Οὐ τὸ νικᾶν ἀλλὰ τὸ εὖ ἀγωνίζεσθαι. Playing to win or to show off? Itinerant artists performing in unconventional ἀγῶνες in some decrees from Delphi (third to first century BC)”

In the cultural panorama of the Hellenistic Period, a significant space is occupied by itinerant professionals of literature and music who travelled from city to city all around Greece, the Aegean Sea, and the coasts of Asia Minor, in search of fame, glory, rewards, and money. As their activities were likely oral performances intended for the occasion, most of the times it is not possible to reconstruct the modus operandi of these specialists. Nevertheless the epigraphic sources shed light on several other aspects of this cultural phenomenon that became more and more popular and spread throughout every part of Hellenistic Greece at different levels of society and artistic life. The most relevant feature of this cultural movement is its transversality because of the connection with the public and the politic sphere, with the world of ἀγῶνες and of artistic guilds.