The Modern Nemean Games
The Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games was founded in 1994, after more than 20 years of archaeological excavation at Nemea. The contemporary games, held every four years since 1996, are a form of popular education in history, as well as a counter to the commercialism of the modern Olympics. Races are organized according to age and gender, open to international participation. No medals are awarded, only crowns of palm branches and wild celery.
In 2008, some 600 people clad in tunics raced barefoot in the ruins of the ancient stadium on June 21. Two races were staged for the runners aged from 10 to 80, one of 100 metres (110 yards) and the other of 7.5 kilometres. The most striking feature of this attempt was the revival of the Hoplitodromos race.
Read more about this topic: Nemean Games
Famous quotes containing the words modern, nemean and/or games:
“Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism—victimless collecting, as it were ... in a world that is well on its way to becoming one vast quarry, the collector becomes someone engaged in a pious work of salvage. The course of modern history having already sapped the traditions and shattered the living wholes in which precious objects once found their place, the collector may now in good conscience go about excavating the choicer, more emblematic fragments.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)