Classical Studies 2200 Lecture : Greek Athletics

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 2200
• Professor: Christopher Brown

Document Summary

Training of the body was crucial to greek (and roman) ideas of education. Also important is the culture of competition (the games were agones [ competitions ]) 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 honor of hera, zeus wife) Running races were the stadion at olympia (192 m. ), diaulos (there and back), dolichos (12 laps at olympia) Athletics were part of everyday life, but competition was part of elite society.