Sport and spectacle in the ancient world / Donald G. Kyle.

Περιλαμβάνει βιβλιογραφικές αναφορές (σ. [377]-388) και ευρετήριο.

Introduction : ancient sport history -- Why sport history? -- Word games : conceptualizing sport and spectacle -- Challenges : evidence, chronology, and modernism -- Sports and spectacles as cultural performances -- Greece and Rome : positive and negative classicism -- Sports as spectacles, spectacles as sport -- 1. Origins and essences : early sport and spectacle -- Mesopotamian combat sports and running -- Egypt : from hunting to sporting pharaohs -- Royal hunts as a Near Eastern tradition -- States and sports, empires and spectacles -- 2. Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans -- Minoan performances : rites, contests or spectacles? -- Hittite contests? -- Mycenaean contests? -- A sporting Mediterranean world -- 3. Sport in Homer : contests, prizes, and honor -- Funeral games for Patroklos : prizes and reconciliation -- The Odyssey : sport and returning home -- Epic sport as spectacle --

4. Archaic Greece : athletics in an age of change -- Factors in the growth of athletics -- Nudity, democracy, and Eros -- Funeral games and city-state prizes -- The coming of age of Greek sport -- 5. In search of the Ancient Olympics -- The Olympics of illusion and allusion -- Modern myths and invented traditions -- The quagmire of Olympic origins : explanations and excavations -- 6. Ancient Olympia and its games -- The physical context : sanctuary and facilities -- The Olympic festival : operation and administration -- The program of contests -- Olympia and spectacle : politics, problems, and performances -- 7. Panhellenic sacred crown games -- Pythian games -- Isthmian games -- Nemean games -- Panhellenic variations and more -- 8. Athens : city of contests and prizes -- The Panathenaic games : sacred and civic athletics -- Other athletic festivals -- Athletic facilities -- Politics, patronage, and sport -- Athenian athletes and athletes at Athens -- Critics and popular attitudes --