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INFORMATION REGARDING THE "GYMNASION"
GATHERED FROM HELLENISTIC PAPYRI
OF THE EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD
By
Dr. WERNER KORBS
Principal of the Sporthochschule, Cologne, Germany
AMONG the written sources which clarify our knowledge regarding
the Gymnastic and Sports competitive life of the Greeks, the literary
documents certainly hold the first place: The epic reports of Homer,
the more idyllic writings of the Alexandrian Callimachus, the writings
of Theocritus and the theoretic philosophic explanations of Plato.
To this great mass of literature should be added the epinicea, the dedications
and the inscriptions, so long as they grlorify the simple report.
The objective would seem to stand out here, so long as it is placed in
a light suitable for subsequent generations, indeed often idealised,
though at others imbued in heroic tone.
This dazzling illumination unfortunately frequently affected our
classical understanding of Greek competitive sport and to some extent
explains the notable splitting of consciensciousness of the ancient gymnasiarch:
A literary admiration, on the one hand, for the dust of the
palaestra, and, on the other, a basic withdrawal from athletic life. In
the classic gymnasia, the Homeric descriptions impregnated with life,
were accepted rather as a kind of theatrical thunderbolt bereft of any
sense of motivation. Nothwithstanding this enthusiasm was ignited by
the poetic pathos not only as to details but also by the facts and particular
events, that is to say by the substance or which to-day we have
in plenty.
It is up to us to give renewed life again to all this by obtaining
a better comprehension from contemporary athletic experience so that
we can the better and more correctly undestand the "poetry of competitive
sports". This, however, cannot be achieved without taking the
details into consideration and without valorizing certain information
regarding daily life, that is to say unless what is called the non-literary
documents", are taken into account.
To this purpose we have at our disposal, since the last quarter of
the last century, a large stock, which is being ocontinually increased in
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