Monday, March 26, 2018

Local Games at Epidauros, Argos, Sparta, and Larissa

Essay 3: Digital Curation

- look in notes/on canvas for more info

Epidauros and Asklepieion

- epidauros is a healing sanctuary

- Asklepios

• hero/god of healing

• son of Apollo and a mortal woman

- Asklepieion

• sanctuary of Asklepios

• possibly began in the 6th c BCE

• expanded greatly in 4th c BCE

• public and private aspects of the Asklepieion

- private: personal pilgrimages throughout the year to receive cures

- public: state festival with sacrifices and games

• abaton: place where patients slept at night

Asklepeia

- no reported foundation legend

- timing: 9 days after the Isthmian festival in late April/early May

• travel is fairly easy between festivals

- procession with sacrificial animals from the city of Epidauros to the sanctuary

- schedule of the festival not known in detail

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- sacrifice and banquet

• meant consumed in the sanctuary

- games

• first attested in the first half of the 5th c BCE

- Events

• not fully known

• gymnic

- stadion

- pankration

- pentathlon

• no hippic

• musical

- kitharesis and kitharodia?

- aulesis and aulodia?

- rhapsodia (recitation)

- acting

- administration

• controlled by a board of four state officials of the city of Epidauros called the
hieromnemones

- Stadium

• second half of 4th c BCE

• set in natural depression

• squared off end, like Olympia

• stone seats in the eastern (closed) part of the stadium

• track: 180 m between starting lines

- distance markers at 100 ft intervals

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• water channel with basin around the track

• balbis with double foot-grooves

- theater

• built in the late 4th-3rd c BCE

• one of the best preserved theaters in the greek world

Larissa

- Larissa: capital of the Tessalian League

- Local games (called “the games” on inscriptions)

• restricted to Thessalians

• probably held every year

- Eleutheria: international festival w/ games in honor os Zeus Eleutherios (liberator), so

• founded in 196 BCE to commemorate liberation from Macedon as a result of

• held every 4 years

• only for citizens of Larissa

• one agonothetes (director of the games) was the strategos of the Thessalians
(highest political and military position in Thessaly)

- not a lot of info on types of prizes

- events (three age categories, except for hoplitodromos)

• gymnic

- stadion

- diaulos

- dolichos

- hoplitodromos

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- pentathalon

- pankration

- pygme

• military-esque events (individual winners, not teams)

- cavalry marksmanship

- cavalry charge

- infantry charge

- infantry marksmanship

- archery

• hippic

- tethrippon for foals and horses

- synoris for foals and horses

- keles for foals and horses

- apobates

• thessalian triad (hippic events specific to these games)

- aphippolampas: torch race on horseback

- aphippodroma: rider dismounts and mounts a moving horse

- taurotheria: bull wrestling/hunt

• introduced to Rome by Caesar

• relation to modern bull-fighting…?

• non-athletic

- salpinx

- keryx

- literary composition

- rhetoric

- music? (sources are unclear)

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Sparta and the Karneia

- long hair

- focused almost exclusively on war

- spartan women participated in sports from a young age in order to be strong enough
to bear strong Spartan children/soldiers

- The Karneia

• sacred to apollo

• founded ca 675 BCE

• includes gymnic, hippic, musical events

• events:

- gymnic

• stadion

• diaulos

• dolichos

• makros (even longer distance)

• pente dolichos

• hoplitodromos? (not much evidence)

• pentathlon

• combat sports??? (little evidence for individual events)

- doesn’t really exist because it involves the loser quitting

- this goes against spartan beliefs of never surrendering

• sphaireis (close to rugby, team sport)

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Other Spartan Events

- “The competition at the platanistas”

• tribe-based teams of ephebes

• push other team off the island

- Rites at the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia

• goal: youths steal cheese from the altar

• obstacles: whipping

• by roman period: endurance

Argos and the Hekatombaia/Heraia

- in the 2nd c CE games in honor of Hera (the Heraia or Aspis of Argos) were held in
the city of Argos

• “aspis” means shield

• heraia are pretty much any games related/associated with Hera

- late sources link the founding of the games to a legendary king of Argos, Archinos or
Lynkeus

• Archinos is said to have awarded shields as the prizes

- could be why they’re also called the Aspis of Argos (shield of argos)

• Lynkeus is said to have established games called the shield of argos when, at the
death of Danaus, he became the king

- city of Argos is located at the bottom of a large hill and the Aspis Hill

• Aspis hill looks like one of the Argos shields turned on its side

• looks like: ( < )

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Early Festival and Games for Hera

- Hekatombaia

• sacrifice of 100 cattle

• festival of the hekatombs

Argive Heraion

- sanctuary outside of the city walls, across the plain

- early temple of Hera (probably 7th c BCE

• destroyed 423 BCE

• replaced by classical temple (ca 423-400 BCE)

- no direct evidence for stadium, hippodrome, theater

- there is indirect evidence for hippodrome in the plain below the sanctuary

• inscribed column capital (part of a grave marker), early 5th c BCE

• inscription indicated a woman buried her husband near the hippodrome

Change of name/Venue for Hekatombaia > Heraia

- before end of 3rd c BCE references to the Hekatombaia disappear

• soon references to the Heraia start to appear

- name change connected to venue?

- one of the earliest inscriptions mentioning the Heraia refer to the Helanodikai of the
Heraia and the Nemeia games

- in 209 BCE Philip V of Macedon was name agonothete (honorary director) of both
games

- events held:

• standard gymnic events

• hippic:

- less evidence for these

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- thethrippon, war-chariot

• non-athletic events

- program and timing

• no evidence for the program, how long the festival lasted

• probably held before every (or every other) Nemeia in June

- prizes

• mostly bronze

Addressing Recent Questions from class

- Why were Spartan women looked down on, but also seen as the most beautiful?

- Was the Heraion at Olympia similar to the regular Olympics?

• in some ways it’s similar, but really only consists of footraces

- How old were women who competed?

• mostly “pre-marriage age”, 12 and younger

- Why do ancient Greek buildings always get burned down or destroyed?

• they are religious centers/very political places are appear in conflict a lot

• fire was a big danger prior to the 20th century

• all buildings eventually fall down or have something happen to them

- Did the concept of funeral games originate in ancient Greece?

• the greek version is more or less independent to the other types of funeral games

• evidence of funerary games in Samaria long before Ancient Greece