Nudity, political intrigue, sports equipment that resembled weaponry–it had all the ingredients for a new reality show. But no, this wasn’t a Fox TV promo. It was the very educational exhibit on the history of the Olympics at Chicago’s Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.
“All the athletes competed in the nude,” explained museum official Toni Callas to a group of mostly female 7th graders from St. Ignatius’ summer Higher Achievement Program, adding that the spectators wore birthday suits as well. “Only men were allowed to compete or watch.”
Callas asked the group if they knew why the ancient Olympics in Greece featured even less clothing than today’s version, in which swimmers and sprinters streamline their uniforms in search of that elusive winning edge.
Carmen Fitzsimmons, leading the St. Ignatius group, said she’d heard it was because a woman had once sneaked into the arena.
That was one theory, Callas nodded. But there were two others that neatly demonstrated the intellectual contributions of ancient Greeks to world civilization.
“They believed the body itself was a beautiful thing, a work of art,” Callas noted. “Also, you could not tell how wealthy people were when they were naked. It leveled the playing field. They were all equal.”
Earlier, another section of the “Olympic Games: Then and Now” exhibit at the museum had been an eye-opener for the 7th graders as it showed how political clout and one-upmanship had been alive a century ago when St. Louis neatly hijacked the 1904 Olympics, which had been bound for Chicago.
“I really didn’t know how St. Louis had done that,” said Robert Olson, 12. “I’m surprised.”
Other parts of the museum offered more interaction. Students dashed to the headphones to hear Bill Kurtis’ narration of “The Ancient Games: A Walk Through Olympia,” while 3-D visuals developed by Columbia College Chicago gave guests a “you are there” sensation.
Elizabeth Arellano and Joseph Tengbeh, both 12, gravitated to the heavy stone discus and wooden javelin that re-created some ancient Olympic sports equipment. Both said they were basketball fans but, after testing the spear’s heft, Arellano said she might just try the javelin when she joins the track team next year.
“That would be kind of cool,” she said with a smile.
Still unpacking
If the number of artifacts in the 8,000-square-foot museum above the Greek Islands restaurant seemed a bit, well, spartan, there was a reason for that. The museum is still settling in after its move from North Michigan Avenue last November. It remains the nation’s only Greek museum, in a city that once had the largest Hellenic population outside Athens. (New York has since surpassed Chicago.)
“That’s why we’re still unpacking here and trying to lay out the place to be more workable,” explained Jim Mezilson (this name as published has been corrected here and in subsequent references in this text), one of the 12-year-old museum’s founders, who now serves as a full-time volunteer at age 85.
But executive director Elaine Kollintzas Drikakis said the museum won’t get too comfortable. It’s in the process of raising $15 million as it prepares to move again, this time a block away to Van Buren and Halsted Streets, where a new four-story museum will begin to rise in a year or two. The city donated the land.
“The mayor wanted it to be an anchor in Greektown–he didn’t want it to go anywhere else,” added Mezilson, a much-loved figure in the Hellenic community who was nicknamed “the Greek Kup” for a social column that he wrote for 60 years in the Greek Press. “You’ll be able to see it from the Eisenhower. It’ll be lit up at night like a beacon.”
“Our vision,” Drikakis added, “is to create galleries where people can actually walk into an old grocery store or Greek-owned ice cream parlor or candy shop and experience that by the artifacts.”
Ah, yes, the fabled candy shop. Why did so many Greeks, including Mezilson’s parents, own confectionery stores? That’s easy, he explained. Another 30-second history lesson.
“You’ve got to remember that, after World War I, they put in Prohibition,” he said. “There were no saloons, no nightclubs. If people had to go out anywhere, you went out for ice cream and candy.”
In fact, he added, Dove Bars were created by a local Greek candy-store proprietor, Leo Stefanos.
`It’s your mirror’
Drikakis said she hopes that groups like the St. Ignatius summer campers will savor the culture they’ve learned at the Hellenic Museum like a favorite ice-cream dish–and apply those lessons to their own communities.
“What we want to get across to young people and to children is: Look into your own culture. There’s history there. There’s beauty there. There’s something you should appreciate and not let go of because it is a way of understanding who you are. It’s your mirror.”
In Greektown, Mezilson said, the locals like what they see in the mirror. They’re excited about the Olympics, and young people are flocking to volunteer at the Games.
“The Greeks are a very proud people,” he said. “A couple weeks ago, they won the soccer championship in Europe, and the whole area just went wild–there were Greek flags all over the place.”
A soccer title, the Olympics returning to Athens, a new museum. The celebrations in Greektown may be going on for a while.
———-
The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center is at 801 W. Adams St., on the 4th floor. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 for non-members, free for members. 312-655-1234.
