SPORTS IN ANCIENT GREECE

  

Part one

Gymnastics as a means of education

General.

The economic autonomy, the increase in population and the generally good quality of life during the 10th-6th centuries BC in Greece brought, as is known, Greek civilization to a very high level, such that even the 21st century is not taught by it.

Thus, the 6th and mainly the 5th and 4th centuries find the Greek cities to have developed humanitarian values, within all of which democracy and education had special places.

Education had a global character, we could say, cultural, which was closely linked to all the sciences of the time (Philosophy, Medicine, Astrology, Mathematics, etc.)

Part of Greek education was physical exercise, gymnastics, sports, which were half of the educational pyramid. Every city-state, that is, regardless of the type of regime it had, considered gymnastics as a means of education with the ideal citizen as its model: fit in body and complete in mind and soul.

The Greeks were the first to apply the above principle of all ancient peoples, since before them no people used physical exercise to acquire virtue in life, but as a means of military preparation.

The main element of gymnastics was competition, the well-known rivalry.  This element had, as we can easily see, positive and negative characteristics. Positive is the independence of the citizen and the perfection of the whole through individual freedom-autonomy. Negative is the characteristic of excessive rivalry, which reached the point of causing critical civil strife throughout the Greek world. It seems that the great fanaticism of the Peloponnesian War between the Greeks passed, albeit subconsciously, (for the ancient Greeks) through the palaestras. 

A typical example is the case of Alcibiades and Athens. The first, albeit an "ideal citizen", repeatedly betrayed his homeland. And she - Athens - forgave him many times, since he was "good and kind".  If we add the great economic power of Athens and Alcibiades, we will see why Athens immediately after the Persian Wars underestimated the other Greeks (at that time, the old Athens and the Gymnasiums produced the best citizens of Greece).

continued...

Source: INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE GREEK WORLD. "Sotiris G. Giatsis"

Article edited by: George Bakalopoulos, Graduate of the Department of Physical Education & Sports Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.