
Lucian Asks, Why Sports? (180 CE) - pepys
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sports-games/lucian-asks-why-sports
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Stratoscope
The date may be off by a few hundred years, but isn't the essential message of
sports the same?

We must win, and they must lose. They are not us, and when we win, as we
surely will do, they will not share in our winnings. The glory is ours, for
defeating our foes.

That's true, isn't it? That's what I was taught in high school. How could that
other school's foolish imitation of a "sports" team ever compete with ours? We
are superior, and any challengers will be defeated in battle.

I didn't learn this very well. I was happy enough with my ham radios and
Teletype machines. Alas, I didn't get the girls like the jocks did. They were
the winners. I was just another nerd.

This was in 1969. Maybe it is different today.

~~~
buckthundaz
That is one reading. A more nuanced reading is found in the cliche: 'It's not
whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.'

I believe that sports serve as a teacher of morality to the masculine aspect.

> "Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to
> football (soccer).”

― Albert Camus

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pepys
The date for this one is an estimate based on Lucian's lifespan; looks like
the good people at Lapham's Quarterly were mistaken in attributing it to c.
590 Athens, seeing as how he wrote during the Roman Empire. He did set the
fictional dialogue in the Athens of that time though.

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gadders
In case you were wondering who the protagonsists are:

Anacharsis:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacharsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacharsis)

Solon:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon)

