Games were an integral part of life in ancient Greece.  The funeral games of Patroclus show us that they go back to the days of Troy and the Iliad.  Their place in the Olympic Games continues in a very different form until today.  The historian of Greece, H D F Kitto, said that ‘among us it is sometimes made a reproach that a man makes a religion of games.’  He was probably then (1951) thinking of football and cricket.  Only God knows what he would say about the alpine levels of bullion involved in that part of the entertainment industry now known as sport. 

But the point that Kitto wanted to make was that the Greeks made games part of their religion.  The various games were held in the honour of the gods – such as Zeus of Olympia.

Moreover, they were held in the sacred precinct.  The feeling that prompted this was a perfectly natural one.  The contest was a means of stimulating human aretê [excellence], and this was a worthy offering to the god.  In the same way, games were held in honour of a dead hero, such as Patroclus in the Iliad…..But since aretê is of the mind as well as the body, there was not the slightest incongruity or affectation in combining musical contests with athletic…..It was aretê that the games were designed to test – the aretê of the whole man, not a merely specialised skill…The victor in one of the great games was a Man.  He was indeed almost something more, a Hero, and was treated as such by his fellow citizens.

Later –

So, at every hand we meet the idea of ‘contest’, agȏn.  Those things that we weakly translate ‘Games’ were, in Greek’ agȏnes – contests in which poet was pitted against poet, actor against actor…. Our word ‘agony’ is  a direct development from agȏn; it is the anguish of the struggle that reveals the man.

So, what they looked for was the drama in the contest that reveals the man.  The particular kind of contest was irrelevant to the test of character in the contest.  Those who confine themselves to the techniques on display miss the whole point of the drama inherent in the context. 

If I am laboring this point, it is because it is fundamental.  As I have remarked elsewhere (in the forthcoming book The Pursuit of Happiness):

So much in sport turns on character – for those on both sides of the fence.  The great champions of sport and the great minds of letters and history and the artists make and discover things that arouse our sense of wonder and remind us of our limitations.  It is not just their genius that we admire, but their courage to go on with it….

In professions, politics, business, or sport, I believe that you take a certain amount of ability as given, and then the rest is character.  This is what gives interest to sport, theatre, and the practice of the law – and life generally….

In my view, when you get a leader in their field – say opera, or rugby, or in the court room or the operating theatre, or test cricket, or politics – you take for granted a certain amount of talent, training, and experience – up to say ninety per cent of the package – and the rest is character.  You can’t teach or buy that, but in the end, it is often character that makes the difference.  And it is very moving to be there when that happens. 

The successful businessman who rebuilt the Geelong Football Club, Frank Costa, had a sign in his office: ‘Character first.  Talent second.’  He got that dead right.  Formula 1 is another good example of the importance of character – on top of unbelievable skill.  And every now and then you get a freak, someone who has something no one else has.  Call it alchemy.  You might get one in a generation. 

If I keep going, someone will put the Dog Act on me.  Perhaps the rot began to set in when the Romans employed professionals to drive in chariot races, and then threw dissidents to the lions.  But the emphasis on the test of character in games – sport – at the highest level remains constant – not least in life a great city when the community meets to celebrate the life of a hero.

Why am I saying this?  Because it was all on show on the Queen’s Birthday game at the MCG last evening between Collingwood and Melbourne.  It caused me to shed tears just on television replay.  This was truly a celebration of life in our city.

And God knows just how much we need it.