Ancient Greek athletics offer us a clear window on many important aspects of ancient culture. Ancient athletics were closely connected with religion, the formation of young men and women in their gender roles, and the construction of sexuality. Greek agnostic culture was not so much a field of dreams as a field of desire, where fervent competition for honor was balanced by cooperation for common social goals. In Eros and Greek Athletics Thomas F. Scanlon explores when and how athletics was linked with religion, upbringing, gender, sexuality, and social values in an evolution from Homer until the Roman period. This study shows that males and females made different uses of the same contests, that pederasty and athletic nudity were fostered by an athletic revolution beginning in the late seventh century B.C., and that public athletic festivals may be seen as quasi-dramatic performances of the human tension between desire and death. Eros and Greek Athletics presents findings of importance to all those interested in ancient and modern sports, religion, gender studies, sexuality, and cultural studies generally.

作者：托马斯•F•斯坎伦，加州大学河滨分校古典学、古代文明比较研究、比较文学教授，系主任；俄亥俄州立大学古典学博士。斯坎伦教授的教学兴趣涉及希腊、罗马文学和文化的大部分领域，主要包括宗教、性别、神话、古代体育，以及大多数希腊和拉丁文学的课程，曾指导关于罗马历史学家修昔底德和萨卢斯特的研究生研讨会。主要研究领域为古希腊和古罗马的历史书写、希腊和罗马体育、性别、以及古代宗教研究，同时也是三校区古典学研究生计划的参与者（UCI，UCR，UCSD）。近期部分研究成果有：

• Greek Historiography, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

• ed., Oxford Readings in Sport in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 2 vols.，Oxford University Press, 2015.

• “Ares and the Olympics, or Pelops and Polemos”, Festschrift für Ingomar Weiler, C.Ulf and P.Mauritsch, eds., Leiden: Brill, 2013.

• “Contesting Ancient Mediterranean Sport”, Forward, 1-12 in Zinon Papakonstantinou, ed., Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World, Oxford and New York: Routledge Press, 2010.

• Eros and Greek Athletics, Oxford University Press, 2002.

译者：肖洒，华中师范大学博士研究生，深圳大学讲师。近年来从事英语语言文学相关研究，主要研究方向为语用学、法律语言学以及文学批评等。