Greek Sport and Social Status

by Mark Golden

From the ancient Olympic games to the World Series and the World Cup, athletic achievement has always conferred social status. In this collection of essays, a noted authority on ancient sport discusses how Greek sport has been used to claim and enhance social status, both in antiquity and in modern times. Mark Golden explores a variety of ways in which sport provided a route to social status. In the first essay, he explains how elite horsemen and athletes tried to ignore the important roles that jockeys, drivers, and trainers played in their victories, as well as how female owners tried to rank their equestrian achievements above those of men and other women. In the next essay, Golden looks at the varied contributions that slaves made to sport, despite its use as a marker of free, Greek status. In the third essay, he evaluates the claims made by gladiators in the Greek east that they be regarded as high-status athletes and asserts that gladiatorial spectacle is much more like Greek sport than scholars today usually admit. In the final essay, Golden critiques the accepted accounts of ancient and modern Olympic history, arguing that attempts to raise the status of the modern games by stressing their links to the ancient ones are misleading. He concludes that the contemporary movement to call a truce in world conflicts during the Olympics is likewise based on misunderstandings of ancient Greek traditions.

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Golden’s Greek Sport and Social Status is a fairly standard academic text, but one that at least attempts to remain accessible to the average (non-specialist) reader. There are some spots in which he assumes that the reader has background knowledge on the subject or can fill in the gaps and, at times, his writing is less than straightforward. Overall, however, these issues occur infrequently and are nicely balanced by the analogies he makes between his subject matter and modern concepts. Explaining ancient gladiatorial sports in the context of, say, baseball makes the material much more intelligible. The evidence is, at times, sporadic, but that is to be expected from a work about Ancient Greece, for which contemporary sources are often few and far between, and the author does a good job of presenting a reasonable argument and crossing the gaps to reach logical conclusions when necessary.

My only significant complaint is that I felt that each chapter could be improved with a one paragraph summary of Golden’s main findings and assertions. Like any academic work, the bulk of this book is a presentation and analysis of the evidence that the scholar used to come to his conclusion and it can be esoteric at times. A brief statement of the main points would not only make the argument easier to understand, but would have helped me retain more of the information and key ideas. The first chapter discusses the social status of various non-athletes who were involved in the ancient Olympic Games and examines the esteem in which jockeys, charioteers, coaches, and trainers were held. Chapter two analyzes the status of slaves, while the third chapter addresses the misconception that gladiator combat was anathema to the more “civilized” Greek society and argues that gladiators had the potential to represent themselves as the equals of Olympic athletes.

The final chapter explores myths about the modern Olympic Games, particularly concerning their relationship (or lack thereof) to their ancient predecessor. This section was the reason I picked up the book, since it is where my interests lie, and was the one I most enjoyed. It dispels many of the myths surrounding the Games and is a must-read for anyone seeking to travel beyond a superficial understanding of the modern festival. A reader who wants to expand his knowledge about the Games, both ancient and modern, and who is willing to read through an academic (but accessible) text will find this book not only a quick and interesting read, but intellectually rewarding as well.