The Hand of God: Diego Maradona and the Divine Nature of Cheating In
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The hand of God: Diego Maradona and the divine nature of cheating in Classical Antiquity Autor(es): Ahl, Frederick Publicado por: Annablume Clássica; Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra URL persistente: URI:http://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/36122 DOI: DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_14_1 Accessed : 6-Oct-2021 22:38:36 A navegação consulta e descarregamento dos títulos inseridos nas Bibliotecas Digitais UC Digitalis, UC Pombalina e UC Impactum, pressupõem a aceitação plena e sem reservas dos Termos e Condições de Uso destas Bibliotecas Digitais, disponíveis em https://digitalis.uc.pt/pt-pt/termos. Conforme exposto nos referidos Termos e Condições de Uso, o descarregamento de títulos de acesso restrito requer uma licença válida de autorização devendo o utilizador aceder ao(s) documento(s) a partir de um endereço de IP da instituição detentora da supramencionada licença. Ao utilizador é apenas permitido o descarregamento para uso pessoal, pelo que o emprego do(s) título(s) descarregado(s) para outro fim, designadamente comercial, carece de autorização do respetivo autor ou editor da obra. Na medida em que todas as obras da UC Digitalis se encontram protegidas pelo Código do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos e demais legislação aplicável, toda a cópia, parcial ou total, deste documento, nos casos em que é legalmente admitida, deverá conter ou fazer-se acompanhar por este aviso. impactum.uc.pt digitalis.uc.pt desígnio 14 jan/jun 2015 A MÃO DE DEUS: DIEGO MARADONA E A NATUREZA DIVINA DA TRAPAÇA NA ANTIGUIDADE CLÁSSICA. HE AND OF OD IEGO ARADONA AND THE IVINE ATURE OF HEATING T H G : D M D N C * IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Frederick Ahl AHL, F. (2014). A mão de Deus: Diego Maradona e a natureza divina da trapaça na antiguidade clássica. Archai, n. 14, jan - jun, p. 11-19 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_14_1 * Comell University. RESUMO: A trapaça heroica está entre as memórias ([email protected]) Disputes over what happened during a mais persistentes da Copa do Mundo de Futebol de 1986. sporting event, historical or fictional, are hardly Enquanto o brilhante segundo gol de Diego Maradona contra new. Nor is cheating. An early testament to such a Inglaterra foi apelidada por jornalistas desportivos de disputes is the so-called François Vase, found near todos os lugares de “o gol do século”, o seu primeiro, de Chiusi, Italy, but made in Attica, Greece. It is data- mão, é diferentemente lembrado pelos jornalistas e outros ble to the sixth century BC: to the same period and escritores em Londres e em Buenos Aires. A trapaça de Mara- place to which scholars assign the earliest known dona, testemunhada por milhões em todo o mundo, não foi written edition of the Homeric texts prepared on 1 observada nem pelo árbitro tunisiano e tampouco por seus the orders of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus. The 1. See (JOHANSEN, assistentes durante o jogo. Na corrida dos jogos fúnebres 1967);(JENSEN, 1980); painter of the François vase, who signs his work (CARPENTER, 1991);(NAGY, de Pátroclo descrita na Ilíada, há até mesmo uma trapaça with the name “Cleitias,” shows not only the tale of 1996); (SHAPIRO, 2013),An divina: a deusa Atena intervém, em resposta à oração de earlier version of this paper Troilus, that is not found in the Iliad, but a group of was given at the Literary Odisseu, lançando Ajax, rosto ao chão, nos restos imundos London Conference in July competitors for the chariot race at Patroclus’ funeral dos sacrifícios de touros para impedi-lo de ganhar e assim, 2012. games almost entirely different from that given dar a vitória a Odisseu (Ilíada 23,768-784). Se os deuses in Iliad 23. 257-650. Cleitias even inscribes the trapaceiam para ajudar aos seus humanos favoritos, pode competitors’ names to make the identification clear. a própria trapaça ser totalmente inaceitável, mesmo em Cleitias names Odysseus, Automedon, Damasippus, uma ocasião solene, que homenageia um guerreiro morto? Hippothoon, and Diomedes as the five competitors Quando Ajax percebe o papel de Atena em sua derrota e and omits Homer’s Eumelus, Menelaus, Antilochus, reclama com seus companheiros, eles apenas riem dele. Este and Meriones. The two accounts have only Diomedes artigo analisa a representação da trapaça nas artes e nas in common. So Cleitias may be suggesting things poesias gregas e romanas e conclui que a “mano de dios” weren’t the way the new editions of Homer suggests. de Maradona é comparativamente trivial. We don’t know why the contestants in a PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Homero, Odisseu, Maradona, Dolo. mythic competition mattered so much to Cleitias. Indeed, we should also note that Homer’s account ABSTRACT: Heroized cheating is among the most in Iliad 23 is itself a record of internal disputes. persistent memories of the 1986 Football World Cup. While 11 Diego Maradona’s brilliant second goal against England tesy, that he drops his protest. But in the footrace was dubbed by sportswriters everywhere “the goal of the at the same Homeric games, there is even some century,” his first, hand-propelled, is differently remembered divine cheating: the goddess Athena intervenes, by journalists and other writers in London and Buenos Aires. in response to Odysseus’ prayer for help, and sends Maradona’s cheating, witnessed by millions worldwide, was Salaminian Ajax sprawling face down in the filthy not observed by the Tunisian referee and other match offi- waste of sacrificial bulls to prevent him winning and cials during the game. In the footrace at funeral games for thus give victory to Odysseus (Iliad 23.768-784). If Patroclus in the Iliad, there is even some divine cheating: the gods cheat to help their human favorites, can the goddess Athena intervenes, in response to Odysseus’ cheating itself be wholly unacceptable even on a prayer, and sends Salaminian Ajax sprawling face down in solemn occasion honoring a dead warrior? Ajax the filthy waste of sacrificial bulls to prevent him winning detects Athena’s role in his defeat and complains and thus give victory to Odysseus (Iliad 23.768-784). If the about it to his companions, but they just laugh at gods cheat to help human favorites, can cheating itself be him. And the third place competitor (the same man wholly unacceptable even on a solemn occasion honoring a who cut off Menelaus in the chariot race) observes dead warrior? When Ajax detects Athena’s role in his defeat that Odysseus is of an older generation and that the and complains about it to his companions, they just laugh at gods respect seniority (Iliad 23.785-792). him. This paper examines the depiction of cheating in Greek Whoever put Iliad 23 into the shape it cur- and Roman art and poetry and concludes that Maradona’s rently has knew, as did Cleitias, that there were mano de dios was trivial by comparison. conflicting versions in circulation which may perhaps KEYWORDS: Homero, Odisseu, Maradona, Cheating. reflect partisan disputes as to which city-state’s heroes participated and who won, as was the case Homer’s Locrian Ajax, who watches the race and in Greek “real life.” Pausanias, in his Description thinks victory will go to Eumelus (who actually of Greece 6.2, mentions many instances of athletes comes in last), gets upset with what his companion and cities punished for wrongfully changing an Idomeneus’ eyes identify: the impending victory of athlete’s affiliation. Now, since the Attic François 2 the Aetolian born Diomedes. Irony runs rampant. vase has, among its other illustrations, Theseus’ 2. See (PERADOTTO, 1990);(AHL, Idomeneus, whose eyes put the lie to Ajax’s certainty expedition against Crete and the Minotaur, Cleitias 2002). that Eumelus’ horses will win the day, is a Cretan, might, arguably, be using the medium of painting to 3. See (AHL, 1996). and Cretans were, in ancient Greece, proverbial for present a version deliberately opposed to what was 4. See (GAGARIN, 1983). 2 prowess at lying. Homer’s Ajax and Idomeneus becoming, in Athens, the official version of various are about to come to blows when Achilles, who Homeric and other epic tales. supervises the games, points out that their dispute Winning is ultimately what matters in games is premature and pointless: the outcome of the and warfare, ancient and modern; and, in practical race, not a fist-fight between two spectators, will terms, winning has little to do with morality. While establish who is right. But when the race is over, rules and conventions have been devised to make Achilles proceeds to distribute prizes that further competition less brutal, victory and defeat establish confound the issue as to who the real winner is. innocence and guilt respectively, as Lucan’s Julius One of the most interesting features of the Caesar cynically points out to his troops that the Homeric race occurs when the third-place finisher, battle of Pharsalus will establish “who took up arms Menelaus, accuses Antilochus, who came in second, more justly; this battle will make the loser guilty: of cutting him off unfairly, an accusation supported quis iustius arma,/ sumpserit; haec acies victum 4 by the narrative itself. The earliest account of a factura nocentem est.” (Pharsalia 7.259-60). Success chariot race in Western literature, then, is marked by was routinely construed as evidence of divine favor cheating, though the incident is resolved amicably. by both ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Victrix Antilochus offers to yield up his prize to Menelaus, causa deis placuit sed victa Catoni, Lucan observes and Menelaus is so impressed by the youth’s cour- editorially of the Caesarian civil war (Pharsalia 12 desígnio 14 jan/jun 2015 1.128): winning won the gods’ approval, losing won the Falklands War as Argentina renewed its claims (the good man) Cato’s approval.