2022.11.21 | By Gregory Nagy Essay 6. The epinician or epinikion: singing the athlete’s victory 6§0. There was an ancient Greek poetic tradition, historically attested, that concentrated specifically on athleticism, It was a kind of songmaking that coordinated the ritualized experiences of athletes with the mythical experiences of heroes. Modern… Read more
2022.11.14 | By Gregory Nagy Essay 5. The hero’s engagement in athletic competitions 5§0. As we have seen by examining the relevant interactions of myth and ritual in ancient Greek thinking, athletes who participate in athletic competitions are undergoing a ritual ordeal that re-enacts the mythical ordeals of heroes. This… Read more
2022.11.07 | By Gregory Nagy Red-figure neck amphora in the manner of the Dinos Painter: Pelops and Hippodameia in his chariot. Athenian, ca. 420–410 BCE. Now in Arezzo, Museo Nationale Archeologico, inv. no. 1460. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.Drawing from A. Furtwängler and K. Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, vol. 2,… Read more
2022.10.17, 10.24, 10.31| By Gregory Nagy William Warby from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons MojNews, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons PAP, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons William Warby from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr. Ailura, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT,… Read more
2022.10.10 | By Gregory Nagy §0. This essay picks up from where I left off in the previous essay. In the last paragraph of that essay, I focused on a myth that told about a defeat of the Centaurs, beastly hominoids who were half horse, half man. Such a mythological… Read more
2022.10.03 | By Gregory Nagy §0. I have by now lost count of how many times in my life I have visited the Museum at Olympia. And I cannot keep track of knowing what different things I remembered to view, or forgot to view, each time I was there. But… Read more
2022.09.26 | By Gregory Nagy §0. In the preceding essay, I was looking at the Olympics from the standpoint of an earlier time in Olympia, around 600 BCE, which is approximately the time when the Temple of Hērā was built there, and I stopped looking, for the moment, at the… Read more
2022.09.19 | By Gregory Nagy Reconstruction of the Chest of Kypselos, after Wilhelm von Massow, “Die Kypseloslade,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 41 (1916), Taf. 1. §0. The Chest of Kypselos, crafted in the early sixth century and once on display inside the Temple of Hera, is… Read more
for 2022.09.12 | By Gregory Nagy §0. The ruins of the Temple of Hērā in Olympia, even today, are prominently visible, occupying a sacred space that is located to the north-west of the sacred space occupied by the ruins of the likewise prominently visible Temple of Zeus. These two spaces… Read more
2022.09.05| By Gregory Nagy §0. In this essay, I will quote and translate and comment on an ancient text about female athleticism. The source for this text will describe, uniquely, a traditional athletic event, involving only female participants, that was truly and distinctly “Olympian.” The event, as our ancient source… Read more