Concentrating on questions of ethnic identity, this chapter analyzes cases of non-Greek participation in sporting events of the Hellenistic period. Since “Greekness” was not a biological but a cultural category, athletics became a vehicle for integration into the Hellenic world. Yet this vehicle was used in very different ways. With the aim of becoming part of the Hellenistic world at large, Phoenician competitors participated in major sporting events since the third century, whereas Roman athletes of the Late Hellenistic period competed almost exclusively on the local level in order to enhance their integration into the Greek community they were living in. In both cases, participation in athletic competition served as a marker of Greek identity, as it did in Hellenistic Jerusalem. But although the attempt to become Greek through athletics appears as a well-known behavioral pattern of non-Greek victors, simple self-Hellenization was not necessarily the goal but could take the form of a “subversive submission.”

The Conclusion puts the results of the study into a larger perspective. All throughout the Hellenistic period, the field of athletics played a crucial role in the cultural and political history of the Greek world. Especially the third century can be identified as a heyday of Greek athletics. Various agonistic cultures emerged or existed alongside each other, most notably in Sparta, Thessaly, and Ptolemaic Egypt. With regard to the three different levels of agonistic representation, a logic of compensation is unveiled as a key motif on the level of the polis, whereas different strategies of agonistic representation are detected for the level of the kings. Finally, the emergence of a “new society of victors” including at least twenty-six female horse owners, non-Greeks, and successful royals represents one of the most important historical developments in the history of Hellenistic athletics.

This chapter investigates the role of Hellenistic kings and queens as victorious horse owners. It is asked to which degree the different dynasties of the period used equestrian victories as a means of representation. The fact that Philip II and his son Alexander had a different approach to agonistic competition gave leeway to their successors’ competitive behavior: Whereas the Antigonids and Seleucids refrained from equestrian competition, the Ptolemies became the most successful royal family in terms of athletics. They sponsored promising athletes, established a new category of contests, and were imitated by their courtiers with regard to their engagement in chariot races. In the agonistic context, the Ptolemies presented themselves as a victorious, Macedonian dynasty which integrated the female members of the family into an image of power. The Attalids, in contrast, labelled themselves a loving family of united brothers in which no disputes over the throne ever occurred.

In order to gain a better understanding of the organizational and infrastructural framework in which Hellenistic athletes operated, this chapter offers an overview on new developments in the field of athletics. Such new developments most notably included an enlargement of the agonistic landscape, important building programs in the athletic facilities of the major sanctuaries, and an expansion in the program of sporting events that were generally designed to become more spectacular and entertaining. The period also saw the heyday of the gymnasion and new forms of victory prizes. Fines against corruption were expanded and prospective talent promotion set in in the third century. What emerges is the picture of an innovative period in the history of ancient athletics.

The Introduction sketches the history of research on Hellenistic athletics. It shows that the topic has not achieved much scholarly attention in the past due to the old (and spurious) assumption that the period constituted a “dark age” of sport history. The chapter explains the book’s focus on athletic and equestrian victors and substantiates the study’s methodological approach: Based upon the compilation of a database that includes all the available, mostly epigraphic and literary, sources on Hellenistic athletes, victor epigrams are identified as the key medium for the presentation of agonistic fame in the Hellenistic period. Sixty-one pieces of agonistic poetry form the main evidence for the following case studies. They are grouped into (local, regional, or empire-wide) clusters of epigrams in order to identify characteristic features of the agonistic discourse of each political unit. The aim is to investigate the impact political structures had on the respective agonistic cultures.

The epigraphic documentation in the Phoenician language of the island of Cyprus makes it possible to approach the exploration of the semantic field of the force (’z) in the conceptual universe of the Phoenicians. Gods ‘of strength’ appear in inscriptions commemorating victories, both at Kition and at Larnaka-tis-Lapithou. Baal and Anat are discussed: the profession of war is not a male prerogative in the world of the gods. Strength is also present in the world of men: anthroponomy conceals a few names, albeit not many, constructed using the root ‘zz ‘to be strong’. At the same time Anat, Resheph, Baal and Mikal, gods present in the Phoenician context of Cyprus with also (but not only) warlike attributes, are implicated in the formation of anthroponyms, most of the time without reference to weapons and shields, if they are only those who serve their worshippers to face the daily battles from the delicate moment of birth onwards.

Abstract: From the systematic survey of the epiclesis of Athena and Artemis entered in the BDEG, this chapter aims define the common characters of the two goddesses and, above all, the qualities and functions, values and skills that characterise each, as goddess and in what men expect of them. Finally, the chapter considers how their portraits by epiclesis differ from those that we draw from all other sources.

Like names, the ‘physiognomy’ attributed to the gods by the Greeks helps to differentiate divine entities from one another or, conversely, to link them together, making explicit the nature and the scope of their powers. This chapter addresses the meaning of the adjective khruskomas, ‘with golden hair’, frequently attributed to Apollo: does it mean that the Greeks had in mind a blond god? The analysis of texts and images shows that it is much more complicated. First, onomastic attributes and iconographic attributes do not necessarily coincide. Depending on the media, craftsmen may represent a dark-haired Apollo without this being seen as a contradiction with the images conveyed by the poets. Immortals, unlike humans, take on any appearance they want. Second, the colour of gold is not exactly equivalent to blondness (for example, that of Demeter xanthe): the brilliance of the incorruptible metal expresses the radiance that emanates from the young god, notably through his eternally young hair. Khrusokomas thus expresses one of the manifold facets of Phoibos by summoning the image of his delphic sanctuary, where opulence reigns. The chapter thus shows that the colour of Apollo’s hair deserves to be taken seriously.

Moving from the Camp Grant massacre, this chapter addresses the question of narratives on violent events such as wars, more specifically the Trojan War in the Homeric epic. Human and Divine names are part of a complex system of signs which guide the audience. The case study of Euryopa Zeus – that is, a god who has a ‘Vast Voice’ and an ‘Ample Sight’ – provide a divine portrait of the overarching authority in matters of war and destiny. The chapter also suggests a network of divine powers who share specific aptitudes, such as Athena, Hera and Hermes, between distance and proximity, control and empathy.