The Religious and Cultural Significance of Ancient Olympic Games

The contrast Herodotus draws comes down to unrivalled in the midst of the absolutism of the East and the relatively more participatory civil society of the West, but the context for it is that, as Xerxes is regrouping for a sea invasion after losing thousands of warriors, he receives intelligence from bucolic deserters about the status of Greek military prep ardness. What happens then illustrates how late embedded in Greek culture was the relationship between philosophy, history, and the importance of acrobaticism.

[H]e was told in reply that the Greeks were celebrating the Olympic festival, where they were watching athletic contests and chariot-races. When he asked what the prize was for which they contended, the Arcadians mentioned the wreath of olive-leaves which it is our custom to give . . . [and] when he learned that the prize was non money but a wreath, he could not help crying out in front of everybody, "Good heavens . . . what kind of men atomic number 18 these that you hand brought us to fight against--men who compete with one other for no material reward, but only for honour!" (Herodotus 532).

The Greeks' behavior is especially noteworthy for the fact that it occurred in the wake of the (costly) Iranian defeat of the Greeks at the pass of Thermopylae. The point is that a didactics about Western

---. The Republic. Trans. gum benjamin Jowett. Plato. Ed. Louise Ropes Loomis. 1942; Roslyn, N.Y.: Walter J. Black, Inc., 1969. 221-495.

While Plato sets wisdom above all the other sexual abstentions, facial expression that it "contains a divine element," he also explains that virtues of the soul that argon not innate provoke be learned, or, more specifically, "can be implanted later by habit and exercise," which are features of tangible activity (Plato, Republic 403). Plato explains that gymnastic, his word for personal education, "preside[s] all over the growth and decay of the body, and may therefore be regarded as having to do with generation and corruption" (407). The fact that gymnastic entails concepts of replace and decay, in Plato's scheme of thought, means that it is not an Ideal Form, i.e.

, not incorruptible, but instead transitory, unequal to wisdom. The same is true of music, which is regarded as a useful discipline but even at its best an artifact of habit and training rather than of virtue per se. Plato does not regard gymnastic or music growth as irrelevant to the emerging warrior/philosopher but rather as aspects of strong educational accomplishment.

Abrahams, Harold Maurice. "Olympic Games." Britannica 2001 Deluxe Edition CD-ROM. simoleons: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2000.

Plato. lawfulnesss. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2000.

Greek philosophy, which treats of metaphysics, politics, rhetoric, the natural sciences, and art, is replete with references to physical education and training as essential elements of education as a whole. It may be inferred that one objective of physical education is the fitness required of soldiers and sailors, and in the Laws Plato has a Lacedaemonian explaining wherefore it is best for Athens to have soldiers live, eat, and train together. War preparation is of course one reason. But it emerges that "common meals and gymnastic exercises have been excellently devised for the promotion both of temperance and courage" (Plato, Law
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