Conclusion

Summary

From Homer to the Hellenistic period and beyond, one of the defining features of ancient Greek cultural history and its ongoing interpretation and adaptation is athletic competition. For the ancient Greeks, athletics, along with warfare, was a primary arena for the contestation of status and for the attainment of superiority and excellence. In antiquity, writers recognized the central role of athletics in Greek culture and identity: Thucydides’ Perikles stresses competitive festivals as one of the elements that make Athens an example for Greece (2.38–41); Herodotus includes common festivals in his famous definition of “Greekness” (8.144); moreover, the Persians marvel that οἳ οὐ περὶ χρημάτων τὸν ἀγῶνα ποιεῦνται ἀλλὰ περὶ ἀρετῆς (“[The Greeks] contend not for money but for arete,” Hdt. 8.26). Pindar, as frequently, puts it best: ὃς δ’ ἀμφ’ ἀέθλοις ἢ πολεμίζων ἄρηται κῦδος ἁβρόν / εὐαγορηθεὶς κέρδος ὕψιστον δέκεται, πολιατᾶν καὶ ξένων γλώσσας ἄωτον (“but he who wins luxurious glory in games or as a solider / by being praised gains the highest profit, the finest words from tongues of citizens and foreigners,” Isthm. 1.50–51).