Hellenistic Athletes: Agonistic Cultures and Self-Presentation

Hellenistic Athletes: Agonistic Cultures and Self-Presentation
by: Sebastian Scharff (Author)
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 14 Mar. 2024
Language:English
Print Length:400 pages
ISBN-10:1009199951
ISBN-13:9781009199957
Book Description
This is a study of Hellenistic athletics from the perspective of the victors. By analyzing agonistic epigrams as poetry on commission, it investigates how successful athletes and horse owners and their sponsors wanted their victories to be understood. Based on the identification of recurring motifs that exceed the conventions of the genre, a multiplicity of agonistic cultures is detected on three different levels – those of the polis, the region and the empire. Kings and queens used athletics in order to legitimate their rule, cities tried to compensate for military defeats by agonistic successes, and victorious aristocrats created virtual halls of fame to emphasize their common regional identity. Without a doubt, athletic victories represented far more than just leisure activities of Hellenistic noblemen. They clearly mattered in terms of politics and social status.
About the Author