Sport and Society in Ancient GreeceSport and Society in Ancient Greece provides a concise and readable introduction to ancient Greek sport. It covers such topics as the links between sport, religion and warfare, the origins and history of the Olympic games, and the spirit of competition among the Greeks. Its main focus, however, is on Greek sport as an arena for the creation and expression of difference among individuals and groups. Sport not only identified winners and losers. It also drew boundaries between groups (Greeks and barbarians, boys and men, males and females) and offered a field for debate on the relative worth of athletic and equestrian competition. The book includes guides to the ancient evidence and to modern scholarship on the subject. |
Contents
Ways of seeing Greek sport | 1 |
The evidence and its limits | 46 |
Reflections of victory in literature and art | 74 |
Divisions of age and sex | 104 |
Class difference dissent democracy | 141 |
Conclusion | 176 |
| 179 | |
Some important dates | 183 |
List of works cited | 186 |
| 208 | |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Aegisthus Aeschin age classes ageneioi Alcibiades ancient Greece Arist Atalanta Athenian Athens athletic and equestrian athletic competition boxer boys bronze champion Chapter chariot race classical compete competitors contests crown games Crowther cult Delphi diaulos discus early Eleans Elis elite epinician equestrian competition equestrian events evidence festival fifth century foot-races four-horse fourth century girls Greek Greek athletes Greek sport Hellenistic Heracles Heraea hero Hippias's honour hoplite horses inscription Isthmia javelin jump Kyle labour literary Moretti myth Nemea Nemean games Odysseus Olympia Olympic programme Olympic victors Orestes palaestra Panathenaea Panathenaic pancratiast panhellenic pankration Paus Pausanias Peleus Pelops pentathlete pentathlon perhaps period Philostr Philostratus Pind Pindar Plut poem prizes Pythian games race in armour ritual runner S.G. Miller sanctuary Simonides Sparta Spartan stadion race stadium statues story texts Theban trainer vases wage-labour winner women wrestler wrestling Xenophon young youths Zeus