Μεσσήνιοι αθλητές

Περίληψη

The promotion of high-ranking athletes worthy of participating and gaining distinction in the Panhellenic games, especially those organized by the two renowned sanctuaries of Olympia and Delphi, usually coincides with periods of freedom and economic development in the city-states, the bithplaces of the athletes themselves. Many Messenians were proclaimed winners in the Olympic games during the early eighth century BC before the start of the first Messenian war and appear again in the lists of olympionikai from the early fourh century BC onwards when Messene, capital of independent Messenia, was flourishing and eager to acquire marks of distinctios. The officials responsible for the contests in their home cities were the agonothetes, well-to-do citizens of the local landed aristocracy who were spending their own money. The monumental architectural complex of the Gymnasium-Stadium complex bears witness to the importance of athletics to the Messenian society. As a result of training, intensive exercise and competing in the relevant contests, many of the ephebes trained in the Gymnasium of Messene were elevated to the rank of great athletes, winners in the Olympic games, in Pythia, Isthmia, Nemea and other lesser Panhellenic contests both in Greece and Asia Minor.