Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook with Translations

Lee, Hugh M.; Sweet, Waldo E.

doi:10.2307/4350492

Cited by 6 publications

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“…"Sport is the best way to fame for any man alive …" Homer, Odyssey, VIII "You gotta be a football hero (to get along with the beautiful girls)" Field, Lewis, and Sherman (1933) Champion athletes have obtained high status throughout recorded history. Athletic success, especially in the "heavy" sports requiring combat skills, such as boxing, wrestling, and pankration (i.e., "total fighting," a combination of boxing, wrestling, kicking, strangleholds, and pressure holds), produced high status in Classical Greece (Golden, 2008;Poliakoff, 1987;Sweet, 1987). Roman gladiators achieved great fame and were rewarded with Roman citizenship, money, property, and access to power, making them attractive to women (Golden, 2008).…”

Section: Champion Athletes Obtain High Status and Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Evolution of Sport

2012

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Sports have received little attention from evolutionary biologists. I argue that sport began as a way for men to develop the skills needed in primitive hunting and warfare, then developed to act primarily as a lek where athletes display and male spectators evaluate the qualities of potential allies and rivals. This hypothesis predicts that (1) the most popular modern male sports require the skills needed for success in male-male physical competition and primitive hunting and warfare; (2) champion male athletes obtain high status and thereby reproductive opportunities in ways that parallel those gained by successful primitive hunters and warriors; (3) men pay closer attention than do women to male sports so they can evaluate potential allies and rivals; and (4) male sports became culturally more important when opportunities to evaluate potential allies and rivals declined as both the survival importance of hunting and the proportion of men who experience combat decreased. The characteristics of primitive and modern sports are more consistent with these predictions than those generated by intersexual sexual selection theories of sport.

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Section: Champion Athletes Obtain High Status and Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Evolution of Sport

2012

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The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme

Hodges¹

2001

bhm

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This study examines the evolution of Greek and Roman medical conceptualizations of preputial aesthetics, utilizing evidence found in classical medical texts as well as clues from literature, legal sources, and art. A conclusive picture emerges that the Greeks valued the longer prepuce and pathologized the penis characterized by a deficient prepuce--especially one that had been surgically ablated--under the disease concept of lipodermos. The medical conceptualization of lipodermos is also placed in the historical context of the legal efforts to abolish ritual circumcision throughout the Seleucid and Roman empires.

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The Effect of Short-Term Swiss Ball Training on Core Stability and Running Economy

Stanton¹,

Reaburn²,

Humphries³

2004

J Strength Cond Res

138

128

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a short-term Swiss ball training on core stability and running economy. Eighteen young male athletes (15.5 +/- 1.4 years; 62.5 +/- 4.7 kg; sigma9 skinfolds 78.9 +/- 28.2 mm; VO2max 55.3 +/- 5.7 ml.kg(-1).min(-1)) were divided into a control (n = 10) and experimental (n = 8) groups. Athletes were assessed before and after the training program for stature, body mass, core stability, electromyographic activity of the abdominal and back muscles, treadmill VO2max, running economy, and running posture. The experimental group performed 2 Swiss ball training sessions per week for 6 weeks. Data analysis revealed a significant effect of Swiss ball training on core stability in the experimental group (p < 0.05). No significant differences were observed for myoelectric activity of the abdominal and back muscles, treadmill VO2max, running economy, or running posture in either group. It appears Swiss ball training may positively affect core stability without concomitant improvements in physical performance in young athletes. Specificity of exercise selection should be considered.

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Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook with Translations

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

On the Evolution of Sport

On the Evolution of Sport

The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme

The Effect of Short-Term Swiss Ball Training on Core Stability and Running Economy

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