This book is a welcome and accessible study of the reception and legacy of ancient sport. It targets a wide audience but could equally serve as an introduction to undergraduates interested in ancient sport or the history of the modern Olympics. M. identifies and analyses the ways in which ancient Greek and Roman sport has been reimagined to inform the present and future of Western sport since the early modern period. The introductory chapter outlines the book's aims to question any claims to antiquity through sport.
Chapter 1, ‘Sport in Greek Antiquity’, and Chapter 2, ‘Sport in Roman Antiquity’, provide broad overviews of the history of sport in Greek and Roman antiquity, respectively. Chapter 1 focuses on prizes and competition in ancient Greek sport, illustrating its intricate interconnections with various aspects of life in the ancient Greek world. Its intense focus on victory and celebration distinguishes ancient Greek sport from its modern counterpart. Chapter 2 explores the importance of the audience in ancient Roman sports and spectacles, the politicisation of sporting events in Rome and its empire, and the history of gladiators and chariot racing. Roman spectacle has a close connection with modern sport through the shared sports fandom and the intertwining of sport with politics, empire and everyday life.
The remaining four chapters discuss specific aspects of the reception and resonance of ancient Greek and Roman sport, covering areas not addressed in previous books and highlighting the rich history of reception and adaptation of ancient sports from antiquity to today.
Chapter 3, ‘The Ancient and Modern Olympics’, explores the nostalgic desire to ‘return to the past’ and the use of the past to inform the present in both the ancient and the modern Olympic Games. The Olympic revival in the late nineteenth century, driven by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was intent on reviving sport's perceived function in antiquity rather than recreating the ancient Olympic festival entirely. However, there is a dissonance between antiquity and modernity in the Olympic Games: the ancient games had social and cultural issues that did not align with the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) ideals of (supposed) equality, secularity and apoliticism. The IOC selected more favourable aspects of antiquity to shape the modern Olympics while promoting a narrative that downplayed other key figures in the Olympic revival. M. compellingly argues that the IOC's assertions of continuity with the ancient games were – and still are – largely driven by contemporary concerns with ideology, authority and control, rather than a genuine reflection of historical reality.
Chapter 4, ‘Beauty, Strength and Physical Culture’, investigates how Greek and Roman sport influenced the ‘physical culture’ movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The perceived whiteness of ancient marble sculpture shaped ideals of male bodily beauty, informing J.J. Winckelmann's ideas of race and beauty and supporting displays of racial superiority in nineteenth- and twentieth-century magazines. Similar to the Olympic revival, the physical culture movements in post-industrial Europe and America used the ‘return to the past’ narratives to promote present and future betterment. Prominent figures like Eugen Sandow and Bernarr McFadden made explicit connections with antiquity (e.g. by posing as Greek statues in magazines and live shows) to increase their fame and income. Their respective magazines – filled with racist and sexist messages – used fictional stories of ancient athletes and gladiators to illustrate the moral value of physical fitness and create links with antiquity. M. effectively presents the ‘fit’ body as a social and historical construct in both antiquity and modernity, addressing the complex intersections between athletics and several salient topics like race and gender.
Chapter 5, ‘Arenas, Stadiums and Gyms’, turns to the spaces of sport. The Olympic revival was inherently linked to ancient sporting spaces, such as the reconstruction of the Panathenaic Stadium in 1896 and the excavation of the stadium of Olympia (prompted by the 1936 Berlin Olympics). Ancient Greek stadia and Roman amphitheatres share similarities with modern stadia or sporting venues, such as modern Olympic stadiums and baseball venues, in their infrastructures, encouragement of communal identity and the encoding of memory within the built space. Ancient and nineteenth-century gymnasia share an ethos of personal development and training, with perceived benefits for the wider community in both cases. M. argues that space is a powerful way to connect past and present, despite the often tenuous and fabricated nature of reimagining the past in modern sporting venues.
In Chapter 6, ‘Olympic Art and Cinema’, M. returns to the Olympics, with a focus on the reception of antiquity in visual media (posters and films) produced for the modern games. Classical references are abundant in the posters advertising the modern Olympiads up to the mid-twentieth century, often involving civic and national symbolism. This merging of classical and national ideologies is also evident in Olympic films, which function as vehicles for connecting ancient and modern athletics through scenes of empty Greek ruins and landscapes. In turn, Olympic films imbue a sense of tradition in modern Olympic rituals. M. sees in these forms of media a juxtaposition between the apparent antiquity of the IOC Games and their actual modernity.
Whilst M.'s analysis is generally sound, there are some inaccuracies. On p. 17 M. states that ‘Lucian thought that it [oil] softened the skin and cooled it (Anacharsis 24)’. Lucian in the Anacharsis does refer to oil softening the skin, though he does not refer to it cooling the skin. On pp. 18–19, fig. 1.3, and again on p. 20 M. incorrectly says that the stadium of Nemea is to the north of the sanctuary, whereas it is actually southeast. On p. 76 M. refers to the ‘ceremonial “box” for the priestesses of Demeter’ when speaking about the lack of stone seating in the stadium at Olympia, presumably referring to the rectangular section of stone seats on the south side of the stadium. To my knowledge, it is accepted that the priestess (singular, not plural) of Demeter sat on the altar on the north side of the stadium, directly opposite the area referenced by M., which was instead used as the seating of the Hellanodikai (‘judges’) (see Pausanias, Descriptions of Greece 6.20.8–9). There is also an over-generalised definition of a gymnasium on p. 157 as having ‘two sides’. This definition relies solely on the current site of the gymnasium at Olympia and cannot be applied to any other known example. Finally, there are occasional typographical errors and inaccuracies when referring to dates or when transliterating Greek place names.
Overall, the book has many strengths. M. opens up important lines of enquiry into the inherent issues of race, gender and nationalism, among others, that underlie the reception and reimagination of ancient sport since the early modern period up to the present day. M.'s insightful analysis of the intricate connections between antiquity and modernity is also thought-provoking, offering a critical lens for a wider audience to view the modern Olympic Games and for undergraduates and researchers to evaluate their approaches to ancient sports. Published while Paris was preparing to host the 2024 Olympics, this book effectively highlights the importance of studying ancient sport to improve the understanding of modern sporting cultures.
