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Article: Of sport, service, and sacrifice: rethinking the religious heritage of the Olympic Games.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Proceedings: International Symposium for Olympic Research
- Article date:
- October 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 International Centre for Olympic Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The inspiration for this paper came rather unexpectedly. In February 2006, I made the long trip to my second home, Italy, in order to witness Torino's Olympic Games. Barely a month later, I found myself in California at the newly-renovated Getty Villa, home to one of the world's great collections of Greco-Roman antiquities. At the Villa I attended a talk about a Roman mosaic depicting a boxing scene from Virgil's Aeneid (Book 5). The tiny tiles showed not only two boxers, but also a wobbly-looking ox. "What is wrong with this ox?" asked the docent. "Why is he there at the match?" The answer, of course, is that he is the prize. And the reason he is wobbly is because the victor ...