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The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Author(s): J. Lunt Source: Journal of History, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Fall 2009), pp. 375-392 Published by: University of Illinois Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26405220 Accessed: 01-03-2020 10:25 UTC

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Heroic Athlete in

David T. Lunt4 Departments of History and and Ancient Mediterranean Studies The Pennsylvania State University

In ancient Greece, powerful and successful athletes sought after and displayed might and arete (excellence) in the hope ofattaining a final component of di vinity—. These athletes looked to the heroes of Greek as mod els for their own quests for glory and immortality. The most attractive heroic model for a powerful athlete was Herakles. , a famed wrestler from antiquity, styled himself after Herakles and imitated him in battle. In addition, three athletes from the fifth century B. C„ Theagenes, Euthymos, and Kleomedes, made the transition, in Greek minds, from athlete to hero. The power, might, andixexz of their athletic victories provided the justification for their subsequent heroization. The stories of these athletes shed light on how historical athletes sought to imitate their mythic predecessors and how ancient were willing to bestow heroic honors, such as religious cults, on powerful victorious athletes.

THE ANCIENT BIOGRAPHER WROTE that three characteristics distinguished divinity, and those who sought it—power or might, excellence {arete), and immortality.' In ancient Greece, those who sought divinity, especially successful athletes, strove to display

'Correspondence to [email protected]. A shorter version of this paper won the North American Society for Sport History Graduate Student Essay Award in 2008. The author would like to thank Mark Dyreson, Bettina Kratzmüller, Donald Kyle, Mark Munn and the JSH editorial team for their critical suggestions and thoughtful assistance.

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of Sport History might and arete in the hope of attaining the final component of divinity—immortality. By means of their athletic prowess and victories, athletes sought and displayed arete, a complicated Greek word that referred to virtue, excellence, and general superiority. While complete equality with the awesome gods of Olympus was beyond their reach, athletes looked to the race of the mythic heroes as models for their own quests for glory and immortality. Around 700 B.C., during Greece's Archaic Period, the poet , in recounting the various ages of existence, described an age of heroes or "demi-gods," where a "divine race of heroic men" had fought great wars and earned a blessed afterlife.2 Plutarch, in his Life ofThesesus, speculated that ' era had produced a race of beings that far surpassed normal human athletic abilities such as bodily strength and swiftness of foot.3 Some of the members of this race of heroes demonstrated such a degree of might and virtue through their exploits, adventures, and achievements that they somehow achieved a measure of immortality, meriting the establishment of religious cults after their deaths and continu ing to exert some type of influence on earth. To the ancient Greeks, the mythic heroes, such as Theseus, Herakles ("Hercules" in the Latinized form), , and really lived and died. As noted myth scholar Paul Veyne explained, the mythic heroes were human beings who possessed supernatural and superhuman traits. There was no room for the ancient Greeks to doubt the reality of the lives of the great mythic heroes since human beings still existed and perhaps had always existed.4 Thus, by imitating the lives and adventures of these mythic heroes, successful and powerful athletes in ancient Greece could aspire to achieve a like measure of heroic honors after death. Modern scholarship has fueled a considerable amount of debate concerning the na ture of these ancient Greek athlete-heroes. and Plutarch, two of the principal ancient sources for these fifth-century B.C. athletes, wrote much later, in the second cen tury A.D. While these writers' chronological distance does not disqualify them as reliable sources, it is a task for the modern scholar to determine how soon after the athlete's death the ancient Greeks instituted heroic honors. In addition, mythic tropes and folkloric themes pepper the stories associated with these athletes, making it difficult to assess which components of these stories are historical and which are mythic. Finally, some scholars have conjectured that the athletic nature of these figures was not the primary reason for their heroization. Despite these debates and difficulties, the stories ol these mortal athletes-turned-he roes provide valuable information for understanding the importance of athletic achieve ment in ancient Greece. In 1968, the American scholar Joseph Fontenrose compiled a series of athlete-hero stories from ancient Greece and boiled them down to their essential elements, focusing especially on the mythic similarities among them. By examining the common themes and elements in these accounts, Fontenrose arrives at a type or model for the ancient Greek athletic hero. Fontenrose identifies fourteen themes in the various versions of common athlete-hero stories and, with considerable effort, links them to one another and to the general Greek mythic tradition. While Fontenrose's compilation rep resented an important step in collecting and analyzing these stories of historical athletes turned-heroes, his numerous connections to mythic tropes belied an assumption that the legends of folklore posthumously "attached" themselves to the historical athletes.5 This

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Lunt: The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece assumption, however, did not allow for the possibility that the historical athletes had con sciously attempted to imitate the actions and adventures of the mythic heroes in order to claim a similar heroic status. If this were the case, the athletes themselves would be, to some extent, responsible for the parallels between their lives and those of the heroes. In addition, as classicist Leslie Kurke notes, Fontenrose proposes no explanation for why these athletes assumed or received heroic honors.6 In a 1979 publication, François Bohringer revisits the issue of the hero-athlete, and seeks to explain why certain victorious athletes achieved heroic cult and others did not. Bohringer appropriately notes that many of these mortals-turned-heroes were important military and political figures in their communities independently of their athletic suc cesses, and that ancient Greek communities honored these important citizens as heroes in order to obscure periods of political or social weakness and division.7 Nevertheless, Bohringers explanation for why some athletes received heroic honors and others (appar ently) did not is too simplistic. He contends that those who received no heroic cult lived in cities that experienced no duress during or shortly after the athlete's lifetime.8 Although he hints that some athletes may have expressly identified themselves with heroic figures in leading their cities, and that cultic honors seem to have been instituted quite early for some athletes, Bohringer focuses on the role of the cities in exalting individual athletes in order to smooth over collective weaknesses and crises.9 While Bohringer's conclusions might have explained why some athletes received posthumous heroic honors and others did not, they do not address whether the athletes actively sought to participate in this process; nor does he account for the athlete who imitated the heroes, but never received posthumous honors.10 Recently, Oxford classicist Bruno Currie has examined how ancient literary sources situated many of these heroized athletes in the fifth century B.C., and the archaeological evidence, although slightly later in date, nevertheless indicates cult activity for some ath lete-heroes in the fourth century B.C. This relative proximity between the institutions of cult to their lifetimes implies that these athletes understood heroization to be a possibility, and that their athletic successes might provide an avenue to heroization." Just as athletic prowess was an important component of heroic identity in ancient Greece, so too was heroic action an important prerequisite for an athlete who sought heroic immortality. From all these treatments, there emerges a type of rough blueprint whereby a successful athlete might achieve heroic recognition. This process, established by the stories of the mythic heroes and neatly encapsulated by Plutarch's observation concerning divinity and its seekers, requires victory in contests—athletic and otherwise—and the public com memoration of these victories. These victories must demonstrate exceptional arete and prowess in order for the athlete to lay any claim to the immortality afforded by heroic honors.

Kurke has argued that victory, especially prominent victory in a major festival or contest, brought kudos to the victor. This word, often translated as "praise" or "renown," carried additional meaning for the ancient Greeks. As understood traditionally, the pos sessor of kudos enjoyed "special power bestowed by a god that makes a hero invincible."12 A victorious athlete claimed kudos from his victory and possessed a substantial amount of this special heroic power. Understandably, athletic champions transferred the power of

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Scene on a terracotta bobbin attributed to the Painter (c.450 B.C.). Victory () offers a ribbon to a victorious athlete, who wears a crown and holds a victory palm. Victory brought immense prestige and kudos to an ancient Greek athlete. A few athletes who amassed massive amounts of victories received posthumous heroic honors. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1928 (28.167). Image ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Reproduction of any kind is prohibited with out express written permission in advance from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

their heroic kudos from the athletic field to other endeavors, such as colonization and war.13 Accordingly, the appropriation of kudos to athletic champions equated their achieve ments with the accomplishments of the heroes, and the Greeks regarded these kudos charged athletes with both reverence and suspicion. The kudos of victory elevated human athletes to a liminal status between mortals and gods, a status similar to that of the immor tal heroes. In some cases, these super-humans, loaded with the kudos of their athletic victories, claimed the powers of the mythic heroes and sought to imitate their deeds.

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The most attractive heroic model for a powerful athlete was Herakles. Triumphant in all sorts of contests, athletic and otherwise, in Greek this demi-god achieved immortality and was welcomed to upon his death. Herakles provided the ideal and ultimate example for a mortal athlete seeking immortality. Despite Bohringer's contention that the heroization of mortals had little to do with athletic success, the line between victory in sport and victory in other endeavors was not well defined in ancient Greece. Herakles achieved immortality due to his victories in many types of contests— sporting, military, and hunting. It was victory in these endeavors, according to the ancient Greek conception of competition and triumph, which brought heroic status and eventual immortality.14 Herakles drew his heroic identity from his many victories in both sporting and non sporting contexts. Athletically, he was among the greatest of Greek champions. One prominent tradition credited Herakles with re-founding the and intro ducing the crown as a prize.15 In addition, several mythic episodes recount Herakles' prowess in . In many cases, the violence of Herakles' throws killed or severely injured those who challenged the great hero.16 This characterization of Herakles as a powerful and accomplished wrestler held great cultural significance for the ancient Greeks. He demonstrated his prowess and excellence through athletic competition, chiefly wres tling, and ancient Greek athletes sought to do the same. Herakles enjoyed victory in athletic contexts, and his heroic identity, in part, stemmed from his success in these en deavors. Ancient Greek closely associated Herakles with the site, contests, and prize for victory at Olympia, and his victories in wrestling further established his claim to immortal heroic status. Herakles' victories represented an integral component of his su pernatural status and subsequent immortalization. Notwithstanding these achievements in what moderns would consider "sport," the ancient Greeks conceived of Herakles as an "athlete" on a more fundamental level of competition, and his successes in these contests were an important part of the process by which he achieved immortality. This process reveals the important relationship between athletic contests and heroic adventures. In addition to his "sportive" athletic endeavors, Herakles and his adventures represented a broader conception of athleticism, based on ancient Greek notions of contests, "labors," and prizes. Underscoring this close relation ship, ancient Greek literary sources often used athletic terminology to describe Herakles' exploits.17 , a fourth-century B.C. Athenian rhetorician, described Herakles' life as full of agones or contests—precisely the same terminology used to denote athletic com petitions. Many ancient writers called the best known of Herakles' adventures, the so called "twelve labors," athla, the root of the English word "athlete." This word denoted competitive struggle but literally referred to prizes or the contests for prizes. The athla or "labors" of Herakles characterized him as an "athlete" who struggled for his "prize"—in this case, the "prize" of immortality. Thus, Herakles the athlete strove to complete his labors, such as killing the Nemean lion, cleaning the stables of Augeas, and fetching the apples of the Hesperides.18 Ancient writers often connected the immortality of Herakles with the completion of his "labors." The poet Hesiod noted that Herakles ascended to Olympus once "he had completed his wretched labors." The ancient poets and writers , Apollonius of , , and Apollodorus all made a similar assertion, that Herakles achieved

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of Sport History immortality by means of the completion of a series of designated tasks and contests.19 Consequently, mortal athletes in ancient Greece who completed their own athla, or "la bors," could lay claim to heroic honors. There seems to have been a considerable number of mortals who achieved some type of heroic status in ancient Greece. Although mortal imitation of heroic figures was not limited to athletic figures, victory in athletic contests provided one avenue to heroic status. With respect to the majority of athletic champions who received some type of heroic status after death, few details have survived. Most attestations are passing or fragmentary references. Moreover, many of the sources for these athletes are much later in date, mak ing precise dating of the beginnings of heroic cult problematic. Nevertheless, there exists sufficient literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence to place some of these cults in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., suggesting that the attainment of heroic immortality through athletic victories was indeed a viable goal for prominent ancient Greek athletes of the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C.20 t ne nrtn-century d.c>. nistorian neroaotus reiaiea mat une peopie or ngesta on une island of honored a colonist named Philippos as a hero. This colonist was an Olym pic champion, but explained that Philippos was heroized because he was ex traordinarily good looking.21 According to an ancient commentator on the Hellenistic poet , the statue of an Olympic victor named Euthycles was worshiped at "equally to the statue of ." A much later source added that the people of Locri wrongfully imprisoned the pentathlete and disgraced his statues after he died. This unjust behavior sparked a crippling famine, and the people of Locri instituted a cult for Euthycles in order to save their city.22 Even the second-century writer Pausanias was confused by the conflicting dates for the runner Oibotas of Dyme. Supposedly, Oibotas won at the Olympic games during the eighth century B.C., yet some sources claimed that he had fought against the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 B.C. At any rate, the people of Dyme later remembered the athlete with and garlands.23 The ancient Spartans worshipped Hipposthenes, a wrestler who won six Olympic crowns in the seventh century B.C., in conjunction with the god .24 In addition to these examples, modern scholars have suggested other prominent and successful athletes who probably merited heroic commemoration due to their athletic victories but have no association with heroic cult in the surviving sources.25 These poorly attested examples do little more than demon strate that the ancient Greeks heroized their athletes on occasion, but more substantive accounts are necessary to identify and analyze any impulses by athletes to imitate heroic actions. Fortunately, a few such accounts have survived. The earliest of these athletic imitators of the mythic heroes was Milo of Croton. In the late sixth century B.C. Milo, one of the greatest athletes of ancient Greece, won six Olympic crowns in wrestling, a remarkable feat. Convinced of his own power and in imitation of Herakles, Milo led the soldiers of Croton, a Greek city in , in a battle against the neighboring community of while crowned with his six Olympic wreaths, wearing a lion skin, and carrying a club. The olive wreaths, the lion skins, and the club all featured prominently in the myths concerning Herakles. Representing himself as Herakles, Milo led his countrymen to victory. The ancient historian Diodorus reported that the people marveled that Milo was personally the "cause" of Croton's victory.26 Thus Milo, a remarkable and victorious athlete, sought to imitate the military might of the mythic

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Herakles. His athletic successes had endowed him with what he considered to be super natural power, and he used this power to win military victory for his city and heroic status for himself. Nearly two hundred years later, during the fourth-century B.C. campaigns of Alexander of Macedon, an Athenian athlete named Dioxippos defeated a fully armed Macedonian soldier in single combat. The Macedonian, named Koragos, must have had a little too much to drink at the raucous banquet where he challenged Dioxippos, a renowned athlete and a champion in one of the Crown Games.27 On the day of the duel, Koragos arrived decked out in fine armor and weapons. Dioxippos, on the other hand, came naked, his body oiled, wearing a garland, and carrying only a club. Appearing as a victo rious athlete and armed as Herakles, Dioxippos easily defeated the well-armed Macedonian. The Olympic champion relied on his athleticism, avoiding Koragos' javelin throw, shat tering his lance with a blow from the club, and wrestling him to the ground as the Macedonian reached for his sword. In accordance with the myths surrounding Herakles and his manifold duels and contests, Dioxippos treated this encounter as a contest in which he, the Heraklean athlete, vanquished the better armed (and not entirely Greek) enemy.28 Clearly, Milo and Dioxippos considered themselves imitators of and successors to the mythic Herakles. Both Milo and Dioxippos imitated Herakles in battle and in sport. Both wore crowns that proclaimed their athletic victories, and Dioxippos competed in the nude as an athlete. Applying Plutarch's three-fold formula for divinity, both demonstrated might and arete through their athletic and military successes, in direct imitation of Herakles. The sources, however, are silent as to whether Milo ever received any measure of cultic worship after his death. Modern scholars certainly consider him a candidate for such honors.29 Dioxippos, however, received no such honors: he later committed suicide after being framed for theft.30 The story of Polydamas of Skotoussa, however, provides an example of a successful athlete who imitated Herakles and who received religious cult after his death. Polydamas, a pankratiast, won a crown at the Olympic games of 408 B.C. His ex ploits, surely exaggerated, reportedly included pulling the hoof from a struggling bull and stopping a moving by grabbing on and digging his heels into the ground. Further more, in some sort of agonistic duel, he simultaneously fought and defeated three mem bers of the elite bodyguard of the Persian King in the court of Darius II. Without exagger ating the connections to mythic precedent, this one-against-three battle certainly evokes echoes of Herakles' combat with the triple-bodied Geryon. Both the Persians and the monstrous Geryon represented fantastic, non-Greek forces, and the triplicate enemy sug gests a convenient parallel. Besides this thematic similarity, Polydamas openly imitated the great Herakles in other endeavors. As Pausanias reported, out of an expressed desire to emulate the mythic hero, Polydamas went to Mount Olympus and killed a large lion with his bare hands. A surviv ing portion of Polydamas' fourth-century B.C. statue base at Olympia shows the great athlete fighting a lion, linking this story more closely to the athletes lifetime.31 These heroic actions brought Polydamas some type of heroic status among the Greeks since, after his death, his statue was said to heal the sick.32 Polydamas' athletic and heroic might and arete afforded his memory a degree of supernatural or superhuman power. Like his model Herakles, Polydamas achieved a measure of immortality and continued to exert influence

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of Sport History on earth after his death, at least in the minds of the ancient Greeks. These examples demonstrate the strong impetus of ancient Greek athletes to imitate Herakles. As these athletes challenged the boundaries between the mortal and immortal realms, they became more associated with the heroic tradition. In addition to the imitations of Milo and Dioxippos, and the supernatural powers attributed to the statue of Polydamas, three ath letes from the early fifth century B.C.—Euthymos, Theagenes, and Kleomedes—made the transition, in Greek minds, from athlete to hero.33 Euthymos of Locri, in Italy, was the Olympic boxing champion in 484, 476, and 472 B.C. In imitation of Herakles, Euthymos's adventures associated him with supernatural events, indicative of his super-mortal status. According to the story, Euthymos fought a demon called "the Hero" at , Italy. The "Hero" was supposed to be the ghost of Polites, one of ' comrades who had been stoned to death after raping a local girl. The sailors ghost continued to torment the people of Temesa, requiring a virgin each year. By chance, Euthymos happened along as the townspeople were shutting that years unfortunate girl into the ghost's precinct. The great athlete entered the temple, fought the spirit, and drove it under the sea.34 Very similar in action and theme to the story of Herakles and Hesione at , Euthymos the neo-hero defeated the monster and rescued the girl.35 Accordingly, Euthymos accumulated other vestiges of ancient Greek heroism as exemplified by Herakles, principally a supernatural genealogy and an escape from the finality of death. Euthymos did not die as ordinary mortals perish. Instead, he disappeared into the river Caecinus, which was supposedly his father.36 As in the other examples, this athlete, through his Heraklean escapades, acquired heroic status, perhaps in his own lifetime. The fifth-century B.C. inscription on the pedestal of Euthymos' victory statue at Olympia informs the reader that Euthymos him self set up the statue for mortals to behold.37 The Roman Pliny, citing the Hellenistic poet Callimachus, claimed that after lightning struck the statues of Euthymos at Olympia and at Western Locri on the same day, the of gave instructions for the still-living Euthymos to be deified.38 At Locri, archaeologists have discovered five herms dedicated to the great athlete. The image on the herms depicts a bull with the head of a man, and the inscriptions indicate that this represented Euthymos. Epigraphists have dated these in scriptions to the late fourth century B.C. Bruno Currie concluded that the image of a man-headed bull on the herms represented "an actual free-standing statue, perhaps in bronze, which stood somewhere in the region and declared itself'sacred to Euthymos.'"39 Thus the people of Locri heroized Euthymos, a remarkable athlete, for his heroic achieve ments. These heroic honors, sparked by the lightning strikes, dated to Euthymos' own lifetime, according to Pliny, and lasted at least into the next century. Theagenes ofThasos, a contemporary of Euthymos who competed against him, was another heavy-event athlete who achieved heroic status. An accomplished boxer and pankratiast, Theagenes won both events at the same Olympic games in the early fifth century B.C., in addition to nine Nemean and ten Isthmian championships. Like Polydamas and Euthymos, the stories of Theagenes' life have accumulated a good deal of mythic exaggeration. For instance, the epigram that adorned his statue reportedly claimed that Theagenes once ate an entire ox, and as a boy he is supposed to have carried a large bronze statue he admired home from the city's marketplace. Like the other athletic would-be heroes, Theagenes is reported to have consciously sought association with his mythic pre

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Lunt: The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece decessors. Out of "ambitious envy of Achilles," reputedly the swiftest of the Greek heroes, he abandoned combat for running and won a long-distance race in the hometown of Achilles.40 Other sources asserted that the Thasians associated their athletic champion with Herakles, claiming that Theagenes was really the son of the immortal hero instead of the mortal man who raised him, although his victory inscriptions listed Timoxenos as his father. After Theagenes' death, one of his enemies went to the athlete's statue every night and flogged it out of hatred for the dead man. When, one night, the statue fell on the enemy and killed him, the man's sons prosecuted the statue for murder and the people of threw it into the sea. Later, in order to dispel a famine, the Thasians fished up the statue, re-dedicated it, and offered sacrifices to it as a divinity. Jean Pouilloux, one of the excavators of Theagenes' shrine, suggested that the statue's "trial" took place in the fifth century B.C., between 440 and 420, within a generation or so of Theagenes' athletic victories in the early to mid fifth century. In addition, Pausanias claimed to know of statues of Theagenes in many other locations that possessed the ability to cure diseases.41 Theagenes' impressive exploits as an athlete and a heroic imitator brought his memory divine recognition and heroic status after his death. As with Euthymos, part ofTheagenes' heroization came from his revised ancestry and his direct imitation of the heroes, in this case both Herakles and Achilles. In 1939, French archaeologists unearthed a small stone treasury or deposit-box for offerings to Theagenes in the foundations of the hero's shrine in the ancient on Thasos.42 Seventy-three centimeters in height, the cylinder displayed two inscriptions, dated by its stratigraphie location and epigraphic features to the end of the first century B.C. The earlier of these inscriptions regulated monetary offerings to the heroic athlete. It required those coming to sacrifice to Theagenes to make a small offering by inserting an obol coin through the opening in the top of the stone treasury. The second inscription, somewhat fragmentary, much briefer, and inscribed later, probably during the first cen tury A.D., promised good fortune to the donor and the donor's family. In addition, archaeologists have uncovered inscriptions that list Theagenes' many panhellenic victories in his hero shrine at Thasos, and copies have also been found at Delphi and Olympia. The opening lines of the version from Delphi, the most complete of the three, highlights the separation between the mighty Theagenes and ordinary mortals: You, son of Timoxenos [...] For never at Olympia has the same man been crowned for victory in boxing and in . But you, of your three victories in the , won one unopposed, a feat which no other mortal man has accomplished. In nine , you won ten times. For twice the herald proclaimed your victories to the ring of mortal onlookers in boxing and pankration on the very same day. Nine times, [sic], you won at the . And you won thirteen hundred victories in the lesser contests. Nobody, I declare, defeated you in boxing for twenty-two years. Theagenes, son of Timoxenos, from Thasos, won these events:

[Thereafter follows a list ofTheagenes' Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean victo ries, as well as a victory in the long-distance footrace at Argos.]43

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Like the inscription of Euthymos, this monumental commemoration both proclaims the achievements of the great Theagenes while also distinguishing him from other mor tals. The fifth surviving line reminds the reader (listener) that Theagenes accomplished victories that "no other mortal" has ever managed. Furthermore, the herald proclaims Theagenes' victories to a crowd "of mortals," as the Greek word (epichthoniôn) literally means "those on earth," and again draws a sharp distinction between the awe-struck on lookers and the mighty victorious athlete. The heroization of Theagenes, made possible through his manifold victories, elevated him above the status of "those on earth." Although Theagenes won his victories in the early fifth century B.C., c.490-470, the cultic veneration of the accomplished athlete seems to date to about a hundred years later in the early fourth century B.C. The inscriptions from Delphi and Thasos, as well as the statue base in the city's agora have all been assigned to this time, but the murderous statue presumably dated to Theagenes' own lifetime.44 The institution of an elaborate cult in the city's center for the great athlete within a century of his death, most likely a space of only two or three generations, demonstrates the significance ofTheagenes' victories. His memory remained powerful enough to merit an expanded cult in the Hellenistic and Roman peri ods that lasted for hundreds of years. His great victories, including his imitation of the hero Achilles, brought him heroic honors on Thasos and in many other places among both Greeks and .45 These athletes, following the heroic paradigm of athletic excellence, demonstrated through victory, achieved heroic honors in their own right. The puzzling case of Kleomedes, however, represents a departure from this model in some respects. One of the most perplexing examples of the athlete-hero is the boxer KJeomedes of Astypalaea, most notorious for his manically violent behavior. An Olympic boxer, Kleomedes defeated his opponent in 492 B.C., Ikkos of Epidauros, by beating him to death. The Olympic judges, however, disqualified Kleomedes for his excessive brutality.46 Stripped of his victory, he returned to Astypalaea where he pulled a supporting pillar from a school, causing the roof to collapse and kill sixty boys. Fleeing the angry townspeople, Kleomedes hid inside a chest in the sanctuary of . When pursuers broke the chest open, Kleomedes had disappeared. An inquiry to the Delphic oracle elicited a response that the people of Astypalaea should worship Kleomedes as "the last of the heroes."47 While his disqualification at Olympia was considered the cause of his madness, Kleomedes nevertheless did not quite fit precisely into the model of athletic champions seeking heroic status. His actions, killing young boys, hardly compare with the feats of Polydamas or Euthymos, despite the folkloric elements of the collapsing roof.48 The stories of Herakles, however, do provide a parallel example. The myths relate that the goddess caused a fit of insanity to come upon Herakles, causing him to kill his own children.49 In addition, the myths claim that Herakles murdered his teacher, Linos, for hitting him during a lesson, and he treacherously killed Iphitus, who was searching for his lost mares.50 Clearly, some of the stories concerning Herakles contained irrational, manic, and murder ous violence. Perhaps the people of Astypalaea connected Kleomedes' manic violence with the insanity of Herakles. A connection to the immortal Herakles would help explain an otherwise confusing sequence of events that led to Kleomedes' heroization by the people of Astypalaea.

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Kurke has proposed that the people of Astypalaea heroized Kleomedes because he did not receive his deserved attention or acknowledgment for the kudos he acquired at Olym pia.51 With the suspension of the normal ritual for reintegrating a £W

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This content downloaded from 94.66.56.215 on Sun, 01 Mar 2020 10:25:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of Sport History look at the statue and read the inscription. In addition to the inscriptions that adorned their statues many important victors enjoyed commemoration in verse. Hellanicus of , for instance, a historian and mythographer from the fifth cen tury B.C., recorded a list of victors in 's Karneian festival in both poetry and prose.57 Although no fragments of Hellanicus' Karneonikai have survived, ancient testimonies clearly stated that Hellanicus used metered verse to record the victors' names. In many respects, the use of poetic meter represented the language of the gods. The Greeks delivered divine communications, such as pronouncements from the Delphic oracle, in dactylic hexam eter. According to , the spoke to poets in verse, and the poets acted merely as vehicles for conveying the divine words.58 Thus, when Hellanicus recited his metrical list of Karneian victors, he would have evoked images in his audience of divine communica tions and the heroic age. The effect must have been akin to the second book of the , where 's "catalog of ships" names and describes the epic poem's Greek heroes and their homelands. In compiling a list of historical athletic victors and arranging them into verse, Hellanicus implicitly connected these men and their achievements with the immor tal Homeric heroes. In addition to Hellanicus' list, the performance of epinikian praise poetry in honor of the victors at prestigious athletic contests added heroic kleos to the athletes' reputations. Pindar, a poet who lived during the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C. is the best known of the epinikian poets. In his poetry Pindar alluded to the propensity for powerful and successful mortal athletes to seek a status above regular humans, often juxtaposing the feats of a victorious mortal athlete with the achievements of a mythic hero.59 For example, Pindar's First Olympian Ode, composed to commemorate the Sicilian Hiero's vic tory in a chariot race at Olympia in 476 B.C., described the story of a chariot race from mythic time. Here, Pindar re-tells a well-known story about the hero Pelops, who won a dramatic chariot- victory over the ruthless Lord ot Pisa and came away with his lite, a bride, and a kingdom. Fittingly, the Greeks honored Pelops at Olympia with a shrine and sacrifices in the sacred Altis.60 By juxtaposing the victory of Pelops with the victory of Hiero, Pindar's Ode connects the mortal realm with the immortal, and Pindar's poetry provides several additional examples of this phenomenon.61 Pindar was well aware of the ambiguous status of the mortal athletic champion. Despite his close associations of mor tal champions with mythic heroes, the poet on numerous occasions reminded his patrons and listeners that a victor's status among the heroes, while greater than any mortal, was still less than the status of the gods.62 Thus Pindar recognized the special status of both the heroes and his victorious subjects, while cautioning them against hubristically claiming to be equal to the gods. Yet another commemoration in verse equated victorious athletes with the immortal heroes. Victorious Olympic champions enjoyed identification with Herakles by means of a victory song, or kallinikos. Those accompanying or welcoming an Olympic victor sang this hymn to Herakles in honor of the victorious athlete.63 Originally composed by the poet in the seventh century B.C., only a small fragment has survived in the opening lines of Pindar's Olympian 9 and the explanatory note of an ancient commenta tor. The hymn's repeated refrain proclaimed, "Hail glorious victor! Greetings lord Herakles!"64 This hymn to Herakles, performed in honor of the victorious athlete, con nected the mortal victor to the immortal hero. Although ostensibly addressed to Herakles,

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Detail of an ancient Greek krater bowl (c.360 B.C.). In the image, Herakles (far right), clothed in the skin of the Nemean lion and carry ing his club, admires his victory statue as a worker applies paint. Winged Victory (Nike) hovers above. Victorious athletes often erected statues in sacred precincts, such as Olympia or Delphi, in honor of the gods and in commemoration of their accomplishments. A victory statue provided a vehicle for nearly perpetual kleos. This scene stresses the importance of victory in Herakles "athletic" endeavors and under scores the connections between the honors paid to athletes and heroes in ancient Greece. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1950 (50.11.4). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Reproduction of any kind is prohibited without express written permission in advance from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

the context of the hymn's performance allowed the victorious athlete to appropriate this praise for himself. By implicitly calling the athlete Herakles, the singer connected the athlete's accomplishment with those of the hero. Like Herakles, the mortal athlete could lay claim to super-mortal status. Like Herakles, these mortal athletes aspired to the prize of immortality.

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The potential prize or immortality through heroic cult was an appealing quest for prominent athletes in ancient Greece. While athletic prowess, both in sporting and more thematic "struggles" or contests comprised an important part of heroic identity, those humans who achieved great victory in sporting contexts sought to extend their fame and glory by connecting themselves to the mythic heroes. Like Herakles, who successfully overcame all obstacles and completed his labors or athla, victorious athletes sought their own heroic adventures in their quests for immortal status and heroic honors after death. Charged with kudos and hungry for kleos, these powerful champions claimed a heroic, superhuman status that enabled them to lead their cities to victory in battle or to continue to exert influence over earthly affairs after their deaths. In addition to heroic imitation, successful athletes enjoyed associations with immortal heroes through verse, as the poets extolled and commemorated the victors in the same fashion as the great heroes of Homer. The power, might, and arete of their athletic victories provided the justification for their heroization. The connections between the mythic heroes and historical athletes from the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C. provide a considerable amount of information for evaluat ing the role of the heroes in both ancient Greek athletics and religion. While the athlete's community played an important part in awarding, reviving, or augmenting heroic cult for a notable athlete, the process of heroization surely varied over time and place in the an cient Greek world. Nevertheless, the sources suggest that, in some cases, great athletes sought to imitate the heroes of myth, intending to secure for themselves the same degree of glory and recognition. While many of the literary sources date from the Roman period, epigraphic and archaeological evidence, such as the statue base of Polydamas and the cults to Euthymos and Theagenes, fixes heroic imitation and the institution of heroic honors much closer to the athletes' lifetimes. In addition, Pindar's admonitions and comparisons, composed in the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C., suggest a tendency for powerful and successful athletes to seek superhuman status at this time. Pindar warned such victors to avoid the of claiming the status and power of the gods but allowed for humans to achieve heroic status. After all, the heroes of myth had been humans themselves who had managed to secure commemoration and cult, as well as continued influence on earth. For prominent athletic champions from the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C., athletic achievements provided access to the same honors.

'Plutarch, Life ofAristides 6: à8apaia Kai àwa/Ati Kai àpert). 2Hesiod, 159-160: àvdpùw ypioiov 8e\ov yévoç, oï KaXéovrai, yptideoi. 3Plut., Life of Theseus 6. ''Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?, trans. Paula Wissing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 42. 'Joseph Fontenrose, "The Hero as Athlete," California Studies in (later Classical Antiquity) 1 (1968): 87-88. 6Leslie Kurke, "The Economy of Kudos," in Cultural Poetics in , eds. Carol Dougherty and Leslie Kurke (Oxford: , 1998), 149. François Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," Revue des Études Anciennes 81 (1979): 9 commends Fontenrose's "beau schema" but found it "quasiment dépourvu de signification."

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7Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 5-18. 'Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 14, for instance, notes that Milo of Croton inaugurated a time of great prestige and prosperity for his city and subsequently received no cultic hon ors.

'Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 11 suggests that Theagenes of Thasos inter vened directly in a reformation of the city's rites to Herakles in order to claim descent from the great hero. Euthymos and Theagenes seem to have received cultic honors as early as the fourth century B.C. (Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 15). "Bohringer's treatment of Milo of Croton, for instance, glosses over the similarities between the life and adventures of the great wrestler and Herakles, since Milo received no posthumous cult. (Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 14). "Bruno Currie, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 120-157. 12Kurke, "The Economy of Kudos," 132. However, cf. Poulheria Kyriakou, "Epidoxon Kydos: Crown Victory and Its Rewards," Classica et Mediaevalia 58 (2007): 119-158. Kyriakou challenges this narrow definition of kudos, citing usage in Homer, Pindar, and . Despite Kyriakou's dismissal of any type of athletic talismanic power or magic, her assertion that victory in the Crown Games was lucrative only because of its "political potential" as a "display of skill and affluence in a truly Panhellenic venue" dismisses the deeply ritualistic nature of victory in the sacred games (p. 149). ''Spartan kings, for instance, were accompanied in battle by victors in the crown games. (Plut. Life of 22; Quaestiones Convivales 2.5.2). Plutarch cites Duris of in relating a story that returned in triumph to accompanied by a Pythian champion flute player. Plutarch, however, notes that the extravagant details in Duris are absent from the accounts ofTheopompus, Ephorus, and , and seems inclined to disbelieve the story (Plut. Life of Alcibiades 32). Kurke, "The Economy of Kudos," 133-137, suggests that colonist leaders (called "oikists"), such as , the son of Cypselus who led colonists to the Chersonese, were chosen because of their victories in the crown games. After his death, the people of the Chersonese instituted games in Miltiades' honor, including chariot-racing and gymnastic competitions (Herodotus 6.36-38). This Miltiades was the uncle and namesake of the general who led the Athenians to victory at in 490 B.C. However, cf. Kyriakou, "Epidoxon Kydos," 144-145, who downplays the connection. 14Mark Golden, Sport and Society in Ancient Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 146-157, associates the Herakles myths with sport through the lens of aristocracy and wage labor. Ulti mately, Golden concludes that Herakles and the ancient Greek aristocratic ideal of sport proved superior to the undertaking of menial tasks for money. 15Pindar, Olympian 3.20-25; 6.67-70; Diodorus Siculus 4.14.1, 5.64.6; Pausanias 5.7.9, 5.8.3. A single (late) source claims that Herakles himself won Olympic victories in wrestling and pankration (Paus. 5.8.4).

,

I7For example, Homer, Iliad 8.362; 11.622; Hes., 951; and Acusilaus, fragment 29 (Fowler). Diod. Sic. 4.11.3 uses à07.a exclusively to refer to the works done for Eurystheus. Apollod. Bibl. 2.4.12; Paus. 8.18.3. Pind. Nemean 1.70 is an exception, referring to Herakles' labors as "great toils" [KafMTuov fieyàXcov],

"Isocrates, Helen 17: Herakles' glory came "from wars and contests"; Golden, 150 for "athla" and "athlete." The canon of twelve labors for Herakles does not seem to have been fixed until the mid fifth

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century B.C., when the metopes depicting the hero's feats were carved for the great temple of Zeus at Olympia. Although there is some variation in early accounts of Herakles' labors, the temple's metopes indicated that the other nine labors were killing the Lernaean Hydra, fetching the Kerynitian , capturing the Erymanthian Boar, driving off (or killing) the Stymphalian Birds, capturing the Cretan Bull, stealing ' Horses, bringing back the belt of the Amazon queen, obtaining Geryon's Cattle, finding and acquiring the apples of the Hesperides, and bringing the many-headed Kerberos up from the underworld. See Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 381-416, for general discussion of the labors. See Wendy J. Raschke, "Images of Victory" in The Archaeology of the Olympics, ed. Wendy J. Raschke (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), 42 45, for a brief discussion of Herakles, his labors, the metopes, and immortality in an agonistic context. "Hes. Theog. 95Cre\é(ra<; (rrovoevroo; àéBXovç. Pind. Nem. 1.70 describes Herakles'rest on Olympus as his reward for his "great toils." Apollonius of Rhodes, 1.1318-1319; Diod. Sic. 4.8.1 and 4.10.7; Apollod, Eibl. 2.4.12. See also Theocritus 24.82-83, who calls the labors ScbSeutz . . . fjto%f)ouç. Compare the myth of Psyche, the mortal woman who falls in love with the immortal Cupid as told in Apuleius, Metamorphoses 4.28-6.24. Venus (), Cupid's difficult mother, lays out many seem ingly impossible domestic tasks for her son's would-be bride. After completing them through miraculous means, Venus offers the girl a cup of to make her immortal. 20The Spartan king Agesilaus' imitation of Agamemnon is one example of non-athletic heroic imita tion. Xenophon, Hellenica 3.4.3-4; Plut., Life of Agesilaus 6, 9. See Currie, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes, 120-123, for a complete list of the heroized athletes. 2lHdt. 5.47.

21Diegesis (ii.5) to Callimachus, Aeita 3.84-85 (Pfeiffer); Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 5.34. 23Paus. 6.3.8; 7.17.6. Concerning this story, Pausanias mused, "I am bound to tell the stories that are told by the Greeks, but I am not bound to believe them all." 24Paus. 3-13.9; 3.15.7. Stephen Hodkinson, "An Agonistic Culture? Athletic Competition in Ar chaic and Classical Spartan Society" in Sparta: New Perspectives, eds. Stephen Hodkinson and Anton Powell (: Duckworth, 1999), 165-167, argues for a fifth-century B.C. institution of cult for Hipposthenes and follows Bohringer in suggesting a connection between the heroization and natural disaster and civil unrest at Sparta. 25See Currie, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes, 120-123, for these athletes and their circumstances. 26Diod. Sic. 12.9.5-6 (a'iTiov); Paus. 6.14.5-9; 6.1.12. Cf. Nikostratus' Heraklean equip ment in battle: Diod. Sic. 16.44.3. 27Diod. Sic. 17.100-101; Quintus Curtius Rufus 9.7.16-26. Diodorus compares the combat to a contest between (Koragos) and Herakles (Dioxippos). 28Hesiod's Shield, however, describes Herakles arming himself as a soldier to fight Kyknos. Nevertheless, Herakles in art was overwhelmingly portrayed without conventional military weaponry. He fought with brute strength and his club. See also Pind. OL 10.15-16; Apollod., Bibl. 2.5.7, 11; Hyginus, Fabula 31; Paus. 3.18.10; , Hercules Eurens 389-393 for the duel between Herakles and Kyknos. 25Fontenrose, "The Hero as Athlete," 88-89. See also Currie's discussion, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes, 155-157. 30Diod. Sic. 17.100-101; Curtius 9.7.25. Curtius' account of Dioxippos certainly presents the wronged athlete as a tragic, heroic figure who perhaps imitates the mythic Ajax in preferring suicide over disgrace. However, there is no indication of subsequent heroization. 31Anna Maranti, Olympia & Olympic Games (Athens: Toubis, 1999), 102-103. 32See Diod. Sic. 9.14.2; Paus. 6.5.1, 4-9 for Polydamas' exploits; andLucian, Parliament of the Gods 12 for the healing power of the statue. 33For general discussion, see Fontenrose, "The Hero as Athlete, 73-104; Bohringer, Cubes d Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 5-18; Kurke, "The Economy of Kudos," 149-152; and Currie, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes, 120-124.

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34Paus. 6.6.4-10; Callimachus, fr. 98-99 (Pfeiffer); Pliny, Natural History!. 152; Aelian, Vari ous Histories 8.18. 35For Herakles, the sea monster, Hesione, and her father Laomedon, see Horn. II. 5.628-51; Diod. Sic. 4.42; Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.9; Hyginus, Fab. 89; Pind. Nemean 1.94-95; and Eur., H.F. 400-402. Bruno Currie, "Euthymos of Locri: A Case Study in Heroization in the Classical Period," Journal of 122 (2002): 35-37, sees Euthymos as imitating Herakles' fight with Achelöos, a river deity. 36Paus. 6.6.10; Aelian, Various Histories 8.18.

37Evdvfioç AOKpbç, 'AcrrvKXéoç rp/'ç 'OAùfjtni'èCiKcov errrr]

38Callim., Aet. fr. 99 (Pfeiffer); Pliny, Natural History 7.152. See Currie, "Euthymos of Locri," 40 44, for explanation and analysis of Euthymos' cult at Locri. 35Currie, "Euthymos of Locri," 29-30. In ancient , a bull-headed man was a standard representation of Acheloös, a powerful river deity who fought against in myth, (see Gantz, 28 29, 432-433). This artistic representation underscored the divinity of the powerful athlete by depicting him as a river god, in this case likening him to Caecinus, his divine "father." 40Paus. 6.11.5: t\v M o\ npàç 'A%iXXéa èpLoi SoKeïv to (jnXoTifjaipM. 41Athenaeus 10.412 d-f; Dio Chrysostom 31.95-97; , Parliament of the Gods 12; Paus. 6.6.5 6, 6.11.2-9; Plutarch, 81 ld-e. Jean Pouilloux, Récherches sur l'Histoire et les Cultes de Thasos, 2 vols. (: Ecole Française d'Athènes, 1954), 1: 102-103, dated Theagenes and his cult according to Thasos' relationship with Persia, Athens, and Athenian law during the fifth century B.C., as demon strated through the details of the statue's "trial." Bohringer, "Cultes d'Athlètes en Grèce Classique," 15, found this date plausible. See Paus. 6.11.9 for the other statues of Theagenes. 42R. Martin, "Un Nouveau Règlement de Culte Thasien," Bulletin de Correspondence Hellénique 44 45 (1940-1941): 163-200.

43W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 3rd ed. (SylJ) (Hildesheim, Ger.: Georg Olms, 1960), §36; Moretti, LAG §21; Desmond Schmidt, "An Unusual Victory List from Keos: IG XII, 5, 608 and the Dating of RakchyllAes," Journal of Hellenic Studies 119 (1999): 76-77; Elizabeth Pierce Biegen et al., "Archaeological News," American Journal of Archaeology 53 (1949): 368. See Pouilloux, Récherches sur l'Histoire et les Cultes de Thasos, 78-82, for textual criticism. 44Martin, "Un Nouveau Règlement de Culte Thasien," 197; François Salviat, "Le Monument de Théogénès sur l'Agora de Thasos," Bulletin de Correspondence Hellénique 80 (1956): 159-160; Schmidt, "An Unusual Victory List from Keos," 76; Susan C. Jones, "Statues That Kill and the Gods Who Love Them" in STE

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Pouilloux, "Théogénès De Thasos . . . Quarante Ans Après," Bulletin de Correspondence Hellénique 118 (1994): 206, suggests a period of "one or two centuries" {un ou deux siècles) between Theagenes' death and the recognition of the athlete as a divine healer. 45Paus. 6.11.9.

46Paus. 6.9.6-8; Plut., Life of 28. 47Paus. 6.9.8: wrraToç -rjpcocov KÂeofj/rjfrrjç AcmmaXaievç. 48Fontenrose, "The Hero as Athlete," 88, points out that the collapsing roof was a common element in folklore concerning powerful men. The death of the Biblical Samson, told in Judges 16, is one of the best known of these stories.

49Apollod., Bibl. 2.4.12. 50Apollod., Bibl. 2.4.9, Paus. 9.29.3, Diod. Sic. 3.67.2 for Linos; Homer, Od. 21.22-30, Apollod., Bibl. 2.6.1-2 for Iphitus. "Kurke, "The Economy of Kudos," 151-152. "Currie, Pindar andthe Cult of Heroes, 7-9, 127. 53Currie, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes, 72. "Walter Burkert, Structure and History in and Ritual (Berkeley: University of Cali fornia Press, 1969), 54. "Leslie Kurke, The Traffic in Praise (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991), 17. 56Kurke, "The Economy of Kudos," 142. "Literally, "meter and catalog." Felix Jacoby, Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker (Berlin: Weidmann, 1923), §4, fr. 886; 14.635e: tôç 'EÀÀàwKoç i

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