agon

[ ag-ohn, -on, ah-gohn ]

noun

, plural a·go·nes [uh, -, goh, -neez].

1. (in ancient Greece) a contest in which prizes were awarded in any of a number of events, as athletics, drama, music, poetry, and painting.
2. (italics) Greek. (in ancient Greek drama) a formalized debate or argumentation, especially in comedy: usually following the proagon and preceding the parabasis.
3. Literature. conflict, especially between the protagonist and the antagonist.

agon

/ ˈæɡəʊn; -ɡɒn /

noun

1. (in ancient Greece) a festival at which competitors contended for prizes. Among the best known were the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games

Word History and Origins

Origin of agon¹

First recorded in 1650–60, agon is from the Greek word agṓn struggle, contest

Word History and Origins

Origin of agon¹

C17: Greek: contest, from agein to lead

Example Sentences

But what makes the unfurling phenomenon of Matisse’s career so compelling is the struggle — or what the Greeks called “agon.”

From Washington Post

Each competitor in the agon is expected to stake his or her claims on truth; Nietzsche advanced his own opinions with utmost vehemence.

From The New Yorker

“He’s the first master of agon, which is dialogue,” McLaughlin says.

From Washington Post

That’s emphatically, even ecstatically, the case with “Equipment for Living,” which insists at every turn that despite its inherent parasitism, criticism is a creative discipline — a venue for originality and exploration, for agon and jouissance.

From Los Angeles Times

The agon of the central character, self-besieged or plagued by circumstance, runs through the history of the director’s films, as does the suspicion that man’s brutality to man may have a penitential purpose.

From The New Yorker