Gymnopaedia

The Gymnopaedia, in ancient Sparta, was a yearly celebration during which naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of dancing. The custom was introduced in 668 B.C.E., [Paul Cartledge, "Spartan Reflections" p.102] concurrently with the introduction of naked athletics, oiling the body for exercise so as to highlight its beauty, and the formalization of pederastic pedagogy.

Etymology

Gymnopaedia (also written Gymnopaediae or Gymnopaidiai) derives from the ancient Greek Polytonic|Γυμνοπαιδίαι. The word "Gymnopaedia" is composed of Polytonic|γυμνός ("gymnos" - "naked") and Polytonic|παίς ("pais" - "child") or Polytonic|παίζω ("paizo" - "dance"). In Greek Polytonic|Γυμνοπαιδίαι is most often "plural" [Singular: see Plutarch, "Moralia" 208d.] .

Apart from "Gymnopaedia", modern transliterations include "Gymnopaidiai" (mostly older translations of Greek texts, maintaining a "plural" form for the word), "gymnopedia", "gymnopedie" and "gymnopédie" (in French, or when referring to the Erik Satie compositions).

Gymnopaedia in ancient Greece

The Gymnopaedia festival

The term appears in texts of Herodotus, and several authors in the Attic and Koiné periods. While for the earliest of these authors the meaning of "Gymnopaedia" appears predominantly as a festival (including several dances, sports, etc,...), in the later periods of antiquity "gymnopaedia" is referred to as a particular dance.

The festival, celebrated in the summertime, was dedicated to Apollo (and/or, according to Plutarch, to Athena). Plato praises gymnopaedia-like exercises and performances in "The Laws" as an excellent medium of education: by dancing strenuously in the summer heat, Spartan youth were trained in both musical grace and warrior grit at the same time.

In ancient Greece, as a general rule, sports were reserved to men, and would be performed naked. Also, men would be the only spectators when such sports were performed publicly. In this sense "gymnos" ("naked") is not an exceptional part of a word to indicate sports in those days: gymnastics is derived from the same. See also Gymnasium (ancient Greece).

Public performance of such sports would generally be in a ceremonial setting, i.e. for the occasion of a religious feast. If an element of competition between the performers was present (which was not so for all ceremonially performed sports), that could as well mean a competition regarding the beauty of the movements, as a competition, for some sports, in the sense of being the fastest or the strongest. This means that many of the sport categories of those days had rather the aspect of a dance, than of a modern understanding of field and track athletics.

Roman era

Some eight centuries after the first gymnopaedia had been presented, it still survived in Lacedaemonia. According to Lucian of Samosata (in his dialogue "Of Pantomime") there still seems some connection to martial arts, as the youths would engage in gymnopaidia immediately after their daily military training. On the other hand, he describes the gymnopaedia as "yet another dance", neither involving nudity, nor exclusivity for men.

ee also

*Spartan pederasty
*Hyacinthia
*For the pyrrhic dance, a war dance spread throughout Ancient Greece, see: Korybantes (which were the mythological performers of these war dances in Greek Antiquity).
*Gymnopédie - 19th century music and poetry referring to gymnopaedia; particularly 3 piano compositions by the Frenchman Eric Satie.

References

* Meursius, Johannes (Loozduynen, 1579 - Soroe, 1639): "Orchestra, sive de saltationibus veterum", Leiden 1618
**Reprint of the 1745 Florentine edition + comments, updates (in English) by [http://www.geschiedenis.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?c=182 Frits Naerebout] and Alkis Raftis, "Joannes Meursius and his "Orchestra, sive de saltationibus veterum" of 1618. Dutch Dance Studies, 3.", (Theatre of Greek Dances) Dora Stratou, Athens (distributed by the Pauper Press), 2003, 85 pg., ISBN 960-86150-5-4
* Muller Jzn., F. and Thiel, J.H., "Beknopt Grieks-Nederlands woordenboek", Wolters Groningen, 2nd edition (20th century, after 1919)
* Müller, Otfried, "Die Dorier", 1824
** "Abridged" English translation, known as "The Dorians": "The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race", 2nd. ed. rev., 2 Vol., translated from the German by Henry Tufnell and George Cornewall Lewis, A. M., publ. John Murray, Albemarle Str., London, 1839.
* Xenophon, "Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians", 4th/5th century BC
** English translation by H. G. Dakyns, E-text version prepared by John Bickers for Project Gutenberg, January 1998, available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1178
* William Smith - "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities":
** [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aid%3Dgymnopaedia "Gymnopaedia" article in 1890 edition]
** [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Saltatio.html "Saltatio" (= Dance) article in 1875 edition]

External links

* The [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6585 2nd Volume of "Works by Lucian of Samosata" (translated in English) on the Project Gutenberg Website] contains the full text of "Of Pantomime"
* [http://www.annaswebart.com/culture/dancehistory/history/index.html Webpage on the History of Greek Dance by Lena Patsidou - Anna Mavromatis]
* [http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/dance-1.shtml Webpage on The Dancing Of Ancient Egypt And Greece - 1924 text]