The Modern Olympics: The Traditions Of The Modern Games

Modern Day Olympics are a huge tradition that sweeps the screens of televisions across the world. Competitors take the arena with uniforms that dawn their countries colors and designs that are meant to resemble their designated flag. For months the news is centered around the games; the preparation, the athletes, and of course the competition. Countries aren 't obsessed, they are inspired and full of pride seeing athletes from their country compete and show their incredible skill. This tradition dates back to ancient Greece where the games began. Tony Perrottet writes about the traditions of the ancient game in his book The Naked Olympics. Perrottet makes his thesis clear to readers beginning with his book cover. The books cover displays five naked men who are illustrated running using common drawing techniques of ancient Greece; each man is wearing a contemporary pair of running sneakers. This lays the groundwork to make readers think about how traditions mentioned in Perrottets writings connect to the modern games. However Perrottet rarely relates anything in his writing to traditions in modern Olympics leaving readers to infer. The flaw in this is

A great example of this is a sub-chapter in his book titled Sports Bars on Wheels. Up until the games it appears that moderation in terms of alcohol was used. Public drunkenness was discouraged so much that 'meden agan, ' which meant 'all things in moderation, ' was engraved on temple pediments. Throwing this slogan aside the game had wine vendors who somehow became very popular and profitable. A Greek doctor named Mnesitheus had argued that binge drinking had positive and purgative effects on ones health. Wine carts were desisted from at any other time of year but most only used their services during the Olympics when it wasn 't considered so