I have the answer to the obesity epidemic. An Athenian life-style for
all. Well, better make that for all men and boys. A session exercising
naked every day would soon shame us all into getting into shape, for
fear that we'd be ridiculed like the tubby chap on one Athenian pot –
and he wasn't nearly as fat as many a chap that I've seen on the shore
at Weston-super-mare. The Athenian diet of lots of vegetables and fish,
with meat eaten only rarely, would help, too.
I've put a number of photos of Greek athletics and games on this site
today. Some of them are the ones you'll find in all the books, but I
took them myself, and so some are less well known. My latest visit to
the Keiremikos museum provided less familiar pictures. I found it an
interesting little collection, worth a visit, though you do need to
check on opening times.
But then it has just occurred to me that the Greeks may have fulfilled
their aim of making one giant archaelogical park, taking in everything
from the Acropolis to the Keiramikos. It would certainly be nice to be
able to walk the whole of the Sacred Way. Perhaps they'll revive the
Pan-Athenaic procession!
Let's hope, anyway, that everything is ready for this summer's Olympics.
A little postscript. When I visited the Getty Museum in Malibou near
Los Angeles, before it moved to its new quarters, I joined a group
being taken round by an official guide. She seriously informed us that
a Pan-Athenaic amphora was given as a prize at the Olympic Games! It
was at that stage that I wandered off to make my own study of the
exhibits. I fear that holding the Olympics in Athens this year will
compound the confusion.
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