Xenophon, Anabasis 4.8.25-28: female spectators at a contest during a military campaign (?)

Xenophon, Anabasis 4.8.25-28: female spectators at a contest during a military campaign (?)

ca. 428–354 BCE

Historiography

Literary source

Although in the present translation there is no mention of women, some scholars have suggested that the clause here translated as "inasmuch as the comrades of the contestants were looking on" should actually be read as "inasmuch as the hetairai of the contestants were looking on": see e.g. Emily Baragwanath, 'Heroes and Homemakers in Xenophon', in Thomas Blum & Jessica Biggs (eds.), The Epic Journey in Greek and Roman Literature (Yale Classical Studies 39), Cambridge 2019, 108-129.

After this they made ready the sacrifice which they had vowed; and a sufficient number of oxen had come to them so that they could pay their thank-offerings to Zeus for deliverance, to Heracles for guidance, and to the other gods according as they had vowed. They instituted also athletic games on the mountain side, just where they were encamped; and they chose Dracontius, a Spartan, who had been exiled from home as a boy because he had accidentally killed another boy with the stroke of a dagger, to look out for a race-course and to act as manager of the games. When, accordingly, the sacrifice had been completed, they turned over the hides to Dracontius and bade him lead the way to the place he had fixed upon for his race-course. He pointed out the precise spot where they chanced to be standing, and said, “This hill is superb for running, wherever you please.” “How, then,” they said, “can men wrestle on ground so hard and overgrown as this is?” And he replied, “The one that is thrown will get hurt a bit more.” The events were, a stadium race for boys, most of them belonging to the captives, a long race, in which more than sixty Cretans took part, wrestling, boxing, and the pancratium; and it made a fine spectacle; for there were a great many entries and, inasmuch as the comrades of the contestants were looking on, there was a great deal of rivalry. There were horseraces also, and the riders had to drive their horses down the steep slope, turn them around on the shore, and bring them back again to the altar. And on the way down most of the horses rolled over and over, while on the way up, against the exceedingly steep incline, they found it hard to keep on at a walk; so there was much shouting and laughter and cheering.

Carleton L. Brownson, Xenophon in Seven Volumes, vol. 3, Anabasis (= Loeb Classical Library 90), Cambridge, MA/London 1922.

μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο τὴν θυσίαν ἣν ηὔξαντο παρεσκευάζοντο: ἦλθον δ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἱκανοὶ βόες ἀποθῦσαι τῷ Διὶ τῷ σωτῆρι καὶ τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ ἡγεμόσυνα καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις θεοῖς ἃ ηὔξαντο. ἐποίησαν δὲ καὶ ἀγῶνα γυμνικὸν ἐν τῷ ὄρει ἔνθαπερ ἐσκήνουν. εἵλοντο δὲ Δρακόντιον Σπαρτιάτην, ὃς ἔφυγε παῖς ὢν οἴκοθεν, παῖδα ἄκων κατακανὼν ξυήλῃ πατάξας, δρόμου τ᾽ ἐπιμεληθῆναι καὶ τοῦ ἀγῶνος προστατῆσαι. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἡ θυσία ἐγένετο, τὰ δέρματα παρέδοσαν τῷ Δρακοντίῳ, καὶ ἡγεῖσθαι ἐκέλευον ὅπου τὸν δρόμον πεποιηκὼς εἴη. ὁ δὲ δείξας οὗπερ ἑστηκότες ἐτύγχανον οὗτος ὁ λόφος, ἔφη, κάλλιστος τρέχειν ὅπου ἄν τις βούληται. πῶς οὖν, ἔφασαν, δυνήσονται παλαίειν ἐν σκληρῷ καὶ δασεῖ οὕτως; ὁ δ᾽ εἶπε: μᾶλλόν τι ἀνιάσεται ὁ καταπεσών. ἠγωνίζοντο δὲ παῖδες μὲν στάδιον τῶν αἰχμαλώτων οἱ πλεῖστοι, δόλιχον δὲ Κρῆτες πλείους ἢ ἑξήκοντα ἔθεον, πάλην δὲ καὶ πυγμὴν καὶ παγκράτιον ἕτεροι, καὶ καλὴ θέα ἐγένετο: πολλοὶ γὰρ κατέβησαν καὶ ἅτε θεωμένων τῶν ἑταίρων πολλὴ φιλονικία ἐγίγνετο. ἔθεον δὲ καὶ ἵπποι καὶ ἔδει αὐτοὺς κατὰ τοῦ πρανοῦς ἐλάσαντας ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ ἀποστρέψαντας πάλιν πρὸς τὸν βωμὸν ἄγειν. καὶ κάτω μὲν οἱ πολλοὶ ἐκαλινδοῦντο: ἄνω δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἰσχυρῶς ὄρθιον μόλις βάδην ἐπορεύοντο οἱ ἵπποι: ἔνθα πολλὴ κραυγὴ καὶ γέλως καὶ παρακέλευσις ἐγίγνετο.

Edgar C. Marchant (ed.), Xenophontis opera omnia, vol. 3 (= Oxford Classical Texts), Oxford 1904.