sport and myth

Sport and Myth

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Editorial Board Alberto Filipe Araújo, Universidade do Minho, Portugal Ana Mae Barbosa , Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Aquiles Yañez, Universidad del Maule, Chile Carlos B ernardo Skliar, FLACSO Buenos Aires, Argentina Cláudia Sperb , Atelier Caminho das Serpentes, Morro Reuter/RS, Brazil Danielle Perin Rocha Pitta , Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and Associação Ylê Seti do Imaginário, Brazil Edesmin Wilfrido P. Palacios , Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Quito, Ecuador Ikunori Sumida , Kyoto University, Japan Ionel B use, Centre of Studies Mircea Eliade, University of Craiova, Romania Jean -Jacques Wunnenberger, Université Jean Moulin de Lyon 3 & Centre de Recherches G. Bachelard sur l’imaginaire et la rationalité de l’Université de Bourgogne, France João de Jesus Paes Loureiro, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil João Francisco Duarte Junior, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil Jorge L arossa Bondía , Universitat de Barcelona, Spain K atia Rubio, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Luiz Jean L auand, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Marcos Ferreira-Santos , Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Marian Cao, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Patrícia P. Morales , Universidad San Buenaventura, Cali, Colombia Pilar Peres Camarero, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Regina Machado, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Rogério de Almeida , Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Soraia Chung Saura , Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

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K atia Rubio (organizer)

Sport and Myth

São Paulo, 2018 5

1st Edition 2018 Publisher: Kendi Sakamoto, PhD Editorial assistant: Caio Peroni Literary director: Cristine Ramires Executive secretary: Aline Ferreira Cataloging in publication: Shill Pettian CRB 8.8.6707 Translation to English: Gabriel Savonitti Proofreader: Marjorie Yuri Enya and Isadora Cerullo Electronic publishing: Marcos C. Nishida Cover graphic design: Marcos C. Nishida Illustrations: Bruna Mayer, Gabriel Ussami, Geovana Martinez, Guilherme Ferreira, Leila Zelic, Marina Avello and Thais Suguiyama

International Cataloging Data

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P ublication (CIP)

Sports and Myth São Paulo, Képos, 2018 Bibliography ISBN 978 85 8373 178-8 1. Myth 2. Sport 3. Imaginary All rights reserved to authors. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Violators will be prosecuted under Law nº 9.610/98. Képos is an imprint of Editora Laços Printed in Brazil Published by Editora Laços Ltda. Av. Paulista, 1.159 – cj. 815 – Post Code 01311-200 – Jardins – SP Website: www.editoralacos.com.br E-mail: [email protected] 6

To all athletes who transcend their own limits in search of meaning for the spectacular practice of the sport.

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S ummary I ntroduction ........................................................................11 The heroic imaginary of the contemporary athlete Katia Rubio..........................................................................17 Dionysiac joy and sporting celebration Rogério de Almeida.............................................................35 On the concept of sport in the contemporaneity: reflections from the Platonic logic of the excluded third and the Homeric Paideia Dhênis Rosina.......................................................................49 The myth of the Argonauts and the seven principles of a collective journey in sport Lucia Leão & Thiago Silva...................................................63 Daedalus and Icarus: sport, doping and Olympic values Julio Cezar Fetter & Katia Rubio......................................73 Life and sacrifice of Olympic cyclist Cezar Daneliczen Rafael Campos Veloso.........................................................89 The coach-athlete relationship and the Myth of Chiron David Alves de Souza Lima................................................ 101 Sisyphus and the Time Trainer Luciane Maria Micheletti Tonon....................................121

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Penelope and the hope of the Olympic athlete reserve: possible trajectories to the first string Waleska Vigo Francisco.................................................... 135 Gods, heroines and Heraean Games Júlia Amato & Gabriela Gonçalves & Bianca Silva........ 155 The athlete and temptation: for an understanding of the Siren Song Rovilson de Freitas & Katia Rubio..................................169 The mountains for road cycling: the ordeal of the heroes Rafael Campos Veloso.......................................................183 The hero with an african face and the black Olympic athlete Neilton Ferreira Junior....................................................199 Martial Arts and fighting sports in the light of Japanese mythology Marcelo Alberto de Oliveira...........................................221 The Myth and Electronic Games Gabriel Savonitti & Toshihiro Nishida............................ 239 About the Authors.......................................................... 257

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Introduction

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Introduction

Myth and sport. The imaginary of athletic practices and Olympic athletes The story of a life begins at a certain place, at any point where the memory was kept, and already, then, everything was extremely complicated. What this life will become, nobody knows. So the story is without beginning and the end is only approximately stated. (C.G.Jung)

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thletic practices are present in the Hellenic culture both in the conduct of the Public Games, as in the myths that inspired us, as well as in the creation for the Olympic Games of the Modern Era. The mythical issues related to the sport follow my trajectory since the doctorate started in the last century. The encounter with Homer and Ulysses (Odysseus, in Greek) occurred when I studied the relationship between the mythical figure of the hero and the formation of the athlete’s identity. In numerous readings of the Odyssey, the charm for this hero provoked the search for other classics in which this spectacular figure showed his other side. Ulysses stood out for his guile, athletic and warlike abilities, and persistence in pursuing his goal (the return to Ithaca), and with him I learned that a heroic attitude goes beyond strength and courage for war. Often it is necessary to develop the ability to survive overcoming difficulties, adversities, and this involves patience, humility, intelligencecharacteristics little related to a hero and these are the great virtues of Ulysses. After the great adventure of the doctorate, which seemed to me the passage of Ulysses by Scylla and Charybdis, I began my own journey as a researcher and advisor of masters and doctoral students who in some cases sought different research themes, and in others, shared the paths of the imaginary. Through the academic trails, I found other researchers, whether 13

Introduction

in sports, the imaginary or in the mythical field, who also understood the possible connections between sport and myth. As a researcher, I began to study the life histories of the Brazilian Olympic athletes, investigating the method so that the narratives could take shape. After all, they are no less fantastic than so many mythological adventures. It seems simple to say this when you work hard within a methodological perspective for almost two decades, and indeed it is. But this does not seem so simple to my collaborators when they are questioned within a positivist system that disdains and denies productions based on theories such as those of the imaginary, they have difficulties to defend themselves against so many attacks. They then set out in search of many other theoretical references, whether in History, Sociology, Philosophy or even Psychology, in order to feel more secure in facing the many clashes, whether in the subjects they study at university units or even in congresses of different thematic areas. After some dissertations and theses, and without ever abandoning the myth of the hero in the trajectory of the athlete, I wished to produce a book in which it was possible to approach inspiring myths for the understanding of the sport and the Olympic athletes. After interviewing more than 1,000 Brazilian Olympic athletes, it was possible to understand what it is to actually write or tell a life trajectory of an Olympic athlete, and how much each one relates to a hero or other mythical character. Each, in its modality and in its time, marked the history of his family, his city and, sometimes, the country. That is why, with each new Olympic edition, we continue to look for them, to interview them for details, memories, small things, colorful, sweet, bitter, sour, a mixture of thought, feeling, sensation, intuition, according to the Jungian typology. In this sense, each member of the Olympic Studies Group (GEO)1 feels like an Aedo. According to Alvarenga and Baptista (2011), Aedo, a singer and poet in the mythical Greek, is the most important figure to follow the hero, always spared in the warlike confrontations for being the one who carries forward, through the oral tradition, the great events that occurred in battles. Aedo is the one who sings to the gods and to the men. When killing all the suitors who were in the hall pestering Penelope, Ulysses spared Aedo and the Herald. This attitude is justified because “you

Olympic Studies Group (GEO) is linked to the Center for Sociocultural Studies of the Human Movement (CESCMH) of the Escola de Educação Física e Esporte da Universidade de São Paulo. 1

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have to keep someone to tell, or sing, a story. The Herald and Aedo are the best figures for such a function. The singer and the storyteller are always viewed with compassion, as if, because they are in the service of art, keeping the memory of acts and facts, they are above the disputes and the sides. There is an enormous appreciation for the singers, whose primary function is to cheer and breathe into their hearts sweet words that encourage the hero and everyone around him. Like the court jester, who has the license to observe everything and speak everything, Aedo and the Herald are representations of conscience in their nonjudgmental facet, with the noble function of recording and counting - and thus, to perpetuate - what was lived”. The chapters in this book demonstrate this. Each one pursues a specific theme within the Olympic sport and other sport like manifestations, either in the specific figure of the athlete or in a sporting modality. Stories marked by renunciations, conquests, setbacks, pains, but all carried out by someone mortal who was able to leave the average, and by excellence, approach the divine by performing a heroic feat. Many of them have already fallen into oblivion, through the thick veil of time that erases even the sharpest memories. Researchers from GEO, and fellow travelers such as Rogério Almeida and Lucia Leão, and the research project “Olympic memories of Brazilian Olympic athletes”, are a kind of Aedo, with an academic profile, which seeks to retell these stories, rekindling the flame that each Brazilian Olympic athletes, in their own way and in time, saw it lit, luminous, numinous. We have this academic profile because we take away from the stories a lot of information that becomes analysis data, and allows us to do a careful and accurate reading of the development of the Brazilian Olympic sport. But above all, the fuel and engine of all this is the possibility of maintaining the narrative about the Olympic achievements and the possible heroic imaginary from the trajectory of the athletes. I no longer care to prove that this is science. I do have the conviction that we can effectively contribute to the theory of the imaginary, within the human sciences, in which the Being is the most important and obvious material of a research project. I feel that, after all, it is very comfortable to say that I am really a storyteller. Katia Rubio Winter 2018 15

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The heroic imaginary of the contemporary athlete

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“Imaginary is this anthropological crossroads that allows us to clarify one aspect of a given human science by another aspect of another.” (Gilbert Durand, our translation) Besides, we do not have to take the risks of an adventure alone, for the heroes of all times have faced it before us. The maze is known throughout its length. We have only to follow the trail of the hero, and there, where we feared to find something abominable, we will find a god. And there, where we hoped to kill someone, we’ll kill ourselves. Where we imagined traveling far away, we will take to the center of our own existence. And there, where we thought we were alone, we would be in the company of the whole world. ( Joseph Campbell, our translation) “Humans practice the one thing Gods cannot do: to risk failure, doubt, tension, disillusion, and defeat. The Gods only know and can win. We are born condemned and predestined to have to assume and choose dangers and risks. We were born to fulfill the fate of winning a few times, losing many others and having to learn to lose and endure defeat, but without losing face, determination and the pleasure to insist, to train and compete, to try and dare, to improve and progress. This is called to overcome, to live and to exist.” ( Jorge Olimpio Bento, our translation)

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onsidered as one of the most expressive social phenomena of this century, sport has played a role in denouncing economic, social, political and ethnic issues, capable of presenting the most varied facets of societies and individuals that play in or organize the sporting spectacle. Sport as a contemporary sociocultural phenomenon reproduces throughout its history cultural values and patterns indicating the moment in which it is produced. Recognized as a fundamental element of education, an elementary form of socialization or even a professional activity, sport is identified by elements such as skill, excellence and overcoming, becoming another reflection and product of an imaginary highly regarded as heroic. Transformed into a spectacle since the second half of the twentieth century with the multiplication of the media, Sport has undergone profound transformations in its organization with the passage from amateurism to professionalism, imposing on its protagonists a mutation of roles, reinforcing in the athlete a mythical heroic condition. The role that these athletes play as representatives of a community, often transposing seemingly insurmountable obstacles to the other members of their social group, favors the construction of the heroic condition and the expectation of unusual feats (RUBIO, 2001).

The daytime regime of the image and the heroic structure in Gilbert Durand Of the various elements that make up the sport phenomenon, the spectacular figure of the athlete, protagonist of the spectacle, and the competition, moment of the manifestation of its physical and mythical power, stand out. Sport phenomenon can be understood as the various practices of bodily movement, regulated by common rules in the different regions of the planet, mediated by competition, aimed at excellence, and which produces spectacular results. Around a specific modality, and of the sport as a whole, a set of collective practices and individual behaviors called sports imaginary is developed, composed of the concrete manifestations produced from manifest contents produced by those involved in the production of the sport spectacle, as well as realized by the latent contents triggered from the representations suggested from the spectacle itself, or from the idealization provided by the attitudes of the athletes. Durand (1994) considers that all human thought is representation, that is, it passes through the symbolic articulations, indicating a continuity in the man between the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘symbolic’. The imaginary is thus the necessary connector by which all human representation is constituted. Existence and imaginary are presented for Durand (1987) 20

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as contradictory organizational forces, however complementary and simultaneously concurrent, and the basic function of guaranteeing an anthropological balance is still attached to the imaginary. In order to allow the categorization of the analysis, Durand groups these structures into three series of structural, isomorphic and irreducible structural schemes: the heroic, the mystical and the dramatic; having two corresponding image regimes: , the diurnal regime, where the heroic structure is placed, and the nocturnal regime, where are the mystical and dramatic structures are grouped (DURAND, 1997). Faced with the heroic symbolic representation that sports carries, this text will only discuss the diurnal regime of images. The diurnal regime can be understood as a regime of expression and philosophical reasoning that one could call spiritualist rationalism (DURAND, 1997, p.180). It represents a philosophical regime of separation, dichotomy, transcendence that appears in the history of Western thought as statism of transcendence opposed to temporal becoming; distinction of the finished and precise idea; innate manichaeism of day and night, of light and shadow. The dominant gesture of the diurnal regime of images is the dominant postural, characterized by the ascending tendency and the experience, from birth, of the experience of the fall. Durand (1997, p. 112) points out that the really abrupt movement imposed on the newborn, the manipulations and brutal level changes following birth would be both the first experience of the fall and the ‘first experience of fear’. There would be not only an imagination of the fall, but also an existential, temporal experience, that makes the imagination of the upward impulse and the knowledge of falling down exist in each one. The fall would thus be next to the lived time, and since it is linked to the speed of the movement, to acceleration and darkness, it could be the fundamental painful experience that would constitute for the consciousness the dynamic component of any representation of movement and of temporality. And hence, the denial of the fall and the pursuit of ascension, which will determine the dominant postural, from which will derive the heroic structure (diairéticos or schizomorphic), is the imaginary epiphany of human anguish. In order to explain this regime of antitheses, the images of the heroic structure are classified into two antithetical parts: the first that refers to the depths of darkness; and the second where the antithetical and methodical reconquest of the negative valuations of the previous one prevails (DURAND, 1997, p.186). In the depths of darkness, upon which the victorious brightness of light is drawn, are the symbols: 21


- Teriomorphic: set of images of animals that can mean the spontaneous abstract, the object of a symbolic assimilation, a civilized consciousness as in the primitive mentality. These symbols constellate all the animalistic bestiary in the form of monsters, every animated species that moves outside the human scope and that resembles that whichdevours (lions, wolves, tigers). - Nictomorphic: They refer to darkness, to blindness, to terrifying waters. Night is identified as the receptacle of evil substances and all previous negative valuations. Before the impossibility sight, hearing functions to make sense of the night, and from the dark waters runs the bitter invitation to a journey without return. The running water is figure of the irrevocable. It is from the night water that the dragon, the hydras, as well as various species of fatal women (witches, vampires, life suckers) appear. - Catamorphic: They are the dynamic images of the fall, the abyss associated with original sin, the complete carnal symbol: the threatening mouth, the digestive belly, the intestine as infernal labyrinth. The second group of symbols of the diurnal regime represents the antithetical and methodical reconquest of the negative evaluations of the first group. The ascension symbols represented by the elevation scheme and the verticalization symbols are axiomatic metaphors par excellence. Valuation, whatever it is, is always verticalization. Durand (1997, p. 126) suggests that “the notion of verticality as a stable axis of things is in relation to the upright posture of man”, in whose vision lies part of its symbolism. Throat, abyss, black sun, tomb, sewer and labyrinth are the psychological and moral triggers that highlight the heroism of ascension. They are represented by the ladder, by the mountain or sacred elevation, and the ascensional instrument par excellence is the wing, a symbolic means of rational purification. Elevation and power are equivalent. These ascension symbols are marked by the concern for the reconquest of a lost power, a tone degraded by the fall, which can manifest itself in three ways, linked to several ambiguous or intermediate symbols: it can be ascension or erection towards a metaphysical space; in more brilliant images, supported by the symbol of the wing and the arrow; and reconquered power to guide more virile images like the celestial or terrestrial royalty of the king, priest or warrior. Opposing the tenebrous symbols are the spectacular symbols, which can be both symbol and organs of light, like the solar archetype, in the golden manifestations. The description of these elements encompasses luminous horizons in the practice of imaginary elevation and sky of azure. 22

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The sun, especially the ascending or rising sun will be the hypostase of the celestial powers. The eye, as moral judgment and transcendence, likewise confirms the isomorphism of the eye, the vision, and the divine transcendence. In the antithetical game that founds the heroic structure, where the ascension is imagined against the fall and the light against the darkness, the diairéticos symbols are presented. The dynamism of these images refers to the hero, the solar hero, the violent warrior. Therefore, the presence of the weapons, especially sharp ones, like the arrow, the short sword or the axe, differ from the blunt, besides the scepter of justice. The weapon with which the hero is armed is at the same time a symbol of power and purity. The combat mythologically surrounds itself with a spiritual or even intellectual character, because the weapons symbolize the force of spiritualization and sublimation. The purpose of the weapon also characterizes this symbol. The sword is thus the archetype towards which the deep meaning of all arms seems to be oriented. Both offensive weapons and protective weapons are considered as warlike means of separation. They are related to magical processes, which are incorporated in a ritual, resembling the dynamics of the symbols of ascension and light that are accompanied by an intention of purification, together with crystalline water and fire.

The Myth The spectacular figure of the contemporary athlete evokes an inevitable approximation with the myth of the hero because it is used as a reference for the projection of someone who, even having faced the hardest trials and the worst enemies, brings with it the mark of victory. However, even if his deeds are grandiose and gain a secular record, the quest pursued by this being has a high cost. The understanding of the myth as an integral and inseparable element of culture offers a differentiated dimension of the arts, philosophy, discoveries of science, sport and forms of social organizations, because they are impregnated with meaning, as they arise from this basic and magical circle. The myth is for Brandão (1991) a system that tries, in a more or less coherent way, to explain the world and the man. He has no other end but himself, and belief in him is an act of faith. Hence, it draws around itself the whole part of the irrational in human thought, being by its very nature, related to art, in all its creations. Campbell (1989, p. 15) considers the myth to be an integral and inseparable part of human existence because it has been the living inspiration of all other possible products of the activities of body and mind, the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos 23


penetrate human cultural manifestations. Durand (1985) understands that myth is configured as a narrative (mythical discourse) that introduces characters, situations, and scenarios that are generally unnatural, being segmentable in reduced semantic units, also called mitemas1 in which, in a necessary way a belief is invested. Such a story runs a logic that escapes the classic principles of the logic of identity. The myth thus appears as the ultimate discourse of the constitution of the antagonistic tension fundamental to that of the ‘engenderment’ of meaning. Diel (1991), on the other hand, observes that the myth refers basically to two themes, the first cause of life - the metaphysical theme - and the sensible conduct of life - the ethical theme. Eliade (1989) states that myth tells a sacred story, recounts an event that took place in primordial time, the fabulous time of ‘beginnings’. In other times, the myth tells how, thanks to the deeds of supernatural beings, a reality came into existence, whether it be the total reality, the Cosmos, or just a fragment: a human behavior, a plant species, a geographic accident, an institution. It refers always to the narration of a ‘creation’: it describes how something was produced, how it began to exist. Associated with the concept of myth is the archetype, which are well-defined themes that reappear everywhere and hold a universal form even when developed by groups or individuals without any cultural contact with each other (HANDERSEN, s.d.). Sironneau (1985) understands that the definition of myth as presented by the history of religions cannot be applied, indiscriminately, to the myths that are detected in the collective representations of present societies and affirms that certain traditional mythical themes survive in contemporary societies more or less camouflaged, having as their domains the literature, the media and the cinema. They appear ‘degraded’ as

Mitema can be defined, according to Durand (1985, p.253-54), as the smallest unit of mythically significant discourse, a mythical ‘atom’ of a structural nature (‘archetypal’ in the Jungian sense, ‘schematic’ in the Durandian sense) and its content may be indifferently a ‘motive’, a ‘theme’, a ‘mythical setting’, an ‘emblem’, ‘a dramatic situation’. In the mitema ‘the verbal’ dominates the substantivity. Moreover, since the mitema integrates a statistical system that defines the myth, it’s observed - as irreducibly psychoanalysis established it in the psychological domain - a possible double use of this structural mitema according to the repressions, the censures, the customs or ideologies acting in a time and on a given basis: a mitema can manifest itself and semantically act in two different ways: a ‘patent’ mode and a ‘latent’ mode. In the patent way, the mitema can be manifested by the explicit repetition of its or its homologous contents (situations, characters, emblems, etc.); and latently, by the repetition of its scheme of implicit intentionality, by the repetition of a formal scheme masked by distanced contents.

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mythical subjects and exemplary characters, with evident kinship with the mythical structures, heroic and divine figures of the archaic and traditional myths. Some forms of the myth manifest themselves in different cultures, in unique historical moments satisfying the same yearning. No other myth has ever been so worshiped and held for so long in the imaginary as the hero.

The Hero Quoting Otto Rank, Campbell (1990) states that we are all heroes at birth when we face a tremendous transformation, both psychological and physical, leaving the condition of aquatic creatures, living in the amniotic fluid, to assume henceforth the status of mammals which breathe the oxygen of the air, and which will later need to rise on their own feet. He believes that chance can bring about important changes in the lives of individuals and their communities, but it is through elaboration and thinking that we can effectively change the course of events, especially those that impede or delay the course of evolution. Hero is the name given by Homer to men who have superior courage and merit, favorites among the gods. For Hesiod, heroes are sons of the union between a god and a mortal or a goddess with a mortal. According to Brandão (1999) the hero is an idealization and for the Greek man it represented the imaginary of kalokagathía, the ‘supreme probity’, the superlative value of the Hellenic life. For Vernant (1990) the heroes are warriors who fight and die in the war; they are a race considered more just and at the same time more militarily valuable. To the warrior, voted by his own nature to hýbris, opposes the righteous warrior who, recognizing his limits, accepts to submit to the superior order of dike 2. The hero, often honored by his community by virtue of his deeds, is remembered through oral tradition, represented from a moral or physical standpoint, depending on the goal. It is, according to Campbell (1990), someone who

According to Junito Brandão (1999) arete is the expression of what could be defined as excellence or superiority that are revealed particularly on the battlefield and assemblies, through the art of the word. The arete, however, is a bestowal of Zeus: it is diminished, when one falls into slavery, or is severely punished, when the hero commits a hybris, a violence, an excess, exceeding his measure, the metron, wishing to equal himself to the gods. Logical consequence of arete is tîmê, the honor that lends itself to the value of the hero, who constitutes the highest compensation of the warrior. It is the dike, the justice, that does not allow the growth of hybris or the lack of success.

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found or realized something exceptional, that surpassed the spheres of his own reality. In this way, he preserves himself, often associated with a feeling of being sacred, opposing the rational and better expressing himself through the affective. The connection with the hero can take place in the relationship of values, in the identification of the inner self with the external world, making the individual, far from the battlefield or the sports environment, feel united to the one who admires him , satisfying the conditioned need to avoid isolation and moral loneliness (FROMM, 1977). That is why Alvarenga (2009) states that the hero defines himself “by the deed performed. Hero and feat, feat and hero merge, generating a proper name. In his name lies his strength and splendor. The hero is the primordial character who does what only he can do. It is the possibility of the human being becoming a singular person, becoming an individual, translating as an impairment “. Campbell (2002) points out that traditional mythologies fulfill four functions, namely: • Harmonize one’s awareness with the preconditions of your own existence through one of three forms of participation: externalizing, internalizing or effecting a correction. This is an essentially religious function of mythology. • Be interpretive, when creating a consistent picture regarding the order of the universe. • To validate and support a specific moral order, the order of the society from which this Mythology emerged. • To guide the individual through the various stages and crises of life, helping people to understanding the unfolding of life with integrity. Campbell (1989, p. 26) considers the hero to be the man of self-conquered submission, that is, submission to the dilemma and enigma common to all human beings. It constitutes the primary virtue and historical feat of the hero, which is death, death that dispenses a birth, birth not of the old thing, but of something new. Hence his role lies in the task of withdrawing from the mundane scene of side effects and starting a journey through the causal regions of the psyche, where the difficulties actually reside, to make them clear, to eradicate them in favor of oneself and to penetrate in the domain of direct and undistorted experience and assimilation, of what Jung (sd) called archetypal images. The concept of archetype refers to possibilities inherited to represent similar images, instinctive ways of imagining, without being innate. They are archaic matrices where analogous or similar configurations take shape. The typical images and correspondences are understood by Jung (1991) as archetypal representations,

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but the archetype itself escapes representation, since being preexistent and unconscious it is part of an inherited psychic structure and can thus always manifest itself spontaneously and all over. Jung (1989, 1990) reiterates that they have no determined content, and can at most be determined in their form to a limited extent. That is, the archetype itself is empty, is a purely formal element, a form of representation given a priori and the representations are not inherited; only their forms are, constituting themselves as sociocultural production since they use a symbolic system the language - to be translated. The archetypes are presented in Durand’s (1997) understanding as fundamental elements in that they form the junction between the imaginary and the cognition, and can be classified as genotypic - manifested in the structuring of the field of images in a very precocious way - and phenotypic - that require learning and develop in relation to an adult model of the species. Thus, one cannot think of an archetype without being anything but an element of culture, either in the sense of receiving group values or as an agent for the expression of transformations or the need for mutation. From the hero’s consideration as an archetype, Campbell (1989, p. 28) describes this archetypal manifestation as being the man or woman who has succeeded in overcoming his personal and local historical limitations and has attained normally valid forms, human; that is, the visions, ideas and inspirations of these people come directly from the primary sources of human life and thought. In other words, this scheme has a psychological meaning both for the individual - in his effort to find and affirm his personality - as for society - in his analogous need to establish a collective identity. According to Campbell (1989), the common path of the mythological adventure of the hero lies in the magnitude of the formula represented in the initiation rites: separation-initiation-return, which could be called the ‘monomyth3 nuclear unit’, and usually this model is lined in a sequence that involves a separation of the world, the penetration in some source of power and the return to life to live in a more meaningful way. All heroic qualities correspond analogously to the virtues necessary to triumph over chaos. We have, then, that victory over yourself is the great propeller of the hero of all time. In sports practice this representation is amplified by making feasible the representation of the possibility of becoming. Rubio (2001a) affirms Brandão (1999) defines monomyths as the integral and inseparable parts of one and the same mythologem.

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that already consecrated athletes had to, inevitably, walk a common path and performed deeds at a certain moment that raised them to a different level from their peers, becoming an example for the youngest and object of admiration for the elders, reaching thus the position of national or international idols. According to Alvarenga and Baptista (2011, p. 20), the hero is a character who does what only he is able to do and therefore awakens in the human being the possibility of being singular, of becoming an individual, to become unique. In this sense it awakens the process of projection and identification. “The collective, identified with its hero, runs along the slopes, defies the heights, fights monstrosities, crosses oceans in search of new lands. The collective parades along with the hero, with flags on their backs, like an organized, cheering crowd. And it vibrates for receiving the medal.” Spectacularization and rationalization of the sporting spectacle have led the sport, and the athlete, to be seen as just another consumer product. The consequence of this exploration is the rationalization of what he possesses as mythical. In the myth, the hero dedicates himself to others, to external causes and to the salvation of mankind. In its rationalized version it becomes a necessary character to the system and has its self-directed realizations denoted in manifest signs in a life of pseudo-abundance. And then come the Olympic Games, when they are actually put to the test and “must” show who in fact they are, what they actually can do, for a collective that knows little or nothing of the immensity of humanity that inhabits that Heroic person.

The Athlete Among the various phenomena that modern society has produced for the emergence of heroic attitudes, sport occupies one of the most prominent places. For contemporary society the mythical referential of the hero has been widely used as a justification for competitive attitudes. In the specific case of sport, which stands out as one of the cultural manifestations of greater visibility, this reference gains doubled strength, since the maxim for the athlete is to win. Protagonist of the sporting spectacle, the athlete is a beloved public figure, respected and used as reference of individual for having faced the hardest evidence and the most difficult opponents, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always fighting until all his resources have been exhausted. However, even if these feats are grandiose and gain a secular record, the impetuous quest for an ideal is costly for those that venture to carry it out. 28

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Myth and history, as well as myth and sport, have been confused since the earliest times, but the relation between them remains inseparable even in the face of the transformations that humanity has undergone over the last four thousand years. One of the main elements of the athlete’s identification with the myth of the hero can be credited to the capacity and willingness to face danger and the unknown, from fearlessness in combat and from the unceasing pursuit of the goals proposed to this uncommon being. The athlete identifies with the myth of hero for being recognized as a rare being, one among thousands, to enjoy prestige and social projection since a minimal portion of the population that practices sports and manages to reach levels of performance and exhibition that justify his idol status. This extraordinary condition, which inevitably involves overcoming limits, makes the athlete the target of identifications, leading him to be worshiped by his fans, and respected and feared by opponents. Just as the image of the hero evolves to reflect the various stages of the development of the human personality, sport has also transformed throughout the history of mankind. If considered in this way, the heroathlete of Antiquity still exerts great influence in the construction of the heroic condition of the athlete of Olympic Games of the Modern Era, in spite of the transformations that have occurred in the function and the role played by this person in social life (RUBIO, 2001b). Recognized as those among the strongest, fastest and most skilled, capable of overcoming all obstacles to victory, in short, the prototype of almost perfect beings, the athletes who reach the highest place of the podium live, almost always, a rigid, solitary and sometimes monotonous life according to their own point of view, but which in the eyes of the great public is full of privileges and stewardship. The career of an athlete is not only the result of individual disposition and talent, the affirmation of a latent will or determination to pursue goals. Numerous social and environmental factors can influence this journey that turns an aspirant into an idol. After the trajectory begins, other elements are added to these and they allocate the athlete among those who acquire fame and status, and become the present reference of the modality for both the sports career applicants and the general public that needs victorious, well-known and successful characters in the construction of a sports imaginary and in the incessant search of objectives themselves. In the relation between the ego and the performance of social roles, the athlete is often identified only with the spectacular figure suggested by the athlete’s condition - the one capable of accomplishing 29


great achievements - making it difficult to participate in situations of everyday life and other social activities (RUBIO, 2004). If on the one hand his condition as an athlete differentiated him from a large part of the population, allowing him to enjoy privileges reserved for few, on the other hand, this same condition gets him bitter isolation and distancing from situations experienced by others. And this is one of the conditions experienced by the archetypal hero. Undergoing a grueling routine of training and games, the athlete is surrounded by issues such as the absence of contact with the family, overexposure in the media and the impossibility of admitting - for themselves and for the public - their weaknesses, anguishes and uncertainties, seen that although a mythical figure, this contemporary hero does not inhabit Olympus, but establishes affective relations and suffers with the disorders that surround the life of a being who is also a citizen. These situations are experienced and proven during the editions of the Olympic Games and the World Championships of the most popular modalities in different nations when the sport gains ample space in the media and invades the life even of those who are not its adherents of the competitions. In the contemporary era, high-performance athlete are a kind of hero where courts, fields, pools and tracks resemble battlefields on days of great competitions. It is in this sense that Hillman (1993) proposes no more looking for the gods in Olympus, nor in the old cults, temples or statues of the past. The author points out that, in the present day, the gods are seen in our daily events, in our particular, and also public disorders. It is not just the contest that makes the athlete identify with the hero. The path to the development of this identity involves stages common to the myth, following the proposal of the nuclear unit of the monomyth of Campbell (1989): there is a call for sports practice, which in many cases means leaving the parents’ house and facing an unknown world, sometimes full of danger. His arrival at the club represents initiation, properly speaking, a path of evidence that involves persistence, determination, patience and a bit of luck. The crowning of this stage is the participation in the national selection, and whatever the modality, it’s a place reserved to the true heroes, where there is the enjoyment of this condition. And finally, there is the return, often denied, for it returns the hero to his mortal condition, and in an attempt to refute this condition, magical retreats are attempted (such as the demotivation in returning to his home club); however paradoxical, it is only in that moment that he finds the freedom to live (RUBIO, 2001). 30

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Hence we believe that the athlete who reaches the professional level has a daemon as stated by Hillman (1997), that is, his life is not disguised in an empirical fact, but is openly affirmed as a myth. Under these lenses, the athlete approaches the paradigm offered by Pearson (1994) in which identification with the figure of the warrior aims at strength; as a task, courage; and as weakness, fear. And it is not surprising, therefore, that his life is tragic. Authors like Russel (1993), Harris (1994), Mangan e Holt (1996) study the heroic condition of the athlete in contemporary society and seek to establish a taxonomy to identify him, pointing to the ability to overcome and to meet the needs of the group, extraordinary performances, social acceptance and spirit of independence as constituent elements of this ‘character’. This interest stems from the importance that sport has achieved since the end of the last century, with far-reaching social, economic and psychological developments; a central activity in contemporary societies, with its own set of values to be observed and analyzed. Transformed into a spectacle by the media with the advent of live broadcasts from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, sport brings an image of virtuosity, success and achievements like few other phenomena, conveyed as ideals to be attained by the general public. Andres and Jackson (2001) claim that sport is lavishly presented as a metanarrative: the media recounts the sporting events turning them into stories with stars, characters, heroes and villains. And in this audience-building process are strategically positioned the national and patriotic issues revealed in discursive practices that touch on issues of the identity of a people or nation. So we must be aware of appeals such as ‘we won or we will win’ or ‘our athletes’ are competing to win, widely used by sports broadcasters. To the characters created and supported by the media, Morin (1997) names as modern Olympians . The new Olympus where they inhabit is the most original product of the new course of mass culture, and in the encounter of the imaginary with the real are situated the vedettes of the great press as athletes, princes and artists. This new form of Olympism is born of the imaginary, that is, of roles embodied in films by some, of their sacred function or heroic works for others. This Olympus of vedettes dominates the mass culture, but communicates, through its own culture, with the current humanity and interferes with all the vigor, proper of the segment, in the mechanisms of identification and projection of the population in general. Present in all sectors of mass culture, the Olympians make three universes communicate: that of the imaginary; of standards; information, advice and incitement. 31


The relationship between the athlete and the spectacular figure of the hero occurs from antiquity when the competitions were called athletic practices and not sport. The ability to cope with danger and the unknown, fearlessness in combat and the incessant pursuit of the proposed objectives resemble the trajectory of the athlete who has experienced the competitive experience since the end of the nineteenth century and which point to one of the defining marks of sport, which is its agonistic character, present in the myth since its creation. Agonism is like an extension of the heroes’ struggles on the battlefields, since even in the agon the contenders make use of instruments, and depending on the strife, they expose themselves to death, although, in theory, the agonist does not aim to eliminate the opponent. The athlete’s archetype experience of the hero is experienced in all its power in the many situations in which its virtues are proved in the demonstrations of strength and courage. And it cannot be denied that it is at the top of the podium, at the moment of the celebration of an achievement, that the rite affirms the myth, and the athlete becomes a hero.

References ALVARENGA, M. Z. Édipo. Um herói sem proteção divina. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2009. ALVARENGA, M. Z.; BAPTISTA, S. M. S. Ulisses, o herói da astúcia. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2011. ANDREWS, D., JACKSON, S. J. Introduction: sport celebrities, public culture, and private experience. In.: D. ANDREWS and S. J. JACKSON (eds) Sport Stars: The cultural politics of Sporting celebrity. London and New York: Routldge, 2001. BRANDÃO, J. Mitologia grega. V. I Petrópolis: Vozes, 1991. BRANDÃO, J. Mitologia grega. V. III Petrópolis: Vozes, 1999. CAMPBELL, J. O herói das mil faces. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1989. CAMPBELL, J. O poder do mito. São Paulo: Palas Athena, 1990. CAMPEBELL, J. Isto és tu – redimensionando a metáfora religiosa – Landy, São Paulo: 2002. DIEL, P. O Simbolismo na Mitologia Grega. São Paulo: Attar Editorial, 1991. DURAND, G. Sobre a exploração do imaginário, seu vocabulário, métodos e aplicações transdisciplinares: mito, mitanálise e mitocrítica.

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Revista da Faculdade de Educação (USP) Tradução do Prof. Dr. José Carlos e Paula Carvalho. 11 (1/2), p. 243-273, 1985. DURAND, G. L’Imaginaire. Essai sur les sciences et la philosophie de l’image. Paris: Hatir, 1994. Tradução: Prof. Dr. José Carlos e Paula Carvalho revisão técnica do Prof. Dr. Marcos Ferreira Santos para fins exclusivamente didáticos no CICE/FEUSP). DURAND, G. As estruturas antropológicas do imaginário. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1997. ELIADE, M. Aspectos do mito. Lisboa: Edições 70, 1989. FROMM, E. O medo à liberdade. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1977. HARRIS, J. C. Athletes and the american hero dilema. Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1994. HENDERSON, J. L. Os mitos antigos e o homem moderno. In.: C. G. Jung (org.) O homem de seus símbolos. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, s.d. HILLMAN, J. Cidade, esporte e violência. In: Cidade & Alma. São Paulo: Studio Nobel, 1993. HILLMAN, J. O código do ser. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1997. JUNG, C. G. Chegando ao inconsciente. In.: C. G. Jung (org.) O homem e seus símbolos. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, s.d. JUNG, C. G. Fundamentos de psicologia analítica. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1989. JUNG, C. G. O eu e o inconsciente. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1990. JUNG, C. G. A natureza da psique. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1991. MANGAN, J. A. & HOLT, R. Epilogue: Heroes for a European future. In.: R. HOLT; J. A. MANGAN; P. LANFRANCHI). European Heroes: myth, identity, sport. London: Frank Cass, 1996. MORIN, E. Cultura de massas no século XX. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 1997. PEARSON, C. O herói interior. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1994. RUBIO, K. Medalhistas Olímpicos Brasileiros: memórias, histórias e imaginário. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2007. RUBIO, K. Heróis Olímpicos Brasileiros. São Paulo: Zouk, 2004. RUBIO, K. O atleta e o mito do herói. São Paulo, Casa do Psicólogo, 2001a.

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RUBIO, K. Aspectos do mito do herói na constituição do imaginário esportivo contemporâneo. In.: S. Votre (org.) Imaginário & representações sociais em educação física, esporte e lazer. Rio de Janeiro: Editora da Universidade Gama Filho, 2001.b. RUSSEL, G. W. The social psychology of sport. New York: SpringerVerlag, 1993. SIRONNEAU, J. P. Retorno do mito e imaginário sócio-político e organizacional. Revista da Faculdade de Educação (USP). 11 (1/2), p. 257-73, 1985. VERNANT, J.P. Mito e pensamento entre os gregos. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1990. VILLEGAS, J. La estructura mítica del héroe. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1978.

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Dionysiac joy and sporting celebration

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o approach the figure of Dionysus requires precautions. Given the many different uses, it is necessary beforehand, the assurance that no matter what is said about him, it is always one or another facet that illuminates, denied the pretension, otherwise impossible, to embrace him in his entirety. This is because it is a very widespread myth, a very old religion, an already crystallized metaphor, a narrative with many versions, a celebration of popular origin, peasant, cult and celebration of life, but which requires sacrifices, lacerations and sufferings. Here, the proposed itinerary is to narrate one of the versions of the myth for the figure to appear. And, from the possible understanding of the myth, relate it to sport, especially in its celebratory dimension of fun, joy. It is from this dimension that a possible sociology (Maffesoli) and philosophy (Nietzsche) will unfold, through which one can think of sport as an element of celebration rather than a model of competition.

The twice born god Dionysus is the god of wine and femininity, drunkenness and mania, shattered god, devoured, God reigning among women, the utmost expression of the mystery of the world. The only god born of a mortal, Sêmele, his participation occurs on the margins of Olympus, close to men and in a contestatory, anarchic, disaggregating way. The god of a cult to the contrary, its rite is of blood, its possession is mania and its ritual laceration of the Bacchae revives the same cruelty of which it was victim, when being pursued by Licurgo and devoured by the titans. Divided into three stages, the Dionysian rite links the unbridled pursuit of women, the sacrifice through the laceration and the omophagia, in which the raw flesh of the victim is devoured (BRUNEL, 1998, p.235).

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However, along with cruelty, there is a great voluptuousness in reliving the passion of the god, in which death is promise of rebirth. Its potency of life is at once attractive and frightening, blending fury and joy, wisdom and drunkenness. Dionysus is the god who is born twice, the first of the womb of Semele, who does not finish his gestation, and the second of the thigh of Zeus. During childhood, he was persecuted, torn, cooked and devoured. But, dead, he is reborn, which brings him closer to Demeter and the symbols of vegatal rebirth. Also known as Bacchus (from the Greek Bákkhos, meaning vine, wine), it is wine that is offered to him in cults, as one of his epithets is Pyrísforos, or born of the damp fire. Voluptuous and cruel at the same time, the cult of Dionysus happens under the effect of mania, delirium, divine possession, as shown by the women who follow him, known as Mades or Bacchantes. In these nocturnal rites the ecstasy was achieved with “violent dances accompanied by flutes, mad raids through the hills and pursuits of wild animals” (MARTÍNEZ et al., 1997, p.118). Bacchic orgy (rite) has three stages: oribasia, persecution of women on the mountain; the sparagmos, sacrifice through the laceration, and the omphagia, the devouring of the raw meat (BRUNEL, 1998, p.235). Nietzsche (1983) associates the passion of Dionysus to the birth of tragedy, linking him to music to better affirm the nature of his power. The Dionysian faculty is a creative faculty, it is music and harmony, linked to a wise madness, to the mixture of joy and fury, to the sacred drunkenness. In Gilbert Durand’s (1997) imaginary, Dionysus belongs to the mystical structure, which is psychophysiologically linked to the digestive dominant and presents the principles of analogy and similitude, which operate with (con)fusing schemes such as descending, possessing, and penetrating, which, in turn, generate epithets such as deep, calm, warm, intimate and hidden. Although it is evident that Dionysus does not appear alone in the symbology of this structure of sensibility, being accompanied, for example, by Aphrodite, Orpheus, and Pan, all the main characteristics of this structure of sensitivity are attached to its figure: coupling, refolding, viscosity, and perseverance; gliscromorph, which attaches, ties, welds, binds, approaches, hangs, hugs, etc .; the sensorial realism, which manifests itself in the vivacious and colorful, in the concrete aspect of the images; and miniaturization, the taste for detail, the infinitely small, the concentrated, the particular, the everyday. Still in the universe of the imaginary, Campbell points out three great mythological orientations in the history of humanity: the first is an integral approval of existence; the second is conditional approval; and, finally, the denial of existence. “The first mythological orders, primitive, 38

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are affirmative, welcome life as it is. (...) The only way to affirm life is to affirm it until its root, to the base horrendous and rotten. It is this type of affirmation that is found in primitive rites “(Campbell, 2008, p.32). Life here is admitted at the confluence with death, that is, in a continuous cycle of devouring and reproduction, of laceration and agglutination, at the confluence with the myth of Dionysus. Life is a hideous presence, it is a rotting flesh, a mouth that devours, a body that smells, that defecates, that releases its moods, milk, blood, tears or sperm. Still according to Campbell (2008, p.32-33), around the 8th century BC, an inversion occurs. There arise mythologies of retreat, refusal, renunciation, in the end, denial of life. Although they do not encourage suicide, they direct men to refuse to eat anything that seems alive. The goal is to give up the desire to live. The third mythological system begins between the 11th and 7th centuries BC and believes in the possibility of “provoking a change through certain activities. Through prayers, good deeds, or another act, it is possible to change the basic principles, the basic preconditions of life. “You affirm the world on the condition that it follows your conception of how it should be” (CAMPBELL, 2008, p.34). These three mythological orientations express different imaginaries and it is not difficult to recognize that we are currently living in this third set of mythologies, which approve of life provided it is “healed”, “liberates”, “transformed”; that is, without its aspects considered negative: death, drunkenness, unjustified joy, suffering, pain, anguish, fury, violence, etc. Of course, the other two perspectives are present, acting latently or with less proportion and evidence. And according to some readings, such as Michel Maffesoli (2005), in emergency, as would be the case of Dionysus, representative of mythologies that unconditionally approve of life and that would dominate the scene of social and human relations of the contemporary. Besides, it is important to note that this affirmative view of life is present in several historical moments, albeit as a dissonant voice, as the thoughts of Lucretius, Montaigne, Baltazar Gracián, Nietzsche, Machado of Assis, Ricardo Reis, Alberto Caeiro, Michel Maffesoli and Clément Rosset can vouch. More or less directly, all these recognize the simultaneity of two forces: on the one hand, the fatality of life, its lack of meaning, its cruelty, its singular and ephemeral character; on the other hand, joy of living, adherence to the present, to the lived moment, to the occasion, to what is presented here and now, to small choices, to momentary joys. 39


Although Dionysius can not be considered Dionysian, Dionysus is undoubtedly to be understood as the archetype, the director myth, the mother and motive figure of approving thought, for it is Dionysus who presides over this first mythological moment of approbation of life, even before the greater sufferings.

Sport as celebration The word sport reminds us, etymologically, that its origin is linked to recreation, to pleasure. Desporte (portuguese word), another term equivalent to sports, comes from the French desporter, to have fun, to distract, to play. In a sense, it can be understood as that which “withdraws”, which removes from the place, which leaves the “port” (de-port), therefore, what is outside the center, the market sphere or the seriousness of life . Its meaning first emphasizes the sport as fun, joy and celebration, even more if we remember its symbolic sense in Ancient Greece, in homage to the deities. As Katia Rubio points out (2001, p. 109), originating in the prehistoric period, when the human being was still only a hunter, organized in Greece, as one of the most important events of antiquity and reinvented in the nineteenth century as a new pedagogical element, sport follows the history of humanity as an intrinsic element to the human condition (...). However, recent history has shown that sport has become a sector of economic life, being consumed in the form of spectacle. Still with Rubio (2001), we observe that the spectacularization of the sport was constructed through a narrative that confers to the competition the metaphor of the battles, the idea of fight, with the athletes elevated to the condition of heroes, representatives of a team, city or country. With the transformation of the sport into a media event, its practice has been adjusted according to the demands and needs of this medium. As Rubio (2002) puts it, “television has transformed the world’s viewership of sports, and as it began to lose its ability to subsist as a live show, it has become dependent on sponsorship generated by broadcasts.” The result of this is the professionalization of sport, whose logic meets the same demands of contemporary work. That means the patent erasure of sport’s original meaning. Even the founding elements of modern sport, developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, amateurism and fair play, declined, with the predominance of the money-performance relationship. It’s no longer about fun or competition, but about a business that can be very profitable, whether for the athlete who stands out, or for the whole 40

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apparatus that gravitates around him, invests in him and, according to the results, profits from its performance, such as the application in shares on the stock exchange or a bet on the house of games. But this more visible dimension of sports practice, and more specifically of its social, mediatic and economic uses, does not end the whole sport. If in a more general way this orientation can be related to the Apollonian luminosity, there is in latency the shadow of Dionysus, which continues injecting in sports practices - whether we practice in leisure time, or those of professionals, due or unduly spectacularized - a heavy load of wandering, of chance, of cruelty and joy. Sport, then, remains as the celebration of life. Recounting the myth of Dionysus, David Lima (2012, p. 42) recalls that in one of the versions, Hera sent gigantic figures to frighten him shortly after his birth. These figures, with their whitish faces, however, could not frighten the child, who remained centered, in full equilibrium. They tried, then, to divert his attention with colored whipping-tops, little bones, other toys, but they had no effect. They even offered to the little Zagreb a mirror. Confronted with his own image, he is fascinated. Stuck in the reflected image, he is lost and, vulnerable, is attacked and killed by the titanic giants, who tear him apart. We know that afterwards Dionysus will be gestated, for the second time, in the thigh of Zeus, having his second birth and his divine coronation. However, it is important to note that, similarly, this occurs with many athletes who are not yet ready to perform the task. They think highly of themselves, they become extremely inflated by their own dazzle, they lose themselves in their fame and the enormous amount of money that they receive in a short time. There are few who can balance between being and having. They come to have and cease to be (LIMA, 2012, p.43). The same metaphor is valid for sport as a whole, since it is by looking in the mirror, being seduced by the spectacularization around its practice, that its soul is lost, that its celebratory sense is suspended, that its intoxicating joy is subordinated to the meticulous coldness of profitmaking. there’s a reason for the epithet of “romantic” to all the comments reminiscent of “the good times” of football, for example, in which values such as “raça - to take the bull by the horns”, “gana - to want badly”, “will”, “joy” “to wear the jersey”, “to give blood for it”, “to play for pleasure”, and so on. This all reminds us that, in spite of predominating in professional sports the subordination to capitalist labor, the shadow of Dionysus subsists, and it resumes whenever the game is celebrated for the pleasure of playing, as a celebration of life. 41


Evidently, these reflections handle a set of values often ignored in the sports practice, but that is present as a background, as a motivating factor for social agglutination, for bar conversations, for mocking people at work, the glazed look in front of the TV, the radio connected in the car, endless programs that comment the results of football, etc. Briefly, we can then consider that sport, on its Dionysian basis - and we recall here that it is only one facet, which is in the shadow - unfolds both in sociological and philosophical components. In society, sport joins a series of other practices that attest to the pleasure of being together, life without purpose, collective ecstasy; all these are Dionysian practices that, in the Maffesolian perspective, return forcefully in postmodern societies. This Dionysian presence agencies a tragic wisdom, which guides life to the experience of approval and which would be the basis of the celebration of life. This celebration can manifest itself through sport.

Sociological developments It may seem that the perspective of treating the sport as a celebration is an unattached proposal of reality that has been lived in the past and would therefore require the elaboration of policies to encourage certain sporting practices or a cultural reconfiguration that would lead in such a direction. But it is not a question of this, because before it is a propositional vision, it is the realization of a dimension of sport that, however neglected, however invisible it may seem, is present in many layers of sports activity, including a sociological analysis which does not disregard other practices and other values that, alongside sports, comes to make up the richness of social life. At least this is what suggests and enables Michel Maffesoli’s readings, who sees in our contemporary Western societies, the resurgence of Dionysus, or at least of his shadow, especially in the numerous collective manifestations of the deletion of individuality in favor of an amorphous, Dionysian celebration, ephemeral, for no other purpose than the pleasure of being together and consuming life, investing in the force of the moment, in the power of ecstasy, in the cheerful and uncompromising outpouring of joint activities. This Dionysian return would coincide, in Maffesoli’s, with the postmodern opening, whereby hedonism becomes common practice. “Although it is only a tendency, everything leads one to believe that enjoyment is ‘trivialized’, and it is here that one reaches the old figure of confusional orgies” (MAFFESOLI, 2005, p. 24). This ancient figure is 42

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Dionysus, caught up in the appreciation of sensory experiences - musical proliferation, erotic exhibitionism on the internet, raves parties, major sporting events, body worship, alcohol and drug consumption, youth practices without links with the old models that aimed at the formation of the values of modern man. “Dionysus, who was only made to feel like a mezzo voce when at the pinnacle of machinery (the ‘private’ in the nineteenth century or even romanticism) became more and more noisy” (MAFFESOLI, 2005, p.53). Noise that appears in the various juvenile excesses, which attests to a kind of “eternal present” and which can be considered as the return of Dionysus, the “noisy”, as it is called by mythology: “loud and barbaric music, car races, noises without reason or precise objective, sporting trances, there are many overflows of which the morale disapproves, but that do not stop being a common currency in the life of our cities “(MAFFESOLI, 2003, p.89). Thus, even if one admits that this Dionysian force does not extend homogeneously through all segments of social life, there would be many phenomena that would attest to its presence: Ambulation, encounter, objective bad luck, all of this also accounts for personal initiation, which makes each individual an element of a great collective whole. This perspective goes beyond, at the same time, the psychologistic subjectivism and the objectivism of the various positivisms. An impersonal dimension of man, either below or beyond the individual, it is what can introduce us into social and natural organicity; it is what allows us to make precise what I have called transcendent immanence, which structures sociality (MAFFESOLI, 2005, p. 55) Using the concept of the collective subject, the sociologist points to a “loss” of the individual in a united being, dispersed in and represented by tribes, which adheres to the effervescence, to the expenditure, to what is fleeting but charged with intensity. All this, along with undeniable decadence, expressed, for example, the versatility of the masses; their successive adhesions to different political parties; and its inconsistency in adherence to certain social movements. There is an antinomy of values here that deserves to be thought: the slowness of the instituted, the joy of the institute. Antinomy which manifests itself more and more clearly, particularly in festive voracity, in the worship of the body, in the exacerbation of appearance, all of which is certainly based on the saturation of the distant project and the celebration of a sort of eternal moment (MAFFESOLI, 2003, p.86). 43


Maffesoli (1998) understands that these groupings, which make up the collective subject, would signal the return of the tribes, the decline of modern individualism, the resurgence of a “societal dynamism” that would cross the social body and assert itself in micro groups that are created less for this or that purpose and more for the pleasure of being together. Trying to escape from the logic of “must-be”, which claims that we must judge from what is established, the sociologist affirms that “the networked constitution of contemporary micro groups is the most finished expression of the creativity of the masses” (MAFFESOLI, 1998, p. .137). The author concludes, after citing the events of exacerbated consumption, of sports meetings, agglomerations of holidays or musical shows, that “there is a constant movement of shuttle between the tribes and the mass [which] is inscribed in a group that fears emptiness” (MAFFESOLI, 1998, p.140). Thus, “strange ways of life to each other can engender, in dots, a way of living in common” (MAFFESOLI, 1998, p. 142).

A philosophy of approval Nietzsche (1983) differentiates the Apollonian force, based on consciousness and self-control, of the Dionysian force, responsible for sensuality, cruelty and disorder. And sport, especially of high performance, seems to be all apolitical, since it depends on repetitive training, emotional control, a technically correct execution in competitions, in the end, of an athlete’s self-mastery, conscious of his actions and decisions. However, it is not every sporting practice that aims at high performance. And as competitive as leisure football or basketball may be, played on weekends, they have a strong relationship with a sensual, disorderly pleasure, of difficult explanation. If a gold medal can be explained as the crowning of years, decades of intense training, how to explain, not the joy of victory, self-righteous, but the one which comes from day-to-day training, mixed with the pain of physical exercises? In a few words, however much Apollo may preside over the plasticity of the movements, their physical intensity, their strength, there remains, and its core and feeding the brightness of this light, a Dionysian force, which can be translated as a kind of joy, pleasure , but, who is also cruel, obsessive, maniacal. Said at once: no matter how rational, controlled, painful, grandiose the sports practice may be, the pleasure of playing resists that which is expenditure, wandering, chance, mystery.

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Parallel to the origin of philosophy, according to Giorgio Colli (1988), there are two distinct types of knowledge: that of Apollo, which manifests itself in the word (in Delphi, for example, with the god speaking through the priestess); and that of Dionysus, related to the Eleusinian divinity, whose initiation in its mysteries culminated in epopteia, that is, in the mystical vision of jubilation and purification. The first knowledge is cultivated, rational, and depends on logic and the treatment of ideas, in short, of exercise and consciousness. The second is revelation, clairvoyance - it springs up mysteriously and witnesses an always unwarranted joy. Nietzsche had certainly noticed these contrasts, but his Dionysus goes beyond, since it subsidizes the inversion or transvaluation of all values, as his philosophy proposes. Thus, for Nietzsche (2008), Dionysus is the religious affirmation of the whole life, not denied nor fragmented, that is, Dionysus is the symbol of the integral and enthusiastic acceptance of life in all its aspects. This unconditional affirmation of life, its potency, its strength, this Dionysian joy can also be called tragic. Thus, Nietzsche (2003) is said to be the first tragic philosopher, for having transposed the Dionysian philosophical; that is, Nietzsche would be the first philosopher of a tragic wisdom, like the one that is expressed in Silenus’ response to Midas, when asked about which was better for man: Miserable and ephemeral strain, children of chance and torment! Why compel me to tell you what would be most salutary for you not to hear? The best of everything is for thee entirely unattainable: not having been born, not to be, to be nothing. After that, however, the best thing for thee is to die soon. (apud NIETZSCHE, 1992, p.36, our translation). Silenus was a wise old man, at the same time master and follower of Dionysus, and his brief teaching condenses the irreconcilable aspect of the tragic. The best is always unattainable because life is ephemeral, everything is in motion, in a provisional, unfinished, uncertain way. As Cioran (1998) says, at birth we lose what we lose at death, that is, everything. Hence life is interval, interregnum, a game. Or a lottery, as Machado de Assis says. The implication of this impossibility of making life a “better” liberates joy of any justification. In other words, thinking the worst of existence is part of the exercise of approving this very existence. Approval that is synonymous with joy. And here it is necessary to understand that this joy does not express a psychology, but a philosophy, that is, a terrorist thought (to think the worst of life to approve it integrally), a science gaia, a tragic (or Dionysian) knowledge. As Rosset (2000, p.66-67) explains: 45


Doubtless, Nietzsche always took advantage of Dionysus, god of wine and drunkenness. But Nietzsche’s Dionysus is also the god of the most profound and lucid knowledge, always associating with the heat of drunkenness the cold sobriety of knowledge. Nietzschean beatitude is a drunkenness, but not a drunkenness that would allow one to get rid of knowledge, not to take into account what knowledge can have of regrettable and deleterious, in the way of paschalian fun. Quite the contrary: it is what gives access to knowledge, which authorizes the full knowledge (and is the only one to authorize it). For there is no serious knowledge that is consciously acceptable without the authorization of an absolute beatitude, which, putting no condition to the exercise of happiness, does not impose - and is the only one that does not impose - any limitation to the exercise of knowledge. It is in this way that Nietzschean joy is necessarily wise, or “savant,” to measure itself with the amplitude of what it is allowed to know without harm; and, conversely, that Nietzschean knowledge is necessarily cheerful, because it exists only in proportion to the joy that makes it possible. This thought of approval does not highlight “truth”, “rule”, “justice”, but on the unjustifiable and mysterious joy of life, thought and, by extension, sport practice, whenever it occurs in a celebratory way. It is not a matter of confusing sport with distraction, leisure, or Paschal’s amusement, by means of which we are free of the gravity of productive actions and unpleasant thoughts, but of denying the opposition between the terms. In this sense, a philosophy of life that was prized for the joy of approval, Dionysian joy, would be expressed both by a science gaia and by the celebration of sport, the source of a joy always unjustified.

References BRUNEL, P. (Org.). Dicionário de Mitos Literários. Rio de Janeiro, José Olympio, 1998. CAMPBELL, J. Mito e Transformação. São Paulo, Ágora, 2008. CIORAN, E. M. Del inconveniente de haber nacido. (Trad. do francês por Esther Seligson). 2ª ed. Madri, Taurus, 1998. COLLI, G. O nascimento da filosofia. Campinas/SP: Editora Unicamp, 1988. DURAND, G. As Estruturas Antropológicas do Imaginário. São Paulo, Martins Fontes, 1997.

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LIMA, D. A. S. Técnico-mestre e atleta-herói: uma leitura simbólica dos mitos de Quíron e do herói entre técnicos de voleibol. São Paulo: Dissertação de Mestrado – Escola de Educação Física e Esporte da USP, 2012. MAFFESOLI, M. Tempo das tribos: declínio do individualismo nas sociedades de massa. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 1998. MAFFESOLI, M. O Instante Eterno: o retorno do trágico nas sociedades pós-modernas. São Paulo: Zouk, 2003. MAFFESOLI, M. A Sombra de Dioniso: contribuição a uma sociologia da orgia. São Paulo: Zouk, 2005. MARTÍNEZ, C. F. et al. Dicionário de Mitologia Clássica. Lisboa: Presença, 1997. NIETZSCHE, F. Obras Incompletas. Col. Os pensadores. São Paulo: Abril Cultural, 1983. NIETZSCHE, F. O Nascimento da Tragédia. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1992. NIETZSCHE, F. Ecce homo. Porto Alegre: L&PM, 2003. NIETZSCHE, F. A vontade de poder. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto, 2008. ROSSET, C. Alegria: a força maior. Rio de Janeira: Relume-Dumará, 2000. RUBIO, K. O atleta e o mito do herói: O imaginário esportivo contemporâneo. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2001. RUBIO, K. “O trabalho do atleta e a produção do espetáculo esportivo”. In: Colóquio Internacional de Geocrítica – El trabajo, 2002, Barcelona. Programa del IV Colóquio Internacional de Geo Crítica, 2002.

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On the concept of sport in contemporaneity: reflections from the Platonic logic of the excluded third and the Homeric Paideia

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“The simple fact of keeping the glory alive through singing is in itself an educative action” (Werner Jaeger, our translation)

Preliminary notes

T

he present essay aims to point out some reflections on the sporting phenomenon in the contemporary world, especially with regard to the predominant rational and heroic characteristic present in the foundations that constitute it and which permeates, in an unique way, the sports imagination. In this way, imaginary theory presents itself as an alternative to understand contemporary sport, in addition to approaching the transdisciplinary paradigm in opposition to the disciplinary fragmentation. This movement leads us to have ‘new’ perspectives on the sporting phenomenon and, at the same time, provides other answers and reflections. The dialogue with mythology and with the knowledge of Classical Antiquity presents itself as one of these possibilities. Our reflection goes back to Ancient Greece, in a way that seems more appropriate to observe the historical moment in which myth, logos and rite were not separated. In this way, athletic practices, culture and religion of a given society were based on “confused”1 dimensions. The division of these dimensions is not of modernity, since this separation still happens during the span of the Greek empire. It goes through an even

I use the term ‘confused’ throughout the text in the same way that SNELL (1992) proposes. For this author ‘confused’ is related to something indistinct, impossible to separate; understanding it from an inseparable relation with the mentality of the Greek man.

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greater distancing in medievality, when bodily practices become related to that which is evil and profane, and more distant from the sacred and everything intrinsic to human existence. We punctuate modernity as a reference, given the particularities of modern sport in order to observe the unfolding of this practice in contemporaneity. Thus, just as the athletic practices of Ancient Greece served as inspiration for the genesis of the sports model, it will also serve as an inspiration for rethinking the same phenomenon. With the aim of pursuing this logic and thinking about sport from another perspective, we will begin by conceptualizing the terms we use to develop our previous questions such as “bastard thinking” and the logic of the “excluded third.”.

Beyond an objectivity of the phenomena In this sub-item, we will develop the main concepts that underlie our reflection: the concepts of ‘bastard thought’ and the logic of the ‘excluded third’ proposed by Platonic philosophy. These concepts are set out in The Timaeus, one of Plato’s last works, written in his old age, and brings us the description of the cosmogonic system proposed by the philosopher. The plot of the work refers to the register of dialogues between Socrates, Timaeus, Hermocrates and Critias in Athens around 421 BC. Another issue to be highlighted is the existence of a tradition that considers this dialogue to be part of the Republic and discussions that maintain it as a work in itself, in which Plato carefully reviews some concepts of his philosophy (LIMA, 2002). Given the depth and density of dialogue, as the translator himself points out in the introduction of the work, we take the liberty of relying upon RIBEIRO’s proposals (in press) in his text “Notas para uma conceituação de Paisagem” to discuss terms we propose. In the description of the cosmogonic system proposed in the Timaeus, the philosopher introduces into his ‘antocosmology a third genre of being’, which is not only creative and eternal and not a creature that does not generate, in the author’s words: The philosopher introduces into his ontocosmology a third kind of being, which is not only different from both what is always and has no generation (the eternal and immutable forms of the intelligible world), and what is always generating itself and never is (perishable forms and changeable ones of the sensible world, generated by imitation of the eternal forms) (RIBEIRO, in press, our translation). 52

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After explaining the genres of ‘being’ and ‘non-being’, Plato takes up the idea of a third genre of ‘being’ and names it as chora: And there is a third genre that is always, the chora, which does not welcome destruction and gives place to all things that have generation; this is captured by a certain bastard reasoning, unaccompanied by sensation and hardly believable; we look to him as if in a dream, affirming that it is necessary that every being be in a certain place and occupy a certain space, and that, that which is neither on earth nor in heaven is nothing (PLATÃO, 2003 apud RIBEIRO, no prelo). Plato proposes the understanding of something that is beyond intelligible and material things - A Chora - a dimension of existence that can only be accessed through bastard reasoning. But the philosopher himself, at the end of the quotation when he states that “that which is neither on earth nor in heaven is nothing”, denies the possibility of developing the idea of this third genus of being. Therefore, if it is in The Timaeus that these concepts present themselves to the Western philosophical tradition, it is in this very work that they begin to be denied. Denial that introduces a theorization that for good or for evil - establishes a certain way of thinking proper to the West. For this reason, the relinquishment in defining and explaining this third form of ‘Being’ foreclose this question of Western philosophy. After noting and discussing what we consider the genesis of polarization in ‘being’ and ‘non-being’, concepts that characterize and ground the dichotomous and linear way of looking at the world, and at the same time unfold in the other foundations that seek to explain the existence of man in our time, we highlight the dichotomous form in which the ontological concept of man is developed that understands him in two dimensions: soma (body) and psyche (soul). [These structures] remain - it should be specified - as reference points not only positive, but also negative, that is, as dialectical poles that cannot be eliminated from discourse. In any case, these structures, which were imposed in the distant past, remain until now as an inheritance that cannot be renounced (REALE, 2002, p.12). Although philosophy has sought definitions of ‘man’, to this day there is no consensus as to this conception. In general, the explanation of the concept of man in modernity and contemporaneity, have as reference the concepts of soma (body) and psyche (soul). That is to say, these explanations continue to express the structure of Western thought, which, 53


in turn, is a legacy of Greek culture, mainly from Socrates (470-399 BCE) and Plato (428/27-347 BCE). We perceive another understanding of the concept of man in Ancient Greece of the fifth century BC, in which man was considered in his entirety. Thus body and soul appear as “confusing” dimensions to the Greek mentality of this period. The concept of “body” has only been formed more precisely with the diffusion of the psyche idea, which is entirely new in comparison with the Homeric tradition.

Soma , Psyche and Paideia for the Homeric tradition A detailed analysis of the elaboration and development of the concept of soma and psyche is necessary and fundamental, since these concepts, as they are common and accepted in contemporaneity, have been firmly established for the Greek mentality from the fifth century BC. The more we distance ourselves in Homer from the meanings of the words of the classical epoch, the more the difference between the different epochs will become perceptible, and the better we will understand the spiritual development of the Greeks and their achievements (SNELL,1992, p.19). Homer, in his works The Iliad and The Odyssey, creating a dynamic of images and forms in which the physical and the psychic are confused in various ways, presents a conception of man as a whole and not separated into two dimensions: body and soul. The concepts of soma (body) and psyche (soul) appearing in Homer are different from those of the fifth century BC. In Homeric poems, soma means dead organism, or corpse. According to Snell (1992), in the Homeric literature, the concept of living body2 was represented by the word demas. However, based on the discussions of Aristarchus (310-230 BC), this author demonstrates that this word has some limitations when used in adjective expressions. Nevertheless, it is the one that best corresponds to the meaning of the word soma found in the discussions of the classical Greek period.

Homer, the body also appears as gyja (Iliad, VII, vv. 11-16, XXII, vv. 442-448), meaning the members endowed with movement; appears still as melea (Iliad, XI, vv. 68-670; Odyssey, XVIII, vv. 66-70), which are the limbs endowed with strength, due to the musculature. According to Snell (1992, p. 26) “of the expressions mentioned, which may arise and occupy in the phrase the place of the word later body, sum, only the plural gyia, melea, etc., denote the corporeality of the body; (...) the others means the figure, the structure “.

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[...] And thus do I declare my word, and be Zeus our witness thereto: if so be he shall slay me with the long-edged bronze, let him spoil me of my armour and bear it to the hollow ships, but my body [soma] let him give back to my home, that the Trojans and the Trojan wives may give me my due meed of fire in my death (Illiad, VII, vv. 76-81) In the Homeric poems, the word psyche represents the ghost of the corpse, which is deprived of life, sensitivity and intelligence. Therefore, psyche in Homer would be the emblematic image of having been a man. [...] Look you now, even in the house of Hades is the spirit and phantom somewhat, albeit the mind be not anywise therein; for the whole night long hath the spirit of hapless Patroclus stood over me, weeping and wailing, and gave me charge concerning each thing, and was wondrously like his very self (Iliad, XXIII, vv. 103-107) Thus, man represented himself as a body only after he had thought himself as a soul (REALE, 2002). Where there is no representation of the body, there can also be no representation of the soul and vice versa. Since Homeric man was not conceived as if he had two dimensions, but as a compound of body and soul, his existence expressed itself in a whole and not in parts. Similarly, education in Homer did not privilege one aspect of the human dimension: body (soma) or soul (psyche), but aimed at the integral formation of Greek man. Education becomes here, for the first time, in formation, that is, in the modeling of the integral man according to a fixed type [the hero]. The importance of a type of this nature for the formation of Man was always present in the minds of the Greeks ( JAEGER, 2003, p.45). The questions of the Greek man of this period did not refer to their existence, but to their actions. It was in his actions that the Homeric man expressed the “higher” meaning of his Arete 3. For this reason, the content of Greek education was based on two basic aspects of the formation of the hero: the coach, related to the tchne, and the ethical, with Arete (MARROU, 1975). Regarding their organization, techne was related to the content of gymnastics and, according to Emilio Redondo and Javier Laspalas (1997),

The term Areté refers to a genuinely Greek concept. Its translation into Portuguese is equivalent to the terms “virtue” or “excellence”, but the Greek meaning of the word expresses the highest ideal of man.

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this content had as its objective the formation of the physical Arete, whereas, in ethical formation, the contents that aimed at the cultural and spiritual formation of Greek man: poetry and music. When we speak of the education of the body and the spirit, we are not referring to two distinct dimensions, but to the education of the character and the physical condition(confused dimensions) of the Greek hero, since Homeric education was intended to embrace the human being in its totality (REDONDO e LASPALAS, 1997). In the Homeric Paideia 4, in learning to fight, for example, man did not test only his skills and physical ability, but the warriors [personified in the figure of the hero] should demonstrate in combat their bravery, courage, prudence, respect, wisdom and nobility towards the adversary. The Homeric Paideia, however, did not constitute an external modeling process; on the contrary, it was based on the way of being, on the nature of man. It was up to education to potentialize its natural tendency to improve, to opportunize the aggrandizement of the soul, to humanize man, to instrumentalize it in order to do better (PEREIRA MELO, 2007, p.1449, our translation). Add to these aspects the role of honor. The Homeric Arete presupposed two inseparable qualities: skill and merit. Honor5 was thus the natural measure of the Arete’s ideal to which the hero aspired. Thus “it was natural and indisputable that the greatest heroes and the most powerful princes demanded an ever higher honor” ( JAEGER, 2003, p. 31), that is, every heroic feat was filled with honor. On the other hand, the denial of honor meant, in the dictates of Homeric education, a human tragedy. [...] But Hippolochus begat me and of him do I declare that I am sprung; and he sent me to Troy and straitly charged me ever to be bravest and pre-eminent above all, and not bring shame upon the race of my fathers, that were far the noblest in Ephyre and in wide Lycia. This is the lineage and the blood whereof I avow me sprung” (Iliad, VI, 206-212)

Both the term Paideia and Areté do not have their own correspondent in modern languages. In the Greek tradition, the origin of this term appeared in the fifth century BCE with the etymological meaning of “the creation of the boys”. Later, it acquired a higher sense, close to that of Areté.

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The direct relationship between body and ethics appears, for example, in the episode of the Iliad, in which Achilles, after killing Hector, thought of mutilating his body, which would be against his heroic ethics. cf. JAEGER (2003); PEREIRA MELO (2007).

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Homeric education was founded on the goal of ennobling man. Therefore, in the hero concentrated the highest expression of the human Arete. The figure of the hero has a mythical character: he is the incarnation of the supreme human arete, example of the highest humanity, from which everything that is low, despicable and ignoble has been eliminated. Another of the essential features of the Greek mentality appears here: the innate tendency to rise to an ideal norm the essential of the pedagogical uses of each epoch, expressing them in living and pregnant archetypes of human perfection. The main educational resource is the example of arete on a human scale that triggers imitation [mimesis], a powerful force capable of transforming the disciple completely (REDONDO e LASPALAS, 1997, p.188-189, our translation). The hero, besides impersonating the Areté, as a major expression of human nature, was a representative of the prominence and social distinction that only the best could achieve: “To Achilles, Peleus recommended that he outperform all” (Iliad, XI, v.787, our translation), since he had values of a nobleman. Not only by valuing the vitality of a hero in the defense of someone, Homer exposes the nobility of men. When he presents his characters, he guarantees, in principle, the magnificence of them: Achilles, cherished by Zeus; Ulysses, like a god; Tseus similar to immortals; Patroclus, nourished by Zeus; Apollo, the infallible archer, Calcas, the best of all interpreters; Agamemnon, the very noble son of Atreus; Hephaestus, the famous craftsman (NAGEL, 2002, p.39, our translation). Thus, Homer expressed a model of education reserved for the aristocracy of his time, highlighting model virtues such as: “honor, friendship, loyalty, hospitality, good-talk and respect, even by the enemy, when it shows values required by virtue” (PEREIRA MELO, 2007, p.1449, our translation). It is worth mentioning that the example assumes, therefore, an ethical and educational matrix that emphasizes the fundamental aspect of the case: the constitutive action exerted by Nemesis on the conscience. Therefore, not only is the presence of the hero a model for Homeric education. Also included are the example of other heroes and gods sung by oral tradition. “The evocation of the example of the famous heroes and the example of the sagas is for the poet constitutive part of all aristocratic ethics and education” ( JAEGER, 2003, p.59, our translation). 57


[...] But now he offereth thee many gifts forthwith, and promiseth thee more hereafter, and hath sent forth warriors to beseech thee, choosing them that are best throughout the host of the Achaeans, and that to thine own self are dearest of the Argives; have not thou scorn of their words, neither of their coming hither (Iliad, IX, vv.519-524) [...] For it beseems thee not to practise childish ways, since thou art no longer of such an age. Or hast thou not heard what fame the goodly Orestes won among all mankind when he slew his father’s murderer, the guileful Aegisthus, for that he slew his glorious father? (Odyssey, I, vv.296-300) The virtues that make up the hero’s model express the superiority of human strength and demonstrate the reason why Homer ascribes such relevance to the practice and human essence that constitute it. That is, man is at the heart of the Homeric reflections, the ideal of man takes center stage in his works, which exalt the force contained in the human being. This makes the Homeric hero a man of action and virtue, contents that make up the Arete and relate the human dimensions. Thus in Homer there is no practical or rhetorical education, just as there is no separation of body and soul, or of education for body and education for soul. Because these human dimensions are not separate for the Greek mentality, the very idea of athletic practices is understood in the same sense. Therefore, they are not separate from religion, morality and of the Greek man’s way of being. Athletic practices and religious rituals were confused phenomena (inseparable) sung from one generation to another. They were poetry that mixed myth and history and served as inspiration for future generations, who nourished a deep respect for the divine, a characteristic that marked the spirit of the Greek man. This dichotomy between body and soul, athletic and religious practices profoundly mark the mode of the ‘Being’ of sport. It becomes apparent when the ‘Being’ of sport is restricted to a physical and technical dimension separated from an ethical-religious dimension of the human being and a gestuality that has intrinsic meaning to its existence. From the exposed discussion we can perceive the transformations of body culture through the ages and what characterizes it as a phenomenon in permanent change. Considering that any change implies some transformation, deformation or alteration of form, this does not relieve us of reflecting and rethinking the manner in which corporal culture exists 58

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and the limits of these deformations when harmful to the human being. In this way, these changes to Ribeiro (in press) result in “deformity, defect, deficiency and, in the limit, degeneration” of the phenomenon.

Final thoughts By excluding the ritual and mythical dimension of sport in the contemporary world, one observes the emptying of the sense and meaning of its practice when considered only by its technical gesture or as a proper phenomenon or appropriate by some discipline. This limitation of the understanding of the sport leads to a deformation of its practice in which ethics becomes more a manifest concept in the manuals of each modality or in the theoretical discussions in the scientific field. This argument opens the possibility of another questioning when we think about the way of being of the current sport. From a ‘bastard thought’ we can affirm that the logic put to the sport follows a parameter of his own of a dual logic, dichotomous, in which there are only two possibilities of explanation, that is, affirmation or negation of the phenomenon observed. The polarization of the hero’s archetype related to the image of the athlete from the modern world, added to the singular context of the development of the scientific field and the Cartesian way of explaining the universe, guaranteed to sports practice a split between the reason for being of the athlete and of the existence of the sporting phenomenon as a common constitutive element of a social mode. Understanding this context from the anthropological structures of the imaginary proposed by Durand6 (1997), we can infer that this predominance of diurnal, ascending symbols present in the life of contemporary man makes difficult contact with its nocturnal dimensions (mystical and dramatic). In addition, we understand that its manifestations, whether in the sports field or in any other, occurs in the perspective pointed out by Plato (2002) in ‘The Timaeus’, that is, as a ‘bastard thought’. As it cannot be explained by linear and rational bias, a common and accepted way of

It is not intended in any way to develop here an outline of the structures of the Imaginary Theory proposed by Durand (1997) and to relate them to sport. What is intended is only to indicate sufficiently a “gap” (among other possible) where this possibility of interpretation can be glimpsed.

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explaining the world, it does not exist. And when perceived, it is taken as an unimportant daydream. Thus, one can perceive in the genesis of modern sport, the foreclosure of elements that were common to athletic practices in antiquity. The Platonic proposal makes sense for our reflection in proposing the logic of the ‘excluded third’, who considers ‘something’ that would not be completely in the objectivity of the phenomena; that is, for Plato, it represents something that would not be in the materiality of terrestrial things nor completely in the idealism of intelligible beings. From this, the proposal of Charles Péguy (apud RIBEIRO, in the press, our translation) makes sense when he says that: The best point of view for the world is the view from below, and that rises to things, thus seizing the impulse of being. Seen from above, the world is flat. It is from below that we must begin, that is where we must stay, or return, to launch. Our ‘bottom-up view’ is related to looking at the corporal practices and the condition of the actors that compose it, and only then, to embark on a re-signification of the sport, for example, to aim for the recovery of the ontological completeness of the athlete ‘Being’. A possible way to rehabilitate the poetics in the individual in its path is proposed by Bachelard (2007). We believe that the recovery of the mythical and ritualistic character will restore to the athlete the ethical dimension of his own form of ‘Being’ and practicing. Thus, the illicit forms used to achieve victory, such as doping, for this perspective does not only hurt the sporting code of conduct, but it will deeply wound the athlete ‘Being’. Looking at sport through the imaginary and transdisciplinary theory provides us with an alternative way of interpreting the sport phenomenon and, at the same time, it returns the centrality of the figure of the athlete to understand it as a ‘Being’ that leads the athletic feat. The athlete, then, almost on a mythical impulse will sing of our world in his narratives in the same way that the ancients sang of their world. And so, we approach the first poetry or the founding myth that will give meaning to sports practice.

References BACHELARD, G. A intuição do Instante. Campinas: Verus Editora, 2007. DURAND, G. As Estruturas Antropológicas do Imaginário. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1997. 60

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HOMERO. Ilíada: Volume I. Trad. do grego de Haroldo de Campos; introdução e organização Trajano Vieira. 4ª Ed. São Paulo: Arx, 2003. HOMERO. Ilíada: Volume II. Trad. do grego de Haroldo de Campos; introdução e organização Trajano Vieira. São Paulo: Arx, 2002. HOMERO. Odisséia I: Telemaquia. Trad. do grego e introdução de Donaldo Schuler. Porto Alegre, RS: L&PM, 2007. HOMERO. Odisséia II: Regresso. Trad. do grego e introdução de Donaldo Schuler. Porto Alegre, RS: L&PM, 2007. HOMERO. Odisséia III: Ítaca. Trad. do grego e introdução de Donaldo Schuler. Porto Alegre, RS: L&PM, 2007. JAEGER, W. Paideia: A Formação do Homem Grego. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2003. LIMA, Noberto de Paula. “Introdução”. In: PLATÃO. Timeu e Crítias ou a Atlântida. São Paulo: Hemus, 2002. MARROU, H. I. História da Educação na Antiguidade. São Paulo: EPU – Editora Pedagógica e Universitária Ltda, 1975. NAGEL. L. H. Paganismo e cristianismo: concepção de homem e de educação. In: OLIVEIRA, Terezinha de (org.). Luzes Sobre a Idade Média. Maringá: EDUEM, 2002. PEREIRA MELO, J. J. Homero e a Formação do herói. In: CONALI: Congresso Nacional de Linguagens em Interação. 1, 2006, Maringá. Anais do Congresso Nacional de Linguagens em Interação. Maringá, p.14481454, 2007. PLATÃO. Timeu e Crítias ou a Atlântida. São Paulo: Hemus, 2002. REALE, G. Corpo, Alma e Saúde: O Conceito de Homem de Homero a Platão. São Paulo: Paulus, 2002. REDONDO, E. & LASPALAS, J. Historia de la Educación. Madrid: Dykinson, 1997. RIBEIRO, Sandra Maria Patrício. “Notas para uma conceituação de Paisagem”. In: TASSARA, Eda Terezinha de Oliveira. Terra Anomia e Violência: Olhares sobre a atual sociedade capitalista brasileira. (no prelo). SNELL, B. A Descoberta do Espírito. Lisboa: Edições 70, 1992.

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Lucia Leão & Thiago Silva

The myth of the Argonauts and the seven principles of a collective journey in sport

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... knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through a restless, impatient, continued and hopeful questioning of men in the world, with the world and with each other. (Paulo Freire)

Introduction

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port is one of the most important and prevalent cultural activities of our era, active in the transformations of the media imagination and with the power to politically and economically influence people’s lives (MANDELL, 1999; HANIN, 2000). This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the potential and of the complexities that permeate collaborative acts. We depart from the hypothesis that the Argonauts’ journey may provide clues to a deepening of the logics, ethics and aesthetics of the collaborative phenomenon. Heather Reid (2002), in her research on the relations between philosophy and sport, proposes the athletic experience as a model for thinking about the construction of values, the development of qualities and ethical posture. The idea of associating athletic activity with the myth of the hero has been deeply studied by Rubio (2015) for several years, since her PhD thesis in 2001. Among her scientific production, we can highlight the paper about the sport initiation among Brazilian athletes and the research project on Olympic education: a teaching proposal for public schools of São Paulo (RUBIO, 2013a; 2013b). Peter Arnold (1998, p.13), in his study on education and ethics, argues that sports are characterized not only as activities with definite rules and objectives, but also requiring mastery and physical abilities. When discussing the development of physical education in public schools 65


in England, during the period of the industrial revolution, Arnold argues that the emphasis at that period was not so much on physical development and health, but mainly in the building of moral values and virtues such as leadership, respect, loyalty, courage, honesty, among others. Being an athlete involves daily commitments, routines, time organization, exercise practices that require choices and great dedication. According to Reid (2002), athletic training in the education of ancient Greece is a means of building moral character. In this context, this article seeks to focus on a specific characteristic of the sporting trajectory: the importance of teamwork and the characteristics of aesthetic, ethical and logical principles capable of guiding a successful collective enterprise. In order to discuss this question, we will revisit the narrative of the Argonauts.

The myth and the seven principles of triumphant teamwork Let us see what the myth is about. However, before going over the analysis, it is important to elucidate the methodological procedures we are adopting and, in particular, the chosen concept of myth. Following Mircea Eliade’s (1998) proposition, myth and reality are not separate or opposing instances. In understanding myth as complexity, myth is a type of narrative that contains within itself deep elements that remain alive and active. That is, our perspective of analysis does not consider myth in its common sense, usually associated with the idea of fiction, illusion, and fallacy. Our focus is primarily on the idea of a living myth: “... in the sense that it provides the models for human conduct, thereby giving meaning and value to existence” (ELIADE, 1998, p.8). According to the methodological procedures that we have already developed in other works (LEÃO, 2005 and 2016), in revisiting points in the mythical narrative, our intention is essentially to seek in the myth fundamental points about values and ways of relating to ourselves, to others and to the world. Seeking to find in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts elements that help us to understand the processes of collective work, we propose, hereafter, an analysis of the myth. One of the best-known Greek narratives, we find the stories of Jason and the Argonauts in different versions and different periods. Just to cite some of the most important, we would have traces/versions of this narrative in Homer, Iliad and Odyssey; in Hesiod’s, Theogony; in the famous The Argonautica by Apollonius; as well as in the lesser known Argonautica, work by Valerius; in the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus; and Hyginus Fabulae. In the contemporary imaginary, the narrative of the Argonauts is presented in films, comics and videogames. 66


Figure 1: Biagio d’Antonio (1472–1516). Jason, the Argonauts and the Quest for the Golden Fleece. Tempera paint on wood.

The myth evokes symbolic issues and is distinguished from several others by presenting a team adventure. The narrative presents a legitimate heir who must face several challenges to reclaim the throne. A trip to a distant place, an “impossible” mission: To bring back to Greece the Golden Fleece. The creation of a boat capable of harboring fifty passengers, which represented a revolution in the engineering of the time. A group of heroes, the Argonauts. Let us see how each of these points gives us clues for proposing the fundamental elements that accompany group processes. Like all heroic trajectories, Jason lived away from his group, in this case, hidden from Pelias, his uncle, who had usurped his father’s kingdom. His mentor, Chiron, the centaur responsible for the education of most of the Greek heroes, prepared him for his great adventure. When he turns 20, Jason returns to his homeland, Iolco in Thessaly. On the way, he is approached by a lady who asks for his help to cross a river. Jason helps her and in the process loses one of his sandals. In this part of the myth we find the basis of the first principle. Every heroic mission is part of a decision: to help or not to help? In this case, the lady was the goddess Hera, who was disguised in search of a true hero who would be able to help her in her desire for revenge against Pelias. On this issue we will not delve deeper to keep our focus on the chosen aspect. The fact that Jason showed respect, consideration and generosity towards the goddess, causes Hera to decide to protect him. On the other hand, this protection was not won without losses, because, due to his choice, Jason loses one of his sandals. To begin any new endeavor, it is always necessary to renounce something, to make sacrifices, to make offerings.

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F igure 2: Pelias, king of Iolcos, standing on the steps of a temple recognises Jason by his missing sandal. House of Jason (20-25 AD). Pompeii. National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy.

Pelias had been warned by an oracle about an outsider who would arrive in his kingdom without a shoe and would dethrone him. Thus, upon arriving at Iolco to reclaim the throne without a sandal, Jason is soon recognized as a threat. His uncle, shrewdly, persuades Jason to seek out the Golden Fleece, the skin of a magical ram, a symbol of the supreme knowledge of Zeus, which was in Colchis, in a forest protected by a serpent-dragon. Even knowing that this was a difficult task, Jason accepts the challenge with enthusiasm. The second principle regarding the challenges for teamwork in sport is announced at this point in the narrative: to embrace the tasks willingly and enthusiastically is key to starting the processes. It is from this state of mind that the energy, resistance and strength necessary to carry out the work will be mobilized. Now, a new challenge unfolds: find allies, assemble a team. To accomplish his mission, Jason will need people and resources. Above all, he will need to plan extremely well. For this, Jason receives help from the goddess Athena the goddess of intelligence, logical thinking and strategy. Athena guides the construction of a boat that had a highly innovative technology for the time, able to house fifty passengers. The task was performed by Argus, the engineer, and the ship was named Argo. As the search for the Golden Fleece represented something extremely important in Greek culture, news of the mission spread 68


and attracted heroes from various parts. The crew, made up of famous names like Hercules, Orpheus and Theseus, received the name Argonauts.

igure 3: Jason orders the construction of the boat to Argus. F Athena helps build the Argo: Roman moulded terracotta plaque, 1st century AD.

We found the basis for understanding the fourth principle for successful teamwork in the narratives that accompany the grand journey to distant lands. At every stop, the Argonauts had challenging experiences. Although it was possible to develop a reflection about each of the tasks that the team had to face and how each Argonaut played a fundamental role in the narrative, due to the limits of an article, we chose not to enter into these questions. In short, we can say that the fourth principle corresponds to the need to believe in the potential of each member of the group in facing the unforeseen challenges that arise at each moment of the journey. That is, Jason needs to rely on the qualities of each of the Argonauts, delegating tasks, because the challenges will be many and will require quite different skills and talents. In the fifth principle, after overcoming a series of obstacles that were found in the trip, experienced with the fundamental role of each one of the Argonauts, the ship arrives at its destination. However, the mission was only partially fulfilled. As would be expected, Eetes, the king of Colchis, would not deliver the Golden Fleece easily. Thus, he proposes two challenges, which Jason should accomplish without the help of the Argonauts. At this point of the narrative, depressed and hopeless about being able to accomplish the tasks, Jason receives the help of Aphrodite that causes Medea, daughter of Eetes, to fall in love with him. The challenge at this point in the narrative is quite complex. It is both the power and dangers of seduction, the need to forge alliances with people who, at first, should be our adversaries. As is known, in the myth, Jason makes a deal with Medea to get what he wants. We extract our understanding for the sixth principle from a reflection on the meaning of escape. Fleeing and escaping are not always cowardly attitudes. 69


In this case, it is the strategy necessary to achieve the mission. In the myth, shortly after taking possession of the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts must hurry to get out of Colchis. King Eetes, furious with the theft of the sacred object and also with the betrayal of his daughter who embarked on the ship, is willing to recover what he considers his. The significance and importance of escaping persecution combine with the challenges of overcoming the paralyzing tendencies that could trap the Argonauts and bring the mission to failure.

Figura 4: Jason returns to Thessaly and shows the Golden Fleece to his uncle.

In the seventh principle, the mythical narrative tells us of the need to recover the intentions that motivated the trajectory. The journey began from a goal: to bring the supreme knowledge symbol of Zeus (the Golden Fleece) back to Greece. To return is then something primordial. Presenting, showing the community what has been won, is both the crowning of the mission and an act of sharing.

Final considerations We conclude our article with our verified hypothesis. Yes, the myth of the Argonauts’ journey can provide us with clues as to the logical, ethical and aesthetic aspects associated with teamwork and the phenomenon of 70


collaboration in sport activities. In our analysis, we weave relations between the myth of Jason and the Argonauts and what we call the principles of collective journey in sport. According to our proposal, the myth offers us seven principles that are fundamental to thinking about teamwork. The first principle relates to the help that Jason offered to the lady who wanted to cross a mighty river. As we have seen, there is no possibility of a collective journey in sport - or any other large enterprise - without a posture of respect for the other. In this principle are concentrated the ideas of generosity and the ability to make sacrifices. In the second principle, we find Jason excited to face a mission that was considered very great and impossible and had been proposed to him by his uncle. Thus, we are faced with the capacity to face challenges with energy and enthusiasm. Only with this good will, will we be able to attract the people and the resources needed for each task. The third principle relates to the time when Jason counts on the help of Athena, that is, he uses his mental resources and intelligently and rationally organizes the steps necessary for the great adventure. In short, the third principle proclaims that without a solid and coherent project, bearing symbolic meaning that makes sense in a culture, it is not possible to assemble a team. In the fourth principle, we are faced with the ability to delegate tasks, the importance of valuing the qualities of each of the team members. In the myth, each Argonaut has a fundamental role and with the action of each of them, all the various challenges that are presented are overcome. The intersection of Aphrodite, the moment of the myth when Medeia falls in love with Jason and helps him in the task of rescuing the Fleece, is the basis for the understanding of the fifth principle. This complex principle presents the importance and dangers of conquest, of the power of seduction. Paradoxically, the myth tells us that Jason alone would not be able to perform the tasks demanded by Eetes. However, he has a sacred debt: he owes the group its share. Each Argonaut collaborated with his talents and abilities. Now that they are heading towards the end of the trajectory, the last challenge is for Jason to overcome. Under this pressure, he exerts his talent as a conqueror and signs a complicated alliance to get what he wants. In this way, the fifth principle, in its intricate texture, raises questions about moral debt, commitment to the group, responsibility. The escape corresponds to the image of the sixth principle. Get out fast from Colchis, they must escape the pursuit of the furious king who was betrayed by his daughter. This principle tells us of an imposition: of possession of the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts must free themselves from the paralyzing tendencies. Now it is paramount to return to the seas. 71


The risks remain immense and the need to stay focused on the initial goals needs to be safeguarded. In the seventh and last principle, the myth tells us about the importance of return. No victory is achieved without the return to the beginnings, to the homeland, without the gesture of sharing in social networks, in the culture and in the collective imaginary what has been conquered. All the adventure, all the conquests only make sense at the moment when the Argonauts return with the Fleece to Greece. It is in the act of sharing, simultaneously division and connection that the mission is completed and the victory of the enterprise is experienced in its invigorating power of the eternal collective becoming and in flux.

References ARNOLD, Peter J. Sport, Ethics and Education. London: Cassell, 1998. ELIADE, Mircea. Myth and reality. Lang Groove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1998. FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2018. HANIN, Yuri L. Emotions in sport. Leeds,UK: Human Kinetics, 2000. LEÃO, Lucia. The mirror labyrinth: reflections on bodies and consciousness at cybertimes. Technoetic arts, Bristol, United Kingdom, v. 3, n.1, p. 19-41, 2005. MANDELL, Richard D. Sport: A cultural history. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1999. LEÃO, Lucia. Narrativas e histórias de vida na pesquisa acadêmica: reflexões sobre o método. In: RUBIO, Kátia. (Org.). Narrativas biográficas: Da busca à construção de um método. São Paulo: Laços, 2016. REID, Heather. The Philosophical Athlete. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2002. RUBIO, Kátia. Sport initiation among Brazilian athletes. Studies in Sport Humanities, v. 13, p. 11-18, 2013a. RUBIO, Kátia. Olympic education: a teching proposal for public schools of São Paulo. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, v. 1, p. 109-120, 2013b. RUBIO, Kátia. Biographical Narratives of Olympic Athletes: an Access Road to Identity and Brazilian Sports Imagery. American International Journal of Social Science, v. 4, p. 85-90, 2015. 72

Julio Cezar Fetter & K atia Rubio

Daedalus and Icarus: sport, doping and Olympic values

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Julio Cezar Fetter & Katia Rubio

“Daedalus and Icarus also represent something serious ...” ( Junito Brandão)

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port is born as a human manifestation of the search for physical and mental limits, in a moment of history in which sports was developing in the school as a pedagogical tool. Transformed into one of the greatest sociocultural events of the twentieth century, sport, and especially the Olympic Games, served as a political contest between powers in the East and West, unlimited technological development and egoistic disputes that led to several great sports players, the athletes, to seek any resources that would lead them to overcoming the opponent, to victory and to all the gains that good results provide. Not surprisingly, doping became one of the major concerns of sports organizations at the end of the last century, when champion athletes fell into disfigurement in high visibility modalities. An attitude considered outside the rules, and therefore immoral, the use of ergogenic substances involves a great scientific and technological apparatus not to be detected by the control mechanisms, thus protecting the user from the rigors of the law applied to the violators. In the symbolic field, the myth that guides the development of creative actions is that of Daedalus, a great inventor and architect, capable of creating the labyrinth to hide the Minotaur, or the wings that would save himself and Icarus from confinement. On the other hand, this same genius produces aberrations that generate disruptions of unimaginable reach and long duration.

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This essay proposes an approximation between the myth of Daedalus and the production of doping in sport, understanding the development of substances that lead to greater sporting performance as a genius but perverse creation, as were some of the creations of the genial Athenian architect. We will treat doping, in this way, under the eyes of ethics, understood as respect for rules. There is, therefore, no construction of a reasoning that seeks a moral judgment, on what is thought of as correct, but an analysis on how individual and collective decisions are made, based on and reflected in the rules laid out, expanding to an analysis in conjunction with human values, also denominated as Olympic values. Thus, doping, in the social perspective, allows many discussions about its certainties, its uses, its control systems and contexts. The relation with the myths serves as a projection for a reflection in the plane of the imaginary, in which are constellated symbols and expressions on ethical questions and values. In it we have the contemplation of the metaphysical plane, and there human actions find space for the reflections of the moral plane (DIEL, 1991).

Daedalus in the myth According to Brandão (1991b), the Athenian Daedalus was the great architect, mythical sculptor, consummate inventor, to whom were attributed the principal and most remarkable works of art, such as the animated statues described by Plato in the Meno, 97-98. Talos, Daedalus’ nephew and apprentice, created the saw, drawing inspiration from the jawbone of a serpent. Envying the talents of Talos, Daedalus threw him from the top of the Acropolis. Here is our first interpretation of the myth: Daedalus is incapable of dealing with the creative power of the other, of being overcome. The dispute is only possible against the certainty of success, thus revealing one of the human characteristics that triggers the hybris, which is envy, a feeling that blinds and triggers reactions that even cause death. As punishment, Daedalus is exiled to Crete, where he is welcomed by King Minos, becoming not only an exile, but his architect. Minos was, until then, known for his wisdom and had a close relationship with Zeus. With each nine-year period, he would retreat with Zeus to inquire about his actions and, if they were right and just, his reign would be maintained. Still, with the help of his mythical father, he won a victory in the war against Athens, which reveals the justice of his motives. Minos,

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however, had disagreed with the god Poseidon because he had not kept a promise. As the myth goes, Minos must kill a Taurus, which he had won as a gift from the god, but before the beauty of the animal, Minos slaughtered another animal. However, Poseidon discovered the trickery; as a punishment, the lord of the sea caused Pasiphae, wife of the king of Crete, to fall madly in love with the Bull. Taken by passion, the queen asks Daedalus to create a cow form so that she can be dominated by the bull. At the request, the architect performs his first “work” against his king. From this impossible union, the Minotaur is born, a half human being, half bull, whose name means bull of Minos (BRANDÃO, 1991c). Daedalus’ action points to the genius of the artist, who uses his skills to create a way to deceive nature (that of the bull) to achieve a goal, which is to satisfy the desires of the human Pasiphae. This situation holds possible relations with the doping system, since the development of ergogenic substances involves knowledge, technology and creativity so that an athlete can achieve results such as victory or breaking a record, however, this procedure does not occur through the pathways permitted by the rules of the sport. The birth of the Minotaur, a being with human and animal characteristics, appears as an aberration, as are many of the substances created for the specific purpose of transforming the body, or its physiology, in the quest for victory, regardless of the consequences that this intake generates. However, this action is not yet enough for the relations between Daedalus and Minos to be broken. Ashamed of the monster born from his wife, the king again requests the services of Daedalus, in the form of a place where the creature could be hidden, inside the palace of Knossos. Once again, using his creative ability, the architect constructs a maze of which only Daedalus, though with difficulty, was able to leave (NYENHUIS, 2003). There is another obvious connection with doping: in the face of the impediment of the use of certain substances, paths are created that lead to its use and the necessary cover-up by the offenders. To do so, different devices are needed ranging from sophisticated equipment for procedures such as blood transfusions or use of medications with different effects. With each new substance developed, innovations are needed for its detection, promoting an incessant race. The myth follows its course and points to new outcomes that test both the wisdom of Minos and the gratitude of Daedalus for his patron. After defeating the Athenians in a battle, Minos forces the defeated to send, every nine years, seven boys and seven girls to serve as food for

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the Minotaur. Theseus, son of the Aegean king of Athens, tired of the tyranny of Minos and the death of innocent Athenians, offers to be one of the mailed to the labyrinth, with the firm intention of killing the monster and delivering all from the imposed punishment. On arriving in Crete, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, falls in love with Theseus and thinks of a ploy to make her beloved return alive and kill the monster with the help of Daedalus. He hands Theseus a ball of thread, whose end is tied at the entrance to the labyrinth, and as the course progresses, it is unrolled, providing the return to the exit after the defeat of the Minotaur. This passage of the myth points once more to the opportunist attitude of Daedalus, who puts his cunning in the service of the mission given to him, without any commitment to the one who welcomed him. His actions aim at the moment and favor Theseus, who fulfills his two objectives and, with Ariadne, flees from the island of Crete. Brandão quotes (p.265, 1991b): Now if the king was already deeply distressed by his architect for having constructed the simulacrum of a heifer, the stratagem through which his wife had been possessed by the Bull of Poseidon, he was angry at the knowledge of the cunning advice which the astute architect had given to his daughter Ariadne. Upon learning of the escape of Theseus and Ariadne, Minos holds in the labyrinth Daedalus and his son Icarus. With the control of the lands of the island and the ships, the escape by sea seems impossible, which forces Daedalus to create a new device to get himself free: wings, for himself and his son, built of feathers and wax (NYENHUIS, 2003). Knowing the fragility of his creation, Daedalus guides Icarus not to carry out his flight with low altitude, since the oceanic humidity could cause the feathers to weigh in excess, nor in very exaggerated heights, since the heat of the sun would cause that the wax melted, and the feathers loosened. The son, however, does not follow his advice: he is dazzled by the beauty of light; he is too close to the sun, which causes the wax to melt, taking off the feathers of the wings, leading him to fall and die in the middle the Aegean Sea. Out of anger, the Cretan sovereign follows behind Daedalus, who had succeeded in reaching Cumas, a town in southern Italy, and then fled to Sicily. The king of the island Cocalus received him, however, pressed by Minos, promised to deliver the fugitive. However, once more Daedalus is able to get around his sovereigns’ attempts and he construes a ruse for his former protector: using a system of tubes that suddenly replaced water with some burning substance, had the daughters of 78


Cocalus organize a bath for the king of Crete and, using the ingenious invention, kill King Minos.

Fall and doom The myth of Daedalus and Icarus presents a wide range of symbols and signs that suggest to us multiple inferences. At the beginning of the narrative, Daedalus seems to be unable to bear being outdone, which leads him to kill his nephew. Concrete death, in myth, suggests the inability to deal with the excellence of the other, thus generating the desire for annihilation. On the symbolic plane, this can be observed in situations where athletes are led to seek any exit to overcome the opponent’s supremacy. Enter this role, not only prohibited substances, but every form of cheating that favors the desired result. In the case of the heifer simulacrum given to Parsiphae, there is the creation of a device that seeks to circumvent nature. Like Daedalus’ creations, doping is based on the idea that bodies, as complex systems, can be shaped, reconstructed, designed, manipulated mechanically, whether from the physical, intellectual or emotional point of view (VAZ, 2005). Although there is a possible limit for each body, there are athletes who, involved in the search for better and better results, are incessantly seeking means to overcome, even from what seems impossible. Sometimes these means are lawful, they depend exclusively on training and aptitudes. In others, there remains the illicit, like doping. From Daedalus’ intellect, or from sports training systems, ideas and ways can be found to arrive at an objective ethically, but in the face of insufficient results or the means to achieve results, there is a force that drives Daedalus and some sportsmen to opt for breaking the rules (DIEL, 1991; SILVA & RUBIO, 2003). From the incredible and dubious intellect of Daedalus is built the labyrinth, a place designed to prevent exit of those who entered it, except by its creator, still with some difficulty. It is a place of difficult entry and a more difficult exit, which has tortuous and complex paths. It also symbolizes the unconscious, a psychic instance in which the contents of a subjective order are kept, according to Roudinesco & Plon (1998), internal to the subject and to his consciousness, and external to any form of control by conscious thought; a space of repressed contents in which conscious contents are not effectively present, with refused access, the expression of a symptom, something that entirely escapes the conscience (LAPLANCHE & PONTALIS, 2001). According to Nyenhuis (2003), it is starting from his cerebral lobes and the curves of his bowels that 79


Daedalus creates the paths of the labyrinth, his construction being his own attempt to order the chaos of sensation and idea, to dominate and to stop the pains in his body and the threat in his mind. Still, the labyrinth is one that, curiously, is not known during its construction; only in labyrinthine experience can one really know it (Leão, 1999). Present in many cultures, (Leão, 2002) still affirms that they are paradoxical structures, complex, that bring in their representations contrary and diverse logic; the labyrinth of Crete, with its tortuous paths and dark corridors, brings a double challenge within mythical stories: finding the way out and overcoming the Minotaur. Thus, one can not ignore the fact that it is in the labyrinth of Minos that inhabits the Minotaur, a creature that devours other humans, who are sent there as a debt of war, revealing itself as the unconscious perversion of the king. And it is there, in the space created to imprison and devour that Daedalus will be confined. If the use of doping is compared to a route to achieving a result, it is possible to say that it will not be in a straightforward and direct way, as a highway by which one reaches the destination more quickly. Doping travels through tortuous, disguised, fog-shrouded and low-light paths to avoid being seen or perceived, which control agencies try hard to find with high investments in research and equipment. Tavares (2008) points out that although the number of positive tests is low, in relation to the number of athletes competing, the control agencies themselves claim to be always chasing users, steps behind the answer. From the symbols presented so far, the labyrinth, as the representation of the unconscious, and its innumerable unrevealed paths; Minos, the king, wise and interlocutor of Zeus that loses his reason after breaking a deal with a divine entity; and the imprisonment of Daedalus, possessor of a privileged, creative and perverse intellect in his own creation are given the conditions for the formation of a complex and tragic scene. What, in fact, would lead Minos to imprison Daedalus within his creation? Was he sure that the creator would not escape the work he himself had mastered? This refers to a questioning about the origin and logic of doping in sport; would not the sports system think of doping as part of the expected results with the consequent records and the very high yield? This inference occurs in the observation of a certain inertia on the part of the gods, Poseidon and Zeus, closer to this myth. Zeus, supreme god, is the one who guarantees justice and, thus, a victory for Minos and the maintenance of his reign. Poseidon, angry with the same king, is able to make the Cretan queen fall in love with a Taurus and give birth to a fantastic being, the Minotaur. However, in the face of Daedalus’ actions, they do nothing. In Daedalus’ relationship 80


with doping, it is also fitting to relate the gods, perhaps especially Zeus, to sport, understanding their complex structure of agents and institutions. Understanding this structure as a complex system, it is possible to affirm that everyone is involved, whether athletes, coaches, managers, beyond the market chain, media, sponsors, sports companies, etc… It is also necessary to think about the relations between the sporting models that the different political systems employ, be it sport as an enterprise of capitalism, as an ideological apparatus of the state or as a political strategy (ARDOINO & BROHM, 1995). Returning to the symbols that the myth presents, we also have the flight, the sun and the sea, which will be interpreted from the propositions of Diel (1991). The flight represents the desire to reach the unattainable, or at least accomplish that feat that others cannot. Considering that, this mythical narrative is created at a time when the human being still did not have any material condition to create an equipment that could get him off the ground, flying actually represents something impossible, possible only to the divine and some animals. For Durand (1997), the ascension symbols represented by the elevation scheme and the upright symbols are axiomatic metaphors par excellence. Valuation, in whatever form, is always vertical. Perhaps the notion of verticality as a stable axis of things is in relation to the upright posture of man, in whose vision lies part of its symbolism. Goela, abyss, black sun, tomb, sewer and labyrinth are the psychological and moral triggers that highlights the heroism of ascension. They are represented by the ladder, by the mountain or sacred elevation. The ascensional instrument par excellence is the wing, a symbolic means of rational purification. Elevation and power are equivalent. These ascension symbols are marked by the concern for the reconquest of a lost power, a tone degraded by the fall, and can manifest in three ways, linked to several ambiguous or intermediate symbols: it can be ascension or erection towards a metaphysical space; in more brilliant images, supported by the symbol of the wing and the arrow; the reconquered power to guide images more virile like the celestial or terrestrial royalty of the king, priest or warrior. The sun, as a symbol of the spirit, is an element present in many beliefs, in different historical times, from ancient times, representing the life force and many myths of creation. Because it is a natural symbol, which Jung (1977) differentiates from cultural symbols, its content is in the unconscious with broad interpretations of the archetypes to be constructed. Still, it can have its interpretation related to the creation of 81


the life of the noblest of things, where some heroes and demigods, men, become a reality (FERREIRA, 2008, p.86). For Durand (1997) the sun, especially the ascending or rising sun, will be the hypostasis of the celestial powers. The eye, as moral judgment and transcendence, likewise confirms the isomorphism of the eye, the vision, and the divine transcendence. Added to these interpretations, the sun, for Icarus, is conceived as an orally declared barrier, a point even more impossible than flying, which could not even be taken as a point of approach. In this way, it reveals the representation of the height of Icarus’ unbridled desire, which, seeking him, falls. The fall in the ocean presents two elements worthy of mention: the fall itself and the ocean. The fall, within the proposal of dominant gestures in the anthropological structures of the imaginary of Durand (1997) corresponds to the scheme of descent, as opposed to the heroic ascension. For the author, the fall would be alongside the time lived, and since it is linked to the speed of movement, to acceleration and darkness, it can become the fundamental pain experience that will constitute for consciousness the dynamic component of any representation of movement and temporality. Water brings the notion of travel without return, an irrevocable figure, according to the author “water is the epiphany of the misery of time, it is the very expression of dread” (DURAND, 1997, p.96). Rise and fall are symbols present in the daily lives of athletes who reach the Olympic level. There is no one who has not experienced defeat or setback due to injury, situations that refer to a type of fall, even if temporary, because winning and losing are part of the sports logic. There is, however, another kind of downfall caused by the use of forbidden resources, such as doping or disregarding the rule, which resembles doom because it can lead to the cessation or end of a career, a kind of death. The athlete has a strong relationship with the mythical figure of the hero (RUBIO, 2001), for transcending his human condition and performing a feat unusual to the average. It is what Icarus tried, carrying out his flight, something superhuman, supernatural. It should be noted that this great achievement was only possible through the use of technology. The wings represent for Icarus the restitution of lost freedom, the result of the Daedalus actions; similarly, the understanding that some of those involved with sport have about the possibility of winning at any cost, achieving or maintaining a high level of income, leads to doping as an imperative act. The division imposed on the winners and losers and the high degree of requirement (intrinsic and extrinsic) that lead to the athlete’s accountability 82


for their income favors the use of illicit means to compete (SILVA & RUBIO, 2003). As in the myth, the athlete who tests positive in his doping exam, ends up falling. Even if he can look for other flights, he will carry with him this profound, public, morally judged, marked in his life history. Diel (1991, p.53-54) sums up Icarus’s excesses: Symbol of the intellect that has become foolish, symbol of the perverse imagination, Icarus is a mythical personification of the deformation of the psyche characterized by the sentimental and vain exaltation of the spirit. It represents the nervous and its destiny. The senseless attempt of Icarus remains a paradigm to characterize the nervousness in its highest degree, one of the forms of illness of the spirit: the madness of grandeur, megalomania. For the author, Icarus is “the false fallen hero, obsessed with the anguish of having betrayed the spirit, impregnated with guilt” (DIEL, 1991, p.57). In this same direction Brandão (1991a) affirms Icarus as the signification of audacity, of temerity, of megalomania personified, obliged to use other means to reach another place. However, it is necessary to think about the ethical relations, the Olympic and human values that this myth suggests.

Ethics and values Although in the myth, Daedalus seems to care little for the consequences of his actions towards others, this logic is reversed in two distinct moments: first, by helping Ariadne and Theseus, thus preventing the death of the Athenian hero; and the advice to his son Icarus, before this flight, so as not to fly neither too low nor too high, the right halfway, this Greek ideal. Except for these two moments, little is seen in the architect’s Olympic / human values in his practice, except excellence, given as the maximum degree of quality and perfection, in the pursuit of his best self, not necessarily considering others; and respect, which, on the contrary, vehemently considers the other, not in a scenario of submission, but concerning the virtues of others and the rules, ruled by an external nonregulation, in order to be fulfilled (RUBIO, 2009). With such force, these two are absent from the focus of achieving a goal at any price, doping. In the myth, the excellence of the other triggers a reaction of envy, blind Daedalus, preventing the recognition of the superiority of the other, which leads him to be overcome not in the ability itself, but morally, leading him to commit a crime, role played by doping in the search for overcoming the other at any cost. Equally intense, it is the disrespect for rules and others 83


that leads Daedalus to create in order to satisfy opportunistic demands; The wings are his most powerful representation, showing to others his unlimited creative capacities, affirming his superiority in relation to others. Daedalus and doping do not seek excellence for themselves, but the pure surpassing of the other. In this case, the discussion is not restricted only to the field of morality, but it lacks a verticalization in the sense of the apprehension of ethics. Cortella (2015, p.77) develops the concept of ethics as the way of making decisions, marked by the criteria and values that make use of collective life, understanding how to build what is desired and can be, “above all, exemplary”. La Taille (2010) understands ethics as the set of factors and rules that those contemplated are required to comply with. Ethics, for Moreira (2008), is based on the ideas initially presented, and reinforced by the judgment of the appreciation of what is right and wrong, of good and evil. There is no relativization, even if one can understand this concept as changeable, a reflection on ethical practices, be it from the doping system or from Daedalus. Diel (1991) affirms, validating the analysis of the myth that is also transferred here to doping, that vain obfuscation thus deprives the psyche of its creative vision, making it cling to the external symbol of success as a means of satisfaction of bodily drives.

Final thoughts Research and production of pharmaceutical drugs and treatment methods are the result of the use of intellectual capacity, which lead to new inventions, and the development of technology. In some cases, such inventions seek to promote and maintain health or even cure diseases that still cause pain and suffering. In some cases, these same substances are used for the purpose of leading an athlete to have a superior athletic performance than their competitors, who are unaware of the effects of these drugs on their bodies. It was not wanted here to make a moralizing and dichotomous discussion about this being good or bad, after all, these concepts can be relativized according to the moment and place in which the practice of the use is realized. It is worth remembering that alcohol and caffeine, in certain dosages, have already been considered as doping substances and, at present, are no longer, although there are discussions that can lead to new categorizations, including them in the index of prohibited substances. In view of this, it is worth pointing out that the same system that aims to protect clean athletes from unequal competition with doped ones punishes those who, by carelessness or disinformation, are considered offenders,

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receiving penalties that also make them experience fall and disgrace. As Araujo (2016) argues, substance detection has become increasingly difficult, which increases the risk of an athlete being mistakenly tested as positive or negative. If Daedalus is the representation of technology, of the use of the intellect, which can be used perversely, drugs were initially developed for purposes other than sports performance. The substances and methods used are nothing more than ways that, well employed, help those who need these medicines or treatments. However, they are used in a perverse, harmful way, disregarding an ethical action. Complex mythemes, ascension and fall, are present in sport as much as the competition itself. Victory and defeat are mobilizing agents and driving forces for training and pursuit of excellence. The measure of balance between extremes is what separates the champion athlete who arrives on the podium, unlike those who, like Icarus, seek a device to escape the freedom that was taken by the improper use of some prohibited substance.

References ARAUJO, A.F; AZEVEDO, F. & ARAUJO, J.M. Educação, Cultura e Imaginário. Disponível em . Acesso em 24/08/2017. Lulu Enterprises, 2013. ARAÚJO, M. Ética nos esportes: revisitando a questão do doping à luz do debate sobre aprimoramento humano. Prometeus Filosofia, v.9, n.20, 2016. Disponível em: https://seer.ufs.br/index.php/prometeus/article/ view/5485/4495. Acesso em 28/08/2017. ARDOINO, J. & BROHM J. Repères et jalons pour une intelligence critique du phénoméne sportif contemporain. In: Critique de la modernité sportive. Paris: Les Éditions de la Passion, 1995. BRANDÃO, J. S. Mitologia grega. Petrópolis: Vozes, v.1, 1991a. BRANDÃO, J. S. Dicionário mítico-etimológico da mitologia grega. Petrópolis: Vozes, v.1, 1991b. BRANDÃO, J. S. Dicionário mítico-etimológico da mitologia grega. Petrópolis: Vozes, v.2, 1991c. BRANDÃO, J. S. Mitologia grega. Petrópolis: Vozes, v.3, 1991d.

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CHIÉS, P.V. & GUEDES, C.M. Os “ídolos-heróis” da mídia: valores e símbolos da cultura esportiva no pós-modernismo. Motus Corporis, v.10, n.1, p.71-88. Rio de Janeiro: maio de 2003. CORTELLA, M. S. Educação, convivência e ética: audácia e esperança! São Paulo: Cortez Editora, 2015. DIEL, P. O simbolismo na mitologia grega. São Paulo: Attar, 1991. DURAND, G. As estruturas antropológicas do imaginário. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1997. FEREIRA, A. E. A. Dicionário de imagens, símbolos, mitos, termos e conceitos bachelardianos. Londrina: Eduel, 2008. JUNG, C. G. Chegando ao inconsciente. In: JUNG, C.G. & FRANZ, M. L. (Org.). O Homem e seus Símbolos. Tradução de Maria Lúcia Pinho. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1977. LAPLANCHE, J. & PONTALIS, J. B. Vocabulário da psicanálise. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2001. LAPLANTINE, F.; TRINDADE, L. O que é imaginário. Brasiliense, 2017. LA TAILLE, Y. Moral e Ética: uma leitura psicológica. Psicologia: teoria e pesquisa. Brasília: v.26, n.26, p.105-114, 2010. LEÃO, L. O Labirinto da hipermídia: arquitetura e navegação no ciberespaço. São Paulo: Editora Iluminuras Ltda, 1999. LEÃO, L. Interlab: labirintos do pensamento contemporâneo. São Paulo: Editora Iluminuras Ltda, 2002. MOREIRA, C. M.; PESTANA, G. D. Algumas reflexões sobre a Ética Desportiva. Motricidade, v. 4, n. 3, 2008. NYENHUIS, J. E. Myth and the creative process: Michael Ayrton and the myth of Daedalus, the Maze Maker. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003. ROUDINESCO, E. & PLON, M. Dicionário de psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1998. RUBIO, K. Do olimpo ao pós-olimpismo: elementos para uma reflexão sobre o esporte atual. Revista Paulista de Educação Física, v.16, n.2, p.130-143, 2002. RUBIO, K. Esporte, educação e valores olímpicos. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2009.

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RUBIO, K. O atleta e o mito do herói: o imaginário esportivo contemporâneo. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2001. SILVA, M. L & RUBIO, K. Superação no esporte: limites individuais ou sociais. Revista Portuguesa de Ciências do Desporto, v.3, n.3, p.6976, 2003. TAVARES, O. Notas para uma análise da produção em Ciências Sociais sobre doping no esporte. Esporte e Sociedade. v.2, n.4, 2007. VAZ, A. F. Doping, esporte, performance: notas sobre os “limites” do corpo. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte, v. 27, n. 1, 2005.

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R afael Campos Veloso

Life and sacrifice of the Olympic cyclist Cezar Daneliczen1

This text proposes a poetic interpretation of the Biographical Narrative provided by the Olympic cyclist Cezar Daneliczen for the research Olympic Memories by Brazilian Olympic Athletes, under the supervision of Dr. Katia Rubio of the Group of Olympic Studies (GEO) of the School of Physical Education and Sport of the University of São Paulo (USP).

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he Greek heroes are assembled by the troop at the port of Aulis, ready to launch into the sea of Poseidon and go to the barbarian gates to meet with Paris, the captor of Helen 2: Agamemnon: - Our army has gathered here and is still withheld by various winds. Calcas, our soothsayer, announced to us that it is inevitable to immolate to Artemis, my dear daughter, the virgin Iphigenia; in return for this sacrifice we will finally have favorable winds (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis)

All the dialogues present in this text are taken from the Iphigenean tragedy in Áulis. The tragedy of Eriphons, contemporary of Sophocles and Aeschylus, was probably represented for the first time in 405 bc. after the death of the poet. The plot of Iphigenia in Áulis belongs to the so-called Trojan Cycle and the version of some scholars of the Euphratian work affirm that it would have been terminated by some homonymous son or nephew. The myth of the sacrifice of Iphigenia is not merely a metaphor, but its symbolic set, as a vascularized and communicable network, enlarges the semantic horizons on the direction of the dimension that Wunenburger and Araújo (2006) call of archetypal imaginary (myths, symbols, archetypal archetypes-images. Assuming in this way the “transverbal” condition of the image, the myth goes beyond the figurative role to achieve semantics in itself, assuming the status of a symbolic form, which exists in itself, but which does not serve for itself. Otherwise it would not be a symbol of anything. In relation to symbolic activity, the authors state: “This is why we agree with Jean-Jacques Wunemburger when, in his Philosophie des Images, he affirms that symbolic activity, contrary to the metaphorical game remains fundamentally asymptotic, tangential, it reveals other horizons invisible at first sight, but without being able to reach them, that is to say, to place their hand on the space of meaning” (WUNENBURGER and ARAÚJO, 2006 p. 40, apud Wunbenburger 1997 p.210-211, our translation).

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Life and sacrifice of the Olympic cyclist Cezar Daneliczen

The year was 1977, when the tender elements of the cycling world fulfilled their destiny to find one of their chosen, Cezar Daneliczen, from Cascavel, Paraná. The meeting took place through the most innocent intricacies of daily life, through a friend who was already surrounded by bicycles and just wanted a companion with whom to share the game of cycling. However, it is in the daily routine that the call of adventure meets the hero Daneliczen, fifteen at the time, he finds pairs that will rival him mounted on their “lead foot.” This was the term used for the bicycles with few resources that they used and that came to be designated by the boys as a category. From his daily life, the call incorporated the hero, who, in turn, did his utmost to serve it. He worked during the day and studied at night. Upon returning from school, he would put away just the books and ride on his “lead-foot” to train. In the quiet Cascavel of the ‘70s, Daneliczen could train with confidence and determination from eleven o’clock in the evening until midnight during a third shift of the day, even if it was a first shift in his mind. He had no coaches or teachers, and learned a few things in specialized magazines of the sport; he went ahead because he believed that he had something “natural” with cycling, as something that would unite him with the cosmos. Old man: “But you must experience joy and sorrow alike, mortal as you are. Even though you like it not, this is what the gods decree.” (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis) In the following year (1978), the “lead foot” federated into the third category in which he disputed the championship of Paraná, obtaining good results and standing out. Quickly integrated with the national team, he participated in increasingly difficult challenges. At the age of 17, he left, together with the selection of his compatriots, to represent the state of Paraná in the Brazilian Cycling Championship, obtaining fourth place in a great performance. Although the state of Paraná has traditionally been a cycling pole, the sport developed in the State of São Paulo, which, in addition to having traditional races, such as the classic 9 de Julho, disputed since the 1930s. there was also a financial contribution from the Caloi bicycle factories in São Paulo and the Pirelli tire factory in Santo André. Both attracted all national talents to their teams who were responsible for polarizing cycling in the country for many years. 92


During this same Brazilian Championship, played in the year 1980, in São Paulo, the daily gods wanted to promote another meeting. Daneliczen was observed and met Jose de Carvalho, a Pirelli team coach, who two years later would take him to São Paulo and his team, trailing a 10-year cycling journey. As soon as he arrived, in 1982, in the Pirelli team, he won races and became Brazilian Champion. These highlights earned him a place in the Brazilian national team, a great memory for a junior athlete. In Paraná, he reconciled training with work in his father’s trade and studies in the area of Agricultural Engineering. Following the common course of his countrymen, he took advantage of the region’s tradition in the rural sectors to structure a better life, having graduated from a technical college in farming and cattle raising. However, such activities seemed to push him away from the loom of the threads of meaning of life and a separation from this world would be necessary. Soon after being approved in a public concourse, to work in a state of Paraná, he was surprised by the invitation of José de Carvalho to transfer to São Paulo in order to compose one of the best cycling teams in the country at the time, Pirelli. Thus, to meet the call of the trajectory and adventure that awaited him, it was necessary to separate himself from his birthplace. To his father, who at first was not in favor of the direction unfolding, there remained only the words of one who bids farewell with his feet planted firmly in a safe harbor: “Look, son, go, make good use of your life as an athlete and take things seriously”. Iphigenia: “If Artemis has decided to take my body, am I, a mortal, to thwart the goddess?” (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis) The anthropological structures of the imaginary3 of a subject consists of a chaotic confluence of all the elements that touch his existence. The existence of a biological and psychological body that feels and is affected, and which is inserted in specific social and historical dimensions. Desire, physical conditions and dimensions of imponderable outer forces call the domestique cyclist for self-immolation within the sporting dispute. And it is

Concept proposed by Gilbert Durand (2002) in his work Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary.

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in this condition we find Cezar, separated from his native land, assuming the moral actions of the heroes of the nocturnal4 imaginary regimes. In the first Pan American Championship of the sport he disputed in São Paulo in the early 1980s, even as a specialist in the 4 x 100km event, he had been called to the sacrifice in the endurance race. Cezar and the Italian-Brazilian Renan Ferraro worked for the victory of their team leader Jair Braga and felt contentment with the victory of the companion of squad. Even though we know that this place on the podium is promised to all who line up at the starting line. Iphigenia: “O my father, here I am; willingly I offer my body for my country and all Hellas, [1555] that you may lead me to the altar of the goddess and sacrifice me, since this is Heaven’s ordinance. May good luck be yours for any help that I afford! and may you obtain the victor’s gift and come again to the land of your fathers.” (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis) The sacrificial condition was consolidated when Cezar’s athletic trajectory reached the international limits, promoting to the athlete a new panorama at the competitive level. On the other hand, his teammates elected to try for victory would need, even on a higher level, the donation of his energy and his chance of victory so that they could achieve particular success. However, the individual consecration of the victor alone, in which the blood of self-immolation of the domestique cyclist is not formally recognized on the podium, solidified in Cezar moral structures and forces of resignation. “Then in ‘83, I went to compete in the Championship, the Pan American Games that happened in Venezuela, I also ran the test of resistance, I also had to work for other athletes, there were more experienced fellows, who were, as it’s said, the most favorite, , and I was new to it, so I had to sacrifice myself

The regimes of images refer to the Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary proposed by Gilbert Durand (DURAND, 2002). Its schematization in structures which comprise the dynamism of the imaginary is polarized into two great regimes of images: the diurnal - from which one can glimpse the solar hero, and the nocturnal abode of a kind of sacrificial hero substantiated in the mystical and mainly synthetic structures (or dramatic). The interpretative paths of the sportive trajectory of the character of this text are allocated and contemplated through the structures of the nocturnal regime of the imaginary.

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for the team to stand out, to get a medal something in that sense, but it is very gratifying in this sense of you working for a friend, a teammate and he gets there and stands out to get the medal, so it’s cool.” Daneliczen, at some point in his cycling career, came to be known as Cezão. Generally, the augmentative is attributed to the images of large physical, moral, and (or) evaluative structures that attach some imaginary power to the subject. Daneliczen does not make clear, in the narrative of his anthropologic trajectory (original: trajetividade), the moment in which he was assigned such powers. Upon hearing of his adventures, it is not difficult to note that this was erected to him in the sum of different moments, like a thread that ties together the whole meaning of an anthropological structures of the imaginary in the sport. Probably, the consolidation of the augmentation given to his name would have taken great energy and resonance in the adventure of going to compete in the continent that is the cradle of the modality, and in countries that dispute the title of mother of cycling. And, by intuition and affective bond to the athlete’s journey, I take the attribution of these powers as just and legitimate, and I also use this reference from this moment on in the text. Cezão had the opportunity, together with a team of Brazilians, to participate in competitions in Europe. Happening in countries such as Luxembourg, Holland, France and Belgium, he experienced and practiced the most developed competitive aspects of the sport in the world, measuring forces against the big names of European professional cycling. In addition to giving up personal victory in a race, a domestique cyclist still sacrifices all his individuality by covering himself with the team shirt that uniforms the bodies and promotes the belonging of something that is supposed to be greater than a unit. These characteristics have always reinforced the collective structure in road cycling, although the common imaginary moves towards an individual sporting conception. One of the greatest gifts and donations to a teammate would have come during a Tour of Belgium of the 1980s. The Brazilian team had been training together for only three months, and had just arrived in Belgium, home of the cyclist Eddy Mercks, runner-up in the election of the best athlete of the century, losing only to Pelé. As reported by the Brazilian cyclist, European opponents were unfamiliar with cyclists from Brazil, saying they knew the country only for its coffee, soccer and by the figure of Pelé. They also affirm, that they were called “Brazilian Indians” during the competitions.

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In these same lands of the old continent, Cezão and other domestiques worked so that Jair Braga became the only Brazilian to gain the highest place of the podium of the Tour of Belgium, provoking great surprise among the rivals. Although the laurels of victory have belonged to Jair Braga, the conquest is sufficient reason for his narrative flow at this moment to be realized in the first person and in the plural: “We did it. We went there and won”. The pursuit of the feeling of continuity and permanence, as a divine condition, is common to athletes in the accomplishment of heroic feats in competition. The condition of permanence for a cyclist in the domestique career can be reached through the victory of another, of a teammate. Iphigenia: - All this deliverance will my death ensure, and my fame for setting Hellas free will be a happy one. Besides, I have no right at all to cling too fondly to my life; for you did not bear me for myself alone, but as a public blessing to all Hellas. (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis) Cezão tried to always “fit” in the Brazilian cycling selections, so that he could reach one of the maximum instances for an athlete who seeks his permanence: participation in Olympic Games. For him, the call for participation came at the Olympic Games in Seoul, 1988. The modality that he played in this edition of the Olympic Games was the 4 x 100km relay, which later proved to be extinct from the calendar of Olympic cycling. This particular test consists of a team dispute structure, that is, collective in all its aspects. The Brazilian team that disputed the relay was formed, besides Cezão, by Marcos Mazzaron, Cássio de Paiva Freitas and Wanderlei Magalhães, who left the race at kilometer 75. The rules of the 4 x 100km relay on the road allowed one member to leave the race, closing the team’s time on the arrival of the other three athletes. The Brazilian team won 18th place. After his participation in the Olympic Games in Seoul and back to his usual team, Pirelli, he continued to compete in high performance cycling during another Olympic cycle. In one of the years, between 1988 and 1992, he won sixteen races inside the Brazilian circuit, not counting the occasions when he did not win, but he got somewhere on the podium. Counting that most of those events were on Sundays, he was on the podium most Sundays of the year. The greatest characteristic of a mortal is to have his existence allocated to a finite fragment of time. The fragment, that can be perpetuated with the marks of a duration and permanence later, requires the rupture with the world of extraordinary deeds, the ultimate sacrifice of an athlete, the 96


death of the adventure to return. The sacrifice of adventure, at some point along the path, is necessary for the birth of the new, the tender freshness of life is renewed. For this cyclist, it arrived in 1992. Choir: Men’s natures vary, and their habits differ, but virtue is always manifest. (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis) During this year his achievements had already consolidated his name as a reference of Brazilian cycling. This name was on a list of selectable athletes to take one of the vacancies in the Brazilian cycling delegation that competed in the Olympic Games of Barcelona, in 1992. Only some imponderable force would take the presence of Cezão from another edition of the Olympic Games. About those things which, in some cases, are soon to come, behold, these forces have shown themselves before us. When they sprout from the interior of the unknown chance, they always shake the most vital of structures. In this case, they blew to extinguish the flame, which animated his life as an athlete. On the eve of another edition of the Olympic Games, Pirelli began to write the last lines of its history in the sport, disabling some projects, among them cycling. The Pirelli cycling team was on Argentine soil, playing in the Vuelta de Mendoza and the members didn’t know anything about the events on Tupiniquim soil. Like “ from dust to dust”, in a phone call, his wife reported the bad times saying what she had seen on television. The team made a beautiful presentation and, at that moment, the cyclist Cássio de Paiva disputed the first positions of the competition, beside that Cezão had won one of the stages. Armed with the moral aegis common to the spirit of cycling domestiques, he protected his teammates once again by shielding them during the disastrous news competition. Not allowing the news to spread, he guaranteed that the flame of the soul of others remained lit and luminous. When they returned to Brazil, the proof of the fact was verified. Pirelli’s road to cycling had come to an end. Without the company’s banner, the team still tried to stay united and participated in trials in an attempt to survive and in the hope that new sponsors would adopt the newly orphaned cyclists. However, it was really the end of this road, its liquidation was necessary for the new to unfold on the horizon. After two months of attempts to save the team, the last flame had been erased in the soul. Thus, in the year 1992, on the eve of another call to represent the country at the Olympic Games, Cezão decided that 97


the athlete should die along with Pirelli. The strong threads, which had woven the fabric of life until then, merged their meanings into one face, demanding the death of both, an integral sacrifice. Only then would there be rebirth for life in the world of the common. Iphigenia: “To be a light to Hellas did you rear me, and so I do not say No to death. (Euripides - Iphigenia in Áulis) With the courage that this decision demanded, he faced severe questions about giving up participation in the Olympic Games and with the slow and steady steps of a wanderer, who had just embarked on a new trip, answered that he had already walked through these lands, already knew and had experienced an Olympics. Now “it was time to give a chance to another one”. Chorus leader: “What joy to hear these tidings from the messenger! He tells you your child is living still, among the gods. Agamemnon: “Lady, we may be counted happy, as far as concerns our daughter; for in truth she has fellowship with gods. (Eurípedes - Ifigênia em Áulis) He said at the moment that he would stop cycling but that he would not leave cycling. After some time without connection with the world of the “skinny ones”, he resurfaced with a small trade, a bicycle shop. Currently, he closely follows cycling, offering small sponsorships to athletes and teams. A small shop, which displays in the front the consonants of his surname, and where, for more than 25 years, he can recount from behind the counter all about his continuity and immortality.

References CAMPBELL, J. O herói de mil faces. São Paulo: Pensamento, 1995. CAMPBELL, J. O poder do mito. São Paulo: Palas Athena, 29a ed, 2012. DURAND, G. As estruturas antropológicas do imaginário. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2002. EURIPEDES. Ifigênia em Áulis, As Fenícias, As Bacantes. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 5ª ed, s.d. Versão Kindle (e-reader).

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IPHIGÊNIA. (Filme) Direção: Michael Cacoyannis. Roteiro: Mihalis Kakogiannis. MGM: Grécia, 1977. 1 DVD (127 min) RUBIO, K. Atletas Olímpicos Brasileiros. São Paulo: SESI-SP Editora, 2015. RUBIO, K. Narrativas biográficas: da busca à construção de um método. 1. ed. São Paulo: Laços, 2016. v. 1. 282p. RUBIO, K. O atleta e o mito do herói. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2001. VELOSO, R. C. A condição do gregário no ciclismo de estrada. Aspectos de uma prática competitiva singular no esporte contemporâneo. In.: Rubio, K. (org) Preservação da memória: a responsabilidade social dos Jogos Olímpicos. São Paulo: Képos, 2014. WUNENBURGER, J. J; ARAÚJO, A. F. Educação e Imaginário. São Paulo: Cortez Editora, 2006. WUNENBURGER, J. J. Philosophie des images. Paris: PUF, 1997.

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David Alves de Souza Lima

The coach athlete relationship and the Myth of Chiron

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Introduction

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yths are stories of our pursuit of truth, of meaning, of significance, throughout the ages; they speak of the deepest need to tell our story, to understand it, to transmit it through the generations that follow, perhaps with the intention of moving on with more conviction and tranquility. We all need to understand death and face death, and we all need help in our passage from birth to life and then death. We need life to have meaning, to touch the eternal, to understand the mystery, to find out what we are and why we are here in this world we have come to. Because it is not logical, the form of explanation of the mythical system can be understood as arising from an understanding that comes, possibly, from the unconscious universe. According to this referential, the myth is understood as a way of explaining the world and the human being. The myths speak of the structuring of the universe, of the formation of societies, of how the world was created and men were forged, of how virtues, evils and sins appeared and established themselves in the world. This non-logical way of understanding things is translated by the myth as a primordial way of explaining the reality of being and living in the world. The mythical hero and his great mentor, the centaur Chiron, are figures who translate primordial conditions, present in all human beings, but which, in athletes and their coaches, emerge as formidable demands, exceptional, desirous of overall improvement of their archetypal conditions. Along with the figure of the coach, the figure of the athlete, especially the high-performance athlete, has many similarities with the mythical character called hero, either because of the condition of each of them to be an exceptional figure, unique, presenting himself - hero and 103


athlete - as someone who goes beyond limits, breaks records, performs feats regarded as impossible.

Chiron - the master of heroes As Brandão (1992) points out, in Greek myths, the hero needs a mentor, and the best and most famous of the mentors was the centaur Chiron. Chiron, in Greek Kei/rwn (Kheíron), is a name that represents, possibly, an abbreviation of Keirourgós (Kheirurgós), that is to say, “one who works or acts with and by the hands”, surgeon. Its name, in Greek, means hands, giving origin, in Portuguese to: surgery, chiropractic, chiromancy (BRANDÃO, 1987b). According to the myth this centaur is the son of the nymph Filira and of Crono, the regent of the second divine generation. Chrono possessed Filira in the hierophanic form of horse. That’s, perhaps, why Chiron has a body of horse and head, trunk and arms as of humans. When Chiron was born, Filira became desperate, for the physical form of her son frightened her; in this state of mind, she invoked the divine and begged to die or become something that did not suffer, thus she was transformed into a tree of linden, from whose leaves is prepared a delicious tea. Abandoned by his mother, Chiron was found by Apollo, who raised him as an adoptive father and taught him all his knowledge: music, poetry, ethics, philosophy, divinatory and prophetic arts, healing therapies and science. Traditionally, he inhabited Monte Pélion. There he married Cáriclo, also a nymph, who gave him three daughters: Melanipe, Endeis and Ocírroe, and a son, Caristo. Great healer, astrologer and respected oracle, Chiron was regarded as the last of the centaurs, highly revered as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were several heroes, such as Asclepius, Aristeus, Aeneas, Acées, Acene, Ceneus, Theseus, Achilles, Jason, Peleus, Télamon, Heracles, Oileus, Phoenix and, in some versions of the myth, Dionysus (BRANDÃO, 1992, p.355). Chiron is undeniably the symbolic expression of the master, for he cares for the body, the psyche, and the spiritual. All the care developed and coordinated by Master Chiron, with his wardens, had as its goal to make them fit to complete their initiatory rites of efebia, enabling them to participate in the council of citizens, or to become expert athletes representing their kingdoms in games and fights, or to assume their functions as regents for their peoples or even for the exercise of special healing activities (Asclépio), of music (Orfeu) (BRANDÃO 1987a).

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Still according to Brandão (1987b, p.25-26, our translation), ... according to Julius Pollux, a grammarian and alexandrine of the 20th century. II p.C, in his Onomastic dictionary, II, 4, Hippocrates divided human life into eight periods of seven years. Classical education, and especially that of the Hellenistic period, from the 16th century onwards, IV a.C, occupied the first three stages. The first phase, termed piopton, “infant age” ranged from 1 to 7 years, and “education” was given at home; the second, country, the “boy”, from 7 to 14 years old, was the age at which the child, that is to say, the boy, “the masculine sex”, escaped from the maternal vigilance and began its proper period of school. The next stage, called meirakion, “adolescent”, from 14 to 21 years, the period of efebia, was crowned, to a certain extent, by a stage of civic and military formation ... This picture, which briefly describes the essential of the education given to the young people of Athens, is necessary to understand the mythical education of heroes, which, in general, is a transposition of it. There was, in ancient Greece, a system used to care for the education of young people. The idea was to make the state responsible and train these young people in the transition to adulthood, enabling them to participate in the citizens’ council, or to become expert athletes representing their kingdoms in games and fights, or to take their functions of regents for their peoples or even for the exercise of activities. The myth advocates a similar conduct, since the education was given by the presence of special tutors, being Chiron the most famous and competent among them. The cities felt deeply proud when their representatives won the laurel wreath at the funeral games, held in honor of a famous dead. Being competent, also, for the exercise of special activities such as healing (Asclepius) and music (Orpheus) demanded the presence of a master. According to Jaeger (2010, p.351, our translation), talking about Greek education: For Protagoras only political education is truly universal. This conception of the essence of ‘universal’ education gives us the synthesis of the historical development of Greek education. This ethical and political education is a fundamental trait of the essence of the true Paideia. Our current pedagogues, coaches, parents, carry out the current version of these instructors, mentors. The coach, especially, plays a key role in the life and training of the athlete. The coach will often be the figure that will direct the athlete, facilitating his or her journey and showing shortcuts that can be followed.

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Chiron, the great centaur, was wounded when Heracles came to the cave of the centaur Philo, on Mount Pelion, Thessaly. The three friends met on this visit shortly after the hero had completed his fourth task when he defeated Erimanto’s Boar. While they were making the meal, Heracles asked for wine to accompany the meal. Folo, who ate his raw food, was surprised. However, previously, he had received from the god Dionysus a jar of sacred wine, which was to be kept until the right time to open. At the request of Heracles, Folo, embarrassed, offered the holy wine. The hero opened the barrel, leaving its vapors and aromas out of the bottle, which attracted the wild centaurs, led by Nesso. So the the invasion of the wild centaurs occurs, violence emerges, the battle ensues. Héracles fires his poisoned arrows. One of them, after crossing the invading centaur, hits Chiron in the thigh (BRANDÃO, 1992, p. 355). Having wounded himself with the arrow soaked in the deadly poison of Lerna’s Hydra, Chiron was suffering from unbearable pain. Chiron, being immortal, could not die. Chiron is symbolically regarded as the best expression of “The wounded healer,” the archetypal condition of the healer and the bearer of the wound, the pain of the soul, needs the other to be healed, either because he bears the wound of having been abandoned by his mother, or because in his myth, he has been inadvertently shot by the arrow of Heracles with the poison of the Hydra of Lerna. The poison of the Hydra was deadly, but as Chiron was immortal, he suffered from an incurable wound that hurts for all eternity. The unbearable pain, which hurts forever and ever, causes Chiron to wish to die and thereby become mortal. The nobility of Chiron is reflected in the story of his death, for he sacrifices his life, exchanging his immortality for the mortality of Prometheus, and thus creating conditions for mankind to incorporate the use of fire, symbol of consciousness. The mythical moment that portrays this meeting, populated by profound transformations, occurs in the Caucasus region, when three great mythical characters meet: Heracles, Prometheus and Chiron. Prometheus is chained by the shackles forged by Hephaestus, by order of Zeus. He is the son of the Titan Ipeto and of Clímene, daughter of Ocean (BRANDÃO, 1991, p.328). Prometheus is the one who knows before, or thinks before doing. Chained for offending the divine Zeus, either because he had instructed his human creatures by gifting them with the competence to deceive the divine, either because it gave them knowledge to produce fire and inventiveness to create protections to the body or shelter in the weather or place to sleep, boat to sail, either because he peremptorily refused 106


to reveal secrets about a likely future of Zeus. Infuriated by the titan’s overconfidence, Zeus punished him with imprisonment, according to the myth (BRANDÃO, 1991, p.328). Condemned to shackles, he would remain tied to the rocks, bound by unbroken chains, and so should remain for 30,000 years, his liver devoured during the day by an eagle sent by Zeus. At night, while resting protected by sleep, his liver would regenerate. In the text of Ésquilo (1999), Prometeu Acorrentado, Io, the pregnant nymph of Zeus, persecuted by Hera, desperately flees the huge wasps sent by the goddess to attack her and arrives upon Prometheus. Pitying the suffering of the titan she asks what to do to help him. The answer is a great puzzle to be understood symbolically. Prometheus replied that she had already helped him, for who was born of her, in the thirteenth generation, would be his savior. On the other hand, Heracles is on his way to perform his 11th or 12th task, namely, to find the Garden of the Hesperides, where the golden apples were, that would be taken to Eurystheus, which would represent the end of his punishment. The golden fruits of the garden of the Hesperides are fruits of immortality. It is a means of unifying knowledge, fruit of the tree of good and evil (CHEVALIER & GHEERBRANT, 1996, p.572). The hero, however, needs the help of Prometheus to find the way that would lead him to his destination. When he finds the fettered titan, he identifies with his suffering, an expression of his mercy. In the myth, the hero is the son of Zeus and Alcmena, descendant of Perseus and corresponds to the 13th generation of those who were born from Io, representing the liberator of Prometheus (ÉSQUILO, 1999). Heracles arrives in the Caucasus, kills the eagle that devoured the liver of Prometheus, persuades Chiron to die in the place of the Titan, with the condition of his reconciliation with Zeus, who had committed to liberate Prometheus, since the secret of his fateful marriage was revealed. It was up to Heracles to make an agreement with Zeus, so that Chiron could exchange his immortality with the Titan (granting him immortality), and thus freeing him from the fetters. Zeus had determined this. Chiron, for his part, got rid of his suffering and was able to die quietly. After his death, Zeus honored him, transforming him into the constellation of Sagittarius (BRANDÃO, 1992, p. 355). In order for Prometheus to be released and his process fulfilled, it was necessary for the liberator of his physical body, Heracles, to arise to kill the eagle and pluck him out of the chains; that the liberator of his spirit, Chiron, should arise and be willing to die in his place, conferring upon him the condition of immortality; that he himself, Prometheus, 107


should submit, by choice, to the supreme power of Zeus, accepting to use the ring made of the metal of the chains, plus the mountain stone extracted from the Caucasus; and, finally, to reveal to Zeus what would be reserved for him if he consummated his marriage to the Nereid Tethys (BRANDÃO, 1991, p.256). Chiron is the wounded healer, which means he who knows the pain himself to know the pain of/in the other. To be the wounded healer implies becoming mortal, finite. Dying and finitude, inherent conditions of humanization, make it possible to endure pain, for it ends. Feeling pain for all eternity is unbearable. Consider the condition of Hades, also wounded by the poisoned arrow of Heracles, to seek, incontinent, Apollo in the sense of obtaining from the god of Medicine the cure for his wound. Chiron did not; he kept up with the pain and agreed to become mortal. Why? Perhaps the myth portrays that the condition of being a healer is indelibly linked to mortality and suffering pain. The wound of the healer will hurt for the duration of his life. A soul wound does not disappear: healing implies maturing, transforming into something other than its first nature. The wounds remain as scars, symbolic and literal marks of the identity of all of us. There seems to be, by the youth, a certain arrogance in relation to mortality, as if it was not part of their existence. Perhaps, in the athlete, this condition becomes more exacerbated, since on a very large frequency the same is placed on the pedestal of those who achieves the unimaginable for ordinary citizens. This view that we are eternal, even at the unconscious level, can generate arrogance not only in the sporting sense, but also in relationships outside of that context. Returning to the kingdom of Gaia, putting your feet on the ground, treading on earth can be transformative to the one who judges himself above others. Mortality makes us move in a positive way, in the continuous and constant search for deeds. Mortality makes us wish to accomplish deeds that transcend our dying. If we were eternal, we might have no incentive for this demand. We would be at the mercy of time in the monotony of waiting for the next day. Chiron shows us the importance of being ready to die and even wanting death symbolically. We must leave behind many things, dying symbolically to be reborn. The myth of Chiron is read, symbolically, by Analytic Psychology, as an expression of the primordial reality of the archetypal character, translating the condition that the healer heals the pain and wounds of the other, but not his own if he does not accept “dying” in the face of values and assumptions that need to be transcended. “The tragic detail, 108


however, is that Chiron’s wound was incurable. So, Chiron’s world, with its inexhaustible possibilities for healing, was also a world of eternal sickness “(GROESBECK, 1983, p.75). Knowing how to cope with our healthy polarity and our unhealthy polarity is difficult. Disease can be understood, symbolically, as something to be corrected, something to be eliminated or replaced. If done in that sense, it can be beneficial, as it can teach much. Disease has a potential that can lead to death, but it can also bring teaching if it represents transformation. Healing means maturing, becoming fit for the moment. To heal, in the sense of “illness”, implies being transformed by the pains and symptoms that reach us. In this sense, we can understand “illness”, symbolically, as a creative phenomenon. Dethlefsen & Dahlke (2000) tells us about this condition in the book Disease as a Path. Being aware of these aspects is crucial for the coach who desires to be a winner. It is said that Chiron was taken to the heavens, transformed by Zeus into the constellation Sagittarius (arrow, in Latin, sagitta); The constellation is seen as a centaur throwing an arrow which establishes the dynamic synthesis of man, flying through knowledge for its transformation, from an animal being to a spiritual being (BRANDÃO, 1986, p.90), remembering José Ingenieros (an Italo-Argentine doctor, philosopher and sociologist): to be a man is to have your feet planted on the ground and your head facing the sky. Several were the masters of the heroes, such as Linus, Eumolpus, Phoenix, Forbas, Cônidas, but the model educator was the peaceful Chiron, the most righteous of the Centaurs, in the expression of Homer (Iliad, XI, v.832) Many heroes passed by his wise hands, in the celebrated cave where he resided on Mount Pelion: Peleus, Achilles, Asclepius, Jason, Acton, Nestor, Cephalus ... list that is enriched by Xenophon, in his work Cinegética, 1.21 (Treated about the Hunt) with fourteen more names. Chiron was first and foremost a famous physician, whence his first art was Iatric, but his encyclopedic knowledge, as it appears on figurative and literary monuments, made Achilles’ educator a master in the art of athletic disputes, Agonistic, and perhaps practiced and still taught the divinatory art, Mântica. But Chiron’s versatility did not stop there: he also ministered to his disciples knowledge of hunting, Cinegetica; riding, Equestrian, as well as teaching them to to play the lyre and throwing the dart …More than anything, however, the fact that Chiron is a wounded physician, a shaman, and dwells in a grotto all at once conjures up his most noble and indispensable function for the “historical” youths, but above all to mythical heroes, that we know, the action of making them pass through initiatory rites, which gave the former the right to participate in the political, social and 109


religious life of the polis, and to the latter, the essential spiritual clothing (BRANDÃO, 1987b, p. 26-27). Chiron, when appearing in the figure of the doctor, has as one of his roles to try to cure, or at least to alleviate the suffering. The figure of the doctor should be that of a person who is always ready to help, trying to relieve the pain of the other in the most critical moments. Exhaustive, tiring, but very rewarding when restorative interaction is achieved, relieving or healing (transforming) mental or physical pain. Why the figure of a wounded centaur doctor, as master, teacher of countless heroes? Perhaps part of the answer stems from what the master have experienced in his life, learned from the suffering of the other, transforming himself in function of interactions. In this way, perhaps, he may help the “disciple” to become a teacher. To put oneself in the other’s place, to listen to stories, accounts, are part of the master’s daily life. Knowledge, empathy, together with all these experiences can help the “disciple” in finding the way. The path towards the acquisition of wisdom is long: the master is the one who makes it possible. More than that, the fusion of man and horse combines strength and equine power with the wisdom and intelligence that man can achieve. The myth of Chiron preaches teachings in the medical field, in the area of music, in the endowment of physical, athletic attributes, in curing with plants, in learning to fight, in theater, etc. It shows, therefore, that the way to be followed implies the need to have a broad, diversified and focused formation to reach the top, to be a winner. This aspect is very important; It is fundamental to have a more general view so that one can better know the specific. The coach is responsible for having a broad training. Achieving victory is always a difficult goal to achieve in any field of human activity. In Sport, the difficulty is reissued.

Bebeto de Freitas, the volleyball Chiron Paulo Roberto de Freitas (Bebeto de Freitas) was born on January 16, 1950, in Rio de Janeiro. Nephew of João Saldanha (journalist, former player and soccer coach), and Heleno de Freitas, considered the best Botafogo player before Garrincha. Bebeto had the Lonely Star from the cradle. He reports that he began his sporting activities by practicing basketball. He was champion in Rio de Janeiro in 1962/63, playing basketball for Botafogo. 110


At age 12, he started playing volleyball. He played on the beach, at school, and then played at the club. At that timein Rio de Janeiro, there were the children’s games that counted on the Journal of sports to publicize sports events in clubs and colleges. He effectively abandoned basketball when he was called up for the Rio de Janeiro volleyball team. He was the national youth champion in 1965, in Rio de Janeiro. He was volleyball national champion for Botafogo five or six times, besides being the state champion 11 times. At the time, he was the rookie, considered the mascot, the youngest of the group. He reports that, at that time, volleyball practice occurred two to three times a week. He also comments that, after the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, there were frictions between athletes and managers, and in 1969 a major renovation took place in the Brazilian Volleyball Selection. “They made those drastic renovations of the Brazilian Sport.” Many of the athletes who participated in the 1968 Olympics were not called, giving opportunities for youth players, and Bebeto among them, as he was standing out in his club and in the national team. He began to participate in international games with the Brazilian National Team, which provoked a substantial improvement in his game. “But it was kind of a fluke at first,” says Bebeto. He traveled to Munich in 1972 to participate in the Olympic Games as a setter for the Brazilian team. Due to an appendicitis crisis, he was operated in Germany during the Olympic Games, and did not compete. He says that Brazil lost a game to Japan, which would become the Olympic champion. He recalls the tragic attack on the Israelis in the Olympic Village, which led the competitions to be interrupted for a day. “It was the last Open Olympics. You would just walk in and out of the Village with your identification. “ Bebeto assesses how Brazilian volleyball was at that moment: “We had a very good volleyball, but we did not have the athletic, physical conditions to compete against the best.” It points to the lack of professionalism of the time that led to the player Paulo Poter (Paulão) to move away from the national selection, even after being summoned, because he had just gotten a job and the employer did not understand the importance of his employee to distance himself from work to play volleyball. It was common for the player to ask for dispensation from the selection since work, training and competition were irreconcilable. At age 23, Bebeto had already graduated in Physical Education and worked as a coach, in addition to acting as a player. He says that in 1976 at the Olympic Games in Montreal, players did their best to get a better place, but it was not possible to go much further. He speaks of his frustration as 111


an athlete in the face of the result and his conviction that volleyball in Brazil should be among the best in the world. That, perhaps, was one of the reasons he decided to go to the United States to study and play volleyball. In the USA, he completed several courses in the area of management, sports training and exercise physiology, knowledge that enabled him to exercise different positions in Brazilian sport. He acted as a player in the U.S. and, for that reason, he could not play for the Brazilian Team anymore. The pretense of amateurism prevailed at that time, and any player who made any amount of money to compete was considered a professional, thus losing the right to participate in the Olympic Games. American volleyball was professional and contributed much to Bebeto’s formation, since there he could observe closely the structure of the high level sport. He had five years of intense learning in North America, where Bebeto could observe the difference of organization and training in relation to what happened in Brazil. Finally, he told us that it was this organization that Brazilian volleyball lacked, since, in relation to the technical part, our players had the same level as the Americans. In 1980, after the Olympic Games of Moscow, which he did not dispute, he was called to be the coach of the Brazilian Men’s Volleyball Team. And at that moment, he lived the transition from the role of athlete to coach. He was 30 years old and had accumulated an experience that no Brazilian player had achieved. His first concern was to start thinking as a coach, trying to dismiss the reasoning of the player, even though he recognized that it was exactly this experience and thinking as an athlete that allowed him to be the coach that he was. For precisely that reason, the fact that he was a setter, the position in volleyball that most requires strategic thinking, he has contributed so much. Here, wisdom and teaching stand out: the master-coach can usually contribute more effectively to his commanders when he has previously experienced similar experiences to his disciples. About the fact that he became a volleyball coach he says that “It was something that happened naturally, the experience comes with time ... The maturation of a coach is as important as the maturation of an athlete.” He implemented a new philosophy of volleyball work he had learned in the USA, using new methods of training, weight training and specific training in two periods of activity per day. There was a professionalization, a transformation in the dynamics, in the philosophy of training and in mindset. Bebeto set up a technical team with a physical trainer, physiologist, assistant; a structure unheard of in the Olympic sport 112


until then. A more objective training period began, based on statistical data related to examinations and tests of player capacity. “We’ve always had exceptional volleyball players. We have had exceptional volleyball athletes from then on. “ The work for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 was fundamental in the process of developing volleyball in Brazil, marking its transformation. The Brazilian team won the silver medal, the first in collective modalities of the country, and this generation was known as the silver generation. Participating in it were the players William, Montanaro, Bernard, Renan, Amauri, Xandó, among others. Bebeto talks about the knowledge he acquired during the period in which he lived in the United States to reach the silver selection performance: “We were learning to work at the athlete’s limit. That’s High-level sport.” After returning from Los Angeles, he participated in a daring project of professionalization of the Olympic sport, led by Companhia de Seguros Atlântica Boa Vista. This team had as employer the businessman Braga, known as Braguinha. He began to manage the sports project managing teams of basketball, volleyball, swimming, athletics, tennis and indoor soccer, besides being the coach of the volleyball team. With an uncommon political formation in the sporting environment, Bebeto began to have conflicts with some unscrupulous and corrupt leaders. This led him to withdraw from the squad for the Seoul Olympic Games, which was then led by Korean Young Wan Sohn, then a coach at Minas Tênis Clube, which promoted a renewal in the selection of players and drastically changed the philosophy of the current work. The discontent of some athletes with the new methodology led them to request their resignation from the team, generating a crisis in the Brazilian National Team, which culminated in the dismissal of coach Young Wan Sohn, when they were 35 days from the beginning of the Olympic Games. Bebeto was called again to be the coach of the Brazilian National Team. He immediately called on the athletes who had been the base of the silver team: Willian, Montanaro, Renan, Xandó, Amauri, called the untouchables - and looked for Bernardinho to be his assistant, and resumed the training. The renewal was made up of athletes such as Marcelo Negrão, Tande, Mauricio, Giovane, Janelson, Jorge Edson and Paulão, who were to become the Olympic champion team in 1992 under the command of coach José Roberto Guimarães. Despite all these hiccups, the Brazilian National Team finished the 1988 competition in Seoul in fourth place. He stayed in Brazil as head of the national team until the eve of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, when his disagreements with the leaders 113


became unavoidable. After receiving an invitation from Italy, he left for Europe, where he affirmed himself as a victorious coach. In 1996, he returned to Brazil to work on the project to create the Olimpikus team, being Brazilian champion in charge of this group. The trip to Italy earned him the invitation to be the coach of the Italian Volleyball Team. In the face of the boycott against him by the leaders to continue working in Brazil, he accepted the offer, which earned him the titles of World League champion, European Championship and World Championship in the biennium 97/98, defeating Brazil. But the life of an exile did not suit Bebeto. In 1999, he returned to Brazil and assumed the role of executive director of Atlético Mineiro. He had a management job, organizing the training center, managing marketing, and organizing issues related to the smooth running of the club. Seen as a football management revolutionary, this experience opened the door for him to change the disastrous course his favorite team had been living. He disputed and won the elections for the presidency of Botafogo, a team with which he maintains a strong bond of affection since childhood. The return to his team was as if he closed the cycle of the monomyth nuclear unit (CAMPBELL, 1990). Of the many lessons that sport has taught him, Bebeto talks about the importance of working in a team “no matter how skillful an athlete is, it is the team that wins, not a single player”, the need to have a professionalized structure - “technically , today everyone is on the same level “- as well as talking about the need to maintain their integrity in their actions and thoughts:” by not compromising myself with corruption, I had no team to run in Brazil. “ But it is precisely here that he becomes a reference for a new generation of athletes, coaches and leaders.

Approximations between Bebeto de Freitas and Chiron In an interview with Bebeto de Freitas, a former Olympic volleyball player and former coach of the Brazilian men’s volleyball silver medal in Los Angeles (1984), besides numerous other titles that he from his trip to the USA, as player and student, we find the following comment: I knew. I went because it was an opportunity that I had to live with the high level Sport. Not volleyball, because the United States volleyball, at that time, was a volleyball of our level, from the technical point of view, but the important thing was the possibility of the studies; I did several courses related to physiology, to sports administration. Anyway, I spent five years there that were very important to me. 114


In Bebeto’s speech, we can glimpse aspects of the mythical hero, translated into the condition of needing to leave his homeland, leave his father and mother, the comfort of the “known” to seek knowledge, new seeds, other techniques, experiences in distant lands, to return and compete to the growth of the collective. Much is discovered on this journey. This “exile” certainly brought learning that could be shared and used for the sake of the collective, in his return to the “tribe” of origin. In addition, Bebeto glimpsed the future and went in search of his longings, his dreams. In the image and likeness of a Chiron, he went in search of the endowments, of the information, of the knowledge that forges, as a whole, the master. The tutor, the master, in order to become, must first have been an apprentice. On his return, Bebeto began to exercise as a “Chiron” when, becoming coach of the Brazilian volleyball team in the 1980s, he won the silver medal at the Olympics in 1984. More than that, Bebeto started a pathway in volleyball, leaving a legacy for subsequent generations. It is not by chance that Brazil has maintained itself at such a high level in volleyball, achieving impressive results in the last two decades. The master (Bebeto), the heroes (volleyball players) and his people (all Brazilians) were proud of the first Olympic volleyball medal and they felt transformed after this exchange and sharing ideas, struggles, pains, experiences. Many coaches were players and athletes. Bebeto was an athlete and sought information and training to become a coach, mentor; he had experiences and complex learning situations that contribute to the challenges faced in the role of master-coach. Bebeto talks about the importance of teamwork and letting yourself be helped by others: You don’t do anything alone. I think sport is precisely the symbiosis of what is spoken in theory. Someone that’s arrogant, who thinks he is the only one, lasts very little. And yourself in Individual Sport, you don’t win alone. You need the trainer, you need the physical trainer, you need the nutritionist, you need the physiologist, you need the pool, the racket, you need the development of the sneackers, you need the development of the ball. Sports teaches you this, teaches you attachment and democracy above all else. If someone wants to ask me what democracy is, I would not be able to tell you from a political point of view, but I would be able to tell you that democracy is your dependence and need to live with people, and to carry out your projects and know that you alone, however dedicated and better you are, you will never be able to do it.

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The condition of the “arrogant athlete”, as Bebeto speaks, can be amplified with the myth of Phaeton, which teaches us a lot about not only about the “arrogance”, but also about the lack of limit that emerges when the coach does not exercise as a censor and, fundamentally, how the lack of limit sets the door open for overcomings that lead to defeats with tragic endings. Phaethon is the son of Helio and Clymene; was educated by his mother, in total ignorance of who his father was. As a young man, he went in search of his father, after learning that he was the god Helio, and after finding him, asked him if he really was his father. Helio says yes. And, perhaps, to repair his long absence, he says that the son could make him any request and would be granted. The son asks his father to rule, for a day, the chariot of the Sun (BRANDÃO, 1987b, p.223). Concerned with the request, Helio tried to persuade the young man of the impropriety of the request, but he eventually gave in. The divine knew that the request was above his son’s condition and that something bad would happen. He could not go back. In the mythical, when a request is granted or an endowment is assigned, the divine granting it, or any other, cannot withdraw, deny. You can assign another grant that creates conflict with the first. Helio begins to give instructions to Phaeton to achieve his desire without causing havoc. “Do not run low to the earth, nor lift up to the sky. Otherwise, you will burn the planet or scorch the sky. Fly in the middle and you will run safe! “(BRANDÃO, 1987b, p.225). Phaeton does not follow the paternal recommendations and is totally lost in the driving and handling the Sun charriot. Phaeton first took him to such a height upon the earth that everyone began to tremble with cold, and then to so near the land that burned the fields. Zeus in a fit of fury, struck him, and he fell into the Po river. Her sisters, distressed, were transformed into white poplars that weep tears of amber on the banks of the river. It is also said that they would have been transformed into alders (GRAVES, 2008, p.186, our translation). It was given to Phaeton, for one day, more power than he was able to have. “The request of Phaeton constitutes the excess of vanity, whose victim, sooner than he expected, was himself ” (BRANDÃO, 1987b, p.229). He tried not to find his true origin when he went in search of his father. He was more concerned with bragging to his sisters and friends, bragging in some way about his genesis. He became arrogant and made a request to perform a feat for which he really had no competence. 116


On the other hand, Bebeto speaks of the necessity of the ample preparation, of having to develop many abilities. In Sport, we realize that young people are often launched without being ready for the task yet. Still immature and mostly unprepared in their emotional condition, they are placed on tasks where the body can respond, but the mind doesn’t. When that happens, the result turns out to be failure. The reversal of this process is difficult, slow and often impossible, if it is not prepared to bear the burden of the hybris itself. Hence the need to prepare adequately for the “battle.” Being prepared to fulfill the task is part of the hero’s instruction period and, as we are proposing, the athlete’s as well. Being prepared does not necessarily mean achieving victory, but rather being able to withstand defeat if it happens. And more than that, learn from defeat, taking advantage of its teachings. The problem is not power, but rather its misuse, since such inadequacy can lead to irreversible processes and even death. Phaeton was defeated by arrogance, by incompetence, by the inflation of the psyche: the price paid was his own life. Bebeto speaks as someone who has learned by doing, feeling, suffering in daily life and confirms the most obvious reality that characterizes us as social beings, that is, beings that interact and depend on each other reciprocally. Such speech shows the need to share and to learn from others. Chiron showed and offered his disciples tools to make the journey, not to shorten it, not even to soften it, but to be able to endure the challenge of making the journey. And, the fulfillment of this task - to accomplish the path - implies to be with the other. Bebeto also shares this view, showing the importance of the conduits of interaction, interrelation and interdependence permeating human relations. Getting to the top is very difficult, but staying there is more complicated. The high-performance athlete deals with extreme situations in which detail can lead to triumph or not. Symbolically, the mythical hero also deals with and goes through these experiences. We always need the inner hero to endure these challenges. According to Gusdorf (2003, p.24, our translation): The experience of the teacher, acquired through practice and wit, is in fact the gift of the discernment of the spirits who, in sensing the possibilities of each, proposes to them ends within their reach, as well as the means of attaining them, through the use of their capabilities. Bebeto adds to his statements other data about the necessary, essential condition of having a focus centered on the main goal, always 117


paying attention to the internal demand and the knowledge of where one wants to reach: You only have one way of working. If you have some other, some other kind of focus you no longer do well what you have to do. I learned really early, to be very disciplined and very focused on the things I do. I always managed, kinda to “lock myself up”, to bury my head into things, as I set out to do them. And you are learning, you’re getting beaten, you are getting better, and your dedication has always been exclusive, many hours a day of everything I did. And the only way for you to achieve anything is to dedicate yourself, to seek to learn, to observe a lot, that’s what I did. When Ulysses finally arrived in Ithaca after almost twenty years of absence he carried within himself, as a structure of personality, the wisdom of years of forced seclusion, whether in the company of Circe or later on the island of Calypso, as well as the iron tenacity of those who had been tempted by the seduction of pleasures, wealth, and power. When released by the goddess, he patiently built his own boat and left. He was hounded by Poseidon, he was shipwrecked, he almost died. Saved by Leucotéia, he arrived in the island of Corcira, kingdom of Alcinoo and Areté. Nausicaa, the king’s daughter, fell in love with him, and Ulysses was seduced into staying, enjoying all the benefits. But his goal was to get to Ithaca, his own kingdom, his beloved Penelope, his son Telemachus, whom he didn’t see grow up, his people. When he arrived in Ithaca, he faced the suspicion and distrust of his son, he was reviled, punished by the suitors at the hand of Penelope, in fact abusers and usurpers of other people’s goods. Ulysses bore with patience, with the wisdom of one who has much discipline and is deeply focused on his purposes (HOMERO, 1962).

Final considerations To know the myth is to use a knowledge that makes us initiated in the “mysteries”, with harmony of conscience, conscious of our tasks and responsibilities. Knowing the myth makes us know heroes, as it compels us to find ourselves treading the path to become masters. The life story of Bebeto de Freitas reveals effort and dedication to his functions and activities of athlete and, later, coach. In his journey, he was a hero, without which he would not attain masterful competence. After his heroic times, which I consider ritualistic, he returned to Brazil, rich in experiences, motivated for new works. Bebeto brought innovations to new training methods and created the “raça - to take the bull by the horns” of volleyball athletes. He recognizes the importance of 118


a multidisciplinary team and teamwork, concluding with great wisdom that nobody does anything alone. That it takes a lot of work to reach one’s goals, to escape self-inflation. As a master-coach, he contributed more effectively to those under his command, by having previous experiences similar to those of his disciples. The acquisition of competence that has transformed him into a coach has taken years of work, suffering and loss, has implied patience, temperance, strength, resources that reflect personality endowments that many desire and few have or can achieve. In this condition, the coach is configured as a leader, in the broadest sense, to assume in the relationship with his athletes the status of “master”, that is, gathering the functions of coach - organizing, predicting strategies, anticipating defenses, making pertinent substitutions, etc., being an incentive - stimulating, applauding, recognizing the merits of their athletes; being understanding - accepting the moments of crisis and failures of the team; being patient - waiting for his athletes to recover; being demanding - demanding more effort, training, dedication, responsibility; being a listener and confidant promoting the improvement of group interactions; knowing how to tell stories when there is no other way to teach, and to understand, accept, support, other than telling parables. The storytelling makes the individual perceive himself as belonging to a greater reality, which contributes to create an interior, subjective climate of tranquility and stillness. The coach can, must and needs to be able to exercise according to these various functions and in the correlations that are developed. With the myth of Chiron we can glimpse the importance that this referential confers on the structuring of the role of the coach. The myth of Chiron comes close to our work because it is the translation of the majesty of the archetypal model of what it is like to be a tutor, greatest master of this unique condition that, when updating, or better, when humanizing, reveals himself with the endowment of the exceptional, those who do more than what is asked of them, but also know how to demand. The master appears when the student appears and vice versa, when the master presents himself, the fascination that surrounds him mobilizes the emergence of the student. And the myth of Chiron reveals this message to us. The myth of reissuing primordial phenomena also points to solutions of how to conduct emotions, complex conflicts. Either to win or lose - the importance of the myth portrays that the most important condition lies in doing. The hero is the one who acts! Living in the moment, in all its intensity, is crucial, going through the process is imperative. The path is revealed and he is made along this trajectory. 119


References BOSI, E. O tempo vivo da memória. São Paulo: Ateliê editorial, 2003. BOSI, E. Memória e Sociedade. São Paulo: Cia das Letras, 1994. BRANDÃO, J. S. Dicionário Mítico-Etimológico. Petrópolis, Vozes, v. I, 1991. BRANDÃO, J. S. Dicionário Mítico-Etimológico. Petrópolis, Vozes, v. II, 1992. BRANDÃO, J. S. Mitologia grega. Petrópolis. Vozes, v. I, 1986. BRANDÃO, J. S. Mitologia grega. Petrópolis. Vozes, v. II, 1987a. BRANDÃO, J. S. Mitologia grega. Petrópolis. Vozes, v. III, 1987b. CAMPBELL, J. O Herói de mil faces. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1990. CHEVALIER, J. & GHEERBRANDT, A. Dicionário de símbolos. Rio de Janeiro: José Olímpio, 1996, 10ª edição. DETHLEFSEN, T.; DAHLKE, R. A doença como caminho. São Paulo: Cultrix, 2000. ÉSQUILO. Prometeu acorrentado. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 1999. GRAVES, R. O Grande Livro dos Mitos Gregos. Tradução Fernando Klabin, São Paulo: Ediouro, 2008. GROESBECK, C. J. A imagem Arquetípica do Médico Ferido, Junguiana. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Psicologia Analítica. 1983. GUSDORF, G. Professores para quê? Para uma pedagogia da pedagogia. Martins Fontes, São Paulo, 2003. HOMERO. Odisseia. Tradução de Carlos Alberto Nunes. Ed. Melhoramentos, São Paulo: 1962. JAEGER, W. Paidéia: A formação do homem grego, 5aed, São Paulo, Editora WMF Martins Fontes, 2010.

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Luciane Maria Micheletti Tonon

Sisyphus and the Time Trainer

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ressage is the ultimate expression of horse training and elegance. This alludes to the act of becoming right-handed, trained, disciplined, to be able (to do something), to obey (DICTIONARY, 2002). All these meanings have one thing in common: straightening through discipline and training. Such concepts have been assimilated since childhood by the developer of this study, the Paralympic dressage rider Rodolpho Riskala, whom I will call “the time trainer”, for having used time so wisely to reinvent his Olympic athlete’s history as a Paralympic dressage rider athlete. In parallel, in the search for some references to the understanding of this life story, I will use the myth of Sisyphus, from Greek mythology, which steers far from discipline and obedience. He never trained nor allowed himself to be trained. As Rodolpho jumped with his horse, Sisyphus would skip around the gods with his wiles; until, at last, receiving a perpetual condemnation of having to roll a stone to the top of a mountain and to see it plummet in vain. We could therefore call him “the one trained by time.” The starting point for drawing the parallel between the two stories came from a comment by Mauro Gama when translating the book: The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (1942). According to him, the Camusian title in the French original has an excellent play on words and, like almost all; untranslatable: Le mythe de Sisyphe sounds precisely like le mythe décisif (the decisive myth). Therefore, the communion between these two characters is the way each one faced his own story. They are in line with what Camus (1989) will call “absurd men”, those who lucidly face the absurd condition - and humanity - on the planes of sensitivity and intelligence. Men willing to agree with themselves, in their new living conditions. 123


The training of Sisyphus Sisyphus was the son of Aerius, god of the winds and direct descendant of Prometheus. He was shrewd; he founded the city of Corinth - then called Ephraim - and became king. Homer in the Odyssey (2008), considered him the wisest and most prudent of mortals, even imprisoning Death. Another tradition, however, emphasizes that he had fallen into the craft of a robber and had a certain levity toward the gods. Franchini (2006) relates that one day he was in the midst of a walk when he observed the eagle of Jupiter passing by carrying Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, towards Olympus. Hoping to take advantage of this indiscretion, Sisyphus hurried to the court of the desperate king and promised to find his daughter, requesting in return the promise to provide Corinth with a clear source of water. The anguished king acceded; and he said that the princess had been kidnapped by the eagle of Jupiter and taken to a distant island. Jupiter, who had seen everything from Olympus, soon sent Sisyphus his relentless fury and ordered that Death itself deal with the meddlesome man. However, when Death came to seize Sisyphus, he not only escaped, but made Death his prisoner. But at the instance of Pluto, Jupiter eventually rescued Death from the hands of Sisyphus through Mars. As soon as Death was freed from her vexatious subjection, Jupiter rushed Sisyphus into the dungeon of hell. But Sisyphus would not have been Sisyphus if he had not managed to escape from it as well (FRANCHINI, 2006, p.418). Before being taken there, he planned a trick with his wife, prompting her to promise that she would not pay for his proper funeral. So when Sisyphus found himself in the infernos, he immediately went to Pluto, saying he was sorry for interfering in the acts of the father of the gods. But he could not stay there because his wife had not given him the funeral honors. He asked to come back and get everything right so he could rest in peace. Pluto let him go, but as soon as Sisyphus returned to live with the living, he forgot his promise and stayed in the world until his old age. One day, however, Sisyphus’ life came to an end. Jupiter decided to punish him for his affronts - this time definitely - condemning him to roll a huge rock to the top of a mountain.As soon as he reached the summit, the stone would fall, forcing Sisyphus to resume the straggling work, which is repeated for ever and ever. The gods had thought, with their reasons, that there is no more terrible punishment than useless and hopeless labor. But he faced the punishment without grief and regret. I consider this to be the training of Sisyphus. Make every effort to roll the stone to the top of the hill and then watch it go down in vain. And

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start all over again, in an endless routine. Camus (1989) analyzes precisely the pause that the then robber makes when seeing the stone fall. “I see this man descend again, with a heavy step, but equal to the torment whose end he will not know.” The repetition and the pause teach us, as well as the process of training of horses, so much practiced by Rodolpho beginning with young foals; the development of the lateral flexion of the neck, trunk and limbs through the turns, either to the right or to the left, as well as the development of the transitions of steps: Step / march / stop / march / step / stop / march and so on ( ANDRADE, s/d). It is understood, then, that Sisyphus was trained by time. The contempt for the gods, the escape from death and the passion for life earned him the punishment of an endless task. When reading the myth one can think, being Sisyphus so insightful; Why did you accept to roll the stone? From the Camusian perspective, the coherence is the maintenance of life, even if the confrontation with the absurd is daily. “... he may even roll the stone to the top of the mountain, from which it descends again: as long as, at intervals, the consciousness of the process is maintained and renewed” (CAMUS, 1989, p.5). Consciousness is what brings the drama to this myth. “Sisyphus, prisoner of the gods, impotent and disgusted, knows the full extent of his miserable condition: it is in it that he thinks as he descends. The lucidity that should produce his torment consumes, with the same force, his victory. There is no fate that can’t be overcome by contempt. “ (CAMUS, 1989, p.71). For the Greek hero to have followed in his routine of rolling the stone is because he was in agreement with himself. He did not carry the weight of the torment, the suffering of his “punishment,” he overcame his fate with his own contempt for that which could wear down his soul.

The decisive myth of Rodolpho Rodolpho Riskala was born in São Paulo and started riding since childhood. His mother was a coach of dressage and wanted to pass the sport to her children. At the age of six, he entered the junior categories and by the time he finished high school he had his career defined. He was a four-time Brazilian champion having his first championship in 1996. The following year he was runner-up junior champion and Junior South American champion in 2001. Then he was champion of the Young Riders in 2002 in Argentina. Racing is and has always been for Rodolpho, his driving force in life. In a latent analysis one notices such an emphasis on his narrative discourses collected for this study, as well as interviews given to the press. 125


“Yeah, this competition thing is good to me I’ve always liked more the competition itself rather than just the training. The closer to the competition, the better.” With a career in progress at age 21, he landed a job in Germany and the opportunity to seek more training with better horses. However, in 2007 the rider returned to Brazil and stayed until the end of 2011 to participate in the Pan American Games. He was called as a reserve athlete because his horse was older than the others and in this case, the set can’t be separated. Even if the athlete is good, the horse also has to be good. After the Games, another job opportunity took Rodolpho back to Europe. While completing some qualifiers for London 2012, the Brazilian Confederation offered the trainer a horse with the condition that its result could serve another athlete, since Brazil would now not dispute the Games by team, but by individuals in a ranking system. “I was already on my way, and I said: - well I’m not losing anything, it’ll be one more experience and I will participate in the Olympic cycle, even without being summoned.” Again, competing, or being in an Olympic cycle as part of his training, had boosted him. After 2012, the athlete started working at an equestrian center as manager, besides giving classes of dressages and preparing the horses for competitions. In that year, he was champion of France in the new horses category, with a mare of six years. In 2013 he went to the World Championship of New Horses with a Brazilian breeding horse. He had good results, but was disappointed that he did not see sponsorships return. Then, at the end of the same year, already almost 30 years old, he decided to work in another area leaving riding as a hobby. The rider took a job at a French designer’s shop. And because he knew several languages and had a good relationship with qualified people, his resume was approved to work as a cashier in the main store in Paris. The time away from horses lasted only three months because a long-time friend cast him to take care of their horses and he could not resist, reconciling work with riding. Well prepared, in 2015, Rodolpho began to participate in the qualifiers for the Pan American Games. He had chances to be on the team, but he was without sponsorship. He would have to complete three qualifiers, but only managed to make two of them, ranking as second string. In July of the same year, Rodolpho went on vacation to Brazil with the intention of, as soon as he got back, doing the qualifiers for the Olympic Games of Rio 2016. After 15 days, he returned 126


to France. It was a Monday. Three days later her mother called and said that her father was hospitalized and it was serious. The rider was able to buy airfare for early the following week, but his father died before he arrived. Even so, he was there to support his mother and take care of the family bureaucracies. What he did not know was that he would there receive his boulder to roll tirelessly. On July 18, after a tiring schedule, he felt bad. He thought it was the flu, or something that did not fit his stomach. However, during the night he was dominated by a fever of 40 degrees and pains throughout the body. He was taken to a hospital as soon as the day cleared and he was immediately diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. The trainer was in a coma for three weeks. Finally he woke up and saw that he had tubes on all sides. High fever and medicines made their extremities suffer a lot. His hands were already in a “mummified state,” total necrosis, he no longer felt his fingers. The left hand was more compromised. The feet were all stained. I turn to Franz Kaf ka (2011, p.226) in his tale “The Metamorphosis”, published in 1915, when the character Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman upon waking from a night’s rest, comes upon his body transformed into a monstrous insect and thinks, “What happened to me?” For the character, it was not a nightmare one could wake up from, no matter how much he thought it was because of fatigue. It was something postulated as definitive. It is the determining event in history that does not admit being captured linearly. The tale of Metamorphosis is an illustration of real life used by Kaf ka, as the author analyzes: “metamorphosis is not there as nonsense, but as a poetic license transformed into fact, with which, by the way, both the hero and reader have to accept “(CARONE, 2011, p.213). Rodolpho’s narrative expresses exactly the phrase of Gregor “what happened to me?” “... but when I woke up I was already with only half of my foot, because my fingers were necrotic and at the time they cleaned everything, it’s really like an iceberg, you can just see the tip of the problem, you can only see what’s really going on inside. They opened it, they cleaned everything and it was more damaged than they thought, so the doctor came in the room and when I woke up, I already imagined that something was wrong.” In this case, the metamorphosis represents the transformation of the one who sacrifices himself to the one who can no longer be sacrificed; from the appropriate to the unsuitable, from the identical to the different. Such a position is supported by the metaphor used by the German philosopher in the terms Ungeheuer Ungeziefer - Monstrous Insect. The translation 127


of the term is correct and was not used by chance, but, according to Carone (2011, p.223), its significant nuances cannot be lost, since epistemologically Ungeheuer (monstrous) means “what is not familiar”, as opposing to the word Geheuer - that means “quiet, friendly, familiar” and the noun Ungeziefer (insect) as “inappropriate animal, which is opposed to domestic animals.” What will make us understand the metamorphosis is the oscillation between the natural and the extraordinary, the individual and the universal, the tragic and the everyday, the logical and the absurd. “A man who still exists but can no longer be seen as himself ” (CARONE, 2011, p.219) It is precisely to this extent that people in the same situation are pushed into isolation, into exclusion. With 20% of his heart and breathing through tracheostomy, Rodolpho was transferred back to Paris, where in full consciousness he had to make the decision not to deny himself and ask for the amputations of the two feet, the left hand and the fingers of the right hand. “Then I’ve decided: - for God’s sake cut it because I can’t take it anymore. I made the doctor almost promise to amputate my legs when he would operate my hands. To take advantage of the same surgery. I know that when I woke up ... it’s only natural that you have an impact. They had put a blanket over them, but I wanted to see, it was almost a relief to know that they had done it.” Rodolpho’s amputations, according to his narratives, were his choice among the options that the doctors had offered him, such as trying to recover parts with grafts, for example. Or, perhaps, because of his weakness, he might feel that going on with life would not be worth it. However, the athlete acted with the ethics of lucidity, as (CAMUS, 1989, p.8) says; “what is called a reason to live is, at the same time, an excellent reason to die.” Doubtless such an event for many would be sufficient reason to cease his life, Rodolpho knew, even without knowing, that the end of the spirit was failure. However, the way the trainer and trainee reacted to the stone that they were sentenced to roll over a lifetime, psychology will call coping. ... the confrontation should not be equated with dominion over the environment, many sources of stress can not be mastered. Effective coping under these conditions is what allows people to tolerate, minimize, accept, or ignore what can not be mastered (LAZARUS; FOLKMAN, 1984, p.140, our translation). According to the authors, coping is a constant shift in cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and / or internal demands 128


that are assessed as taxing or exceeding a person’s resources. Haan (1977) states that the main criterion for defining coping processes is adherence to reality. If a person distorts the “intersubjective” reality, he is not coping. “The accuracy of the person is the trademark of the confrontation, regardless of whether or not the individual succeeds in the situation” (apud LAZARUS; FOLKMAN, p.120). Sisyphus and Rodolpho did not bother to succeed or not in their decisions, or in what they would think of them. They were true to reality. Camus says that Sisyphus subtracts any judgment that is not his. Similarly, the rider in his media interviews says, “I want to live well, without regrets”.

The training of time “Do not lie uselessly in bed,” Gregor said to himself, (KAFKA, 2011, p.232) already trying to get out of bed without having the exact idea of how his body was and that all his effort seemed in vain, with the Hundreds of hitting legs in the air. “[...] at the same time, however, he did not forget to remember in the intervals that calm decisions, even the calmer ones, are better than the desperate ones [...] And for a moment he remained quietly lying down, with his breath weak, as if perhaps expected from full silence, the return of things to their real and natural state.” In turn, Rodolpho’s full silence refused to silence the voice that pushed him to the Rio2016 Olympic Games. He was willing to get up and roll the stone that was imposed on him, as soon as possible, since his body would not return to his natural state. “... So you start to work on projects again, you notice what is happening, it dawns on me, I’m alive. I want to go back to work, to ride and such. A student of mine, she gave me a framce of some pictures with her horse and other horses she took on the internet and my mother put in the hospital room. That gave me a stimulus like: ‘start riding again’ and soon I said, since I always have to have goals, if I would try for a place in the Olympics, why can’t I try for a place at the Paralympic Games?” I once again use Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) approach to coping: “a process of change in which a person must, at certain times, rely more heavily on a way of dealing; sometimes in defensive strategies and sometimes in problem-solving strategies, as the status of the personenvironment relationship changes. “(LAZARUS; FOLKMAN, 1984, p.142, our translation). The resolution found by the athlete was to build a new moment in his life trajectory, “there is no use in crying for the lost finger, which will 129


not grow again. So I have to go after new things. “ This instant, which Bachelard (2010, p.23) considers to be the only reality of time. It is the only domain where the real is experienced. The author emphasizes that “all evolution, in so far as it is decisive, is punctuated by creative moments. For him, life can not be understood in passive contemplation. “Understanding it is more than living it, is effectively driving it” (BACHELARD, 2010, p.27, our translation). Metamorphoses are not always accepted by mankind’s wisdom. So much so that for the family, Gregor Samsa has become a shameful fact. “A dark spot that needs to be hidden” (KAFKA, 2011, p.218). Is this Gregor’s rock? The salesman who kept his duties in good order, did not cheat the boss and set his schedules to the letter, was now bound to carry huge wings and hundreds of fly legs. The salesman’s parents found themselves in the condition of incorporating this accident into the day-to-day life of the house, removing the furniture to leave more space and all necessary adaptations of space and family habits, to the point that his death was then seen as a liberation. Rodolpho was no longer familiar. By burns and amputations, he was Ungeheuer (monstrous). However, contrary to Kaf ka’s tale, his family embraced his disability, believing that the adjustments to the environment were indeed necessary, but the human essence of a son, a brother, a friend, a person; was the same. Here we see the importance of the support of family and friends. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) point to social support as a resource available in the social environment, which one should use and cultivate. It would be a buffer for stress. Thoits (1986) suggests that such support be seen as a form of coping assistance or supportive strategy, because talking about a coping process means talking about changes in thoughts and actions. In sport, Rubio (1999) points out that the family plays a role of great expectation for the “performance” of the child. “The family can be considered one of the main reason for the initiation of the child in sports practice, however, it can serve as both a facilitator and a complicator to maintain his practice habits” (Marques, KURODA, 2000, p.130, our translation). Rodolpho’s mother accepted him and supported him to continue his athletic life, to continue on his competitive path, even though it seems almost impossible for anyone hospitalized and amputated to compete in an event as large as the Paralympic Games in such a short period of recovery and preparation. She even tried to propose that he prepare for 2020. But the rider’s response was incisive, because to compete is to live: “No, I do not want it in four years, I want it in Rio, because it’s in Rio, it’s at home”. 130


Determined, the fearless horseman, already without his legs and without his hands, counted on his family to go after information on paraequestrian1, a modality he did not even know existed until then. He was oriented on functional classification procedures2 to know in which class he would fit. In Equestrian there are four degrees being that the degree 01 is still divided into 1A and 1B; Then there are grades 02, 03 and 04. In grade 1A riders have the most severe impairments, such as the victims of cerebral palsy, for example - in training they will only take steps with the horse; grade 1B riders are usually paraplegic, who really do not have any accessibility with the legs, - in addition to the steps, they manage to trot with the horse. Grade 02 is for those who feel their legs but have little movement in the lower and upper limbs. They have abdominal strength. In degree 03, that’s the class of Rodolpho; are the amputees of some part, but capable of performing also gallops and on degree 04, there is minimal physical impairment. In this moment, it is time who is trained. Because Rodolpho’s defining moment happened four months before the Rio2016 Games. A very short time to get anything done, but not for absurd men. “For a man without blinders, there is no spectacle more beautiful than that of intelligence struggling against a reality that surpasses it. The spectacle of human pride is unparalleled. All depreciation results in nothing. This discipline that the spirit imposes on itself, that will forged from all the pieces, this face-to-face has something powerful and unique” (CAMUS, 1989, p.35). “I started walking in March with the prostheses, in the second week of April I already had a qualifying event, I was still in the hospital. And then I told the doctor: whether you want it or not, I’ll go to the test. I was released on April 30th.” The Paralympic Games were scheduled to start on September 7, 2016 and more than the horse, Rodolpho would have to train time. Twice he “ran away” from the hospital to try out the horse his friend had

The only Paralympic Equestrian Program discipline, the Para-equestrian is the 8th sport discipline of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), being practiced by people with disabilities. Source: http://www.brasilhipismo.com.br/paraolimpico access on 06/19/2017

1

Functional Classification - System to minimize the impact of deficiencies on athletic performance and to ensure the success of an athlete determined by skill, aptitude, power, endurance, tactical ability and mental focus. Source: IPC.

2

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loaned him; and to make the qualifiers. The athlete had to present three significant results to be classified. From April to June, he completed three races, one in Belgium, one in Holland and the third in Germany. Unlike Sisyphus, the rider would not push his stone in vain, he was confident that it would be worth continuing to compete, or to “live.” The meaning of life is the most decisive question of all. And how to respond to this? Of all the essential problems, what I understand to be those that lead to the risk of dying or those that multiply by ten the whole passion to live. What, really, is the absurd man? He who, without denying it, does nothing for eternity. Not that nostalgia is strange to him. But, he prefers his courage and his reasoning. The first teaches him to live without appeal and to be satisfied with what he has, the latter instructs him about its limits (CAMUS, 1989, p. 42). With courage and reasoning, Rodolpho arrived at the Olympic Center for Equestrian, in Deodoro, Rio de Janeiro, prepared for the riders representing the 176 nations involved in the Rio2016 Paralympic Games. It was September 11, when the time trainer and his horse Warenne came on stage to the sound of Jorge Ben Jor with the song: “Mais que nada, sai da minha frente que eu quero passar” or in english “More than anything, get out of my way because I want to pass”. They introduced themselves as if the ensemble had been together for years. They were applauded. As soon as he left the competition he spoke to the press, once again emphasizing the importance of being in a competition arena: “I think everyone who goes through a bad situation, like a life-changing accident, is a little depressed, the ideal is really to move forward because it will not change anyway. In the end you learn that okay, it was a horrible thing, it was. I can‘t say no, because it changes our lives, but, I would not be here, anyway, I would not go through all this and who knows what comes after that? It’s a bad thing that in the end was beneficial. It’s hard to explain it.”

Final considerations The music chosen for the presentation of the “time trainer” and his horse Warenne “More than anything, get out of my way because I want to pass,” summarized well what Rodolpho was getting out of his way: physical barriers, prejudices or any stumbling block that would keep him from feeling alive; to do what he loved, equestrianism, the competition. In his coping strategy he softened and accepted what which could not be mastered, the eventuality of his illness with all its consequences. But his heart was full of life. 132


As Camus (1989) has argued, the very struggle towards the top is enough to fill a human heart. In the myth of Sisyphus, the philosopher makes the first theoretical formulation of the notion of absurdity, that is, of the human being’s awareness of the lack of sense (or of the absurd sense) of his condition. “I think, therefore, that the meaning of life is the most decisive question of all” (CAMUS, 1989, p.8). Both Rodolpho and Sisyphus did not feel overwhelmed by life. They accepted the stone they would have to roll, and at no time did they forget their own person. Unlike the traveling salesman Franz Kaf ka, who indulged in the dark sadness of the room where he lived weak, without food and without strength. Lying with his fly-legs up, he waited for the last breath. “Without any intervention of his will, his head sank completely and his nostrils flowed weakly, the last breath” (KAFKA, 2011, p.286) Time has already been at the mercy of passion, of the desire to realize a dream, as Bachelard explains: “We cannot set the hour when the mystery becomes clear enough to be enunciated as a problem. But what difference does it make? Whether it comes from suffering or comes from joy, every man has in his life that hour of light, the hour when he suddenly understands his own message, the hour when knowledge illuminating passion, at the same time unravels the rules and the monotony of destiny, the truly synthetic moment in which decisive failure, providing the consciousness of the irrational, still becomes the success of thought “(BACHELARD, 2010, p.12, our translation).

References ANDRADE, Lúcio Sérgio de. A importância da Flexão no Adestramento do Cavalo Mangalarga-Marchador. 2011. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 18 out. 2017. BACHELARD, G. A intuição do instante. 2ª ed. Campinas-SP: Versus, 2010. CAMUS, A. O mito de Sísifo: ensaio sobre o absurdo. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Guanabara Copyright by Éditions Gallimard, 1989.

P. S. - I refer to the value of the “gesture of art”, as well as the myth as an “emancipatory gesture”, both embodied in the epistemology of contemporary narratives and Social Dialogue.

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CARONE, M. Franz Kaf ka: Essencial. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2011. DICIONÁRIO DE PORTUGUÊS - Edições Poliglota. São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 2002. EXPLANATORY guide to Paralympic classification: Paralympic summer sports. Paralympic summer sports. 2015. Disponível em: