AGON AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VICTORY AT THE CEREMONIAL GAMES IN OLYMPIA (original) (raw)

The ideology of one of the most important global sporting events of today, the modern Olympic Games, focused on participation rather than victory, promoting equality among participants rather than domination of the victors over the defeated, established ideal models of sportsmanship and sports ethics of today based on the values of ancient society. The subject of this paper refers to the agon and the significance of winning the Ceremonial Games in Olympia. The objective of the paper is to determine the significance of the victory at the Ceremonial Games in Olympia through a review of primary and secondary historical sources, as well as to point out the connection between the victory and the agon. The historical method and the method of theoretical analysis are both applied in the paper. The results of the research point to the fact that the Ceremonial Games in Olympia were shaped by the general Greek phenomenon of expressed competitiveness or agon, the concept of honourable rivalry in all spheres of social life, with the purpose of proving excellence and superiority over competitors, and which as such became the main driving force of the development of ancient Greek culture, on the foundations of which the entire Western civilization rests today.