We would like to express our profound gratitude to our international team of over 30 contributors from some 10 countries for combining authoritative scholarship and innovative insights in their essays. We appreciate their efforts to sustain the volume’s emphasis on social history and the social and cultural significance of sport and spectacle.
The coeditors also wish to thank Haze Humbert of Wiley-Blackwell Publishing for encouraging this project and allowing us to define and pursue our own approach to the subject. Thanks are also due to Ben Thatcher, Felicity Marsh, and David Adams at Wiley-Blackwell for their help in the publication process, and to Teddy Henderson and Sophia Vazquez of Dartmouth College for their invaluable assistance at every stage of the project.
The endless patience and support of our spouses, Cecilia and Adeline, during the time we worked on this volume, and in all the years before, merits more appreciation than can be easily expressed in words.
Finally, while this project was in progress, the study of ancient Greek sport, and of Pindar and the early years of the modern Olympics, lost a great champion in David C. Young (1937–2013). A consummate scholar of great intellect, passion, and generosity, David energized the study of ancient Greek sport by challenging traditional illusions and biases. His The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics (1984) made scholars rethink the social status of Greek athletes, igniting a debate that is still active today, as this Companion shows. For his many and major contributions to our understanding of ancient sport, we gratefully dedicate this volume to David C. Young.
Paul Christesen
Donald Kyle
April 26, 2013