S&S Chapter 1: Origins

and Essences
 Hunting Rituals & Sport
 What are athletics?
 David Sansone: “A ritual sacrifice of physical energy”
 A fuller definition might include:
 Non-routine physical activity
 Skilled competition
 No intent to harm
 Specified set of rules
 No designated place for luck
 In ancient times, often found as part of
holidays/religious events
 Agonism: the unique Greek?
 Arete: excellence
 The arete of something is what makes it
excellent/outstanding
 For most Greeks, athletics were involved in being an
excellent human being
 Athletics as a competition, not just a spectacle
 Where did this attitude originate?
 Mesopotamian combat sports
and Running
 Sumerian Epic poem of Gilgamesh (c. 2700)
 Enkidu and Gilgamesh “bent down like wrestlers”
 Assyrian astrological chart (c. 2000 BC):
 “For 9 days men engaged in wrestling & feats of strength”
 Inscription from c. 1200 BC
 “Trials of strength by ‘the strong ones’”
 Egypt: hunting & Sporting Pharaohs
 Performances and demonstrations
 Pharaohs always succeeded in these events
 Wrestling scenes depicted on tombs & carvings
 Egyptians always defeat foreigners
 Archery displays by the pharaohs
 Egyptian athletics; Egyptian Hunting
 Army forced to run 100 km; prize for the first ones to finish
 Hunting exploits of the Pharaohs
 Royal hunts as a Near Eastern tradition
 Hunting prowess demonstrated the ruler’s right to rule
 “Orchestrated performances”
 S&S Chapter 2:
Late Bronze Age Minoans,
Hittites, and Mycenaeans
 Minoan performances: rites, contests,
or spectacles?
 Minoans (c. 3000-1200)
 Control of & controlled by Greece
 No literature survives, only art
Minoan “Grandstand Fresco”
Boxer Fresco, f. 2.1
Boxer Rhyton
Runner’s Ring
Bull Sports
Bull-leaping Fresco
Gold Signet Ring, f. 2.2
Terracotta bull
Bull Games Abroad: Egyptian
Fresco
 Hittite contests?
 King’s bodyguards “run and he who wins ‘seizes the
bridle’”
 “When they compete in shooting before the king,
whoever scores a hit gets wine to drink”
 Mycenaean contests?
 Controlled Greece and (eventually) crete (1600-
1200)
 Both written and visual evidence
Ceremonial Hunting Daggers
Mycenaean Bull Fresco
 Belt-
wrestling