CompleteMartialArts.com - The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games
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Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.48
EAN: 9780812969917
ISBN: 081296991X
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2004-06-08
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: 2004-06-08
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Editorial Reviews:
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What was it like to attend the ancient Olympic Games?
With the summer Olympics’ return to Athens, Tony Perrottet delves into the ancient world and lets the Greek Games begin again. The acclaimed author of Pagan Holiday brings attitude, erudition, and humor to the fascinating story of the original Olympic festival, tracking the event day by day to re-create the experience in all its compelling spectacle.
Using firsthand reports and little-known sources—including an actual Handbook for a Sports Coach used by the Greeks—The Naked Olympics creates a vivid picture of an extravaganza performed before as many as forty thousand people, featuring contests as timeless as the javelin throw and as exotic as the chariot race.
Peeling away the layers of myth, Perrottet lays bare the ancient sporting experience—including the round-the-clock bacchanal inside the tents of the Olympic Village, the all-male nude workouts under the statue of Eros, and history’s first corruption scandals involving athletes. Featuring sometimes scandalous cameos by sports enthusiasts Plato, Socrates, and Herodotus, The Naked Olympics offers essential insight into today’s Games and an unforgettable guide to the world’s first and most influential athletic festival.
"Just in time for the modern Olympic games to return to Greece this summer for the first time in more than a century, Tony Perrottet offers up a diverting primer on the Olympics of the ancient kind….Well researched; his sources are as solid as sources come. It's also well writen….Perhaps no book of the season will show us so briefly and entertainingly just how complete is our inheritance from the Greeks, vulgarity and all."
--The Washington Post
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The truth about the Olympics
Comment: I've never been a sports fan, so I thought I might find this book rather a bore. But in fact there isn't a dull moment in this very entertaining account of what the Olympic Games were like in ancient Greece.
It is fascinating to learn that the games themselves were only a part of the events that took place, with religious celebrations predominating. Enormous numbers of animals were sacrificed to the gods in the course of the games. The events were a lot more colourful than the modern Olympics, with violence and bloodshed not uncommon. Men competed in the events naked, which you may or may not find an agreeable thought. Married women were not allowed to attend the Games, though women had their own seperate festival where foot races were run. Single women were allowed to attend, and there were prostitutes in plenty.
This is the sort of book I love, packed with fascinating facts that make me exclaim "Gosh, I never knew that!" at frequent intervals. Well worth reading.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pretty much a drawn-out high school school book report
Comment: When I picked up this book (thankfully from the library), I thought that, like any decent non-fiction book, a book about the Ancient Olympics would probably be written by someone who knew what he was talking about. Nope. This guy is not a classical scholar. His "primary sources" are all translations. Further, he began studying the Ancient Olympics explicitly for the purpose of writing this book, which means he does not have a broad background of knowledge.
The book is essentially a very long list of regurgitated facts about the games. While the facts themselves are interesting, the writer is not. He didn't have enough to say to fill up an entire book, so he repeats many of the facts throughout the text. His style of presentation is completely unispired and a little disorganized. Further, there are obvious errors. The most glaring exmaple is the discussion of the javelin throw. Perrottet wrote, "Ancient authors claimed that throws of over 90 meters/270 feet were possible, about half the length of the Stadium and far beyond the modern record of 60 meters." (110) Remember that old game from "Highlights" magazine, "What's Wrong With This Picture?". Let's play. First - no source given on the measurement. Second - elsewhere in the text the author claims the Greeks didn't much care about measurements, throws were generally not measured, and ancient measurements should not be given much worth. Third - 90 meters is not 270 feet!. 90 meters is about 295 feet. The 270 figure is not even close. If he said "over 90 meters/300 feet" I would buy that as about right, but the 270 feet figure is simply inexcusable. Fourth - the modern javelin record is not 60 meters . That's two egregious factual errors in the same sentence. The modern javelin world record is 98.48 meters. This isn't just a boo-boo typo. It means the author's entire claim - that the ancient javelin went further - is completely bogus. Why should I believe any of the other things this guy wrote down?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Whipping away the shroud of time
Comment: "The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games" by Tony Perrottet is a wonderful book describing the ancient Greek games. It's aptly titled, too, in two different ways. First, in the ancient Olympics, the contestants performed nude, without clothing that would prevent spectators from admiring their glorious physiques. But more importantly, Perrottet lifts the respectable veneer that is so often draped over classical times. Many writers have difficulties describing the past. Either they write with such awe that the ancients seem to have been gods, instead of mortals, or the writers write in such a way that we seem to be viewing through a dust-covered lens that makes everything seem old and faded.
Perrottet, though, brings the past alive in a way that makes the reader see and hear and even taste, feel and smell - especially smell! - what it was like to participate in these ancient games. Through a variety of different ancient sources, including contemporary texts, vase paintings, statues and a visit to the ruins of Olympia, he is able to give us a well-rounded experience. He guides us through the importance of the games in honoring the gods, how athletes trained, including specific, faddish diets that they followed, the evolution of the different events, the role that women played (unfortunately very little), the discomfort felt by the crowds, and even how physicians treated injuries. "The Naked Olympics" is great fun, and even though the Olympics are not being held in Athens this year, it's worth reading this book to appreciate them wherever they take place (the winter Olympics are taking place in Turin, Italy in 2006).
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Comment: The more books I read about ancient history, the more I come to realize that the best ones are NOT written by historians! Archaeologist Tony Perrottet does a great job describing life in Ancient Greece and the evolution of sport in western society.
I picked this up right after the '04 games in Athens, still in the grip of Olympics fever. But don't wait until '08 to read this wonderful book.
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Summary: Appropriate release time
Comment: Now that the summer Olympics are upon us, this book, which tells the reader about the original Greek Olympoics in Olympia, is particularly welcome. It goes through a typical Olympics, showing the religious aspects of the games, and also the various events that were held.It doesn't stint on the darker side of the games, but the approach to the book is rather light-hearted, and even with that a lot of new information is imparted to the reader. It's well worth reading, and I highly recommend it.
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