Ancient sport made a huge if indirect contribution to the literature of ancient Greece, since some sixty poems by Pindar and Bacchylides ("epinikian odes"), written to commemorate victories, survive from the Classical period. This book is a collection of essays about that literature, and about the social and physical context for which it was written. The editors assembled an internationally distinguished team of speakers for the original 2002 seminar series held in London, and these papers form the backbone of the book. But to ensure coherence and comprehensive coverage, they have...

The polis has long been conceived as the most advanced form of Greek political society. Yet recent research into how early Greeks used the term highlights discrepancies with modern views of the autonomous city state. Communities called polis existed within wider political structures of various kinds. So what were the different forms of association experienced by Early Iron Age and Archaic Greeks? What impact did they have on the way in which individuals and groups thought of themselves and others, and what role did they play in the formation of federal states?

This book studies the origins and development of cult practice at Olympia and Delphi, challenging many assumptions about the nature and role of the archaeological record. Professor Morgan's study is exceptional for the emphasis placed on the two sites in their contemporary local contexts. The book concludes with the first detailed study of the wider roles of Olympia and Delphi as major sanctuaries in Archaic Greece.

This book studies the origins and development of cult practice at Olympia and Delphi, challenging many assumptions about the nature and role of the archaeological record. Professor Morgan's study is exceptional for the emphasis placed on the two sites in their contemporary local contexts. The book concludes with the first detailed study of the wider roles of Olympia and Delphi as major sanctuaries in Archaic Greece.