INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Important achievements and great athletic traditions characterize
the family of Diagoras from Rhodes. These were the famous
Diagoridai, well known for their strength, beauty and fighting spirit.
Famous for his technique in boxing and his strength was Glaukos
from Karystos. Melankomas used to beat his opponents by tiring
them while he himself avoided their fists. More a popular hero than an
athlete was Poulydamas from Skotoussa who fought against lions
and bulls, he stopped a running chariot with four horses only with his
one hand, he won three Persian warriors in a duel, but unfortunately
he was crushed by rocks when he was sleeping in a cave during a hot
summer.
III. As we can see, the ancient sources many times are unreliable
and very often they reflect exaggerations and convictions of naive
people; that’s why we can not be sure if these sources are trustworthy.
But we can be sure of one thing, for the fact that the famous
athletes and their prodigious achievements were able to cause great
excitement amongst the people and the authorities of their home citystate
in such an extent that the honour, which was attributed to them,
was equally excessive. Many times, indeed, the honour reached a level
where the athlete was idolized or worshipped.
At this point, it is essential that the terms “idolization” and
“worship” be clarified. The idolization of an athlete, his
transformation into a hero, was a usual phenomenon. The athlete
became an object for admiration and he constituted an example for
imitation by the citizens and around him was developed a great
tradition full of excessive details about his life and his achievements,
which often were compared to those of the fabled heroes, like
Hercules.
On the other hand, the worship, the adoration of an athlete was a
phenomenon less common with a meaning narrower than idolization.
Worship presupposes, of course, idolization but it also leads to the
process of “deification”, of the adoration of the athlete who is, in that
case, accompanied by a number of ritual actions with which this
adoration is expressed. Necessary elements for the worship of an
athlete can be the creation of a story about his life and his
achievements, often exaggerated, but also necessary is the existence of
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