Contest (Agōn) in Thucydides

Students of the ancient Greeks soon learn that their many varied communities in all periods and in all activities were competitive, eristic, and agonistic. The Hellenes challenged each other in athletics, in speech, in art, in drama, and in other areas. Thucydides the historian in his own voice, and his speakers in political debates, refer to the agōn or contest. Agōn is, further, the word used for the jury litigation phase of public trials and for the central debates in Attic tragedy and comedy that more often sharpen than settle deep differences. The historian criticizes his predecessors and contemporaries for their inadequate methods of gathering, examining, and organizing accurate information and writing history. He competes with earlier writers and explicitly hopes to surpass their achievements, even though critics rightly characterize him as a generally reclusive, unforthcoming voice in his own work. Indeed, he speaks of his own actions in war and literature in the third person, e.g., his first words: “Thucydides the Athenian wrote the history of the war....” This essay explores the author's and his many orators' applications of the words for contests and prizes in the History. We will find it often has a negative connotation and that the person least admired makes the most use of the concept. (In what follows italicized words usually represent a translation from the Greek words for contest.)

Aesthetics · Art · Comedy · CONTEST · Drama · Glory · Jury · Literature · Political science · Politics · Tragedy (event) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Law

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