Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport

In creative works resulting from study, research,insight, and explanation, one might point out twoparticular types: the creative work of originationand the creative work of synthesis. The originatorcreates a work that is seen as being one of the prime,essential works of theory and exposition around aparticular subject. Such a study is widely admiredand often quoted, sometimes favorably, sometimes inargument against its ideas...or even jealousy of itsfame. The creative work of synthesis is built around aperson's enthusiasm for a subject, their ferventdesire to know it to its core. They study it, liveit, breathe it. They want to explain it to others.So they begin to research, or they have collectedresearch and quotes and source citations over time.Then they decide to commit their own understandingand insight about the subject using all of thematerials and sources and ideas which they haveshaped into a presentation of enlightenment. Thisis the person's bold presentation of his synthesizedvision and creative interpretaion of the ideas andjustifications gathered from sources. In this excellent work by David Sansone, we havea very satisfying blend of research, source citation(footnotes), personal insights, and a very obviousoutpouring of love of the subject and a desire tounderstand it to its very depths and in multipleaspects. Sansone is a Professor of Classics at the Universityof Illinois, Urbana (back cover). In his "Prelude"to this work, Sansone says that he inherited a courseto teach which had been originated (ahh..) by WilliamAbbott Oldfather, "the American classical scholar."The course was on the sports of ancient Greece andRome, and its purpose had been to "stem the tide ofmoral and physical degeneration and to inculcate thehealthful lessons offered by the model of Greekathletics." Sansone says that when he inherited thecourse he hit the books to supplement his lack ofknowledge in some aspects of the subject. But hebelieved a more sophisticated and rigorous approachthan Oldfather's was needed, for Oldfather had basicallyseen sport as a practice for war carried out by "blond,tall, muscular Nordics" who found war to be not onlya necessity but an amusement, a form of entertainment.This approach did not satisfy Sansone, since he wasnot Nordic by heritage. Sansone says that when he started teaching the coursehe had no idea of what sport was or why it was so avidly pursued by so many. Over time, he says, he began to notice "the intimate connection between Greek athleticsand sacrificial ritual" and it occurred to him "towonder whether the athlete was not in some senseregarded [in ancient times] as a [type of] sacrificialvictim." Sansone cites many sources in his footnotes, butthey are not overwhelming. The ideas and quotes heuses are clear and compelling. What is of excellentbenefit is his clear, linear presentation of theaccumulated treasure of his own findings of theevolution of sport from primitive times to the timeof the Greeks.