8th GHI Forum Title: Athletes, Equality & Diplomacy Date: March 6, 2026, 10:00–11:30 AM EST Where: Online (Zoom Registration Link: https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/K1xD3FjiQ6KbpReKezqcxw) Speakers: Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner 【Abstract】 Leonard Muellner will discuss the political and social functions of Ancient Greek athletics in a cross-cultural perspective. Ancient Greece was a highly differentiated political space, consisting of a wide variety of city-states each with different religious calendars, law codes, constitutions, etc. These communities were in principle in a state of war with one another (understanding that 'war' could be ritualized combat rather than actual fighting), so that enabling participation in games across the city-states required a global truce. Greeks derived a common identity from their participation in athletics. However, there were no team games, only one person was awarded a prize in each contest, and the skills involved were at their core individualized warrior skills in a ritualized (that is, theoretically, non-fatal) context. Muellner will go on to compare this elitist way of gaming with the way sport functions in other cultures, including contemporary settings historically derived from it. The word stadium—or stadion in ancient Greek—originally did not refer to any colossal structure built for sports events. Rather, it referred to a sacred […]