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A myth is a symbolic structure which expresses moral and aesthetic values; it is the realm through which ultimate reality is mediated to man. Ernst Cassirer notes that one of the central qualities of a myth is its social nature, and social myth since the Greeks has been a mixing of the mythic with scientific analysis. Sport as a conveyor of social myth functions both as teacher and interpreter of social reality, and is often found embodied in the "Heroes of Sport." The hero will embody some attributes of the myth and will affirm the myth by illustrating its reality. The hero shows us what we ought to be, and we make him a hero because we wish to be what he is. John W. Ward, in Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age, identified the three themes of the American myth as Nature, Will and Providence. The heroes of sport often express one or more of these themes.

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE MYTH OF THE CLASSICAL POLIS AS AN EXTENDED DEBATING SOCIETY, COMPRISING A BODY OF CITIZENS IN A POLITICAL ARENA OR 'PUBLIC SPACE' EVER ENGAGED AT DEVELOPING SOME ESSENTIAL PART OF THEMSELVES BY THEIR POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS AND CHOICES. THE MYTH HAS HAD A STULTIFYING EFFECT ON THE STUDY OF GREEK NOTIONS OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION. THE STULTIFICATION IS MAINLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO INADEQUACIES OF THIS CONCEPTION OF THE BIOS POLITIKOS AS A RESEARCH MODEL. THE AUTHOR POINTS OUT SOME OF THE MORE IMPORTANT OF THESE INADEQUACIES ON TWO FRONTS: ITS RENDITION OF THE POLIS AS 'PUBLIC SPACE', AND ITS PARTICIPATORY IDEAL, ADVANCED AS A CENTRAL FEATURE OF GREEK POLITICAL EXPERIENCE.

This paper traces how the use of a trial in Plato's Protagoras serves to highlight the issues of Myth and Democracy; one might even say to put them on trial. While the Protagoras is a complicated work, some aspects of its underlying themes are quite clear. For Plato, democracy pales in comparison to the philosopher-king, and the Protagoras's structure enables Plato to set up Socrates as just such a figure.

The first half of the article presents a critique of Lévi‐Strauss' well‐known analysis of the Oedipus myth. A consideration of Greek beliefs suggests that Lévi‐Strauss is incorrect in tying certain events in that myth to the "overvaluation of blood relations" and in asserting that the myth is concerned with the "affirmation/denial of man's autochthonous origins." The second half of the article presents a different structural analysis of the entire Theban Saga, of which the Oedipus myth is but a part. It concludes (1) that Lévi‐Strauss is correct in identifying a series of events in the myth which indicate the devaluation of blood relations, but that these events specifically refer to the devaluation of patrilineal kin ties and that the range of events indicating the devaluation of patrilineal ties is broader than his analysis would suggest, and (2) there is another series of repeated events (unmentioned by Lévi‐Strauss) which indicates the affirmation of patrilineal kin ties. The final hypothesis— that the opposition between the devaluation/affirmation of patrilineal kin ties underlies the Theban Saga— "makes sense" in terms of Greek history, as the period in which the Olympian myths look their present form is also the period in which the Greeks moved from a society organized along patrilineal kin ties to one organized around allegiance to the polis. [structuralism, Oedipus myth, myth and social structure, Lévi‐Strauss, anthropological theory]

Gymnastics and athletics of Greek antiquity have been highly influential in the development of physical education and sports from the Renaissance up into the 20th century. This is particularly true for the modern Olympic Games which, according to their founder Pierre de Coubertin, were "to unite ancient spirit and modern form".

The works of Niccolo Machiavelli throw needed light on a contemporary problem, the incompatability of the civilian and military modes of being. With Machiavelli, I assume that the surd between military and civil institutions originates in the abstraction of defense-of-oneVcountry from the citizens' daily concerns.Machiavelli and other neoclassicists, assuming the Greek and Roman perspectives of social organization, stressed the importance of integrating civil and military "institutions." A civil militia or "nation in arms" is the form of civil-military organization they deemed appropriate for the task. Machiavelli believed that the security of the state would be insured by incorporating the private everyday affairs of the citizens into a larger context of purposeful communal activity.