Agon as the Way of Life (or back to "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey")

Abstract

The contemporary image of sport is determined by tradition. An attempt at showing the origins of sport leads us inevitably into the ancient past. It is most frequently, however, that our thoughts focus on the ancient Greece, where a cult was born of a man who is both beautiful and kind, who embodies the most precious virtues and the bodily beauty. This ideal, for long centuries the pro minent feature of a Greek soul, which determined cultural fundaments of the Greek paidea, and which even now arouses our recognition, was born in an in spired vision of Homer. Writing "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", Homer created an image of a man who was equal to the gods. Equal in beauty, striving for perfection, superior to them in respect of kindness. Homer also created an image of a man of sport. He showed the changes which occurred in Greeks' public life and owing to which the games emerged as a particular way of stressing their grandeur. But he also showed changes in individuality, owing to which the selfish, in a way, knightly attitudes assumed that unselfish (in material sense), sportsmanlike character. It is noticeable in the comparison between two different images of games, the first one depicted, in the 23rd book of "The Iliad'', devoted to the description of games in honour of Patroclos, and the other, in "The Odyssey", describing Odysseus' stay in the palace of king Alcinoos on the island of Scheria.

It is Homer himself who argues that games as a form of knightly activities were known not only in Greece. He evokes the picture of games held in Crete, which took its earlier cultural roots in Egypt. Then it is not the games themselves that one should look for in this particular, unique climate, which added a glitter of art to knightly, everyday, aggressive attitudes. Yes, art. The knights at Troy demonstrate during the games their combat capabilities and the spectators who waitch their performances see in them an element of strength which may de termine the course of war. Three centuries later in history and ten years later on the pages of the book, in the palace of Alcinoos, Odysseus is a spectator, and soon it turned out that also a participant in other games, held in the time of peace in honour of the guest and aimed first of all at providing a good enter tainment. The audience looks at the heroes of the contests as at actors. Their performances provide entertainment and are a proof of respect for cultural tradition.

At Troy Odysseus was considered a soldier, in the palace of Alcinoos the same hero is admired as a living statue — a piece of art. Perfect in its classical shape, showing the qualities of the body and the virtues of the soul. The Phaia cians, Alcinoos' subjects, give particular prominence to foot-races, which these sailors and merchants do not need in their everyday life. But foot-race is as precious to them as dancing, singing and sailing. So they go in for it for a sheer pleasure of sport itself. They also introduce other contests, nonexistent in the programme of the games at Troy, for example long jump, probably not a running one, and performed to the accompaniment of aulos, whereas there are no duels with swords, chariot-races and even shooting with a bow, since these were the games of peacetime.

A comparison between those two different events, so vividly presented by Homer, is a good reason for us to recognise the latter games as an "early spring" of sport, for we can notice here almost all these elements which stress and determine the separate character of sport's cultural phenamenan. This analysis leads us also to numerous to-date reflexions which make it possible for us to have a critical look at what is going on in today's sport, and which many a time makes us uneasy. And, what is most important, allows us to be optimistic about the future of sport, for what weakens today the humanistic aspect of sport, is just a sign of a passing moment, a wind which tears leaves away from a tree, breaks some branches, but the tree resists these gusts, since it has firm roots. And this is the whole optimism.