Sport, Bodily Culture and Classical Antiquity in Modern Greece

This book is dedicated to the reception of classical antiquity in modern sport and bodily culture. Taking Greece as a case-study, essays in the volume examine facets of the intricate association of classicism, sport, bodily culture, spectacles, national and gender identities, and the modern Olympics.

It was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

This volume takes modern Greece as a case-study and explores, in depth, issues related to the reception and use of classical antiquity in modern sport, spectacle and bodily culture. For citizens of the Greek nation-state, classical antiquity is not merely a vague "legacy" but the cornerstone of their national identity. In the field of sport and bodily culture, since the 1830s there had been persistent attempts to establish firm and direct links between ancient Greek athletics and modern sport through the incorporation of sport in school curricula, the emergence of national sport historiographies as well as the initiatives to revive (in the 19^th century) or appropriate (in the 20^th) the modern Olympics. Based on fieldwork and unpublished material sources, this book dissects the use and abuse of classical antiquity and sport in constructing national, gender and class identities, and illuminate aspects of the complex modern perceptions of classicism, sport and the body.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.