The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity

The End of Greek Athletics in Late Antiquity PDF

Author: Sofie Remijsen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-05-28

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 1107050782

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A comprehensive study of how and why athletic contests, a characteristic feature of ancient Greek culture, disappeared in late antiquity.

Ancient Greek Athletics

Ancient Greek Athletics PDF

Author: Stephen Gaylord Miller

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9780300115291

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Presenting a survey of sports in ancient Greece, this work describes ancient sporting events and games. It considers the role of women and amateurs in ancient athletics, and explores the impact of these games on art, literature and politics.

Greek Athletics in the Roman World

Greek Athletics in the Roman World PDF

Author: Zahra Newby

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2005-10-07

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0191515574

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The enduring importance of Greek athletic training and competition during the period of the Roman Empire has been a neglected subject in past scholarship on the ancient world. This book examines the impact that Greek athletics had on the Roman world, approaching it through the plentiful surviving visual evidence, viewed against textual and epigraphic sources. It shows that the traditional picture of Roman hostility has been much exaggerated. Instead Greek athletics came to exercise a profound influence upon Roman spectacle and bathing culture. In the Greek east of the empire too, athletics continued to thrive, providing Greek cities with a crucial means of asserting their cultural identity while also accommodating Roman imperial power.

Athletics and Philosophy in the Ancient World

Athletics and Philosophy in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Heather L. Reid

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-02

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1317984951

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This book examines the relationship between athletics and philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome focused on the connection between athleticism and virtue. It begins by observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming the idea of aristocracy as something acquired by birth to something that can be trained. This idea of training virtue through the techniques and practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient observations with contemporary issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship, and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Ethics and Sport.

The Athlete in the Ancient Greek World

The Athlete in the Ancient Greek World PDF

Author: Reyes Bertolín Cebrián

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2020-07-02

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0806167580

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In the world of sports, the most important component is the athlete. After all, without athletes there would be no sports. In ancient Greece, athletes were public figures, idolized and envied. This fascinating book draws on a broad range of ancient sources to explore the development of athletes in Greece from the archaic period to the Roman Empire. Whereas many previous books have focused on the origins of the Greek games themselves, or the events or locations where the games took place, this volume places a unique emphasis on the athletes themselves—and the fostering of their athleticism. Moving beyond stereotypes of larger-than-life heroes, Reyes Bertolín Cebrián examines the experiences of ordinary athletes, who practiced sports for educational, recreational, or professional purposes. According to Bertolín Cebrián, the majority of athletes in ancient times were young men and mostly single. Similar to today, most athletes practiced sport as part of their schooling. Yet during the fifth century B.C., a major shift in ancient Greek education took place, when the curriculum for training future leaders became more academic in orientation. As a result, argues Bertolín Cebrián, the practice of sport in the Hellenistic period lost its appeal to the intellectual elite, even as it remained popular with large sectors of the population. Thus, a gap emerged between the “higher” and “lower” cultures of sport. In looking at the implications of this development for athletes, whether high-performing or recreational, this erudite volume traverses such wide-ranging fields as history, literature, medicine, and sports psychology to recreate—in compelling detail—the life and lifestyle of the ancient Greek athlete.

A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity

A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity PDF

Author: Paul Christesen

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 692

ISBN-13: 1444339524

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A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity presents a series of essays that apply a socio-historical perspective to myriad aspects of ancient sport and spectacle. Covers the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Empire Includes contributions from a range of international scholars with various Classical antiquity specialties Goes beyond the usual concentrations on Olympia and Rome to examine sport in cities and territories throughout the Mediterranean basin Features a variety of illustrations, maps, end-of-chapter references, internal cross-referencing, and a detailed index to increase accessibility and assist researchers

Sport in the Greek and Roman Worlds

Sport in the Greek and Roman Worlds PDF

Author: Thomas Francis Scanlon

Publisher: Oxford Readings in Classical S

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0199215324

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From the Minoan bull-leaping to the ancient Olympics and the enigmas of their contests, this first volume of Sport in the Greek and Roman Worlds contains nine articles and chapters of enduring importance to the study of sport in ancient Greece, a field located at a crucial intersection of social history, archaeology, literature, and other aspects of Greek culture. The studies have been updated with addenda by the original authors, and two of the articles that were originally published in German or French have been translated into English here for the first time. The studies, selected for breadth and importance of historical topics, include: Greek sport in its epic, heroic, and Bronze Age origins; the ancient Olympics in its relation to religion, politics, and diversity of competitors; Greek events in track and field and equestrian events. A companion second volume complements this one with studies on the social and economic aspects of Greek sport, the role of Greek sport in the Roman era, and forms, functions and venues of Roman spectacles. The articles in both volumes offer an excellent starting point to inspire newcomers to the study of ancient sport, and to give students and scholars an informative set of models for present knowledge and future research.

Sport and Identity in Ancient Greece

Sport and Identity in Ancient Greece PDF

Author: Zinon Papakonstantinou

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-04-24

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1317051122

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From the eighth century BCE to the late third century CE, Greeks trained in sport and competed in periodic contests that generated enormous popular interest. As a result, sport was an ideal vehicle for the construction of a plurality of identities along the lines of ethnic origin, civic affiliation, legal and social status as well as gender. Sport and Identity in Ancient Greece delves into the rich literary and epigraphic record on ancient Greek sport and examines, through a series of case studies, diverse aspects of the process of identity construction through sport. Chapters discuss elite identities and sport, sport spectatorship, the regulatory framework of Greek sport, sport and benefaction in the Hellenistic and Roman world, embodied and gendered identities in epigraphic commemoration, as well as the creation of a hybrid culture of Greco-Roman sport in the eastern Mediterranean during the Roman imperial period.