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At First, Odysseus Is Reluctant To Engage In Any Sports On Account Of His ...

At first, Odysseus is reluctant to engage in any sports on account of his arduous journey (as well as the aforementioned fact in The Iliad that Odysseus' glory days are far behind him); but an insult from the reappearing Euryalus incites Odysseus not only to take part in the combat sports, but to emphatically win. Afterwards, Odysseus recounts his former fame as a boxer and a wrestler, once again underlining the Homeric association between boxing and manliness and fame. Odysseus declares to the gathered Phaeacian masses:
Since you have thoroughly roused me, come out, if any of you fancy the idea and have the pluck, come out and take me on at boxing, wrestling or even running, I don't care which for I am not a bad hand all round at any kind of manly sport. (The Odyssey, 1976:127)
Thus, fame at grass roots, popular culture level in the Hellenistic Age could only come about through becoming skilled at athletic pursuits. This kind of fame is able to spread far and wide from the geographic nexus of the great sporting deeds in question. This is further cemented by the negative treatment of men who do not display such athletic prowess men such as Paris whose distinct lack of manliness and overt cowardice can be seen to have triggered the devastation of the Trojan War in the first place. Homer accentuates this discrepancy between the manly pursuits of famous men and the feminine pursuits of nonfamous men in the response that he pens for the Phaeacian King to Odysseus' claims of fighting and boxing prowess. Alcinous thus states:
Though our boxing and wrestling are not beyond criticism, we can run fast and we are firstrate seamen. But the things in which we take a perennial delight are the feast, the lyre, the dance, clean linen in plenty, a hot bath and our beds. So forward now my champion dancers and show us your steps, so that when he gets home our guest may be able to tell his friends how far we leave all other folk behind in seamanship, in speed of foot, in dancing and in song. (The Odyssey, pp.128129)
In this way, it can be seen that Homer shows boxing and wrestling to be the two most important manly sports of the ancient world constituting the front line of the drive to become a true hero. After boxing and wrestling comes rowing and running, which are deemed to be less heroic endeavours by Homer because of the absence of combat and physical competition. However, Homer reveals the true extent of the edification of the classical hero by making fun of the Phaeacians' love of discernibly feminine pastimes such as singing, dancing and weaving. The humour is given added impetus by the way in which the Phaeacian King hopes that Odysseus will tell his Ithacan friends of the Phaeacian aptitude for these female pastimes.

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