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. - - - . ' - - -· ~ ~ ' - . - - ~, ~ __. _·,- R·E V tE -W-S.. ~ _ - . :_· or defensive interests of the certain death against the Ancient Greek Athletics city-state or polis), and how Persians at Thermop ylae and both were incorporat ed into Atl1ens was subsequently Stephen G. Miller the fabric oflife in tl1e Greek occupied and burned, the Yale University Press ix + 288pp £25 city-states. Competition in Olympic Games were held. choral performances, in Sixty-four years later ISBN O 300 I 0083 3 dramatic productions and in Alcibiades, tl1e golden row! of athletics prepared young Athenian politics, made an The Ancient Olympic Games Greek citizens-to-be extravagant show by entering successfully to take up their seven four-horse teams at Judith Swaddling essential military duties. It Olympia and winning first, British Museum Press (3rd Edition) also redirected energies that, second and fourtl1. As Miller if given free rein, would have shows, this won him both 120pp £9.99 ISBN0714120022 led to something th e Greeks political capital and the kind had more than enough of: of hatred from conservative HE OLYMPICSRETIJRN to the land of their birth (in stasis or 'civil war' and all its elements not seen again 776 BC) and rebirth (in AD 1896), and they bring the vicious symptoms . until the Clinton presid ency T true spirit of ancient Greece with them. One The closest thing the and now post-p residency. reminder. Greek prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis Greeks had to an Old Swaddling's guidebook met with American president George Bush in late May to Testament prophet, their style treatment focuses on discuss anti-terrorist security at the Athens Games. epic poet Hesiod, made clear the site of Olympia and the Afterwards a Greek satirical political pamphlet calling in his Works and Days that Olympic Games perse . Its itself The Stylobate (or colwnn 'foundation') of Peace ran a there are two kind of eris or final two chapters tell us cover showing a claymation-style image of President Bush competitive conflict One is about the rebirth of the with his pants pulled down around his legs and a probing equivalent to the capitalist games and their history from device inserted in his rectum. He says in a cartoon work ethic. The other sets Athens in 1896 until Salt bubble, 'Kostakis [the Greek prime ministers nickname] citizen against citizen in Lake City in 2002. Re is prodding me to guarantee [literally 'underwrite '] the destructive ways. Both have established by a Frenc h security of the Olympic Games. Now where did I put that to be harnessed . Miller's nobleman who was worried rolostylo [rectal pencil] of mine?' discussion of the social about the low morale of his setting and implications of countrymen and admired The Greeks have always politics, women and society. the funeral games of the emphasis in British understood that life, sex and Each chapter has a Patroclus in fliad Book 23 education on both intellec politics are about power and bibliographical guide to rightly emphasises its tual training and the physical competition, and that all five further expert treatments of purpose in conferring 'sporting disciplin es' , the are inextricably intertwined . topics as diverse as nudity in immortality on Patroclus Games have now been From well before the comic athletics and the many forms ( through the athl.aor professionalised and marred poet Aristophanes, they of agrm(prize competition) 'prizes') . He uses it as a by doping scandals and other never shied from speaking held at communal festivals: paradigm of Greek physical, forms of win-at-alkost frankly about various footracing, boxing, wrestling , mental and emotional jaie de perversion . But the demise permutations of this reality. all-out fighting (the pan vivre.But the games also of upper-class amateuri sm Nor, to his great credit, does kration), equestrian racing, reintegrate, or re-harne ss, was already witnessed in Steve Miller. lfyou want to and flute-playing. The Achilles into the society of antiquity, when, as Miller experience the upcoming eleven-page glossary is a warrior commanders, discusses, the polis of Kroton Olympic Games with a good model of useful erudition. bringing him back from his produced approximately 28 grasp of the place of athletic Illustrations, including maps, extended alienation and per cent of known Olympic competition in ancient are welkhosen and well bloody berserker rag e victors . Swaddling conveys Greek culture , Miller's and placed. (Books 19-22) and preparing what these athlet es must Swaddling's books will do the Miller's perspectives on him to grasp, in his mee ting have felt as they competed in trick. Greek athletics are grounded witl1 Priam in Book 24, the the environs of Olympia and In Ancient.GreekAthletics, in his firsthand knowledge of full pathos of the human its monumental templ e and Miller proves that a good the physical realia, derived condition. statue of Zeus . But Miller scholar can write clearl y and from his years of directing Politics is often shoved to tells us they were rewarded engagingly about specialised excavations at Nemea, which the side in Chariots of by their home towns with research, without _ along with Delphi, Isthmia Ftn"-Styletreatments of th e 'more than vegetable prostituting scholarship to and Olympia , was one of the ancient Olympic Games and matter', i.e., 1nore than entertainment In sixteen four panhellenic sanctuary the fabled Olympic truce. wreaths of olive. He also welkonceived chapters he sites. But Miller has also Miller doesn't quite write reports that a successful covers everything from the thought deeply about the with a colostylo,but he does trainer in the sixtl1 century prehistoric antecedents for agonistic ('prize-compet let us know that we are BC pulled down , after a athletic competition ition') spirit of the Greeks getting things straight, no bidding war for his services, discernible in Greek Bronze and its relationship to the chaser. I don't know how over $250,000 per year. For Age iconograph y and in fundamental cultural notion man y professional classicists more about the corruption Sumerian and Hittite of areti,originally excellence are aware that in 480 BC, of the spirit of the ancient Anatolian cultures, to the in the male-<lefining sphere while King Leonidas and his games, read Mary Renault's connections betweer{ athletic of warfare (i.e, life-or-<leath small Spartan and allied The Last of the Wine. competition and mon ey, competition in the offensive contingents were fighting to Tom Palaima 56 HISTORY TODAY SEPTEMBER 2004 .