The Acrobatic Body in Ancient Greek Society
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 7-7-2016 12:00 AM The Acrobatic Body in Ancient Greek Society Jonathan R. Vickers The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Aara Suksi The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Classics A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Jonathan R. Vickers 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Other Classics Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, and the Sports Studies Commons Recommended Citation Vickers, Jonathan R., "The Acrobatic Body in Ancient Greek Society" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3834. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3834 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract In this thesis I collate the textual, artistic, and material evidence for acrobatics in sport and spectacle in Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece, and analyze gymnastic performances with regard to their respective socio-cultural contexts. I develop the theoretical perspective that all body movement is socially qualified in order to demonstrate how the extreme manipulations of an acrobatic body carry particular social meaning: in sport, the male acrobatic body approaches superhumanism, and in spectacle the female acrobatic body approaches subhumanism. I argue, on the one hand, that men’s tumbling took place at the early Panathenaia festival in Athens, both in martial dances and in competitions featuring springboards and equestrian acrobatics. Artistic representations emphasize a participant’s controlled aerialism while he wears armour, and thereby express his prowess as a warrior-athlete. On the other hand, acrobatics was also a kind of spectacular ‘wonder-making’, and I argue that the abnormal physical alterity shown by women’s acrobatic bodies rendered the performer a marginalized and unnatural ‘other’. I use two particular feats, namely, tumbling among upright swords and acrobatic stunts on a potter’s wheel, as case studies for my argument that the spectacular acrobat embodied her social inferiority. In this thesis I offer the first complete treatment of Greek acrobatics in which careful consideration is given to the relationship between social realities, text, and art. It is also the first to use sociological theories of the body as a method for approaching ancient Greek representations of acrobats’ extreme physicality. Keywords Acrobatics, Tumbling, Bodies, Sport, Spectacle, Dance, Performance, Embodiment, Wonder-making, Thaumatopoiia, Thaumaturgy, Wonder, Xenophon, Gendered Bodies, Ancient Greece. i Epigraph She with daring grace did plunge forthwith heedless care; and I beyond my wits! T’ward the daggers, blades naked bared, and all watched rapt for how she fared. Hands splayed flat upon the ground, breadth of space ’tween swords she found; with effortless spring upright once more, away the death those untouch’d points bore. Before relief left our chests it froze, and then sighs to gasps and chokes arose; for backward she bent into the ring, and back through the blades her form did fling! A knotless arch her body seemed; lacking spine and frame, I deemed. as if of willow her figure bent, til sure was I her limbs had rent. But ever smooth she danced unfailing, among the swords with long hair trailing. Wonder our minds had thunder struck: she lived! We clapped; O blessed luck! - J. Vickers ii Dedication To my wife, Christine, and my son, William, who make up the better portion of our three-ring family circus. iii Acknowledgments During the course of the research and writing for this thesis more people than I can recount helped along the way, some in small ways and others tremendously. First and foremost, I offer my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Aara Suksi. From start to finish Aara has been a constant source of support, encouragement, insightful (and indispensable) criticism, and helpful suggestions. This project owes much to her, and I am extremely grateful for her expertise; I cannot thank her enough. My thanks also go to the members of my thesis supervisory committee, Christopher Brown and Charles Stocking. Chris has been, and continues to be, an academic role model and has given much inspiration; Charles has helped in more ways than I can list, but especially for argumentation, and the theoretical perspectives in the first three chapters. Thank you, too, to the members of the examination committee, Robert Barney, Mark Golden, and Bernd Steinbock, who agreed to read and evaluate the project. I wrote the majority of this thesis at the University of Western Ontario, and while there is not a single member of the faculty in the Department of Classical Studies who did not help in some way, I would like to give particular thanks to several. Bernd Steinbock read and commented on my work regarding Xenophon’s Anabasis, and has otherwise inspired the way I teach. David Wilson spent several hours discussing vase paintings with me, and shared his perceptive appraisal of dozens of images of acrobats. Randall Pogorzelski, Aara Suksi, Charles Stocking, and Debra Nousek all gathered for multiple meetings of a ‘theory reading group’, at which I was the one most in need of enlightenment. Randy and Charles continued to ‘talk theory’ with me on many other occasions. Our inimitable administrative staff, Judy LaForme and Kathleen Beharrell, kept the thesis on track and ensured its completion. I benefited from financial support for this project from different sources. The early research was aided by OGS and SSHRC grants. Western’s Mary Routledge Fellowship allowed me to present my work at conferences in Canada and the United States. The Eve Harp and Judith Wiley Classical Studies Travel Award, in combination with UWO’s Graduate Thesis Research Award, made possible a trip to the British Museum to inspect iv vases in person, travel to a conference on ancient sport in Austria where material from Chapters Two and Three were presented, and museum visits in Athens and Olympia. I was also the grateful recipient of the Crake Doctoral Fellowship in Classics for 2015-16 from Mount Allison University, and I thank the Crake Foundation for their support. My sincere gratitude goes to the faculty at Mount Allison, who were excellent friends and colleagues while I completed the writing of the thesis. Special thanks, too, to the students in my seminar class on the body in Greek culture, for their enthusiasm, sharp wits, and stimulating class discussions. Abridged versions of the arguments I propose in this thesis were delivered at Mount Allison and Memorial University of Newfoundland, and I thank the audiences for their comments and questions. Finally, I thank my friends and family. Of my fellow students at Western, Ashley Fox, Tim Wright, Ben Moser, Ally Dawson, and Mary Deminion all deserve particular acknowledgement for more than I can adequately express. My inlaws have given support and love throughout my entire graduate career. My parents and siblings can never be thanked enough, even if they do not realize the degree to which they actually helped. Finally, my ultimate thanks and acknowledgement go to my wife, Christine (without whose love and encouragement this thesis would not have been written), and my son, William (who was born in the middle of it and reminds me why life is so wonderful). It is to them that I warmly dedicate this project. v Table of Contents Abstract and Keywords.........................................................................................................i Epigraph….......................................................................................................................…ii Dedication….......................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements….........................................................................................................iv Table of Contents…............................................................................................................vi Abbreviations.................................................................................................................viii Introduction…......................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Tumbling in Sport and Men’s Martial Dance..................................................17 1.1: Introduction….................................................................................................17 1.2: Athletics and Ideology…................................................................................18 1.3: Somatic Memory and Spectator Experience…...............................................20 1.4: Dance in Book Six of Xenophon’s Anabasis..................................................28 1.5: Acrobatics and the Pyrrhiche….....................................................................41 Chapter 2: Springboard Tumbling in Greek Athletics.......................................................51 Chapter 3: Horseback Tumbling in Greek Athletics..........................................................79 3.1: Introduction….................................................................................................79