Blood on the Tracks: Murder, Madness and Ancient Greek Athletics

Blood on the Tracks: Murder, Madness and Ancient Greek Athletics

For all their celebration in art and literature, athletes could also be considered transgressive and dangerous figures of excess in ancient Greek culture. This talk focuses on myths and historical anecdotes about heroes such as Heracles and Pelops (both linked to the origins of the Olympic games), famous wrestler Milo (namesake of that ‘sports' drink!) and others whose misdeeds are scarcely separable from their athletic achievements. Then, as now, athletic fame and infamy often go hand-in-hand.

Associate Professor Patrick O'Sullivan is a graduate of Melbourne and Cambridge Universities, and has held Visiting Fellowships at Wolfson and Trinity Colleges (in Cambridge). At UC and elsewhere he has taught Latin and Greek at all levels as well as courses on Greek Mythology, Art, Homeric Epic, Ancient Aesthetics, Philosophy and Sport. His research interests primarily focus on Archaic and Classical Greek intellectual and cultural history. He has published widely on: Greek epic and lyric poetry, theatre, rhetoric and the First Sophistic, ancient aesthetics and literary criticism, athletics, atheism in antiquity, as well as on Greek and Roman art, including their reception in later antiquity and beyond.

• UC Teece Museum, 3 Hereford St, Chch
• Thursday 17 October 2024, 7pm. Doors open 6.30pm.
• Entry is free, but seats are limited so registration is essential.

This event is proudly presented as part of the Christchurch Heritage Festival 2024. For more information on the Festival offerings, see the programme online at ccc.govt.nz 

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Banner Image: Illustration from 'Peintures de Vases Antiques Vulgairement Appeles Etrusques' by Aubian Louis Millin de Grandmaison, 1808-1810, The Stapleton Collection (French), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons