After listening to a number of games of Agon (thanks Mel) and reading (and then rereading the rules), a couple of different thematic options sprung to mind - Divine Items and Alternate Positioning. Although I’ve yet to test them (I will be doing so shortly), I thought I’d just throw them out there and see if there are any comments.

Divine Items
Although the characters are at the mercy of the gods, often items imbued by their power would be given as gifts (such as Achilles’ Aegis) or as the goals of quests (Jason and the Golden Fleece) to Heroes. Under this optional rule the characters can ‘trade in’ their Advances for such gifts. I’d suggest that such items are just given to the characters, but rather are found as a quest in progress, or at its completion.

Gaining Items
For the cost of 4 advances, a character can gain an item that gives a permanent +1 to a specific ability. If the item’s bonus is related to one of the characters patron god’s favoured abilities, then this cost is reduced by one (it is obviously a direct reward from the God to a favoured champion).

For example, a character could receive a Lyre of Prefect Pitch (giving them +1 to all contests involving the Music ability) for 4 advances. However a Hero who follows Apollo (who’s favoured Abilities includes Music) would gain the same item for 3 advances.

Divine Weapons
To gain a weapon that permanently is imbued with Divine power cost as extra Advance (i.e. 5 or 4if it is weapon favoured by your god).

Alternate Positioning
Rather than just relying on one Ability (Athletics) to determine the order of Positioning, the GM (or players where appropriate) can call for any of the Arete or Sport Abilities to be used at the cost of impairment. This would allow the representation of the guile, speed or tactics when determining who gains Position each round. Of course, the appropriate narrative is required. Note that Athletic remains the default Ability and need not be impaired when used for positioning.

As I said, I'd be interested in any feedback you might have on these.

Regards,
Marcus