Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Faustulus, Livy, Theocritus
10 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Training of the body was crucial to greek (and roman) ideas of education. In rome: mens sana in corpora sano ( a sound mind in a sound body"). For the greeks athletics were about the hard physical struggle to gain victory over an opponent. Two prominent theories: according to ethologists, sport derives from primitive hunting ritual and is a kind of sacrifice. Rooted in the more violent form of food-collecting. But pastoralism was the dominant form of agriculture in prehistoric. Greece: the games originated in death ritual. In antiquity there was a close link between athletic competitions and funerary practice. The earliest description of athletic competition occurs in the iliad (bk 23). Women competed in separate games at olympia, the heraea (in honour of hera, The four major games occurred on a four-year rotation. Prizes were garlands, at nemea one made of celery leaves.
