The self-presentation of athletes in the hellenistic period: social identities, political identities, ethnic identities

关于希腊化体育的研究的缺乏是显而易见的：从来没有关于这个主题的会议，到目前为止，既没有论文集，也没有专著出版。该项目旨在填补这一空白：收集关于希腊化时期希腊痛苦的所有文学、碑文和纸质数据是第一步，这一收集构成了Gymnic和Hippic学科所有已知胜利者的传记基础。随后，将详细分析竞技胜利者的警句，重点关注三个身份：社会认同、政治认同和种族认同。在社会认同方面，重要的是要记住，在希腊化时期，竞技运动不再是贵族的专属活动。公共资金为有能力但贫穷的年轻运动员提供了训练和旅行的资金。因此，如果他们继续沿袭希腊贵族的传统或采用更民主的方式，运动员的社会阶层变化是否会影响他们的自我展示，这个问题就产生了。正如最近的研究表明的那样，希腊城邦的故事不是衰落的故事，而是一个延续和适应新环境的故事。到目前为止，这些争议性的警句还没有在这一背景下进行研究，但它们也展示了城邦身份的持续力量：这座城市被呈现为一个具有争议性名声的社区。修辞策略因时间和地区的不同而不同，这些差异必须在项目中进行透彻的分析。此外，还必须研究另一个希腊化发展的后果：一些运动员充当国王的代表，一些国王本身也参与了嬉皮士纪律，利用他们的竞争胜利达到政治目的。第三个需要研究的维度是种族维度。激进主义被视为希腊文化的一种特定形式，因此是种族差异的标志。但这条分界线与其说是生物的，不如说是文化的，因此并不是不可渗透的：一些土著精英成员，例如高贵的腓尼基人，从事体育运动，这可以被理解为一种希腊身份的行为，试图将自己与希腊世界象征性地联系起来。来自托勒密埃及的消息来源表明，在竞争的背景下，人们将他们的希腊-马其顿身份置于他们的埃及身份之上。在该项目的过程中，将组织一次国际会议(随后出版)，并撰写一本专著。

The lack of research on Hellenistic sports is obvious: there has never been a conference on this topic and neither a collection of papers nor a monograph has been published by now. The project aims to fill this gap: A collection of all the literary, epigraphic and papyrological data on Greek agonistics in the Hellenistic period is the first step, this collection forms the basis for a prosopography of all known victors in the gymnic and hippic disciplines. Subsequently, the epigrams for agonistic victors will be analyzed in detail, focusing on three identities: the social, the political, and the ethnic identities.In regard to the social identity, it is important to have in mind that agonistic sport, in the Hellenistic period, was not any more an exclusive activity of the aristocracy. Public funding provided able but poor young athletes with money for training and travelling. In consequence the question rises whether the changed social stratigraphy of athletes had an impact on their self-presentation, if they continued to present their athletic success in the tradition of Greek aristocracy or adopted a more democratic manner.The story of the Hellenistic polis was, as recent studies have shown, not a story of decline, but of continuity and adaptation to the new circumstances. The agonistic epigrams have not studied in this context so far, but they also show the unbroken strength of polis identity: the city is presented as a community of agonistic fame. The rhetorical strategies differ from time to time and from region to region, those differences have to be analyzed thoroughly in the project. Furthermore, the consequences of another Hellenistic development have to be studied: Some athletes acted as representatives of kings, and some of the kings themselves took part in the hippic disciplines exploiting their agonistic victories for political purposes.The third dimension to be studied is the ethnic one. Agonistic was seen as a specific formation of Greek culture and was therefore a marker of ethnic difference. But the division line was rather cultural than biological, and therefore it was not impermeable: Some members of the indigenous elites, for example noble Phoenicians, engaged themselves in athletics, which can be understood as an act of Greek identity, as an attempt to connect themselves symbolically with the Greek world. Sources from Ptolemaic Egypt show that, in agonistic contexts, people set their Greco-Macedonian identity over their Egyptian identity.In the course of the project, an international conference shall be organized (followed by publication) and a monograph shall be written.