Review (PDF) Arete: Greek Sports From Ancient Sources
From the informal games of Homer's time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compileda 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.
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; 2 edition (June 7, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520241541
ISBN-13: 978-0520241541
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #544,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #632 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Greece #887 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Ancient #924 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > History of Sports
This collection of excerpts from ancient sources concerning athletes, athletic contests, skills, prizes, and the athletic "mystique" is excellent. For it gives agenerous overview from different sources, from differentancient venues, and from different time periods. Thereader gains a growing sense of the awe and reverencein which skilled as well as beautiful athletes wereheld, both by spectators at the events as well asthrough the fame which they gained that was passeddown in inscriptions, statues, poetry, and thememories of those who heard of their skills andvictories even in distant places. The excerpts are not excessively long, but they arehighy interesting and instructive. The topics coveredby chapters are: the Earliest Days of Greek Athletics/Nudity and Equipment/ The Events at a Competition(Running, Wrestling, Boxing, Pankration, Pentathlon,Equestrian, Music, Poetry and Prose Composition, Acting,Painting)/ Organization of a Panhellenic Festival/ LocalFestivals/ Role of the Games in Society/ Women inAthletics/ Athletes and Heroes/ Ball Playing/ Gymnasion,Athletics, and Education/ Spread of Greek Athletics inthe Hellenistic Period/ Greek Athletics in the RomanPeriod/ Amateurism and Professionalism/ Nationalismand Internationalism/ Our Ideal and the Reality. As the author, Stephen Miller, explains in the"Introduction": "A definition of -arete- wouldinclude virtue, skill, prowess, pride, excellence,valor, and nobility, but these words, whether takenindividually or collectively, do not [completely]fulfill the meaning of -arete-." *** "...
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