Athens and Sparta Quotes

“The desire for status, to excel and be seen to excel, ran through the shared culture of the Greeks to a pronounced degree. Art celebrated physical beauty in an idealised form…a very high standard was set for how a person should look, and the exercises of the gymnasium offered a place to seek such an appearance, something done in public so that comparison could be made with others. That competition assumed an even more obvious form at the [Olympic] games…where the winner of each event was held up to public admiration extending well beyond his own city. The plays that survive, remarkable works of art in so many ways, were first written and performed to win a prize, for the desire was to produce a play seen not simply as good but as better than all the others being staged at the same time.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece