Friday, January 19, 2018

Sports in Homer

- Map quiz on Monday (labeled map on Canvas under “Modules”

- Illiad&Odyssey-written by Homer
- No bull-leaping during Homer’s Bronze Age games
- All participants in funeral games of Patrocles received prizes

Myceneans

- men buried with armor

- shown as warriors

- seem to have imported bull-leaping from Minoans

• not clear that it’s happening on the same scale

• context of funeral games in stead of religious festivals?

- depictions of bulls on terra-cotta larnax (cremation urns)

- pictures of people pulling their hair out (ancient greek sign of mourning)

- involved in boxing?

• depicted on some amphoras

- Chariot sports?

• definitely for hunting/warfare

• we know they have chariots for general use

• very few depictions for actual chariot racing

• by the time of Homer we definitely have chariot racing

1
 Friday, January 19, 2018

Sports in Homer (ca. 750 BE)

- Linear B

• used primarily for record-keeping

• goes out of use after systemic collapse at end of Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BCE)

- big shift in society

- people basically forget out to write

- no writing between 1200BCE-8th century

• “Cup of Nestor”

- one of first pieces of ancient greek writing

- Homer

• author of illiad (750) and odyssey (725)

• is he a real person? did he just write down traditions that people were reciting
verbally? were there multiple people involved?

- still debated in classics, like Shakespeare

• Epic poems written in dactylic hexameter

• tell story of trojan war and the dates following

- Trojan War traditional date ca 1200BCE

• Are homer’s sports consistent with the Bronze Age sports or the sports happening
while he was alive

Trojan War

- Paris steals Helen from Menelaeus

- Greeks unite under Agamemnon and travel to Troy

• battle with Trojans for 10 years

• Illiad is incredibly gory; final year of the war

- Odyssey tells story of Odysseus trying to get home

2
 Friday, January 19, 2018
- Archaeology of Troy

• site in Turkey

• cities built on top of each other

• we know that there is contact between Trojans and Ageans

- not much evidence for the giant battle/war that happened here

- Survival of Bronze Age artifacts in Homer’s stories

• describes Mycenaean warrior

• Boar’s Tusk Helmet

- Anachronisms

• Iron appears in Homer’s stories but wasn’t around during the BRONZE age

- pig iron offered as prize by Achilles

• Depict artifacts that existed during Homer’s time

Funeral Games of Patroklos (Patrocles)

• Illiad, Book 23

• Most detailed description of Homer’s athletics

• Achilles dishonored by Agamemnon

- withdraws from battle, leaving greeks to suffer terrible losses

- Patroklos puts on Achilles armor to aid the Greeks but is eventually killed by
Hektor

- Achilles avenges his death and kills Hektor, arranges for the funeral(cremation)
of Patroklos

• Funeral Games:

- chariot race

- boxing

- wrestling

- footrace

3
 Friday, January 19, 2018
- combat

- throwing of a weight

- archery

- spear throw

• pretty much all participants received a prize

- some prizes were only really found during Iron Age

- Arete

• can’t really be translated int english

• closest: excellence, manly virtue, goodness, courage, nobility, etc

- Honor more important than monetary gain during games

• Who should get second prize is debated in the Illiad

- Prizes were a physical remembrance of Patroklos

• achilles gives leftover prize to Nestor, the oldest greek fighter

• “let this now be yours, venerable sir, to keep in memory of the burial of
Patroklos….”

Chariot Racing

- owning a horse is expensive!!

• really only the wealthy did this

- In Illiad, race takes place in a natural setting

• tree stump = turning post (terma/nessa)

• lanes are chosen by lot

- basically drawing straws

- Danger

• Eumelos ran off the road and injured by Athena

- had to drag chariot across the finish line

4
 Friday, January 19, 2018
- Gambling

• not like modern “which horse is going to win”

• basically “who is correct over who is going to win”

• Idomeneus annoys Ajax with his predictions

- Influence of the Gods

• ex. odysseus is behind during a footrace

- Athena lightened his limbs, feet, arms

- Athena tripped Ajax and made him fall in dung, causing everyone to laugh at
hime

• Gods “battle behind the scene” and try to influence outcome of some events

- Homeric Similes

• comparing humans to animals

• “As in the water rippled by the north wind a fish jumps in the seaweed of the
shallows and disappears again into the dark water, so Eurylaos left the ground
from the blow.”

- Games in the land of the Phaiakians

• Odyssey, Book 8

• games as after dinner entertainment at court of King Alkinoos

• many and worthy young men participated

• showed connection to sports and masculine virtue

• Games:

- foot race

- wrestling

- long jump

- discus

- boxing

• No prizes awarded; this is a casual event to show off for Odysseus

5
 Friday, January 19, 2018
- What time period does this happen?

• most likely reflect 8th century society, NOT Bronze Age