1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823870003321

Autore

Kyle Donald G.

Titolo

Sport and spectacle in the ancient world / / Donald G. Kyle

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom : , : John Wiley and Sons, Inc., , 2015

ISBN

1-118-61380-5

1-118-61567-0

Edizione

[Second edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (378 p.)

Collana

Ancient cultures

Classificazione

780.2

796.093

Disciplina

796.093

Soggetti

Sports - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World; Copyright; Contents; Preface and Acknowledgments; List of Figures; List of Maps; List of Tables; Introduction: Ancient Sport History; Why Sport History?; Why ancient sport history?; Word Games: Conceptualizing Sport and Spectacle; Challenges: Evidence, Chronology, and Modernism; Greek evidence; Roman evidence; Chronology: dates and cycles; Reception and modernism; Sports and Spectacles as Cultural Performances; Greece and Rome: Positive and Negative Classicism; Sports as Spectacle, Spectacles as Sport; Notes; References

Chapter 1 Origins and Essences: Early Sport and SpectacleHunting rituals and sport; Agonism: the unique Greek?; Mesopotamian Combat Sports and Running; Egypt: Hunting and Sporting Pharaohs; Evidence and imagery; Sed festivals; Beni Hasan and displays; Sporting pharaohs of the New Kingdom; Egyptian athletics?; Egyptian hunting; Royal Hunts as a Near Eastern Tradition; States and Sports, Empires and Spectacles; Notes; References; Chapter 2 Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans; Minoan Performances: Rites, Contests, or Spectacles?; The boxer rhyton and runner's ring; Bull sports

Theseus and CreteBull games abroad; Hittite Contests?; Mycenaean Contests?; A Sporting Mediterranean World; Notes; References; Chapter 3 Sport in Homer: Contests, Prizes, and Honor; Homer and His World; Values and Competition; Prizes and Spectatorship; Funeral Games for



Patroklos: Prizes and Reconciliation; Contests, winners, and losers; The Odyssey: Sport and Returning Home; Games in Phaiakia; Iros; The bow contest; Epic Sport as Spectacle; Notes; References; Chapter 4 Archaic Greece: Athletics in an Age of Change; Athletic Festivals: Types and Terms

Factors and Features in the Growth of AthleticsEpic and Olympic authority; Archaic games and city-state prizes; Emerging city-states: regionalism and rivalry; Colonization: a wider world of sport; Tyrants: patronage and popular programs; Gymnasiums, Hoplites, and Society; Nudity, Status, and Democracy; Men, Boys, and Erotic Pursuits; The Coming of Age of Greek Sport; Notes; References; Chapter 5 In Search of the Ancient Olympics; The Olympics of Allusion and Illusion; Coubertin as an Olympic hero; Modern Myths and Invented Traditions

The Quagmire of Olympic Origins: Explanations and ExcavationsOlympic mythography; Modern theories; Hippias and the Olympic Victor List; Archaeological insights; Deconstructing and reconstructing early Olympia; Notes; References; Chapter 6 Ancient Olympia and Its Games; The Physical Context: Sanctuary and Facilities; The Olympic Festival: Operation and Administration; Prize wreaths and nudity; Eligibility; The Program of Contests; Footraces; Pentathlon; Combat sports; Equestrian events; Olympia and Spectacle: Politics, Problems, and Performances; Peace, politics, and Panhellenism

Opportunism and corruption

Sommario/riassunto

The second edition of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World updates Donald G. Kyle's award-winning introduction to this topic, covering the Ancient Near East up to the late Roman Empire.   Challenges traditional scholarship on sport and spectacle in the Ancient World and debunks claims that there were no sports before the ancient Greeks   Explores the cultural exchange of Greek sport and Roman spectacle and how each culture responded to the other's entertainment   Features a new chapter on sport and spectacle during the Late Roman Empire, including Christian opposition to pagan games and t