Olympics, then and now.(Books about Antiques)

This year Athens was the site of the modern-day Olympics for the first time since 1906, itself a distant echo of the first games, in the eighth century BC in Olympia. Those early days are the subject of an exhibition on view until November 28 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and of its catalogue of the same title: Games for the Gods: The Greek Athlete and the Olympic Spirit, this month's book.

The first quadrennial games consisted solely of a footrace, and throughout their existence the ancient games never included any team contests. However, there are similarities between then and now, some of them awkward. In the old days everybody bribed everybody else, and, if they were caught, they were fined. The money was then spent on a bronze statue to Zeus set up at the entrance to the stadium at Olympia. Apparently there were lots of statues. Some contestants escaped the penalty, notably the Roman emperor Nero, who fell off his chariot during a race in the Olympics of 67. He claimed he had won anyway and was awarded the olive leaf crown by the terrified judges.

Then, as now, prizes at the Olympics were symbolic rather than monetary--wreaths, ribbons, and so forth. However, then as now as well, the winner's sponsor was generous with perks of all kinds. In the ancient Olympics the contestants were professionals who made the circuit of municipal and regional games in Delphi, the Isthmus of Corinth, and Nemea, which sprang up in imitation of the Olympics. In the non-Olympic games they won valuable prizes and lived very well. Only recently have the modem Olympics been opened to professionals, acknowledging the alarming professionalism of some of the "amateurs."

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Today there is lots of money to be made by pitching equipment for athletes in general, and perhaps even more for Olympic athletes. In this the ancient Greeks had the edge, since by regulation they were clothed only in a thick coat of olive oil dusted with dirt or sand. The purported benefits were to protect the body from wind and to inhibit sweating, which was felt to drain one's strength. After their competition the steamy athletes scraped off the oily mess with a strigil, which looks something like a sickle. The strigil was so much part of an athlete's equipment it is shown hanging on the wall behind him in representations on vases. While this may seem grossly unsanitary in the era of showers and deodorants, it had its fans. Socrates, for example, felt that the oily sweaty smell of the athletic field was preferable to the perfumes of slaves and freemen. But then, he was fond of lingering in the undressing room, eyeing the talent, ...