The position of athletes in the Greek world was an honored one, although there were conflicts about what sort of honors were appropriate, and about the value of athletes compared to other members of society. There was often a strong element of class bias: athletes tended to come from well-off families who had enough leisure time to allow for training and competition, and some sources on athletics express clear pro-aristocratic sentiments. The poet Pindar, who was paid by victorious athletes to write odes celebrating their achievements, often praises the aristocratic values of noble birth and inherited excellence, while at the same time exhibiting ambivalence about the process of training. (True excellence had to be inborn, not acquired, although it could be honed with proper instruction.)

One of the main purposes of athletic training was to produce, good soldiers; however, athletic performance was...