El papel de los juegos en la transmisión cultural: Los poemas homéricos y las olimpiadas en la sociedad oral griega

Abstract

The author calls attention to the role played by the games in Greek oral tradition. After introducing the most general and defining traits of the games, he argues that those described in the Homeric Poems and practiced in Classical Greece - the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean Games - had two main functions: to provide entertainment and to construct a social order. This social order was epitomized in the values of the Homeric, Olimpian hero: noble, sportsman and amateur.