Ancient Eroticism, Pagan Workouts & Body Ideals: History of the Gym

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's January and (reluctant) thoughts turn to gym memberships, but what are the ancient origins of this phenomena?

From the naked workouts of Ancient Greece to the bodybuilders of the 19th century, a lot has influenced exercise culture over the centuries - and it's always had a healthy dose of homoeroticism to it.

Joining Kate today is Eric Chaline, author of The Temple of Perfection, to take us inside these spaces and find out more about them.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy, the producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm your host, Kate Lister.
0:02.4	If you would like betwixt the sheets, add free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of original documentaries with top history presenters.
0:16.0	And enjoy a new release every single week.
0:19.8	Sign up now by visiting History hit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:24.7	Hello, my lovely betwixters.
0:26.6	It's me, Kate Lister.
0:27.9	How the hell are you doing?
0:29.4	It's January.
0:30.7	We're after Christmas.
0:32.1	How's the bloat?
0:33.4	How's the hangover?
0:35.1	How are the resolutions going?
0:37.9	Mine are all out the window as well.
0:39.7	But before we can continue at this podcast, I have to tell you.
0:42.7	This is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an
0:46.5	adulty way covering a range of adult subjects and you should be an adult too.
0:49.9	Do you feel safer?
0:51.1	I feel safer.
0:52.1	Right.
0:52.6	On with the show.
0:59.0	Music Do you feel safer? I feel safer. Right, on with the show. Hello, betwixtas.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.