Agon

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Agon (Classical Greek ἀγών) is an ancient Greek word with several meanings:

In one sense, it meant a contest, competition, orchallenge that was held in connection with religious festivals.^[1]^[2]
In its broader sense of a struggle or contest, agon referred to a contest in athletics, chariot or horse racing, music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece.
Agon was also a mythological personification of the contests listed above.^[3] This god was represented in a statue at Olympia with halteres (ἁλτῆρες) in his hands. This statue was a work of Dionysius, and dedicated by a Smicythus of Rhegium.^[4]
In Ancient Greek drama, particularly old comedy (fifth century B.C.), the agon refers to the formal convention according to which the struggle between the characters should be scripted in order to supply the basis of the action. The meaning of the term has escaped the circumscriptions of its classical origins to signify, more generally, the conflict on which a literary work turns. Agon is a formal debate which takes place between the chief characters in a Greek play, protagonist and antagonist, usually with the chorus acting as judge. The character who speaks second always wins the agon, since the last word is always hers or his.
Agon is also one of the four elements of play identified by Roger Caillois in his book Man, Play and Games.

[edit] References

^ Trapido (1949)
^ Greek Drama Terms
^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), “Agon”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 74
^ Pausanias, Description of Greece v. 26. § 3

Joel Trapido (1949) The Language of the Theatre: I. The Greeks and Romans Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Oct., 1949), pp. 18-26 doi:10.2307/3204106