Bogen indeholder to studier af sportens historie i den antikke græske bystatskultur (ca. 700-300 f.Kr.). I det første studie undersøger forfatteren, om det er muligt at give et nogenlunde kvalificeret bud på, hvor mange sportsstævner, der eksisterede rundt om i den græske verdens bystater. Efter en grundig analyse af det sparsomme kildemateriale konkluderes det, at der afholdtes i hvert fald flere hundrede stævner, som alle i mere eller (som oftest) mindre grad tog De olympiske Lege som model.
Det andet studie koncentrerer sig om stævnet i Zeus-helligdommen i Nemea i det nordøstlige Peloponnes, og belyser den symbolske værdi, atleter og deres hjembystater tillagde sejre ved De nemæiske Lege. Det vises, at den symbolske værdi af sejre i Nemea var betragtelig, og at en græsk atlet ikke kunne blive en ægte superstjerne, hvis han ikke sejrede i Nemea. Til sammen belyser de to studier vigtige og hidtil uudforskede aspekter af sportskulturen i antikkens Grækenland.
This book presents two studies in the history of ancient Greek athletics. The first study is a survey of the number of festivals with athletic and equestrian competitions which existed throughout the Greek world in the late Archaic and Classical periods. It is demonstrated that athletic festivals were celebrated in far greater numbers than usually assumed.
The second study discusses the symbolic value and prestige of athletic victories achieved at the sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea in the Peloponnese, by focusing on the value attached by victorious athletes and their home communities to such victories and by situating the contests at Nemea in the competitive landscape of late Archaic and Classical Greece delineated in the first study. It is concluded that the prestige of a Nemean victory outshone by far that of a victory in any of the numerous athletic festivals which did not form a part of the great Big Four of the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean festivals.
