agon
nounUK /ˈæ.ɡəʊn/ · US /ˈæ.ɡoʊn/
Etymology From Latin agōn, from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn, “contest”).
1
A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
- It was not ecological pressure or shortages of protein, as anthropologist Marvin Harris has claimed; institutionalized violence, as opposed to the stylized agons of hunters over grievances, was the shadow side of the Neolithic Revolution.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 134:
- One way of reading Beowulf is to think of it as three agons in the hero's life[.]1999, Seamus Heaney, “Introduction”, in Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page xiv:
1 more example
- The other ethical system is that of agon. Agon is a battlefield. We enter agon not to exchange, but to fight. We dream of winning but are also prepared to lose – including to lose ourselves, even in the literal sense of dying for a great cause.2023 October 17, Volodymyr Yermolenko, “Europe seeks peace, not war. But will it be ready if war comes to Europe?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
2
An intellectual conflict or apparent competition of ideas.
- Freud's originality stemmed from his aggression and ambition in his agon with biology.1986 March 23, Harold Bloom, “Freud, the Greatest Modern Writer”, in New York Times:
- The point, though, is that to fully and uncritically surrender to such agon against individuals is to invite one's own ethical degeneration; […]2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:
3
A contest in ancient Greece, as in athletics or music, in which prizes were awarded.
4
A two-player board game played on a hexagonally-tiled board, popular in Victorian times.
- Derived terms
- agonal
- Related terms
- agonism, agony, antagonism, antagonist, protagonism, protagonist