Presenting a survey of sports in ancient Greece, this work describes ancient sporting events and games. It considers the role of women and amateurs in ancient athletics, and explores the impact of these games on art, literature and politics.
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 clay dust as an anti-perspirant and on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, Xenophon on female body building. With fully twice as many texts as the highly successful first edition, this new version of Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers--the ancients themselves. These sources, which Miller himself has translated, provide unparalleled insights into ancient athletic practices and competitive festivals. They emphasize the fundamental role of athletics in education and shed light on such issues as the role of women in athletics and the politics and economics of the games. Ultimately they demonstrate that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete and so closely associated in the modern mind with Greek athletics are only part of the story from antiquity.
The prytaneion was a structure central to the civic life of the ancient Greek city-state. In it was housed the hearth of Hestia with its eternal fire symbolizing the well-being of the state. To it were invited distinguished foreign visitors for meals; citizens who had performed some special service to the state were also entertained there. The prytaneion was the 'home' of the state and the architectural manifestation of its life. The obvious ubiquity and importance of the prytaneion in antiquity is not reflected in the pages of modern scholarship, largely because only two structures have been excavated that can be firmly so identified. In this book Mr. Miller seeks to define the functions and the architectural form of the prytaneion by assembling and analyzing historical and epigraphic references to it. His analysis yields explicit references to various architectural parts of the prytaneion as well as a definition of the function of the building from which other architectural elements can be extrapolated. It provides a set of architectural elements essential to any prytaneion and usable as criteria of identification for excavated structures. This book is intended to serve both as a reference work for those interested in ancient civic life and civic architecture and as a guide to investigators of ancient cities still to be excavated." -- Publisher's description
Stephen G. 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"--Page 4 of cover.
The prytaneion was a structure central to the civic life of the ancient Greek city-state. In it was housed the hearth of Hestia with its eternal fire symbolizing the well-being of the state. To it were invited distinguished foreign visitors for meals; citizens who had performed some special service to the state were also entertained there. The prytaneion was the 'home' of the state and the architectural manifestation of its life. The obvious ubiquity and importance of the prytaneion in antiquity is not reflected in the pages of modern scholarship, largely because only two structures have been excavated that can be firmly so identified. In this book Mr. Miller seeks to define the functions and the architectural form of the prytaneion by assembling and analyzing historical and epigraphic references to it. His analysis yields explicit references to various architectural parts of the prytaneion as well as a definition of the function of the building from which other architectural elements can be extrapolated. It provides a set of architectural elements essential to any prytaneion and usable as criteria of identification for excavated structures. This book is intended to serve both as a reference work for those interested in ancient civic life and civic architecture and as a guide to investigators of ancient cities still to be excavated." -- Publisher's description
This is the first of the final reports on the excavations by the University of California at Nemea in the 1970's and 1980's. It contains the topographical and architectural studies: the Sacred Square (D Birge); the Xenon (L H Kraynak); and the Bath (S G Miller) . Includes a catalogue of the artifacts found.
Presenting a survey of sports in ancient Greece, this work describes ancient sporting events and games. It considers the role of women and amateurs in ancient athletics, and explores the impact of these games on art, literature and politics.
Since 1974, under the direction of Stephen G. Miller, the Classics Department of the University of California, Berkeley, has been excavating at Nemea, one of four sites in Greece of ancient athletic games and festivals. This second volume in theExcavations at Nemeaseries presents the Early Hellenistic stadium, used to celebrate the games from around 330 to 271 b.c. The presentation of remains includes findings on related structures--the entrance tunnel, with its ancient graffiti, and the Apodyterion, or undressing room, used by the athletes who competed--as well as on the track, the hydraulic system, the seating for judges and spectators, the starting line, the starting mechanism, and the turning post for foot races. All the structures and artifacts are set into the broader context of other contemporaneous stadia. The contributing authors provide insight into the Games at Nemea by analyzing the coins found at the site and relating them to the makeup of the crowds and by giving a human dimension to the Games by focusing on an inscription honoring the death of a Lydian there. The architectural remains at Nemea give a "stop action" picture of the stadium and the activities associated with it at the beginning of the Hellenistic era. They represent evidence of an entertainment industry that began to develop, in both theatrical performances and athletic contests, in the time of Alexander the Great--one that set apart professional performers from citizen spectators, a separation that also reflected changes in Hellenistic education and society.
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