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It's all Greek: books for an Olympic summer
REVIEWS BY HOWARD SHIRLEY Greece is the birthplace of western civilization, the place that launched our history, art and philosophy. Every four years we celebrate these roots with the passing of a torch and the playing of games—and this summer most of all, as the Olympic Games return to Greece. What better way to honor the occasion than to explore the myths and the history of this ancient land. Ancient history
By Nigel Spivey Oxford, $28 256 pages, ISBN 0192804332 Cast in stone
By Susan Nagel Morrow, $24.95 320 pages, ISBN 0060545542 Mythic proportions
By Phil Cousineau Quest, $17.95 176 pages, ISBN 0835608336 It's a mystery
By Petros Markaris Grove, $23 400 pages, ISBN 0802117783 Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.
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The hosting of the Olympics in Athens, after a modern absence of 108 years, is reason enough to explore the origin of
the Games themselves. Nigel Spivey does this admirably in
The Ancient Olympics,
tracing the games' origins from a local footrace to the leading sporting event of the ancient world. The book offers not
only insight into the ancient games at Olympia, but into Greek attitudes about athletics, religion, social class and
physical beauty, and how these same attitudes, for good or ill, have survived into our own time. Spivey's book is an
interesting study of history, art, literature and philosophy that scrapes away the layers of myth covering the reality
of the ancient games.
Greece, of course, is known not only as the birthplace of history and philosophy, but of classic art. Few
works of Greek art have inspired as much interest or controversy as the famed "Elgin Marbles" in the British Museum.
These magnificent fragments and sculptures from the Parthenon were transported to England (or stolen from Greece,
depending on your point of view) in the early 1800s by the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire,
Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin. Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess
of Elgin, by Susan Nagel, tells the story of Mary Nisbet, Lord
Elgin's young wife and one of the wealthiest heiresses in Europe of that era. It was Mary who funded the
collection of the marbles and beguiled the Sultan himself into permitting their removal en masse. But
even more lasting than Nisbet's diplomatic successes may have been the impact of her tragedies. Shortly
after their return home, Lord Elgin stunned both Mary and British society by accusing her of adultery
with his best friend. The scandal rocked the British ruling class; Elgin lost his political future,
and Mary lost her family. But the sensationalism and injustice of their battle sowed the long, slow
seeds of reform, eventually leading to changes in British divorce law and the acknowledgement of
property rights for women. Nagel has crafted a fascinating biography of a charming and
intelligent woman, who pushed aside the expected boundaries of her sex and influenced
the world in many ways.
Where Spivey cleans away the myths of the Olympics, Phil Cousineau seeks to restore them.
In The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the True Spirit of the Great Games,
Cousineau convincingly argues that sport is more than just amusement or exercise, but a transcendent act of body, mind
and spirit that lifts participant and spectator alike in ways both more lasting and profound than the simple running
of a race or throwing of a ball. In the vein of Joseph Campbell (The Faces of Myth), Cousineau calls on us to treat
the Olympics not only as an opportunity for entertainment and global competition, but as a grand mythic ritual of the
human spirit. His book is thought-provoking, challenging and inspiring, with just enough philosophy to make one ponder
the meaning of the modern games, and lift their viewing to more than just a night in front of the TV.
Noted Greek writer Petros Markaris uses a thoroughly modern and thoroughly corrupt Athens as the
backdrop for an international mystery in Deadline in Athens. The
novel introduces the overworked and underpaid Athenian homicide inspector Costas Haritos, who wants to do
nothing more than quickly close his cases and get his boss and the media off his back. But he can't abide
the unanswered questions in his head. Soon what looks like a simple crime of passion among poverty-stricken
Albanian immigrants turns into an international investigation. Well-crafted with a set of memorable characters
and satisfying plot twists, Deadline in Athens provides just enough hints to keep you guessing and more than
enough suspense to keep you reading.