From the informal games of Homer's time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compiled a trove of ancient sources: Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, and Xenophon on female body building. Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers, the ancients themselves, and demonstrates that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete are only part of the story from antiquity. This bestselling volume on the culture of Greek athletics is updated with a new preface by leading scholar Paul Christesen that discusses the book's continued importance for students of ancient athletics.
Arete Greek Sports from Ancient Sources, Third Edition, With a New Foreword by Paul Christesen
About the Book
Reviews
"A remarkable compendium of ancient sources . . . An invaluable resource for the study of Greek sport . . . What Miller’s Arete does extremely well is to show that 'nearly almost every aspect of athletics we know today existed already in that distant but kindred world'"—European Legacy
"Unquestionably the best available sourcebook on the nature of athletics and its role in Greek society from Homeric through Roman Imperial times."—Classical World
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Foreword
Introduction
I. The Earliest Days of Greek Athletics
II. Nudity and Equipment
III. The Events at a Competition
a. Running
b. Wrestling
c. Boxing
d. Pankration
e. Pentathlon
f. Equestrian
g. Herald and Trumpeter
h. Music
i. Poetry and Prose Composition
j. Acting
k. Painting
IV. Organization of a Panhellenic Festival
a. Preparations at the Site
b. Preparations of the Athletes
c. The Truce
d. Preliminaries: Registration and Certification
e. Schedule, Heats, and Pairings
f. Prohibitions and Penalties
g. Officials
h. Rewards for Victory
V. Local Festivals
a. The Panathenaic Games of Athens
b. The Eleutheria of Larissa in Thessaly
c. The Bomonikai of Sparta
VI. The Role of the Games in Society
VII. Women in Athletics
VIII. Athletes and Heroes
IX. Ball playing
X. Gymnasion, Athletics, and Education
XI. The Spread of Greek Athletics in the Hellenistic Period
XII. Greek Athletics in the Roman Period
XIII. Amateurism and Professionalism
XIV. Nationalism and Internationalism
a. Relations between the Panhellenic Sanctuaries
b. Relations between City-States and the Panhellenic Sanctuaries
c. Relations between City-States at the Panhellenic Sanctuaries
XV. Beauty and Reality
Appendix: The Olympian and Pythian Programs
Select Bibliography
Index and Glossary
Sources for the Chapter-Opening Sketches
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