THE HAND OF GOD: DIEGO MARADONA AND THE DIVINE NATURE OF CHEATING IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Heroized cheating is among the most persistent memories of the 1986 Football World Cup. While Diego Maradona's brilliant second goal against England was dubbed by sportswriters everywhere " the goal of the century," his first, hand-propelled, is differently remembered by journalists and other writers in London and Buenos Aires. Maradona's cheating, witnessed by millions worldwide, was not observed by the Tunisian referee and other match officials during the game. In the footrace at funeral games for Patroclus in the Iliad, there is even some divine cheating: the goddess Athena intervenes, in response to Odysseus' prayer, and sends Salaminian Ajax sprawling face down in the filthy waste of sacrificial bulls to prevent him winning and thus give victory to Odysseus (Iliad 23.768-784). If the gods cheat to help human favorites, can cheating itself be wholly unacceptable even on a solemn occasion honoring a dead warrior? When Ajax detects Athena's role in his defeat and complains about it to his companions, they just laugh at him. This paper examines the depiction of cheating in Greek and Roman art and poetry and concludes that Maradona's mano de dios was trivial by comparison.