Alexander and athletics or How (not) to use a traditional field of monarchic legitimation (original) (raw)
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Greek athletics were of high political significance in view of their place in religion and communal festivals. This is reviewed in terms of votive offerings; the status of a group, a ruler, or an individual within a community; interstate rivalries, colonization and state for mation; elite status, kudos, and political capital, especially in chariot-racing. The exam ples of Cleisthenes of Sikyon and the Alcmaeonids of Athens, among others, are dis cussed. The rivalry of Athens and Sparta in athletics and chariot events is also examined, e.g. the cases of the Spartans Lichas, Cynisca, and Agesilaus, and the Athenian Alcibi ades. The participation of 'peripheral' Greek cities (Italy, Sicily, Cyrene) in Panhellenic games bolstered their Greek identity and served their rulers too. Macedonian rulers, e.g. Alexander I, Philip II and Alexander the Great, notably took part in Greek games for the fifth century on, and so asserted their Greek identity and their domain. The Panathenaic Games served political aims not only for Athenian elite, but also for Ptolemies and Mace donians.
Scripta Classica Israelica, 2016
The purpose of the present study is to analyze how certain elements in the episode in which Alexander the Great participates in the Olympic Games, according to the Greek Alexander-Romance, reflect a favorable portrayal of the Olympic Games. Accordingly, I argue that this episode expresses one of the ways through which the organizers of the Olympic festival grappled with new challenges which arose during the Hellenistic Period.
Phoenix (Toronto), 2014
The theme of this volume is the role of sport and spectacle in society, and, in the case of Macedonia, these topics are intertwined from the beginning, as well as inexorably connected with Macedonians' ethnic identity. Although sources for early Macedonian history, beyond foundation legends, are sketchy, they deal primarily with the light thrown on the subject by the Persian interest in and invasions of Greece at the end of the Archaic period (700-480 BCE 1). The key figure is King Alexander I "Philhellenos" (reigned c.495-c.450), who played a complex political game that included shifting alliances and allegiances with both Persians and Greeks. Alexander I used sport, and specifically the Olympics, to identify with the Greeks (or more importantly to permit them to identify with him). In a story recounted by Herodotus (5.22), which Herodotus claims to have heard personally from Alexander himself, Alexander had wanted to compete in the stadion race at the Olympics, but was challenged by the other Greek athletes on the grounds that he was not a Greek, but a barbaros. 2 Alexander then claimed descent from the royal family (the Temenids) that in mythical times ruled the Greek city of Argos, and this was accepted by the Hellanodikai (the officials who presided over the Olympic Games, see Chapters 8 and 17). He was allowed to compete, but the race ended in a dead heat, and Alexander declined a rematch, giving up any chance of the victory. The fact that Alexander chose competing at Olympia as the method of declaring his own and his dynasty's Greek ethnicity shows that sport and ethnicity were tied together from the start in Macedonia. Also, this challenge to the Greek ethnicity of both the Argead House and the Macedonians remained a leitmotif throughout the Classical period (480-323), and sport was one of the means by which Macedonia answered that ethnic question.
2014
Victory in the great athletic games was widely seen in the Greek world as one of the summits of human achievement. Yet a surprisingly large number of texts present a negative view of athletics, including Xenophanes fr. 2 West and Euripides fr. 282 TrGF. The reasons for this criticism – which has variously been interpreted as a critique of the aristocracy, professionalism in sport or the reaction of a minority of intellectuals – remain obscure. This paper argues that opposition to athletics was not political but part of a longstanding debate on the relative merits of different forms of skill (τέχνη). This debate was prompted by widespread economic specialisation and professionalism in the fields of athletics, poetry and philosophy (among others). The criticism of athletics be-comes part of a strategy, by which the professional promotes his own form of τέχνη, with the implicit aim of winning respect and financial rewards. Professionals operated in a market for knowledge, one in which ...
Athletics and Philosophy in the Ancient World: Contests of Virtue (Introduction)
This book examines the relationship between athletics and philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome focused on the connection between athleticism and virtue. It begins by observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming the idea of aristocracy as something acquired by birth to something that can be trained. This idea of training virtue through the techniques and practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient observations with contemporary issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship, and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry.
Campaign agones: Towards a classification of Greek athletic competitions
Classica & Mediaevalia, 2020
At several occasions during his campaigns, Alexander the Great staged gymnic, hippic and musical competitions. Until now scholars have assumed that the king founded new festivals, but the ancient evidence makes it quite clear that it were singular , non-recurrent events. Competitions like that, for which I suggest the term "cam-paign agones", are also known from other Greek armies. "Campaign agones" should be added to the well-known categories (competitions at recurrent festivals, funeral contests , gymnasium agones) as a distinct, although less important, category in the Greek agonistic world.
Criticism of Athletics and Professionalism in Archaic and Classical Greece
Nikephoros, 2014
Victory in the great athletic games was widely seen in the Greek world as one of the summits of human achievement. Yet a surprisingly large number of texts present a negative view of athletics, including Xenophanes fr. 2 West and Euripides fr. 282 TrGF. The reasons for this criticism – which has variously been interpreted as a critique of the aristocracy, a polemic against professionalism in sport or the reaction of a minority of intellectuals – remain obscure. This paper argues that opposition to athletics was not political but part of a longstanding debate on the relative merits of different forms of skill (τέχνη). This debate was prompted by widespread economic specialisation and professionalism in the fields of athletics, poetry and philosophy (among others). The criticism of athletics becomes part of a strategy, by which the professional promotes his own form of τέχνη, with the implicit aim of winning respect and financial rewards. Professionals operated in a market for knowledge, one in which they had to sell their skills, justify their fees and counter common prejudices against paid work. Our texts reflect the tendency for professionals to achieve these aims by launching pre-emptive attacks upon their competitors. Athletes became a common target for such invective because their unwavering popularity and success at eliciting rewards in the archaic and classical periods made them a constant target of envy from other professionals.
Introduction to Athletics and Philosophy in the Ancient World
This book examines the relationship between athletics and philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome with special emphasis on changing ideas about the connection between athleticism and virtue. Its aim is to enable a foundational understanding of ancient sport and philosophy that makes a sincere dialogue with modern practices both possible and fruitful. The book begins by observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming of the idea of aristocracy as something acquired by birth to something that can be trained. The idea of training virtue through the techniques and practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient observations with contemporary sports issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship, and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry. In order to preserve this connection between enquiry, virtue, and sport, she concludes, we must understand its ancient origins.