinimatografiki eikona os pigi tis istorias toy neoellinikou theatrou’, 139–56. The criticism of the period constrained the ideological beginnings of the Delphic Endeavour to activities such as those of the Lyceum of Greek Women, which was founded in the second decade of the century: ‘It must be recognised that the Lyceum of Greek Women has opened the way for the revitalization of national holidays, which bridges the higher, wondrous past of the race with the later and contemporary developments in Greek culture’ (Eleftheros Typos, 14 May 1927). Some certainly reached the point of seeing the celebrations at the Lyceum in 1927, ‘as a continuation of and accompaniment to the Delphic Festival’ (Vradyni, 12 May 1927). In any case, let it be noted that the first ‘performance’ (actually a parade) of the Oceanides contributed to the Lyceum’s parade in the Panathenaic Stadium in 1926. See the letter on this matter from Sikelianos to Raftopoulou dated 30 May 1926 (Merlier Archive, Centre for Asia Minor Studies) and the article by Photos Politis in the newspaper Politeia, 21 June 1926 republished by Politis, Epilogi kritikon arthron, 210–11. The festivals of the Lyceum were indeed designed as complementary to the Delphic ones. This is corroborated by the Lyceum public notice and press reports as well as by documents from the archives of the Greek Olympic Committee that granted to the Lyceum the right to use the Stadium on 15 May 1926 (I owe this information to Eleni Fournaraki); see Fournaraki, ‘Apo ti gymnastiki sto horo’ and her contribution to the present volume. [68] Angelos Sikelianos, ‘To Delphiko Panepistimio. Proshedio’ [1929] [The Delphic University. Draft] and ‘To provlima tis mousikis kai tou horou sto arhaio drama’ [1931] [The Problem of 109 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] Music and the Chorus in Ancient Drama] in Sikelianos Pezos logos, B, 146–8, 309–21. Sikelianos treated the Greek dances as being superior to the dances of other peoples, such as the Mexicans or Cambodians, because the latter ‘only express unconscious ecstasy’ whilst the Greek ‘expresses a morally instinctive and conscious convention’ which conceals ‘a deep Apollonian competition’. The archetypical form of this competition, in Sikelianos’ view, was found in the dramatic Greek dance of Python with Apollo, as an inherent struggle between Doric and Dionysian music. This dance was presented by the Kanellos couple at the first Delphic Festival. See Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 153–62, 171–4, 181–90, 65–66. Gabriel Boissy, student of Joséphin Péladan and old acquaintance of Eva, who had organized outdoor theatre performances, attended the Delphic Festival in 1927. The French scholar then discerned the relationship clearly: ‘Through time and space, one can see in this triumphant revival of Prometheus Bound at Delphi the logical continuity of all previous attempts’. Amongst others, he refers to Wagner, Nietzsche, Edouard Schuré and Joséphin Péladan (‘O Promitheus Desmotis epi tou vrahou ton Delfon’ [Prometheus Bound on the Rock at Delphi], Proı́a, 29 May 1927). Angelos Sikelianos also supported the ‘Teutonic’ theorists in the matter of the revival, both before and after the Delphic Festivals. See his article ‘Ya ti didaskalia tis arhaias tragodias’ [1937] [On the Teaching of Ancient Tragedy] in Sikelianos Pezos logos, C, 127–8 as well as Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, 158, Papadaki, ‘I moda tis anaviosis toy ypaithriou theatrou kai I Delphiki prospatheia’, 120. We know from her letter to Natalie Clifford Barney that on a short trip to America in 1905 she had a failed attempt to stage amateur performances of Swinburne’s tragedy Atalanta in Calydon (1865), where she had placed particular emphasis on the chorus (Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 105–6, Papadaki, Grammata tis Evas Palmer-Sikelianou sti Natalie Clifford Barney, 234–5). Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, and ‘I moda tis anaviosis toy ypaithriou’, 114–5. For an introduction to the topic, see Cumming & Kaplan, The Arts and Crafts Movement, 102–3 and Coatts, A Weaver’s Life, passim. For the ideological relationships between the Delphic idea and K. Karavidas, see Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, 212. On Karavidas’ fascist theories see Hadziiossif, I giraia selini, 344–6. Sikelianos, Pezos logos, vol. II, 163–73. Angelos Sikelianos claimed that the country’s crisis commenced after the destruction of the Greek communities by the Bavarians of King Otto in the middle of nineteenth century; since ‘then Greece is the spoils of all the mistakes of Modern Greek parliamentarianism’. He promoted the idea of reviving interest in ‘communalism’ after the establishment of a group (‘phalanx’) of ‘studious and determined youth’ who, in free translation, ‘overcoming all the apprehensions of contemporary passive Greek youth and of the academic mentality, would shake from off her the rags of hesitancy’. This new generation must fulfil its highest mission ‘not only as Greeks, but as a universal Race’ based on combined will. In his article ‘The Intellectual Basis of the Delphic Endeavour’ (67–118), referring to researchers such as Werner Sombart, he praised the Aryan mentality and bravery against Semitic ideology, capitalism, the bourgeoisie and even Lenin, who ‘jumped into the saddle of the scrawny Semitic theory of Marx’ (89–91); but even in 1936, Sikelianos contacted the ‘4 August’ regime, asking it to preserve the Delphic Idea since, he believed, ‘it contains the heart of the genuine Doric essence: Intellectual prowess!’ (413–29). See Kremmydas, ‘O ideologikos kosmos toy Angeloy Sikelianoy’, 16–17. For the AntiEnlightenment tradition, see Sternhell, Les anti-Lumières, passim. For the ideological connection to the views of Sombart and Action française, see Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, 112, 145. Of course, in any case, Angelos Sikelianos’ 110 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] relationship with the abovementioned reactionary ideologies should not lead us to stigmatize him as a Modern Greek advocate of fascistic ideological behaviour. As mentioned by Nikos Svoronos, whilst Sikelianos developed his ideological views within ‘a complex of ideas which became, rightfully or not, the ideology of the European fascists’ for specific historical reasons Sikelianos was not led ‘down the same path’ (Svoronos, ‘Protaseis gia ti meleti tis ideologias toy Sikelianou’, 429–30). On the other hand, one cannot ignore either his undisguised antiparliamentarianism nor the influences of Saint-Yves d’ Alveydre, Joseph de Maistre, Charles Maurras, Arthur de Gobineau, H. S. Chamberlain, etc. In short, the whole question requires neither accusations nor silencing. It simply requires investigation. Palmer-Sikelianos’ initial wish was to present Prometheus in ancient Greek language. However, she was persuaded to perform the Gryparis translation primarily because Angelos wanted ‘to establish the fact that Greek is not a dead, but a living language’ (PalmerSikelianos, Upward Panic, 108). Note too that the performance of Electra in Paris (1911) had been in the original ancient Greek (see notes 10 and 55). It is no coincidence that one of the defenders of the Delphic Idea and the views of Duncan on Greek dance was Demosthenes Danielides, who adopted a geopolitical conception of Modern Greek society. See Danielides, ‘Sti mnimi tis Evas Sikelianou’, 16–7 and Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, 211, Tziovas, Oi metamorphoseis tou ethnismou, 75–9, Hadziiossif, I giraia selini, 346. Illustrative of the international appeal of the Delphic endeavour were the papers presented by Palmer-Sikelanos at international conferences such as the 29th Colloquium of the American Archaeological Society at the University of Cincinnati (see American Journal of Archaeology, 2nd series, 1928, XXXII, 1, 63) and the publication of her views in famous art journals of the time (see ‘A Lecture on the Greek Tragic Chorus’, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXII, 11 Nov. 1927, 282). See too the appreciative comments made by Bieber in her monumental work (Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman Theater, 261–2). Duncan, My Life, 118–9. For Von Oftendhal see Akropolis, 3, 4 Nov. 1905 and 5 Feb. 1906. For Alden see Veinoglou, ‘O Chimairokynigos toy Mississippi’, 843–50. At this point it is important to mention the praise from the unknown to us Fellow of the American Archaeological Society for the music written by Sakellarides for Mistriotis’ production of Electra (Sideris 1976: 136–9). This important in the history of American theatre couple was particularly active in Greece from 1921 to 1924, but a separate paper would be necessary to adequately cover their contribution. However, it is important to note here that they were the first to envisage performances at the ancient theatre of Delphi. Cook had written a trilogy set in Ancient Greece and in 1893 where the action was interrupted by dances and songs. He planned to stage these works with villagers and the Roumeli shepherd, Elias Skarmouches, as the lead actor at the ancient theatre of Delphi. On Cook’s career in America see Sarlós 1982. For the American couple’s activities in Greece see Glaspell, ‘Last Days in Greece’, 31–49, Glaspell, The Road to the Temple, Cook, My Road to India and Gainor, Susan Glaspell in Context. Cook spent the last years of his life wearing a fustanella along with the shepherds and villagers on Mount Parnassus. At the same time he had developed a circle of admirers comprising Athenian students (such as I. Sykoutres, I. Kakrides, K. Dimaras, Ang. Kalogeras, L. Pararas and others). See Eleftheron Vima, 20 Jan. 1924, Vas. El[iades?], ‘Susan Glaspell’, Eleftheron Vima, 13 May 1930, Veinoglou, ‘O Chimairokynigos toy Mississippi’, 1093–1104, Pararas, ‘Ioannis Antiphon Sykoutris, 144, ‘Angelos Sikelianos kai I Delphiki idea’, 1678–9. A book by Cook dedicated to Palmer-Sikelianos can be found in the Sikelianos library, see Papadaki, ‘Ta evrethenta tis vivliothikis ton Delphon toy Aggelou kai tis Evas Sikelianou’, entry 296 and Papadaki, L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne, 104. Certain Delphic events were dedicated to Cook while his daughter, Nilla Cook-Proestopoulos was a member of the chorus of Oceanides. 111 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] [89] [90] [91] [92] [93] [94] [95] [96] [97] [98] [99] Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 59–60, 67–8, 87–92. Ibid., 75–6. Danielides, ‘Sti mnimi tis Evas Sikelianou’, 16–17. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 76. Ibid., 59. Ibid., 88. Eva Sikelianos, ‘Introduction to Prometheus’, Vradyni, 11 and 12 Jan. 1925. Tsarouchis’ memory of the matter is similar. ‘One day, listening to the village girls sing the chorus from Prometheus which they had learned by secretly watching the rehearsals in the theatre, [Eva] said, ‘‘the next time I won’t take Athens society girls for the chorus, but villagers from here. They are better’’’ (‘Tha borousa na grapso selides ateleiotes gia tin Eva Sikelianou’, 234). Pratsika mentions the same incident in her interview for Lakis Papastathis’ television documentary Paraskinio (‘I anaviosi tou arhaiou dramatos’ [The Revival of Ancient Drama], Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, 1998). In any event, the society columns in the newspapers of the time stressed the class background of the girls in the line-up of the Oceanides and Danaides choruses: ‘they are all the very top girls, beautiful, educated and from good families’ (Vradyni, 26 April 1927). Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 131–2. See, for example, Hadjinicolaou, Ethiniki tehni kai protoporia, 36, 45 and on theatre, Glytzouris, I skinothetiki tehni stin Ellada, 517–33. To be sure, she stressed the ‘satisfaction’ a Modern Greek ought to feel in relation to foreigners. He/She felt obliged to call out: ‘Look gentlemen, we kept ancient music alive across all those centuries’ (Palmer-Sikelianos, Treis dialexeis, 69–71). Edward Gordon Craig, ‘The Art of the Theatre. The First Dialogue’ (1905) in Walton, Craig on Theatre, 53. On Mallarmé’s views on dance see, for example, Block, Mallarmé and the Symbolist Drama, 93–6. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 98–99. Twenty-nine titles were counted in the Sikelianos library relating to Indian culture (Papadaki, ‘Ta evrethenta tis vivliothikis ton Delphon toy Aggelou kai tis Evas Sikelianou’). The letter of 6 September 1926 to Raftopoulou who was then living in Paris (Merlier Archive) informs us that Eva Sikelianos was a member of the association of Indian students in the French capital since 1924. In that letter, Sikelianos asked her associate to find an Indian singer and someone who spoke Hindi because she wanted to translate a guide about the celebrations to ‘make them better known in India in order to show the ancient relationship between India and Greece. And that the impact on musical sounds, customs and mores, etc. had been preserved to this very day’. It should be noted that in Indian dance, the actor (following a completely different set of artistic conventions) is called up to express himself using very specific, and strictly coded movements, stances and gestures which create a parallel language of signs as complex as speech. The truth is, however, that any further correlation must be considered rather risky. There is no evidence to show that Palmer-Sikelianos correlated the ancient Greek dance with Indian dance, despite the undisputed charm that traditional India exerted on her. For new valuable evidence and comprehensive approach, see the recent article of Leontis ‘An American in Paris, a Parsi in Athens’, 351–73. Eva Sikelianos , ‘Introduction to Prometheus’, Vradyni, 12 Jan. 1925. O Theatis, 4, 14 February 1925. Sikelianos, Pezos logos, E, 103–13. Palmer-Sikelianos, Upward Panic, 137. Perhaps a comparison with the ideals of sporting amateurism in Greece and the Olympic movement of the time would be also appropriate, See Koulouri Athlitismos kai opseis tis astikis koinonikotitas and her contribution to the present volume. 112 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [100] ‘The audience included not just academics but well-known Athenian families. In fact, all the cream of Athenian society had relocated to Delphi’ (Proı́a, 13 May 1930). [101] Bouketo, 29 May 1930, 531, 23 Oct. 1930, 1053, S. Petras, Vradyni, 2 May 1930. [102] Vradyni, 4 May 1930. 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Palmer-Sikelianos, Eva. ‘I tragodia kata Sikelianon’, [Tragedy according to Sikelianos] [1928/9?]. Theatro 11 (1963): 67–68. Palmer-Sikelianos, Eva. Upward Panic. The Autobiography of Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, edited by John P. Anton. Harwood Academic Publishers, Choreography and Dance Studies 4, 1993. 114 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Palmer-Sikelianos, Eva. Epistoles tis Evas Palmer-Sikelianou gia to arhaio drama [Letters of Eva Palmer-Sikelianos on Ancient Drama]. Athens: European Culture Centre of Delphi – ‘Nea Synora’ Livanis Press, 1997. Palmer-Sikelianos, Eva. Treis dialexeis [Three Lectures]. Athens: Estia Press, 1921 (edited recently by Ritsa Frangou-Kikilia as Oraia mataioponia [Beautiful Futility]. Treis dialexeis, Athens: 2005). Papadaki, Lia. Grammata tis Evas Palmer-Sikelianou sti Natalie Clifford Barney [Letters of Eva Palmer Sikelianos to Natalie Clifford Barney]. Athens: Kastaniotis, 1995. Papadaki, Lia. ‘Ta evrethenta tis vivliothikis ton Delphon toy Aggelou kai tis Evas Sikelianou’ [Items Found in the Delphic Library of Angelos and Eva Sikelianos]. Lefkada Studies Society VIII (1995): 333–406. Papadaki, Lia. To ephiviko protypo kai I delphiki prospatheia toy Angelou Sikelianou [The Ephebic Model and Angelo Sikelianos’ Delphic Endeavour]. Athens: IAEN – KNE / E.I.E, 1995. Papadaki, Lia. ‘I moda tis anaviosis toy ypaithriou theatrou kai I Delphiki prospatheia’ [The Fashion for Reviving Outdoor Theatre Performances and the Delphic Endeavour]. In O Sikelianos kai to theatro [Sikelianos and Theatre], edited by K. Petrakou – A. Mouzenidou. Athens: Ellinika Grammata Press, Athens, 2003: 111–26. Papadaki, Efthalie [Lia]. L’Interprétation de l’antiquité en Grèce moderne: le cas de Anghélos et Eva Sikelianos, (1900–1952). Paris: Thèse de Doctorat de l’Université de Paris I, 1998. Pararas, Lambros. ‘Ioannis Antiphon Sykoutris. Ta foititika hronia’ [Ioannis Antiphon Sykoutris. The Student Years]. Nea Poreia 38–39 (1958): 136–44. Pararas, Lambros. ‘Angelos Sikelianos kai I Delphiki idea’. Nea Estia 849 (1962): 1678–79. Politis, Photos. Epilogi kritikon arthron [Selection of Review Articles], vol. III. Athens: Ikaros Press, 1983. Pratsika, Koula. ‘Anamniseis apo tis protes Delphices Yortes toy 1927’ [Memoirs from the First Delphic Festivals of 1927]. Ios 98–102 (1966): 126–31. Puchner, Walter. ‘I Isadora Duncan kai o ellinikos horos’ [Isadora Duncan and the Greek Dance]. In Grafes kai Simiomata. Athens: Ergo Press, 2005: 87–92. Sarlós, Robert Károly. Jig Cook and the Provincetown Players. Theatre in Ferment. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1982. Sideris, Yannis. ‘Kosmiki erasitehnia kai theatro’ [Society Amateurism and Theatre]. Theatro I, 5 (1962): 37–38. Sideris, Yannis. To arhaio elliniko theatro sti nea elliniki skini, 1818–1932 [Ancient Greek Theatre on the Modern Greek Stage, 1818–1932]. Athens: Ikaros Press, 1976. Sikelianos, Angelos. Pezos logos [Prose], Vol. I–V. Athens: Ikaros Press, 1980–1985. Sternhell, Zeev. Les anti-Lumières: du XVIIIe siècle à la guerre froide. Paris: Fayard, coll. L’espace du politique, 2006. Svoronos, Nikos. ‘Protaseis gia ti meleti tis ideologias toy Sikelianou’ [Suggestions on the Study of Sikelianos’ Ideology]. In Analekta Neoellinikis Istorias kai Istoriographias [Selected Extracts from Modern Greek History and Historiography]. Athens: Themelio Press, 1987: 413–32 [first published in Nea Estia 110 (1981): 1590–1599]. Thrylos, Alkis. To neoelliniko theatro [Modern Greek Theatre] Vol. I., 1927–1933. Athens: Athens Academy. Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Foundation, 1977. Tsarouchis, Yannis. ‘Tha borousa na grapso selides ateleiotes gia tin Eva Sikelianou’ [I Could Write Countless Pages about Eva Sikelianos]. Ios 103–107 (1967): 232–5. Tziovas, Dimitris. Oi metamorphoseis tou ethnismou kai to ideologima tis ellinikotitas ston Mesopolemo [The Transformations of Nationalism and the Idea of Greekness in the Inter-war Period]. Athens: Odysseus Press, 1989. Veinoglou, Al. ‘O Chimairokynigos toy Mississippi – George Cram Cook’ [The Mississippi Daydreamer – George Cram Cook]. Nea Estia 68 (1929): 843–50 – 72 (1929): 1093–104. 115 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Veloudios, Thanos. ‘Epitideigmi Pyrrihiou eis 9/8 ı́ Artozinos diladi Zeimbekikos’ [Skilful Pyrrhic Dance in 9/8 Rhythm or the Artozinos folk dance, i.e. the Zeimbekikos folk dance]. Ios 98– 102 (1966): 116–25. Walton, Michael J., ed. Craig on Theatre. London: Methuen, 1991. Webster, T. B. L. The Greek Chorus. London: Methuen & CO Ltd, 1970. Yofillis, Photos. ‘I Ellas odigitis tis Anthropotitos. Delphikes Yortes. To epigeion oneiron enos poiitou’ [Greece as a Leader of Humanity. Delphic Festival. The Earthly Vision of a Poet], I Kyriaki tou Eleftherou Vimatos no. 6, 16 January 1927. 116 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Rallying the Nation: Sport and Spectacle Serving the Greek Dictatorships Gonda Van Steen This study offers brief soundings into the exploitation of sport by the Greek dictatorial regimes, both the interwar dictatorship of 1936–1941 and the military regime of 1967– 1974. During those eras, sport provided templates of competition and combat. The most recent dictatorship showcased sport along with a ‘canon’ of historical re-enactments in massive open-air spectacles, which deserve further attention. The strongmen of both regimes saw, in addition to communist threats, signs of decay in Greek society, and they insisted on military-style discipline and orderliness. How then did their regimes approach sport? Or rather, how did they manage to convey persuasive images of sport and of the political propaganda behind it? This article addresses the above questions and reconstructs the dictators’ excessive acts of stage-managing a mass theatre of indoctrination through athletic events, military displays and historical re-enactments. I argue that Greek dictatorial regimes allocated an important role to sport and bodily culture to shore up their nationalist ‘mission’ and that, as a result, they militarized and politicized the field. The essay pays brief attention also to the realm of pedagogy, because those regimes wanted school instruction and discipline training to be conducted in a ‘patriotic’ and militaristic fashion. I. Introduction The Greek military regime of 1967–1974, or the regime of the Colonels who took power in the coup of 21 April 1967, posited its supremacy over its leftist and communist enemies as well as over its historical foes through mass events of sport and spectacle. Historical re-enactments of Greek military victories through the ages formed the spectacular accompaniment to the regime’s athletic and bodily displays. 117 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Both were expressions of the dictators’ dogmatic conception of ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’ (‘eurosto soma alkimos psyche’). [1] This study analyses the content and rhetoric that produced and ‘authenticated’ these mass rituals of sport and spectacle. Sport, spectacle and Greek history blended into one another during the seven-yearlong military junta, but they had their roots in the pre-WWII dictatorial regime of Ioannes Metaxas, a bounteous admirer of fascist-style public discipline. In the spirit of the times, Metaxas had strengthened his grip on power by exhibiting massive youth groups engaged in athletic and military training exercises. The stadium that housed the athletic and military events became the field where a battle was fought over Greek history and culture, which were co-opted into the regimes’ secular rituals and autocratic practices. This article begins with a detailed study of the twentiethcentury Greek dictators’ use of historical and theatrical underpinnings in their coarse approach to sport – as political spectacle and spectacular politics. It then provides a historical background to this exploitative use of sport and bodily culture, enriched with brief observations on the Greek educational system. I am privileged to have access to a rare source with which to document and illustrate the first part of this article: the summary documentary of a day of public festivals in 1967. The documentary was produced for Greek public television, which was, at the time, in a stage of infancy. One day at the Greek Television Archive in Athens I discovered and watched a 17minute-long summary documentary of the ‘Festivals of the Polemic Virtue of the Greeks’, which were held in the late summer of 1967. I watched the tape many times, first in disbelief, then in order to describe it in writing. But how does one record the ‘hyper-spectacles’ that the Greek dictators mounted? [2] And were these grandiose but clumsy displays really meant to instil in their public patriotic pride in the Greek tradition? While at the archive, I was given permission also to view and draw comparisons with similar digests for television of the festivals of 1966 and 1972. The synopsis of 1967 struck me as the most programmatic one and the most interesting one to discuss: its subject was the festival that took place a mere four and a half months after the military takeover; its nominal audience was a gathering of masses at the ‘old’ Olympic Stadium but its notional audience was all of Greece. Because the Colonels had to allay domestic and international frustration, they pulled out all the stops for their first festival. As a result, the 1967 documentary of the festival in question provides greater insights in how they constructed and exploited pageantry, bodily culture and sport. I argue that the junta festivals paraded ultra-nationalism as official patriotism and that they laid out the regime’s desired models of training for power. Barrackstyle propaganda under the guise of edificatory goals loomed large in these festivals as well. Even though these highly theatrical events left deep impressions on many of my interviewees, who retained vivid memories (and negative emotions) about them, scholarship has granted them hardly anything other than a few derogatory remarks. [3] The Colonels rendered sport, history and politics theatrical in ways that historians of Greece in the 1960s and 1970s have yet to explore, whereas the 118 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE bibliography on these phenomena in other countries is substantial. [4] Broader studies of how the Greek dictatorship thrived on appearances, propaganda and slogans remain lacking. The Greek strongmen saw themselves as players acting out a scripted historical mission by staging hyperbolic victory scenarios and manipulating mass emotions through mass spectacles. They framed the parades of athletes and troops by displays of military triumphs to present a scenario of perennial Greek victory. My goal is to deconstruct the spectacles in question as examples of the dictators’ conceptions of sport, Greek history, and nationalist politics. II. Playing It Up: Time, Space, Agents, Players, Audiences and Aims The Colonels presented a sequence of athletic events and Greek military conquests as part of huge annual festivals called ‘Festivals of the Polemic Virtue of the Greeks’, or, in their conservative Kathareuousa idiom, Eortes polemikes aretes ton Hellenon. The name flaunted the more aggressive term ‘polemic’, or ‘warlike’, rather than ‘military’ virtue. These festivals took place in late August or early September. However, national holidays (28 October, or Ochi Day, and 25 March, or Independence Day) and the regime’s anniversary date of 21 April delivered additional occasions for the Colonels’ public celebrations and self-congratulatory speech making. [5] Otherwise, the rulers typically scheduled their festivals on Sundays to make sure that many more people were free to attend. The junta festivals were held not only at specific times, but also in a special place, where they followed a set trajectory. For a stage, the Colonels chose the ‘old’ Olympic Stadium (i.e. the Panathenaic or Kallimarmaro Stadium) in downtown Athens, where many mass events had been held before. The restored stadium (1896–1906) occupied the site of its ancient predecessor. However, the Colonels and the Athenian public made the more obvious connection with the first modern Olympics which were held in 1896 in the very same venue. Thus young women dressed as Olympic flame bearers were enlisted to enhance the junta festivals. The stadium was a locale that had the aura of antiquity but that was also a monument to Greek rebirth, national pride and international interest. The regime’s leader, Georgios Papadopoulos, spared no expense to equip and adorn the main track area of the stadium, which had to be visible by rows of thousands on either side of the track. Papadopoulos was the strongman of a triumvirate, which further consisted of Stylianos Pattakos and Nikos Makarezos. The junta’s tyranny of presentation was also the tyranny’s self-deception, and sport played a key role in the regime’s self-delusion. In the setting of the massive outdoor stadium, the official festivals were a way for the regime to exhibit its ‘popularity’ and the sought-after ‘public consensus’. Papadopoulos also mobilized large numbers of soldiers as actors and extras, who had little choice but to deliver up the performance required of them. Many of these recruits, however, stopped short of acting with attention, let alone enthusiasm: they acted out the skits that they had rehearsed 119 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 1. A parade float drives down the Panathenaic Stadium during the ‘Festival of the Polemic Virtue of the Greeks’, Athens, 1967. Source: Katsigeras, Hellada 20os aionas, 286. sometimes with visible discomfort or half-deliberate clumsiness. Metaxas had been the first to regularly call on army recruits to fill the ranks of the many extras needed in public spectacles. [6] The turnout for the junta festivals tended to be huge. The newspapers publicized the events well beforehand and announced that admission was free. They also devoted a big spread to the festivals after they had occurred. The massive attendance, however, was far from ‘spontaneous’, or ‘authormeto’ – one of the favourite words of the coercive strongmen, who settled for the appearance of spontaneity in lieu of the real thing. But the regime did have its outposts in the public. When the leadership wanted an audience to show up en masse, its acolytes started applying varying degrees of pressure from the top down. Many of the attendees were military cadres and units, officials, civil servants, ‘time-servers’, factory workers, schoolteachers and schoolchildren. The junta placed not only Greece’s youth organizations but also its throngs of school pupils under the watch of the army as the self-appointed guardian of nationalist values. Most of the various groups of attendees knew or were reminded that they had special obligations to fulfil to the state, especially if they were subject to clientelistic ties as state employees. For the ‘invited’ members of government circles, attendance at the festivals or other celebrations was, for all practical purposes, mandatory. The threats of the regime’s recording, file-keeping and exacting sanctions affected the decision of many civil servants to simply attend. [7] For those who would not be convinced by the show of popular support in the stadium, there were the shows of athletic and military strength. Prompt retaliation, however, would have jeopardized the public standing of the Colonels, who tried hard to win legitimacy and to avoid bad publicity. [8] For the dictators and their real-life supporters, wellattended events, even if attended by a puppet crowd, generated tremendous 120 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE propagandistic potential and patriotic brag value. Papadopoulos attempted not only to affect the perceptions of foreign diplomats and governments but also to bring investors and tourists – and thus vital financial resources – back to Greece. Vague but dramatic promises of ‘free’ elections made matters worse, however: unfettered elections did not take place; their lack exposed the absence of any real plan for liberalization. Thus the junta’s athletic contests and re-enactments of Greece’s glory days did not stand alone: they were part of a broad program of acts and events that exhibited the muscle of the army’s manpower and (US-funded) equipment. The Greek quasi-fascist histrionics had much in common with the theatrical mechanisms of Mussolini’s fascist Italy and of Nazi Germany. [9] These two powers also turned sport into an essential component of their ultra-nationalist – and racist – interwar politics. The Italian fascists of the early 1930s had transformed the outdoor athletic stadium into the ideal arena for sports events, political rallies and mass choreographies. [10] Hitler, too, had exploited the connections between mass spectacles and stadium settings of Olympic proportions: he had showcased German masculine prowess and racial superiority at the 1936 Olympics, which were held in a giant stadium in Berlin. [11] Overall, events of the late 1920s through the late 1930s underlined the theatrical and nationalist uses of sport and bodily culture. Totalitarian regimes were among the first to take advantage of the mass stage of bodily spectacles for their political propaganda. The competitive sporting spectacles of the interwar period consisted of exercises in disciplinary and military training in disguise, and they were typically designed to bolster the power of regimes, parties or up-and-coming politicians. Ritualized performance and nationalistic sport were also closely intertwined in Greek sporting events and other mass festivals of the late 1930s. Metaxas was the most important mediator in this process of influence, even though Greece was in no position to follow Mussolini’s path of military expansion through his new fascist empire and its ‘strengthened’ Italian ‘race’. [12] The regime of the Colonels set the clock back on Greek civic life and revamped the repressive antiliberal bias of the interwar years: the junta’s mass propaganda through military and sports events exploited instead the well-trodden theme of continuity and superiority of the Greek nation. Compared to the massive scale and sophistication of Nazi spectacles, Metaxas’s and later the Colonels’ manipulation of sport and the Olympic ethos for ultranationalist purposes may look like kids’ play. Moreover, the doctrine of either the paternalist Metaxas or the military dictators on treating enemies was merely touched, not permeated, by the racist arguments for national superiority that had swayed National Socialist Germany and fascist Italy. The Colonels remained, however, implacably hostile to left-wingers and communists and delivered a second onslaught of state anticommunism. The junta always proclaimed the army’s loyalty and fighting capacity but it did not pursue imperialist goals. The dictators’ main objective, then, was a more extensive appropriation of Greek sport and of the Greek past, much like Mussolini’s use and abuse of ancient Rome. They were particularly interested in Greek army victories from the glorious past and tied those ‘triumphs’ to militaristic sports. 121 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE III. What Happened in the Arena? Sporting Uniforms and Uniformity Before I describe the content of the short documentary it needs to be stated that, from an aesthetic point of view, the documentary has all the pretentions – but not the quality – of a grand Hollywood epic of the 1960s: like a sword-and-sandals movie, it projects male-physical supremacy and unconditional moral right. Technological refinement was the area in which the producers of the digests of the following years showed off advancement, because the content itself of the events that were filmed remained relatively stable – or predictable – throughout the dictatorship years. For example, beams of flashing light open the 1972 synopsis: they penetrate the dark sky and light up the block letters of junta slogans and buzzwords. Firework displays accentuate the ostentatious finale which is, invariably, a visual and verbal homage to the ‘Revolution of 21 April 1967’. Papadopoulos unabashedly positioned both the athletic events and the historical re-enactments of the festivals against the spectacular backdrop of his ‘regenerative Revolution’, which he also called the Ethnosoteria Epanastase, the ‘Nation-Saving Revolution’ of the ‘National Revolutionary Government’. [13] Among the official slogans that lit up on the hill slopes surrounding the stadium were the mottos that have long driven competition in sport as well: ‘aien aristeuein’, ‘always be the best’. [14] This maxim traces its origins as far back as Homer’s Iliad (e.g., Il. 6.208 and 11.784) and captures the agonistic heroic ideal of the epic. The more detailed description below of the various spectacles that made up the 1967 festivals closely follows the summary version for Greek television. The voiceover of the 1967 digest is in Kathareuousa Greek spoken by a male. His language is inflated but still intelligible. The tone, however, is so stentorian as to be far removed from colloquial intonation. Truth speaks through the regime’s chosen medium of the authoritative male voiceover, the formal remnant of a narrative framework that controls how history is being told. Truth is constructed from above, by the ‘Regime of Truth’, which then passes it down to or through passive recipients by way of a monologue. What would become a very long day even for the most junta-devoted of spectators begins with a public ceremony on Syntagma Square in the heart of Athens, which is held at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in front of today’s Parliament building. Once the patriotic tone has been set, the ceremonies continue with the celebration of a formal public mass at the Metropolis Cathedral. The resulting images assist the Colonels in spreading the message that they honour the nation’s memory and faith and that they embody the exalted ideal of respect for the fatherland, religion and family – the notorious ‘ideological triptych’ of patris, threskeia, oikogeneia. [15] After the liturgy at the Metropolis Cathedral, limousines drive the dictators and other high-ranking representatives of the regime along a well-secured route to the stadium, where the show of military ritual and historical piety is about to commence. The general public has arrived by then. The cameras, however, zoom in on the VIP seats and theatricalize physical and hierarchical positions. Among those who enjoy 122 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 2. A parade float celebrating the first anniversary of the ‘Revolution of 21 April 1967’, Athens, Panathenaic Stadium, April 1968. Source: Katsigeras, Hellada 20os aionas, 298. honoured seating are the Colonels, their spouses, royals, and leaders of the Greek Church hierarchy. King Constantine II and his wife, Anne Marie, however, are conspicuous by their absence. [16] The camera lingers over their empty seats. The official excuse, which the voice is eager to repeat, is that the royal couple is travelling on a state visit abroad. But viewers who have followed the events of 1967 with a critical eye know that the king has made only an initial and reluctant show of support for the Colonels. By mid-December of the same year, the king’s countercoup had failed and he and his family were obliged to flee the country, never to return. The loud music of marching bands starts up. A show of uniformed men and army equipment, mainly tanks in camouflage colours, kicks off the military parade in the stadium. The military hardware bolsters the image of the massed blocks of troops. The young combatants strike the disciplined poses of Greek military standing and prestige. As synchronized marchers, the men perform geometric and close-order drills, and they exchange salutes in response to the directives that the various commanders shout out. Then goose-stepping male recruits wearing sports outfits pass in review. Unarmed, they soldier in front of the VIP section. They engage in sporting displays that show off team coordination, physical fitness and athletic 123 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE prowess. Some of their exercises treat gymnastics rather scoutingly or recall stunts performed by circus acrobats: young men leap through rings of flames, for example, on foot and on motorbikes. The group performances, in particular, mix acrobatics and drama: a dozen men pile upon and somehow drive one motorcycle while managing to hoist the national flag. These spectacles give concrete expression to a cult of strength and stamina and of youth and duty – of all youth’s duty. In the fascist tradition, these sport exercises demand collective obedience and invoke class collaboration. Athletic training and physical skill are presented as coordinated displays of male bodies. The shows of the perfect Greek male body suggest the idealized relationship between young recruits and the body of Greek citizens. The exalted connection between physical exertion, militarism and discipline training serves to confirm the virile self-image of the crowd as well as of its leaders. The ideological interface of gender and male Hellenic superiority is glaring to modern eyes. The link between ‘sporting’ masculinity and the creation of theatrical effects is explicit, too: active-duty soldiers in uniform perform as athletes, acrobats and thespians and they publicly represent the Greek army-state rather than any Greek sports teams or clubs. Soldiers train in sports for the greater good of the Greek army and the nation’s power. They demonstrate the strength of the military machine of the state. Thus the soldiering and sporting displays come out looking like large-scale military manoeuvres. Like an army commander, Papadopoulos, or the master-director of the festivals, keeps the execution of the manoeuvres of a muscle-flexing nation under control at all times. Changes in music mark changes in content and purpose: from assertive march and parade music at the outset, to the music of suspense and anticipation that accompanied the athletic exercises, to more festive, sprightly band tunes that celebrate Greek achievement. Now the re-enactments of Greek martial victories begin. Here the text of the voiceover turns to full-blown purple prose. The tableaux start off with nothing less than the Greek victory in the mythical Trojan War! Recruits in ancient-style costumes portray the Greeks who have been waiting in their tent camp before the walls of Troy. They pretend to leave, upon which the Trojans venture out and fetch the huge wooden horse left behind by the enemy. At night, a handful of Greeks descend from the horse’s belly and open the gates of Troy for more Greeks to pour into the city. Together, they speedily defeat the weak Trojans. The latter are played, of course, by fellow Greek soldiers whose different antique-style outfits must distinguish them from the good-guy Greeks. The Greeks sound the call of military triumph and pronounce the beginnings of Greek ascendancy and ethnic superiority. The Greek soldier is cast as the distinctive new hero who breaches new eras and boundaries and in whose footsteps the dictators have followed. The Colonels’ re-enactments provide the theatrical framework for their staging of the patriotic value of bodily strength. The next episode quintessentializes Greek patriotism: it hurls its public down from mythic antiquity to the first quarter of the fifth century BCE and the Persian Wars. The glory days of Classical Greece are shown complete with the Marathon runner announcing victory, only to collapse – awkwardly – on the floor of 124 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE the stadium. The brisk juxtaposition of mythical and historical Greek triumphs lends the Trojan legend a ‘historical’ reality of its own alongside authoritative history. In turn, the Persian Wars bestow mythical heroism on the Marathon fighters, their peers and the many generations of their ‘descendants’ down to the junta era. Conversely, the deluded and defeated Trojan enemy hordes are seen to start a long line of – perceived – weak and hubristic enemies. Together the Eastern opponents make up a formulaic composite of age-long barbarian inferiority. By the time the festival re-enactments treat the Civil War years, the Colonels’ manipulation, too, of enemy traits versus ‘ethnic’ or ‘innate’ Greek character leads to a derogatory portrayal of the communists and leftists who lost the war. Subsequent episodes of the tendentious display of Greek deeds follow principles similar to the makeover of the Trojan War. Spectators may admire next a triumphant Alexander the Great, who rides into the stadium on a nervous horse. No mention is made of the decades and historical developments that separated the Persian Wars from Alexander’s heroic conquest of Egypt and the East. Missing are, in particular, the Peloponnesian Wars and Athens’ subjugation to Sparta. Such references would have tainted, however, the desired image of Greek consensus and would have undermined the Athenocentrism of the junta festivals. Not all victories are created equal. Greek military supremacy, however, is still supposed to exist in each and any phase in between. It is as a Greek that Alexander here delivers the – figurative – final blow to the Persian Empire by destroying its capital city of Persepolis (331 BCE). His act is doubly ‘patriotic’, in that it also hands the dictators the opportunity to declare Macedonia unquestionably Greek. The Macedonian controversy had plagued Balkan and Greek foreign politics since the armed conflicts of 1912–1913, to which the regime would draw attention in due course to restate the Greek nationalist and military cause. After Alexander’s parade, Constantine the Great, founder of Constantinople in 324 CE, comes on. He is credited with establishing the Byzantine Empire that succeeded the (declining) Roman West. His victories are won in the name of Christianity: a sign appears bearing the letters of the divine promise of ‘In this sign, be victorious’. Constantine is acclaimed here as the father of the Eastern or Orthodox faith, whose doctrine was formulated in subsequent centuries. Then the festival parade nearly glosses over a whole Byzantine millennium, because Byzantine supremacy, in the conservative mindset, equals Greek supremacy and therefore requires little elaboration. The next historical figure singled out for hero treatment is the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phokas, who reconquered the island of Crete from the Arabs in 961 and thus stopped another inimical force from making further inroads in Byzantine territory. No mention is made of the fall of Constantinople in 1453: the festivals must showcase triumph, not defeat. The Colonels’ streamlined national history is an authoritative exposé of Greek martial and ‘patriotic’ triumphs, in which paradigmatic leaders take centre stage. These intriguing leaders, who are, however, not shown in any great detail, are first and foremost army commanders. As commanders, they become iconic of an entire force facing a historical crisis: they have their brave – but anonymous – troops prevail 125 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE over emblematic ‘evil’ enemies, who are themselves confined to the anonymity of groups of different creeds or ethnic origins. Military leadership, muscle power and victory are valourized over any intellectual or artistic achievements. The sequence of ‘great men’ in Byzantine history is thus reduced to a set of static moments, stereotypical images, and oft-repeated slogans of a military personality cult. This is history as the personal myth of military men. The Colonels’ homage is driven by a substantial degree of self-identification with such ‘patriotic role models’, as if the success of Byzantine military conquest and reconquest may still spill over onto them. The dictators’ hero concept is totalizing and masculinizing: their aim is to create the new man – though not any new woman – in their image of the soldier and athlete. Onlookers come to occupy a childlike or inferior position, however, before leaders who always win and whom the regime bumps up to positions of moral rectitude and authority. Leaders deliver passively suffering populations that are, like the footsoldiers who do the actual work, mere historical variables. In this fashion the Colonels militarized the historical continuity model of the Greek nation which was embedded in the History of the Hellenic Nation (1860–1875, in 15 volumes), the seminal nation-building work of Konstantinos Paparregopoulos. To support the theme of Greece’s military regeneration, the dramatic sequences typically focused on exploits from the ‘illustrious’ periods of antiquity, Byzantium and the struggle for independence that built state power through military conquest. The historical continuity model had a long and complex Greek bourgeois pedigree since the second half of the nineteenth century. Metaxas exploited this model and centred it on displays of cultural continuity as well as on nationalist bodily spectacles. The junta leaders, however, sharpened it as a military paradigm and downgraded historical continuity as cultural continuity and also sport for its athletic and physical values. Greek folk dances, for instance, which formed a prominent part of the interwar spectacles, disappeared from the program of the junta festivals. Following the Byzantine events, the 1821 War of Independence is presented in the documentary as a belated act of just retaliation for the most painful of Greek losses: the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. Again, the centuries of subjugation in between (the ‘dark ages’ of the Tourkokratia) do not fit the official template and are conveniently overlooked. The official re-enactments commemorate and idealize the War of Independence as an epoch of unified revolution and public consensus among the Greeks – which it was not. The episode’s focus is on valiant male Greeks who expunge a military disgrace by inflicting injury and loss on the historical foe. The Colonels recycle the old revolutionary script that places unjust cruelty squarely in the Turkish domain and that affords the Greek masses the role of collective auxiliary hero. These elements make up the canonic text of the Revolution of 1821, which becomes a palimpsest of trials of Greek moral strength and masculine bodily valour. It is a recognizable verbal and visual code that the audience may grasp easily; the shared emotions derived from it fuel the Greek patriotic sentiment. After a few more episodes, the Albanian victory, which the Greeks won at the onset of the Second World War, is referred to as another ‘epic’, as it has been in common 126 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE parlance. Soon after 28 October 1940, Greek troops and local civilians fended off an Italian invasion of Greece from the northwest and advanced into southern Albania. This triumph marked one of the earliest acts of organized and unified antifascist military resistance. Metaxas himself gave the start signal to the battle against the Italian fascists on the Albanian front. His resolute ‘No!’ in answer to Mussolini’s ultimatum is, by 1967, a famous motto and the watchword of a national holiday, Ochi Day (28 October). This historical tableau exceptionally includes female civilians, who appear, however, only in auxiliary roles: they act as humble physical helpers who haul boxes of ammunition and other military necessities, which they deliver to the soldiers in action. In good patriarchal tradition, they merely assist and then resume their place of admiring spectators, who watch their men make Greek history. After the episode of the Greek Civil War, to which I will return, the Colonels’ festivals end with the climactic show of their own ‘triumph’ over the communists on 21 April 1967. This self-promoting ‘victory’ is the ‘coup’ de théâtre, the play-withinthe-play that projects the regime’s self-representation. A wagon float decorated with a giant version of the junta’s emblem of the phoenix rolls in: a Greek soldier stands guard outlined against the contours of the mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes. The symbolism of the phoenix, which boasts a long history, became ubiquitous during the dictatorship years of ‘resurrection’. A procession of floats follows carrying tableaux vivants of female figures as allegories that represent the values flaunted by the Colonels: ‘Truth’ (Aletheia), ‘Glory’ (Doxa), ‘Salvation’ (Soteria), ‘Freedom’ (Eleutheria) and other familiar buzzwords. These female characters dressed in antique-style costumes stand to allegorize the inalienable values and qualities of the dictators as well as of the national body. Big white letters on the hillside light up and form the slogan of ‘Hail to the 21st of April’ (Zeto he 21 Apriliou). Fireworks go off to dramatize the grand finale and draw repeated noisy salvos of applause. Militaristic triumphalism reaches new, exhilarating heights. So does totalitarian-style kitsch. At the Panathenaic Stadium the Colonels presented a bodily culture that perfectly suited their militarized version of Greek continuity but that redefined and essentially diminished sport. Core athletic events such as track and field competitions or even re-enactments of the ancient athletic games were missing from their spectacles. Bodily culture under the dictatorship was a display of performative heroic acts and axiomatic slogans that were presented in a hybrid stagecraft lined with myth, allegory and analogy: the junta constructed its myth of physical prowess and amateur athletic achievement with the essential tools of parade architecture, scenographic decoration and allegorical form and content. Papadopoulos’s world of verbal pyrotechnics mirrored that of his theatrical make-believe: both spheres tainted or perverted the essence of a bodily culture for its physical value. Political expediency and lack of current perspective rendered the analogies between physical exercise and military triumph of the past strained – at best. Yet the regime kept up its concerted efforts to fit bodily prowess into its display of the nation’s history. This bodily culture was drawn into the official modes of self-righteousness and conceit, as the junta staged itself as the predestined new glory of a victorious Greece. 127 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The theme of athletic and military bravery was a popular topic in several Greek television and radio programs from 1967 on, when both of these media started to or continued to function under strict state monopoly. [17] The new medium of television tried to synchronize an ever-larger viewing public and to forge the nation into a single audience. It was successful to some degree for being the newest and most fascinating technology, which was seductive to inexperienced viewers. Sport broadcasts, in particular, aided in sealing the success of the new medium. Sport and spectacle became the perfect objects for a compliant Greek television industry of image-making that relayed overt political propaganda to all corners of the country. The dictators also organized exhibitions on the theme of the ‘polemic virtue of the Greeks’ and issued catalogues and other publications to buttress the iconography and rhetoric of their festivals. In spectacles, speeches and publications, the insecure leaders competed for the Greeks’ recognition through source manipulation and by controlling public forums – including the world of sport. The junta festivals illuminated the modern Greek wars of liberation, state formation and nationalist consolidation with scenes of the heroism of patriotic leaders, who represented links in the long chain of ‘indigenous’ valiance. Thus the ‘epic’ of 1821 set the modern Greeks free to see their present as analogous to the classical past and, in particular, to the Persian War victories, and to assert an unbroken line of Greek excellence. The modern heroic achievement had to cement continuity between the ancient through Byzantine military exploits and the dictators’ claims to ‘inherited’ primacy. Military predominance through the ages, which was embodied by a canon of national heroes, was the junta’s watered-down but reactionary version of the seminal conception of the continuous thread of national Greek history. [18] The Colonels turned this seductive continuity that was military longevity into an aggressive ‘mythomoteur’ – to use Anthony Smith’s term: [19] the military continuity that they willed was to constitute and legitimize polity – theirs; it affected morality, pedagogy and education in its broadest sense, including the adult education purposes that the festivals served. [20] The Revolution of 1821 typified the inexhaustible lessons for generations of Greeks to take to heart. Each reference to 1821 resonated anew with the weight of bygone eras, and it pressured especially Greek youth to show itself true to the time-hallowed national tradition of valour. The stakes vested in the Revolution of 1821 were therefore higher than those vested in any other Greek victory of the past. The dictators repossessed the popular ‘epic’ of 1821, but their blind insistence on militaristic continuity made them ignore the fallacies of – armed – chauvinism. Their myth, which proved too narrow to render their propaganda credible, was not successful in resolving social or economic tensions, either. IV. Which Models Did the Colonels Have? The Colonels exhibited an early interest in reforming physical education in schools with a particular interest in gymnastics and Swedish gymnastics which, according to government regulations, demanded high levels of discipline, physical effort and 128 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE technical difficulty. Under the junta, gymnastic demonstrations and parades became popular as well. Thus the school gymnastics curriculum, which was more appropriate for champions than for schoolchildren, served the regime’s goal to create an obedient youth and body politic at large. In turn, displays by youth groups in public spectacles, like the festivals at the Panathenaic Stadium, helped to construct a militarized communal identity. The 1969 Royal Decree which outlined the new physical education curriculum for schools was very detailed on gymnastics and athletics but placed less emphasis on team sports. [21] When the Colonels did make athletic training compulsory in all schools, they again welcomed the demands of strict physical discipline and athletic competition that involved students in combative performances with peers. [22] In the fall of 1969, the regime issued orders to make track and field obligatory from elementary school onwards, while soccer, basketball and swimming would be compulsory from high school on. [23] These decisions were prompted by the disappointment that the Greeks felt at the poor performance of their athletes in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City and in the European Athletics Championships that were held in Athens in September of 1969. [24] Following the latter ‘humiliation’, the regime’s Undersecretary of Education, Niketas Siores, promised that, from 1970 on, school competitions would be organized throughout Greece ‘to encourage school sports to the advantage of our national athletism [sic] and our country’s international prestige’. [25] The Colonels’ efforts in the realm of sports education did not go unnoticed by foreign observers. The author or authors of an article entitled ‘Football Yes, Politics No’, which appeared as part of a survey issue on Greece published by The Economist and dated 31 July 1971, wrote about the regime’s policy of building stadiums, swimming pools and gymnasiums throughout the country. Telling, however, is the following reservation appended to this report on the junta’s building activity: But as well as providing facilities for football [soccer] and athletics the stadiums are intended for use on national days when schools and youth clubs can put on displays to demonstrate physical fitness, disciplined movement and pride in Greece. [26] The article also noted how much praise the dictators lavished on Athens’ soccer team Panathenaı̈kos after it reached the final of the 1971 European Champions Cup. When Panathenaı̈kos beat the team of Red Star Belgrade, thousands of soccer fans poured into the streets in cities throughout Greece, presenting the regime with an entirely new mass phenomenon. [27] In Greece, as in many other European countries, the increasing professionalization of soccer went hand in hand with its growing mass appeal. The Soldiers of Sport of the Metaxas Regime: From Bodies to Battles The Colonels partly inherited their interest in athletic and military displays as well as their official language from the reactionary Greek Right, a socially diverse group of politicians and citizens with conservative sympathies or affiliations that has 129 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE undergone significant changes in terms of membership and ideology during the twentieth century. Prior to the military takeover, the Right and Metaxas, in particular, had paraded most of the same national triumphs in similar festivals held at the Panathenaic Stadium. [28] Metaxas, however, drew on the prior and pioneering initiatives taken by the Lyceum of Greek Women (Lykeion Hellenidon), a female voluntary association that, in productive co-operations with other institutions and authorities, organized parades, ‘ancient’ and modern folk dances, and spectacles in the Panathenaic Stadium. From 1914 through the 1930s, the Lyceum’s mass events emphasized cultural continuity, appealed to the national ideology of the Greek bourgeoisie at large, and expressed a socio-political consensus that was still far broader than that of the Greek Right. [29] Right-wing governments, however, had long tried to usurp the Greek past based partly on the premise that, since they ‘owned’ patriotism, they also ‘owned’ any athletic and military victories inspired by patriotic sacrifice. In the rhetorical tradition of Metaxas, then, the Colonels styled themselves as bona fide saviours, latter-day founders, and vigilant father figures with the authority to educate, censor and punish the ‘immature’ and ‘irresponsible’ Greeks. [30] The dictators saw all of Greece as a mass that needed to be trained and disciplined by a few basic means, and they considered athletic and military training to be the best way to do so. Metaxas quickly realized the potential of sport as a means to teach Greek citizens and especially Greek youth to respect authority. Hence he tried to ‘educate’ Greek youth into his type of performative patriotism through sport. Through ‘patriotic’ sport and public display, too, the Colonels engaged in a ‘civic education program’ for youths and for adults who were past the age of traditional school instruction. The regime’s hyperbolic displays of athletic and military prowess were meant to (re)shape the people’s knowledge of Greek history through the ages and to confirm their proud sense of being racial descendants of the ancient Greeks. The junta festivals thus picked up the teaching of sacrifice-oriented ‘patriotism’ where the practice of the school history lessons had left off. The festivals and the realm of pedagogy used school-going youth and adults with limited formal education as prime material for subject formation. [31] ‘Actors’ and spectator-performers mimicked skits and repeated slogans and, instead of learning anything new or challenging, they exerted themselves in corroborating the old and established ‘facts’. The dearth of a plurality of scripts in the traditional Greek classroom and at the festivals mirrored the absence of pluralism in public life. [32] However, in the spirit of the counterculture that turned much of Western European youth of the late 1960s against any ‘establishment’, increasing numbers of Greek students refused to live the lie of conformism with the authoritarian regime. They were among the first to expose the fissures in the artificial creation of a consensual public history. [33] The tradition of slogans in Greece was the brainchild of Metaxas, who wanted to affect all public domains including sport and education. Under his regime, sport became a prominent component of a totalitarianism of the body, which was – paradoxically – serving a totalitarianism of the mind. Neni Panourgia explains: 130 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Figure 3. Poster: at the festivals of the dictatorial regime of 1967–1974, Greek actors-recruits and allegorical figures embodied the known sets of proud mottos and ‘historical’ victory cries. The regime relished in schoolbook-style slogans that raised the Greeks’ defences against ‘national enemies’. Source: Rautopoulos, ‘Kitsch hos fascistometro’, 245. Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE His [Metaxas’s] was an imperialism of the mind and the psyche, an imperialism as aggressive as it was brutal, aimed at totally annihilating the citizen by demanding his mind. A citizen could not placate this project through mere compliance. It required not only total submission but total agreement. It could not tolerate or absorb dissent and disagreement but demanded complete agreement and subscription. [34] Metaxas had proclaimed essay competitions for young people on topics that instituted and reiterated the nationalist exhortations. [35] He had also manipulated mass open-air rallies, from athletic events to historical re-enactments, following the 1930s doctrine that popular sports could be intimately linked to mass pageantry. Metaxas’s public initiatives took sport and athletic valiance to the edge, but they always focused on the physical prowess of the collective, not of the individual athlete, and also on the ‘aesthetics’ of presenting dynamic bodies moving through dramatic spaces. [36] Supporters of the regime promoted Metaxas’s vision of sport as a healthy antidote to the ‘American disease of chasing crazy records’. [37] Metaxas established his ‘Regime of the Fourth of August 1936’ while the 1936 Olympics were going on (from 1 through 16 August) in Berlin, where Greece had sent a delegation of athletes. All international media attention, however, had turned to the site of ancient Olympia, the point of departure of the – invented – Olympic torch run. The torch lighting ceremony that kicked off the relay took place on 20 July 1936 in the ancient stadium at Olympia. [38] Metaxas consolidated his hold on power in the days leading up to the opening ceremonies of the Berlin Olympics and as the Nazis promised more German funds to advance excavations at the ancient site of Olympia. [39] As if the rediscovered ancient lustre and the modern Olympic aura were not enough, Metaxas proclaimed the foundation of the ‘Third Hellenic Civilization’, modelled after Hitler’s Third German Reich. As early as September of 1936, Metaxas, in an interview with a correspondent of the French newspaper Paris Echo, stated: ‘I want a strong and healthy Youth; an athletic Youth. The blood needs occasional revitalisation. Today athletics remain the only means to revitalise the blood: Athletics for everybody’. [40] Metaxas organized the First Athletic Week in June of 1938, which saw some 10,000 athletes participating in various events. In November of 1938, his government launched the great ‘Athletic Campaign’. [41] One month later, Metaxas acquired the title of ‘First Athlete’. [42] Underscoring the role of sport in regenerating the Greek nation, Konstantinos Kotzias, ex-Chief of Athletics, proclaimed on 31 December 1938: The steering wheel of Greek athletics is now in the hands of our Chief. For the first time in Greek history a Prime Minister will lead athletics, and for the first time athletics will be led by a Prime Minister. [43] Metaxas’s government prioritized physical education in the public school curriculum without, however, introducing significant changes to the 1929 legislation on this issue. It raised the standards for teacher training at the Physical Education 132 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 4. A rare Greek document lays out the detailed ceremonial program of the first Olympic torch run of 20 July 1936, and quotes from Pindar’s Eighth Olympic Ode. Source: Georgios I. Dolianitis and the G. Dolianitis Library. 133 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Academy, which left its graduates better prepared for their extended duties in delivering physical education in schools. [44] Metaxas also engaged masses of young people in athletic events through EON, the Ethnike Organose Neolaias, or his National Youth Organization. Marina Petrakis claims that every EON division was obliged to organize an athletic team and that member participation in the team became compulsory. [45] Mainly, however, EON was in charge of supervising the activities of sports clubs and of ensuring that they were incorporated into the regime’s official ideology. In general, the state and its organs prioritized physical training and compliance with the national consensus over advanced school education. Metaxas also experimented with contemporary means and techniques to involve the masses: he orchestrated mass ‘choruses’ marching, speaking and chanting in unison, and he exploited loudspeaker and radio broadcasts. [46] In 1939, Metaxas sponsored the production of a small documentary film, titled The Panhellenic Athletic Games of EON, which featured EON’s athletic contests conducted in May 1939 in the ‘old’ Olympic (i.e. Panathenaic) Stadium. [47] Sport activities included soccer and various track and field events such as shot-put, hurdles, long jump, high jump, triple jump, javelin throw, marathon, discus throw, relay, stone throw, etc. [48] Most significantly, the official documentary promoted the image of a strong youth and of a unified totality of Greek citizens. Reportedly, the Athletic Games of EON counted some 250,000 members-participants, while spectator numbers reached 80,000. [49] The sheer numbers had to discourage Greek individuality and had to inspire, instead, unity and harmony. [50] According to Petrakis, ‘[t]he screen is filled with slim young men and women in circles and in lines performing their athletic exercises, keeping in step with each other’. [51] Metaxas’s enthusiasm for the co-optive totality of gigantic sports events and mass public stagings was especially marked on national anniversaries. This excitement rings through many of his diary entries, which were published in no less than eight volumes. See, for instance, his entry on 25 March 1938: What a dream that was yesterday and today!—Yesterday at the Pedion tou Areos with the National Youth. [52] My work! . . . Ceremony. Enthusiasm. Apotheosis. The army’s parade splendid. In the afternoon, a parade of . . . the National Youth . . . – The phalanxes of E.O.N. had no end to them! All in uniform! About 12,000 to 14,000! The impression on the people was stunning! [53] The juxtaposition of EON with the Greek army and the choice of military metaphors such as ‘phalanxes’ indicate that Metaxas recognized the potential that a well-trained youth held as a future combat force. [54] A devoted youth stood metonymically for the devoted masses of civilians and also for the presumed devoted army troops. Organizing divisions of young athletes meant securing the country’s precious military resources. The comments of Sitsa Karaı̈skake, who contributed an article to the journal He Neolaia of 1939, proved ominous. He Neolaia, or The [Our] Youth, was the richly illustrated youth magazine that EON published from 1938 through 1941, under the auspices of the government of Metaxas. [55] The article expounds on ‘the deeper meaning of sport’: 134 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE But do they want to turn them [the younger Greek generations] into small soldiers? No, we answer . . . today’s Greece does not want to make small soldiers but only big soldiers. It wants, nonetheless, to follow its racial tradition, which bestowed on mankind the spirit of action, and it wants to revive in its blood that noble drive . . . It wants to revive in its blood that red, swift, and phosphorescent blood cell that begot Solon and Aeschylus, Pericles and Euripides in multifold, and that brought glory to Marathon and Salamis. [56] Metaxas craftily transformed athletic spectacle into a massive paramilitary apparatus. The dictator issued protocols to standardize and control the nation’s athletic and secular rituals, which post-war right-wing governments then reused. His central administration dispatched related directives to provincial towns and villages. [57] However, Metaxas’s concerted efforts to develop a power base through a strong Greek youth movement eventually failed. The Second World War proved that the allegory of the athlete as soldier could swiftly and unapologetically become reality. The following lines from Richard Mandell are telling and, even though they describe the ‘Nazi Olympics’ (his term), they may be applied to late 1930s Greece as well: [P]aradoxically, it is the best ‘players’ (as they are called) who must be most deadly in earnest in mastering tactics and in living up to the yearnings for patriotic supremacy that their society imposes upon them. [58] In the conception of the reactionary Greek Right, which was not immune to political expediency, militarism vouched for patriotism and should, if necessary, stand in for politics. The Colonels saw themselves as Metaxas’s undisputed heirs and mimicked many of his practices in the realms of athletics, bodily culture and army parades. The ‘Immense Moral Advantages’ to Mass Sport and Mass Pageantry on the Ancient Greek Model Greek festival pageantry predates the rule of Metaxas. The Cretan statesman Eleutherios Venizelos staged his partisan-patriotic victory celebrations at the ‘old’ Olympic Stadium in mid-September of 1920. His own ‘triumphal procession’ provoked reactions that ranged from shock and outcry to uncritical adulation. [59] The grand centennial celebrations of Greek Independence, postponed until 1930, raised similar reservations: Venizelos was personally involved to celebrate his return to politics and the prominence of Cretan culture was pervasive. The stadium again saw some of the most hyperbolic historical re-enactments, such as the ‘Bloodless Sacrifice from the Minoan Period’, a spectacle in which the Lyceum of Greek Women took on the lead role, as it had done on prior occasions since 1914. [60] Decades prior to Venizelos’s political successes, the initiative had been raised to stage Greek history as a continuum of male athletic prowess inherited from antiquity and thus to strengthen national reawakening. In January of 1835, Ioannes Kolettes (1774–1847), Minister of Internal Affairs to King Otho, published a proposal (in French) for 135 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE athletic games and festivals that would commemorate, at public expense, the major events and battle sites of the Greek Revolutionary War of 1821 and also the spirit of national unification that advocates of the war had propounded. [61] According to the plan, these events would be modelled after the panhellenic athletic games and other festivals of Greek antiquity, such as the famous Olympian, Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian Games, but also the classical religious festivals of the Panathenaia, the Eleusinia, the Thesmophoria, the Great Dionysia, etc. Kolettes singled out the particular advantages of such institutions for the newborn Greek state: the international resonance of those festivals, their role in strengthening the royal house, and the very high ethical benefits (‘d’immenses avantages moraux’) that they would deliver and that promised to bring modern Greece closer to ancient Greece. [62] Kolettes summed up: ‘Tâchons que le Grec moderne approche de l’ancien, que le fils réproduise le père’, ‘Let us try to make the modern Greek approach the ancient Greek, to make the son replicate the father’. [63] The objective of Kolettes to re-create aspects of the athletic competitions that took place in antiquity was seminal to the process of designing the state-sponsored pageantry of Greece in the twentieth century. [64] The ideal of a renaissance of the Greek nation through ancient sports drove the nineteenth-century Zappas Olympics (1859, 1870, 1875 and 1889). However, the 1896 revival of the Olympic Games proved to be the most important catalyst in this process. Through the pre-WWI era, Greece was eager to claim and secure its guardianship over the authentic ancient athletic tradition, which would become more significant as the modern Olympic movement gained wider local and Western support. [65] Significantly, the celebration of the 25th of March was established in 1838, or three years after Kolettes had issued his proposal. [66] In sum, the Colonels did not invent their athletic contests and festivals, but they made them their own by revising and expanding them. The architects of the regime’s events had before them a series of canonical templates and a performative repertory from which to choose in accordance with the prevailing state priorities. The strongmen of the late 1960s also had certain technological advancements working for them. Thus Papadopoulos propped up his public celebrations with ‘suitable’ (read: censored) television and media coverage, whose rote praise was the illusionary equivalent of the rote applause in the stadium. V. Teaching Self-Sacrifice for the ‘Regime of Truth’, for the Nation in Danger The military dictatorship of 1967–1974 exploited the ideal of self-sacrifice as a norm that ruled the realms of sport and soldiering. The regime’s ‘patriotic’ mottos pivoted on the official demands that the Greeks renounce individual will and that they perform acts similar to those of athletes and soldiers of the past, who had brought greatness to the country. The Colonels’ visual and verbal rhetoric, however, enacted or performed Greek patriotism, enmity, victory and lineage in single-minded definitions. Michael Herzfeld reminds us that the ideal of self-sacrifice that promises collective glory is a ‘key feature of nationalist discourses everywhere’. [67] 136 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The Colonels exploited the nation-in-danger theme to bolster the need for a perpetual state of nationwide mobilization. They framed their militarized displays of bodily culture by re-enactments of ‘polemic’ crises, which the Greek army had overcome with fortitude. Potency in sport was to herald military success in case of any future challenge to the nation’s territory and integrity. More immediately, however, these displays and performances expressed the leadership’s demand for a civic society disciplined along the lines of the – overvalued – military model. Athletes and soldiers had to give commanding performances before the ordered masses and had to lay out exemplary patterns of citizen virtue and behaviour; their own activities emphasized dutiful discipline over citizen rights. Their orchestrated patterns of movement ‘rehearse[d]’, as Susan Sontag would say, ‘the very unity of the polity’. [68] The purpose of the rigid exercises was not to discover the individual in the midst of mass formations, but to show the unstoppable strength of such regimented blocks of athletes, soldiers and citizens in motion. Even if citizen training did not have a direct military application, it procured many well-oiled cogs in the wheels of Greek society. Thus the athletic events and the festivals became public demonstrations of the Colonels’ authority and of Greek civic obedience. [69] It was in those crises and confrontations with various adversarial worlds that the Colonels defined patriotic self-sacrifice as part of ‘proper’ Greek identity. To capture this ideal of a nationalist patriotism, the dictators revived a loaded Greek term that had reigned in the context of Greece’s anticommunist state ideology for several decades: ethnikophrosyne, or ‘national-mindedness’, or national morale. [70] They promulgated a militarized version of a Greek national discourse with nineteenthcentury roots when they presented this nationalist patriotism as an antidote against ‘destructive’ communism. This version of militarized patriotism was based on the ‘innate’ national traits of athletic endurance, military fortitude and moral pre-eminence. Such traits were presumed to be part of the ‘ethnic’ state of mind of the ethnikophrones, who adhered to ‘timeless’ conservative principles. These qualities, which stressed an essentialist Greekness, proclaimed the present Greeks as members of a privileged historical race. Throughout history, battles with threatening enemies had served to sharpen the focus of such ‘pure’, uninterrupted Greekness. The use of metaphors of medicalization and cleansing was not coincidental and permeated the public domain of sport: Metaxas and the ultra-right-wing camp had long conceived of communism, in particular, as a ‘virus’ or ‘infection’ that needed to be extirpated to safeguard the ‘purity’ of the Greek nation. They exploited sport for its role in the state-led attempt to ‘disinfect’ or ‘purify’ contaminated bodies and minds. By doting on sport, they fleshed out their spurious claims that they were not only protecting but actively producing the ‘health’ of the Greek family and of Greek society at large. The patterns supporting this rhetoric, however, involved both societal and political exclusion versus inclusion through public practices that fed on themselves while they remained subject to the superior will of the power holder. The regime of 1967 exhibited its canonic sequence of Greek military victories and mottos in order to authenticate its authority on behalf of the ‘deserving’ armed 137 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE forces. Once it had successfully portrayed all external enemies as aggressors against the ‘noble’ defenders of the homeland, it could bolster its claims to Greek racial and moral superiority. The junta sought and found an ‘authentic’ tradition of origins and a ‘valid’ genealogy for its own military intervention. The Colonels posited the anniversary date of their own takeover as a new national holiday. The official cult of the past was also a cult of self-advertised new beginnings, of the self-styled ‘regenerative Revolution’. Greece was, however, moving further away from the kind of revolutionary socio-political reform that it most badly needed. On the regime’s first anniversary, Papadopoulos concluded his official address to the nation with statements that reveal his will to graft the insurgency onto the Greek tradition of victory: The Revolution of 21 April represents the greatest and most serious attempt to restore, reorganize, and cure Greece since it regained its National Independence. And the Revolution will succeed, because it bespeaks the necessity of the historical imperative. [71] Papadopoulos’s casting of the Revolution of 1821 as a grand analogue for his own military aggression smacked of propagandistic distortion. Nonetheless, the regime relentlessly promoted the values of the country’s rulers, ancestors and roots by grounding them in a proud, ‘authentic’ history, in an unchanging geocultural territory, and in unshaken diachronic time. According to the Colonels, Greek national and moral primacy, like a family’s lineage, could not be engineered but was naturally given to the family of the immortal nation. Thus they again sharpened a nineteenth-century Greek nationalist tenet and made it subservient to their ideology ‘of the barracks’ (as it has sometimes been called disparagingly). Not surprisingly, the official rhetoric of ethnic pride and justice and of the national family appealed to the patriotic sentiment of many Greeks who sought stability and prosperity after many years of military and political turmoil. The power play of the Colonels, who inscribed themselves as model successors in the proud Hellenic tradition, strongly suggested the ‘right’ course of action for Greeks who valued their own history and reputation. Plenty of others, however, realized that the junta was reducing action-oriented and uncontaminated Greek virtue to purebred military character – and, even then, more to physical bravery than to military genius. For the dictators, the theatrical communication through displays of bodily culture was one of tradition, primacy and proven authenticity. Critics, however, saw a farcical spectacle and a transparent concoction of propaganda. The touting of the ‘scripted’ triumph of the Right by a succession of conservative governments (1946–1963 and 1967–1974) distressed a substantial but silenced part of the Greek populace. The military regime rubbed salt in still open wounds by taking action against the real or imagined offences, the ‘unpatriotic acts’ or ‘acts against the nation’, of leftists and communists. At the festivals, young recruits staged the victory also of the Right in the Civil War of the late 1940s. This meant that some of them 138 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE were compelled to re-enact the very defeat of their fathers and families. It suited the Colonels to present the battles against interior and exterior communists as interrelated parts of a single ‘holy war’. They were, however, never able to produce hard evidence of the supposedly imminent threat of a communist coup that their own military takeover had ‘forestalled’. Meanwhile, the official rhetoric was pervaded by calls for ‘patriotic’ loyalty to the nation’s ‘protectors’, as well as for vigilance and suspicion of fellow Greeks. It was fortified also by the protracted state of martial law. The triumphant sports events and the historical re-enactments may have failed to camouflage the regime’s unstable ideological core. As shows of confidence, however, they did have some success. The festivals set up the physical and ideological framework of a ‘spontaneous’ show of consent about disputed events that lived on in many of the spectators’ active memory. As consummate artificers, hieratic and aloof, the Colonels officiated at these compulsory rituals that had to bestow consensus and certainty on the recent past. With these public boasts and with certain deliberate omissions, the dictators committed to a – disquieting – conception of history that not only recovered and showcased the past but also shaped the present: they mustered up all the momentum of heroic Greek history to have it (re)cover and revise the present. The junta practiced ‘wishful remembering’ and pushed contested, unsavoury or contradictory memories and remembrances into oblivion. By re-enacting the same historical episodes every year, the regime inculcated hegemonic patterns of popular remembering, but it also induced collective amnesia, or the purposeful forgetting of past losses, ambivalent events or historical ambiguities. The monumental festivals did not come about, however, without the planning and cooperation of many. Coarse though the sports events and historical re-enactments might have been, they expressed the Right’s nationalist priorities for decades. In August of 1982, Andreas Papandreou’s Socialist government issued a decree that abolished the ‘Festivals of the Polemic Virtue of the Greeks’. [72] There was, in 1982 or even later, no consensus about how to present recent Greek history, especially the WWII Resistance and the Civil War. There was, however, a growing realization that the real interest of the national past was in how it constituted and conditioned the future. VI. Conclusion Through the festivals, the media and school education, the Colonels’ ‘Truth’ became officially codified. But the dramatic pretence of a rule representative of a heroic and immortal Greece fell far short of providing sufficient philosophical content or form. Therefore, the dictators tried all the harder to tap the various available symbolic and popular paradigms, and especially sports, to establish themselves on firmer moral and psychological grounds. The regime attempted to fill its ideological void with jingoistic patriotism and resorted to the power of sport and spectacle to muster up approval and cohesion. However, the clichéd sports activities and the re-enactments of military victories failed to rekindle an exhausted master narrative of right-wing 139 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE ‘patriotism’, despite the resources that were lavished on them. The frequency with which the festivals were repeated every summer and also on – contrived – anniversaries degraded sport into the stage of serial reproduction. As a group ritual of affirmation of the national myths, sport exposed the ‘spectacular’ effects that the regime placed at the centre of its politics. The sports events represented just one facet of the proliferation of performances in Greece’s political life under the military dictatorship. Yet they were among the most deliberately staged and carefully fabricated public rituals. Stagecraft, however, could not substitute for statecraft. ‘Patriotic’ sports interacted with many other, long-standing and typically rightwing modes of discourse on Greek patriotism. The Colonels kept revisiting the patriotic passages of lion-hearted Greek leaders – and of the self-sacrifice of subordinates, in the sequential designation of bodies to battles. They highlighted the familiar but orientalized contexts of the Trojan War, the Persian Wars and the 1821 Revolution. The realm of sport, turned into a dramatic event as well, thus fell victim to perhaps the most pernicious developments in verbal usage and visual political imagining. Greece’s grand narrative exalted in predetermined certainty about the force and the manly efficacy of sport and of the ‘army tradition’ that were seen to affirm the nation’s ‘immortality’. Its myth of timeless continuity established that ‘history [wa]s not a play of contingent forces’ and that its ‘fundamental constants [we]re struggle, sacrifice, victory’. [73] The dictators felt no scruples to abuse sport, the past and Greek culture in all available areas. Education, however, was one of its arenas of choice, and it had to generate the fixed patterns of thinking that were in agreement with the official policy line. If spectacle was the preferred platform for disseminating nationalist history, education was the vehicle for standardizing it. The junta’s normative parading of athletic and military feats and of subjects’ duties had its mirror image in the tight control of physical education. Ubiquitous uniforms gave expression to the desired uniformity of thought and action – in the ideal image of an orderly (or soldierly) body politic. The Colonels represented the Greek body politic to itself, that is, to crowds produced by any means. Their grand festivals returned the stadium of urban Athens to its origins of a sports hub. But, in their paternalistic ways, the dictators mistook a performance of massive scale in a stadium with mass attendance for a sports event for the masses or of the masses. Their program for grandiose theatrics of sport to illuminate national myths before a civic body was deeply flawed. The ceremoniousness with which the regime conducted the festivals belied any genuine attempt to rouse the crowds to actively participate in sports. But it was not quality sports that the rulers were after. Displays of bodily culture presented against the backdrop of the historical re-enactments of past victories constituted a populist medium for promulgating the ethno-historical nation and its mission. However, the athletes and the soldier-actors were no longer individual figures but stood for generations of disciplined Greeks. Their dramatic function was to prepare the stage for the true ‘heroes’: the ‘nation-saving’ leaders, who had 140 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE now been set in a popular and ‘historical’ perspective. The thrill of Greece’s historical victories had to generate the properly ‘spontaneous’ enthrallment with the regime’s victory. In sport, the Colonels sought and found the popular athletes to stand proxy for them in triumph. But the dogmatism that typified the junta festivals delivered cardboard heroes, too flat to make for meaningful interaction. These heroes, who had hardly any relief or personality to them, still appeared as exempla virtutis: they were the free, intrepid fighters of the cause of patriotism in the regime’s definition. The dictators’ perception of sport and history was not drawn on a broad or varied canvas but was a title deed to analogic events. The theatres of sport and of the cartoonish reenactments were related and desperate expressions of what the Colonels were really seeking: a place on the podium of Greek winners. Acknowledgements I thank the editors of this special issue, Zinon Papakonstantinou and Eleni Fournaraki, for their patient and professional guidance. I am grateful also to the anonymous readers who helped to shape this article and to Gregory Terzian, for reading earlier drafts and for catching inelegancies in my English. Notes [1] Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 134, 138. [2] The characterization of ‘hyper-spectacle’ or ‘hyper-theama’ is drawn from Rautopoulos, ‘Kitsch hos fascistometro’, 69. [3] The only (semi-scholarly) source that attempts to place these festivals in a historical and cultural context is Rautopoulos, ‘Kitsch hos fascistometro’, 70–71, 88–95. Rautopoulos’s minimal commentary is, however, one-sidedly negative. [4] One of the most insightful recent treatments can be found in Fischer-Lichte, Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual. Ironically, by staging military exploits, the Colonels’ festivals resembled the mass victory celebrations of the Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union (with the Spartakaiads and similar forms of collective pageantry and invented hierarchy). See further Golomstock, Totalitarian Art; Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected; Senelick, ‘Theatre’, 277–8; Spotts, Hitler. For a longer historical perspective on the Olympics as ‘mega-events’, see Roche, Mega-events and Modernity. [5] See, for example, the big spread on the festivals and the accompanying speeches of 20–21 April 1969, on the front page of the leading Greek newspaper To Vema of the following day (22 April 1969). [6] Kofas, Authoritarianism in Greece, 104. See further Close, Origins of the Greek Civil War, 46– 47. [7] For an example of Papadopoulos’s speeches of admonition to Greece’s civil servants, see ‘Arista steleche’, front page of To Vema, 19 March 1968. See further Close, Greece since 1945, 115. [8] This meant that the leaders generally maintained the make-believe that their festivals fanned the flame of genuine popular devotion to their rule, while large parts of the audience played along. The pretence of acting and ‘believing’ on both sides reflected the dynamics of the ‘public transcript’ and of the dramaturgy of power that James Scott has articulated in his 141 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] seminal work, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. On some of the specific strategies in exercising power and pretence, see Scott, Domination, 89, 44. I do not label either the Metaxas regime or the Colonels’ rule as strictly ‘fascist’, but prefer to characterize both regimes as ultra-right-wing, reactionary in their ideology (a partly secular, partly religious fundamentalism), violently anticommunist, authoritarian and brutal in their methods. Voglis, Becoming a Subject, 39, notes that Metaxas tried hard to mobilize a mass fascist movement but did not succeed. For a recent study on Metaxas and on the extent and power of his propaganda mill, see Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, who devotes special attention to ‘theatre propaganda’ (her chapter four). See also the recent comprehensive study by Angeles, ‘Giati chairetai ho kosmos’, 94–101 on ‘theatre and E.O.N.’ and 234–6 on the Metaxas government’s approach to public health and sport; Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, chapter five; Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 130–45; and Panourgia, Dangerous Citizens, 34–37. For more on the ‘theatrical’ qualities of Metaxas’s rhetoric, see Bregianne, ‘Politike ton pseudaistheseon’, 171–2, and Carabott, ‘Monumental Visions’. For a historian’s positioning of the Greek junta within a political spectrum that incorporates fascism, see Clogg, ‘Ideology of the ‘‘Revolution’’’, 51–53. On page 53, Clogg calls the definition of ‘pseudo-fascist paternalist dictatorship’ perhaps the most apposite descriptive label. He notes obvious parallels with what has been dubbed ‘clerical-military semi-fascism’. On the Italian fascist culture of the body and on its ideological underpinnings, see, for instance, Gori, ‘Supermanism’. The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were captured on screen in the epic-propagandistic film Olympia (1937), made by the controversial late Leni Riefenstahl. By 1936, Riefenstahl had completed Hitler’s previous commission, the filming of a massive 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg. The result, Triumph of the Will, contains many scenes of public speeches, (youth) gatherings, athletic marches and military parades, which together render Germany’s drive to war palpable. It also shows samples of the kind of monumental architecture (designed by Albert Speer) that later gained a bad name because of its fascist origins. For a sharp critique of Riefenstahl and her work, see Sontag, ‘Fascinating Fascism’. Sontag spoke of ‘fascist visuals’ and noted fascist art’s spurious claim to ‘idealism’. Sontag, ‘Fascinating Fascism’, 87, 91. See also recently Mackenzie, ‘From Athens to Berlin’. The Greek ultra-right-wing discourse stressed the historical continuity of the Greek ‘race’ but did not seek ‘scientific legitimacy in physical anthropological or craniometric studies, as has happened in other European countries’. Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, 171, 3. See also Panourgia, Dangerous Citizens, 34. It must also be noted that the argument for the historical continuity of the Greek race had been made by Greek nationalists of various political affiliations since the second half of the nineteenth century. See also Clogg, ‘Ideology of the ‘‘Revolution’’’, 36, 40, 45, 48; Kourvetaris, Studies on Modern Greek Society and Politics, 137; Woodhouse, The Rise and Fall of the Greek Colonels, 31–32. See also Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 137. Frangoudaki [Phrankoudake], ‘Greek Education in the Twentieth Century’, 206, 209. For the power of these ideals under Metaxas, see Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 225, 172. The royal family did attend the festivals of the year before the coup, as the digest of 1966 shows. The patriotic spectacles that predated the coup also took place in the Panathenaic Stadium but placed less emphasis on the role of the Greek army. See further Afentouli, ‘The Greek Media Landscape’, 173; Katsoudas, ‘The Media’, 189, 193, 196, 206; Valoukos, Hellenike Teleorase; Van Steen, ‘Classical Drama Revived’, 147. See Gourgouris, Dream Nation, 252–61; Liakos, ‘The Construction of National Time’, 32–33, 34. Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation, 215. From the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, instruction in Greek history in primary and secondary schools, preferably highly structured, was marked and marred by its 142 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] relentless emphasis on the ‘patriotic’ national past. To be sure, the teaching of history plays a key role in any nation-state, but the content of history lessons in Greek schools tended to be especially ethnocentric. On the problems posed by an educational culture of excessive classicizing – and nationalizing, see also Gazi, ‘Scientific’ National History, 114–5. Karantaidou, Physike agoge, 95. See Papadakis et al., Why Did the Revolution of April 21, 1967 Take Place, 128, 138. Anon., ‘School Programs Revised in Greece – Athletics Made Compulsory – History is Rewritten’, The New York Times, 12 October 1969. Anon., ‘School Programs Revised in Greece – Athletics Made Compulsory – History is Rewritten’, The New York Times, 12 October 1969. Siores is quoted by anon., ‘School Programs Revised in Greece – Athletics Made Compulsory – History is Rewritten’, The New York Times, 12 October 1969. Anon., ‘Football Yes, Politics No’, xxxii. Anon., ‘Football Yes, Politics No’, xxxii. See especially Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 132–33. See Fournaraki, in this volume, for far more detailed information on the formative role that the Lyceum of Greek Women played in the creation of state-sponsored spectacles that stressed cultural continuity and that institutionalized the use of the Panathenaic Stadium as the preferred venue for such mass events. See also below, note 60. See, for example, Papadopoulos’s speech given as if ‘by a parent to his children’ (in his words) on the occasion of the regime’s second anniversary celebration: ‘Proparaskeuasthete’, front page of To Vema, 22 April 1969. For a broader spectrum of Papadopoulos’s speeches, see Papadopoulos, To Pisteuo mas. See also Clogg, ‘Ideology of the ‘‘Revolution’’’, 46, 53, 54; Phillips, ‘The Distortion of Language’; Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, 103–4, 67. See further Legg and Roberts, Modern Greece, 98–99, who spoke of the ‘nationalizing mission’ of Greek education (98). The nationalization of the masses through school instruction in history or through festivals that display the nation’s athletic performance or that invent symbols of national athletic ‘traditions’ is a widely shared process in the formation of modern nation-states. See also note 20. See the pedagogical material and evidence from the mid-1950s through 1970s, compiled and analysed by Phrankoudake, Anagnostika vivlia. See also Hamilakis, ‘Learn History!’, on Greek history textbooks, in particular; and The Nation and Its Ruins, 29, 179–81, 203. On Greek history textbooks, see further Koulouri, Dimensions idéologiques. For a recent study of the broader picture of twentieth-century Greek education, see Avdela, ‘The Teaching of History in Greece’, and Frangoudaki [Phrankoudake], ‘Greek Education in the Twentieth Century’. On Sport and patriotism in nineteenth-century Greece, see Fournaraki, ‘Genre et éducation physique’. The opposition against the military regime was at first slow to appear for various reasons. The Old Left had been defeated or driven abroad or pushed underground. The post-war years of anticommunist state persecution had decimated or fatigued the left-wing ranks. With the 1967 coup, a new wave of anticommunist terror and torture ensued. But the junta security forces intimidated members of the Right as well and caused them to pursue some of the interests that they shared with the Left. On the student movement and the creation of the young New Left, see further Kornetis, Student Resistance to the Greek Military Dictatorship. Panourgia, Dangerous Citizens, 34. Among those guiding essay topics were: ‘I am the indestructible spirit of those who fought at Salamis’ (K. Palamas), ‘The relationship with the Fatherland is a very close relationship, closer still than the relationship of the child with its parents’, and ‘One omen is best: to defend one’s fatherland!’. See further Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 140–2. The latter motto traces its origins as far back as Homer’s Iliad 12.243, in which – ironically – the defiant Trojan hero 143 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] Hector reprimands Polydamas, who discourages the Trojans from engaging in battle because of a bad avian omen. On the aestheticization of sport and politics under Metaxas, see especially Marketos, Pos philesa ton Mussolini, 59–60. Karaı̈skake, ‘Vathytero pneuma’, 1075. The critique that Greek intellectuals launched against competitive record seeking in sport (as opposed to the aestheticized quest for harmony and beauty through physical exercise) had a longer history that can be traced back to at least the beginning of the twentieth century. It was this ideology that inspired attempts to revive ‘authentic’ ancient Greek athletic contests in the 1920s (for instance, the contests that were part of the Delphic festivals organized by Angelos and Eva Sikelianos in 1927 and 1930). In the 1920s, too, Pierre de Coubertain himself flirted with the idea of reviving ancient athletics to counteract the modern professionalization of sport promoted by the Olympic Games. See Clastres, ‘Hommages et controverses’. This kind of critique had been voiced also (albeit in a vague way) during the 1896 Olympic Games by intellectual Greek women. I owe these observations to Eleni Fournaraki. See further Fournaraki, ‘The Olympism of the Ladies’ and her article in the present volume. Mandell, The Nazi Olympics, 129–33. Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, 196–7; Krüger, ‘Germany: The Propaganda Machine’, 32; Mandell, The Nazi Olympics, 284; Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 235, 73. See also Yalouri, The Acropolis, 39–40. Quoted and translated by Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 88. Angeles, ‘Giati chairetai ho kosmos’, 235. Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 4, 88–89, 90. Quoted and translated by Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 88, from He Neolaia 12 (1938), 397. On the journal He Neolaia, see below. Angeles, ‘Giati chairetai ho kosmos’, 235. Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 4, 88, and passim. On E.O.N., see also Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, 179–81. For a collection of E.O.N.’s primary texts, see Petrides, E.O.N. See also Angeles, ‘Giati chairetai ho kosmos’. Carabott, ‘Monumental Visions’, 32; Katsoudas, ‘The Media’, 189; Pennanen, ‘Greek Music Policy’, passim. Described in detail by Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 88–91. See also Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 134–9. Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 134. Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 223, 140. Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 90, 223, 143. Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 89. The Pedion tou Areos is a public park area in Athens, which was named after the Roman Campus Martius. Markatou, ‘Archaeology and Greekness’, 314. Metaxas, Prosopiko tou hemerologio, 299. See also Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 221, 101. See further Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, 179, 180, 185–7. Karaı̈skake, ‘Vathytero pneuma’, 1074. Despite the regime’s repeated references to prominent ancient Athenians, Metaxas devoted much more attention to the Spartan fighting spirit and to its model of social austerity. After Hitler, he saw Sparta as the embodiment of ancient military and political discipline, civic unity and territorial integrity. Modern fascist-totalitarian regimes have extolled these ideals, along with the Spartan prototype of obedient subjects ruled by a racially ‘superior’ elite class. Sparta stood opposed to the political model for more extensive popular participation, the Classical Athenian democracy. On Metaxas’s selective use of ancient Greek history, his predilection for Sparta, and his contempt for Athenian democracy, see recently Carabott, ‘Monumental Visions’, 30–31; Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, 29, 144 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] [69] 176–8, 195, 202; Machaira, Neolaia tes 4es Augoustou, 144–5; Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 155. See also Clogg, ‘Ideology of the ‘‘Revolution’’’, 54. On the widespread, uncritical admiration for Sparta in the 1930s, see further Cartledge, ‘What Have the Spartans Done for Us?’, 169–70. The military takeover of 1967 revived the discourse of the Colonels as Spartans who sought a social and political asceticism. See, for instance, Joe Alex Morris jr., ‘Specter of Ancient Drama Haunts Cradle of Democracy’, Los Angeles Times, 30 April 1967. For more on the invention of the ‘tradition’ of Greek national celebrations, see Karakasidou, ‘Protocol and Pageantry’, 224–8, 231. The personal memoirs of Leonidas Petrakes open with the author’s childhood memories of the pageantry and festivities organized by the town of Sparta, on the occasion of the anniversary date of Metaxas’s regime on 4 August 1939. Petrakes, Tote pou to chioni epese, 2. See also Pennanen, ‘Greek Music Policy’, 106–7. Mandell, The Nazi Olympics, 286. See anon., ‘Aporiai’ and ‘Demarchos’, Hestia, 15 September 1920. For further context to the centennial celebration of the Greek state, see Markatou, ‘Archaeology and Greekness’. On page 313, Markatou includes a newspaper photograph of the grand Minoan tableau (her figure 3). Venizelos and later Metaxas drew extensively from the structure and aesthetics of the mass events organized by the Lyceum of Greek Women and held at the Panathenaic Stadium. It was the Lyceum that first introduced the Minoan age in the parade of the ages of Greek history, in its ‘great national festival’ held in 1926 at the Panathenaic Stadium. The ‘Bloodless Sacrifice’, too, was a creation of the Lyceum. In 1930, it was again the Lyceum that organized the parade of heroes and heroines of the Greek War of Independence in the same stadium. I owe the above data to Eleni Fournaraki. See further Fournaraki, in this volume. For this document, see now Decker, Praeludium Olympicum. Quoted by Diamantes, ‘Protasis’, 309, 311, 313 [quotation], 324. Quoted by Diamantes, ‘Protasis’, 324. The weighty symbolic connection between the Greek pageantry of cultural continuity and the Olympic ideal was, of course, the guiding theme of the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The sequence of mainly ancient historical tableaux was designed by Demetres Papaioannou. For a recent scholarly approach to this twenty-first-century reincarnation of the Greek national continuity theme, see Hamilakis, The Nation and Its Ruins, 1–7, 203–4; Mackridge, ‘Cultural Difference as National Identity’, 310–11. On these topics, see the first chapters of Kitroeff, Wrestling with the Ancients, and Young, The Modern Olympics. See also Koulouri, Sport et société bourgeoise. Skopetea, To ‘Protypo Vasileio’, 215. Herzfeld, Portrait of a Greek Imagination, 119. Sontag, ‘Fascinating Fascism’, 91–92. Siegfried Kracauer, the cultural historian, critic and sociologist who fled Germany when the Nazis came to power, observed in his famous essay, ‘The Mass Ornament’: The unlimited importance ascribed to the physical cannot be derived from the limited value it deserves. Such importance can be explained only by the alliance that organized physical education maintains with the establishment . . . . Physical training expropriates people’s energy, while the production and mindless consumption of the ornamental patterns divert them from the imperative to change the reigning order. Reason can gain entrance only with difficulty when the masses it ought to pervade yield to sensations afforded by the godless mythological cult. The latter’s social meaning is equivalent to that of the Roman circus games, which were sponsored by those in power. (‘The Mass Ornament’, 85; italics as in the original) 145 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [70] The term ethnikophrosyne had its roots in the repressive anticommunism of the Greek Civil War era and its aftermath. Voglis, Becoming a Subject, 66, 101, 227–8; Close, Greece since 1945, 12. [71] Papadopoulos, ‘21e Apriliou’, published in To Vema, 21 April 1968. [72] See also anonymous, ‘Hailing to Byzantium’, The Economist, 21 August 1982, 39. [73] Connerton, How Societies Remember, 42–43. References Afentouli, I. ‘The Greek Media Landscape’. In Greece in the Twentieth Century, edited by Th. A. Couloumbis, Th. Kariotis, and F. Bellou, 170–82. London and Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 2003. Angeles, V. ‘Why Are the People Happy and Smiling Father? . . .’ ‘Lessons in National Education’ and Youth Propaganda in the Years of the Metaxas Dictatorship. Athens: Vivliorama, 2006. Anonymous. ‘‘‘Doubts’’ and The ‘‘Mayor’’’. Hestia, 15 September 1920. Anonymous. ‘School Programs Revised in Greece—Athletics Made Compulsory—History Is Rewritten’. The New York Times, 12 October 1969. Anonymous. ‘Football Yes, Politics No’. The Economist, 31 July 1971, xxxi–xxxii. Anonymous. ‘Hailing to Byzantium’. The Economist, 21 August 1982, 39. Avdela, E. ‘The Teaching of History in Greece’. Journal of Modern Greek Studies 18, no. 2 (2000): 239–53. 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Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, Variorum, 2008. 150 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Fanning the Flame: Transformations of the 2004 Olympic Flame Eleana Yalouri This article highlights some snapshots of the ‘social life’ of the 2004 Olympic flame and discusses the transformations of its meanings from the moment of its lighting until its extinction at the closing ceremony, as it circulates through various social contexts and within multiple areas of practice and discourse. By following the flame’s oscillation between the tangible and the transcendental, the metaphorical and the metaphysical, the ephemeral and the eternal, one can explore its dynamic participation in Olympic affairs, its involvement in negotiations of power and its adaptability to different personal, national or international histories, fantasies, experiences or expectations. Its emotive power owes to this malleability as well as to the multiplicity of sometimes contradictory meanings and values which are layered, recycled or transformed throughout its life. Introduction Every four years, when the world gets caught up in the fever of the Olympic Games, the Olympic flame becomes the protagonist of a long journey. Stories, discourses and claims accompany, feed and strengthen it along its journey. Members of the International Olympic Committee, politicians, torchbearers with tears welling up in their eyes, promising athletes and journalists invoke its assistance in order to interpret, criticize and articulate the present. In order to comprehend the attraction exercised by the touring flame, its persistent and universal appeal as well as the emotion it seems able to stir among very different people, we may have to seek not its ‘deeper’ meaning or an ultimate truth behind it, but instead to explore its malleability and its capacity to become transformed, multiply interpreted and experienced, used and adjusted to different historical and socio-political situations. 151 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Bille and Sørensen write about an ‘anthropology of light and luminosity’ which could have as an object of study not only the different experiences of light, but also its dynamics, its use, manipulation and ‘orchestration’ as a physical and mental phenomenon by different cultures. [1] Light for them is integral to the formation of social space and intervenes in everyday social practices by revealing or concealing aspects of the material or social life in conscious and unconscious ways. In this article, I attempt to highlight some snapshots of the ‘social action’ of the Olympic light through the study of the Olympic flame. More specifically, I attempt to reveal some moments in the ‘biography’ of the Olympic flame of 2004 and the transformations of its meanings in Greece from the moment of its lighting until its extinction at the closing ceremony. [2] The Olympic flame as part of the ‘Greek classical heritage’ is often celebrated in Greek national rhetoric and practices, claiming, and seeking to establish, a sense of ‘continuity with the ‘golden age’ of the classical past. However, the flame’s construction as ‘heritage’ does not only involve Greek state officials and intellectuals, but various social groups and other agents who may transform, appropriate and internalize the national discourse, reverse it, or re-deploy it in their everyday lives. What is more, national interpretations of ‘heritage’ exist within a much wider and complex network of international, national, local and personal interpretations which meet, interweave, clash and transform in an ever changing present. The ‘social life’ of the flame participates in the social life of different people. The flame is defined and transformed, as it circulates through different social contexts and within multiple areas of practice and discourse. By tracing its mobility, and by following the variable meanings attributed to it at different times and places, the flame can guide us in the exploration of aspects of the social relationships and the negotiations of power in which it is involved or plays a leading part. This article is based on what I experienced in Athens during the summer of 2004 by watching TV, reading the press, talking to people and participating in the public sentiment generated by the preparations for the Athens Olympics, but also on research on oral, written and visual material collected before and after that time. [3] Flame Rituals The symbolism of fire has been used as part of the national festivals that developed throughout Europe as early as the French Revolution [4] and it was also used as an element of the celebrations accompanying the first modern Olympic Games in Athens. [5] However, the idea for the torch relay and the lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame was properly established only later in Germany, under the regime and ideology of Nazism. [6] For Greece, these ceremonies acquired a new meaning as they offered the possibility for Greece to become the permanent starting point of the modern Olympic Games ceremonies and to ascribe the country a respectable position in the Olympic ritual, confirming thus the Games’ ‘Greekness’: [7] the flame is always lit in Olympia before it sets out for its journey, in a ceremony ‘reviving’ ancient 152 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE beliefs and practices, thus linking the ancient Olympic Games with modern Greece. [8] It is not a coincidence that the lighting of the 2004 Olympic flame was arranged to coincide with Greece’s Independence day as was the case for the opening of the 1896 Olympic Games, thus creating connections between ‘ancient Greek glory’ and contemporary national claims and myths. [9] Coming Under Fire Although Greece has never been colonized in the literal sense, it has experienced direct foreign interference in its political system and life since the beginning of its life as a nation-state. [10] More recently, Herzfeld has coined the term ‘cryptocolonialism’ to describe the colonial relations of power that have shaped the relationship between Greece and Western Europe. [11] Seen under this light, the rejection of past Greek attempts to host the Olympic Games was perceived by many in Greece as an ‘international humiliation’, reinforcing the profile of Greek culture as an ‘underdog culture’ [12] and as a loss of control over Greece’s ‘legitimate heritage’. [13] Over the years, bidding for the hosting of the Olympic Games became part of other Greek struggles for the restitution of Greece’s classical heritage, such as the Parthenon marbles: The International Olympic Committee’s decision to grant Greece the right to host the 2004 Olympics was considered to be of great importance to Greece, and it also strengthened efforts to have the new Acropolis museum ready to accommodate the ‘expatriated’ Parthenon marbles by the year 2004. [14] The idea was that Hellenism would thus be celebrated in its complete restitution. Therefore, the campaign of Athens 2004 had promised that these Games would be ‘Our Games’ (Figure 1), the Olympics which would ‘return to a human scale’ and would be ‘a celebration of happiness and fraternisation’. However, in 2004 Athens had to face quite a different reality than that of previous organizers of Olympic Games (Figure 2). The terrorist attacks of September 11 and the subsequent attack of March 11 in Madrid had led to international demands for unprecedented security measures, the installation of CCTV cameras and a blimp loaded with aerial surveillance equipment and referred to by the locals as ‘Big Brother’, constantly recording the whereabouts of people in Athens. This intrusion in people’s lives, coupled with the hardships of living in a city under construction, with drivers being lost in the ever-changing diversions, had caused indignation and frustration. [15] Reports in the international mass media did not help the situation. Athens’ Olympic preparations had been jokingly billed as ‘the modern Greek ruins’ – quoting from The Independent (7 August 2004). Security at Athens had been coined ‘Greek Mythology’ – in the LA Times (6 February 2001). Athens had also been described as ‘a dump’, its transport system as ‘on a par with provincial cities of Algeria’ and its democracy as ‘bogus’ – all quotes from the New York Times (The Times 28 May 2004 quoting The New York Times). International press abounded in sarcastic comments and references to the problematic condition of Greece in the face of the huge 153 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 1. Source: Action Images. Figure 2. Cartoons commenting on the presence of armed security forces in Athens. Left: The man looking like the Hollywood stereotype of secret agent says: ‘Well, these are the best and most secure Olympic Games’ and the intimidated sports-fan replies: ‘you took the words out of my mouth’ (by Ilias Makris). Right: the person with the starting gun is surrounded by armed security forces (by Andreas Petroulakis). Source: I Kathimerini 13 July 2004 and I Kathimerini 1 August 2004. enterprise of organizing the Games. [16] On various occasions, such comments and incidents were interpreted in Greece as ill-intentioned attempts to misrepresent the country, alluding to Orientalist models that presented Greeks as an inept, inefficient and lazy Mediterranean people. [17] So Athens had come into the spotlight, but not in the way the 2004 organizers had promised. On the contrary, it had become the target of international surveillance and criticism. The Olympic Games, the Greek cultural heritage which was coming ‘back home’, was coming back with a cost. [18] 154 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The Touring Flame The torch relay has always been invested with those meanings which the nation-state hosting the Games at the time wishes to put into international circulation. The choice of routes, runners and symbolic acts accompanying the torch relays is made so as to project important figures and ‘golden’ moments of its national historic importance, [19] so as to mark the geographical and metaphoric ‘topos’ of the nation and legitimize geopolitical and national interests. [20] Under the unfavourable conditions I described earlier, the Athens 2004 torch relay attempted to once more project Greece as ‘the place that gave the light of civilization to the Western world’. It would revitalize the image of Greece abroad and it would reunite the world again under Greek auspices (Figures 3 and 4). For this reason, a torch relay of epic dimensions was organized, in which the flame would tour the world passing through Africa, Latin America as well as all cities that had hosted Olympic Games in the past. ‘Greece itself travels in the airplane that transports the flame, in the biggest effort of promotion that ever took place’, were the words of Yanna Angelopoulou Daskalaki, president of the organizing committee of the 2004 Olympics (Eleftherotypia 3 June 2004). ‘We take our country’s sun on a journey around the entire world’ was the more romantic interpretation of Maria Hors (To Vima, 25 March 2004), who was at the time 83 years of age and involved for the Figure 3. Advertisement of the 2004 torch relay by the Olympic Games Organizing Committee Athens 2004. The motto says ‘Our Flame Unifies the World. The First Global Torch Relay’. 155 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 4. The title says: ‘The Flame Unifies. Message of Peace to Five Continents’. Source: Athens.04 (10) April 2004. twentieth time in the lighting ceremony in Olympia. [21] The design of the torch itself – inspired by the leaf of an olive tree, the symbol of peace and prosperity that, in Greek mythology, goddess Athena gifted the city of Athens – was also indicative of the role Greece wanted to project vis-à-vis the others: In the words of its designer Andreas Varotsos (himself born in a village near Olympia), ‘through the torch, the dialogue among peoples should be developed. The olive tree bears in it the entire Greece and sends messages of peace [to the entire world]’ (I Kathimerini 16 January 2002). The torch was seen as a material expression of Greekness which was activated once more in order to embark on its ‘civilizing’ work. [22] The Greek media reported triumphantly on the enthusiastic welcoming of the flame around the world with the Greek Diaspora playing a leading part in the relevant celebrations as well as in the diffusion of the Greek light which was transported from ‘the homeland’ to the rest of the world. According to Bille and Sørensen, the orchestration of light may be used as a means for the creation of social inclusion. [23] In this case the official discourse of the 2004 Games referred to the ‘[re]unification of the world under the light of the Olympic flame’ and used inclusive rhetoric offering to share the [ancient] Greek light with the rest of the world as defined by the torch relay. The intent seemed to be to include. However, the reliance on the boundaries of the torch relay also had an excluding side: it is well-known for example that the efforts to transfer the Olympic flame through the occupied territories of Cyprus did not materialize, because according to the then president of Cyprus Tassos Papadopoulos ‘the Turkish-Cypriots wanted to welcome the Olympic flame as if they were a separate independent country’. [24] The flame in its journey through various countries articulates and often legitimizes local political expediencies and negotiations. 156 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The orchestration of the torch relay of 2004 attempted to demonstrate the presence and dynamism of Hellenism and to expand its limits in space, but also in time, in the form of memory. The ‘symbolic capital’ of the ancient Greek past was entering once more into international circulation linking the past to the present, and reminding bystanders ‘who the legitimate inheritors of the Olympic idea’ are, and what ‘the debt’ of the Western world is. [25] A comment under the title ‘the flame of continuity in children’s hands’ in the newspaper I Kathimerini 9 November 2003 is revealing in that respect. The comment concerns a child’s drawing of a young torch bearer which became the cover of a diary published by the Friends of the Melina Merkouri Foundation and the Ministry of Culture: What could be more appropriate for the young generation, the standard bearers for keeping up the memory of everything that Greece has offered to humankind, than this little torch bearer who with a quick step heads to light the torch with the Olympic flame in the altar of Athens 2004, the continuity of the Olympic Games in their birthplace. The Olympic flame here becomes a conveyor of memory which certifies not only the long Greek presence and ‘continuity’, but also reminds people of its contribution to the history of the (western European) world. [26] In the first modern Olympic Games, in Athens in 1896, the term ‘revival’ was coined implying that it was an institution that had risen from its ashes in the same land that was once inhabited by ancient Greeks. [27] In 2004, the recurring term ‘homecoming’ also sought to establish a sense of duration linking ancient and modern lands and peoples and legitimizing the ‘Greekness’ of the Games (Figure 5). Exchanging Gunfire The course of the 2004 flame may have aspired to unify the world under the auspices of Greece, as the relevant advertising motto suggested, but the flame divided, rather than united, the Greek public opinion: [28] the Greek print media were full of metaphors representing the Olympic flame as ‘burning a hole in the housewife’s shopping basket’ (Rizospastis 31 July 2004) (Figure 6), ‘as Greece catching fire once the Olympic flame goes out’ (Ta Nea 28–29 August 2004), or the Olympic Games burdening a country unprepared to technologically and financially afford such an enterprise (Figure 7). Apart from those who looked forward to the ambitious enterprise of bringing the Olympics ‘back home’, there were many of those who condemned it as a nationalist undertaking from which very few would profit. [29] Public contestation and protest against the Athens 2004 Olympics was quite well organized and revolved around several issues: [30] the downgrading of the natural and architectural environment, the policies and politics of security, the policing and violation of citizens’ rights, the connection of the Olympics to the interests of multinational corporations, the labour accidents during the construction of Olympic infrastructure, the indoctrination of the youths with the ideals of Olympism and 157 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 5. Source: Geka, P. (ed.) Olympiakes Maties [Olympic Glimpses] Athens: Ellinika Grammata. voluntarism and the connection of sport with doping. [31] The movement of the socalled ‘non-voluntarism’ in particular publicized its views and declared, among others, that ‘it cannot see why Greece should spend ‘‘four times the annual budget for secondary education for 20 days of security for the Games’’’. [32] At the same time, the prospect of Greece hosting the Olympics also raised the moral dilemma of whether Greece, as ‘the legitimate successor’ of the ancient Olympic Games, wrongly accepted on its soil the modern Games which had become a demonstration and reenforcement of commercial and political prowess (Figure 8). [33] Graffiti on a bridge opposite Nerantziotissa subway station in Athens paraphrased the official celebratory motto ‘the Olympic Games are returning to their birthplace’ into ‘let the Olympics die in the place where they were born’. [34] Despite earlier doubts, criticisms and moral dilemmas, the organization of the Games and the torch relay went ahead in Greece with the support of giant international and Greek corporations (Figure 9), while Athens 2004 invited people ‘to emulate the Olympic spirit by buying authentic Greek products’ (Figure 10). Torch bearers with whom I talked were quite critical of the commodification of the Olympic flame as they personally experienced it in 2004 when ‘the cameras were all over the athlete not allowing him to breathe’ or when they had to pay to keep the torch they held, something that had never happened in past Olympic Games, a fact that demonstrated to them that ‘the torch relay, is after all, a well-oiled business’. A torch 158 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 6. The man says ‘O Apollo, the vegetables are burning a hole in my pocket!’ The arrow points towards the Easter Market (by Diogenis Kamenos). Source: Eleftherotypia 1 April 2004. Figure 7. On the left, we see the official logo of the Athens torch relay. On the right, the torch relay going around the globe weighs on a person in a traditional Greek dress. The text says: ‘The logo of the torch relay / . . . the hole of it’ (by Ilias Makris). Source: I Kathimerini 12 August 2004. 159 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 8. Cartoons by Diogenis Kamenos and Ilias Makris. Source: Eleftherotypia 4 June 2004 and I Kathimerini 6 June 2004. bearer, who was an employee of the International Olympic Committee in Athens, described a segment of the flame’s journey during which ‘two cars representing CocaCola and Samsung respectively preceded the torch bearers throwing pins, flags as well as Coca-Cola and Samsung t-shirts’. ‘I didn’t like that at all’ he said. ‘I felt out of it. Because money dominates everything – it is horrible. Even though we used to accuse the Americans [of commodifying the Games], especially during the Olympics of Los Angeles and of Atlanta, why ‘did we then forget about all that [and did the same]’? [35] In fact some of the torch bearers became the object of the same critique they themselves exercised: ‘In some towns’ says a torchbearer coming from a village near Olympia, people booed us because they believed that the torch relay and we ourselves were living high on the backs of the common people: When we reached Agrinio, for example, and as Mercedes was our sponsor they commented ‘everything is Mercedes, you will be living well. In Olympia, a village, which in the words of a tour guide, was constructed for the sake of tourism, the paradox of commercializing the same Olympic heritage and imagery that people want to protect is particularly poignant. Many inhabitants who consider themselves as guardians of the Olympic spirit and are especially critical towards the commodification of Olympism, do not hesitate to exhibit their torches as well as photos documenting their participation to former torch relays in their hotels or tourist shops in order to attract tourists. For example, Pavlos, [36] who was also a torch bearer in the Montreal Olympics of 1976 explains: To tell a Canadian that I was the kid who transferred the flame for Montreal, your city, is something good and they like it. This for me is something positive, when you remind those who came from so far away what you did for them. 160 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 9. Source: From the Official Programme of the Closing Ceremony of the XXVIII Olympiad. We realize that the reminder of ‘the debt’ that the Western world has to the country that gave birth to the Olympics acquires a more personal colour here, as it is translated into the Canadian tourists’ ‘debt’ to Pavlos. Classical antiquity, which in this case is represented by the Olympic flame, is considered as ‘inalienable wealth’ which needs to remain separate from any financial transactions. [37] ‘The symbolic capital’ of classical antiquity may be exchanged for economic capital. However, the exchange remains under cover or ‘euphemised’. ‘Classical heritage is not for sale’. [38] As Pavlos says, 161 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 10. Source: The front page of an advertising publication of the Organizing Committee Athens 2004. I am in agreement with development, I am a businessman, ok, the world goes on, but we cannot trade even the idea of Olympism. Yes, we do need the money, but everything should remain discreet. The discourse surrounding the commercialization of the flame falls into a wider context of negotiation between international, national and local institutions. As an employee of the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, observes: ‘most people in Olympia believe that the flame belongs to them’. If, for Athens 2004, the flame of Greece unites the world, for them it is Olympia’s light which unites the people as a local newspaper declares (Figure 11). But although the municipality of Olympia defines itself as the guardian of the ancient Olympic heritage, it has not managed to secure a more active participation in the Olympic activities, including the lighting ceremony. [39] On the contrary, the ceremony is organized by the Greek Olympic Committee, while the flame is legally under the authority of the International Olympic Committee. In 1984, on the occasion of the Greek mobilization against the commodification of the Olympic Games by the organizers of the Los Angeles Olympics, the municipality of Olympia took the initiative to vigorously intervene and denounce the commercialization of the flame. As a consequence, the lighting ceremony had to be performed in haste, with no audience and under significant police surveillance in order to avoid problems. [40] The villagers have not forgotten that event: 162 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 11. Source: Proini tis Defteras 1 April 1996. When you are born in this place, says Pavlos, you love this event and you do not allow anyone to cheapen it. The worst thing that could have happened, did happen. They took the flame by helicopter from inside the stadium. The flame, however, does not only constitute a means for the projection of local identities, but it also becomes the object of contestation between them. The history of the torch relay itself is linked with an antagonistic disposition between various villages in the area. As a man from Olympia in his 50s today remembers: At those times they took kids from the secondary school, mainly from Olympia, to run [for the torch relay]. Then the other villages near Pyrgos saw that and said why should an Olympian run through our village and not us? And this is how local torchbearers began running also through Pelopio, Platanos and the other villages and the Gymnastics Committee of the prefecture became responsible for the selection of the torch bearers. The ‘Sacred’ Flame The commodification of the flame and of the torch relay is often discussed in contrast to the ‘sacredness’ and ‘the respect’ they deserve. Although there are people who consider the lighting ceremony ‘ludicrous’, [41] several informants who had been present at the lighting ceremony report on the ‘sacredness of the moment’, ‘the awe’ they felt, ‘the other dimension’ in which they found themselves when the priestesses called upon Apollo’s assistance under the sound of Maria Hors’ drum. In this way they reproduce the official discourse about the ‘sacredness’ of the flame. [42] But this sacredness is conceived in different ways: [43] For Irene, for example, the lighting ritual 163 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE made the landscape ‘vibrate with soul’ and made her shiver when she saw the glow of the flame. She then sensed a supernatural power which she linked with the invisible presence of ancestors who ‘were as if they were looking at us but without being seen’. [44] On the other hand, a hotel owner in Olympia, referring to the lighting ceremony, declared: Maybe because I am local I have always been moved by this ritual, knowing that my village will be made known internationally. When the lighting ceremony happens in the ancient site where we have grown, one feels awe. Another local inhabitant, an owner of a tourist shop, explained that by experiencing all this procedure which is not a matter of one day – the priestesses, the actresses are coming here two weeks in advance to rehearse – one feels an emotion, how to explain this, a sense of pride or happiness, because [the flame] originates from here. If for some Olympians ‘the sacredness’ of the moment of the lighting is connected to the meaning the flame has for their hometown, for others it is linked to its national role. For an employee of the International Olympic Committee, who comes from a different village of the Peloponnese the emotion accompanying ‘the sacred moment’ of the lighting is due to the fact that ‘a small state, a small country like Greece, is organizing such [great] things, such [great] games’. The discourse revolving around ‘sacredness’ seems often pervaded by a Christian ethic which manifests itself on various occasions: [45] the afternoon before Easter night in 2004, in expectation of the Holy Light from Jerusalem, a journalist reported from the airport: ‘At this very moment the Holy Flame, excuse me I meant the Holy Light, is arriving’. [46] Apart from the journalist who by a slip of the tongue seemed to confuse the Holy Light with the Olympic flame, there were other cases of similar confusion. [47] For example, a photograph from the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics which appeared in the first page of an Athenian newspaper was accompanied by the phrase ‘come receive Light’. This phrase which comes from the Resurrection liturgy in this context refers to the Olympic flame. The same phrase accompanies also a photograph from the welcoming ceremony of the flame at the Olympic stadium which appears in the official journal of the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Figure 12). This recurring confusion between flame and Holy Light became the object of criticism from certain quarters. For example, a teacher from Kyparissia, a town in the vicinity of Olympia describes the welcoming ceremony of the flame as follows: ‘The priestess was followed by a representative of the municipality who praised ‘‘the one God who created this world. An ecclesiastical choir followed, who sang Hail Gladdening Light’’’. Later songs by Odysseas Elytis were heard as well as music by Mikis Thodorakis and finally, the performance ended with traditional dances by traditionally dressed men and women. It was a cocktail that was hard to digest. In what capacity are 164 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 12. Source: To Ethnos tis Kyriakis 15 August 2004 and Athens .04, 10 (2004): 6–7. we welcoming the flame? As lovers of antiquity? As Orthodox Christians? As the bearers of tradition (which one of all?)? As admirers of modern Greek poetry and composition? As irrelevant, uneducated, uninformed and indifferent individuals who just went there because everyone else did?’ The confusion between the Olympic flame and the Holy Light may have been based more deeply in the history of the Greek nation-state, which has always projected classical antiquity and Byzantine orthodoxy as the main pillars of Greek identity. The ‘sacredness’ of antiquity is internalized through the sacredness of Orthodoxy and they both fuse through a series of associations. The ideological context which connects the Parthenon with St Sophia as the two pillars of Greek national identity also allows the connection between the flame and the Holy Light. [48] At the same time, it similarly shapes expressions of national euphoria, like for example, in the case of Greek university students who, when the Olympic flame arrived in Paris, started making the sign of the cross in its wake and cheering for Greece, maybe also because the Euro 2004 football game between France and Greece was to take place the same night (Eleftherotypia 26 June 2004). [49] The Flame on the Firing Line The discourse surrounding the flame’s ‘sacredness’ requires that the flame stays ‘unharmed’ from any ‘polluting’ elements. This, however, has not always proved to be possible. An event that was seen as threatening ‘to pollute the sacredness’ of the flame was the involvement of two otherwise extremely popular Greek athletes in a doping scandal, the news about which broke out on the eve of the 2004 Olympic opening ceremony: before then, the Sydney Olympic 200-metre champion Konstantinos Kenteris, and the Sydney 100-metre silver medallist Katerina Thanou had both achieved heroic status in Greece, and a ship, a tramway, an airplane and an athletic centre had been named after Kenteris. [50] 165 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE On the 12th of August 2004 WADA, the Medical Committee of the International Committee against Doping, was looking for the two Greek athletes to subject them to random doping spot checks. After several excuses, which presented the two athletes as being away from Greece and therefore unavailable for the doping tests, the International Olympic Committee invited the two athletes to defend themselves. They, however, alleged that they were involved in an accident on their way to the appointment with the International Olympic Committee, and got transferred to a hospital in Athens. The news of the two athletes having dodged the doping tests, and the means they used to try and escape the scandal, caused a tremendous stir in the Greek public which was already full of scepticism towards the Olympics, but also full of anticipation that Kenteris and Thanou would almost certainly add to the Greek total count of medals. The front pages of the Athenian newspapers of 13 August demonstrated the shock to the public opinion: ‘Kosta – Katerina, tell us the truth’ one newspaper demanded; ‘Shock with Kenteris – Thanou’ another one announced‘Hours of Anguish for Kenteris – Thanou’; ‘Anger and Anguish in the Maximou [the Greek President’s] Premises’. It has been argued that international sports constitute ‘the most important form of metaphoric war between nations. [51] The parallels between sport and war can also be evoked by the custom of the Greek state to promote the Greek Olympic winners to the rank of honorary lieutenants and officers. Kenteris and Thanou, as happens with all Greek Olympic winners, had been appointed to the Greek army, thus ensuring a well-endowed public service job: the salary and all the rights of permanent military staff. Greek newspapers did not fail to mention the immense privileges of champions and the material incentives involved in the winning of an Olympic medal. [52] ‘Greek tax payers pay dearly for all the medals the Greek Olympic athletes win’. [53] They receive the highest lump sum bonus from the state budget, and state companies become their big sponsors. If the promise of Athens 2004, namely that the Athens’ Olympics would return to a human scale and become conveyors of ‘the pure and true’ Olympic spirit, was broken before, this time the blow was coming from the highly honoured ‘officers’ who had betrayed the country and had exposed the Greek ‘dirty laundry’ to the world. [54] As a matter of fact, Katerina Thanou had been the athlete chosen to light up the flame in the altar of the Panathenaic Stadium in the ceremony celebrating the beginning of the flame’s travel around the world. Kenteris, on the other hand, had been chosen to light up the altar in the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games. Their involvement in the doping scandal was thus perceived as casting a shadow over the Olympic ritual and in particular the flame. Greek newspapers played around with the metaphor of the brightness of the flame, which was juxtaposed to ‘the dark aspect of sport, the doping’. [55] For some, despite its glow, the flame had been unable to conceal the [. . .] ‘dark scenarios’ [regarding the Kenteris-Thanou issue]’, [56] while for others, ‘the flame threw light to the corruption of doping’ (Ta Nea 14 August 2004). 166 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE In an article criticizing the glorification and the fall of idols in Greece, Nikos Tzianidis of the newspaper Ta Nea (14 August 2004) hit the nail on its head by saying that ‘Kostas Kenteris, instead of lighting the altar of our high-mindedness in the packed stadium, extinguished the flame of an entire people who was warming up its vocal chords for yells of enthusiasm’. Non-Greek newspapers also played around with the same metaphor: In an article entitled ‘Athens flame dimmed as drugs spread a shadow’, James Lawton of The Independent (13 August 2004) commented that ‘the Olympic flame which will be lit tonight burns not for the glory of sport but merely to illuminate the running sore of drug corruption’. Yet as much as Kenteris’ and Thanou’s deed was perceived as having ‘extinguished the Greek flame’, the opening ceremony of Dimitris Papaioannou was re-igniting it. Although there were voices criticizing both the opening and the closing ceremonies, in terms of aesthetics or, because they allegedly reproduced old time ideological patterns of the nation’s continuity through centuries, the official selfrepresentation through a high-tech performance of the national Greek ideals had managed once again to push aside, albeit temporarily, the source of external embarrassment. The newspapers’ front pages one day after the opening ceremony were celebrating: ‘The Dream erases the nightmare of Kenteris-Thanou’ (Ta Nea 14–15 August 2004); [57] ‘Greece appears with a new face before the world’ (I Kathimerini 15 August 2004); ‘First golden medal to Greece. The opening ceremony achieved a great international victory’ (To Vima 15 August 2004); ‘International recognition’ (Express, 15 August 2004). Two different Greeces were juxtaposed to each other: ‘the first of Dimitris Papaioannou and of the magical premiere. The second one of doping’. [58] In a relevant cartoon, Papaioannou is presented as a torch bearer, but the Olympic torch appears here with Olympic rings having replaced the flame (Figure 13) (Ethnos tis Kyriakis 15 August 2004). The comment accompanying the cartoon reads: ‘He showed the pure heart of Greece’. Through a play of tropes insinuating an identification between the flame, the Olympic spirit and the heart of Greece, Papaioannou is presented here as the real conveyor of the ‘true’ Greek Olympic spirit, which he allegedly managed to express in its ‘real’ form, free of any polluting and distorting elements, through his work. The ‘Active’ Flame In ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Western European philosophical thought ‘the light’ is used as a metaphor for ‘truth’, ‘revelation’, ‘wisdom’. [59] This wisdom leads to associations allowing the employment of the Olympic light in negotiations of identity based on essentialist approaches to the nation-state, searching for a unique and fixed ‘essence’ which remains unchangeable throughout centuries. ‘The uniqueness’ of the flame remains a recurring theme in the press as well as in my informants’ words. It is not a coincidence that all references to the flame are made in the singular resulting in everyone believing that the flame is one, despite the fact that for 167 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Figure 13. Source: Ethnos tis Kyriakis 15 August 2004. security reasons eight reserve flames are kept (Epsilon 11 July 2004) throughout the torch relay. For example, in his response to a related question of mine, an employee of the Committee of the Olympic Games in Olympia was categorical: The flame is one. When we light it up we keep three or four reserve lamps, just in case an accident happens and the flame goes off. [What happens then]– won’t we have any flame? [60] However, the flame is one. This is the reason why a former torch bearer coming from a village near Olympia believes that ‘once the flame is lit by the light of the sun in Olympia, it should not be lit again’, while another one refuses not only to light again the torch he held in order to show his friends how this works, but also to clean it up after using it at the torch relay. 168 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE The flame can be perceived through the senses although one cannot hold it in one’s hand. It is materially manifested although it also has an abstract dimension. However, the boundary between ‘the material’ and ‘the immaterial’ is fluid, [61] a fact that is manifested also in the way the flame transforms the tangible to the transcendental, the ‘metaphorical to the metaphysical’. [62] In this context, the flame seems to work in a way similar to that described by Alfred Gell in his analysis of perfume: Like perfume, the light ‘escapes’ from the ‘enclosing form’ of the object, ‘but without leaving the realm of the sensible altogether’. [63] ‘Because it is halfway between thing and idea’ it almost partakes in the nature of transcendence, while still remaining part of the world’. [64] This allows the Olympic flame’s transformation and its adaptability to different needs and situations, while at the same time it implies that there is a ‘deeper essence’ which never dies but is dormant and revives every four years to mark, as Gellner would say, the (hosting) ‘nation’s return to the sphere of politics’. [65] This ‘deeper spirit’ of the flame often attributes to it characteristics of an individual, a personality, a (female) gender and a soul. As a consequence, the flame acquires a life of its own. In quotations from the Greek press, the flame appears to ‘travel together with her sisters [the reserve torches] safely in the back seats of the airplane’ (Epsilon 11 July 2004). The flame also appears, ‘as a baby, which needs feeding and care’ (Epsilon 11 July 2004). ‘It spends the night in different places and visits different people’ (Eleftherotypia 16 July 2004), ‘it is being loved’ or people speak about it ‘as if it were a dear person’ (Eleftherotypia 9 July 2004), while ‘for the first time it takes out a return ticket to come back to Athens before the opening of the 2004 Olympics’ (Eleftherotypia 3 June 2004). These representations of the flame as a person may remind us of Alfred Gell’s argument that artworks and material objects in general can be ‘agents’. [66] Gell, in an attempt to overcome the distinction between subject and object which, since the Enlightenment, have been considered as two opposing categories, projects the active role that material culture plays in the social lives of people. [67] For him, objects are not autonomous or free-willed beings like people, but they are ‘agents’ in the sense that people often treat them that way and because they have an effect on them, creating feelings, etc. in them. At the same time objects can be seen as extensions of their owners’ agency: people act by channelling aspects of their personality through things. [68] By producing, exchanging and using objects of the material world, people construct and define their identities and their roles in specific contexts. [69] Viewed in this light, the flame seems indeed to acquire flesh and blood and participate in people’s lives. It is often thought to convey the ‘immortal spirit’ of the Games, which allegedly manifests itself in athletes’ achievements and in celebrations, such as the Athens 2004 opening ceremony. There, the parade of Cycladic, Classical, Byzantine and modern Greek works of art as representations of great moments in the Greek history created the illusion of lapse of time that linked ancient Hellas to modern Greece. [70] But as I have demonstrated elsewhere, ‘the spirit’ of the Games, 169 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE does not mean the same thing to all those who allude to it; it changes forms as it is defined by different ideologies both within and outside Greece. [71] In the context of the 2004 Olympic Games, it acquired several unforeseen meanings for people who became attached to it in variable ways. For example, daily reports from the torch relay around the world covered by the newspaper Eleftherotypia presented individual torch bearers who explained the importance the flame held in their lives: for a railway employee from Seoul who ran for the torch relay on an artificial leg ‘this torch is the leg I lost’ (Eleftherotypia 8 June 2004). Victims of terrorist attacks claimed that ‘this flame gave us strength to carry on with our lives’ (Eleftherotypia 7 June 2004); A Bulgarian businessman ran in the memory of his daughter and left the torch instead of a candle on his daughter’s grave after the run (Eleftherotypia 8 July 2004). At the same time, the flame acquired a more autonomous ‘agency’: the characteristics of ‘a great protagonist’, ‘a head of state’ and ‘a world traveller’ were attributed to it, as well as that of ‘a person’ who has feelings and participates in Olympic affairs. At the same time it caused tears, excitement, pride or indignation when things went wrong. It also appeared to have an opinion on the Olympic and other happenings in Athens and the world and to send messages to those who are able to listen. In an article of I Kathimerini of 5 June 2004 we read: The flame misbehaved and the torch needed a second lighting from the priestess. It misbehaved and it died out for a moment in the ceremony at the Kallimarmaro stadium. It also misbehaved in the ceremony before setting out for her travel around the globe. So could it be that the flame is trying to tell us something with her stubbornness? Maybe it chooses to die out in such significant moments, to indicate that her glamour is not as great as we want to believe, neither her endurance, and as a consequence we should think a little bit more than the celebratory pomposity allows us. The misbehaviour of the flame according to the writer should urge us to listen to what it has to say regarding its excessive use and the complaint it has to express. ‘Fire is going to fall down and burn us up’ jested a critical observer of the commercialized 2004 torch relay which was broadcast on TV. Indeed, the flame may appear as an element of inspiration and creativity, but at the same time its destructive and levelling power is acknowledged (Figure 14) (K 4 July 2004). The ‘creative fire’ can easily be transformed to ‘destructive fire’, [72] as ironically happened in the summer of 2004 when the celebratory fireworks in Yanna Angelopoulou’s private reception for the IOC members caused a fire, or when the 2007 wildfires almost destroyed the site of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic flame. The attraction of the flame is derived to a large extent from its ability to raise a dialectics of contradictory meanings and concepts. [73] This allows it to become a point of reference in often contradictory situations and to serve as an ideological umbrella accommodating opposing discourses and claims. The flame as a firework which serves the selfaggrandizement of certain individuals or groups, as rounds of gunfire which are exchanged between opposing forces and ideologies, as a destructive fire or as an 170 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE ever-lasting fire which does not go out but is rekindled every four years; It is transformed and adapted, it alternates between the tangible and the transcendental, the ephemeral and the eternal. Ten-year-old Fotini (Figure 15) blew out the Olympic flame and dropped the curtain of the 2004 Olympics. But the lantern in the shape of a grain which she held in her hands insinuated that the light resides inside it, a light which – as opposed to the ephemeral flame – has a monumental character, fusing national and personal memories and radiating international values and ideals as well as national claims, personal histories, fantasies and expectations. Figure 14. Cartoon by Ilias Makris. Source: K Kathimerini 4 July 2004. Figure 15. Source: K Kathimerini 5 September 2004. 171 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Acknowledgements Some of the information for this research was collected with the help of Vassiliki Tzachrista, whom I thank warmly. I also thank Frank Hess, Charles Stewart, and the editors of this volume for their help, and Cleo Gougouli for her comments on an earlier draft of this article. Notes [1] Bille and Sørensen, ‘An Anthropology of Luminosity’. [2] Kopytoff, ‘The Cultural Biography of Things’. [3] This article elaborates on an earlier and shorter version of this paper in Greek (Yalouri, ‘I Floga, to Fos, ta Pyra kai ta Pyrotehnimata’). [4] Borgers, Olympic Torch Relays, 16. [5] The 1896 Olympic Games in Athens included floodlights during the opening and closing ceremonies as well as a torch-bearing parade. In the 1906 intermediary Olympic Games in Athens the illuminations were repeated while thousands of soldiers bearing flame torches ran through the city centre. The Olympic flame was lit up inside the Olympic stadium of Amsterdam in 1928 as well as in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. In other words, the official establishment of the torch relay by the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games was the result of a process that had originated many years earlier (Tzachrista, ‘The Olympic Torch Run’, 106–107). [6] As George Mosse (The Nationalization of the Masses) has shown, the flame has been one of the most important symbols of German nationalism as early as the beginning of the 19th century. It ‘symbolized light over darkness, the sun as against the night.’ It reflected the mystical forces of the life-bringing sun which gave men strength and vitality. To the Nazis it meant ‘purification’, symbolized brotherly community and served to remind party members of the ‘eternal life process’ (Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses). This extensive use of the flame in rituals organised by the Nazi regime caused several discussions in Greece on the occasion of the 2004 Olympics. These revolved around the silencing of the Nazi origins of the torch relay as the product of a totalitarian ideology so as to avoid any staining of its present meaning (Koulouri, ‘I Alitheia tis Olympiakis Flogas’; see also Eleftherotypia 21 March 2004). [7] The response of the Hellenic Olympic Committee to the initiative of the organizing committee of the Berlin Games was enthusiastic: ‘. . . Greece is summoned after two and a half thousand years, to give the light of its superior civilization to the whole world. . . . Greece created the Olympic Games in antiquity. In Greece the modern Olympic Games were held. In this way, Greece proves that it continues to believe in the ideals of the Olympic spirit. . . . Greeks, help us to convey the Olympic light’ (Tzachrista, ‘The Olympic Torch Run’, 108). [8] Koulouri ‘I Alitheia tis Olympiakis Flogas’. [9] Yalouri ‘When the New World meets the Ancient’. [10] Yalouri The Acropolis, 82; cf. Tziovas ‘I Dytiki Fantasiosi tou Ellinismou kai i Anazitisi gia to Yper-ethniko’. [11] Herzfeld, ‘The Absent Presence’. Herzfeld writes: ‘Although the German philologists and art historians who generated the neoclassical model of Greek (and more generally European) culture were not themselves military colonizers, they were doing the ideological work of the project of European world hegemony. While much recent literature has been devoted to the analysis of that project in the form of colonialism, I want here to initiate discussion of a rather specific variety – or perhaps it is an offshoot – of that phenomenon. I shall call it cryptocolonialism and define it as the curious alchemy whereby certain countries, buffer zones 172 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] between colonized lands and those as yet untamed, were compelled to acquire their political independence at the expense of massive economic dependence, this relationship being articulated in the iconic guise of aggressively national culture fashioned to suit foreign models. Such countries were and are living paradoxes: they are nominally independent, but that independence comes at the price of a sometimes humiliating form of effective dependence’ (Herzfeld, Ibid., 900–901). Diamantouros, ‘Greek Political Culture in Transition’. Yalouri, The Acropolis, 86; Yalouri, ‘Between the Local and the Global’. See also Yalouri, ‘National Experiences of International Sports’. This is not the only time when the consideration of both the Olympic Games and the Parthenon marbles as part of the same ‘Greek legitimate heritage’ has led to the mobilization of one to assist cases of contestation of the other. For example, in 2008, Voula Patoulidou the 1992 Olympic sprint gold medalist, suggested that Greece should consent to deliver the Olympic flame for the 2012 London Olympics, only in exchange to the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece (Syrigos, ‘Anyparxia Politikis’). Yalouri, ‘National Experiences of International Sports’. Some revealing titles of articles that appeared in the press during the preparation of the Olympic Games at Athens were: ‘Greek tragedy or farce? Athens is still a city of ruins, but now some ruins are new’, Times 13 April 2004; ‘Athens prays for Zorba to rescue its ‘shambolic’ Olympic Games’, The Guardian 13 July 2003. See Zepou, Athens Through Hoops. There are also similar examples coming from Australia: the newspaper Age noted ironically that ‘the torch relay is as an ambitious undertaking as the roof, with which the Greeks managed to cover half of their Stadium’ (Michailidis ‘I Diki mou Patrida . . .’). In a similar way during a radio program two broadcasters were discussing their family problems and when one of them said that he cannot stand his mother in law, the other suggested to send her to Athens, where if she is not eliminated by a terrorist, she will be eliminated by the hardships of this unbearable city’ (ibid). Finally the Australian government after an explosion outside a police station in Athens, instructed the Australian citizens to avoid visiting Greece during the Games (ibid). cf. Tzanelli, ‘Giving Gifts’. Yalouri, ‘National Experiences of International Sports’. Borgers, Olympic Torch Relays, 30–32. Leontis, Topographies of Hellenism. I thank Marika Rombou Levidi for this information. To have participated twenty times at her age is possible as the flame for the winter Olympics is also lit in Olympia. Varotsos’ declared wish to convey through his torch ‘all cultural values that define Greece, like e.g. harmony through a contemporary approach’ (Diners Club, vol. 83 (2003)), did not satisfy some of his critics who argued that his industrial design ‘does not allude to any sense of Greekness, nor to the aesthetics of our very rich tradition’ (I Kathimerini 16 January 2002). Bille and Sørensen, ‘An Anthropology of Luminosity’, 263. As an example, they note that in Denmark when a host wants to create a warm atmosphere (‘hygge’) in a social gathering he/ she makes sure all guests are included within the boundaries defined by the flickering and subdued lighting’ (p. 276). Michailidis, ‘I Diki mou Patrida’. Hamilakis and Yalouri, ‘Antiquities as Symbolic Capital in Modern Greece’; cf. Skopetea, To Protypo Vasileio kai i Megali Idea, 211; see also Yalouri, The Acropolis, 103–5; Yalouri ‘National Experiences of International Sports’; Tzanelli ‘Giving Gifts (and Then Taking Them Back)’. Also characteristic is the description in Eleftherotypia (21/6/04) of the staging of the event in New York’s Times Square: ‘For two entire hours, Greece and the Olympic Games occupied the busiest place of the planet, right next to the seat of the biggest TV networks, which through their gigantic screens unceasingly transmitted messages about the Olympic Games as well as fantastic 173 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] moments of the torch relay. It could not get any better. A communicative counter-attack that those in charge of Athens 2004 could not have imagined even in their wildest dreams’. See Yalouri, ‘When the New World Meets the Ancient’. Boukalas ‘I Floga mas Enonei ton Kosmo’. Yalouri ‘National Experiences of International Sports’. An intense and recurring question among Greeks, accompanying the more general international questioning of Greece’s ability to organize ‘safe’ and ‘successful’ Games during that period in Athens was ‘Will we make it on time?’ Politi, O Athlitismos os Politiko Zitima. Politi, O Athlitismos os Politiko Zitima, 93. Boukalas ‘I Floga mas Enonei ton Kosmo’. Yalouri, ‘National Experiences of International Sports’; Yalouri, The Acropolis, 114–23. Zepou, Athens Through the Hoops. The Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 left its mark on the history of Olympism as the Games with the most pronounced commodification. That year Greek journalists and other public figures lamented the ‘degradation’ of the Olympic spirit (Yalouri, The Acropolis, 114–117). The names of my informants have been altered in order to maintain their anonymity. Weiner, ‘Inalienable Wealth’, Inalienable Possessions, ‘Cultural Difference and the Density of Objects’; Yalouri, The Acropolis, 101–35; Yalouri, ‘Between the Local and the Global’. Bourdieu Outline of a Theory of Practice, 191; Hamilakis and Yalouri, ‘Antiquities as Symbolic Capital in Modern Greece’; Yalouri, The Acropolis, 101–7. Tzachrista, The small Olympic Village, 182. Ibid, 182. see for example Karkayannis, ‘I Skini tou Topiou’. For example, on a different occasion, the ceremony organized for the arrival of the 2004 Olympic flame in Athens and the commencement of the torch relay around the world, the president of Athens 2004 underlined ‘the sacred, symbolic moment’ of the arrival of the flame in the city of Athens, through which ‘Greece connects the past with the present and the future of the Olympic Games and provides the reference point of the unique Olympic event we are preparing’ (To Vima 1/4/04). cf. Yalouri, The Acropolis, 137–86. This is reminiscent of Howard Morphy’s analysis of Yolngu art in Northern Africa (Morphy, ‘From Dull to Brilliant’). The ‘brilliance’ deriving from the application of a certain technique in their paintings is considered as spiritual power which together with ritual performances create a sense of an Ancestral presence. It is interesting in this context that as early as the first official establishment of the torch relay in 1936, the Hellenic Olympic Committee following an order by the International Olympic Committee asked for the blessing of the Church. Despite the relay’s ‘pagan references’, both the Metropolite of Elis as well as the archbishop of Athens were present at the Olympic ceremony (Tzachrista, ‘The Olympic Torch Run’, 111). Boukalas, ‘I Olympiaki Floga kai to Agion Fos’. Ibid. Anderson (Imagined Communities) has noted that both religion and nationalism should be perceived as cultural systems, with the second following and drawing from the first. Anderson elaborates his view by arguing that the dawn of nationalist ideology in 18th century Europe coincided with the dusk of religious systems of thought. According to him, the new collective identity, the imagined community of the nation, absorbed and incorporated several religious concepts as well as ritual practices (see also Hamilakis and Yalouri ‘Sacralising the Past’; Yalouri, The Acropolis, 140–1, Yalouri, ‘When the New World meets the Ancient’). See also Mosse (The Nationalization of the Masses, 40–42) for a discussion of the ways in which the 174 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] Christian use of the sacred flame was accommodated in German national rites as part of the creation of a secular religion. For a more analytical discussion of the victory of the Greek national football team in the UEFA Euro 2004 championship amidst the preparations for the Olympics, see Yalouri, ‘National Experiences of International Sports’. Another more recent discussion revolving around the ‘pollution’ of the flame is the following: On 24 March 2008, during the lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia for the Beijing Olympics three French protesters from the group ‘Reporters Without Borders’ broke into the venue while Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organising Committee and Beijing Communist Party Secretary, spoke. They tried to display a black banner showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs. China state TV cut away to a pre-recorded scene, preventing Chinese viewers from seeing the protest (Associated Press 24/3/2008). In Greece, the cameras also avoided showing scenes with French activists’ pro-Tibet protests, and promptly got criticized in various Greek newspaper articles, noting sarcastically that the incident was not allowed ‘to pollute’ the lighting ceremony and the official show of the Olympic ideals. The Reporters Without Borders, in a statement issued after the event, adopted the official discourse representing the Olympic flame as ‘sacred’. For them, of course, it wasn’t their interruption of the ceremonies that polluted the flame, but the Chinese official, whose presence in the ceremony allowed China to derive legitimacy from and exercise influence over the symbol of the flame: ‘If the Olympic flame is sacred, human rights are even more so. We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic situation of human rights in the country’ (ibid). The Olympic flame thus becomes a universal idiom which is adopted and interpreted locally in different, if not contradictory, ways. As noted in an article of I Kathimerini. ‘The protests do not pollute the torch relay, but they are attributing to it a meaning that is more important than that attributed to it by its simple touring around the world [. . .] The passion with which the organisers and the state authorities are trying to protect the flame, and the vigour with which the protesters are trying to reach it and to disturb its route, show that the symbol has become universal and that it is alive. The flame escaped the poor play-acting of the authorities’ embrace, and it sparks off as an unforeseen fire towards all directions’ (Konstantaras, ‘I Floga Xefyge’). In the context of the contestation over the ownership and ‘the right use’ of the Olympic flame, it is worth noting that in addition to the protesters at the site, there were some Tibetan protesters in the village of Olympia who demonstrated against China’s relationship with Tibet as the first torch-bearer ran through the village. Many in the Greek crowd verbally abused these protestors, apparently because in their minds the flame articulates the ideals of ‘Greek civilization’ and any unscheduled disruption to the flame’s journey was considered offensive to Greece and by extension to them personally (Papakonstantinou, personal communication). Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism, 111. For example To Vima, 29 August 2004. See also Kanellis, Ethnohooliganism, 88. Kanellis, Ethnohooliganism, 88–9. See Herzfeld, Cultural Intimacy for a discussion of the concepts of display and concealment which, as he argues, are ‘a key to the front and back door of Greek culture’ (40). ‘The fall of the idols’, however, was not unanimously accepted. After the first shock following the news of Kenteris’ and Thanou’s involvement in the doping scandal there was an effort by some to transfer part – if not the whole – of the blame from the Greek athletes to the politics and inequality of power in sport, which allegedly allowed the persecution of doped Greek athletes, but not of athletes representing superpowers like the US who it was believed somehow got away with doping. During the athelets’ presentation at the 200 metres final, where Kenteris would have otherwise been the big favourite, a big part of the 70,000-strong audience began cheering for him and booing the American runners. At the same time, in collaboration with a local radio station, 175 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] the mayor of Mytilini (the birthplace of Kenteris) was organizing a public event including the screening of the Sydney Olympics’ 200 metres run in which Kenteris had won (Kanellis, Ethnohouliganismos, 68–71). At a time of policing and surveillance coupled with international criticism against Greece, which reminded the public that the Games were not ‘Greek’ after all, such an ‘act of resistance’ (ibid: 71), ‘ethno-hooliganism’ (ibid: passim), or ‘nationalistic doping’ (ibid, 6, 114) presented Kenteris and Thanou as victims of the dominant order of power and brought to the fore the vices deriving from the appropriation of the Games by non-Greek forces. Bistika, ‘Sto Vomo tou Parthenona’. Lakasas and Souliotis, ‘Ishyro Sok gia tous Ellines’. Although The Independent had a different opinion: ‘The Olympic Games may never have opened so beautifully as they did last night. But however stupendously you dress it, a nightmare is still a nightmare’ (14 August 2004). Danikas, ‘Ahaireftoi; see also Katsounaki, ‘I Paragka mas Akolouthei’. Blumemberg, ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’. This fear of a possible extinction of the Olympic flame during its transportation is, again, reminiscent of the effort of children and adults alike to prevent the Easter candle or lantern to go off on the way home from the church after the Resurrection liturgy on Easter Sunday. see Yalouri, The Acropolis, 192–93; Miller, Materiality; Yalouri, ‘I Dynamiki ton Mnimeion’ Blumemberg, ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, 40. Gell ‘Magic, Perfume, Dream . . . ’, 27, 29. Ibid., 31. Tzanelli, ‘Giving Gifts (and Then Taking Them Back)’, 430, citing Gellner, Nationalism. Gell, Art and Agency. Although the flame is not ‘an object’, it does have, as I pointed earlier, a material manifestation which is perceived through the senses. Gell’s views are part of a more general turn that takes place both in social theory (Ortner, ‘Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties’) as well as in material culture studies (see Tilley, ‘Ethnography and Material Culture’) from the ’80s onwards. Gell, Art and Agency, 17–21. For an overview of the application of the concepts of ‘agency’ and ‘biography of things’, see Hoskins, ‘Agency, Biography and Objects’. Munn, The Fame of Gawa; Miller, Material Culture and Mass Consumption; Tilley ‘Objectification’. Plantzos, ‘Archaeology and Hellenic Identity’. Yalouri, ‘When the New World meets the Ancient, 331 and passim. Georgousopoulos, ‘Pantehno Pyros Selas’. 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Mosaic Films/BBC/ERT, 2004. 179 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Epilogue: New Directions in Classical Reception, Sport and the Body in Modern Greece Zinon Papakonstantinou Since the European Renaissance, the classical world has been a potent symbol in art, politics, education, public life and sport. Regarding the latter, a classical background can go a long way in comprehending developments and distortions of the modern sports movement at the international or local level. In this context, modern Greek constructions of sport and bodily culture, though somewhat exceptional, can be at the same time instructive for comparative purposes. This is due to two reasons. First, after gaining independence from the Ottoman empire, Greece experienced a development of sporting practices and ideas about gender/the body within the context of a Western, rationalist nation-state agenda, similar in some ways to other European nation-states. Second, during the same period Greeks, as the selfdetermined body of citizens of the Greek nation-state, embodied a sense of entitlement of the classical ‘heritage’ of which they viewed (and continue to do so) themselves as the primary and rightful ‘owners’. The preceding studies map out in broad strokes aspects of this canvass, but also explore in detail particular facets in a fashion that suggests further research prospects. For instance, the association between classical antiquity and aspects of Greek public spectacles has been observed before. However, the cases discussed in the papers of the present volume suggest that the topic is far from being exhausted. Hence, the use of classical tradition can be further employed in elucidating the process whereby modern athletic traditions were invented. For instance, quite often modern Greek sport practices and ideologies, especially those claiming direct inspiration from ancient sport, have been conceived as a reaction to the ‘evils’ of over-specialization, professionalism and commercialization of the modern sports movement. The athletic contests in the Delphic festivals of 1927 and 1930 are a case in point. 180 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE Furthermore, links between classicism and the modern Olympics have been dissected before, but much more remains to be done. For instance, the influence of classical antiquity in the writings and acts of early pioneers of the modern Olympic movement such as Zappas and de Coubertin could be explored further. Another possible avenue of research would be the way classicism informs (or in some instances, misinforms) recent Olympic initiatives, for example, the latest attempts to revive the so-called Olympic truce. Finally, in the field of sports historiography the influence of classical antiquity needs to be re-assessed. For example, an evaluation of representations of Greek antiquity embedded in the Greek popular literature and historiography published on the occasion of the 2004 Olympic Games remains a desideratum. Moreover, outside Greece the impact of influential works by modern classical scholars, especially of the Victorian era, in the formation of sports historiography traditions in the Anglo-Saxon world has not been fully appreciated. In all these cases, similarly to the instances of classical revival examined in this volume, classicism has been employed, and at times usurped and distorted, to fit certain projects and promote particular agendas. A recurring theme in many papers of the present volume is the role of sport and bodily spectacles in the process of gender construction and identity formation. This issue emerges from the cases of the Lyceum of Greek Women events, the theatrical performances in the Delphi festivals, the military and historical re-enactments in the colonels’ junta public spectacles and last but not least, the torch-race and other activities of the Athens 2004 summer Olympics. In all these instances, gender, class and national identity is negotiated and solidified through public performance. This line of approach could be extended and profitably applied on other instances of identity performance and re-enactments of gendered perceptions of the body in modern Greece, a potentially rich but largely unexplored field. Moreover, because public spectacles, along with the printed word, constituted the major means for mass reproduction and dissemination of social and cultural models before the advent of mass media, Greek public spectacles of the type examined in this volume can provide useful comparanda to historians interested in gender and the public sphere in other nation-states. Gender and national identity was constructed in modern Greece largely through the mediation of the notion of Hellenicity (‘Greekness’), a notion that was vividly re-enacted in historical discourses as well as in the public spectacles examined in this volume. In the latter case, Hellenicity was incarnated through the various forms of the ‘ancestor revival’ process. Many aspects of this process, especially in relation to sport, remain to be identified and studied. For instance, references to ‘glorious’ antiquity still inform much of the popular, domestic and international, discourses that accompany any type of Greek international sporting success. Moreover, the assertion that a meticulous study of the impact of Hellenicity can pay research dividends holds true not only for modern Greece but for many other nation-states as well who appropriated in the modern period the notions of 181 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material SPORT, BODILY CULTURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MODERN GREECE ‘classical tradition’ and associated central aspects of their socio-political edifice with a vaguely conceived classical ‘legacy’. In all these instances, and in numerous others that the readers will undoubtedly discover, ancient Greece and its modern receptions will continue to provide an entry point to more sophisticated understandings of the way we practice and perceive sport and the body. 182 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Index historical re-enactments 117, 121, 122, 124–6; junta festivals 119–28; Metaxas regime (1936–41) 117, 118, 120, 121, 126, 129–35; military regime (1967–74) 117–28, 128–41; nation-in-danger theme 136–41; patriotism 130; propaganda 121; selfsacrifice 136–41; sport and spectacle 117– 50 Diplarakou, A. 102–3 Dörpfeld, W. 87 Duncan, I. 64, 75, 90, 96, 98, 99 Duncan, R. 95, 96, 99, 100 Adamantiou, A. 25–6, 35 Aeschylus 89 Alexander the Great 33, 125 Amazons 54, 55 Anthesteria: Lyceum of Greek Women 61–7 Antioch 24, 26 Aristotle 89 armatoloi 27, 29 Arts and Crafts Movement 98 Asia Minor Catastrophe 71 Atalanta 54 Bille, M.: and Sørensen, T.F. 152, 156 Birth of Tragedy (Nietzsche) 97 Bithynia 29 Blachouras, C.C. 37 Byzantine Life and Civilisation (Koukoules) 26 Byzantinische Zeitschrift 24 Byzantium 33, 35, 39, 69, 73; hellenisation and athleticisation 23–6 Eleftherotypia 170 Elis 54, 56, 57 eugenics 58 exercise: Ancient Greece and national identity 17–20 fascism 121, 124 Fauriel, C. 28 female bodily culture: cycling 60; Greekness 49–85; Ladies’ Journal 51–62, 68; Lyceum of Greek Women 62–76; tennis 60 female collective action 49–85; Ladies’ Journal 51–62; Lyceum of Greek Women 61–7 festivals: dictatorial regimes 119–28; Panathenaic Stadium 67–76 Festivals of the Polemic Virtue of the Greeks 119–28; Albanian victory 126–7; attendance 120; bravery 128; Byzantine history 126, 128; Civil War 127; gymnastics 124; marching 123; public mass 122; reenactments 124–7; sporting displays 123–4; Trojan War 124–5; War of Independence 126 Fetsis, A. 31 FIFA World Cup 1 First Athletic Week 132 folk dances: nationalization 62–7; Panathenaic Stadium 71 folklore studies 27–8 Christianity XXXIII 2 Christodoulou, N.G. 35–6 Chryssafis, I. 30, 31, 33–4, 36 Civil War (1946–9) 127, 138–9 competitive sport: history 34–7 Concise Archaeology of the Hellenes (Sakellarios) 18 Constantine the Great 125 continuity 121; nation 2, 58–9 Coubertin, P. de 21, 32 crypto-colonialism: and Greece 153 Curtius, E. 15, 16 cycling 60 Delphic Festivals 4, 86–116, 180; art of dance 88, 89–90; athletics 88; clothing 88; gymnastics 88 Delphic Games: revival 32, 34 demoi 23; transformation 12 dictatorial regimes: and early festival pageantry 135–6; gymnastics 128–9; 183 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material INDEX Krestenitou, A. 64 folksongs 27–8, 29 Fournaraki, E. 49–85 Fuller, L. 96 Ladies’ Journal 4, 50–62, 76; female competition ideal 56; female competitiveathletic tradition 56–7; female physical exercise 52–62 Lambros, S. 3, 14–17, 18, 24, 28, 29–30, 33 Lyceum of Greek Women 4, 5, 61–76, 91, 96, 100, 130, 135, 181; Panathenaic Stadium festivals 67–76 Gell, A. 169 Glaspell, S. 99 Glytzouris, A. 4–5, 86–116 Great Greek Encyclopedia 24, 26, 29 Greek Championship Games (1896) 58 Greek sport historiography: evolution 10–48 Greek Sport through the Centuries (Christodoulou) 35 Grote, G. 13, 15 gymnastics 11, 20, 128–9; school curriculum 19, 37 Mairet, E. 98 Makarezos, N. 119 Makkas, G.A. 19 Mandell, R. 135 Manitakis, P.N. 36–7 May Day celebrations: Lyceum of Greek Women 62–7 Megali Idea 32, 52, 69, 71 Melas, S. 65 Metastasio, P. 18 Metaxas, I. 118, 120, 121, 126, 129–35 Minoidis, M. 19–20 Mistriotis, G. 96, 98 motherhood 58 Mussolini, B. 121 Helleno-Christianism 23 Heraia Games 54, 55, 57 Herzfeld, M. 136, 153 hippodrome 14, 16, 23, 25, 26, 35 historical continuity: and national unity 14– 17 History of Ancient Greece (Papandreou) 20 History of the Greek Nation 12–14, 39 History of the Hellenic Nation (Paparregopoulos) 126 History of Physical Education (Pavlinis) 31–3, 34 Hitler, A. 121, 132 Hors, M. 155–6, 163 Hundred Years of Modern Greek Sport (Manitakis) 36–7 Naoroji, K. 101 national character 59 national history: Greek sport 37–9 national identity: Ancient Greece and exercise 17–20; Klephts 26–30 National Physical Training Academy 30 national renaissance 32; and Olympic Games (1896) 21–2 national unity 38; and historical continuity 14–17 National Youth Organization (EON) 134 Nazism 121, 132, 135, 152 Neo-Romantic movement 90, 95, 97, 101, 102 Nietzsche, F. 97 I Kathimerini 157, 170 Illustrated Panorama of the Olympic Games (Spyridis) 21–2 International Classical Games 32 Jahn, F.L. 30 junta festivals: dictatorial regimes 119–28; Metaxas regime 131–5; War of Independence 135–6 Olympia 5, 54, 152, 156, 160, 162–3, 164, 168; excavations 20, 21, 22, 132 Olympia and the Olympic Games (Papageorgiou) 20 Olympic flame 6; Athens doping scandal 165– 7; classical heritage 152, 161–2; commercialization 162–3, 170; commodification 158, 160, 163; Greek public opinion 157–63; and harm 165–7; light 152, 156, 167, 169; Olympic Games (2004) 151–79; rituals 152–3; sacredness 163–5; and spirit 169–70; torch design 156; torch relay 155–7; transformation 169–71; uniqueness 167–8 kalokagathia 37 Kalomoiris, M. 91 Kambouroglous, D. 29 Kanellos, V. 96 Karaïskake, S. 134–5 Karamanlis, K. 5 Kenteris, K. 165–7 Keramopoulos, A.D. 92 Klephts 33, 39; athleticisation 26–30 Kolettis, I. 19, 135–6 Kontoglou, P. 100 Kotzias, K. 132 Koukoules, P. 25, 26, 35 Koulouri, C. 3, 4, 10–48 184 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material INDEX Prometheus Bound: choreographic guide 91, 93–4; tragic chorus 86–116 Psachos, K. 89, 91, 94 Pyrrhic dance: and tragic chorus 94 Olympic Games 1, 18, 19; revival 10, 17, 19, 20, 21, 33 Olympic Games (1896) 11, 12, 14, 19; Ladies’ Journal and emancipation 51–62; and national renaissance 21–2 Olympic Games (1906) 21, 38; Ladies’ Journal and emancipation 51–62 Olympic Games (1936) 121, 132 Olympic Games (1996) 11 Olympic Games (2004) 5–7; doping scandal 165–7; Greek public opinion 157–63; Olympic flame 151–79; organisation and international criticism 153–4; security measures 153; torch relay 155–7, 170 Ottoman Empire 10, 16 Raftopoulou, B. 91 Raymond, M. 70 Revithi, S. 57–8 Revolution (1821) 128, 138, 140 Rigas Velestinlis 18 Sakellarides, I. 96 Sakellarios, G. 18 School of Gymnasts 11 School of Women Physical Educators 53 schools: physical education 129, 132, 134 Schopenhauer, A. 97, 99 self-sacrifice 136–41 Sikelianos, A. 86–7, 88, 97, 98 Siores, N. 129 slogans: Metaxas regime 130 social Darwinism 58 Sontag, S. 137 Sørensen, T.F.: and Bille, M. 152, 156 Soutsos, P. 19 Spanoudi, A. 35–6 Spengler, O. 98 Spiliotopoulos, A.T. 22, 28–9 sport historiography: evolution 10–48 Sport a Modern Religion (Spanoudi) 35 sports clubs: history 36 Spyridis, G. 21–2 Summary of Gymnastics (Pagon) 19–20 superiority: Greek race 58, 59 Suppliant Women (Euripides): tragic chorus 86–116 Pachtikos, G.D. 29 Pagon, G. 19–20 Paliouritis, G. 18 Palmer-Sikelianos, E. 4, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94–5, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102 Panathenaea 61 Panathenaic Stadium festivals 67–76, 96; and ages of Hellenism 74; dramatizations 73–4 Panathenaїkos 129 panegyreis 14 Panhellenic Games 18, 19 Panourgia, N. 130, 132 Papadopoulos, G. 119, 121, 122, 124, 127, 138 Papadopoulos, T. 156 Papageorgiou, D. 20 Papaioannou, D. 167 Papakonstantinou, Z. 1–7, 180–2 Papandreou, A.A. 20 Paparregopoulos, K. 126 Paparrhigopoulos, C. 3, 13, 14, 15, 23, 24 Parren, C. 50–62, 62–4, 67, 68–9, 75 Pattakos, S. 119 Pausanius 18, 20 Pavlinis, E. 25, 31–3, 34 Peppas, S. 31 Petrakis, M. 134 Philemon, T. 21 Phokianos, I. 30 Physical Education Academy 30 Physical Education College 30 physical education colleges 11 Physical Education of the Greeks (Blachouras) 37 physical education instructors: and physical training history 30–4 Pindar 18 Plato 89 Poe, E.A. 97 Poetics (Aristotle) 89 Politis, N. 21, 29, 33, 63 tennis 60 Thanou, K. 165–7 The Olympic Games 776BC-1896 21 Theodosius 23 tragic chorus: ancient pottery 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 100, 101; and Aristotle 89; costumes 94–5, 100; Delphic Festivals 4, 86–116; discipline 93; modern folk dance 93–4, 97, 99; music 90–1; and Plato 89; Prometheus Bound 91–2, 94, 95, 102; Pyrrhic dance 94; relief carvings 90; sculpture 90, 92; Suppliant Women (Euripides) 92, 95, 96, 100 Trojan War 140; historical re-enactment 124– 5 Tsakopoulos, G.V. 24 Tzianidis, N. 167 Union of Greek Women 53 185 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material INDEX Van Steen, G. 5, 117–50 Varotsos, A. 156 Veloudios, T. 94 Venizelos, E. 33, 34, 135 Xenopoulos, G. 65, 66 Wagner, R. 97, 98 War of Independence 13, 26–7, 59, 126, 136 women’s emancipation: Olympics (1896) and Ladies’ Journal 51–62 Zambelios, S. 23 Zappas Olympics 3, 11, 20, 30, 136, 181 Yalouri, E. 6, 151–79 Yannopoulos, P. 34 186 Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012 Copyrighted Material *9780415667531* Provided by Taylor and Francis - Papakonstantinou 29.05.2012