In ancient Rome, the Greek agónes never spread widely. This is evidenced by the fact that the word agón never actually found a counterpart in the Latin language and instead was used the term certamen which does not have the exact meaning of the Greek word it wants to replace. In Rome, the agónes were mostly considered performances in which the athlete was nothing more than a performer-actor (or actress, because some authors tell of women who appeared in struggles and competitions fighting against other women) and not an athlete in the strict sense. They were often criminals and thugs (or prostitutes) who during the day could be seen competing in the stadium and in the evening hired to carry out killings in some slum of the city. Starting from this historical background, the purpose of this study is to identify the philosophical constituent elements of what one can calls the Roman certamen system that will be compared with the Greek agonistic one. The Latin word certamen expresses the idea of earning (the favor or the favorable opinion from a judge or of someone) victory fighting against someone considered as an enemy and prevailing in front of a crowd of people coming together (the concursus). From a philosophical point of view, the word certamen refers to conceptual, political, educational, and aesthetic categories completely different from the philosophy that inspired the Greek agón. The concept of certamen refers to an individualistic dimension – not communitarian – aesthetic, visual and communicational which can also be found in contemporary sport. Using a philosophical hermeneutic approach, and by making a comparison between the Greco-Roman athletic paidéia and the contemporary one, we want to demonstrate, first of all, that in the conceptual history of sport there always existed a tension between the two philosophical and ethical poles represented by agón and certamen and that this tension can also be found in the conception of contemporary sport. This study wants also to demonstrate that using the hermeneutical model proposed by the agón-certamen bipolar system one can arrive at a clearer and less reductive reading of the main philosophical and cultural meanings of contemporary sport and of all of the pedagogies that are (or were) inspired by it. References Isidori E. (2012). Filosofia dell’educazione sportiva. Roma: Editrice Nuova Cultura. Miller S.G. (2004). Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Reid H.L. (2012). Introduction to the Philosophy of Sport. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Weeber K.W. (1994). Panem et circenses: Massenunterhaltung als Politik im antiken Rom. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Agón or certamen? A philosophical analysis of the Greek-Roman agonistic paidéia and its influence on the conception of contemporary sport
Isidori E;
2013-01-01
Abstract
In ancient Rome, the Greek agónes never spread widely. This is evidenced by the fact that the word agón never actually found a counterpart in the Latin language and instead was used the term certamen which does not have the exact meaning of the Greek word it wants to replace. In Rome, the agónes were mostly considered performances in which the athlete was nothing more than a performer-actor (or actress, because some authors tell of women who appeared in struggles and competitions fighting against other women) and not an athlete in the strict sense. They were often criminals and thugs (or prostitutes) who during the day could be seen competing in the stadium and in the evening hired to carry out killings in some slum of the city. Starting from this historical background, the purpose of this study is to identify the philosophical constituent elements of what one can calls the Roman certamen system that will be compared with the Greek agonistic one. The Latin word certamen expresses the idea of earning (the favor or the favorable opinion from a judge or of someone) victory fighting against someone considered as an enemy and prevailing in front of a crowd of people coming together (the concursus). From a philosophical point of view, the word certamen refers to conceptual, political, educational, and aesthetic categories completely different from the philosophy that inspired the Greek agón. The concept of certamen refers to an individualistic dimension – not communitarian – aesthetic, visual and communicational which can also be found in contemporary sport. Using a philosophical hermeneutic approach, and by making a comparison between the Greco-Roman athletic paidéia and the contemporary one, we want to demonstrate, first of all, that in the conceptual history of sport there always existed a tension between the two philosophical and ethical poles represented by agón and certamen and that this tension can also be found in the conception of contemporary sport. This study wants also to demonstrate that using the hermeneutical model proposed by the agón-certamen bipolar system one can arrive at a clearer and less reductive reading of the main philosophical and cultural meanings of contemporary sport and of all of the pedagogies that are (or were) inspired by it. References Isidori E. (2012). Filosofia dell’educazione sportiva. Roma: Editrice Nuova Cultura. Miller S.G. (2004). Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Reid H.L. (2012). Introduction to the Philosophy of Sport. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Weeber K.W. (1994). Panem et circenses: Massenunterhaltung als Politik im antiken Rom. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
