1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910827667103321

Autore

Pritchard David <1970->

Titolo

Sport, democracy and war in classical Athens / / by David M. Pritchard

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-139-88826-9

1-139-79377-2

1-139-78339-4

1-139-77940-0

1-139-78239-8

1-139-03051-5

1-139-77636-3

1-283-74633-6

1-139-77788-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 251 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Classificazione

HIS002000

Disciplina

796.0938

Soggetti

Sports - Greece - History

Athletics - Greece - History

Sports - Social aspects - Greece - History

Athletics - Social aspects - Greece - History

Democracy - Greece - Athens - History

Athens (Greece) Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Problems, models and sources -- 2. Athletic participation and education -- 3. The democratic support of athletics -- 4. Athletics in satyric drama -- 5. The common culture of athletics and war -- 6. The democratisation of war -- 7. Conclusion: athletic ephebes.

Sommario/riassunto

Athenian democracy may have opened up politics to every citizen, but it had no impact on participation in sport. The city's sportsmen continued to be drawn from the elite, and so it comes as a surprise that sport was very popular with non-elite citizens of the classical period, who rewarded victorious sportsmen lavishly and created an unrivalled



program of local sporting festivals on which they spent staggering sums of money. They also shielded sportsmen from the public criticism which was otherwise normally directed towards the elite and its conspicuous activities. This book is a bold and novel exploration of this apparent contradiction, which examines three of the fundamental aspects of Athens in the classical period - democratic politics, public commitment to sport and constant warfare - and is essential reading for all of those who are interested in Greek sport, Athenian democracy and its waging of war.