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    Liyan Jallad
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    The document discusses the origins of Greek athletics from evidence in Bronze Age art which did not depict competitive sports. It examines Homer's epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, as the earliest literary descriptions of athletics in the 8th century BC. While the poems described heroes from the Bronze Age, the athletics reflected Homer's contemporary era, including non-team individual competitions like wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, and foot races. The document suggests Greek athletics developed from a Dorian invasion in the early Dark Ages bringing new athletic traditions.

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    The document discusses the origins of Greek athletics from evidence in Bronze Age art which did not depict competitive sports. It examines Homer's epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, as the earliest literary descriptions of athletics in the 8th century BC. While the poems described heroes from the Bronze Age, the athletics reflected Homer's contemporary era, including non-team individual competitions like wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, and foot races. The document suggests Greek athletics developed from a Dorian invasion in the early Dark Ages bringing new athletic traditions.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    3 views10 pages

    Lecture 2 Homer

    Uploaded by

    Liyan Jallad
    The document discusses the origins of Greek athletics from evidence in Bronze Age art which did not depict competitive sports. It examines Homer's epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, as the earliest literary descriptions of athletics in the 8th century BC. While the poems described heroes from the Bronze Age, the athletics reflected Homer's contemporary era, including non-team individual competitions like wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, and foot races. The document suggests Greek athletics developed from a Dorian invasion in the early Dark Ages bringing new athletic traditions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 10

    AGA Chapter 3:

    The origins of Greek


    athletics
    Bronze Age Evidence
    “The art of Mesopotamia & Egypt certainly shows
    evidence of sporting activities, but the sense that
    these are competitions among Equals is missing, nor
    do the events parallel many of the competitions in
    the Greek program.”
    “Minoan culture was clearly much concerned with
    bull-fighting…it has no relevance to the athletics of
    classical Greece.”
    “We must conclude that the picture of athletes in
    the Iliad & the Odyssey reflects the age of Homer
    himself, not the (Mycenaean world).”
    Miller’s Thesis
    “Homer & his audience (c. 8th century) believed that
    their athletic practices came down to them from the
    Mycenaean world.”
    “What happened between the Golden Age of Mycenae
    and the Homeric period that resulted in the athletic
    image in the Iliad, and the ultimate development of
    Greek athletics? This is the clue to the origin of
    Greek athletics, and it lies in the Dorian invasion that
    followed the fall of Mycenae.”
    Dorian invasion of Greece
    ▪ Invasion during the early Dark Age (c. 1200-
    1100)
    ▪ Dorian ethnicity and stereotypes
    ▪ Most Dorians resided in southern Greece
    The Homeric Poems
    ▪ Athletics not part of a recurring festival
    ▪ Athletics not training for battle
    ▪ Emphasis on chariot race
    ▪ Value of prizes is less important than their
    ranking
    ▪ No team events
    ▪ Not highly organized or technical
    ▪ Competitive
    ▪ The eyesight contest
    ▪ The footrace
    Homer and his World
    ▪ His epic poems are the earliest descriptions
    of athletic competitions in Western
    literature
    ▪ His poems date to c. 750 (early archaic age),
    but sing about heroes from c. 1250 (end of
    the bronze age)
    ▪ Iliad: Funeral games for Achilles’ friend,
    Patroclus
    ▪ Odyssey: Friendly games at a banquet
    ▪ “While looking back to the distant past,
    (Homer) constructed his world to please
    his contemporary eighth-century patrons,
    and the “mind” of the epics…is the mind of
    Homer’s listeners.”
    The choice of Achilles
    ▪ either return home and live a long life
    without glory, or die a glorious death
    fighting at Troy
    ▪ “Always to be the best and to be eminent
    beyond others”
    ▪ Honor, value, self-esteem

    Competition and Spectators


    ▪ “Externalized heroic excellence (arete)”
    ▪ Spectators’ role in the competition (8h)
    Patroklos’ Funeral games (1b)
    ▪ Achilles is patron; only princes compete
    ▪ Chariot race
    ▪ Argument between Menelaos and Archilochus
    ▪ Boxing
    ▪ Epeios
    ▪ Wrestling
    ▪ Odysseus and Ajax wrestle to a draw
    ▪ Foot-race
    ▪ Odysseus prays to the goddess Athena
    ▪ Armed combat
    ▪ Diomedes intends to injure; stoppage
    ▪ Archery
    ▪ Divine intervention
    ▪ Spear throw
    ▪ Honorary victory to agamemnon
    The Odyssey
    ▪ The island of Phaiakia
    ▪ Odysseus is shipwrecked
    ▪ Princess discovers him while playing with her friends (1c)
    ▪ King Alcinoos holds impromptu competition (1d)
    ▪ Prince Laodamas invites Odysseus to join
    ▪ Euryalos’ insult
    ▪ Odysseus enters the discus throw
    ▪ King Alcinoos suggests other performances
    ▪ Bow contest in Odysseus’ Home (1e, 1f)

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