Gymnasion Users and Group Identities: The Social Dynamics of an Institution on Late Hellenistic Delos

ABSTRACT: This article examines the importance of group membership in the lives and identities of those who attended and administered the gymnasion of Delos in the Late Hellenistic period, when Athens controlled the island and many foreigners resided there. The evidence of inscriptions suggests that formal and informal groups offered a means of transcending geographical and cultural differences in a way that brought civic relevance and socioeconomic exclusivity to gymnasion users, and a degree of political control to the institution’s Athenian officials. The analysis, conducted from both a bottom-up and a top-down perspective, reveals the gymnasion’s locally specific social dynamics as well as its role in the cultural and political life of the island during a period of considerable change.