Lectures on Tap - The Ancient Olympics: Sports and the Ecstasy of Being

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🧠 Lecture: "The Ancient Olympics: Sports and the Ecstasy of Being"

🎙️ Speaker: Professor Sydney Mitsunaga-Whitten

Join us for a riveting evening as Professor Sydney Mitsunaga-Whitten takes us back to the ancient Olympic games, where victory sent spectators out of their seats and out of their minds. The ancient Greeks called this ekstasis—the experience of being carried beyond yourself—and they believed athletic triumphs were powerful enough to demand poetry, song, and public celebration.

In this lecture, we’ll explore what the ancient Olympics were really for, and why athletic spectacle has always been essential—not incidental—to human community. Drawing on ancient Greek victory odes and the philosophy of Georges Bataille, Professor Mitsunaga-Whitten will argue that sports can strip away our anxiety, self-protection, and need for control, returning us to a more fundamental intimacy with one another.

Professor Mitsunaga-Whitten teaches at Occidental College in comparative literature, language, and philosophy, with a focus on ancient Greek and modern Irish traditions. Her work explores how literature and genre can rupture everyday life and invite us to become braver, kinder, and more sensitive human beings.

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