ABSTRACT
In the search for the soul of the the athlete, exploring the Greeks is essential. They developed poetry, drama and literature, and their first Olympics in 776 bc marked the birth of modern sports we know today. This chapter charts the next step in the book with the story of a people who still influence us today, whether or not we are aware of it. It was the storytelling traditions of Greece, kept alive through the works of Hesiod and Homer, that held together a nation that nearly died. Evidence suggests that when Greece came back, storytelling had maintained the identity of a nation that found a way to keep together with sports.
This was the birth of democracy and the Axial Age, a time on earth when Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha all described new important ways of thinking. This evolution of the psyche made the way for entertainment, free trade and democracy. Burston connects Plato and Epictetus, who were fascinated by sports and their ability to connect us to the gods, if but for a brief time. The first Olympics was a bid for peace, developing ethics that remain the same for the ambitious athlete today.
