Author Description

Victory And Celebration: An Introduction To Greek Athletics Explores How The Poems, Statues, And Other Objects Used By Athletic Victors To Commemorate Their Victories In The Sixth And Fifth Centuries Bce Gave Value And Meaning To These Victories. These Victories, Whether In Running, Boxing, Youth Events Or Equestrian Events, Did Not Speak For Themselves; Their Meanings Were Not Obvious Or Natural But Had To Be Produced And Defended. This Was The Work Of The Victory Memorials, In The Story That They Told Of The Events And Victors, The Elements That They Elevated In Their Accounts And The Elements That They Omitted, The Events, Figures, And Values With Which They Associated Athletics, And The Broader Idea Of The World That They Promoted. Victory And Celebration Traces This Process On Three Levels: The Broader Ideals-excellence, Significance, Beauty, And A More-than-mortal Quality-that Athletic Victory Was Represented As Exemplifying; The More Specific Political Ideas That Athletic Victory Was Used To Support, Whether That Good Athletes Made Good Leaders And That Excellence Was Inherited, Or Particular Visions Of The Victor's Relationship To His City, To The Idea Of Greece, Or To The Use Of Wealth; And The Ways In Which The Specific Events Were Shaped And Celebrated By The Memorials, In Particular, Boxing, Contests For Youths, Chariot And Horse Races, And The Short-lived Mule-cart Race-- Provided By Publisher.