ABSTRACT
The Olympic revival in the nineteenth century incorporated a cultural dimension from inception. As noted in chapter 1, the modern Games were always intended by Pierre de Coubertin and his collaborators to be more than a collection of sporting competitions. Rather, they would take up the ethos of the panegyris from the classical festival – a festive assembly in which the entire people came together to participate in religious rites, sporting competitions and artistic performance. To recreate this characteristic in a modern idiom represented a considerable challenge, but Coubertin felt that much could be done, fi rst, by adding ceremonies to dignify the Games and so provide some continuity with the past, secondly, by creating festivities to accompany the Games and, thirdly, by introducing artistic competitions as part of the Olympic programme.
