so. 1 The lack of material evidence and the conflicting historical sources make such
an investigation a tough undertaking. It's the purpose of this paper to show
that nudity in Greek athletics had its roots in ancient Greece and was
was at the same time his prep for war. The distinction between warriorathlete and sportsman is that both were bare but the former wore in specific events
some parts of his panoply which he discarded as time went on.
The competitions
were bare except for a helmet and greaves, and carried a shield. It's possible
that this sort of race was practiced in some local competitions before its
introduction into the Olympic plan. Similar races were held at Nemea and
according to Philostratos were of great antiquity.2
In Athens an attempt was made at the close of the sixth century to
introduce loincloths into athletic competitions. This is evident from a little
Amount of black found Athenian vases (Figs, 2,3) that depict sportsmen wearing
loincloths. This effort apparently failed, and nudity again became the trend
in athletic contest. It is possible this is what Thucydides and Plato had in mind
when they wrote the intro of nudity in the games had taken place
just before their own time. http://macdotool.com of these vases (520-500 B.C.)
* I am thankful for the useful criticism and opinions of anonymous reviewers of this Journal.
1.
Also see Kenneth Clark, The Nude:A Study of Ideal Art (London, 1957), pp.21. 162, 163.
admirable help toward understanding a phenomenon within a higher culture. When, nevertheless, one tries to find
the source of the trouble, which is disoriented in the dark mists of prehistoric time he cannot use the same reasoning (selfcontrol, health and attractiveness arguments) to clarify it. If one does so he must be read y to admit that all races of the
world started their existence on earth at the bottom of the scale with the exclusion of the Greeks. But the Greeks,
like all other human races, commenced their livelihood at the bottom of the scale and worked their way up from
savagery to civilization and true retained some survivals of that old state. This paper tries to explain the
same problem, which is nudity in Greek sports, 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 abilities, and its protracted
Battle against anxiety.
2. For Philostratos as an inaccurate source see E. L. Bowie, "Greeks and Their Past in
the Second Sophistic," Past and Current 46 (1970): 17. For more on the armed-race see Aristophanes Fowl 291;
8, 24.
Red-body Attic Vase. E. http://serv2.org , "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
Sport.3 This wasn't an attempt to "reintroduce" but instead to introduce
loincloths in the games because prior to these vase representations there is
nothing in Greek art to suggest the existence of loincloths in athletics. The
alleged change from loincloths to nudity is not illustrated in any Greek artwork.
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
Fit exercise." Dionysios of Halicarnassos believed that "The first man who
Thucydides' statement?" See E. Norman Cardiner, Athletics of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1930), p. 191
(hereafter mentioned as AAW). On loincloths see, e.g., J. C. Mann, "Gymnazo in Thucydides 1.6.5-6," Ancient
Review 24 (1974): 77, who wrote: "While the representations of athletes on vases had typically portrayed them
naked, it may be that an effort to reintroduce loincloths were made in Greece before Thucydides' time (as
Indicated by E. N. Gardiner [AAW] advertisement amount 163 .)". James Arieti, "Nudity in Greek Athletics," [431 11.31
said: "E. Norman Gardiner [AAW, p, 191] proposes, on the foundation of a vase belonging to the ending of the sixth century
this time. But Gardiner is himself quite uncertain on this point, raising it purely as a question, and there's no actual
evidence that the loincloth was re introduced." Both Mann's and Arieti's statements are incorrect since Gardiner