{"title":"Sparta’s Contributions to Greek Sport","authors":"Paul Cartledge","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.2","url":null,"abstract":"Spartan public education was notably physical in focus, and internalized Spartan core values. Athletic nudity and anointing athletes with oil may have arisen from the culture of olive-oil-rich Sparta. Spartan athletic fervour possibly prompted Tyrtaeus’ critique of athletics. Sparta was an early and avid supporter of the Olympics (see the Lycurgus legend) and its citizens accrued forty-five of the known Olympic victories in the first two centuries of the festival, followed by a precipitous drop-off of athletic victors for a couple centuries thereafter. In equestrian events, they garnered seventeen or eighteen victories from 548 to about 368, capped by the first Olympic victory by a woman, Cynisca, in 396. Olympia was the Spartan venue of choice: there are oddly no known Spartan victors at the other major Panhellenic festivals. The site of their most avid participation was Lacedaemon itself, evidenced primarily by the ‘stele of Damonon’ (c.400– c.375), recording numerous victories at nine local festivals. A Leonidaea commemorating Leonidas was instituted from the third century bce to the second century ce. Physical education for Spartan girls is alluded to by Xenophon and Aristophanes, and evidenced by bronze figurines of the sixth century bce.","PeriodicalId":272437,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World","volume":"117 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134468889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Games in the Republic","authors":"A. Futrell","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.29","url":null,"abstract":"From its earliest days, Roman spectacle served a range of social and political ends; even as these shared experiences solidified group identity and channelled public emotions toward positive ends, organizers, performers, and attendees also claimed these events as opportunities to advance individual ambitions, to press for greater access to public resources, and to assert the legitimacy of various narratives about Roman identity and power. Evidence for theatrical events is of particular interest, because of the intense verbal component in these shows. Elite leaders organized spectacle space to secure preferred messaging, to spotlight elite social dominance, and to restrict popular capacity to divert such venues toward the support of other class goals. Utilizing ritual habits of group expression, however, organized sub-elites in the audience worked to seize control of dramatic scripts, redirecting the stage narrative to refocus and challenge contemporary political discourse and reclaiming architectural messaging to undermine elite intentions.","PeriodicalId":272437,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World","volume":"352 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122847754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic Aspects of Athletic Competition in the Archaic and Classical Age","authors":"Lucia D'Amore","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.4","url":null,"abstract":"An economic study of the Panhellenic contests in the archaic and classical periods requires an analysis of the relationship between economics, politics, and society of the Greek cities from a diachronic perspective. The competitive spirit formed an integral part of Greek life and culture and reflected the different social classes across various ages. The Homeric athletic contest is reserved for heroes and the aristocracy. In the eighth century the agōn is still dominated by a warrior aristocracy and landed classes, although members of the lower class were not restricted from participation. Subsequently with the birth of the polis, and through the development of crafts and trade, there emerged new social classes that undermined the archaic aristocratic values and introduced wealth based on coinage. The establishment of cash prizes offered to Panhellenic victors corresponded to the new conception of the timocratic polis. In the fifth century the emergence of Athenian democracy offered new possibilities to citizens with the opening of gymnasia and the establishment of liturgies.","PeriodicalId":272437,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127006391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Greek Festivals in the Hellenistic Era","authors":"Z. Newby","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.12","url":null,"abstract":"The Hellenistic era incorporated new city foundations in Egypt and the Near East, as well as the ancient Greek cities of mainland Greece, Asia Minor, and Magna Graecia. This chapter examines Greek festivals and athletic contests amid the struggles of cities and individuals for recognition and self-identity. Relying especially on epigraphic and archaeological evidence, it will look at the Olympic Games during this period, and at the widening geographical origins of its victors. New festivals were established and played crucial roles in inter-city politics; note especially the new isolympic and isopythian games such as the Ptolemaia in Alexandria and the festival of Artemis Leucophyene at Magnesia on the Maeander. The guilds of performers played important roles in the Hellenistic period. We consider how the experience of an athletic victor now compared with that in the past.","PeriodicalId":272437,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129742192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Athletic Participation, Training, and Adolescent Education","authors":"D. Pritchard","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199592081.013.17","url":null,"abstract":"In Classical Athens athletics consisted of the sporting contests that were staged as part of festivals and the classes of an athletics teacher. Lessons in the standard sporting events were given only by these teachers, whose classes doubled up as the sole opportunity for boys and men to perfect them before competing in games. Thus the participation of individuals in athletics depended on their schooling. Because the Classical Athenians decided against publicly funding education, they did not enjoy equal access to it. Poor citizens could afford only the lessons of a letter teacher. It was only wealthy boys who were educated in the three traditional disciplines of athletics, music, and letters. As poor Athenians did not attend the classes of an athletics teacher, they would have done badly, if they entered games, and so were hesitant about doing so in the first place. Thus the athletes of democratic Athens came exclusively from the wealthy.","PeriodicalId":272437,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115532853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}