Classics Class Notes: Midterm Three
Athletic Architecture
Anacreon fr. 358
o “Once against, golden haired eros has hit me with the purple ball of
love, and command me to play with a girl with intricately laced
sandals; but she, because she is from well-built Lesbos, she
reproaches my hair, since its white, and gapes after another girl…”
Athletic complex (gymnasion) is comprised of:
o Palaestra
Open courtyard with porticoes colonnades
Peristyle
Exedrae
o Gymnasion
Shares a wall with the palaestra
Two more walls perpendicular to that wall
Dromos (practice- track)
Part of the gymnasion
Xystos: covered tracked
Paradromis: open track beside it
o Bath house
Stadion
Vitruvius, Roman Architect, 1 C AD
Athens 3 Gymnasia
o Academy, Lyceum, Cynosarges
o First two built by tyrant
o State-run with private money
Education
Education in the classical era
o Not compulsory
o Boys 7-14
Private tutoring
Discipline and memorization
Arete and kalokagthia
o Boys 14+
3-4 years at the athletic complex
Plato (academy); Aristotle (lyceum)
Philosophy, rhetoric, athletics
Collective conversational
Athletic complexes
o Training for body and mind
o Social hangouts
o For the body and intellect
o Wealth and leisure (liberal arts) Education in Hellenistic era
o Gymnasiarchos, Paidonomos, Didaskolos, Paidagogos
o Boys (two categories) and Ephebes
o New attitude toward education
o Female education
Homosexuality
Ephebeia
o Sophronistes and kosmetes
Aristotle said that kosmetes over look the general education
for boys and Sophronistes were teachers for military training
o Training and public service
Hellenistic Sport
Begins with the death of Alexander the Great (356-323)
o Conquered Persia and created an empire
o Imposed Greek language as the official language (conquered peoples
still spoke their original language, but their rules and laws were in
Greek)
o Athletics under Alexander
His attitude
“Ill only compete if I compete against kings”
Don’t know if he liked sports
o He saw statues from a polis of people who had
won at the Olympics, and asked what these
athletes did when Persia invaded them (cutting
athletics down)
The army
Military campaign
o Sports was just for amusement to relieve
soldiers
o Hired athletes to come to play in front of the
soldiers
Athletic spectacle
No list of winners, appears they weren’t celebrated
Imports athletes to entertain
When his best friend and lover died, he held a big
competition for his death
Athletic guilds
Guild is a collection of people who lobby
Another sign of professionalism
Hellenization
o Rush to build stadiums and gymnasium’s
o To be educated in as much of Greek culture as possible
Isostephanitic Games o Soteria of Greece, Nikephoria of Pergamon, Sebesteia of Judaea,
Isolympic Games of Naples
o Competitions by new kings
o Good propaganda
o Very well funded, no expense spared for these games
o Had the status of the stephanitic games
Iso= equal to
Had all the benefits of the stephanitic games (same set up,
same competitions, same prizes)
Stadium at Kaisareia Sebasteia
o Got money from the wife of the roman emperor to build it
Maccabean Revolt
o Young Jewish citizens would strip on Sabbath which was very
prohibited
o Wanted an overthrow on their non-Jewish rulers
o Began wearing very Jewish clothing
The fate of Hellenic Sport
o Greek athletics under the roman empire
o The Romans weren’t sure what to make sure of Greek athletics
o They were very fond of poetry and art but weren’t comfortable with
the Greek obsession with athletics and nudity
Professionals and Amateurs
Perks for athletics
o Victors got parades when they returned home
Knocked down part of the wall for the athlete to make his
entrance
o Free meals
Detractors
o Galen: denies any benefits to athletics
Said athletes don’t even know if they have a brain
Professionals and Amateurs
o Were ancient Greek athletes professionals?
In AGA, Miller says that he cant answer that unless professional
can be defined
o Eiselastic
Someone who won a Isostephanitic/stephanitic game
Roman emperors set up a policy for all the stephanitic and
Isostephanitic game
Any Eiselastic athlete, forever after from the list (proof
of winners), when you attend any of the other games in
later years, your food and lodging is paid for as long as
you have to be there for
Expenses involved in an athletic career
Funding for athletes o Managers and state funding
Athletic unions and guilds
Athletics and Society
Story of a guy who selects his son in law by having an athletic competition
Athletic metaphors used in writings
Absolute dates
o Every Greek community had their own way of keeping track of days of
the month, but there were “absolute” dates. The winner of the stadion
at the Olympics was used as a universal dating system
Mimesis
o Greek art doesn’t seem peculiar to use
o It tried to imitate reality
o It was praised by how lifelike or realistic it was
o In other cultures, this was not the case
o They weren’t trying to be realistic
o It was not the goal of the cultures roundabout Greece to produce
realistic art
o Mimesis: imitation (not just art, also theater and poetry)
Kouroi: young boy statues
o Put either as a grave marker or given in thanks or prayer for the gods
o Gradually become more and more realistic (no attempt to get the
musculature right)
Diskobolos
o Original Greek bronze statue is lost
o Roman copies show a man throwing a discus
Doryphoros
o Real revolution in Greek art, with a classical ideal
o Many people still believe that Greek art is the best sort of art
o These statues are not realistic
o Greeks didn’t actually look like this (too tall)
o Its naturalistic, and idealistic
o Their faces are always flaccid, even in the middle of a difficult athletic
event (face looks dignified)
Diadoumenos
o Refer to the same criteria as Doryphoros
Diskophoros
o Refer to the same criteria as Doryphoros
Apoxymenos
o Statue of him scraping oil and dusting himself
In the Hellenistic era, it is still realistic but not as idealistic (no longer the
body beautiful ideal)
Sporting Literature
o Pindar and Epinikian
Greatest Greek poet Epinikian were victory poems
Athletics had a large impact on literature
Isonomia: Athletics and Democracy
o Athletics that was influential in the acceptance of isonomia
o Isonomia means that everyone should be treated equally under the
law
o Kroton was the first polis to embrace isonomia
o To decide what punishment you were to receive at trial, the accused
would pick a punishment and the defendant would pick a punishment,
then the jury would pick which one is fair
Politics and the games
Stephanitic games were prime opportunity for Greeks from all over to come
together and share their Greekness
Free agency in the ancient world:
o Polis called Syracuse tried to convince a bunch of athletes to emigrate
to their community. In general, to be recognized as a member of a
community at least one of your parents had to be born their
o We know very little about free agency regarding managers
o We hear about different Greek communities luring athletes from
another community
o In particular, the crop from which top athletes would be chosen was a
polis called Kroton. This polis dominated the Olympics (non-
equestrian). For a certain period they won 20 out of 71 contests. We
hear a lot about richer communities going to these athletes and
offering them money to change their citizenship
o Syracuse was a very rich community
o One Krotonian succumbed and switched. His community was angry so
they turned his former house into a prison
o One year the ruler of Syracuse tried to bribe many athletes, including
one after he had already won the competition
o He made sure Syracusans had very impressive tents for the Olympics
and brought musicians and singers with them. They were sent down
to sing and play their instruments. The lyrics that they sang were
commissioned by the tyrant of Syracuse and were in praise of him.
Some people laughed, some stripped the tents.
Political Prestige
o Communities minted coins in honour of victors
Boycotts and Bans: Curse of Moline
o Curse of Moline
Put a curse on her townspeople if they participate in the
Isthmian games
Myth
Often we see a top notch athlete who wins at the other 3 games
but doesn’t win at Isthmian games By definition it was impossible for citizens of Elis to win at the
Isthmian games because they boycotted them
Stephanitic upstarts
o Macedonians held their own version of the Olympics at Mount
Olympus
o One polis set up money games (in the classical era) at the exact same
time as the Olympics… but it didn’t work, the Olympics had too much
prestige
o This changed in the Hellenistic era due to the sheer scale of the money
The Peloponnesian War
o Sparta vs. Athens
o Elis and Sparta
o Nemea ravaged
o Elis formed an alliance with Athens in the year 420. They suddenly
announced that the Spartans had broken some part of the Olympics
truce, and if they didn’t come in and apologize they were banned from
the Olympics for that year
o The Spartans refused to pay the fine but abided by the ban
o In the 8 previous Olympics, Sparta had won 7 of the 4-horse chariot
race. At these Olympics, there was a Spartan who had been breeding
and training horses that went to another polis and let them enter his
horses. They won, and then they announced that they were the
Spartans horses. He was flogged.
o Later, Sparta had military troops stationed at Olympia and this same
Spartan set up a statue at Olympia honouring himself
o Passage of a guy bragging about winning in year 416 (the Spartans
couldn’t compete in the year 420). He had entered 7 teams of horses
The 4 Century Breakdown
o Justhbefore Alexander the Great and Macedonia absorb Greece (early
4 Century) in the period just after the Peloponnesian war, everyone
was bitter and conflicts and hatred were still there between people
o From the end of the Peloponnesian war, to around when the
Macedonians took control, a lot of outrageous things happened in the
Stephanitic games
o For example, in 390, Corinth (who runs Isthmian games) was
captured by a foreign power and that power drove out anyone who
ran the Isthmian games and wasn’t in favour of their control.
Corinthians that were left (in favour of the invaders) still
organized games. Then another foreign power (Sparta) kicked
out the original invaders, and reinstated/brought back all the
Corinthian citizens who had been forced to leave originally
(the games are still held)
They wanted their Corinthians to hold the games, so it was
held twice o In the year 364, a foreign polis captured Olympia, decided that they
would run the Olympics…and the Eleans decided that this was
unacceptable, and tried to take Olympia back while the Olympics were
occurring. The Eleans were unsuccessful, but then later, the Eleans
were able to recapture their city. They didn’t recognize those
Olympics (called it the year without Olympics)
o In the year 235, at the Nemean games, there were two different
Nemean games at the same time, and the military commander leading
on one side actively captured and enslaved people who were going to
attend the other games
o There was a real breakdown of standards
Philip II
o Greeks are relieved that the war will come to an end
o Philip did everything he could to please the Greeks. He won at the
Olympics (horse race, issued coins to celebrate that he won. He
compensated an athlete and had him escorted to the games when his
soldiers interfered with him
o Some Greek communities were looting sanctuaries and using the loot
to pay their soldiers. Philip made an effort to defend the holy Greek,
athletic site
o Out of his own pocket he set up many buildings at Olympia
(Philipaeium)
o Real politician: when he took over Greece, he proclaimed that
Macedonia and Greece were a federation. Every Greek polis was to
come to a general meeting that would be held wherever a crown game
was being held. Clever move, not making them come to Macedonia but
making the Macedonians come down to the event
Arete
George Wagner started going to the gym at a period in time when it was very
suspicious to go to the gym
o People thought he was gay because he went to the gym, and even
though he wasn’t he just embraced it and became known as “gorgeous
George”
Sports as a cultural bellwether (strange how when a problem in baseball
occurred, a political scandal happened very close in time to it)
o Black sox scandal: 1919
Teapot dome scandal: 1921
o Jackie Robinson 1947
Civil rights act 1964
o Pittsburgh drug trials 1985
Nancy Reagan “Just say no”: 1986
o “Juiced by Jose Canseco: 2005
Restrictions on genetic experimentation
o Heavy fines for concussion: 2010
??? Mythologizing athletes
o Pindar (Fl. 498-446)
Famous poet
o Epinikian structure
Wrote these poems for athletes for money
In his poems the losers were slinking home by back alleys
He talks about the winner and his family and their hometown,
including the God from that town
o Pythian 8 (8 poem about a Pythian victory)
You have won a prize of honor at Megara, and in the valley of
Marathon; and at the local contest of Hera you were dominant
in action with three victories, Aristomenes.
The valley of marathon: east coast of Greece right next
to Athens
Hera is the patron goddess of Argon
Laying down credentials as an athlete
And you fell from above on the bodies of four opponents, with
grim intent; to them no cheerful homecoming was allotted, as it
was to
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