Agoni ginnici: componenti artistiche ed intellettuali nell' antica agonistica greca by B.

Biliski
Review by: H. W. Pleket
The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 101 (1981), pp. 187-188
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
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NOTICES OF BOOKS

187

ascribean 'initiatory'characterto many Greekrituals origin of the Greek agonistic spiritand thus hardly does
of P.'s more austere justice to the sub-title of the book. In chs. 2 and 3 B.
and festivals.It is characteristic
that
he
mentions
such views in a comes to grips with his main problem: the relations
only
approach
footnote,andthensimplyin orderto dismissthem (p. between ancient sport ('body') and the world of culture
202 n. 159). P. maywell be too severein doingthis,but ('soul').
In ch. 2 he examines the relations between the four
it is very easyto get carriedawayhere.One shouldask
oneself,for instance,just how much can be inferred great pan-Hellenic Games and the world of culture.
of the ephebesin variousAttic Olympia never had mousikoiaganesbut kept to athletics
from the participation
festivals.Moreover,if deitiesare concernedwith war and equestrianitems. The Pythian Gamesoriginally had
why doesthis only musical games which were supplemented with
primarilybecausetheyare
in the caseof Demeterand athletics in 582. But apart from the official programme
not emergemore stronglyKoupo'rpO`ot,
Core?Thereis no doubtof Artemis'prominencein this of these and other Games, there is much well-known
context,but heretoo it is easyto jump to conclusions. evidence, duly adduced by B., for the fact that during
Forexample,L. acceptstheview thatyounggirlswent the Games poets, orators and sculptors were active
througha novitiateperiod of seclusionat Brauron, enough on the spot. Athletics function within a general
althoughthereis reallyno positiveevidencefor this(cf. culturalframework. Interestingis B.'s point that it was
Numenxxvi [1979]266 for criticismof thistheory).In writing members of the Hellenistic-Roman intelligentgeneral,in thissectionL.is fartoo muchconcernedwith sia who tried to show that mousikoiagonesbelonged to
aprioritheoriesof religiousdevelopment.It is a reliefto the oldest phaseof Greek sports.Plutarcharguesthat the
turnto hisvaluablecollectionof materialon Nike. (Fig. IsthmianGames of old knew contests for poets, though
6 seemsto havebecomemisplaced,asit doesnot match in the present state of the evidence it seems wiser to
assumethat it was not until the 4th/3rd century B.c. that
the descriptionon p. 232.)
In his final discussionof the ideology of victory, such manifestationstook place in Isthmia.The HellenisL. tracesthe developmeritof honoursfor individual tic-Roman intelligentsia probably projected the conleaders,which becamemore common as this period temporarysituationback into ancient times. In doing so
progressed.The contrastis strikingbetweenthe freer they reflect both their own preference-one does not
practiceof honouringvictorsat Spartaandelsewhere, easily visualize Plutarchas a sportsman-and the factual
andtherelativerestriction
on doingso at Athensaround situation of their own times which witnessed the
the time of the PersianWars, which L. ascribesto growth of musical and literary contests.
The latter brings us to B.'s ch. 3 and straightinto its
politicalrivalries.In discussingwhethertherewas ever
anykindof triumphalprocessionfor militaryvictorsin core, viz his views about the extent to which the
account post-classical urban elites continued to participate in
Greece,L. putstoo muchweighton Plutarch's
(derivedfromDouris)of Alcibiades'returnto Athens. athletic contests. B.'s picture is not entirely consistent.
Surelythisisolatedandunusualeventcannotbe usedas On the one hand he seems to support the view that in
evidencefor any generalpractice.He concludesby the Hellenistic period the urban elites kept a certain
showinghow theevidencefordivinehonoursto victors balance between 'muscles' and 'intellectual activities'
in the classicalperiodis almostnon-existent(the only (pp. 89, 94, oo00,115-7, 123) but that afterwards the
reallystrongcasebeing Lysander).As he says,victory aristocracylost its interest in internationalcompetitive
remainedessentiallya gift of the gods, andthe general athletics.The ephebeia and the gymnasium ended up as
was seen as the representative
of the communityas a a school for intellectuals. On the other hand B. also
whole in relationto the gods, down to the time of the writes that the victory of the intellect over the body
Macedonianconquestof Greece.
characterizes the 'Occidente greco' rather than the
Thesetwo extremelyusefulworksmaynot go so far 'Oriente greco' (pp. 117, I21, 127);that is to say, in Asia
as to justify Heraclitus'assertionthatwar is the father Minor and farther eastwards the gymnasium kept its
andking of all things,but they do show thatfromthe focus on sports, whereas in Greece the same institution
religiouspoint of view the gods were as essentialto turned to intellectual pursuits. On pp. I1I9 if B.
Greekwarfarein the historicalperiod as they were suddenly writes about a second-century A.D. 'tendenza
alreadyin the Iliad,andconverselythatto understand rinnovatrice dell' antica agonistica classica', which
Greekreligion one must also understandthe Greek strongly criticized contemporary professional athletics
but which in the end had no success.B. has an open eye
ideologyof war andvictory.
N. J.

for the participationof members of the urban elites in

athletic contests of the Hellenistic and Roman period
(pp. II9-2o) but at the same time writes (p. 94) about
the great pan-Hellenic contests increasingly becoming
the realm of professionals who on pp. 87-8 are
BILIN?SKI(B.) Agoni ginnici: componenti artistiche described as belonging to the poorer classes.
ed intellettuali nell' antica agonistica greca.
Could it be that the combined idea of both revival
(Accademiapolacca delle scienze, bibliotecae and of failureof the revival has been conceived by B. in
centrodi studia Roma,conferenze,75.)Wroclaw an attempt somehow to reconcile the current of
etc.: Zaklad Narodowy imienia Ossolifiskich thought, according to which in the course of the
WydawnictwoPolskiejAkademiiNauk. 1979. Hellenistic period the urbanaristocraciesswitched from
Pp. 135. zA. 40.
corporal to intellectual pursuits, with the view propounded by L. Robert and by myself (Mededelingen
Aftermany previousstudiesB. here returnsto the Ned. Hist. InstituutRome 36 [1974] 57-87; Stadion I
subjectof Greekagonistics.The book containsthree [I975] 49-89), about aristocrats who continued to
thefirstbasicallydealswith theproblemof the function in athletic contests and managed to have their
chapters:
MertonCollege, Oxford

RICHARDSON

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I88

OF BOOKS

age-old values accepted by the organizationsof professional athletes?

If so, the attempt nevertheless is misconceived,
becausethere is nothing to be reconciled at all. B. thinks
far too much in terms of development and discontinuity. In my article in StadionI emphasizedhow many
constantsthere were in Greek sport between Pindaric
and Roman Imperial times; these constants pertain to
the participation of aristocrats in (inter)national athletics, their professionaltrainingand performance,their
values and their ideological commitment to the polis,
and to the criticism of professional sport. The gymnasium and the ephebeiadid notbecome predominantly
intellectual in character;they lost their military character but continued to combine athleticsand para-military
training with intellectual pursuits.In fact the Hellenistic-Roman ephebeia became the bridge along which
the scions of upper-class families reached professional
athletics (cf for some more details my forthcoming
review in Stadionvol. V or VI).
Two minor points to conclude: it is not always clear
why B. in some places gives references to ancient
sources and modern literature in the text, whereas in
others they are relegated, as they should be, to
footnotes. At any rate the result is a slightly chaotic
book. A book without an index, like the one under
review, is not uselessbut, in our era, which witnessesan
astonishingproductionof scholarlyliterature,it surelyis
a nuisance. Not every ancient historian has the time to
struggle through 133 pagesof Italianprosein an attempt
to find out whether and, if so, which flowers are there to
be picked.
H. W. PLEKET
Universityof Leiden

choeurscollectifsde Dionysosr6pondsur la collinela

ainside
lyresolitaired'Hermes',and'Nousapprochons
la guerrede Troie (-1270), qui connutdes aedestels
quePh6miosd'Ithaqueou D6modocosde Porcyre'(sic).
This is not far from the Greeceof PierreLouys or
Debussy.
InthefinalchapterCh. givesa catalogueof surviving
of varying
fragmentsof musicaltexts,with annotations
of
the
scales
used, and
analysis
length, particularly
fromE.
(someof themreproduced
partialtranscriptions
P6hlmann'sDenkmileraltgriechischer
Musik).A new
of the Orestesfragmentis disfiguredby a
transcription
monstrousrhythmizationin 3/4 (in effect9/4, as each
dochmiusis spreadoverthreebars-or in one casefour,
the word K~cautwvbeing assigned three dotted
minims!).Rhythmis in facttheaspectof classicalGreek
musicaboutwhichwe arebestinformed,butit receives
shortshriftin this book. It has a chapterto itself,but
only one of two anda halfpages,ending'Pourle reste,
on consulterales 6critsdes m6triciens'.One wonders
which metricianshave led the authorto believethat
vari6t6des rythmesd'Eschylen'6tait
'l'extraordinaire
plusqu'unsouvenirchezSophocleet unenostalgiechez
Euripide'(18).
The book ends with various tables (includinga
curious'tabled'identification
m6trique',fromwhich,if
you ever have the fortune to meet the sequence
------, you can ascertainthat it is a
'ttrametrecr6tiqueteliambe')anda glossaryof Greek
musicalterms.Thereis no index or bibliography,and
the text is shorton source-references.
Suchsecondary
literatureas is citedis almostexclusivelyFrench.
M. L. WEST
Bedford
College,London

CHAILLEY (J.)La musique grecque antique. (Collec-

SCHAPS

tion d'6tudesanciennes.)Paris:LesBellesLettres.
1979. Pp. 221, [4] plates,numerousillus. (incl. text

figs., I map).Fr. 5o.

M. Chailleyis a musicologistof repute,but thislittle

book, despite some excellences,cannot be recommended as stronglyas two other recent continental
Asusualin accountsof Greekmusic,the
introductions.1
greaterpartis devotednot to Greekmusicitselfbut to
Greekmusicaltheoryandterminology,to whatIsobel
Hendersoncalledthe 'grammarandsyntax',whichthe
extantmusicalfragmentsall too often transgress.
Ch.
hasthe virtueof greatclarity,to whichsomediagrams
of originaldesignusuallycontributeif approached
with
good will. His discussionof the notationalsystems
helped me to understandsome things which had
puzzledme, but on the most puzzlingquestion,the
notation,I do not find his
genesisof the instrumental
explanationany more convincingthananyoneelse's.
The chapteron instruments
is particularly
good and
informative,thoughtheaccompanying
'plates',printed
on ordinarypaper,are so murky that much of the
relevantdetail is lost. Especiallyunsatisfactory
is the
initial'Aperquhistorique'.A map which placesEgypt
south-westof Crete introducesa sketchy survey of
musical epochs in Greece from 3000 to 400 B.c.,
containingsuch remarksas 'A l'auloschthoniendes
Neubecker, AltgriechischeMusik (Darmstadt 1977);
1Annemarie
G. Comotti, La Musica nella culturagreca e romana(Torino 1979).

(D. M.) Economic rights of women in

ancient Greece. Edinburgh:UniversityPress.
1979.Pp. viii+ 165. 7.50o.

Women'srightsarea fashionable
topic,andthereare
someindicationsthatthepublishers
of thisbookhopeto
attractreaderswho aremoreinterestedin womenthan
in Greece.But readersof thisJournalwill be relievedto
find that Dr Schapshas in fact provideda thorough
academicstudy of the evidence for the control of
propertyandmoneyby Greekwomen.It is not reallya
book aboutwomen'srights,whichis an anachronistic
concept,but aboutsomeof the functionsof womenin
society.
The work is restrictedto mainlandGreeceand the
Aegeanislandsin theperiodfromtheearliestalphabetic
inscriptionsto 146 B.C.;the societies depicted by
Homer,at one end, and by the papyriof Hellenistic
Egypt, at the other, are excluded.Even within the
selectedfield the availableevidenceis discontinuous,
both in place and in time. There are the Gortyn
law-codeof the fifthcentury,Athenianoratoryof the
fourth, Delian temple-accountsof the third, and
Delphic manumissionsof the second,with only odd
scrapsof informationfrom elsewhere.Generalization
about 'ancientGreece'from such evidenceis nearly
alwaysunsafe,butS. showshimselfawareof thedanger.
Mostattentionis naturallygiven to classicalAthens,
and within Athensto the topicsof the dowry and the
Both thesetopicshave often been discussed,
epikleros.

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