Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources, Expanded edition - Hardcover

Miller, Stephen G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520075080 ISBN 13: 9780520075085

Publisher: University of California Press, 1991

Synopsis

From the informal games of Homer's time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compiled a trove of ancient sources—Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on clay dust as an anti-perspirant and on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, Xenophon on female body building. With fully twice as many texts as the highly successful first edition, this new version of Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers—the ancients themselves.

These sources, which Miller himself has translated, provide unparalleled insights into ancient athletic practices and competitive festivals. They emphasize the fundamental role of athletics in education and shed light on such issues as the role of women in athletics and the politics and economics of the games. Ultimately they demonstrate that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete and so closely associated in the modern mind with Greek athletics are only part of the story from antiquity.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen G. Miller is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Nemea Excavations. He is the author of The Prytaneion (1978), coauthor of Nemea: A Guide to Site and Museum (1990), and general editor of the forthcoming publications from the Nemea excavations, all published by the University of California Press.

From Library Journal

"Arete" was a word used by ancient Greeks to convey the sense of skill, excellence, and honor in their sports. This collection explores arete in 192 readings drawn from ancient texts translated, edited, and annotated by Miller (classical archaeology, Univ. of California). Thematically arranged, it spans eight centuries, beginning c.750 B.C., and describes athletes, individual sports, equipment, festivals, amateurism, nationalism, and the involvement of politics, society, women, and the arts. This new edition has twice the selections of the first (Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1979), benefiting from recently discovered texts and from Miller's expanded scholarship. However, it does not have the breadth, in text as well as illustrations, of Waldo E. Sweet's Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece (Oxford Univ. Pr., 1987). An index provides access to subjects, writers, and definitions of words. For large sports collections that do not have Sweet's treatment.
- Donald W. Max well, Stone Hills Lib. Network, Bloomington, Ind.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0520075080
• ISBN 13: 9780520075085
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 239