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[German version] [1] see Medon [7] see Medon [7] Decker, Wolfgang (Cologne) [German version] [2] Famous wrestler from Croton, 6th cent BC. Milon (Μίλων) of Croton. A wrestler, one of the most famous athletes of Greek antiquity, with 32 victories at Panhellenic competitions ( Sports festivals). No other ancient athlete won six times at Olympia as he did (540; 532-516 BC) [1. no. 115, 122, 126, 129, 133, 139]; he was also a six-time periodonikēs ( Periodos, Periodonikes) [2. 16-18; 3. 340]. His countryman Timasitheus [1. no. 145] thwarted his attempt at a seventh Olympi…

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[German version] (Πουλυδάμας/ Poulydámas; also Polydamas/Πολυδάμας/ Polydámas) of Scotussa (Thessaly). Victor at the Olympic Games (Ol. 93 = 408 BC) in the pankration , of unusual body size whose deeds were embellished by legend (Paus. 6,5,4-9). His fight with the lion and his appearance at the royal Persian court where he was said to have killed unarmed three armed bodyguards of Darius II are depicted on the base of his victor's statue in Olympia, which was sculpted by Lysippus [2] and was alleged …

[German version] ( Agon Capitolinus). In contrast to the Neroneia, the Capitolea festival, introduced by the emperor Domitian in Rome in AD 86 (Suet. Dom. 4,4), considerably outlasted their founder because of their name connection with Jupiter Capitolinus. The highly regarded contest based on the Greek model and consisting of an athletic (held in the stadium Domitiani, now the Piazza Navona [1]), musical and hippic programme, certainly won by 64 victors [2. 123-155], still existed in the middle of the 4th cent. During Domitian's rule, it also comprised a …

[German version] The athletics programme of the Greek agones ( Sport festivals) was mostly designed for the age groups παῖδες ( paîdes; boys, approximately 14-17 years), ἀγένειοι ( agéneioi; youths, actually ‘beardless ones’, approximately 17-20 years) and ἄνδρες ( ándres; men). At the Olympic Games, where, it is said, in 632 BC the track event was supposedly the first competition for youths (here called παῖδες, age limit probably 18 years), and the Pythian Games, the two most prestigious games of all, there were only two age groups. A further, younger group for boys (a…

[German version] I. Introductory remark The general term SF is broader than the Greek cultural phenomenon of the ἀγών/ agṓn. The Greeks did not invent SF, but undoubtedly brought them to a peak with the institution of the agṓn. Decker, Wolfgang (Cologne) [German version] II. Egypt The Pharaonic culture of the Nile valley, according to Hdt. 2,58-59,1 the birthplace of the festival ( panḗgyris), provides clear indications for combining sports and festival in a single event [1]. The jubilee festival, the pivotal royal celebration, had a strong athletic accent with its ritual run (Sports III.). The funerary complex of the pharaoh Djoser (2690-2670 BC) in Saqqara contains the extant race course, which was thus available to the pharaoh in all eternity for the celebration of this festival [2. 32-41]. Only a little more recent was the topping-out ceremony for the completion of the Pyramid …

(Δημάρατος; Dēmáratos). [German version] [1] Corinthian aristocrat 7th cent. BC Corinthian aristocrat, member of the  Bacchiadae family. D. made his fortune as a merchant around the middle of the 7th cent. BC, mainly through trade with Etruria. When he had to leave Corinth during the rule of  Cypselus he settled in Tarquinii with his followers and married an Etruscan aristocrat. According to ancient tradition the marriage produced two sons, one of whom became the first Etruscan king of Rome,  Tarquinius P…

[German version] In contrast to the ancient Middle East [1] and ancient Egypt [2. 42-54; 3. 1,139-189, 2, pl. 68-83, 446-450, folding plate A], where impressive reports and depictions of competitions or royal demonstrations in the art of bow-shooting (especially from Amenophis II, 1438-1412 BC) have survived, bow-shooting played only a modest role in athletic contests of later Greece [4.365-371; 5.155-158]. However, bow-shooting appears a number of times in both the Iliad (23,850-883; and, followi…

[German version] (πυγμή, πύξ; pygmḗ, pýx; pugilatio, pugilatus). There is already evidence of the discipline in the pre-Greek period (Egypt [1. N 1-2]; Mesopotamia [2. fig. 69; 3. 16f.]) and it was also practised in ancient marginal cultures (Etruria [4. 181-268]; representation on situlae [4. 168-174; 185f.; 226-231]; Lucania [5. 54f.]). In the early Greek Aegean area impressive documents from Thera (fresco of the so-called ‘boxing princes’) [6. pl. 38; 7. 43-45] and the depiction on a rhyton from Hagia Triada [6. pl. 106f.; 7. 43-45]…

[German version] (ἀποβάτης; apobátēs). Relic of an early style of combat portrayed in Homer [1.31], the apobates contest, in which an armed man sprang from a moving chariot, had to run for a distance and then jump back aboard (?) while the driver kept the vehicle moving, evidently later enjoys high favour as a sporting event only in Athens [2.188-189; 3.138-141]. The complex discipline, where, besides equestrian qualities, great skill on the part of the armed runner and precise co-ordination between him and the …

[German version] (δόλιχος; dólichos). Longest running race at Greek sporting events. At Olympia, where the dolichos reportedly came into the program in 720 BC (15th Olympiad) as third sport, it probably covered a stretch of 20 stades ( c. 3,845 m) [1. 108f.]…

(Νεμέα; Neméa). [German version] [1] Nymph after whom Nemea [2,3] was named Nymph, after whom N. [2,3] was named, daughter of the river god Asopus and Metope (Paus. 2,15,3; schol. Pind. Ol. 6,144 Dr.) or of Zeus and Selene (hypothesis c on Pind. Nem.); mother of Opheltes (Aesch. TrGF 3 F *149a). Käppel, Lutz (Kiel) [German version] [2] Name of a river, a basin and a sacred grove This item can be found on the following maps: …

[German version] (περίοδος/ períodos, περιοδονίκης/ periodoníkēs). The four most significant Panhellenic agons (Sports festivals) at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and the Isthmus were brought together from the 3rd cent. BC under the term periodos ('circuit'). An athlete who had been victorious at least once in each of those games received the honorary title of periodoníkēs documented only from the 2nd cent. AD (cf. today's Grand Slam for success in the four most important international tennis tournaments of the year). Only c. 60 ancient athletes were entitled to this distinction …

(Μνησίβουλος/ Mnēsíboulos). [German version] [1] Athenian defendant, after 356 BC The Athenian M. was involved after 356 BC in a lawsuit for false testimony ( pseudomartyrías díkē ) on behalf…

(Θεογένης/ Theogénēs). [German version] …

[German version] (ἀγωνοθέτης; agōnothétēs). While nothing is known of the office and function of the agonothete in pre-Greek times, Achilles as patron of the funeral games in honour of Patroclus already entirely fulfils the duties of later agonothetes (Hom. Il. 23,257-897) [1.81-82]. As patron he provides and distributes valuable prizes from among his own possessions, and repeated calls are made on his abil…

[German version] (Πυθιονῖκαι/ Pythionîkai, 'victors at the Pythian Games'). Victors at Olympia were in many cases also successful at the Pythia [2] [1]. A list of Pythionîkai was drawn up by Aristotle [6] and his relative Callisthenes [1] [2. 139-144; 3]. Some of the inscriptions written in their honour have survived (FdD 2,1; 2,400; [2. 141-144]). Twelve of the odes of Pindarus [2] are dedicated to Pythionîkai. In Delphi, important anathḗmata (Anathema) have been found, such as the 'charioteer' given by the Sicilian tyrant Polyzalus  [4. no. 13] and the votive g…

[German version] (Sport; κέλης/ kélēs). Although there is evidence, for instance from Egypt [1], of riding on horseback as early as the mid-2nd mill. BC, it was only in Greece that it became a sporting discipline, riding competitions having apparently taken place at the Olympic Games (Olympia IV) from 648 BC. Like chariot-racing (Circus II, Hippodromos [1]), riding was the province of the nobility. Among the 31 preserved names of Olympic victors in riding are well-known names such as Hieron [1] I, t…

[German version] Running first appears in Sumeria as a royal attribute [1]. The Egyptian pharaoh showed his running ability in the ritual of the Jubilee Feast (Egyptian ḥb-sd) [2]. The first evidence of competition is among the Hittites, where the office of royal bridle-holder was awarded as a prize in a competitive race [3]. Soldiers of the Egyptian king Taharka performed a race over a distance of c. 100 km after a long period of daily training in 686/685 BC [4]. Running was an essential part of Patroclus' funeral agon (Hom. Il. 23,740-797), held by the 'fleet-footed' (πόδας ὠκύς, pódas ōkýs)…

(Φρύνων; Phrýnōn). [German version] [1] Olympic victor Victor at Olympia. Moretti [1. no. 58] dates his victory (in the pankration rather than the stadion) [2. 213: A 68] to the 36th Games = 636 BC. According to ancient tradition he died in 607/6 in a duel with  Pittacus of Mytilene over the ownership of  Sigeum. His activities as an oikistḗs (founder of a colony) suggests an aristocratic origin ([3. 63], otherwise [4. 160 note 59]). Decker, Wolfgang (Cologne) Bibliography 1 L. Moretti, Olympionikai, 1957 2 D.G. Kyle, Athletics in Ancient Athens, 21993 3 H.W. Pleket, Zur Soziologie…