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- Title
THE ELEUTHERIA (LIBERATION GAMES) OF PLATAEA IN ANCIENT GREECE.
- Authors
Albanidis, Evangelos; Evangelia, Vouzanidou
- Abstract
The Eleutheria games of ancient Greece were held in memory of a special event connected with the liberation of a town, victory against a foreign enemy or liberation from a tyrant. Posterior philological sources provide some evidence that ancient Greeks supposedly founded Pan-Hellenic games called the Eleutheria in Plataea in memory of the final Greek liberation from and victory against the Persians. However, the analysis of the sources revealed that the games were founded during the last three decades of the 4th century B.C. in support of Philip II. The Eleutheria games were set to play a unifying role among all the Greeks as a recollection of their past successes. The programme of the games included athletic and cultural events, the most famous of which was the hoplitodromia. There was a peculiar law regulating this race. If a former winner wanted to participate for the second time he ought to have presented guarantors who would guarantee his victory with their lives, because if the athlete had not won, he would have been executed. It seems that the significance of this law was to prevent victory from turning into a bad omen.
- Subjects
GREECE; GREEK &; Roman games; LIBERTY; SPORTS in antiquity; BATTLE of Plataea, Plataiai, Greece, 479 B.C.; SPORTS events
- Publication
Studies in Physical Culture & Tourism, 2008, Vol 15, Issue 1, p49
- ISSN
0867-1079
- Publication type
Article