Sport and Politics in Archaic Greece

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between sport and politics in archaic Greece (eighth to sixth centuries BC). Although the issue of this relationship has been widely addressed by the academic literature devoted to the subject of ancient sports, there are no studies describing the relationship between both phenomena in the archaic period per se, as well as the factors which triggered them. This paper primarily draws on the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, as well as the works of Xenophanes and Pindar. Firstly, the study discusses the place of both sport (agon) and politics in the archaic polis. The second part shows how sport was used in various ways by individuals for political purposes, while the third part presents the role of sport in the politics of the poleis. At every level of this analysis, one can see a strong connection between both phenomena. Social, military, and political changes, caused, in particular, by the second Greek colonization and the new phalanx formation of hoplites, highlight the role of sport as an indicator of political domination – from the perspective of both the individual and the poleis as a whole. Indeed, this entire study shows that from the very first moment of its being shaped into organized events, sport was connected to politics.