Physical education in ancient Greece Kalokagathìa, Iccus of Taranto, and general informations about the ancient Olympic Games.

The expression kalokagathìa is used to indicate an ideal of perfection used by the ancient greeks. The noun represents the substantive form of kalòs kagathòs or kalòs kai agathòs, that means ‘beautiful and good’ (or virtuosus). It’s about being both good looking outside and having a moral value too, this is a principle which involves both the etichal and the aesthetic shepere (what is beautiful must be good too and viceversa; so what is awful inside is also ugly outside). This concept was later used by Romans as well. Achilles and Memnon are perfect examples of the greek ideal; the exact opposite is instead represented by Thersites mythological character that does not represent the ideal of kalokagathìa because he tried to make the greeks quit during the battle of Troy. Mythological characters that are not good examples of kalokagathìa despite their beauty are Paris, Hector’s brother, who caused the Trojan war, and Narcissus, who didn’t care about being a soldier and neither about love, if it wasn’t his love for himself. Kalokagathìa

Iccus of Taranto Iccus of Taranto was a doctor and an ancient greek athlete, gymnasiarch and teacher of the most talented gymnasts of his era. He lived in Taranto in a period of great prosperity and became the rector of the famous Gymnasium of the polis. Iccus was a really famous athlete, winner of the pentathlon of the 77th Olympic Games (472 b.C.). Therefore, a monument was dedicated to him in the temple of Hera in Olympia. Iccus’ fame as gymnasiarch and physiotherapist had a wide spread in the ancient world. He is considered the founder of medical gymnastics and athletic diet : he was the fist one to guess the great influence of gymnastich on medicine and on diet, he put alimentation at the base of athletic training In 1959 his tomb was found in Taranto. Nowadays the tomb is still visited by tourists, the original site is in Crispi Street but its rests are now kept in The Marta Museum of Taranto.

The Olympic Games The Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of the different city-states hold in honor of the gods at Olympia, site of the Mount Olympus considered at the time the residence of the twelve Olympian gods. The Olympic Games were held every four years, they where holy so if a war was going on it had to be stopped becaue every city had to send a champion at the Games. Women weren’t allowed to participate and if they wanted to see the Games they had to sit in the back rows. Men competed naked and anointed in olive oil, in the competitions they could not kill their adversary, they just had to beat them. The first Olympics is tradicionally dated to 776 b.c. and were held until 394 a.c. when the Roman emperor Theodosius I suppressed them. The modern Olympics were renewed in 1894 by the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

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