ATHLETE (Gr. athleo, to contend), the name given to a combatant, pugilist, wrestler, or runner, in ancient Greece. Athletics were studied in Greece as a branch of art, and led to several useful rules of diet, exercise, etc., applicable to ordinary modes of life. Bodily strength and activity were so highly honored by the Greeks, that the A. held a position in society totally different from that of the modern pugilist. When he proposed to enter the lists at the Olympic or other public games, he was examined with regard to his birth, social position, and moral character. A herald then stepped forth and called upon any one, if he knew aught disgraceful to the candidate, to state it. Even men of geniiis contended for the palm in athletic exercises. Chrysippus and Cleanthes, the famous philosophers, were victorious athletes, or, at least, agonistm, i.e., persons who pursued gymnastic exercises, not as a profession, but for the sake of exercise, just as at the present day we have gentlemen-cricketers, amateur-pugilists, etc. The profound and eloquent Plato appeared among the wrestlers in the Isthmian games at Corinth, and also in the Pythian games at Sicyon. Even the meditative Pythagoras is said to have
gained a prize at Ells, and gave instructions for athletic training to Eurymenes, who afterwards gained a prize at the same place. So great was the honor of an Olympian victor, that his native city was regarded as ennobled by his success, and he himself con sidered sacred. He entered the city through a special breach made in the walls; he was supported at the public expense; and when lie died, was honored with a public funeral. Enthyrnus, of Locri in Italy, who had, with only one exception, been regularly victori ous at Elis, was honored witha statue, to which, even during his lifetime, homage was paid by command of an oracle. Athletic sports were first witnessed at Rome 186 B.C. They were introduced by M. Fulvius at the end of the YEtolian war, and became exces sively popular in the time of the emperors. At Rome, the athletes formed a cor poration. .