Pax Olympica?: The Rhetoric and Ideology of the Olympic Truce

IT IS DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY A MORE persistent value in today’s international sporting culture than the pursuit of peace and, in recent decades, the Olympic “truce” (ekecheiria) has re-emerged as a political tool for promoting peace through sport. This chapter tracks its rhetorical and ideological legacy, from ancient appeals to Panhellenism to its receptions in the modern Olympic rhetoric; my goal is to illustrate some of the most salient connections between ancient Greek athletic culture, modern Olympic sport, and the philosophy of peace. After all, our modern athletic culture owes so much to antiquity that, if the ancient Greeks believed