Victory ‘dustlessly’ - victory by a clear advantage

The purpose of the study is to find out the reasons why athletes at the Panhellenic and local games were awarded victory ‘dustlessly’ (ἀκονιτί), an undisputed, unqualified victory. Such victories were a great rarity in the Archaic and Classical periods, very highly valued and always specially noted in the list of athletes’ victories and their inscriptions of honour. Based on written sources and epigraphic data, it is shown that the reasons for the victories of “without dust” could be the formidable reputation of the athlete, pressure during training or the draw of heavyweight athletes of their rivals. There have been cases of winning “without dust” as a result of violating the rules of the games, for example, being late for the start of competitions. Athletes often complained about the unfortunate event that robbed them of victory - that is, the result of the draw, which paired them with a heavyweight wrestler and led to a loss. The shame and humiliation that awaited athletes in this case also forced them to refuse to participate in competitions with a strong opponent, because such a refusal was considered less humiliating than defeat. Statistical analysis of data on the victories of athletes ‘dustlessly’ allows the author to assume that such victories were most often awarded in martial arts at both Panhellenic and local games.