Corruption and Unfair Practices in the Ancient Olympic Games

KOUŘIL, Jiří. Corruption and Unfair Practices in the Ancient Olympic Games. In 20th ISHPES CONGRESS, Milestones in the Histories of Sport and Physical Culture (International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport), July 14-17, 2019, Madrid. 2019.

Basic information

• Original name: Corruption and Unfair Practices in the Ancient Olympic Games
• Authors: KOUŘIL, Jiří (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: 20th ISHPES CONGRESS, Milestones in the Histories of Sport and Physical Culture (International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport), July 14-17, 2019, Madrid, 2019.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60101 History
• Country of publisher: Spain
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/19:00110208
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: Ancient Olympic Games; bribing; corruption; doping; unfair practices; Zanes
• Tags: rivok

Abstract

The Ancient Olympic Games were organized by the Olympic Council, formed by the elites of Elis – the government of Elis, so-called "Council of Elis" – and by hellanodikai, “judges of the Hellenes/Greeks“. The Council accepted the appeal of the contestants and their coaches against the decisions of hellanodikai. Most of the games were organized by the same elites, if they were changed, it was because of war; there were no bids. It eliminated some kinds of corruption. The main questions of the paper are: Did the corruption and unfair practice exist in the ancient Olympics? What examples of these do we have? As the main evidence we will use the primary sources; we will analyze and compare them. The participation of the first woman in the Olympic Games – Kyniska of Sparta – and the intervening of Agesilaus II, the great Spartan king and Kyniska´s brother could be understood as such example of possible unfair practices. Other corruption cases were connected with Nero, the emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Typical examples of the ancient Olympic corruption were reflected by Zanes, the statues of Zeus. The data for the paper were gained mainly from primary sources (especially Pausanias, Philostratus, Plutarchos and Xenophon) and relevant professional literature (e.g. Christesen, Crowther, Golden and Miller). The methods used were a comparative method, biography method, progressive method, direct and indirect methods. As a way of processing data, the results from primary and professional literature were compared, and further the criticism of the sources, interpretation and synthesis were employed.

Links

• MUNI/A/1269/2018, interní kód MU: Name: Výzkum starověkých jazyků mediteránního prostoru, jejich písemnictví a příslušných kultur, včetně jejich recepce – 2019 (Acronym: Staré jazyky a kultury)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A