Arete: ancient writers, papyri, and inscriptions on the history and ideals of Greek athletics and games

251 Pages·1979·1.146 MB·English

by  Miller, Stephen Gaylord

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Arete
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A R E T E
Greek Sports from Ancient Sources
Third and Expanded Edition
Stephen G. Miller
University of California Press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles,California
University of California Press,Ltd.
London,England
© 2004 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arete :Greek sports from ancient sources / Stephen G.Miller,
[editor].—3rd and Expanded ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0–520-24154-1
1.Sports—Greece—History—Sources. 2.Sports in literature.
I.Miller,Stephen G.
gv21.a73 2004
796'.0938—dc21 2003019000
Manufactured in the United States of America
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-
free (TCF).It meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–
1992 (R1997).
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Contents
Abbreviations vii
Introduction ix
I. The Earliest Days of Greek Athletics: 1–2 1
II. Nudity and Equipment: 3–19 16
III. The Events at a Competition 23
a. Running:20–31 23
b. Wrestling:32–36 27
c. Boxing:37–43 32
d. Pankration:44–46 37
e. Pentathlon:47–65 39
f. Equestrian:66–72 50
g. Herald and Trumpeter:73–74 57
h. Music:75–76 58
i. Poetry and Prose Composition:77–78 59
j. Acting:79 61
k. Painting:80 61
IV. Organization of a Panhellenic Festival 63
a. Preparations at the Site:81–82 63
b. Preparations of the Athletes:83–86 65
c. The Truce:87–89 67
d. Preliminaries:Registration and Certification:90–94 69
e. Schedule,Heats,and Pairings:95–99 70
f. Prohibitions and Penalties:100–104 73
g. Officials:105–109 75
h. Rewards for Victory:110–118 76
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V. Local Festivals 81
a. The Panathenaic Games of Athens:119–123 81
b. The Eleutheria of Larissa in Thessaly:124–126 86
c. The Bomonikaiof Sparta:127 88
VI. The Role of the Games in Society: 128–148 89
VII. Women in Athletics: 149–162 105
VIII. Athletes and Heroes: 163–175 111
IX. Ball playing: 176–178 120
X. gymnasion, Athletics, and Education: 179–189 126
XI. The Spread of Greek Athletics in the Hellenistic
Period: 190–199 153
XII. Greek Athletics in the Roman Period: 200–204 160
XIII. Amateurism and Professionalism: 205–223 165
XIV. nationalism and Internationalism: 224–231 181
a. Relations between the Panhellenic Sanctuaries:232–236 184
b. Relations between City-States and the Panhellenic
Sanctuaries:237–242 186
c. Relations between City-States at the Panhellenic
Sanctuaries:243–247 190
XV. Beauty and Reality: 248–256 192
Appendix:The Olympian and Pythian Programs 201
Select Bibliography 203
Index and Glossary 209
Sources for the Chapter-Opening Sketches 235
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Abbreviations
BCH Bulletin de correspondance hellénique
BSA Annual of the British School at Athens
CID Corpus des Inscriptions de Delphes
CR Classical Review
ID Inscriptions de Délos
IG Inscriptiones Graecae
IvO Inschriften von Olympia
PLond London Papyri
POxy Oxyrhynchus Papyri
PZenon C.C.Edgar,Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes
du museé du Caire,nos.59001–59139;Zenon Papryi I
(Cairo 1925)
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
SIG3 Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum
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Introduction
The Greek word aretecomes down to us inextricably connected to the ath-
letics of ancient Greece and laden with a plethora of meanings.A definition
of arete would include virtue, skill, prowess, pride, excellence, valor, and
nobility,but these words,whether taken individually or collectively,do not
fulfill the meaning of arete.Areteexisted,to some degree,in every ancient
Greek and was, at the same time, a goal to be sought and reached for by
every Greek.It cannot be translated by a direct one-to-one equivalent into
the idiom of modern American English,and even though the context of a
particular use of the word may refine its meaning in that context,the word
aretestill carries with it a notion of ephemeral excellence and of transient
triumph that makes its translation an exceedingly risky business.In addi-
tion,the word aretehas imbued ancient athletics with an aura of the quest
of man for perfection,a quest which—at least in the eyes of moderns—was
isolated from more practical matters such as politics and economics.Arete—
incompletely understood—has thereby dimmed our picture of the realities
of antiquity and has robbed us of many of the real lessons to be learned
from ancient athletics.
At the same time aretehas come to represent—again to modern schol-
ars—an artificial division by which the study of athletics has been divorced
from the remainder of the ancient world.Scholars who would be quick to
insist that all evidence for our knowledge of the political, literary, philo-
sophical,and cultural institutions of Greece must be examined with great
care accept an arete-colored image of the Greek athlete without question.
And the facts that education in antiquity was set in the gymnasium,that the
Akademy of Plato was first and foremost a place of exercise for the body,
that the literature of fifth-century Athens abounds with direct references to
and metaphors derived from athletics, and that football players do have
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