Lets get rid of the fascist Olympic torch

I don’t quite understand how we have forgotten that the “Olympic Torch” ceremony was invented by Hitler and his chums.

If ever there was an “invented tradition” well worth stamping out, it is this ridiculous, Fascist-inspired waste of money – which sends a Bunsen Burner around the world at tremendous cost for several months before the Games, manned (and womanned) by people dressed up in pseudo-ancient Greek costume, no doubt feeling very silly.

In London, we are now told, it will soon be doing a mini tour, carried by a London bus, Docklands Light Railway and Dame Kelly Holmes (inter alios).

I can’t quite work out whether most of the press reports are pleased at the pro-Tibetan protests which dented the hi-tech assisted, sunbeam lighting ceremonial (plucky little Tibet poking the Chinese dragon where it, for once, might hurt); or whether they are a touch censorious at this upsetting of the peaceful, non-political programme of the Olympic Games that we have inherited from the ancient Greeks; or whether they are wondering what might happen to the UK in the ceremonies to come in 2012  (don’t forget Iraq, Mr Blair/Brown….).

Hardly any commentator stops to mention that this silly torch ceremony has nothing to do with the ancient Greeks, and was really invented to be a magnificent shot in Leni Riefenstahl’s movie (choreographed by Carl Diem). This is one of Hitler’s most pervasive legacies.

They also don’t stop to mention that the ancient Olympics – far from being that sweet haven of peace -- were pretty political anyway. Even in their hay-day, they were often interrupted by the rough hand of Politics.

The classic case is the eligibility of Alexander the Great’s ancestor, Alexander 1 of Macedon.  When he turned up to compete in the early fifth century BC , the other Greeks said that he was a foreigner and so wasn’t eligible. Eventually the gate-keepers allowed him to take part, but -- although he finished first (equal) – he didn’t  get his name written into the official list of winners. (Hence, he is an awkward example on both sides for the modern argument about whether “Macedonia” is “Greek”. Does Alexander 1 prove the Greekness of the Macedonians, or vice versa?).

But there were plenty more political controversies.  The worst was in 364 BC when the Games happened while Olympia was under enemy occupation, or more accurately in the middle of a war zone. In fact, the Arcadians (Olympia’s neighbours in the Peloponnese) invaded during the Pentathlon event and some of their soldiers looted the sacred treasures. So much for the “Sacred Truce”.

That was only the tip of the iceberg. In the 380s Lysias, the Athenian orator and democratic hero, harangued his fellow countrymen, urging them more or less to wreck the Olympic village. Four and a half centuries later, the Olympic officials appear to have turned a blind eye and let the emperor Nero win whatever competition he wanted -- in return for some rather generous investment at the Olympic site.

We may not like the politicisation of the Olympic games, but let’s not pretend that this is a modern invention.

Comments

[growltiger]

The National Socialist origins of the torch do not surprise, except in the sense that this knowledge provokes the thought: how fitting! Am I alone in drawing the inference that the games, along with their torch, are so impregnated with fascism (small f) that they should be extinguished also? And would it not be excellent if that could occur in time to save London from the Olympic curse?

[Henry Jorgenson]

An editor's remark: The phrase "vice versa" is, I believe, misused in the above article. The article says:

"Does Alexander 1 prove the Greekness of the Macedonians, or vice versa?"

Vice versa means "the reverse the previous statement formed by transposing the main items." Thus, the "vice versa" of this sentence would be, "Does the Greekness of the Macedonians prove [the Greekness] of Alexander 1?" I don't think this is what you meant, since it would be a odd argument to wish to support Alexander I's claim to Greekness 2500 years ago by using modern Greece's claim on the word "Macedonia."

I think the phrase you intended was actually "or the contrary?" This would establish two different competing arguments: Does Alexander I's participation in the Olympics prove modern Greece's claim to the exclusive Greekness of the word "Macedonia," or, to the contrary, does the fact that Alexander I was said at the time to be a foreigner disprove their claim?

[Nigel Kennell]

On the eve of yet another (probably rain-soaked) trip to Olympia with a class of students in tow, I was hearted by Mary B's comment. The torch race was/is nothing but "a wonderful idea of Dr. Goebbels." Next time you're in Olympia go to the wonderful, ideosyncratic "museum" of the modern Olympics, just up from the main drag. Among the displays, which look like castoffs from a high-school science fair, is a set of Olympic torchs. The first, made by Krupp, of course, has on its handle the Olympic rings gripped in the talons of the German eagle.
The one difference between the games of 1936 and 2008? The IOC awarded the Games to Berlin *before* the Nazis took power.

[Frau Silke]

there goes another of my cherished memories:
after strolling around the ancient agora in Athens I had just stepped on the side walk of noisy (Ermou?) street when there was a little traffic lull and some slow moving cars and a skinny man in white runner's shorts passed carrying a torch. It was rather moving to see something so small being carried around the world and to imagine that it somehow linked the Greek past to my present
- it must have been in 1972 and there were no cheering crowds no TV-cameras just a little car escort and running man and it looked quite insignificant compared to what media reports of back then had made me to expect
- so does it live up to its media image today and if so, what has happened that it got blown up to Riefenstahl-dimensions again?

[adq]

On the subject of sport, there were no playgrounds or fields at my school. I had to spend rest time in the library and was stopped from playing games. It takes someone bright enought to get this. Only then will he join my reading class and browse through the treasury of my books.

[Tony Francis]

War in Europe is an interesting question. Arguably, it was the nuclear stalemate between the US and the USSR which led to a 50 year period when the map in Europe wasn't changed. This is the first time in history that had occurred. With the fall of the USSR, Europe has been re-drawing the map. Before 1800, it is likely that no one in France or Germany considered themselves French or Germans. They belonged to the locality. I know my relatives from Europe were exquistely aware of where everyone came from, and judged them accordingly. This "nationalism" theory is a little controversial:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation
It was advocated by Ernest Gellner, a Cambridge man, who was cotroversial in himself.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Gellner
Before the Industrial Revolution, no one travelled very much. Hence, without national identity, and little travel, there were no Olympics. At least, that is the theory. Whether Europe can unite under the recent spate of pacifism is an interesting question. It goes against 5000 years of history. Time will tell.

Tony, Europe is still at war, permanently, and I'm not just talking about the obvious class war. Civil wars in Spain, Ireland (till very recently), Yugoslavia, Russia; and big army wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain is still run for the US and NATO, and the military is still ruling the roost of public opinion (though this is decaying fast, as the recent decision for them not to wear uniforms in public cos of the provocation it arouses shows).

Sport was more utilitarian before - hunting, swimming, running, lifting heavy stuff, training in close combat of various kinds, with and without weapons. And dancing, singing and acting were more collective and competitive.

The scourge of the Olympics is the disconnect between nation-states and the local loyalties that are meaningful to most people, and the professionalization and privatization of social sport, in other words, the deliberate exclusion of the masses from participation, except as frustrated voyeurs (cf gladiatorial games).

[Craig Wherlock]

When the Olympic torch came to Thessaloniki there were more cops than spectators. I saw swarms of riot police protecting what is supposedly the symbol of peace and friendship.

Greek journalists have been protesting attempts by the state run media here to bury any mention of protests.

[Cec Hogarth]

"Quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt". So relays of runners passing on torches (whether competitively or ritually) were already familiar to Lucretius and implicitly to his readers in the late Republic.

[Tony Francis]

Europe was in a continuous state of perpetual warfare from before the time of the Roman Empire, until recent times. During the moyen age, any sport was closely associated with warrior skills: archery, jousting, using clubs, stone throwing, etc. Violence was a reality. St. Catherine of Sienna (1347-1389) preached a new Crusade to rid Europe of roving bands of criminal/warriors who randomly burned down villages and killed the occupants.
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/mediaevalwarvalues.htm
The fact that most peasant activity (which was the great majority of the population) was directed at farming (much of it subsistence), there was little or no time for sports in the modern sense of the word. Local sports like primitive bowling or ice hockey were used for amusement during festivals. The growth of leisure time, which followed the Industrial Revolution gave us modern sport.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolution

[Mary]

I think I shall, pro tem, stick to Hay Day, as a reminder of my rural roots. Because, as it happens, I was born in Much Wenlock and indeed competed in the Oympiad when small ("felt animal, made by under 12 year old" category, vel sim).
I dont think AEH had anything to do with it (not cerebral enough for him). The eminence grise was a Dr Penney Brookes (sp??), whose rightful glory was oversahdowed by Courbertin.

[Alan Myers]

Incidentally, Olympic Games were held at Morpeth in Northumberland from 1870-1959 (including 1936). Wyndham Lewis mentions seeing advertisements for the games in, I think, 1914. He appears to think Morpeth is in Scotland.

There may be other local Olympic Games as well as Morpeth and Much Wenlock.

[Alan Myers]

Wasn't it the Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great who abolished the 396AD Olympic Games, since they were a pagan ceremony?

As filmed by Riefenstahl, the thrilling torch relay across Europe ends with the final carrier, prior to lighting the Olympic flame, raising the torch in the gesture Siegfried makes with his sword in Wagner's opera.

Of course, this might be accidental.

[Tony Francis]

The issue of the Olympic Flame seems to be in disputed fact. Some sites indicate there was an ancient flame which remained at Mount Olympus, and was never transported. Others indicate the flame was transported to the locus of the games. The flame was re-introduced in the 1928 games in Amsterdam. The modern relay of the flame was invented by Carl Deim and filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. According to the Wiki site, Diem may have planned the torch event for the 1916 Berlin Olympics which were cancelled because of WW I.
http://www.janecky.com/olympics/flame.html
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/olympicsceremonies.html
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Summer_Olympics
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame

[Tom Roper]

I have long wondered whether A.E. Housman had anything to do with the Wenlock Olympics, which are supposed to have inspired Pierre de Coubertin.

[anthony alcock]

The motorway idea is a little older than the Nazis. The road now known as the A555 (12 metres wide when it was constructed) was built between 1929 and 1932 and opened by Konrad Adenauer (then Mayor of Cologne).
Mary, do you know why the Olympic Games fell into disuse for such a long time ? Was there so little interest in sport as a national or international pastime for so many centuries ? I daresay Spivey might know.

[Tony Francis]

http://www.dictionary.die.net/heyday
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heyday
There is a "hay day". The site tells us all about it, except, unfortunately, where it is located:
http://www.haydays.org/

Wiki to the rescue:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickford_Township%2C_Michigan

[Richard]

*DO* correct spelling. It is good for teachers to experience this. Hay-days are for hoarses.
R

[adj]

Please do not correct Mary Beard's spelling.

[adj]

So long as we import good material, Mary. Well done.

[Michael Bulley]

Hey! It's not hay-day, it's heyday!

[nick]

Directly or indirectly Hitler and the Nazis along with their allies shaped much of the modern world. Much of their legacy is best viewed as a horrible example of just how easily a demagogue can warp an entire nation.
Other parts of their legacy such as motorways are enduring and worthwhile and the Olympic flame is just that.
I am sure that better classicists then myself could find dozens of examples of things from the ancient world that are viewed today completely differently from their original purpose, the Olympic games being a fine example of this.

[Dorothy King]

Can't we just get rid of the modern Olympics altogether, and replace them with the Nemean Games?

[Xjy]

All's fair in love and war - and "sport" :-)

[Paul Potts]

Another of Hitler's "abiding legacies" was his was his reading of Darwin in "Mein Kampf" {or however you spell it} - which makes it impossible in Africa to talk about Evolution - Hitler's thinking about Darwin is in my experience, taken for granted in Britain at least. I remember a childhood encyclopedia which demonstrated how the white man developed from the apes via the blacks. Hitler lost the war, but he won that one.

Hence, I am sure, the power of "creationism", which is not so much a doctrine as the denial of one.

Much more but better stop.

Paulo