Agon

From Hellenistai Wiki

Agon (Classical Greek ἀγών) is an ancient Greek word with several meanings:

• In one sense, it meant a contest, competition, or challenge that was held in connection with religious festivals.
• In its broader sense of a struggle or contest, agon referred to a contest in athletics, chariot or horse racing, music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece.
• Agon was also a mythological personification of the contests listed above. This god was represented in a statue at Olympia with halteres (dumbbells) (ἁλτῆρες) in his hands. This statue was a work of Dionysius, and dedicated by a Smicythus of Rhegium.

[edit] Deity

There are few references to Agon, the daimon of contests and competition, and those that survive only describe statuary. Agonis one of the handful of daimones and minor theoi who lack any surviving narrative mythos.

[edit] Ancient festivals with agon

[edit] Modern cyber-agon

Hellenion and Neokoroi both hold regular "cyber agon", where participants submit poetry, music files, or images of art via e-mail to be judged by the group to determine the winners. Other notable cyber agon include the Asteria Books literary review[1], judged by Asteria Books, the Mouseia, to be judged by Hellenistai Project admins, and the Neos Alexandria agon, held for a different festival every year[2].

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