In ancient Greece, an agonothetes (plural agonothetai; Ancient Greek: ἀγωνοθέτης) was the president or superintendent of one of the sacred Panhellenic Games. Alternative names for the same role included athlothetes, particularly in Athens.
At first the person who instituted the games and defrayed the expenses was the agonothetes; but in the great public games, such as the Olympic Games and Pythian Games, these presidents were the representatives of different states, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated; thus at the Panathenaic Games at Athens ten athlothetae were elected for four years to superintend the various contests.[1]
In English, by confusion with the native -s plural form, the singular agonothete and plural agonothetes are sometimes encountered.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agonothetes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 380.
