[MGSA-L] The Modern Olympics: As Greek Revival and as Greek Religion" Lecture by Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr. at Ohio State University

[Roland Moore]

From: anagnostou.1 at osu.edu

The Modern Olympics: As Greek Revival and as Greek Religion" Lecture by Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr. at Ohio State University

http://greekandlatin.osu.edu/annual-thomas-e-leontis-and-anna-p-leontis-memorial-lecture-modern-greek-studies

THE TWENTY-FOURTH
THOMAS E. AND ANNA P. LEONTIS
MEMORIAL LECTURE IN MODERN GREEK STUDIES

Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr.
William M. Scuttles Chair of Religious Studies
(Georgia State University)

The Modern Olympics:
As Greek Revival and as Greek Religion

Thursday, March 29, 2012
3:30 p.m.

The Ohio State University
Faculty Club Grand Lounge
181 South Oval Mall

A reception at the Faculty Club Grand Lounge will follow

The Speaker

Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. is the inaugural holder of the William M. Suttles Chair in Religious Studies at Georgia State University. The author of seven books and over seventy essays on a wide variety of topics, Ruprecht is especially interested in the modern appropriation of Classical culture, especially in philosophy, literature, the visual arts and religion. The most relevant studies include Afterwords: Hellenism, Modernism and the Myth of Decadence (1996), Symposia: Plato, the Erotic and Moral Value (1999), Was Greek Thought Religious? (2002), God Gardened East (2008), and Winckelmann and the Vatican's First Profane Museum (2011).

Ruprecht has been a scholar in residence at the American Academy in Rome, the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, and has taught twice at the Ionian University in Corfu (in 2002 and 2003). He was recently a Stanley J. Seeger Research Fellow in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University in the fall of 2010, and is currently a long-term Research Fellow at the Vatican Library and the Vatican Library's Secret Archives.

The Lecture

The Modern Olympic Games, revived in Athens in 1896, are the most popular and arguably the most successful cooperative international endeavor in modern times. The rich traditions that led to the introduction of the games into the modern world have not been fully understood. Yet this history is vital to understanding what the Modern Olympics were designed to be. The ancient Games, held quadrennially in Olympia, had a religious meaning for the ancient Hellenes. The sanctuary and the Games were shut  down by order of the Roman emperor Theodosius in 393 CE, for religious reasons. The revival of the Olympics in 1896 had also a religious dimension. An examination of how this revival was justified in the popular mind can tell us a great deal about how both religion and Hellenism were being re-conceived in the later 19th century.

The Lecture Series

The Thomas E. Leontis Lecture in Modern Greek Studies was established in 1987 by the Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University with gifts from Dr. Thomas E. Leontis.  In 1995, Anna P. Leontis made additional gifts in memory of her late husband to create the Thomas E. Leontis Endowment in Modern Greek.  In 2012, the Lecture was renamed to Thomas E. and Anna P. Leontis Memorial Lecture in Modern Greek Studies.  The purpose of the Endowment is two-fold: first, to serve as a catalyst in the Modern Greek Program at the University in generating a keener awareness of the importance of Greek history and culture, especially since 1204; and second, to bring annually to the Ohio State campus a distinguished speaker of international reputation who will contribute to the cultural growth of the University and the community by offering new ideas and historical and cultural interpretations of important past and current situations. In addition to the lectureship,
 the Endowment supports regular conference activities.

For more information, please visit http://greekandlatin.osu.edu/events  or contact Professor Gregory Jusdanis at jusdanis.1 at osu.edu