MASTER PROGRAM
OLYMPIC STUDIES, OLYMPIC EDUCATION, ORGANIZATION AND
MANAGEMENT OF OLYMPIC EVENTS
Late Victorian scholars and others have used the terms amateurism and professionalism of ancient Greek athletics.
Akichika Taniguchi
December 2015
Introduction
Definition of the terms
1 : Requirement for Participation
( 1 ) Social status
( 2 ) Gender
( 3 ) Nationality
( 4 ) Obligation of training in Elis
( 5 ) Penalty
2 : Reward
( 1 ) Reputation for wealthy class
( 2 ) Purpose for life
Conclusion for Definition
Application
1 : Amateurism
2 : Professionalism
Conclusion
'. Introduction'
The ancient Olympic Games which were protected by the Olympic truce were ended. Emperor Theodosius I declared all pagan cults except Christians in 396 A.D. And it was in 426 A.D. when Theodosius II declared all religious temples. In 551 A.D. The games came to an end of the history which had continued for about 1200 years.
The ancient Olympic games were the ones not only for ancient Greek people but also for others from different countries. These foreign participants brought the athletic experience to their own town and found own games. According to the conquest by the Romans the figure of the games had been changing at the Empires time. The educational meaning of the ancient athletic games had transferred to the pursuit of the romans.
Olympia was excavated by German Archaeological team which E. Curtius was leading. The founders of modern Olympic games are Pierre De courbertin , Zappas and W.P. Brooks who took emphasized on was amateurism. They fused the values of the Ancient Olympic and English amateurism as fundamental policy of modern Olympic Games, that is to say they defined it as a qualification of the games.
I will try to find a possibility which might had lead the decline of the Ancient Greek athletics. Defining the terms : amateurism and professionalism.
'. Amateurism and Professionalism in antiquity
'Luxury life style led to illegal practices among the athletes for the sake of money'. 'Money breeds professional athletes which breeds corruptions : they care nothing for the reputation of the athletes. Only through strict amateurism can the true value of sport be realized'. These words must express different things. While the later sentence refers directly to amateurism, the former two sentences implies professionalism. 'This has led to the belief that Athletics of ancient Greece were amateur competitions. Is this true? To answer that, we must define amateur and professional'. Pleket gave us some clues for the definition of these terms: Amateurism and Professionalism in antiquity. It must be important to know the reason of the difference when we try to define Amateurism and Professionalism in antiquity.
1: Requirement for Participation
( 1 ) Social status
'Ancient Greek amateurism is a nineteenth-century invention, a conspiracy of shoddy scholarship and the desire to exclude working-class athletes from vying with (and perhaps emerging victorious over) their social superiors'. It says the idea amateurism was invented to exclude working-class athletes by higher social classes. This means that only nobles, not women nor lower social class slaves could participate in the ancient games and compete with others. It is clear giving our eyes to the events. The horse riding events which require a lot of money to manage horses feeding, their house, traveling. That is to say, the ancient athletics required the higher social class which people belong to and the participation was decided due to it.
As Philip ' minted coins with a design for his victory on chariot races. We can see there were some emperors among victors. They showed not only social power but also good performance as competitor. 'Augustus founded the Actian games in Greece, reorganizing an old festival of Apollo to celebrate his victory over Antony and Cleopatra, and the Sebastan games at Naples in Greek-speaking southern Italy'. He brought the idea of the athletic games in his place because he was impressed by the games. 'From Augustus on, emperors fostered festival competitions in the Greek east of their realms, whether from philhellenism or the desire to give their subjects what they liked'.
Nobles wanted to show the reputation for pride as Philip 'did. We can consider as not working-class competitor some higher social classes : Isokrates, Xenophon, Plutarchus, Euripides. There are others from other background persons in power but in the imperial period such as Aurelius Asclepiade, Tiberius Claudius Rufus, Marcus Aurelius Demetrius, Demaratus. Moreover, what we should know is that not only lower social classes and slaves but also women could not take part in the athletics.
At the beginning of the ancient athletics the social required status was wealthy people but it had been changing along with the time. It means the social status as a factor in order to define athletes as amateur or professional relays on the period when the athletes belong to.
( 2 ) Gender
Gender issue also affected the requirement. Women were excluded for the reason why it was said that their participation made Hera, who is the wife of Zeus, jealousy. And the role of women was considered as other things. 'The stadium is a bank of earth on which is a seat for the sponsors of the competition. Opposite the Hellanodikai is an altar of white marble. Seated on this a woman watches the Olympic Games, the priestess of Demeter Chamyne; this office is bestowed on a woman from time to time by the Eleans'. For this reason, women except those who assigned roles were not allowed to see the competitions nor to enter in the stadium. Women were turned down strongly.
Kyniska was a women victor in the ancient athletics. She was competed in chariot races as controller of carriage. She might have received applause at the moment where she won but it is not clear whether she received any prize visible for her result. She can be, however, one of amateur sport players. By concluding this way we must say gender issue is necessary condition to define amateurism and professionalism on the requirements of the ancient Olympic games but the issue is, in fact, not a necessary condition for amateurism nor professionalism from the viewpoint of what ancient people aimed through sport.
The gender issue does not meet the the problem among Amateurism and Professionalism. At the begging of the ancient athletic games they were excluded from the games but after the permission for the games at the era female victors appeared and competed well the gender issue got apart from a factor to define 'amateurism or professionalism of athletes.
( 3 ) Nationality
Then how about the existence of foreigners? Did foreigners meet the requirement of the athletic games? 'When Alexander I decided to compete and appeared for that purpose, his Greek competitors wanted to exclude him, maintaining that the Games were for Greeks and not for barbarians'. At the period of this king, the barbarians were banned from their participation. There is no room to argue for definition of Amateurism and Professionalism. 'Even still today those barbarians, especially in Asia, who have con- tests in boxing and wrestling, compete wearing diazomata. Indeed, one could show that the Greeks of old practiced many customs like those of today's barbarians'. At the rise of foreign countries such as Asia the barbarians could compete in the games but there is no clue to define the terms this is why Nationality is not one of the factors in order to become amateur athletes nor pro athletes.
( 4 ) Obligation of training in Elis
To be qualified as competitors they had a procedure to follow officially under strict supervision. The ancient Olympic Games were at first held only by Ancient Greek men. The participants gathered from other Greek polices representing their home place and the competitors were selected in Elis where was near from Ancient Olympia during training for thirty days in palestra. 'When the Olympic festival is approaching, the Eleans train the athletes for thirty days in Elis itself. Likewise, the people of Delphi collect the athletes when the Pythian festival approaches, and the Corinthians for the Isthmian festival, and they say to the athletes: 'Go now into the stadium, and be men worthy of winning'. This obligation is need as the first step for participation but it has nothing with the definition of the technical terms.
( 5 ) Penalty
The training content to be held for becoming competitors was not really changed by itself. It is thought to observe the Olympic truce and for this reason the ancient Olympic history had continued about for 1200 years. Did nobody however destroy the truce? The answer is yes. There were disqualified participants and they were received penalties. One of them is Zanes. 'Zanes, bronze statues of Zeus at Olympia paid for by fines collected from athletes and others who broke the festival's rules. The first such fine was levied in 388'. It is a statue of Zeus but it is a statue of shame. There are 12 statues. These were constructed by the penalty of the games. Some betrayed the Olympic truce and others acted dishonestly. How should we consider Zanes as no-amateurism athlete? There is a room to argue about it. The offenders must not be count as amateur nor professional but I could not find much information about this topic. When we think back about modern Olympic games and similar international competitions some players come back to compete after their any illegal behaviors. They are, however, called professional. This phenomenon can make these professional athletes become permanent 'professional' but it never makes them amateur any more.
2 : Reward
( 1 ) Reputation
The variety of the prizes which were given for victors was diferent from the places and imposing. 'A crown of olive at Olympia, a crown of pine at Isthmia, a crown of wild celery at Nemea, the laurel-berries sacred to Apollo at Delphi, and the oil of the olive at the Panathenaia'. These are things which does not worthy by itself but the meaning which things have is important. 'Together with them goes a reputation which is worth everything to the victors, and getting kicked is a small price to pay for those who seek fame through pain'.
Ancient Greek people put emphasize on these above prizes as symbol of victory and some participants tended to demonstrate their prosperity. Alexander loved neither fame of all kinds nor recognition from everyone, unlike his father, Philip, who acted like a sophist in his pride in the power of his speeches, and stamped his coins with his chariot victories at Olympia'. This is because in that time the games was occupied by the nobles. The games were held for the pursuit of the higher social classes.
( 2 ) Purpose for life
We can confirm the fact of existence of victors from lower social classes. Then what was the prize of the games? 'I agree to write to you immediately concerning the honors and benefits which were asked of me [i.e., exemption from military service, from public duties, and from the billeting of troops, a truce during the festival of Ephesos, personal security, and the right to wear purple]'. Meanwhile the victors were given these privileges, lower social class and women had started to participate in the games. The purpose of the participation was not their reputation as the previous period but improvement of their life. The purpose was to live a life. Their participation focuses on survive with competitions. 'Theagenes of Thasos is said to have won some 1,400 prizes. For such a man athletics were no longer a recreation, but an absorbing occupation which left little time for other duties'. As we can see the rise of a business man such as Theagenes, the athletic event had been becoming a way of life.
Conclution of Definition
I will conclude for the term : Amateurism. It is difficult to consider it as the opposite of professionalism.
As for requirement for participation, the social class which a participant has was important. At first high social was required but later the requirement had been changing along with the time. We can say the same thing for gender issue and nationality of competitors. To be athletes in the games, the competitors however needed an obligation of training in Elis under supervision and those who cheated in competitions paid for Zanes. They were not only amateur but also amateur.
As for reward which victors received in the games there were some meanings: reputation for wealthy class people and privileges for working class. As many of scholars, however, pointed out money among rewards triggered corruption of athletics. That is to say working class people as professional led the decline of the ancient Greek athletics.
'. Application of the terms
( 1 ) Amateurism
'Aratus and Gorgus of Messene, both of whom won victories in the pentathlon' but according to Gardiner he says 'such men were the exceptions'. They are victors and it means they passed the obligation of training in Elis and won the victories without cheating. For the reason there is few information about good amateurs like Aratus and Gorgus we can point out that the decline of the amateurism has been beginning already after the Persian war when both of them competed.
( 1 ) Professionalism
'When money enters into sport corruption is sure to follow'. 'The real evil in the sixth century was overcompetition, and it was a danger not only to the state but to the athlete. The multiplication of competitions and of prizes was making sport a source of profit'. Thus, early in the fifth century there arose 'the pothunter', who spent most of his time travelling from city to city, picking up prizes. Theagenes of Thasos is said to have won some 1,400 prizes. For such a man athletics were no longer a recreation, but an absorbing occupation which left little time for other duties. When the 'Shamateur' makes his appearance, professionalism is not far off. 'Theogenes had a prodigious appetite ' he could eat an ox ' and apparently played a distinguished part in community life'. This phrase means Theogenes was from non wealth class people.
The more the time passes, the more the prizes increases and the more the amateurism declines. Here is clear that the ancient athletics had been profaning gradually due to the money corruptions. We can find that athletes like Theagenes sacrificed his life to fight in the games. As Gardiner pointed out, sport became a mean of live a life and then what to enjoy. The Ancient Olympic spirit was almost disappeared.
'. Conclusion
Amateurism emphasizes on a slight existence of pure amateurs before the battle between Athenians and Spartan. Meanwhile, the reward at the beginning of the ancient Greek athletics was something which symbolized reputation or victory such as a wreath of olives in order for higher social classes to show their prosperity, the reward transformed to distinct privileges along with the time. These privileges allowed the winners live a life and promoted those who survived by keeping their victories in different games as a way of life. This model of them concluded the birth of Professionalism. We can say that these privileges triggered behaviors, such as illegal receptions of things, which are far from Amateurism and buy and sell of games and players. It guided the decline of the ancient Greek athletic.
Bibliography
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Kostas Georgiadis (2003) 'The revival of the Olympic Games' Stephan G. Stephan G. Miller (2005) 'Ancient Greek Athletics'
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