Eros and Greek Athletics

Abstract Until recently, conventional wisdom told us that sports and sex were disassociated, if not antithetical activities: but cultural experience says otherwise, Once I saw Mariel Hemingway in the men’s locker room of the gymnasium at UCLA and was reminded of the Greek vase painting of Peleus gazing at Atalanta in a gymnasium. But our modern athletic heroine was surrounded by a movie crew as, some years ago, they were filming Personal Best (1982). A high point of the film was a passionate, lesbian love scene between Hemingway and another athlete after a bout of arm wrestling. About the same time, North Dallas Forty exposed, among other things, the sexual appetite of football players. The contemporary association of sports and sex is also reflected in the multi-million dollar endorsement contracts by attractive sports idols such as Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, and Picabo Street.