Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No.

3 (Winter, 1985)

The Origin of Nudity

in Greek Athletics*
John Mouratidis
Associate Professor of Physical Education
University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece

Some scholars who have written on the subject of nudity in Greek athletics
have neglected to investigate the prehistoric period and quite understandably
so. 1 The lack of material evidence and the conflicting ancient sources make such
an investigation a difficult undertaking. It is the purpose of this paper to show
that nudity in Greek athletics had its roots in prehistoric Greece and was
connected with the warrior-athlete whose training and competition in the games
was at the same time his preparation for war. The distinction between warrior-
athlete and athlete is that both were nude but the former wore in certain events
some parts of his panoply which he discarded as time went on.
In 520 B.C. the armed race (Fig. 1) was introduced at Olympia which can
partly be explained as a reminiscence of the warrior-athlete. The competitors
were nude except for a helmet and greaves, and carried a shield. It is possible
that this kind of race was practiced in some local competitions before its
introduction into the Olympic program. Similar races were held at Nemea and
according to Philostratos were of great antiquity.2
In Athens an attempt had been made at the close of the sixth century to
introduce loincloths into athletic competitions. This is evident from a small
number of black figured Athenian vases (Figs, 2,3) that depict athletes wearing
loincloths. This attempt apparently failed, and nudity again became the fashion
in athletics. It is possible that this is what Thucydides and Plato had in mind
when they wrote that the introduction of nudity in the games had taken place
just before their own time. The small number of these vases (520-500 B.C.)

* I am grateful for the useful criticism and comments of anonymous reviewers of this Journal.
1. For references see lames Arieti, “Nudity in Greek Athletics,” The Classical World 68 (1975): 431-436.
Also see Kenneth Clark, The Nude:A Study of Ideal Art (London, 1957), pp.21. 162, 163. These studies offer an
admirable help toward understanding a phenomenon within a higher civilization. When, however, one tries to find
the origin of the problem, which is lost in the dark mists of prehistoric time he cannot use the same reasoning (self-
control, health and beauty arguments) to explain it. If one does so he must be ready to admit that all races of the
world began their existence on earth at the bottom of the scale with the exception of the Greeks. But the Greeks,
like all other human races, commenced their career at the bottom of the scale and worked their way up from
savagery to civilization and admittedly retained some survivals of that old condition. This paper tries to explain the
same problem, which is nudity in Greek athletics, by looking into the animal part of human nature, the early
condition of the human race, its emotional nature and reasoning, its mental and moral powers, and its protracted
struggle against fear.
2. Philostratos Gymn 7. For Philostratos as an inaccurate source see E. L. Bowie, “Greeks and Their Past in
the Second Sophistic,” Past and Present 46 (1970): 17. For more on the armed-race see Aristophanes Birds 291;
PlatoLaws 833a; Pausanias 2.11.8; 5.12.8; 6.10.4; Pollux 3.3; Philostratos Gymn. 8, 24.

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

Red-figure Attic Vase. E. Norman Gardiner, “Notes on the Greek Foot Race,” JHS 23
(1903) fig. 14. (Courtesy of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies).

prompted some scholars to raise the question of reintroduction of loincloths in

athletics.3 This was not an attempt to “reintroduce” but rather to introduce
loincloths in the games because prior to these vase representations there is
nothing in Greek art to indicate the existence of loincloths in athletics. The
alleged change from loincloths to nudity is not illustrated in any Greek art.
Thucydides wrote that the Spartans “were the first to bare their bodies and,
after stripping openly, to anoint themselves with oil when they engaged in
athletic exercise.” Dionysios of Halicarnassos believed that “The first man who

at the close of the sixth century to introduce the loincloth and that this temporary fashion is the reason for
Thucydides’ statement?” See E. Norman Cardiner, Athletics of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1930), p. 191
(hereafter cited as AAW). On loincloths see, e.g., J. C. Mann, “Gymnazo in Thucydides 1.6.5-6,” Classical
Review 24 (1974): 77, who wrote: “While the representations of athletes on vases had usually portrayed them
naked, it may be that an attempt to reintroduce loincloths had been made in Greece before Thucydides’ time (as
suggested by E. N. Gardiner [AAW] ad fig. 163 .)”. James Arieti, “Nudity in Greek Athletics,” [431 11.31
said: “E. Norman Gardiner [AAW, p, 191] suggests, on the basis of a vase belonging to the end of the sixth century
in which the athletes wear a white loincloth, that an attempt may have been made to reintroduce the loincloth at
this time. But Gardiner is himself very uncertain on this point, raising it simply as a question, and there is no real
evidence that the loincloth was re-introduced.” Both Mann’s and Arieti’s statements are inaccurate since Gardiner
did not say “reintroduce” but “introduce” (See Cardiner, AAW p. 191).

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

Attic stamnos of the late 6th century, B.C., E. Norman Gardiner, Athletics of the Ancient
World (Oxford, University Press, 1930) fig. 182. (Courtesy of Oxford University Press).

undertook to strip and ran naked at Olympia, at the fifteenth Olympiad, was
Acanthus the Lacedaemonian.‘14
There is a rival tradition told by Pausanias about Orsippos of Megara, “who
won a foot-race at Olympia running naked at a time when athletes used to wear
loincloths in the old style.” There is a Hellenistic epitaph about Orsippos that
was inscribed on the athlete’s tomb in Megara saying that he was the first of the
Greeks in Olympia crowned naked and that before him all athletes girded
themselves during the games. It is evident that the Megarians were making a
counterclaim to Sparta’s and wanted to show that a native of Megara was the
first naked victor. The story about Orsippos seems ambiguous and doubtful
since there are a number of different stories about his performance in the race.
According to the Homeric scholiasts (on Iliad 23.683) Orsippos not only lost
the race but he tripped, fell, and died when his loincloth came adrift. A different
tale mentions Orsippos not as a winner in the race but as a loser because he
became entangled in his shorts.5
Another tradition points to the Athenians as the inventors of nudity in
athletics. A runner, according to this tale, leading the field lost footing and fell

4. Thucydides 1.5.6. (The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1928) Trans. by Charles
Foster Smith; Dionysios of Halicarnassos 7.72.3 (The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass., and London,
1928) Trans. by E. Gary.
5. Pausanias 1.44.1. (The Penguin Classics. Great Britain, 1971) Trans. by Peter Levi; 1.G 7.52; Joseph
Fontenrose, “The Hero as Athlete,” California Studies in Classical Antiquity 1 (1968): 93; F. Bohringer, “Cults
D’Athlttes en Gréce Classique: Propos Politique, Discours Mythiques,“Revue des Erudes Anciennes 81 (1979):
14.

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

Attic stamnos of the late 6th century B.C., E. Norman Gardiner Athletics of the Ancient
World (Oxford University Press, 1930), fig. 163. (Courtesy of Oxford University Press).

because his shorts floated freely down to his legs; so the Athenian archon
Hippomenes in order to prevent any recurrence of the accident, enforced, by
law, that all men in the future should exercise naked.6
So while the majority of traditional sources assign nudity in athletics as early
as the 8th century B.C., Plato and Thucydides believed that it happened not
long before their own era.
It appears from two Homeric references to boxing and one to wrestling that
athletes girded themselves during their athletic competitions. These three
citations prompted some scholars to conclude that nudity was not a practice
among the Mycenaean Greeks, assuming that Homer described in his epics
Mycenaean sport practices. But there is enough evidence to show that many of
the games and athletic practices described in Homer’s epics were anach-
ronistically introduced by the poet into his epics. The Homeric epics, it has
been pointed out, reflected athletic practices of many ages, including the
poet’s.7 It becomes clear that the Homeric athletes girded themselves for the
contact events. Unfortunately the poet did not say anything about loincloths for

6. lsidoros Orig. Et. 18.172.

7. See Iliad 23. 685; 23. 710; Odyssey 18.76; John Mouratidis, “Greek Sports, Games and Festivals Before
the Eighth Century B.C.” (Ph.D. diss., The Ohio State University, 1982). pp. 193.219, 235-237.

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

the other games. Do we have to assume that they contended naked in these
events? It is hard to say. One might well suggest that the Homeric references to
loincloths in athletics reflect a practice of the poet’s own time since the material
evidence shows that nudity was not unknown in Mycenaean Greece.
It is possible that Ionia, Homer’s own birthplace, was influenced by the exist-
ing practice in the oriental world. In the time of Herodotos (5th century B .C.), the
Lydians, and barbarians in general, believed that it was a disgrace for a man to be
seen naked. This Anatolian attitude towards nudity was apparently shared, to
some extent, by the Greeks who lived in areas under Anatolian influence. An
indication of this influence is that the inhabitants of the coast of Asia Minor
borrowed and adopted various elements of oriental dress as well as various hair
styles. Moreover, the Persian pointed hat and shoes with effeminate connotations
and the long-sleeved chiton were adopted by the Phrygians and Ionian Greeks
during the period of Persian rule.8 Furthermore the luxurious Ionian clothes that
Herodotos often describes were rather characteristic of the oriental world.
Some authors point to Thersites to show that to be seen naked was considered
indecent in the Mycenaean or Homeric times. Thersites was threatened by Od-
ysseus with the public degradation of running naked to the Greek ships. This
punishment must have been a shameful and humiliating one, but this must have
been due not only to his nakedness but also to Thersites’ ugly physical ap-
pearance which the poet described in detail. Thersites appears only once in the
Iliad and even though his presence is brief, it is important because he person-
ifies unheroic, even antiheroic features, and these are reflected in his ap-
pearance. Homer and the later Greek poets and writers made a clear distinction
between the ugly and the beautiful, the young and the old. Homer had a deep
appreciation for physical prowess and beauty as is evidenced in many passages
in his epics. Hector wanted to fight with Achilles and die young and handsome
instead of dying old and ugly.9 Tyrtaios believed that:
It is shocking when an old man lies on the front line before a youth: an old warrior
whose head is white and beard gray, exhaling his strong soul into the dust
clutching his bloody genitals in his hands: his flesh naked. But in a young man all
is beautiful when he still possesses the shining flower of lovely youth.10

Plato also spoke of the old men in the gymnasiums who are wrinkled and
unpleasant to the eye. 11 Plato’s view of the old men in nude was shared by the
artists of ancient Greece, whose sculptures of old men were usually clothed.
Athletic nudity was unknown in Minoan Crete. Even though sports and games
were connected with the great Minoan civilization, there is nothing to indicate

8. See Herodotos 1 .l0. Greek nudity, of course, shocked the Romans, who believed with Cicero and Ennius
that to strip in public was the beginning of evil doing. (See Cicero Tusc. Disp. 4.33.70); Larissa Bonfante,
Etruscan Dress (Baltimore, l975), pp. 83, 101.
9. Iliud 2. 261-263. For Thersites’ case see L. P. Wilkinson. CIassical Attitudes 10 Modern Issues (London,
1978), p. 83: Homer (Iliad 2.216-219) told of Thersites: “This was the ugliest man who came beneath Ilion. He was
bandy-legged and went lame on one foot, with shoulders stooped and drawn together over his chest, and above this
his skull went up to a point with the wool grown sparsely upon it.” (Trans. by Richmond Lattimore, Chicago,
1951); C. M. Bowra, Homer (London, 1972). p. 156; Iliad 22.71
10. Greek Lyric Poetry Edit. and trans. by Willis Barnstone, (Bloomington and London, 1967). p. 40.
11. Plato Rep. 452 b.

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

that the Minoan athletes exercised in the nude. The close artistic ties of Crete with
the Cyclades, in general, and Thera, in particular, seem to gain the approval of
many writers. The recent excavations of S. Marinatos casts new light upon the
relationship of Crete with Thera in prehistoric times. Numerous objects of art
found on the island of Thera show that the links with Crete were very close. An
impressive fresco from Thera, discovered in 1970, and dated 1500 B.C.,
represents two children boxing. Marinatos is of the opinion that this fresco is “the
oldest existing example of art representing the real anatomy of a child’s body."12
Each child wears one boxing glove on his right hand, and a blue cap upon which
curls of short and long hair are apparently attached. Both children, between eight
and ten years of age, wear loincloths. Thus Minoan Crete and the Cyclades offer
no solution to the problem of the origin of nudity in Greek athletics.
Mycenaean and Geometric Greek art clearly show that games in honour of
dead heroes were a common practice among the Greeks. Mycenaean, Geo-
metric, and early Archaic warriors (Fig.4) are sometimes represented as exposed
in the parts below their breastplate. This exposure is particularly noticeable
during funeral games and other religious ceremonies for the dead. On three tall
limestone slabs (stelai), found at Mycenae and dated 1600 B.C., are represented
chariot-races. All three stelai are decorated with chariot scenes. There is one
charioteer (Fig.5) for each chariot and all three chariot drivers are naked and
unarmed, except for the sword. These chariot-races were held as part of the
funeral ceremonies for a chieftain, and as such, were considered proper themes
for decoration of stelai erected over graves. The so-called Silver Siege Rhyton

Early Archaic Corinthian aryballos. K. Friis Johansen, Les Vases Sicyoniens (Paris-
Copenhagen, Edouard Champion, Pio Paul Brenner, 1923) PI. 34(2).

12. See S. Marinates, Excavations at Them. Vols. I-IV (Athens 1967.1971),passim; E. Vermeule, Greece in
the Bronze Age (Chicago, 1964), pp. 77, 116. 120; J. Caskey, “Excavations in Keos, 1963,“Hesperia 33 (1964):
314; S. Marinates. “Life and Art in Prehistoric Thera.” Proceedings of the British Academy 57 (1971): 358.363,
367; idem, “Les Egéens et les Iles Gymnésiennes,” Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 95 (1971):6; idem
“Divine Children,” Archaiologika Analekta ex Athenon 12 (1971): 407.408.

218
 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

Figured Mycenaean Stele (c. 1600 B.C.). George Mylonas,” The Figured Mycenaean
Stelai,” AJA (1951) fig. 3 stele 1429. (Courtesy of the Archaeological Institute of
America).

found at Mycenae shows on the fringe of the water three naked slingers stretched
full height, act as a shielder for four or five naked archers as they draw their bows.
In the same scene a naked warrior comes rushing past them. In addition, the Siege
Rhyton shows six collapsed naked men, who could be interpreted as the dead.13
A fragment of Mycenaean chariot krater from Enkomi (Cyprus) (Fig.6)
depicts a naked standing male figure who holds two variously interpreted
objects in his hands; in front of the nude man there is a robed male figure who
wears a sword; in this composition small vases have been placed in the field; in
front of the robed man there is a two horse chariot within which there are two
robed figures. It has been presumed that this scene depicts a funeral ceremony
and that the vases are prizes at funeral games, like the series of tripods on a
Dipylon vase. The most recent interpretation of this scene by M. I. Davies is
that the nude figure “may well be an ordinary athlete with what in classical
times were two of his common attributes: a pickaxe and either a pointed
marking stake or strigil.” Davies believes that this interpretation “would cast
some light upon the conservative transmission of athletic customs and equip-
ment from the Mycenaean into the classical period.”14
A fragment of another krater from Enkomi represents two nude figures

13. George Mylonas, “The Figured Mycenaean Stelai,“American Journal of Archaeology 55 (1951): 137-147
(hereafter cited as AJA). Also see Vermeule, (Greece in the Bronze Age, pp. 92, 101. 102) who finds Mylonas’
argument “persuasive.”
14. A. S. Murray, A. H. Smith and H. B. Walters. Excavations in Cyprus (London, 1900): p. 9 ;M. I. Davies,
‘Thoughts on the Oresteia Before Aischylos, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 93 (1969): 220,223 (quotes)
(hereafter cited as BCH). For other interpretations of this scene see ibid. pp. 214.223.

219
Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 198.5)

A fragment of Mycenaean chariot krater from Enkomi (c. 1300 B.C.). H. W. Catling and
A. Millett, “A study in the Composition Patterns of Mycenaean Pictorial Pottery from
Cyprus,” BSA 60 (1965) PI. 58 (2). (Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum).

confronted with their arms extended (Fig.7). This scene represents a boxing
contest possibly at funeral games. Pairs of confronted nude athletes that remind
us of the classical boxing scenes form the sole subject of a Mycenaean vase
(Fig.8). It has been suggested that the scene depicts confronted boxers. 5
1

A Geometric krater dated second quarter of the eighth century B.C. now in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York shows a procession of chariots
and warriors. The warriors are nude, but each bears a helmet, two spears and a
sword. Archaeologists interpret this scene as funeral games or a procession
accompanying the body to the tomb. The presence of a tripod in this krater
rather indicates the existence of funeral games. M. Laurent gave examples of
tripods on Geometric vases and convincingly suggested that they were prizes in
boxing contests. 16 A Geometric cup from Athens (Fig.9) (now at the
Copenhagen Museum) represents funeral games. On one side there are two
naked men preparing to stab each other with swords.” An Argive Geometric

15. Murray, Smith and Walters, Excavarions in Cyprus, pp. 9, 37. Also see Arne Furumark, The Mycenaean
Pottery: Analysis and Classification (Stockholm, 1941), pp. 437.443-435 who sees in this scene a boxing contest.
16. G. M. A. Richter, “Two Co1ossal Athenian and Geometric or Dipylon Vases in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art,“AJA I9 (1915): 389,390. PI. xxiii; S. Benton, “The Evolution of the Tripod-Lebes, “Annual of the British
School of Athens 35 (1934.35): 105, 108, 109; (hereafter cited as LISA); Marcel Laurent, “Sur un Vase de Style
Géometrique,“BCH 25 (1901): 143-145.
17. The scene reminds us of the single combat between Aias and Diomedes in the funeral games of Patroclos.
This event did not survive into historical Greece and it is reasonable to assume that it died out along with the hero
of the Geometric period. It is known from literary and archaeological sources that armed combats in the form of a
game were practiced in Mycenaean Greece. Fragments of frescoes from Pylos represent duels of men with

220
 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

A fragment of Mycenaean krater from Enkomi (c.1300 B.C.). H. W. Catling and A.

Millett, “A study in the Composition Patterns of Mycenaean Pictorial Pottery, from
Cyprus,” BSA 60 (1965) PI. 58( 1) (Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum).

shard from the Argive Heraeum represents nude boxers besides a deep tripod.
(Fig. 10). A Geometric vase from Boeotia shows two nude boxers or wrestlers
trying to win a tripod. 18 A Geometric bronze statue from Olympia represents a
nude charioteer with a conical helmet (Fig. 11). Early Proto-Attic and Proto-
Corinthian vases also depict nude athletes. On a Proto-Attic vase (Fig. 12) we
clearly see two nude wrestlersr,19 while an early Proto-Corinthian aryballos
from Ithaca represents two nude boxers beside a tripod. 20
This type of nudity in Greek art shows that the early Greeks believed that
there was in nudity something heroic and sacred. The Greek warrior-athletes of
these periods used their nudity to either inspire fear or horrify their adversaries.
Apparently the Greeks believed that the naked body of the warrior-athlete was
an object upon which the adversary looked with fear and panic. It has been well
suggested by L. Bonfante that:

swords. It is suggested that these duels should be reckoned as sports rather than warfare, and that they find an echo
in the duel of the funeral games of Patroclos. [See T. B. L. Webster, From Mycenae 10 Homer (London, 1958). p.
551. For more on the painted frescoes discovered by Blegen at Pylos, see Carl Blegen, “The Palace of Nestor
Excavations of 1954,“AJA 59 (1955): 31-37. Another Geometric vase found on the Athenian Agora shows a scene
of two chariots one driven by a naked man with a sword, the other by a man with a helmet. (See Ubung, Hesperia
Suppl. 11.69. Grave xiii).
18. See Laurent, “Vase de Style Géometrique,” fig. 1. For nude athletes who try to win a tripod see figs. 3.4.
19. A Proto-Attic amphora from Athens, now in Oxford, shows long-armed nude runners. [See 1. M. Cook,
“Proto-Attic Pottery,” BSA 35 (1934-35): 197 PI. 568. Similar scenes with naked figures in fairly rapid motion
occur on several vases of the same period. [See ibid., PI. 38A].
20. See Benton, “Evolution of the Tripod-Lebes,” fig. 14. To the same period belongs a seal from Corfu, now
in the Ashmolean Museum, which shows two nude boxers beside a tripod [see ibid. p, 1091.

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

A Mycenaean Vase from Enkomi (c. 1300 B.C.). H. W. Catling and A. Millett, “A study
in the Composition Patterns of Mycenaean Pictorial Pottery from Cyprus,” BSA 60
(1965) PI. 60( 1). (Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum).

Attic Geometric cup from Athens. Peter P. Kahane,” The Cesnola Krater from Kourion,”
in Noel Robertson, ed., The Archaeology of Cyprus (Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Press,
1975) fig. 17. (Courtesy of Noyes Press).

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

An Argi`ve Geometric shard. Erich Pernice, “Geometrische Vase Aus Athen,”

Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archailogischen Instituts, Athenishe Abteilung 17 (1892)
fig. 10. (Courtesy of Gebr Mann Verlag GMbH).
The Greeks felt so strongly about nudity that it was thought to have a magical
effect (c.f. the apotropaic use of the phallos, gestures against the evil eye, etc.).
Their athletes were thought to be protected in some way by their nudity.21
Primitive warriors are sometimes represented nude for either “magic, i.e.
apotropaic purposes” or for “psychological shock effect” and “to ward off
danger.”22 The apotropaic powers attributed to the male sexual organ is a belief
still in existence among some present cultures. In New Guinea the naked
Papuan warrior of today wears a “cod-piece” when armed for warfare; these
cod-pieces are made of straw painted in red or yellow and are undoubtedly not
meant to hide the penis; on the contrary they are just as aggressively exhibi-
tionistic as the European cod-pieces of the sixteenth century.23 Marco Polo was
21. Bonfante, Etruscon Dress, p. 102.
22 See Wilkinson, CIassical Attitudes to Modern Issues, pp. 83, 89; Bonfante, Efruscan Dress, p. 102. For
references on the “apotropaic” phallus see Walter Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
(Berkeley, 1979). p. 161, 1x3.
23. Tborkil Vanggaard, Phallos: A Symbol and its History in the Mule World (New York, 1972), p. 166. On
the European cod-piece of the sixteenth century the author says: “While the suits of armour lost the slender
elegance which the Gothic ones had possessed a new excrescence developed below the breastplate-the cod-piece.
It was a conspicuous representation of a penis, big and arching upwards. It cannot have had any practical
significance, but was meant as a phallic exhibition, a demonstration of power, a threat signal of the same nature as
the helmets hammered into the shape of lion masks which appeared simultaneously. The man in armour with his

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

A Geometric bronze statue from Olympia. Nick Stournaras and Nick Corbetis, eds.,
Olympia 1971 fig. 3. (Courtesy of Mike Roberts Colour Production).

cod-piece and the baboon exhibiting his erect penis as an aggressive signal to other baboons to keep off aim at the
same effect” (p. 165). The author also notes that tendencies towards genital activity of an aggressive nature are
repressed in our present civilization and that today’s men are not conscious of potentials like those openly
expressed in the Near East and–at least verbally–among the ancient Norsemen. This means, according to the
author, that rational understanding of the aggressive aspects of phallic symbolism is lost too; and this in turn
indicates that appreciation of the signal function of a phallic symbolism in dominance-submission patterns has
vanished from the consciousness–notwithstanding that these patterns still remain unchanged and alert of action
below the threshold (p. 191).

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

A Proto-Attic Vase. Cecil Smith, “A Proto-Attic Vase,” JHS 22 (1902) PI.11 a. (Courtesy
of the Society for the Promotion of Helenic Studies).

surprised to see in the province of Maabar, India that men went to battle naked
with only a lance and a shield. In the Trichinopoly District of Bengal, when in
the rainy season tanks and rivers threaten to blow up their banks, men stand
naked on the embankments; and if too much rain falls, naked men point
firebrands at the sky, as in the case of rain-magic. This nudity is supposed to
“shock” the forces that sent the rain and cause its cessation. To a primitive
warrior the phallus was an emblem of power having prophylactic virtue against
the attacks of the enemy. Roman soldiers marching into battle carried phallic
symbols on their standards. The peculiar state of the sexual organ of a warrior
engaged in mortal combat is a matter well recognized in the Polynesian
superstition.24

24. H. Yule, Marco Polo (London, 1929), 2: 274,275,278. I. Wise, Notes on the Races, Castes and Trades
of Eastern Bengal (London, 1883). p. 369; W. Crooke, “Nudity in India in Custom and Ritual,” Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute 49 (1919): 248; George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship (New Delhi, 1975). p, 109,
Géza Rohelm, Animism, Magic and the Divine King (London. 1972). p. 21. Also see W. G. Gudgeon, “Phallic
Emblem from Atiu Island,” Journal of the Polynesian Society 13 (1904-1905): 193. Among the Kiwi Papuans of
British New Guinea the penis of a slain foe is cut off and dried. Before a fight a small piece of it mixed with banana
is given to the young warriors to make them stronger. [See Gunnar Landman, The Kiwai Papuons of British New
Guinea (London, 1927), p. 1281. Also see Rohelm, Animism. Magic and the Divine Kiq. p. 20.

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

The apotropaic use of the phallus is clearly exposed in the Greek herms which
consisted of a square stone pillar surmounted by a man’s bearded head and
bearing an erect phallus. They stood in front of houses as house-guards,25 in the
market places, at intersection26 and at the frontiers, always facing away from
the guarded premises. The same type of sculpture can be found in some present
cultures, such as on Borneo and Nias, Bali and the Nikobar Islands as objects of
superstition against the spirits of the Dead.27
W. Burkert wrote on the meaning of the display of phallus:
I cannot find any real explanation before ethology observed that there are species
of monkeys, living in groups, of whom the males act as guards: They sit up at the
outposts, facing outside and presenting their erect genital organ. This is an
“animal ritual” in the sense noted above: the basic function of sexual activity is
suspended for the sake of communication; every individual approaching from the
outside will notice that this group does not consist of helpless wives and children,
but enjoys the full protection of masculinity.28
Scientists also observed that within a group of squirrel monkeys, one animal

25. The continued belief in the apotropaic power of phallus seems to account for its appearance on the
doorways of new buildings in major cities of India. The guardian figures often protecting either side of the entrance
to a Saivite temple in India, have noticeable erect sexual organs. [See Clarence Maloney, The Evil Eye (New York,
1976). pp. 114, 1251. For the same purpose representations of human phalli are curved upon the exterior timbers of
dwelling places in Central Borneo [See Frederic T. Elworthy, The Evil Eye (London, 1957), p. 1071. Legba or
Lekpa is a phallic divinity whose worship is very prevalent throughout the Slave Coast of Africa. The phallus is
seen everywhere, in front of houses, in the streets and public places, sometimes alone, but more frequently in
connection with the image of Legba who is always represented as squatting down and looking at the organ of
generation, which is enormously disproportionate [See Alfred B. Ellis, Ewe-Speaking Peoples of the Slaves Coast
of West Africa (London, 1966). pp. 41-421].
26. It is believed that evil powers are frequently associated with intersections. Custom and law in England
prescribed that the suicide should be buried at a cross-road. Criminals were also executed at intersections. A
similar custom exists among a number of African tribes. Plato in his Laws (9.873) says that if a person murders his
father, mother, brother or son then the officials would execute him, and throw him out, naked, at a specified place
where three roads meet outside the city. So, since intersections are believed to be the dwelling place of evil spirits,
ghosts and demons and as such, are considered unlucky and even dangerous, some expedients are resorted to in
order to ward off their danger. Ithiphallic divinities are frequently found at cross-roads with the purpose of
repelling the evil forces that dwell there. In Japan, phallic symbols were set up on roads and worshipped at
intersections and frontiers as protectors of travelers. The primitive function of all ithiphallic deities which were
placed at cross-roads and frontiers was to provide protection against the unfriendly beings and evil spirits. For
these observations and more, see Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, S.V. “Cross-Roads,” (hereafter cited as
E.R.E.
27. Wolfgang Wickler, “Socio-Sexual Signals and their Intra-Specific Imitation Among Primates,” in
Primate Ethology ed. Desmond Morris (Chicago, 1967). pp. 132, 139. The consecration of the stone-phalli that
appear on the prehistoric Phrygian tumuli served the same purpose. These phalli were primitive symbols of life
and immortality expressing in the clearest way the belief that death was the source of new life. [See Gorges Perrot
and Charles Chipiez, History of Art in Phrygia. Lydia, Curia and Lycia (New York, 1892). p. 48; L. Farnell,
Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Oxford, 1921). p. 3571. We can discover scattered traces of the same
expression of this idea in Greece. A small tumulus near Megalopolis (Arcadia) with a finger of stone standing on it
and called the “Finger Tomb” may be interpreted as a tumulus crowned with a phallus, and it is associated with the
goddesses called the Maniai, whose name raises the suggestion of a Phrygian origin. (See Farnell, Greek Hero
Cults and Ideas of Immortality. p. 357). For the story of the “Finger Tomb” see Pausanias 8.34.2-4. Further
evidence has been provided by the discovery of an inscription (ca. 300 B.C.) found under a stone-phallus on a
small mount that may have been a tumulus near Thespiai, recording a dedication by the religious officials of the
city “to the spirits of the dead.” [See Paul Jamot, “Fouilles de Thespies, “BCH 19 (1895): 3751. Also see Farnell.
Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of immortality. p. 357. In ancient tombs, notably in Egypt, Norway, Italy and India,
phalli have been buried with the dead, perhaps to ward off evil from the dead. [See J. A. Dulaure, Les Divinités
Géneratrices, ou Du Culte du Phallus Chez les Anciens et les Modernes (Paris, 1905), p. 43; Philip Rawson,
Primitive Erotic Art (London, 1973), p. 761.
28. Burkert, Structure and History. p. 40. The same point of view has been expressed by other writers as well
(see Vanggaard, Phallos, Pp. 71-75, 102, 165).

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

indicates dominance by display of penile erection with thigh spreading aimed at

the face of another, lower-ranking monkey. It has been pointed out that there is a
correlation between penile display and rank-position, and that the lower-
ranking group members show much less genital display. In certain monkey
species there is a close connection between ownership of territory, territorial
demarcation, social dominance, and the display of the male genitalia. “Phallic
demonstration to mark frontiers,” W. Burkert argued, “is not to be found among
the apes, who live in the trees, but with farther relatives who hold territories.”
The display of sexual organs is a ritual which derived from sexual activity, yet
serving social and not reproductive purposes. It is the most powerful signal with
respect to group hierarchy, but definitely distinct from the reproductive process.
It is believed that the genital display is an important social signal by which the
animals communicate and that it is ritualized and seems to acquire the meaning,
“I am the Master.”29
The importance of primate studies in anthropology has been often empha-
sized.30 Erections of human penises outside of the sexual activity may occur in
aggressive or threatening situations. 31 Freud wrote that a number of persons
reported that they experience the first signs of excitement in their genitals
during fighting or wrestling with playmates. Erections of human penises are
frequently in association with aggressive or fearful dream situations. It has been
emphasized that penis-exhibition can have a purely aggressive role, and that the
contraction of the muscular tissue of the human member, causing the erection,
may occur without erotic arousal, as an expression of aggression. 32
Many scholars point out that the erect penis may symbolize dominance and
power. Bronze Age people of Scandinavia and northern Italy equated phallic
power with the power of the spear, the sword and the axe as is evident from their
petroglyphs. Other military objects, especially clubs, can carry analogous
phallic symbolism. The club of Legba, the phallic god of African Dahomey,
was many times carved as a phallus and was regarded as an offensive weapon.33
The giant prehistoric figure cut in the chalk downs near Cerne Abbas in England
is ithyphalic and carries, like Heracles, a club. 34 Supernatural power is often

29. Wolfgang Wickler, “Socio-Sexual Signals,” in Morris, PrimaleEthology, pp. 1 I I, 116; Burkert, Structure
and History. p. 45 (quote); H. Detley et al., “Studies in Social and Sexual Behavior of the Squirrel Monkey
(Saimiri Scireus),” Folia Primarologica I (1963): 49, 62.
30. H. Hooton, “The Importance of Primate Studies in Anthropology,” Human Biology 26 (1954): 179-88.
31. Wickler, “Socio-Sexual Signals,” p. 128. Paul D. MacLean, “New Findings Relevant to the Evolution of
Psycho-Sexual Functions of the Brain,“Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 135 (1962): 296 wrote: “One sees
combative behaviour even in the nursing babe, which will angrily fight the breast if no milk is forthcoming, and at
the same time develop penile erections.”
32. S. Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex. Trans. by A. A. Brill (New York, 1948). p. 68; Ernest
Hartman. The Biology of Dreaming (Springfield, Mass., l967), p. 189; idem, Sleeping and Dreaming (Boston.
1970). p. 209; Vanggaard. Phallos, p. 74.
33. Vanggaard, Phallos. p. 14; A. B. Ellis, Ewe-Speakin,g Peoples, pp. 41-42. Also see E.R.E.. S.V.
“Phallism.”
34. Rawsom, Primitive Eroric Art. p. 73. The belief that the phallus symbolizes power is still common among
some primitive tribes. In British New Guinea when the harpoon maker selects a. tree which seems suitable for the
making of a harpoon shaft he presses his erect phallus against the trunk of the tree so that the harpoon shaft might
be straight, strong and perfect (See Landman, Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea, p. 120).

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

conceptualized by the Apaches as phallic in origin. In addition the Apaches

equate arrow and phallus in their everyday conversation. 35
There exists a large phallus symbolism that according to some authorities
even includes sceptre, mace, etc. The Egyptian king of the gods Amon-Re is
depicted in the temple at Karnak with a very large erect phallus3(j Osiris, the
protector of Egypt, was represented on statuary with the phallus exposed and
erect. The exaggerated sexual organs of the early Roman, Greek and Egyptian
phallic deities are in agreement with the importance attached to sexual virility
and power. The Greek herms conveyed a message of power and protection.
Even the herms that Hipparchos, son of Pisistratos set up in 530 B.C. between
the village and market place, “while exhibiting moral epigrams, marked the
territory of the tyrant.” In ancient Scandinavia the statue of god Frey or Frico
was equipped with a large phallus. In the National Museum of Copenhagen
there is a wooden image of a phallic god from the Celtic Iron Age.37
The phallic sign was also a gesture against the evil eye and disease. In some
cases the exhibition of the phallus as a means of combating the effects of the evil
eye took a realistic aspect, as in the baring of the sexual organs, and there can be
little doubt that among some cultures, and on special occasions nudity is
practiced with this specific object in view. 38 Amulets of phallic nature were, and
still remain in some parts of the world, the most common for the prevention of
disease and the protection from death in battle, evil spirits, evil eye and other
supernatural disasters. They have been made and worn all over Europe, as well
as in India, China and Japan as supernatural energizers.39

35. L. Bryce Bayer, “Stone as a Symbol in Apache Folklore, ” in Fantasy and Symbol: Studies in Anthropol-
ogy Interpretation ed. R. H. Hook (London-New York, 1979). pp. 223-25.
36. Wickler, “Socio-Sexual Signals,” 129-3 I, f. 17. For more on the phallic symbolism in Egypt and Italy, see
Elworthy, Evil Eye, pp. 153-55.
37. Scott, Phallic Worship, p. 55; Burke & Structure and History, p. 40 (quote); Vanggaard, Phallos, pp.
84-85: E.R.E., S.V. “Phallism.”
38. Scott, Phallic Worship, p. 105. For more references about the effectiveness of the phallus against the evil
eye see Burke, Structure and History, p. 40; and Bonfante, Erruscan, p. 102. The phallic sign was common over a
blacksmith’s forge in Italy in order to protect the horses that came to him to be shod since the horses were
particularly liable to malign influence; so the smith naturally provided the best possible protection for the horses
by which he got his living. [See George Dennis, Ciries and Cemeteries of Etruria, (London, 1907), 2:119]. In
Rome, Fascinus, later identified with the foreign god Priapus, was a very ancient god and was represented under
the form of a phallus. It was believed his main duty was to avert evil and evil spirits. Victorious generals had the
image of Fascinus before their cars in their triumphant march in Rome in order to be protected against the evil eye
(see E.R.E., S.V. “Phallism”). In the archaic Shinto religion of Japan the phallus was a sacred object and was
offered at village shrines of the rice country to avert catastrophe such as famine or disease (see Rawson, Primitive
Erotic Art, p. 72). On the island of Nias when a disease has broken out, then odd and frightful figures with
extraordinary large organs of sex are set up to frighten away the evil spirit causing the sickness (E.R.E., S.V.
“Phallism”).
39. J. G. R. Forlong, Rivers of Life (London, 1883) I: 189; Rawson, Primitive Erotic Art, p. 76. The evidence
shows that in some cases the phallus and its symbolism are not apotropaic but rather to secure fecundity. A very
common characteristic in the Dionysaic service was the “phallophoria,” the carrying round of the figure in wood
of the male sexual organ, a rite which is a form of the magic of fertilization. A similar ritual has been observed to
be still performed by the Greek Christians in the neighbourhood of Visa, the old Bizye, the capital of the old
Thracian kings. [See R. M. Dawkins, “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult of Dionysus,” Journal of
Hellenic Studies 26 (1906): 191-206; Farnell, Cults of the Greek Stares. 5: 1071. For more on the origin of the
“phallophoria” see Henri Auguste Couat, Arisrophane et I’Ancienne Comedie Attique, (Paris, 1902), pp. 182,276,
381. Similar phallic processions were and in some cases still are performed in order to remove barrenness and
secure fertility. In certain processions in honour of Legba in the Slave Coast of West Africa, the phallus is borne
aloft with great pomp, fastened to the end of a long pole, something that reminds us of the “phallophoria”
described by Aristophanes. (For references in honour of Legba see Ellis, Ewe-Speaking. p. 44). A similar phallic

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

The importance of the human body and its symbolism as an incarnation of

energy and power has been emphasized by many writers. Kenneth Clark noted
that “it was the Greeks, by their idealization of man, who turned the human
body into an incarnation of energy.” Furthermore,
The Greeks discovered in the nude two embodiments of energy, which lived on
throughout European art almost until our own day. They are the athlete and the
hero; and from the beginning they were closely connected with one another. 40
It is probable that the early Greek warrior-athlete or hero-athlete believed that
his nudity acted as a screen which guarded him from many evils and at the same
time provided him with power and energy for his duties.
This belief in the nudity of the warrior-athlete was concentrated on Heracles,
the hero in whose honour the games at Olympia may have been held until Zeus
was brought there and took over the Olympic festival. There is, indeed, a close
connection between Heracles and this kind of nudity. Enough evidence exists to
show that Heracles’ aboriginal aspect was warlike and heroic. Both material
and literary sources indicate that Heracles originally appeared as a warrior. The
most primitive figures found at Olympia represent nude warriors armed with
large helmets, small shields, and spears. These helmeted statues that may
represent Heracles were votive offerings of the victorious athletes dedicated to
him, and took the form of the hero. In a later age, the votive offerings of
Olympia often took the form of the Olympian-Zeus in whose honour then the
Olympic Games were held.41
Heracles has been “traditionally a nude hero”42 and he appears nude in many
vase representations and other artifacts of the 7th century and early 6th century.
Sometimes he appears naked and lightly armed fighting against enemies.43
Heracles appears naked in the temple of Zeus at Olympia in the metope of the
Cretan Bull. Gardiner believed that this story is old and that nakedness by the
artist without any support from tradition is not conceivable. Again, the same
can be said of the scene in the metope where Heracles appears nude receiving
44
from Atlas the apples of the Hesperides. At Corinth, we learn from Pausanias
that there was an archaic naked image of Heracles which was believed to be the

procession has been observed in Nigeria. [See E. R. Dennett, The Religious and political System of the Yoruba
(London, 1910). p, 951. At Trani, by Naples, a huge wooden phallic image called “II Santo Membro” was carried
in procession annually until the eighteenth century. (See Rawson, Primitive Erotic Art, p. 75). During the latter
part of the nineteenth century, in big cities of Japan phallic festivals took place in which enormous floats were
exhibited. At several of these festivals, a surging mass of nearly naked young men carried a gigantic papier-mâché
phallus. sometimes forty feet long. [See Micheal Czaja, Gods of Myths and Stone (New York, 1974). p. 1741.
There is enough evidence to show that phallic processions were customary in many countries and were of great
antiquity. Herodotos (2.48-49) also mentions similar phallic processions in Egypt.
40. Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art (London, 1957). pp. 162. 163.
41. For these observations made about Heracles see John Mouratidis. “Heracles at Olympia and the
Exclusion of Women from the Ancient Olympic Games,“Journal of Sport History 11 (Winter 1984): 41-55.
42. Bonfante, Etrusron Dress, p. 28. The Chaldaeans covered as a rule with ample drapery the forms of their
gods; but for the goddess of love and fecundity, and the demi-god whom many compare to the Greek Heracles,
they had recourse to all the frankness of nudity (see Perrott and Chipiez, History of Art in Phrygia, p. 92).
43. See Ruth Glynn, “Heracles, Nereus and Triton: A Study of lconography in Sixth Century Athens,“AJA
85 (1981): 121-132; John Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Archaic period (New York and Toronto, 1978), p. 261;
idem, Archaic Greek Gems (London. 1968). n 210, 198; idem, Greek Gems and Finger Rings: Early Bronze Age
IO Lav Classical (London, 1970). pl. 266.
44. E. Norman Cardiner, Olympia: Irs History and Remains (Oxford, 1925). p, 221. figs. 111,112

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

work of Daidalos.45 Generally, the hero is depicted nude in early Greek art
which represents old legends. One cannot escape the conclusion that these early
nude appearances of the hero were based on the uncontestable authority of
tradition. On Heracles and his nudity, Evelyn Harrison emphasized that:
There is just one dweller in Olympos for whom the banqueting pose, the heroic
nudity, the short hair and the powerful physique are all truly characteristic and that
is Heracles. He alone comes nude into the presence of Zeus and the other gods.
The nudity of the athlete, the fighter, the laborer is his, and it is the true mark of his
identity, the badge of his career.46

Heracles’ nudity is in accordance with the observations made above about the
phallic symbolism4’ and the nudity of the warrior-athlete. He was the most
popular hero of the Greeks, known as alexikakos and apotropaios (an averter of
evils) as strong and great, as founder of the Olympic Games, as a helper in all
difficulties, as a great athlete, as the protector of the race, as an averter of death,
as a nude warrior-athlete par excellence, as the hero of heroes, and as a
guardian angel.
It is reasonable to assume that since Heracles was the hero in whose honour
the Olympic Games were possibly held, then his protégées, the athletes, were
trying to imitate the nudity as well as some other characteristics of their patron.
From earliest times, the Greek gods and heroes boastfully displayed their
physical energy and demanded such a display from their zealots and enthusi-
asts.
The material evidence indicates that the warrior-athlete was not a prevailing
theme for the artists of the late Geometric period (750-700 B.C.). The athletes
of this period carried no weapons and wore no helmets. More emphasis has
been given to the bodies of the athletes and particularly to their long arms and
strong legs, rather than to their aggressive and warlike features. In the Proto-
Attic and Proto-Corinthian art, there are no traces of the warrior-athlete. The
last fifty years of the 8th century was probably the period when the nudity of the
warrior-athlete developed into athletic nudity. This was the same period when
the widespread practice of hero cults, connected with competitive games
occurred. The popularity of athletics and a number of practical considerations
were responsible for the change from the warrior-athlete’s nudity to athletic
nudity. It is very important to bear in mind that the last part of the 8th century is
by tradition the eve of the beginning of nudity in Greek athletics and is the

45. Pausanias 2.4.5. Farnell (Greek Hero Cults, p. III) regarded this naked image of Heracles as Dorian
dedication of about 600 B.C.
46. Evelyn Harrison, “Athena and Athens in East Pediment of Parthenon,” AJA 71 (1967): 44.
47. Farnell said that the Lacedaemonian cult of the “Finger of Heracles,” supposed to have been bitten off by
the Nemean lion it possibly arose from a phallus on a tomb which accidentally became associated with Heracles
(See Greek Hero Cults p.‘357) Farnell was probably right since the so-called “Finger of Attis” is interpreted by
many as phallus as well (see E.R.E., S.V. “Hand”). The ancients believed that the middle finger of either hand had
a phallic connotation. Ancient Roman authors mention that the middle finger fully extended and held upright
represented the Penis and the closed fingers and thumb on each side signified the testicles. (For references see
Scott. Phallic Worship, p. 108). For more about Heracles and the phallic symbolism see: J. C. P. Deanna, “Du
Divin au Grotesque,” Revue d’Ethnographie er des Traditions poppulaires 7 (1926): 31; Alexandre Colson,
“Hercule Phalophore,” Gazerre Archéologique 3 (1877): 169; J. E. Harisson, Themis: A Study of the Social
Origins of Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1912). p. 383 n. 2.

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 Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics

period that scholars assigned the so-called “heroic nudity” which rather indi-
cates that nudity in Greek athletics had something to do with heroes or warriors.
The late 8th century is also when the start of the series of statues of naked Greek
kouroi appeared. All kouroi do not represent Apollo, since many have been
discovered in cemeteries where they must have served as tombstones represent-
ing human beings. Furthermore in archaic times kouroi were used for victors in
8
the games4
Why was nudity in athletics a unique Greek phenomenon, since the primitive
human response in using nudity for aggression, from which athletic nudity was
developed, was common in other cultures as well? In order to answer this
question, one should consider another aspect of Greek life, rather unique in
Greek lands, the hero cult,49 which was connected with games.‘O Greek heroes
and gods proudly displayed their physical energy and demanded the same thing
from their devotees. The presence of Heracles at Olympia was of prime
importance for the survival of the custom of nudity in Greek athletics because
he was, by tradition, a nude hero and a nude warrior-athlete par excellence
whose nudity was imitated by the athletes.
If nudity was seen as beneficial to the warrior-athlete, why was it retained only
in athletics since classical warriors needed protection and assertiveness at least as
much as athletes? The Greeks while winning their way to classical civilization
retained the custom of nudity in athletics but they were not conscious of the
aggressive aspect of it as were their remote ancestors. In other words, the custom
of nudity persisted into a higher civilization but the practice of endeavouring to
secure protection in this manner had been lost or abandoned. This was the main
reason that the classical warrior had no comprehension of this feeling of
protection. This is also the case with a number of present tribes among whom the
habit of nudity for aggression prevailed but is rapidly disappearing as they
gradually come under the influence of modern civilization. The Classical Greeks
felt so strongly about their nudity that they believed that to be ashamed to be seen
naked in the gymnasium was the characteristic, the proof and the sign of a
barbarian. The reason why the Greeks fell in love with their nudity is not the
purpose of this paper. That task has been well done by other writers. 51

48. G. M. A. Richter, Kouroi:Archaic Greek Yourhs (London, 1960), p. 1. Also see Bonfante, (Efruscan, pp.
20, 28) who writes that the Etruscan equivalent of a Greek kouros wears a perizoma. The second half of the 8th
century, as the period of the change from the warrior-athlete nudity to athletic nudity, should be regarded with
some reservations because the scanty material evidence may be misleading. In addition, one cannot exclude the
role of artistic convention in the material evidence cited here.
49. Herodotos (2.50) mentioned that heroes have no place in the religion of Egypt. Also see Peter Kahane,
“The Cesnola Krater from Kourion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Iconological Study in Greek
Geometric Art,” in The Archaeology of Cyprus: Recent Developments, ed. Noel Robertson (Park Ridge, N.J.:
Noyes Press, 1975). 185. For a thorough investigation of the hero cult in both prehistoric and historic Greece see
Erwin Rohde. Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks (London. 1950), pp. 115-155;
Farnell, Greek Hero Cults. passim; A.D. Neck, “The Cult of Heroes,” Harvard Theological Review 37 (1944):
141-173.
50. See Rohde, Psyche, pp. 116-l 17; Mircea Eliade. A History of Religious Ideas from the Stone Age to the
EIeusinian Mysteries (Chicago, 1978), pp. 285, 313. For references found throughout ancient Greek literature,
concerning the games held in honour of the Greek heroes see: Lynn E. Roller, “Funeral Games in Greek Art,” AJA
85 (1981): 107.119.
51. Fardiner (AAW, p. 58) wrote: “It is not merely that exposure to the air and the sun-bath are. as doctors now
tell us, the very best physic, but it served as a valuable incentive to the youth of Greece to keep themselves in gwd

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Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

Nudity survived in Greek athletics because it was supported by heroic

tradition and religion. So the use of nudity for aggression and apotropaic
purposes which is characteristic of the early stages of human society and which
reflects the animal part of human nature survived with an unusual persistency
and beyond recognition in the historical period and found refuge under the
mantle of one of the most illustrious aspects of Greek civilization: the athletics.

condition. The Greek with his keen eye for physical beauty regarded flabbiness, a pale skin, want of condition, or
imperfect development as disgraceful, and the ill-developed youth was the laughing-stock of his companions.”
Kenneth Clark (The Nude, p. 19) commented: “So our surmise that the discovery of the nude as a form of art is
connected with idealism and faith in measurable proportions seems to be true, but it is only half the truth. What
other peculiarities of the Greek mind are involved? One obvious answer is their belief that the body was something
to be proud of. and should be kept in perfect trim.” Yet, Clark continued, “But in fact Greek confidence in the body
can be understood only in relation to their philosophy. It expresses above all their sense of human wholeness.
Nothing which related to the whole man could be isolated or evaded; and this serious awareness of how much was
implied in physical beauty saved them from the two evils of sensuality and aestheticism (p. 21). James Arieti
[“Nudity in Greek Athletics,” 4361 argues “The public nakedness which does not, in the 1970’s shock us as it
shocked the Romans-though it does, perhaps, seem somewhat uncivilized for the Greeks-enabled the athletes
to show the complete control they exerted over their bodies. Since they were the only people to compete naked,
they could well believe they were the only people capable of such self-control: here, perhaps, was a clear
superiority over the barbarians, who had to hide themselves both to avoid tempting others and to conceal their own
lack of control.” For more references regarding the practice of nudity in Greek athletics, see ibid., pp. 434 n. 10,
435 ns. 13. 14.

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