clas 263 midterm vocab

Achilles

• son of Peleus

• strong, brave, handsome, greatest warrior in Agamemnon’s army in Trojan War

• held by the heel in the river styx

Agamemnon

king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War

agon

competition, conflict, contest

agonal age

young man transition adolescence → adult

• 18-20

• rites of passage, physical training/participate in competitions, learn about civic duties, culture

akoniti

dustless

* not required to sprinkle the body with fine sand after oiling
* won without entering the ring

Alcibiades

Athenian statesman and general

Altis

sanctuary to the gods

• temples

• artwork

• all sports structures for Olympics

altar

sacred, typically elevated structure for religious/rituals

• offerings, prayers, sacrifices

amateur

people who pursued activities (sports, art, philosophy) out of a passion for the activity rather than financial gain/career

amphora

type of ceramic vessel/container used for storing olive oil, water, wine, grains, beans

• long neck, two handles on neck, bulb body

• Panathenaic amphora: contained olive oil given as prizes at these games

Apoxyomenos

sculpture depicting athlete scraping body with strigil

• idealized form, in a moment of post-exercise grooming

• aesthetics + physicality = highly valued

archaeology

scientific study of human pre/history through excavation & analysis of artifacts, structures, other physical remains

Archaic

8th century - early 5th, time of Homer

• precedes Classical Period

• Polis development, colonization (North Africa), cultural flourishing, Persian Wars near end

arete

virtue, but in a specific, individual, and context-dependent sense

* demonstrated excellence and flourishing, fulfillment of potential 
* fields arete = crops
* warriors arete = bravery
* aretism = an approach to modern sport 

Argos

city-state

• host Nemean Games sometimes

• Heraion of Argos: one of the most important religious sanctuaries dedicated to Hera

Arkteia

Bears Festival

• in city-state Brauron

• an athletic Athenian girls camp, rite of passage, connection w Artemis

Artemis

virgin goddess of the hunt, moon, protector of young girls, female strength, twin sister to Apollo, represent wilderness/nature

askesis

rigorous training, self-discipline to improve moral character & achieve inner harmony

ex. athletes strict physical regimens, diets for peak performance

Asklepia

games

• Asclepius (hero & of medicine & healing)

• Asklepion at Epidaurius: religious sanctuary: health, medicine, exss, athletic comp, religious cult

Atalanta

most fanciful tale of female strength

• calydonian boar hunt - she strikes first, superior to the many men 

• wrestling peleus, father of achilles

• winning the footrace against hippomenes

Athens

significant polis (city-state)

• rocky, dry terrain, large, natural harbor (piraeus) 

• merchant/craftsman economy 

• prominent outcropping (acropolis) 

• mycenaean (bronze age) center

• “classical” athenian democracy ~500 BCE onwards

• athens may be overreported….but athletics offer an opp to put athenian practices in broader greek perspectives 

athlon

prize

• could be worthless, glory matters

athletes

one who competes for a prize

black-figure

• pottery style

• 7th - 5th century BCE

• black slip clay on red/orange background → color scheme achieved via specific firing process

• scenes from mythology, daily life, rituals

• storage/serving, offerings, grave goods

boat races

in Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian games

Bourdieu

*wrote abt bodily discipline and training

Brauron

• city-state where Arkteia is held, Sanctuary of Artemis

• E coast

Bronze Age

• Minoan, mainly Mycenaean

• 3200 - 1100 BCE

• early urban centers

• increased trade w Minoans of Crete, E Med civilizations

• early greek practices: intricate pottery

• decline → Greek Dark Ages

Burckhardt

*“agonal”; greece= special time, competition is the levening agent

chrematitic

money games

+s

• Locally oriented

• Panhellenic in participation

• Both intra- and extra-mural 

• Functioned alongside/around stephanitic games, would not have them w/o these

• Footed the bill for elite athletics 

• Still symbolically potent

Classical

5th - 4th century BCE

• flourishing of intellectual, artistic, political achievements

• development of democracy in Athens

• Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

• Parthenon

• Peloponnesian War

  —> Hellenistic Period

diachronic

traditionalism (through time) 

* athletic comp is a highly conservative social practice (rules don’t change) 
* conservative bc: consistency & predictability, identity, ritual, beliefs 

Diagoras of Rhodes

boxer

5th century BCE

Olympic victor

father of Kallipateira (Mulan girl)

diaulos

out and back, run around turning-posts called kampteres

* double-stadion, 400m

diolkos

*Paved trackway near Corinth enabling boats to be moved over land

Diskobolos

sculpture by Myron during 5th century BCE

• Roman marble copies

• moment of intense physical effort, conc

• physical beauty, athleticism, harmony, human form, symmetry

diskos

disc throwing

dolichos

long-distance foot race

• part of the Olympics

• endurance, stamina

• one of the original events

dromos

running track

• central feature of sporting venues (stadiums, hippodromes)

Eleutheria

Eleutheria Games

Cult of Zeus Eleutherios (god who can make you free - from political tyranny, and bc he’s the most powerful)

• held at Larissa, largest plane in Greece, low farmland

Elis

W region

Important city = Olympia

emic

approach to description of a language/culture in terms of its internal elements and their functioning rather than in terms of any existing external framework

endonym

native term for how they referred to themselves

* Greece = Hellas

Epidaurus

city & sanctuary

• Asklepion at Epidaurius: religious sanctuary: health, medicine, exss, athletic comp, religious cult

  • come to them in dreams, poisonous snakes on the floor, make an offering by putting what you want healed on the wall

epigraphy

study of inscriptions on stone/metal/ceramics

epinician

type of lyric poetry to celebrate victories in athl comps, esp Olympics

• Pindar = most popular poet (5th cent BCE)

• strophe/antistrophe/epode stanzas

• local references, sensory vocab, epithets, sets of three

etiology

story that takes cause into account; why is something the way that it is

etymology

truth from a historical-linguistics perspective

* origins of words

euandria

• men’s beauty contest w/age classes (eu = good + andr = man)

  • age out of competitive world but may maintain physique 

  • pulling lots of former victors and giving prizes even as they age  

Foucault

French philosopher/historian

• on discipline: society wants an obedient subject, habits/rules/orders/authority continually exercised around him and upon him

funeral games

athletic comps in honor of dead person

gamification

* application of typical elements of game playing (point scoring, competition with others) to other areas of activity
* very simplified value system 
* highlight our ability to be incredibly fluid about what we care about 
* value clarity in a game, know what you want, how to get it, not overwhelming and conflicting like real life
* decreases the diversity of our intellectual approaches

gloios

mix of sweat, oil, dirt scraped off body of athlete post exercise

• contains and preserves potency of athletic comp

• healing powers

gymnasion

a room or building where nude exercise takes place, equipped for gymnastics, games

gymnos

nude

Hellanodikai

judges of the Ancient Olympic Games, and the success of the games was attributed to their efforts

* sacred duty

Hellas

Greece place (endonym)

Hellenes

Greeks people (endonym)

Hellenistic

relating to Greek history, language, culture

Heraia

footrace for female virgins

Olympic stadium, track shortened by 1/6

winner prize = crown of olive + portion of cow sacrificed to hera, statues w name inscription

Herakles

strength, son of Jupiter, wrestled Nemean lion

Herodotus

Greek historian “father of history”

traveled extensively, writing down his experiences

hero cult

worshipping someone larger than life, made an impression, assumed connection to the gods

• ex at Isthmia: pailamon, wrestler

hippikos agon

equestrian comps

hippodrome

track for horse races

Homer

Greek poet, wrote Iliad and Odyssey

• lived 8th century (Archaic era) 

• wrote abt athletic culture 

• he’s writing abt the past 

honorand

someone who is being awarded an honor

hoplitodromos

soldier’s footrace in armor a diaulos in length

inscription

words written/cut into something

Iron/Dark Age

1200 - 500 BCE

• cultural decline/disruption post-Mycenaean civilization fall

• invasions, natural disasters, econ decline

• lack of written records

• people began making tools/weapons from steel

isthmus

• place of Isthmian games (crown of pine)

• strategic, accessible location

• every 2 years

• sacred to Poseidon

• musical comp

• founding: hero cult (pailamon, “wrestler,” theseus, an athenian hero

kalos/kalon

beauty/attractiveness, good, noble, fitting, useful

kalokagathia

ideal of being physically beautiful and morally virtuous

Kallipateira

• steps in as a male trainer for her son who lost his father, was caught

• daughter of Diagoras of Rhodes

• released her unpunished out of respect for her father, her brothers, and her son, all of whom had been victors at Olympia.

• new law = future trainers would have to attend in the nude

kampter

name of the post where a turn was made in footraces/horse races

Karneia

• Spartan competition in between Olympia and Delphi games

• part of cultural fascination w sparta and its military strength, constitutional stability, and cultural radicalism 

keles

a riding horse

horseback race of a length 6-12 laps around hippodrome

keryx

victor of comp at Olympia

rewarded w honor of calling events, announcing victors

kithara

harp/lyre

konis

dust/powder used after bathing

kotinos

wild olive

olive wreath: fitted to head, extension of body

Kyniska

• exceptional competitor, most real and guaranteed 

  • kings of sparta = fathers and brothers 

  • victorious at chariot race, only woman in Greece to win 

  • could be backhanded - trying to prove that wealth wins…even women can win!ƒlari

Larissa

largest plane in greece, low farmland 

lexicography

tracking a word’s meaning and use within language

• synchronic

• helpful for understanding interactions between language and culture at any given moment

ludic

spontaneity, playfulness

McGonigal

• gaming can make a better world

• we are not as “good” in real life as we are in games

  • urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity, epic meaning, super-empowered hopeful individuals

Milo

son of Diotimos, of Kroton

famous for wrestling

Minoan

• vibrant, diverse, artistic, pre-historic culture 

• bull leaping, boxing frescos

• Crete, settlements across Aegean sea 

• sea-power, “thalassocracy” w extensive trade networks to Egypt, Turkey, Levant 

• hierarchical palace culture w centralized command economies

mousikos agon

musical comp

Mycenaean

culture concerned with war, fight, box and race

• late bronze age, after Minoans (volcano erupted in Santorini)

• Greeks claimed them

• Agamemnon: mythical king

• Linear B: writing system that proves they spoke an early form of Greek

mythology

collection of myths, esp abt gods & heroes

nike

“victory”; winged goddess of victory, has temple in acropolis

omphalos

centralness, core/essence of something

Opheltes

• baby whose death made “Nemean games in honor of opheltes”

• left unattended, bitten by a snake, Heracles kills snake but can’t save baby

oracle

person who provides prophecies

Palaimon

• baby whose death = origin of isthmian games

palaistra

the wrestling school

pale

wrestling (event + exercise)

Panathenaia

local festival at Athens which was the largest and best known of the chrematitic festivals

• “lesser” = held on off years for athenians only

pankration

• all-power, no holds barred, boxing/wrestling combo introed at 33rd olympics

  • 2 rules: no eye gouging, no biting