agon

noun

ˈä-ˌgän 

ˈa-, 

ä-ˈgōn 

: conflict, contest

especially : the dramatic conflict between the chief characters in a Greek drama or a literary work

Normally the hostility between two opposed characters is such that the agon clearly continues for as long as they are on stage together.

—Michael A. Lloyd

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Agon and Greek History

Agon comes from the Greek word agōn, which is translated with a number of meanings, among them "contest," "competition at games," and "gathering." In ancient Greece, agons (the word is also pluralized in English as agones) were contests held during public festivals. The contests—among them the ancient Olympics, on which our modern Olympics is modeled—involved everything from athletics to chariot and horse racing to music and literature. Agon in the realm of literature refers to the dramatic conflict between the main characters in a Greek play or, more broadly, between the chief characters in any literary work. The word is also occasionally used to refer to conflict in general.

Examples of agon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Madrid, Urbano transformed the gallery into an immersive replica of the villa that evoked different aspects of this agon between patriarch and female dissident. — Javier Montes, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026

His work often explores America’s racial agon and its brutal history of enslavement. — Elisa Gonzalez, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025

For Brown, the project proves an antidote to, or refuge from, the roiling agon of our times. — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 4 May 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek agṓn "gathering, assembly, contest" — more at agony

First Known Use

1600, in the meaning defined above

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