[428] νεῶν ἐν ἀγῶνι, a phrase which recurs in 16.239, 16.500, 19.42, 20.33, and indicates that the original meaning of “ἀγών” was assembly. This was specialized into ‘assembly (or place of assembly) of spectators’ at games, a stage which has been reached in Homer (“Ψ” passim, 24.1, and “θ”); we find the final transition to the sense of ‘the contest’ itself only in Od. 8.259 (probably). Compare “ἐν νηῶν ἀγύρει” 24.141 and “θεῖον ἀγῶνα” 7.298 (with note). “παρὰ Βοιωτοῖς ἀγὼν ἡ ἀγορά: ὅθεν καὶ ἀγωνίους θεοὺς Αἰσχύλος τοὺς ἀγοραίους”, Schol. “Β” on 24.1. But “θεοὶ ἀγώνιοι” in Aischylos means the gods in assembly, see Verrall on Ag. 518.
