Though this does not mean that the origination of athletic competition in ancient Greece was necessarily martial, several literary examples from the Classical Greek through Imperial Roman periods make clear that a belief in an inextricable, etiological link between combat and athletic competition was widespread among ancient authors and observers. From Herakles’ slaying of the Nemean lion, which is portrayed in a fashion similar to wrestling on Attic vases, to literary references to athletic competition as a substitute for single combat, to the presence of Ares and Agōn side by side on the ivory and gold table at Olympia where the victors’ wreaths were kept, competition and combat have a long relationship and history of tension in Greek myth and culture.
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