Women and sport: the dawn of an emancipation still in progress

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Although the Greek civilization is notorious for its misogynistic rather than tolerant connotations of womens, in reality this can now be considered a slightly parchment perspective, wrapped in a halo that he wanted to preserve and pass on an ideology of inferiority surrounding the figure of women, but many sources tell us otherwise.

On the occasion of '8 March, international women's day, it seems fair to recall how the story of its "emancipation" began at the dawn of civilization and even in the world of sport.

The Greeks found in the myth a mirror in which to reflect themselves and their thoughts. Who knows if they were aware that those tales, traditions and morals would delight and educate posterity until the XNUMXst century. And in myth, then in Greek history and literature, we already meet heroines who impose themselves for their freedom, for their independence and also for their physical strength.

One of them was Atalanta, a skilled runner devoted to the goddess Artemide and therefore determined to remain a virgin, away from marriage, in the beloved woods where she grew up. In fact, Atalanta, abandoned at birth, disliked by a father who was disappointed not to have had a son, survived her exposure on the Mount Parthenon thanks to a bear that suckles her and is saved by hunters who adopt her and teach her in the art of hunting.

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Grew up in the woods to the sound of racing and freedom, which she would never give up, refuses marriage also due to an oracle according to which she would be transformed into an animal if she got married. To those who asked her as a wife, therefore, Atalanta, aware of her innate speed, proposed a tender in which if the suitor won her he would marry her, on the contrary, he would be killed by her. Always confirming themselves as winners, however, the day arrives when Atalanta is beaten.

It happens due to the work of Hippomenes who, on the advice of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, devises a plan. During the race, the young man dropped golden apples that Atalanta was about to collect and that's how she won and the two got married. The story of Atalanta represents nothing but the dawn of a history of sport that has always seen women involved. If the myth contains and preserves a reflection of the society of the time, we can well say that running, physical education and sports were part of women's lives.

And even more, in the sources the race was related to a very important moment in their lives: marriage.

Sparta, Athens and Olympia deliver us delicate and fascinating testimonies of how running represented an initiation rite, of passage from the age of a child to that of puberty and therefore to the period of marriage.

Theocritus sings it to us inIdyll XVIII, Epithalamium of Helena, of how every year a race was held in Sparta in honor of Helena, from which the girls were inspired as a model, and the goal was to complete the race to mark the transition from the condition of unmarried to that of a married woman.

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Again, to celebrate this passage (childhood - puberty - marriageable age), the girls ran to Athens during the Arkteia (from árktos=bear), celebrations in honor of Artemis, during which, as evidenced by vascular findings, either completely naked or with long clothes, with short hair or loose hair they reproduced a state of "wildness” typical of the she-bear dear to Artemis, to celebrate weaning in a ritual race.

And it is from Olympia that comes the latest example – of those hitherto known – of pre-marital racing competitions. The only one who talks about it is the historian Pausanias who, in books V and VI of the Periegesis of Greece, dedicated to Elis and Olympia, completely enraptured by the open-air museum that appears in front of him as he walks through the stadium of Olympia, its statues, the temples of Zeus and Hera, does not fail to repeatedly turn and reserve his attention also to women. Pausanias (XNUMXnd century AD) seems in fact free from it indifference towards the female figure which has contaminated part of the tradition concerning women over the centuries. Even if it is unique, she mentions the Heraia, running competitions in honor of the goddess Hera, which were held at Olympia, probably after or in conjunction with the Olympics real. There were 16 women as judges of the competition and unmarried girls from all over Elis took part. The prize was equivalent to that of the men's competitions, an olive crown, a portion of the heifer sacrificed to Hera and portraits to be dedicated.

This is the belly where the history of women in the world of sport its gestation begins, long but with time increasingly strong and decisive. What is certain is that from the mythical halo that hovers over the most ancient traditions, as we go on through the centuries the figures become sharper and involved in writing a new piece of history.

That is how we remember Callipathera, always mentioned by our Pausanias, as first and only woman who defied the strict Olympic law which forbade the entry and participation of women in competitions, under penalty of precipitation from Mount Tipeo. But Callipatera, in whose veins the blood of a family of winners flowed, trains her son Pisidoro, and to attend his performance at the Olympics she disguises herself as a man. At the time of Pisidore's victory and exultation, when she climbs over the fences where the athletics teachers were confined, she remains naked and is discovered. However, because of belonging to a family of Olympic winners she is not punished but from that moment a new law came into effect, the obligation for coaches to enter the fields entirely naked.

And speaking of the Olympics, speaking of women, how can we not mention the first woman to win at the Olympics? It is about Cynisca, daughter of the king of Sparta, Archidamus II, winner twice: in 396 BC and in 392 BC

Cynisca, Belistiche, Berenice II, all Olympic winners, it is women who have begun to affect the history of women's participation in sport. In small steps, imperceptible for a long time, passed over in silence, their exploits today find a voice in a re-reading, in an echo that sounds like a need, sometimes desperate, to give them back something that was taken away, like the acknowledgment of having cropped yourself a place in the world forever.

If it is true we need the past in order not to get lost, then maybe we should be even more curious and kind towards a story that, however distant, still has much to say and to teach us.

Article Women and sport: the dawn of an emancipation still in progress From Sports born.

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