Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Epode, Pythian Games, Panhellenic Games
Document Summary
In the greek sense, sports are a competition between two people and that is the most important thing: the entertainment of others is secondary to the competition. Made the claim that this competitive sport was meaningful to a man"s identity as a person: a person was judged based on whether or not they were good at sports. If they were good at sports then they would also be good people. To keep track of the year, they would reference the winner of the 200 yard dash in the olympics. They would train in a gymnasium: the greeks invented this place to train, it was a place for competitive sports, catered to the sports found at the olympics. Greek education: went from being just a training centre to a place to train, hold lectures, relax, get food to eat. One theory is that it was democratic. Another theory is that it was a way to show off an athletic body.