“He shoots, he scores…”: the art of metis

Summary:
The first extract begins with Marcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant describing the Greek word metis, a type of intelligence and thought which is applied to extraordinary situations. They remark that metis was never really defined by ancient Greek scholars and thus trying to delve into metis from their perspective only is foolish. Therefore, instead Detienne and Vernant try to discover the wonders of metis by analyzing relevant works of Plato and Aristotle work along with that of the sophists, who they believe bridge the gap between traditional Greek work on metis and that of Plato and Aristotle. In addition, the authors examine Greek Mythology and the goddess Athena (daughter of metis) to uncover other information on the art of metis. This extract does not mention sport at all but connections between the two can be made. One line in particular that illustrates this is, “the individual who is endowed with metis, be he god or man, is confronted with a multiple, changing reality [which]… he can only dominate. This line demonstrates how a sportsman (in our case) can own a moment and totally control a specific situation he faces.

Extract two by Detienne and Vernant begins by reintroducing us to the term agon (competition) and saying that in a struggle the ‘man of metis’ will prevail by using his experience and awareness. Immediately following this the authors go on to describe the many characteristics and traits a ‘man of metis’ possesses. The line, “the man of metis…knows how to wait patiently for the calculated moment to arrive” is a great line that emphasis the intangibles a man of metis possesses. The extract continues with examples from the Shield and the Lliad where the authors give references to where metis is used to describe someone. These references help to give readers a context of when and how metis can be used to describe someone and also serve to help the reader get a complete understand of the term.

Thesis: The thesis is that metis can be analyzed and defined and it is important.

Antithesis: The antithesis is that metis is unimportant or trivial.

Tools:
Mythological Allusion
Theoretical Concepts


Effectiveness of Tools: The tools used are relatively affected but the language used to present the argument can get confusing at times. It takes about 3 readings of the extract to really get a hold of all the main ideas and concepts. However on the first reading one can see how the art of metis can be applicable to sports and the sporting world.