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List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change.
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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: June 08, 2004
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: June 08, 2004
Sales Rank: 490332
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
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 ... Read More
Rating:  -
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 ... Read More
Rating: -
"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 ... Read More
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
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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