Sport and Identity in Ancient Greece

ISBN-13: 9781472438225 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 222 str.

Zinon Papakonstantinou

Opis

Addressing central yet largely unexplored issues relating to sport and the complex processes of identity construction in the ancient Greek world this volume is the first systematic study of its kind and demonstrates the continuous centrality of sport in identity construction. It presents Greek sport as a malleable cultural practice that was intimately interconnected with other fundamental aspects of the social and cultural life of Greek communities from the archaic age to late antiquity. Throughout antiquity, sport and manifestations of identity (ethnic, civic, status and gender) responded to new challenges such as the expansion of the Greek-speaking world during the Hellenistic period and the incorporation of Greece into the Roman empire, and adapted in multiple ways. The analysis of the evidence highlights the protean nature of both sport and identities as the two interacted in different contexts. The volume makes an original contribution to scholarly debate on ancient Greek sport moving away from the traditional chronological or regional study of Greek athletics.

Spis treści

List of figures; Preface; Abbreviations; Chapter I: Introduction; Chapter II: Status, Elite Identity and Social Hierarchy in Archaic Greek Sport; Chapter III: Games, Spectators and Communal Identities; Chapter IV: Rules, Eligibility and Participation; Chapter V: Bodies, Life-narratives and Civic Service; Chapter VI: Liminality, Reflexivity and Hybridity; Chapter VII: Epilogue; Bibliography; Index

O autorze

Zinon Papakonstantinou is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.