Something old is new again. Both Greece and the Olympics. So in hope that the present will also be great, why not cover all the bases by invoking the blessing of the Warrior Queen defender of Athens. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The 19th century is very early for commemorative stamps. Great Britain, the inventor of the postage stamp did not have one till 1913. The fact that Greece had a large and diverse set of commemoratives for the Olympics in Athens in 1896 shows how important the event was. The stamps show the modern stadium and athletes, but also call back to the ancient games. It was a good early effort. It probably did not fail to occur to the Greek postal authorities that the country would be playing host to many, and an attractive set of stamps would be a good memento, all the revenue of which would pass directly to the government. The earlier stamps of Greece had all featured not their German Kings but a Royal style medallion profile of ancient Greek God Hermes
Todays stamp is issue A5, a 20 Lepta stamp issued by Greece in 1896. The stamp shows a vase displaying Pallas Athene. It was part of a 12 stamp issue in various denominations issued in celebration of the 1896 Olympics held in Athens. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $8.25.
The inspiration of the ancient Greek Olympics was still widespread in the nineteenth century. Pseudo Olympic games were held between British public schools beginning around 1850 as a way for exersize and to teach constructive competition. This inspired French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin. He was depressed by the defeat of France by Germany in 1870 at a time when Britain was on a roll. In his mind he equated the relative success with the athletic training the British aristocracy had received in the public schools of their youth. He began a program of lobbying to have a broad program of physical education.
Coubertin was not having much luck in his efforts. He hit upon the stunt of conducting a modern Olympic games tied to the 1900 Paris Exposition and formed an international committee to organize it in 1894. It soon became clear that 1900 was too far off to sustain momentum and so 1896 was chosen for the first games. After a flirtation with a London location, the committee picked Athens as the first site. 14 nations sent 241 athletes to compete in 43 events. No women competed as Coubertin thought it impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect. Already in 1896 there was pushback to this. A Greek woman named Stamata Revithi ran the same marathon as the men the next day. Her time was over an hour longer than the medalists but she unsuccessfully petitioned to have her participation recorded. At the time, there was only a silver medal for first and a bronze for second, no gold medals. The Panathenaic Stadium is on the site of an ancient Athens stadium and is made completely of marble. The 19th century Greek government refurbished it and it still stands having also been used for some events of the 2004 Olympics.
Pallas Athene was the warrior princess palace guardian of the city of Athens in Greek mythology. Athena was born as a result of a union of Zeus and Métis the Goddess of crafty thought. Zeus later worried that the union was not a good match and so swallowed Métis. She had already conceived though. Zeus then had terrible headaches and his doctors took an axe to his forehead. Doing so revealed Athena, fully formed and even armed. Images of Athena were later taken to Rome and are even thought to be the partial basis for later images of the Virgin Mary, Britannia, and even Catherine II of Russia. Freud put forth a theory that her image was centered around her scary motherly genitals.
Well my drink is empty and I think I will abstain from any more to avoid headaches and thoughts of Freud. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.