the Greeks.55 This religious period of nudity we can strive

to reconstruct by way of archaeology and anthropolo-

gy.56 The Greeks of the Classical period and later did

not themselves remember or understand this facet of their

Previous." Yet a rite origin for the nudity so characteristic of Greek culture clarifies a fantastic deal that is

otherwise vague."58In fact, as Brelich has noted, it is

Simpler to comprehend the nudity of athletes at the Olymlater

pic games as initially prescribed than as

Greek tradition had it-an innovation.59

A recent study by J. Mouratidis on the earliest

Periods of Greek fit nudity asserts that "nudity in

Greek sports had its roots in prehistoric Greece and

was associated with the warrior-athlete whose training and competition in the games was at the exact same time

his preparation for war."60 These decisions seem to

me to be correct. But I think in moving from this

primitive context the writer underestimates, or ignores completely, the religious amount of the phenomenon,

just as the Greeks did. We can follow normally-but

not date-some of the stages of the growth of

nudity, from its connection with the "aggression and

apotropaic motives characteristic of the early stages

of human society,"'' to its survival in the historical

period in Greek athletics.

Other scholars have seen the origin of sport in

for the rise of sport or sports has to account in some

Means for the associated phenomenon of "athletic nudity," a

Lately a

good case has been made for a rite origin for Greek

Sport, in connection with early hunting rites.

The argument which has been made against a religious link appears to me to lose sight of a period of

Greek culture that is in fact visible, though occasionally dimly, in later times. The very fact that both

sports and faith are so extremely conservative

allows us to trace their existence and character in earlier times.63 There's little uncertainty that nudity was involved with the religious atmosphere of the games. At

the refuge at Olympia, as elsewhere, initiation

Rituals of youths, athletic and artistic contests were

related within precisely the same spiritual atmosphere. Rite

In initiation

rites in ancient Crete, the young man was nude before he took the arms of the warrior and entered into

his manhood.

focused on Greek ideas of religion, of divinity, the sacred,

the irrational, rite, and magic. The weakening of "theold

the relatively awesome link of anthropologyhad contributedto

an earlier reluctanceon the part of scholars to accept "spiritual"explanations (see Rose, beneath), not overly differentfrom

Thucydides' point of view, which as Ernst Badian pointed

out, in fact distortedthe image of occasions. (E. Badian, unpublished lecture, Awesome York, 1985; cf. infra ns. 57, 84-87).

The tide has turned. Peter Brown has done much to change

the scenario for late antiquity;for the classicswe owe substantially

the Irrational(Berkeley 1951). See G. Clark, review of P.E.

thought they knew was a jumble of fact and fiction.

history derivedfrom prolongedmeditationabout the world

in which Thucydideslived ....

"The effect of these various and divergent reports is to

prove to us that the ancient Greeks, who were always affectionate

of assigning names to the 'inventors' of otherwise unexplained customs,were themselvesunaware of the reason for

the practice."

http://www.kfi.ky.gov/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XsnLocation=https://beachnude.xyz to EverettWheeler who gave me this reference.

61 Mouratidis (supra n. 60) 321. Mouratidis (223, cf. 32)

Quotations me (EtruscanDress 102) on the nudity of Greek athletes as protection against the evil eye. I now believe that

same as, ritual nudity.

satyr, Priapus,etc., is aggressiveand protectivein a manner that

Fit and rite nudity (which accentuate youth and a

small dick) aren't. See supra, text.

Sansone (supra n. 54) 3-14.

infra n. 63.

7-9, on

mock combats as a sort of ritual, initiatory rites of endurance,and the presenceof "fit"nudity as a featureof

such rituals.

54), Jasper Griffin points out that Sansone'stheory for the

origin of sport as ritualistic activities derived from hunting

("sportis the ritual sacrificeof physical energy")cannot account for the phenomenonof nudity in Greekathletics(Sansone 107-15): J. Griffin, "Playingto Win," The Awesome York

Review of Publications, 29 Sept. 1988, 3-5.