Paradigm of semantic regulators of the Olympic movement in Ancient Greece

The article analyses the connection of Greek religionwith the Olympic Games, which are sacred festivals in honour of Gods. The author proves the fact that the peculiarities of Greekreligion with its features and manifestations which do not keep within the bounds of habitual religions of Ancient times predeterminedthe rise of olympism. The author emphasizes that the main difference of Greek religious beliefs is in anthropomorphism. The Gods wayof life of Greek pantheon is something like an exaggerated projection of a typical aristocratic way of life of Homers epoch, which wascharacterized by athletics. Both Gods and people like performances, and they are also not against watching duels of people, enjoyingtheir strong and slender bodies, courage and bravery, because they know what thirst for struggle, triumph of winning and bitterness ofdefeat is. The article considers the fact that the Greek interpreted agon not like an ordinary competition of dexterity and strength but aspecial variety of divine justice. The aim of an athletic competition was to reveal those participants of Games who stand high in Godsfavour and prove their high status and claims for power. Fantastic worship rewarded to winners of Olympiad was explained by the factthat they were respected not like great sportsmen but Gods favourites and heroes. In conformity with the ideas of that time the Greeksaw resurrected mythical characters in their athletes-winners, appearing again to descendents in all their physical perfection. The authorunderlines that in Homers works, especially in The Iliad (nearly 700 poems are devoted to nominal games near Troy), you can find thedetailed illustrations about the way the Games were held, their participants, and importance of the Games in the social life of the Greeksociety. The Olympic Games became the most important way of consolidating inter-Greek political relations, forming national identityagainst barbarians, speaking different languages. In 5-4 centuries B.C. there is a decline of olympism. The decline of Olympic idealswas also caused by a growing religious scepticism: the Greek did not treat their Gods-Olympians with the previous fear and respect.

Keywords

Authors

References