This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Harlington, Al J Title: “We Are All Greeks”: Assessing The Appropriation of Ancient Greece in Modern Olympic Revivals General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. “We Are All Greeks”: Assessing The Appropriation of Ancient Greece in Modern Olympic Revivals Al Harlington A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of MPhil in Classics in the Faculty of Arts, School of Humanities October 2019 Word Count: 23800 Abstract The modern Olympic Games have proved themselves to be indelibly connected to the West’s interpretation of ancient Greek culture. Indeed, reincarnations of the perceived glories of ancient Greece have been a prominent feature of Olympic revivals both before and after the establishment of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. Of particular interest to the classical scholar and the focus of this thesis is how different hosts have sought to legitimise their values using the merits of ancient Greek society often with no regard for ancient sources and the accuracy of their claims. The combination of the uncertainty surrounding ancient Greece’s reality and its idealisation throughout the West presented Greek antiquity as the perfect legitimising tool, capable of successfully serving an array of social, political and philosophical functions. This dissertation outlines how the concept of ancient Greece has developed and become distorted over time to signify a fabrication rather than a reality, building on both existing scholarship and primary source material in the process. Moreover, its unique contribution to the field lies in its exploration of how these interpretations of ancient Greece have been expressed through the medium of Olympic revivals and how ideas of Greek antiquity impacted pre-IOC revivals, especially in England and Greece, leading up to the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens. Gaps in our knowledge of ancient Greece have provided the basis for Olympic organisers to root their values in coveted antiquity and showcase them to the world with legitimacy. i List of Figures Figure 2.1 Frontispiece of Annalia Dubrensia 38 Figure 4.1 1896 Athens Olympics Stamps 88 Figure 4.2 1896 Athens Olympics Participation Medals 89 ii Author’s Declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: DATE: iii List of Abbreviations HOC Hellenic Olympic Committee IOC International Olympic Committee IG Inscriptiones Graecae TOCOG Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Patrick Finglass for his constant support throughout the year, without which this thesis would not have been possible. v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... i List of Figures ............................................................................................................... ii Author’s Declaration ................................................................................................... iii List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements...................................................................................................... v Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The Ancient Olympic Games ................................................................... 9 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Origins ...................................................................................................................... 11 1.3 Status as ‘Games’ ................................................................................................... 14 1.4 International Nature of the Olympic Games ........................................................ 16 1.5 Intellectuality and Morality ..................................................................................... 19 1.6 Cessation of Hostilities .......................................................................................... 22 1.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2: The Olympic Revivals in England, 1500-1900 ..................................... 25 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 25 2.2 The Earliest English Receptions ................................................................................ 26 2.3 Dover’s Olympics ......................................................................................................... 32 2.4 Bridging Dover and Brookes: Gilbert West’s Odes to Pindar, with several other pieces in prose and verse, translated from Greek: To which is prefixed a dissertation on the Olympick Games (1753) ................................................................... 41 2.5 Brookes’ Olympian Games ......................................................................................... 46 2.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3: The Reception of Pierre De Coubertin ................................................. 53 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 53 3.2 Olympism ...................................................................................................................... 55 3.3 Amateurism................................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 4: Modern Greece and the Athens Olympics .......................................... 70 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 70 4.2 The Revival of Greece ................................................................................................. 71 4.3 Greek 19th-century Olympic Revivals ........................................................................ 80 4.4 The 1896 Athens Olympics ......................................................................................... 85 vi Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 94 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 97 vii Introduction On 22 July 2018 the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) announced that the mascot for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo 2020 was to be named Miraitowa. A combination of the Japanese words ‘mirai’ (future) and ‘towa’ (eternity), the name highlights the modern Games’ goal of facilitating a more prosperous future. The mascot’s personality is said to derive from a traditional Japanese proverb meaning ‘to learn old things well and acquire new knowledge from them’.1 The basis of Miraitowa’s personality reminds us that meanings are not fixed but instead constructed by their interpreters based on their life experiences and cultural background, as expressed in Hans Robert Jauss’ Toward an Aesthetic of Reception (1982). This point is highly relevant to the modern Olympic Games, which have seen an immense amount of change since their inauguration in Athens in 1896, yet which have fairly consistently invoked Greek antiquity. And since