The Ancient Games

As the Olympics return home to their Greek birthplace this year, we'll find out what the ancient games were really like. Paul Christesen is an assistant professor of Classics at Dartmouth College. He's currently writing a book about the sociopolitical context of athletics in ancient Greece. He'll tell us how the games got started, why Olympia was chosen as the stage for the first games, and why early athletes felt the need to shed their clothes before competing.