Definitions of Agon

21§1. The key word for this hour is agōn, plural agōnes. In the

Glossary, I give three basic definitions: (1) 'coming together', (2)

'competition' or antagonism, and (3) 'ordeal' or agony. Here I follow up

on an earlier formulation I gave in Hour 8b§4, which I now divide into

three parts:

(1) The noun agōn is derived from the root ag of the verb agō as it is

used in the compound formation sun-agein, which means 'bring

together, assemble, gather'. Basically, an agōn is a 'bringing together' of

people.

(2) The occasion of such a 'bringing together' is a 'competition'. This

meaning, 'competition', is still evident in the English borrowing of a

compound formation involving the word agōn, that is, antagonism.

Similarly, the basic meaning of Latin com-petere is 'to come together',

and to come together is to compete. [1]

(3) The activity of 'competition' as expressed by the Greek

word agōn was understood to be a ritual 'ordeal', just as the Greek

wordāthlos meant 'ordeal' as well as 'contest', that is, 'competition'. The

concept of 'ordeal' as embedded in the Greek word agōn is still evident

in the English word borrowed from the Greek, agony.

21§2. As I noted in Hour 8b§5, both words āthlos and agōn can refer to

the experience of competition in athletics, and both words can also refer

to the most extreme form of competition imaginable, which is war. But

there are other kinds of ritualized competition that also qualify as

an agōn, though not as an āthlos. As I noted in Hour 7 (e§2), agōn can

refer to competition in the verbal arts, and I highlighted the example of

the grand agōn or 'competition' in mousikē tekhnē, 'the art of the

Muses', at the festival of the Great Panathenaia in Athens.

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