Gymnopédie: Encyclopedia II - Gymnopédie - Perceptions of Antiquity in the 19th century

Gymnopédie - Perceptions of Antiquity in the 19th century

Regarding Greek Antiquity Otfried Müller was esteemed as one of the major authorities for many decades continuing after his accidental death in 1840. Otfried Müller wrote most of his works in German, which was in low esteem in late 19th century France, and hardly understood by anyone in Paris. Surely not by Satie, who was a notable Sauerkraut adversary, where Sauerkraut meant anything German. Fortunately there were translations and divulgations of what Müller and other researchers of Ancient Greece had uncovered since late 18th century, when the Enlightenment had triggered an amplified interest in Antiquity.

George Cornewall Lewis was the English translator of Müller's Dorians, one of the most influential introductions into the culture of Ancient Greece. But then, for the English translation, Lewis had been successful in convincing Müller that all references to "pederasty" (as it was still called then) had to be left out, as correspondence from Lewis to Müller shows^[1].

The prudishness of the Victorian age more or less barred topics like nudity when the insights about Ancient Greek culture were further divulged outside the context of scholar research: when the William Smith Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London, 1875) - which is still a rather academic publication - describes nudity one gets a weird story of nudity meaning "light dress" for the Romans and "without arms" for the Ancient Greeks. Smith sees no contradiction in printing a small woodcut in the article on dance ("saltatio") showing some Greek dancers wearing "only" armor, without any other dress. But then, that entry, that effectively mentions the gymnopaedia, does not go in the topic of nudity in Ancient Greece, though being very complete in all other sorts of references.

Even if France, in general, was probably less prim in those days^[2], F. Fertiault, when publishing a "picturesque and anecdotic" dance history book in Paris in 1854^[3], succeeded in describing the history of Ancient Greek dance, including the "gymnopédie", without mentioning or illustrating nudity, leave alone homosexuality, once. Neither the martial aspects, nor the context of religious ceremony of the Ancient Greek gymnopaedia were mentioned, for that matter.

That book^[3] gives on page 21 following definition of the Gymnopédie, which the author designates as a tragic (i.e. worthy and elegant) scenic danse from Greek Antiquity:

The historical validity of such books, although giving a separate definition of the gymnopédie/gymnopaedia, and mentioning the saraband as a dance "probably" coming from Spain - remains however questionable. Even the fact that Fertiault gives an early 17th century (Latin and Greek) publication by Johannes Meursius as source for his "simplified" description of Ancient Greek dance, does not make this description more convincingly comprehensive... Another "popularising" publication of the time has been tracked down, this time a music dictionary proclaiming that the gymnopaedia was danced by "girls", and yes, "naked", but then in the "unarmed" meaning^[4]. Whatsoever, it might be that Satie nor Contamine reading nor understanding Ancient Greek (Latin, German,...), neither had access to more "revealing" sources.

Gymnopédie also appears as a not so frequently used word in 19th century France, to the point it might have been perceived as a neologism by many. Further, in the Contamine poem gymnopédie is used in singular, while the original Greek word (γυμνοπαιδία - "gumnopaidia") is always plural.

All this might indicate that Satie and Contamine chose the word gymnopédie maybe rather for its intangible exotism, than for connotations they were probably hardly aware of themselves.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Perceptions of Antiquity in the 19th century", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki