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Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals
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GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS
BY
E. NORMAN GARDINER, M.A.
SOMETIME CLASSICAL EXHIBITIONER OF C.C.C., OXON.
ΜΗΔΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1910
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TO
F. E. THOMPSON
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ALL THAT THE AUTHOR
IN COMMON WITH MANY ANOTHER MARLBURIAN
OWES TO HIS TEACHING, HIS SYMPATHY
AND HIS FRIENDSHIP
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.pn vii
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PREFACE
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It is my hope that the present volume may prove of interest
to the general reader as well as to the student of the past. For
though its subject may seem at first sight purely archaeological,
many of the problems with which it deals are as real to us
to-day as they were to the Greeks. The place of physical
training and of games in education, the place of athletics in
our daily life and in our national life, are questions of present
importance to us all, and in considering these questions we
cannot fail to learn something from the athletic history of a
nation which for a time at least succeeded in reconciling the
rival claims of body and of mind, and immortalized this result
in its art.
This is my first and perhaps my chief justification for the
length of this volume. My second is that there is no existing
work in English on the subject, nor even in the extensive
literature which Germany has produced is there any work
of quite the same scope. The Gymnastik u. Agonistik of J. H.
Krause is a masterpiece of erudition, accuracy and judgment.
But this work was published in 1841, and since that date
excavation and the progress of archaeology have brought to
light such a mass of new material as to change entirely our
outlook on the past. The excavations at Olympia have for the
first time enabled us to trace the whole history of the festival
and to treat Greek athletics historically.
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In the first part of this work I have endeavoured to write
a continuous history of Greek athletics. The attempt is
an ambitious one, perhaps too ambitious for one whose occupation
has left him little time for continuous study. The long
period covered involves a multitude of difficult and disputed
problems, which it is impossible within the limits of this
work to discuss fully. In all these cases I have endeavoured
to sift the evidence for myself, and to form an independent
judgment. Many of the details may be obscure, and many
of my conclusions are doubtless open to criticism. Yet the
general outline of the story is clear, and I venture to think
that it has a more than passing interest and importance.
The second part is more technical, though it may perhaps
appeal to those who are actively interested in athletics. It
consists of a number of chapters, each complete in itself, dealing
with the details of Greek athletics. Many of the chapters are
taken from articles published by me in the Journal of Hellenic
Studies. The chapters on the Stadium, the Gymnasium, the
Hippodrome and Boxing are entirely new. In the first two
of these chapters will be found the latest results of excavations
at Delphi, Epidaurus, Priene and Pergamum, results which are
not readily accessible to the English reader.
The arrangement of the work has involved a certain amount
of repetition, and the introduction separately and in their
historical order of certain details which it would be clearer
perhaps, and certainly more picturesque, to group together.
But it seemed to me worth while to sacrifice something of
clearness and effect in order to bring out the historical aspect
of the subject, an aspect which is completely obscured in most
of our text-books. Further, I have endeavoured clearly to
distinguish between what is certain and what is conjectural.
The words “perhaps” and “possibly” recur, I am only too
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conscious, with monotonous persistence. But where the
evidence is too inadequate or too contradictory to admit of
certainty, the only safe and honest course is to confess ignorance
and to hope that the discovery of some new manuscript may
dispel our doubts. The neglect of this distinction between
the conjectural and the certain has been a fertile source of
error.
Great importance has been attached to the evidence of
contemporary monuments, and illustrations have been given
of the principal monuments described. In their selection
preference has been given ceteris paribus to objects in the
British Museum, because these are likely to be most accessible
to the majority of readers. In the case of vases the interpretation
often depends on the composition, and whole scenes have
as far as possible been reproduced rather than single figures.
Museum references are appended to the illustrations wherever
available, and also some indication of the date of the objects
illustrated. Literary references will be found in the list of
illustrations.
Many of the illustrations have been prepared expressly
for this book, and for these I am indebted to the careful and
excellent work of Mr. Emery Walker. A large number are
reproduced from articles by myself and others which have
appeared in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, and in expressing
my thanks to the Council of the Hellenic Society for permission
to reproduce them I should like to render testimony
to the value of the Library of that Society to any one who,
like myself, does not live in the vicinity of any great Library.
But for the generous facilities which this Society affords for
borrowing books, any work which I have been able to do would
have been almost impossible.
In spelling, consistency appears to be unattainable, and I
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have in the main adopted the compromise recommended in the
Journal of Hellenic Studies. In the case of proper nouns, names
of places, people, buildings, festivals, the Latin spelling has
been adopted, in the case of other Greek words the Greek
spelling, except where the Latin form is so familiar that any
other form would be pedantic. Names of months are treated
as purely Greek words. With regard to ει, ei has been kept
where it occurs in the stem of a word, e is employed usually in
terminations.
It is impossible to mention here the many authors whose
works I have laid under contribution. Many of my debts are
acknowledged in the notes. But I cannot omit to mention
three—Dr. J. H. Krause, of whose work I have already spoken;
Dr. Ernst Curtius, the writer of the chapter on the history of
Olympia in the great work which he edited with Dr. Adler;
and Dr. Julius Jüthner, whose Antike Turngeräthe and edition
of Philostratus’ Gymnastike published only last year are indispensable
to any student of the subject. To Dr. Jüthner I
must also express my thanks for his generous permission to
make use of the illustrations in his work.
Among the many friends who have helped me I should like
especially to thank Professor E. A. Gardner, Mr. G. F. Hill, and
Mr. H. B. Walters for their constant readiness to advise me
and to give me the benefit of their special knowledge of Greek
sculpture, coins and vases. Many of the illustrations of
sculpture are taken from Professor E. A. Gardner’s Handbook of
Greek Sculpture, and the coins have been especially selected for
me by Mr. G. F. Hill. Nor must I omit to mention Louis Dyer,
whose death occurred while I was working on the early history
of Olympia. He had himself projected a work on Olympia, to
which I hoped to refer in confirmation of my views. His
minute and accurate knowledge, his readiness to impart his
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knowledge, his enthusiastic and unselfish sympathy made his
death an irreparable loss to me. Many corrections are due to
the conscientious care of another of my friends, Herbert Awdry,
who was engaged in reading my proofs almost up to the day
of his death.
It is a fitting circumstance that this book should have been
produced under the auspices of Professor Percy Gardner,
seeing that he was unconsciously the originator of it. My
interest in the subject was first aroused by the chapter on
Olympia in his New Chapters from Greek History, which I read
on my return from a cruise in the “Argonaut,” in the course
of which I had visited Olympia. Professor Percy Gardner has
read the book both in manuscript and in proof, and many
improvements are due to his suggestions. He is, however, in
no wise responsible for the views expressed, much less for any
errors which I may have committed.
E. NORMAN GARDINER.
Epsom College,
Surrey.
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.h2
CONTENTS
.sp 2
.ta l:50 r:4
List of Illustrations | #xv:cont-illus#
|
List of Commonest Abbreviations | #xxv:cont-abbrev#
|
PART I |
|
A HISTORY OF GREEK ATHLETICS AND ATHLETIC FESTIVALS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 393 A.D. |
|
1. Introductory | #1:chap01#
2. Athletics in Homer | #8:chap02#
3. The Rise of the Athletic Festival | #27:chap03#
4. The Age of Athletic Festivals, Sixth Century B.C. | #62:chap04#
5. The Age of the Athletic Ideal, 500-440 B.C. | #86:chap05#
6. Professionalism and Specialization, 440-338 B.C.| #122:chap06#
7. The Decline of Athletics, 338-146 B.C. | #146:chap07#
8. Athletics under the Romans | #163:chap08#
9. The Olympic Festival | #194:chap09#
10. The Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Festivals| #208:chap10#
11. The Athletic Festivals of Athens |#227:chap11#
|
PART II|
|
THE ATHLETIC EXERCISES OF THE GREEKS|
|
12. The Stadium |#251:chap12#
13. The Foot-Race |#270:chap13#
14. The Jump and Halteres |#295:chap14#
15. Throwing the Diskos |#313:chap15#
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16. Throwing the Javelin |#338:chap16#
17. The Pentathlon |#359:chap17#
18. Wrestling |#372:chap18#
19. Boxing |#402:chap19#
20. The Pankration |#435:chap20#
21. The Hippodrome |#451:chap21#
22. The Gymnasium and the Palaestra |#467:chap22#
BIBLIOGRAPHY |#511:biblio#
INDEX |#519:index#
INDEX OF GREEK WORDS |#531:index-greek#
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
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1. Boxer on steatite pyxis. Cnossus. (B.S.A. vii. p. 95) | #10:fig001#
2. Armed combat on Clazomenae. Sarcophagus in British Museum. (Murray, Sarcophagi in B.M., Pls. ii., iii.) |#21:fig002#
3. Funeral games on Amphiaraus vase. Berlin, 1655. (Mon. d. I. X., Pls. iv., v.) |#29:fig003#
4. Funeral games on Dipylon vase. Copenhagen. (Arch. Zeit., 1885, Pl. viii.) |#30:fig004#
5. Plan of Olympia (after Dörpfeld) |#35:fig005#
6. Statue of girl runner. Copy of fifth-century original. Vatican. (Helbig, Führer, 2nd Ed., 384.) (From a photograph by Alinari) |#49:fig006#
7. Apollo, found at Tenea. Munich. (E. A. Gardner, Greek Sculpture, Fig. 20) |#87:fig007#
8. Statue by an Argive sculptor. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 134; Fouilles de Delphes, ii. 1) |#89:fig008#
9. Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo. British Museum.| #91:fig009#
10. Figure from E. pediment of temple at Aegina. Munich. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 41) |#92:fig010#
11. Bronze statuette from Ligourio. Berlin. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 39) |#93:fig011#
12. Bronze statuette of Hoplitodromos. Tübingen. (Jahrb., 1886, Pl. ix.) |#94:fig012#
13. Diskobolos, after Myron. (Photograph of bronzed cast made in Munich) |#96:fig013#
14. Doryphoros, after Polycleitus. Naples. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 74) |#98:fig014#
15. Diadumenos from Vaison, after Polycleitus. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 75) |#100:fig015#
16. Bronze head of ephebos. Fifth century. Munich, Glyptothek, 457. (From a photograph by Bruckmann) |#102:fig016#
17. Scenes in palaestra. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 795. (Arch. Zeit., 1878, Pl. xi.) |#105:fig017#
18. Bronze charioteer. Fifth century. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 138; Fouilles de Delphes, II. xlix. 1) |#113:fig018#
19. The Apoxyomenos. Rome, Vatican. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 98) |#123:fig019#
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20. Statue of Agias by Lysippus. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 141; Fouilles de Delphes, II. lxiii.) |#125:fig020#
21. Farnese Heracles, by Glycon. Naples. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 125) |#147:fig021#
22. Athletics under the Romans. Mosaic found at Tusculum. Imperial period. (Mon. d. I. VI., vii., Pl. 82) |#177:fig022#
23. Professional boxer. Mosaic from the Thermae of Caracalla. Rome, Lateran. (G. F. Hill, Illustrations to the Classics, Fig. 400; Secchi, Musaico Antoniniano) |#190:fig023#
24. Silver staters of Elis, in British Museum. Fifth century, (a) Head of nymph Olympia; (b) Victory seated, with palm |#194:fig024#
25. Judge crowning a victor. Interior of r.-f. kylix. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 532. (Arch. Zeit., 1853, lii. 3; Luynes, xlv.) |#206:fig025#
26. Phyllobolia. Interior of r.-f. kylix. Canino Coll. (Gerh. A. V. 274, 1) |#206:fig026#
27. Copper coins of Delphi, in British Museum. Imperial period. (a) Prize table, bearing crow, five apples, vase and crown. (b) Ins. Πύθια in crown of bay leaves. (B.M. Coins, Delphi, 39, 38) |#208:fig027#
28. Copper coin of Corinth, in British Museum. Imperial period. Ins. Ἵσθμια in crown of pine leaves. (B.M. Coins, Corinth, 603) |#214:fig028#
29. 30. Silver vase. Imperial period. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale. (Le Prévost, Mém. sur la collection des Vases de Bernay, Pls. viii., ix.) |#220:fig029#, #222:fig030#
31. Copper coin of Argos, in British Museum. Imperial period. Ins. Νέμεια in crown of celery. (B.M. Coins, Argos, 170) |#223:fig031#
32. Flute-players. Small Panathenaic (?) amphora, in British Museum, B. 188. Sixth century |#231:fig032#
33. Panathenaic festival. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, B. 80. (J.H.S. i., Pl vii.) |#233:fig033#
34. Apobates. Votive relief. Hellenistic period. Athens, Acropolis Museum. (B.C.H. vii., Pl. xvii.) |#238:fig034#
35. Pyrrhic chorus. Monument of Atarbus. Fourth century. Athens, Acropolis Museum. (Hill, Illustrations to the Classics, Fig. 417; Beulé, L’Acropole d’Athènes, ii., Pl. iv.) |#240:fig035#
36. Victorious boat on stele of Helvidius. Imperial period. Athens, National Museum. (Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1862, Pl. xxix.; von Sybel, Katalog, 3300) |#241:fig036#
37. Proclaiming a victor. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 144. Sixth century |#243:fig037#
38. Crowning a victor. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 138. Sixth century |#244:fig038#
39. Acrobatic scene. Panathenaic (?) amphora from Camirus. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 243. (Salzmann, Nécropole de Cameiros, Pl. lvii.) |#245:fig039#
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40. Marble chair of judge at Panathenaea. (Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, iii. 3, p. 20) |#246:fig040#
41. Portion of starting lines at Olympia. (Olympia, Tafelb. i. 47) |#253:fig041#
42. The stadium of Epidaurus, S. E. corner, showing starting lines and rectangular end. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker) |#255:fig042#
43. Plan of stadium at Epidaurus. (Πρακτικά, 1902, Pl. i.) |#258:fig043#
44. Plan of stadium at Delphi. (B.C.H., 1899, Pl. xiii.) |#258:fig044#
45. The starting lines at Delphi. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker) |#260:fig045#
46. The stadium of Delphi |#262:fig046#
47. Hoplitodromos starting. R.-f. amphora. Louvre. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 270; Bull. Nap. nouv. sér. vi. 7) |#274:fig047#
48. Runner starting. R.-f. kylix. Formerly at Naples. (J.H.S.\
xxiii. p. 271; Dubois-Maisonneuve, Pl. xxv.; Inghirami,\
Mon. Etrusc. v. 2, Pl. lxx.) |#275:fig048#
49. Runner starting. R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (Hartwig, Meisterschalen,\
Fig. 6) |#276:fig049#
50. Dolichodromoi. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I.\
I., xxii. 7 b) |#279:fig050#
51. Dolichodromoi. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 609.\
Archonship of Niceratus, 333 B.C. (Hill, Illustrations to\
the Classics, Fig. 390) |#280:fig051#
52. Stadiodromoi. Panathenaic amphora. Munich, 498. Sixth\
century. (Mon. d. I. X., xlviii., l, m) |#281:fig052#
53. Stadiodromoi. Panathenaic amphora. Fourth century. (Stephani,\
C. R. Atlas, 1876, Pl. i.) |#283:fig053#
54. Hoplitodromoi, boxers, wrestlers. R.-f. kylix of Euphronius.\
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 523. (Hartwig, Meisterschalen,\
Pl. xvi.; J.H.S. xxiii. p. 278.) For interior vide\
Fig. #115:fig115# |#286:fig054#
55. Hoplitodromoi; the turn. R.-f. kylix. Formerly in Berlin.\
(J.H.S. xxiii. p. 278; Jahrb., 1895, p. 190) |#287:fig055#
56. Hoplitodromoi. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2307. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 277;\
Gerh. A.V. 261) |#288:fig056#
57. Hoplitodromoi; the finish. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 818.\
(J.H.S. xxiii. p. 285) |#289:fig057#
58. Hoplitodromoi. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 608.\
Archonship of Pythodelus, 336 B.C. (Mon. d. I. X., xlviii. e, 3) |#290:fig058#
59. Hoplitodromoi. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 1240. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 284) |#292:fig059#
60. Leaden halter from Eleusis. Athens, National Museum, 9075.\
(Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1883, 190; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 1) |#298:fig060#
61. Photograph of halteres in British Museum, (a) Cast of stone halter\
from Olympia (Jüthner, Fig. 9). (b) Limestone halter from\
Camirus (B.M. Guide to Greek and Roman Life, Fig. 41).\
(c) Leaden halter (J.H.S. xxiv. p. 182) |#299:fig061#
// File: 016.png
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62. Stone halter from Corinth. Athens, National Museum. (Ἐφ. Ἀρχ.,\
1883, p. 103; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 8) |#300:fig062#
63. Jumper and flute-player. R.-f. pelike. British Museum, E. 427.\
(J.H.S. xxiv. p. 185) |#302:fig063#
64. Jumpers, akontistes, diskobolos, flute-player. R.-f. krater. Copenhagen\
(?). (J.H.S. xxiv. p. 185; Annali, 1846, M.) |#303:fig064#
65. Jumpers practising and paidotribes. R.-f. kylix. Bologna.\
(J.H.S. xxiv. p. 186; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 16) |#304:fig065#
66. Jumpers, diskobolos, paidotribai. R.-f. kylix. Bourguignon\
Coll. (Arch. Zeit., 1884, xvi.) For interior vide Fig. #80:fig080# |#305:fig066#
67. Jumper about to land. B.-f. amphora. British Museum, B. 48.\
(J.H.S. xxiv. p. 183, ii. p. 219; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 15) |#306:fig067#
68. Jumper running. R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (J.H.S. xxiv. p. 188;\
Klein, Euphronios, p. 306) |#307:fig068#
69. Standing jump without halteres. R.-f. pelike belonging to Dr.\
Hauser. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 272; Jahrb., 1895, p. 185) |#309:fig069#
70. Youth swinging halteres. R.-f. oinochoe. British Museum, E.\
561. (J.H.S. xxiv. p. 192) |#311:fig070#
71. Diskobolos holding stone diskos. B.-f. amphora. British Museum,\
B. 271. (J.H.S. xxvii. Pl. i.) For reverse vide Fig. #141:fig141# |#314:fig071#
72. Bronze diskos found at Aegina. Berlin. (Jüthner, Ant. Turn.\
Fig. 20) |#315:fig072#
73. Bronze diskos of Exoïdas. British Museum, 3207 |#317:fig073#
74. Marking the throw of diskos. (a) R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (b) R.-f.\
kylix of Hischylus. Würzburg, 357, A. (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 11; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 27) |#320:fig074#
75. The standing diskobolos. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original.\
(From a photograph by Anderson) |#321:fig075#
76. Palaestra scene; diskobolos, akontistes. R.-f. kylix. British\
Museum, E. 6. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 273) |#323:fig076#
77. Diskobolos, flute-player. B.-f. kelebe. British Museum, B. 361.\
(J.H.S. xxvii. p. 15) |#324:fig077#
78. Diskobolos. R.-f. krater of Amasis. Corneto. (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 16; Hartwig, Meisterschalen, Fig. 56 a) |#324:fig078#
79. Diskobolos and paidotribes. R.-f. pelike. British Museum, E. 395.\
(J.H.S. xxvii. Pl. iii.) |#325:fig079#
80. Diskobolos. Interior of Fig. #66:fig066#| #326:fig080#
81. Bronze statuette of diskobolos. Fifth century. (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 18; Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1903, Pl. 50) |#326:fig081#
82. Diskobolos, paidotribes. B.-f. lekythos. British Museum, B. 576.\
(J.H.S. xxvii. Pl. ii.) |#328:fig082#
83. Bronze statuette of diskobolos. New York. (Bulletin of Metropolitan\
Museum of Art, iii. p. 32) |#329:fig083#
84. Bronze statuette of diskobolos. British Museum, 675. Fifth\
century. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 22) |#330:fig084#
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85. Diskobolos. R.-f. kylix. Louvre. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 27; Hartwig,\
Meisterschalen, lxiii. 2) |#331:fig085#
86. Coins of Cos, in British Museum, representing diskobolos. Fifth\
century. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 30) |#332:fig086#
87. Diskobolos. Panathenaic amphora. Naples, Race. Cum. 184.\
(J.H.S. xxvii. p. 32; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 31) |#333:fig087#
88. Diskobolos, flute-player, paidotribes, youth fastening amentum,\
skapanai. B.-f. hydria. British Museum, E. 164. (J.H.S.\
xxvii. p. 32; B.C.H., 1899, p. 164) |#334:fig088#
89. Diskobolos. R.-f. kylix. Boulogne, Musée Municipale. (J.H.S.\
xxvii. p. 33; Le Musée, ii. p. 281) |#335:fig089#
90. Diskobolos. B.-f. hydria. Vienna, 318. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 34) |#336:fig090#
91. Youth fastening amentum. R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 432.\
(Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 37) |#340:fig091#
92. Various methods of attaching the amentum. (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 250) |#341:fig092#
93. Warrior holding spear by amentum. B.-f. kylix. British Museum,\
B. 380. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 252) |#342:fig093#
94. Warriors throwing spears with amenta. François vase, Florence.\
(J.H.S. xxvii. p. 253; Furtwängler, Vasenmalerei, Pl.\
xiii.) |#343:fig094#
95. Illustrations of use of the throwing thong. (a, b) Jüthner, Ant.\
Turn. Figs. 47, 48. Reconstruction of throw, (c) Detail\
from B.M. Vases, B. 134. (d) The ounep of New Caledonia.| #344:fig095#
96. Palaestra scene; a wrestling lesson, preparations for javelin-throwing.\
R.-f. psykter. Bourguignon Coll. (J.H.S.\
xxvii. p. 259; Antike Denkmale, ii. 20) |#345:fig096#
97. Akontistes. B.-f. stamnos. Vatican. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 261;\
Mus. Greg. II. xvii.) |#346:fig097#
98. Mounted warriors throwing javelins by means of amenta. B.-f.\
vase. Athens, Acropolis Museum, 606. (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 261; B. Graef. Die antiken Vasen v. d. Acropolis,\
Pl. xxxi.) |#347:fig098#
99. Diskobolos, akontistes, boxer fastening himantes. R.-f. amphora,\
in British Museum, E. 256. (J.H.S. xxvii. Pl. xix.) |#348:fig099#
100. Akontistai. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 562 A. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 262;\
Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 41) |#349:fig100#
101. Akontistai. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 3139 inv. (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 263; Hartwig, Meisterschalen, Pl. xlvi.) |#350:fig101#
102. Akontistes. R.-f. kylix. Torlonia, 270 (148). (J.H.S. xxvii.\
p. 264; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 49) |#351:fig102#
103. Akontistes, diskobolos, skapane. R.-f. amphora. Munich, 408.\
(J.H.S. xxvii. p. 265; Furtwängler, Vasenmalerei, xlv.) |#353:fig103#
104. Akontistes. R.-f. kylix. Rome(?) (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig.\
43) |#354:fig104#
// File: 018.png
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105. Akontistes. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2728. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 268;\
Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 42) |#355:fig105#
106. Throwing the javelin on horseback. Panathenaic amphora.\
British Museum. (J.H.S. xxvii. Pl. xx.) |#357:fig106#
107. Pentathlon. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 134.\
Sixth century. (J.H.S. xxvii. Pl. xviii.) |#360:fig107#
108. Pentathlon. Panathenaic amphora. Leyden. Sixth century.\
(Arch. Zeit., 1881, ix.) |#361:fig108#
109. Wrestling types on coins, in British Museum. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 271.)\
(a, b, c) Aspendus, fifth and fourth centuries; (d) Heraclea in\
Lucania, fourth century; (e, f) Syracuse, circa 400 B.C.;\
(g) Alexandria, Antoninus Pius |#372:fig109#
110. One of a pair of wrestling-boys, generally known as diskoboloi.\
Hellenistic period. Naples. (From a photograph by Brogi) |#379:fig110#
111. Wrestling. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 603.\
Archonship of Polyzelus, 367 B.C. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 263) |#381:fig111#
112. Theseus and Cercyon wrestling. R.-f. kylix. British Museum,\
E. 84. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 264) |#382:fig112#
113. Wrestling group from b.-f. amphora. British Museum. B. 295.\
Vide Fig. 143. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 270) |#383:fig113#
114. The flying mare. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 94. (J.H.S.\
xxv. p. 268) |#384:fig114#
115. The flying mare. Interior of Fig. #54:fig054#| #385:fig115#
116. Wrestling groups. Prize vase. R.-f. krater of Andocides.\
Berlin, 2159. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 270; American Journal\
of Archaeology, 1896, p. 11) |#386:fig116#
117. Wrestling. R.-f. krater. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 288.\
(J.H.S. xxv. p. 274; Catalogue of Ashmolean Museum,\
Pl. xiii.) |#387:fig117#
118. Reverse of Fig. #143:fig143#| #388:fig118#
119. Peleus and Atalanta. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 584. (J.H.S.\
xxv. p. 275; Gerh. A. V. 177) |#389:fig119#
120. Wrestling, cross-buttock. Panathenaic amphora. Boulogne,\
Musée Municipale, 441. Sixth century. (Le Musée, ii.\
p. 275, Fig. 15) |#390:fig120#
121. Wrestling groups. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 1336. (J.H.S.\
xxv. Pl. xii.) |#391:fig121#
122. Wrestling group, paidotribes. R.-f. kylix. Philadelphia.\
(Trans. of University of Pennsylvania, 1907, Pl. xxxv.) |#392:fig122#
123. Wrestling groups, brabeutes. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 495.\
(J.H.S. xxv. Pl. xii.) |#393:fig123#
124. Theseus and Cercyon. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 48.\
(J.H.S. xxv. p. 285) |#394:fig124#
125. Theseus and Cercyon. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 36.\
(J.H.S. xxv. p. 285) |#394:fig125#
// File: 019.png
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126. Theseus and Cercyon. Metope of Theseum. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 286;\
Greek Sculpture, Fig. 66) |#395:fig126#
127. Bronze wrestling group. Paris. (Clarac, 802, 2014; Reinach,\
Musée de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 124) |#396:fig127#
128. Wrestling, cross-buttock. B.-f. amphora. Vatican. (J.H.S.\
xxv. p. 288; Mus. Greg. xvii. 1, a) |#397:fig128#
129. Bronze wrestling group. British Museum. (J.H.S. xxv. Pl. xi.) |#398:fig129#
130. Bronze wrestling group. St. Petersburg. (Stephani, C.R., 1867,\
i. 1, 5; J.H.S. xxv. p. 290) |#399:fig130#
131. Bronze wrestling group. Constantinople. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 291;\
Jahrb., 1898, xi.) |#400:fig131#
132. Boxers taking the oath. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 63.\
(Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 54) |#403:fig132#
133. Boxing scenes. R.-f. kylix of Duris. British Museum, E. 39.\
(J.H.S. xxvi. Pl. xii.; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 53) |#404:fig133#
134. Interior of Fig. #151:fig151#| #406:fig134#
135. Boxers. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 607.\
Archonship of Pytliodelus, B.C. 336. (Mon. d. I. X.,\
xlviii. e, 2; Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 67) |#407:fig135#
136. Statue of boxer seated. Rome, Terme Museum. (From a\
photograph by Anderson) |#408:fig136#
137. Right hand of boxer from Sorrento. Naples. (Jüthner, Ant.\
Turn. Fig. 63) |#409:fig137#
138. Caestus from mosaic in the thermae of Caracalla. Rome,\
Lateran. (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 74) |#411:fig138#
139. Boxers (?) fighting over prize. Bronze situla. Watsch.\
(Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 61; Mitth. d. Central. Comm.,\
1883, Pl. ii.) |#412:fig139#
140. Boxers fighting over tripod. Fragment of b.-f. situla from\
Daphnae. British Museum, B. 124. (Tanis, ii. 30) |#413:fig140#
141. Boxer giving signal of defeat. B.-f. amphora in British\
Museum, B. 271. For reverse vide Fig. 71 |#416:fig141#
142. Boxers, runners, jumper, wearing loin-cloth. B.-f. stamnos.\
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 252. (De Ridder, Catalogue\
des Vases peints, i. p. 160) |#418:fig142#
143. Boxers, wrestlers. B.-f. amphora of Nicosthenes. British\
Museum, B. 295. Vide Figs. 113, 118 |#420:fig143#
144. Boxers. Panathenaic amphora. Berlin, 1831. Sixth century.\
(Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 60) |#422:fig144#
145. Boxers. Panathenaic amphora. Campana Coll. Sixth century.\
(Stephani, C.R., 1876, 109, 44) |#423:fig145#
146. Boxers. R.-f. kylix of Pamphaeus. Corneto. (Marquardt,\
Pentathlon, Pl. i.; Mon. d. I. XI., xxiv.) |#424:fig146#
147. Boxers. Panathenaic amphora. Louvre, F. 278. Sixth\
century. (J.H.S. xxvi. p. 222) |#425:fig147#
// File: 020.png
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148. Boxers. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 612.\
Fourth century |#427:fig148#
149. Marble head of boxer, with ear-lappets. Formerly in possession\
of Fabretti. (Schreiber, Atlas, xxiv. 8; Fabretti, De\
Columna Trajani, p. 267) |#433:fig149#
150. Boxers, akontistes, diskobolos, runners. B.-f. hydria. British\
Museum, B. 326. (Marquardt, Pentathlon, Pl. ii.) |#433:fig150#
151. Pankration, boxing, hoplitodromos. R.-f. kylix. British\
Museum, E. 78. (J.H.S. xxvi. Pl. xiii.) |#436:fig151#
152. Pankration. R.-f. kylix. Baltimore. (J.H.S. xxvi. p. 9;\
Hartwig, Meisterschalen, Pl. lxiv.) |#437:fig152#
153. Pankration. Fragment of R.-f. kylix. Berlin. (J.H.S. xxvi.\
p. 8; Hartwig, Meisterschalen, Fig. 12) |#438:fig153#
154. Pankration. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I.\
I., xxii.) |#439:fig154#
155. Pankration. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I.\
I. xxii.) |#440:fig155#
156. Heracles and Antaeus. B.-f. hydria, Munich, 114. (J.H.S.\
xxvi. p. 21; Arch. Zeit., 1878, x.) |#441:fig156#
157. Pankration. Panathenaic amphora of Kittos. British Museum,\
B. 604. Fourth century. (J.H.S. xxvi. Pl. iii.) |#442:fig157#
158. Pankration. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 610.\
Archonship of Nicetes, 332 B.C. (J.H.S. xxvi. Pl. iv.) |#443:fig158#
159. Pankration. Panathenaic amphora. Lamberg Coll. (J.H.S. i. Pl. vi.) |#444:fig159#
160. Heracles and Triton. B.-f. amphora. British Museum, B. 223.\
(J.H.S. xxvi. p. 15) |#445:fig160#
161. Heracles and Antaeus. R.-f. kylix. Athens. (J.H.S. x. Pl. i.;\
xxvi. p. 11) |#446:fig161#
162. Wrestling groups on Graeco-Roman gems in British Museum.\
(J.H.S. xxvi. p. 10) |#447:fig162#
163. Marble group of pankratiasts. Uffizi Palace, Florence. (Photograph\
by Brogi) |#449:fig163#
164. Plan of Aphesis in Hippodrome at Olympia. (After Weniger.\
Clio, 1909, p. 303) |#453:fig164#
165. Four-horse chariot-race. Panathenaic amphora found at Sparta.\
Sixth century. (B.S.A. xiii. Pl. v.) |#456:fig165#
166. Two-horse chariot-race. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum,\
B. 132. Sixth century |#458:fig166#
167. Coins of Philip II. of Macedon, in British Museum, (a) Silver\
tetradrachm; victorious jockey with palm branch, (b)\
Gold stater; two-horse chariot |#459:fig167#
168. Silver tetradrachm of Rhegium, in British Museum. Early fifth\
century. Mule chariot |#460:fig168#
169. Riding-race. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 133.\
Sixth century |#461:fig169#
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170. Silver staters of Tarentum, in British Museum. Third century.\
(a) Mounted torch-bearer. (b) Apobates dismounting |#462:fig170#
171. Silver tetradrachms of Catana, in British Museum. Fifth\
century. Four-horse chariot |#464:fig171#
172. Silver decadrachms of Sicily, in British Museum. Four-horse\
chariot, (a) Agrigentum, 413-406 B.C. (b) Syracuse, 400-360\
B.C. |#465:fig172#
173. Scenes in gymnasium. Boxers, wrestlers, paidotribai, diskobolos,\
akontistes. R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll. (Gerh. A. V. 271) |#473:fig173#
174. Riding lesson in gymnasium. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 515. (Arch.\
Zeit., 1885, xi.) |#474:fig174#
175. Scenes in apodyterion of gymnasium. R.-f. kylix. Copenhagen.\
(Gerh. A. V. 281) |#475:fig175#
176. Scene in apodyterion. R.-f. krater. Berlin, 2180. (Arch. Zeit.,\
1879, 4) |#476:fig176#
177. Boxing, massage. Bronze cista. Vatican. (Mus. Greg. i. 37) |#477:fig177#
178. Korykos. Small r.-f. amphora. St. Petersburg, Hermitage,\
1611. (Annali, 1870, R.) |#478:fig178#
179. Korykos. Ficoroni cista. Kirchner Museum, Rome. (Müller-Wieseler,\
Denkmäl. d. alt. Kunst, i. 61, 309) |#479:fig179#
180. Men washing at fountain. B.-f. hydria. Leyden, 7794 b. (Roulez,\
Choix de vases peints du Musée de Leyde, Pl. xix.) |#480:fig180#
181. Youths washing at a public basin. R.-f. vase. (Tischbein, Vases\
Hamilton, i. 58) |#481:fig181#
182. Youths washing at a basin. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 83.\
(Gerh. A. V. 277; Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens, Fig. 36) |#482:fig182#
183. Strigil in British Museum, inscribed with owner’s name Κέλων.\
Fifth century. (B.M. Bronzes, 256) |#483:fig183#
184. Plan of gymnasium at Delphi. (B.C.H., 1899, Pl. xiii.) |#484:fig184#
185. Plan of palaestra at Olympia. (Olympia, Taf. lxxiii.) |#487:fig185#
186. Stele of Diodorus, a gymnasiarch; showing oil-tank, crown, palms,\
votive tablets, and wrestler’s cap. Found at Prusa.\
Imperial period. (Berichte d. Sächsischen Gesellschaft d.\
Wissenschaften, 1873, Pl. i.; Schreiber, Atlas, xxi. 6) |#490:fig186#
187. Plan of lower gymnasium, Priene. (Priene, Fig. 271) |#493:fig187#
188. Bath-room in gymnasium, Priene. (Priene, Fig. 278) |#495:fig188#
189. Plan of gymnasia at Pergamum. (Simplified from Ath. Mitth.\
xxix. Pl. viii.; xxxiii. Pl. xviii.) |#499:fig189#
190. Stele representing victorious crew. Athens. Hellenistic period.\
(J.H.S. xi. p. 149) |#508:fig190#
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// File: 022.png
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.sp 4
.h2 id=cont-abbrev
LIST OF THE COMMONEST ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES
.sp 2
.ta l:20 l:40
Arch. Zeit| Archäologische Zeitung.
Ath. Mitth.| Mittheilungen des Deutschen Arch. Inst., Athenische Abtheilung.
B.C.H.| Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique.
Berl. Vas.| Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Vasensammlung zu Berlin.
B.M. Bronzes |British Museum Catalogue of Bronzes.
B.M.C. | British Museum Catalogue of Greek Coins.
B.M. Vases| British Museum Catalogue of Vases, 1893, etc.
B.S.A. | Annual of the British School at Athens.
C.I.G. | Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum.
C.R. | Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions.
Dar.-Sagl. | Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités.
Ditt. Syll. | Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum.
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. | Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική.
Gerhard, A. V.| Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder.
Greek Sculpture| E. A. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture.
I.G. | Inscriptions Graecae.
Jahrb. | Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts.
J.H.S. | Journal of Hellenic Studies.
Krause, Gym. | J. H. Krause, Die Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen.
Mon. d. I. | Monumenti dell’ Instituto.
Ol. | Olympia. Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabung.
Ol. Ins. | Die Inschriften von Olympia = Textb. v. of “Die Ergebnisse.”
Ox. Pap. | Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
Rev. Arch.| Revue Archéologique.
Röm. Mitth.| Mittheilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abtheilung.
.ta-
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.h2
PART I | A HISTORY OF GREEK ATHLETICS AND ATHLETIC\
FESTIVALS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO\
393 A.D.
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.h2 id=chap01
CHAPTER I | INTRODUCTORY
.sp 2
The recent revival of the Olympic games is a striking testimony
to the influence which ancient Greece still exercises over
the modern world, and to the important place which athletics
occupied in the life of the Greeks. Other nations may have
given equal attention to the physical education of the young;
other nations may have been equally fond of sport; other
nations may have produced individual athletes, individual
performances equal or superior to those of the Greeks, but
nowhere can we find any parallel to the athletic ideal expressed
in the art and literature of Greece, or to the extraordinary
vitality of her athletic festivals. The growth of this ideal, and
the history of the athletic festivals, are the subject of the
following chapters.
The athletic ideal of Greece is largely due to the practical
character of Greek athletics. Every Greek had to be ready
to take the field at a moment’s notice in defence of hearth and
home, and under the conditions of ancient warfare his life and
liberty depended on his physical fitness. This is especially
true of the earlier portion of Greek history, but is more or
less true of the whole period with which we are concerned.
Greece was never free from war—wars of faction, wars of state
against state, wars against foreign invaders—and ancient
warfare made no distinction between combatants and non-combatants.
Every citizen was a soldier, physical fitness was
a necessity to him, and his athletic exercises were admirably
calculated to produce this fitness. Running and jumping made
him active and sound of wind; throwing the diskos and the
spear trained hand and eye for the use of weapons; wrestling
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and boxing taught him to defend himself in hand-to-hand
warfare.
The practical value of these exercises explains their importance
in Greek education. They constituted what the Greeks
described as “gymnastic,” the term “athletics” being properly
confined to competitions. Gymnastic trained the body as
music trained the mind. There was no artificial separation,
no antagonism between the two such as has disfigured much of
our modern education. The one was the complement of the
other: together they comprised the whole of Greek education.
An ill-trained body was as much a sign of an ill-educated man
as ignorance of letters, and the training of the body by athletic
exercises distinguished the Greek from the barbarian. The
training began often as early as seven, but it did not end at
the age when boys leave school. The Greek did not consider
his education finished at the age of sixteen or seventeen, and
he continued the training of body and mind till middle age
or later, daily resorting to the gymnasium for exercise and
recreation.
Music and gymnastic reacted on one another. The tone and
manly vigour which athletic exercises gave saved the Greek
from the effeminacy and sensuality to which the artistic temperament
is prone. At the same time the refining influence of
music saved him from the opposite faults of brutality and
Philistinism. The Greek carried the artist’s love of beauty
into his sports. Mere strength and bulk appealed to him no
more in the human body than they did in art. Many of his
exercises were performed to music, and he paid as much attention
to the style in which he performed as to the result of his
performance. This love of form refined even his competitions.
Hence, in spite of his love of competition, the Greek was no
record-breaker. In this we have one of the principal differences
which distinguished Greek from modern athletics, in which the
passion for records is becoming more and more prevalent.
The Greek did not care for records, and he kept no records.
It is futile, therefore, to try to compare the performances of
Greek athletes and of modern. But of the effect which athletic
training produced on the national physique in the fifth century,
we can judge from the art which it inspired. The sculptors of
this period portrayed the most perfect types of physical
development, of strength combined with grace, that the world
// File: 029.png
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has ever seen. The athletic art of Greece is the noblest tribute
to the results of Greek education at its best.
A further difference between modern and Greek athletics
results from the practical character of the latter. The Greek
regarded athletics as an essential part of his education and life;
we usually regard them as recreation or play, and it is only
of late years that their educational value has been realized.
Consequently in England athletic games have to a large extent
superseded athletics proper. In some respect games have a
decided advantage; their interest is more varied, there is more
scope for combination, and they are undoubtedly superior as a
training of character. On the other hand, they do not produce
the same all-round development as an athletic system like that
of the Greeks produced. In many cases the benefit derived
from them is confined to the skilled players. They tend to
become too scientific, and when this is the case require an
expenditure of time and an amount of organization which put
them beyond the reach of most men when they have left school.
The interest which is somewhat wanting in pure athletics
was provided in Greece by innumerable competitions. The
love of competition was characteristic of the Greek. In whatever
he did, he sought to excel his fellows, and the rivalry
between cities was as keen as that between individuals. On
the table on which the prizes were placed at Olympia, the
figure of Agon or Competition was represented side by side
with that of Ares. There were competitions in music, poetry,
drama, recitation. At some places there were beauty competitions
for men, or boys, or women. We hear of competitions
in drinking and in keeping awake. Strangest of all was
a competition in kissing, which took place at the Dioclea at
Megara. But no competitions were so numerous or so popular
as athletic and equestrian competitions. The Greek was always
competing or watching competitions; yet, strange to say, among
all the evils produced by over-competition, betting was not
found.
Competitions were from an early time associated with
religious Festivals. And it is to this association with religion
that Greek athletics owed their wonderful vitality. The
connexion between sport and religion dates from the early
custom of celebrating a chieftain’s funeral with a feast and
games. Sometimes the chieftain’s tomb became a religious
// File: 030.png
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and political centre for the neighbouring tribes, where a
festival was held in his honour at stated periods. Some of
these festivals retained their local character, others gradually
extended their influence till they became national meeting-places
for the whole Greek race.
These Panhellenic festivals played an important part in the
politics of Greece. They appealed to those two opposite
principles which determine the whole history of Greece, the
love of autonomy and the pride of Hellenism. The independent
city states felt that they were competing in the persons of
their citizens, whose fortunes they identified with their own.
At the same time, the gathering of citizens from every part
of the Greek world quickened the consciousness of common
brotherhood, and kept them true to those traditions of religion
and education which distinguished Greek from barbarian.
Enough has been said to show the importance of athletics
in the whole life of the Greeks, and their intimate connexion
with their education, their art, their religion, and their politics.
It is by virtue of this many-sided interest that the subject
deserves the attention of all who are interested in the life and
thought of Greece.
At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the athletic
ideal which we have described was only realized during a short
period of the fifth century, under the purifying influence of
the enthusiasm evoked by the war with Persia. Even then,
perhaps, it was only partially realized. We must not close
our eyes to the element of exaggeration inherent in all such
ideals. Before the close of the fifth century the excessive
prominence given to bodily excellence and athletic success had
produced specialization and professionalism. From this time
sport, over-developed and over-specialized, became more and
more the monopoly of a class, and consequently ceased to
invigorate the national life. The old games, in which all
competed in friendly and honourable rivalry, gave place to
professional displays, in which victory was too often bought
and sold, where an unathletic crowd could enjoy the excitement
of sport by proxy. Yet in spite of specialization, professionalism,
corruption, in spite of all the vicissitudes through which Greece
passed, the athletic festivals survived. The athletic ideal,
often and long obscured, but never wholly lost, reappeared
from time to time in different parts of the Greek world, till,
// File: 031.png
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under the patronage of the Antonines, the Panhellenic festivals
recovered some semblance at least of their olden glory.
The extraordinary vitality of those festivals gives interest
to the attempt to trace their history. This history extends
over some 1200 years. We are apt to limit our conceptions
of Greek history to the few centuries comprised in the
curricula of our universities and schools, and to forget that
Greek history does not end with the death of Alexander, or
even with the loss of Greek independence, but that, under the
rule of Rome, the life of Greece, its institutions and festivals,
went on, to a great extent, unchanged, acquiring more and
more hold over her conquerors, till the whole Roman world
was Hellenized, and with the founding of Constantinople the
centre of the empire itself was transferred to Greek soil. To
such a narrow conception of history it is a wholesome corrective
to trace the story of one branch of Greek activity from
beginning to end. And nowhere can the continuity of Greek
life be traced more clearly than in the history of her athletic
festivals. That we are able to do so is chiefly due to the
excavations conducted at Olympia under the auspices of the
German government, which are still being continued by Dr.
Dörpfeld. It is for this reason that in the following chapters
the history of Olympia forms the basis of the history of Greek
athletics.
The story of Greek athletics has a peculiarly practical
interest in the present day in view of the development of
athletics which has taken place in the last fifty years, and of
the revival of the Olympic games. There are striking
resemblances between the history of modern athletics and of
Greek. The movement began in the sports of our public
schools and universities, spread rapidly through all English-speaking
lands, and is now extending to the Continent.
Athletics are as popular among us as they were in Greece,
and for us, as for the Greeks, they have been a great instrument
of good. Unfortunately the signs of excess are no less
manifest to-day than they were in the times of Xenophanes
and Euripides. History repeats itself strangely. We have
seen the same growth of competition, the same hero-worship
of the athlete, the same publicity and prominence given to
sport out of all proportion to its deserts, the same tendency
to specialization and professionalism. Sport has too often
// File: 032.png
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become an end in itself. The hero-worship of the athlete
tempts men to devote to selfish amusement the best years of
their lives, and to neglect the true interests of themselves and
of their country. The evil is worse with us, because our
games have not the practical value as a military training
which Greek sports had. Still more grievous than this waste
of time and energy is the absorbing interest taken by the general
public in the athletic performances of others. The crowds which
watch a professional football match, the still larger crowds of
those who think and read of little else, the columns of the
daily press devoted to accounts of such matches, are no proof
of an athletic nation, but rather of the reverse. They are merely
a sign of an unhealthy love of excitement and amusement, and
of the absence of all other interests. Of the evils of professionalism
this is no place to speak. They are well known
to any one who has followed the history of boxing, wrestling,
or football. The history of football during the last two years
is ominous. On the one hand we see the leading amateur
clubs revolting from the tyranny of a Football Association
conducted in the interests of various joint-stock companies
masquerading as Football Clubs; on the other hand we see
the professional players forming a trades-union to protect
themselves against the tyranny of this same commercialism.
The Rugby Union has struggled manfully to uphold the purity
of the game, and has often received but scanty encouragement
for its efforts. Fortunately there are signs that public opinion
is changing, and is beginning to appreciate the efforts of the
amateur bodies controlling various sports. The very existence
of these bodies proves how real the danger is. Under these
circumstances the history of the decline of Greek athletics is an
object-lesson full of instruction.
What has been said above explains perhaps why the
revival of the Olympic games has not been received in England
with any great amount of enthusiasm. The promoters of these
games were inspired by the ideal of ancient Greece, and wished
to establish a great international athletic meeting which would
be for the nations of the world what Olympia was for Greece.
We must all sympathize with their aspirations. Unfortunately
they do not seem to have realized the full lesson of Greek
athletics, nor did they realize the dangers of competition on so
vast a scale under the more complicated conditions of modern
// File: 033.png
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life. In England, where athletics have already developed to
an extent unknown on the Continent, we have begun to realize
the dangers of over-competition. The experience of recent
years has taught us that international competitions do not
always make for amity, and do not always promote amateur
sport. The events of the last Olympic games, and the
subsequent performances of some of the victors of these games,
particularly of the fêted heroes of the so-called Marathon race,
have gone far to justify the forebodings of those who feared
that one of the chief results of such a competition would be an
increase in professionalism.
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.sp 4
.h2 id=chap02
CHAPTER II | ATHLETICS IN HOMER
.sp 2
Greek civilization is regarded by modern authorities as the
result of a fusion between two races—a short, dark, highly
artistic race belonging to that Eurafrican stock which seems
at one time to have peopled not only the Aegean, but
all the coasts of the Mediterranean, and a tall, fair-haired,
athletic race the branches of which penetrated by successive
invasions into the southern extremities of Europe, while their
main body spread over central Europe westwards as far as
our own islands. It was to the physical vigour and restless
energy of the latter race that the Greeks owed their colonial
activity and their love of sport. And it is perhaps no mere
accident that these same characteristics have been so marked
in our own history. But if the Greeks owed to the fair-haired
invaders from the North the athletic impulse, the development
and persistence of Greek athletics is largely due to the
artistic temperament of the original inhabitants.
The practical character of Greek sports indicates a nation
of warriors. The chariot-race and foot-race, boxing, wrestling,
throwing the stone and the spear, were as naturally the
outcome of the Homeric civilization as the tournament and
the archery meeting were of the conditions of fighting in
the middle ages, or the rifle meeting of those of our own
day. Moreover, the myths with which Greek fancy invested
the origin of their sports point to an age of fighting and
conquest. Olympia, as we shall see, stood on the highway
of the northern invaders, and at Olympia the institution
of the games is connected with such tales as the conquest of
Cronus by Zeus, of Oenomaus by Pelops, of Augeas by
// File: 035.png
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Heracles, and the return of the Heracleidae, tales which
clearly had their rise in the struggles of rival races and
religions. Again, Greek athletics were chiefly, though not
entirely, the product of the Peloponnese. Three of the four
great festivals were in the Peloponnese, including the Olympic
festival, the prototype of all the rest; the athletic school of
sculpture originated in the Peloponnese, and physical training
was carried to its highest point in Sparta. Now it was in
the Peloponnese that the invading races established themselves
most strongly; the fair-haired Achaeans made themselves
masters of the Mycenaean world, and their Dorian successors
preserved their own characteristics in their greatest purity
at Sparta. These considerations justify us in ascribing the
athletic impulse to the northern invaders.
.if h
.il fn=fig001.png w=50% alt='Fragment of Steatite Pyxis. Cnossus.' id=fig001
.ca Fig. 1. Fragment of Steatite Pyxis. Cnossus.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fragment of Steatite Pyxis. Cnossus.]
.if-
Excavations on Mycenaean and pre-Mycenaean sites furnish
some testimony, chiefly negative, in favour of this view. The
civilization disclosed by the excavations at Cnossus and other
Cretan sites is an Aegean product influenced possibly by
Egypt and the East, but certainly not by the mainland of
Greece, though its own influence was probably extensive.
Cretan civilization, like Egyptian, seems so much a thing
apart that it hardly comes into our subject. In Egypt, indeed,
we find depicted in the tombs of Beni-Hassan a varied array
of athletic sports and games, including a most wonderful
series of over 300 wrestling groups, but even Herodotus does
not venture to ascribe Greek athletics to the Egyptians. At
Cnossus the favourite sport seems to have been a sort of
bull-baiting.[#] A fresco discovered by Dr. Evans represents
a girl toreador in a sort of cowboy costume in the act of
being tossed by a bull, while a youth appears to be turning
a somersault over the animal’s back into the arms of a girl
who stands behind the bull. Sometimes on gems a youth
is depicted “springing from above, and seizing the bull’s
horns in cowboy fashion.” The latter scene has also been
found in a fresco at Tiryns, and a similar sport known as
ταυροκαθαψία survived in historical times in Thessaly.[#] These
// File: 036.png
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purely acrobatic feats have nothing distinctively athletic
about them, any more than dancing, another favourite Minoan
spectacle, for which possibly was intended a square theatre
surrounded by rows of seats at the north-west of the palace.
Indeed, such scenes are the very reverse of athletic; for
history has shown that the peoples who find pleasure in
such performances have ceased to be, even if they ever have
been, themselves athletic. The only form of true athletics
represented is boxing, which occurs on some clay sealings,
on a steatite relief (Fig. #1:fig001#), and in conjunction with a bull-hunting
scene on a steatite rhyton found at Hagia Triada.[#]
The boxers are muscular and athletic-looking, their attitude
// File: 037.png
.pn +1
is decidedly vigorous. They wear, according to Dr. Evans, a
kind of glove or caestus, but the illustrations do not enable
us to determine its character, and I do not feel sure that
any such covering is intended. Anyhow, the Minoan boxer
has a distinctly gladiatorial look, which is quite in harmony
with the bull-baiting scenes. We shall probably not be far
wrong in assuming that Minos, like oriental despots, kept his
own prize-ring, and that his courtiers preferred to be spectators
of the deeds of others rather than to take any active part
in sports themselves. Sports and games, of course, existed
in Crete as in all countries, but there is no evidence in Crete
of anything from which Greek athletics could have developed.
The unathletic character of the Aegean people is confirmed
by the absolute absence of anything athletic at Mycenae and
Tiryns, if we except the bull scenes, a fact which certainly
supports the modern view that the Mycenaean civilization
was due chiefly to the conquered inhabitants, and not to
the Achaean conquerors, whom we know from Homer to have
been skilled in all games.
In Homer we find ourselves at once in an atmosphere of
true sport, of sport for the simple love of the physical
effort and the struggle. The wrestling and boxing may be
“distressful,” but just as every sportsman finds a “hard game”
the most enjoyable, so the struggle in Homer is a joy to
the young man who makes trial of his strength, a joy to the
veteran who, as he watches, revives in memory the triumphs
of his youth, and a joy too to the poet.[#] It is this feeling
that makes the description of the games of Patroclus a
perpetual delight to any one who has ever felt himself the
joy of sport, and that almost justifies the words of Schiller,
that he who has lived to read the 23rd Iliad has not lived
in vain. The joy is never quite the same afterwards. Even
in Pindar it is no longer unalloyed. With the stress of
competition other feelings and motives have entered in, and
something of the heroic courtesy is lost: side by side with
the joy of victory we are conscious of the bitterness of defeat.
In Homer we feel only the joy, the joy of youth.
The description of the games in the Iliad could only
have been written by a poet living among an athletic people
with a long tradition of athletics, and such are the Achaeans.
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Sports are part of the education of every Achaean warrior,
and distinguish him from the merchant. “No, truly, stranger,”
says Euryalus to Odysseus, “nor do I think thee at all like
one that is skilled in games whereof there are many among
men, rather art thou such an one as comes and goes in a
benched ship, a master of sailors that are merchantmen, one
with a memory for his freight, or that hath the charge of
a cargo homeward bound, and of greedily gotten gains; thou
seemest not a man of thy hands.”[#]
Euryalus is a Phaeacian, and the Phaeacians, be it remarked,
are not Achaeans. Who they are we know not—whether,
as Victor Bérard assures us, Phoenicians, or a branch
of that Aegean folk whose wondrous civilization has been
revealed to us at Cnossus, or a creation of the poet’s brain.
In Homer they are a mysterious folk, and this is not the
place to try and solve the mystery. One thing is certain:
they are not true Achaeans, and though the poet ascribes
to them much of the manners of the Achaeans, including their
games, he lets us know with a delightful humour that they
are not quite the real thing. Their love of sport is assumed,
and consequently somewhat exaggerated. “There is no greater
glory for a man,” says Laodamas, “than that which he achieves
by hand and foot.”[#] We can hardly imagine such a sentiment
from one of the heroes of the Iliad, or from the Odysseus
of the Odyssey. The Phaeacian, however, is somewhat of a
braggart, and wishes to pose as a sportsman before a stranger,
who is no longer young, and whom he certainly does not
suspect of being an athlete. “Let us make trial,” says Alcinous,
“of divers games, that the stranger may tell his friends
when home he returneth how greatly we excel all men in
boxing and wrestling, and leaping and speed of foot”[#]—a
harmless boast and safe apparently. But Odysseus, stung by
their taunts, picks up a diskos larger than the Phaeacians ever
threw and hurls it far beyond their marks, and then in
his anger challenges any of the Phaeacians to try the issue in
boxing, or in wrestling, or any sport except running, for which,
after his buffeting in the sea, he is not quite in condition.
At once the tune changes, and Alcinous confesses that after
all the Phaeacians are no perfect boxers nor wrestlers, but
// File: 039.png
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(a safe boast after what Odysseus has said!) speedy runners
and the best of seamen. And then the truth comes out:
“Dear to us ever is the banquet, and the harp and the
dance, and changes of raiment, and the warm bath and love
and sleep!” Clearly the Phaeacians are no sportsmen, nor
Achaeans, and we have really no concern with them; but
I may be pardoned for dwelling on this delightful scene,
because through it all we can trace the truth that to the
poet every warrior is a sportsman, a man of his hands, and
that the sportsman is not occupied with “greedily gotten
gains.”
The same scene tells us, too, that sports are no new thing
among the Achaeans. Odysseus, when challenging the Phaeacians,
recalls the prowess of his youth, just as in the Iliad the aged
Nestor recalls his victories in the games which the Epeans
held at Buprasium at the funeral of Amarynces. But there
is a yet remoter past in which heroes and gods contended.
“There were giants in those days” is always the theme of the
aged sportsman, and Odysseus, though more than a match for
all his contemporaries, confesses that with the men of old
he would not vie, with Heracles and Eurytus, “who contended
with the immortal gods.”
But though the Achaeans were an athletic race with a long
tradition of athletes, we must beware of the common fallacy
of introducing into Homer the ideas and arrangements of later
Greek athletics. Homeric tradition undoubtedly influenced
Greek athletics, but to talk of the Homeric gymnasium, the
Homeric stadium, the Homeric pentathlon, or solemnly to
explain Homer in the light of these institutions, is as ridiculous
as to talk of King Arthur’s school of physical training or
Robin Hood’s shooting gallery. The Homeric Greek had no
gymnasium, no race-course, no athletic meeting. There was
nothing artificial about his sports: they were the natural
product of a warlike race, part of the daily life of the family.
They were the education of the boys, the recreation of the
men, and even the elders took their share in teaching and
encouraging the younger. For physical vigour and skill in
military exercises were indispensable to the chieftain in an age
when battles were won by individual prowess. No elaborate
arrangements were necessary; the courtyard would serve for
a wrestling ring, the open country for a race-course, and when
// File: 040.png
.pn +1
sports were to be held on a larger scale a suitable space
could be quickly cleared. For though there were no athletic
meetings, there were friendly gatherings for sports in plenty.
On the occasion of any gathering, whether to entertain a
distinguished guest, to offer a sacrifice, or to pay the last rites
to a departed chieftain, sports formed part of the programme.
Sometimes prizes were offered—a victim or an ox-hide for
the foot-race, a woman or a tripod for the chariot-race. Particularly
was this the case in the funeral sports, when the prizes
were rich and numerous.
The value of the prizes seems intended to mark the generosity
of the giver of the games, and to show honour to the dead
rather than to attract or reward competitors. That they
were rather gifts, mementoes of the dead, than prizes, is clear
from the fact that at the games of Patroclus every competitor
receives a prize, in one case even without a competition.
Sometimes, as in the days of the tournament, a weighty
issue might be decided by an athletic contest. Instances of
this are frequent in the legends of the Greeks: in Homer we
have the fatal contest with the bow of Odysseus by which
Penelope proposed to decide between her importunate suitors.
But whatever the occasion, the Homeric games differed entirely
from the athletic festival or meeting. They were impromptu,
almost private entertainments, in which only the invited guests,
or, in the case of a prince’s funeral, the neighbouring princes
or leaders of the army took part. When Odysseus, disguised
as a beggar, craved leave to try the bow, the request was met
with a storm of protest from the suitors.
From what has been said it is clear that the Homeric games
were chiefly aristocratic: it was the sceptred kings and their
families who excelled in all games, and who alone entered for
competitions, though, as we shall see, the common soldiers too
had their sports.
In considering the different events of the Homeric sports,
it will be convenient to follow the description of the funeral
games of Patroclus in the Iliad. First in order of time and
of honour comes the chariot-race, the most aristocratic of all
the events, the monopoly of chieftains who went to war
in chariots. Too important an event for casual gatherings, it
was especially connected with great funeral games. Here, as
we have noticed, rich prizes were offered, and the possession
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of a fine stud of horses was a source of considerable profit.
Thus Agamemnon enumerates among the gifts with which he
hopes to appease Achilles twelve “prize-winning” steeds who
have already won him no small fortune.
In the Odyssey we have no mention of the chariot-race; and
naturally so, for Ithaca (wherever it be) is no land “that
pastureth horses,” nor does it possess “wide courses or meadow-land.”
In the Iliad it is otherwise; the plains of Thessaly and
Argos, the homes of Achilles and the Atreidae, were always famed
for their horses, and in the plain of Troy the Greek charioteers
found ample scope. It is interesting, too, to note that, except
at Troy, the only other chariot-races mentioned in the Iliad
are in spacious Elis,[#] which was in Homeric times the land of
the Epeans, where the lords of Ithaca kept studs of horses,
and in historic times the scene of the Olympic festival. It was
at Buprasium in Elis that Nestor competed at the funeral
games of Amarynces; and on a former occasion his father
Neleus had gone to war with Augeas because the latter had
seized four horses which he had sent to Elis to compete in
the games for a tripod. The mention of four horses is
suspicious, for the chariot in which the Achaean heroes raced
was the two-horse war-chariot. There are also other reasons for
supposing the passage to be a late interpolation subsequent
to the institution of the Olympic chariot-race.
For the chariot-race Achilles provides five prizes—“for the
winner a woman skilled in fair handiwork and a tripod,
for the second a six-year-old mare in foal, for the third a
goodly caldron untouched by the fire, for the fourth two
talents of gold, for the fifth a two-handled urn.” For the five
prizes there are five competitors. On the details of the competitors
and of their horses we must not linger, nor on the
lecture on the art of driving which the aged Nestor reads
to his son Antilochus. Critics complain that it interrupts
the narrative; but the rambling, prosy speech is delightfully
characteristic of the garrulous old sportsman, and so human!
Its point seems to consist in certain information which he
gives about the course; for it is no regular race-course, like
the later hippodrome. It is a natural course selected for the
occasion like that of a point-to-point race, save that in this
case the chariots after rounding the goal return to the starting
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.pn +1
point. On such a course local knowledge is invaluable. The
point selected for the goal is a withered tree-stump with a
white stone on either side of it—a monument of some dead
man, or a goal for the race set up by men of old—and
round it is smooth driving ground. At this point, which is
just visible from the start, the two tracks meet—not necessarily
parallel tracks, for chariots cannot take a bee-line from
point to point, but must follow the lie of the ground. Here
Achilles places an umpire, godlike Phoenix, “to note the running
and tell the truth thereof”; for though the goal is just visible,
the track is sometimes lost to the spectators’ view, and as
the chariots round the mark they disappear from sight for
a time. The track, like Greek roads in general, is not of the
smoothest, and in one part has been partially washed away
by a torrent, so that there is no room for two chariots to
pass. Possibly the road in this part, as is often the case,
passed along the actual bed of the winter torrent.
The charioteers draw lots for their places, and then the
chariots take their place in a line. Commentators gravely
debate whether the Greek means “in a line” or “in file,”
like a row of hansom cabs! But there is no subject wherein
commentators are so rampant as in athletics, and there is no
athletic absurdity which they do not father upon the Greeks,
who, after all, really did know a little about sports. We are
not told how the horses were started—we must hurry on with
the poet to the finish. How Apollo made Tydeides drop his
whip, and how Athene restored it to him and then made the
leader’s horses run off the course and wreck his chariot; how
Antilochus when they came to the broken part of the course
“bored” Menelaus and deprived him of the place; how the
spectators quarrelled as to which chariot was leading, and
Idomeneus offered to bet Aias a caldron or a tripod; how
Antilochus apologised for his youthful impetuosity and
Menelaus generously forgave him; how every man received
his prize, even he whose chariot was broken,—all this is
known to every reader of Homer; to retell it would be sacrilege.
Particularly charming is the scene where Achilles presents
Nestor with a prize which has been left over as a “memorial
of Patroclus’ burying.” In recalling his youthful victories at
Buprasium the old man mentions that he was defeated in the
chariot-race by the two sons of Actor, one of whom held
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the reins while the other plied the whip. Here apparently
we have a hint of an earlier form of the chariot-race, where, as
in war, the chieftain was accompanied by his charioteer. In
Achilles’ time there is already a difference between the sport
and the reality.
The next two events—the boxing and the wrestling matches—are
described as ἀλεγεινός, “hard” or “distressful,” an epithet
which, as before observed, seems rather a recommendation than
otherwise. Indeed these two sports, which are always mentioned
together, already held the position of pre-eminence which they
held at the time of Pindar, and they formed the chief part of
the Achaean chieftain’s athletic education. For boxing and
wrestling are essentially exercises of skill. The child and the
savage hit, kick, tear, scratch, bite, and from this primitive
rough-and-tumble the Greek in later time developed the
scientific pankration; it is only the civilised man who distinguishes
boxing and wrestling, who uses the fist to strike and
conducts a fight by rules. In Homer both wrestling and boxing
are already arts, and though in their rougher form popular
sports, the science of them seems to have been the monopoly of
the chieftains, perhaps, like the Japanese jiu-jitsu, jealously
handed down from father to son. The importance of the art of
self-defence in those unsettled times is obvious from the many
legends of robbers and bullies who challenged strangers to a
bout of wrestling or boxing, till their career of murder was cut
short by a Heracles, a Theseus, or a Polydeuces, in whose
victories later art and story represented the triumph of science
and Hellenism over brute force and barbarism. Such a victory
Odysseus himself is said to have won in Lesbos over Philomeleides,
whom he threw mightily, and all the Achaeans rejoiced.[#] In
Homer, Polydeuces is already “the boxer,” and Odysseus “of
many counsels” wins glory both as boxer and wrestler.
For the boxing Achilles offers two prizes. Epeius at once
advances and claims the first prize. In his somewhat brutal
arrogance, and his admission that, though superior to all in
boxing, he falls short in actual warfare, we have perhaps a foretaste
of the later professional boxer. But mock modesty is no
characteristic of the Greeks, and poetic nemesis was not to be
meted out; moreover, his boastfulness is atoned for by his
courtesy in his victory. Still, in the contrast between real war
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and the sport we seem to see the poet’s judgment that athletics
are man’s recreation, not his business. The challenge of Epeius
is accepted by Euryalus, who came of a boxing stock; for his
father Mecisteus had formerly defeated all the Cadmeans at the
burial of Oedipodes. Their friends help to gird them, and bind
on the well-cut thongs of oxhide. The loin-belt was, as we
shall see, discarded later on, but the thongs remained unchanged
till the fifth century, when we shall find them constantly depicted
on the vases. Then the two “lifted up stalwart hands and fell
to. And noble Epeius came on, and as the other cast a glance
around, smote him on the cheek, nor could he much more stand,
for his fair limbs straightway failed under him, and as when
beneath the north wind’s ripple a fish leapeth on a tangle-covered
beach, and then the black wave hideth it, so leapt
Euryalus at that blow. But the great-hearted Epeius took him
in his hands and set him upright, and his dear comrades stood
around him and led him through the ring with trailing foot,
spitting out clotted blood, drooping his head awry, and they set
him down in his swoon among them.” The description is
perfectly clear. Epeius forced the fighting, and catching his
opponent off his guard knocked him out in orthodox, or, as some
purists would say, unorthodox, fashion with a swinging uppercut
on the point of the jaw.
A yet better description of a fight with a similar finish occurs
in the Odyssey.[#] Odysseus, returning to his home disguised as a
beggar, finds installed there the professional beggar Irus, who
at once picks a quarrel with him. The suitors, delighted and
amused at the prospect of a fight between a pair of beggars,
form a ring round the pair and egg them on, promising to the
winner a haggis that is cooking at the fire. But when the
beggars strip and gird up their rags they see that they are mistaken
in one of their men. Odysseus strips like an athlete, clean
and big of limb, and the suitors marvel. Irus too, despite his
bulk, marvels, and would fain withdraw. But it is too late:
the suitors will not be baulked of their fun, and the fight starts.
Of course it is a foregone conclusion, and Odysseus himself knows
it. He knows, too, what he can do; his only doubt is whether
he shall kill the braggart outright, or strike him lightly to the
earth. He decides on the latter course, and proceeds to dispose
of him in most artistic fashion. Irus leads off with a clumsy
// File: 045.png
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left-hander at Odysseus’ right shoulder, and Odysseus cross-counters
with a blow on the neck below the ear which knocks
him out. Fights of this sort were doubtless common occurrences,
and a little science must have been a very useful possession.
That the Achaeans did possess something of the science is clear
from the two fights described in Homer, though their science
seems rather of the unconventional American type, and does not
commend itself to staunch supporters of the orthodox English
school.
For wrestling also two prizes are offered, a tripod valued
at twelve oxen, and a “woman skilled in all manner of work”
valued only at four oxen. For the two prizes there are two
competitors, no less persons than Odysseus and Ajax, the types
respectively of cleverness and strength. The match is conducted
under definite rules, the rules of what was called “upright
wrestling,” in which, the object being to throw the opponent,
ground wrestling was not allowed. Girding themselves the
two advanced “into the midst of the ring, and clasped each the
other in his arms with stalwart hands like gable rafters of a
lofty house.” The attitude is identical with that adopted by
Westmorland and Cumberland wrestlers to-day. Then came
the struggle for a closer grip; but when after much striving
neither could gain an advantage, Ajax suggested an expedient
that each in turn should allow the other to obtain a fair grip
and try to throw him by lifting him off the ground. There is
here no suggestion of unfairness, but undoubtedly the advantage
is with the heavier man. Odysseus, however, was equal to the
occasion, and as Ajax lifted him, not forgetful of his art, he
struck him with his foot behind the knee, in technical language
“hammed” him, and so brought him to the ground, falling
heavily upon him. As both wrestlers fell together the bout
was inconclusive. Next came Odysseus’ turn: unable to lift
his bulky opponent off the ground “he crooked his knee within
the other’s, and both fell sideways.” The chip employed was
apparently “the hank” or “the inside click” of the modern
wrestler. But the fall was what is known as a dog-fall, and
inconclusive. The two were proceeding to the third bout when
Achilles put an end to the contest, and awarded to each an
equal prize.
Futile efforts have been made to explain the verdict by
showing that Odysseus won the first bout and Ajax the second;
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the explanation given above rests on the simple supposition
that when both wrestlers fell, no fall was scored. If each had
won one bout, the excitement would have been too intense for the
contest to be stopped, but two inconclusive bouts were naturally
tedious to the spectators.
The foot-race need not detain us long. There were three
prizes and three competitors; among them, in spite of his recent
exertions, the veteran Odysseus. The course was of the same
impromptu type described for the chariot-race, round some
distant mark and back to the starting place, where the ground
was wet and slippery with the blood of the oxen slaughtered
for sacrifice. It was a great race. Ajax, the son of Oeleus, led,
while Odysseus followed closely in his track amid the cheers of
the Achaeans. As they neared the finish Odysseus prayed to
Athene, who “made his limbs feel light, both feet and hands”—a
delightful description of the spurt; but not content with
such legitimate aid, she caused Ajax, just as they reached the
prize, to slip in the victim’s blood. But in Homer there is
no ill-feeling at such incidents; the defeated rivals merely
comment good-humouredly on the interference of the goddess, just
as the modern sportsman, not always so good-humouredly, on
his opponent’s luck. “Friends, ye will bear me witness when
I say that even herein the immortals favour elder men.” What
the moderns ascribe to luck, the Achaeans, like all the ancients,
ascribed to the direct action of the gods: it is a later age that
makes fortune a goddess.
Of the four remaining events, three at least—the single
combat between Ajax and Diomede, throwing the solos, and the
contest with the bow—are admitted even by the most conservative
critics to be a late interpolation; the fourth event—throwing
the spear—is usually assigned to the earlier account of the
games, though one of the arguments adduced, that spear-throwing
formed part of the Homeric pentathlon, seems singularly
weak! There is no suggestion in Homer of any such thing as
the pentathlon, a competition consisting of five events in which
the same competitors competed, and to talk of the Homeric
pentathlon merely because Nestor happens to mention five
events in the games at Buprasium is quite unhistorical and most
misleading. It would be more to the point to urge that spear-throwing,
throwing the solos or diskos, and archery go together,
because these same three events are mentioned together in the
// File: 047.png
.pn +1
2nd Iliad.[#] But this is no place for
the details of Homeric criticism. For
our present purpose we can learn
nothing from the passage about
Homeric spear-throwing, for the simple
reason that the competition never
came off, Achilles out of courtesy to
his leader assigning the first prize to
Agamemnon without a contest.
.if h
.il fn=fig002.png w=80% id=fig002 alt="Scene from Clazomenae Sarcophagus in British Museum."
.ca Fig. 2. Scene from Clazomenae Sarcophagus in British Museum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Scene from Clazomenae Sarcophagus in British Museum.]
.if-
It is unnecessary to consider in
detail the confused and lifeless descriptions
of these events, but a word
must be said of the events themselves.
The combat between armed men is
depicted on a sixth-century sarcophagus
from Clazomenae, now in the
British Museum (Fig. #2:fig002#).[#] Here,
among chariots in full course, or preparing
for the race, we see pairs of
warriors fighting. They are armed
with helmet, spear, and shield, and
between each pair stands a youth
playing the pipes to show the nature
of the fight. At either end stands a
pillar bearing a bowl for the prize,
while against the pillar rests a naked
figure leaning dejectedly upon a staff,
the spirit apparently of the dead man
in whose honour the games were
held. The armed combat was alien,
however, to the spirit of the Greeks;
we hear of it, indeed, in later times
at Mantinea and at Cyrene, but it
found no place in any of the great
Greek festivals.[#] It was probably
// File: 048.png
.pn +1
connected exclusively with funeral rites, a substitute for human
sacrifices. In the earlier part of the book Achilles slays
twelve Trojan captives upon the pyre of his friend; in the
latter part armed warriors fight in his honour. The one scene
is but the later doublet of the other.
The description of the archery competition is simply
ludicrous. The first prize is for the man who hits a dove
fastened by a cord to the top of a mast, while the second prize
is for the man who performs the infinitely harder feat of severing
the cord. The choice of ten double axes for the first prize and
ten single axes for second suspiciously suggests a reminiscence
of the more serious competition with Odysseus’ bow in the
Odyssey, where the twelve axe-heads to be shot for are part
of the treasures that Odysseus had once won as prizes.[#] In
the Odyssey the bow holds an honourable place, but in the
Iliad, though a few heroes are famed for their skill in archery,
the bow is rather the weapon of the soldiery, and especially
of the Trojans, and skill with it is regarded by the Achaean
noble who fought in his chariot with the same not unnatural
dislike and contempt, not unmingled with fear, as it was by the
chivalry of France in the days of Agincourt.[#]
Archery was regarded with the same contempt by the Greek
hoplite of the fifth century, and though it formed part of the
training of the Athenian Epheboi, it never entered largely into
Greek sports. The diskos, however, was always and in all places
a favourite exercise. Odysseus, as we have seen, to prove his
strength to the Phaeacians, hurled far beyond all their marks
a diskos larger than his hosts themselves ever threw.[#] The
word diskos means nothing more than a “thing for throwing,”
and the object thrown by Odysseus was a stone. Whether the
artificial diskos of later times was known to the poet may be
doubted, although the words “diskos” and “a diskos’ throw” are
// File: 049.png
.pn +1
of frequent occurrence. In the later gymnasium there was no
doubt always a supply of diskoi of various weights and sizes,
like the supply of dumbbells in our own gymnasia. But we
should hardly expect to find such a stock of athletic implements
in the agora of the Phaeacians hard by the ships where
these impromptu after-dinner sports took place. It seems
more likely that the diskoi were merely the large round pebbles
of the seashore, such as the Phaeacian fisher-folk used for holding
down their nets and tackle laid out to dry in the agora, and
such as every visitor to the seaside instinctively picks up and
throws. A stone, a lump of metal, or a tree-trunk provides
for early man a natural weapon in time of war, a test of
strength in time of peace. From such simple forms are
derived the weight, the hammer, and the caber of our modern
sports. In Homer stones still played no small part in actual
warfare. Even heroes use them. Diomedes hurls at Aeneas
a “handful such as two men, as men now are, could scarcely
lift,”[#] and with a similar rock, which he wields as lightly as
a shepherd waves a fleece, Hector himself bursts in the gate
of the Achaean wall.[#] But stones are more especially the
weapon of the common soldiery, and when the fight grows
general round the body of Cebriones the stones fly fast.[#]
Naturally, then, throwing the stone forms a part of the Achaean
sports. From the use of the term κατωμαδίοιο,[#] “thrown from
the shoulder,” it has been supposed that the Achaeans put the
weight from the shoulder. They may have done so; but “the
whirl” with which Odysseus hurled the stone, and the distance
that he threw it, clearly indicate an underhand throw.
The weight hurled at the games of Patroclus was no stone
but an unwrought metal of mass, probably the contents of one
of the open-hearth furnaces of the Mediterranean world. This
“pig of iron,” which had been taken by Achilles from Eetion
of Thebes, is not only the weight to be thrown but the prize,
and contrary to the courteous Achaean custom the only prize,
although there are four competitors. “The winner’s shepherd,
or ploughman,” says Achilles, “will not want for iron for five
// File: 050.png
.pn +1
years.” But in spite of its weight Polypoetes hurls it as far
as a herdsman flings the bola[#] “when it flieth whirling through
the herds of kine.” The word solos occurs only in this
passage and in later imitators of Homer; the passage is, as
has been said, a very late one, so late that the writer seems
to be consciously archaizing, and I believe that, wishing to
give the description a primitive appearance, he substituted the
solos for the athlete’s diskos, with which he was undoubtedly
familiar. The word seems to be connected with the Semitic
sela, a rock, but at an early date to have been used to describe
the pigs of iron produced on the island of Elba and elsewhere.
In late writers it is sometimes a poetical synonym for the diskos.
The chariot-race and the strictly athletic events, such as
boxing, wrestling, and running, were essentially the sports of
the nobles; but though the latter excelled the common soldiery
in throwing the spear, heaving the weight, and shooting with
the bow, as they did in everything else, there is in these three
events a distinctly popular element. The bow, the javelin, and
the stone were the weapons of all alike, and so, when Achilles
was sulking in his tent, his folk, we read, “sported with diskos,
with casting of spears, and archery.” The diskos and the
spear were also the favourite recreation of the suitors of
Penelope, who had, we may suppose, no taste for more strenuous
exercises. Their popular character is clearly indicated by the
use of the terms “a diskos throw” or “a spear throw” as
measures of distance.[#]
Jumping, which was an important event in the later
pentathlon, is in Homer only mentioned as one of the sports in
which the nimble Phaeacians excelled. Among these we meet
with ball-play, a favourite amusement of the Greeks in all ages.
Not only do Nausicaa and her maidens disport themselves
with the ball on the seashore, but all her brothers give a
display of their skill before Odysseus, and in both cases the
players, as they toss the ball from one to another, move in
a sort of rhythmic dance to the strains of music in a way which
would have delighted the heart of some modern professors of
physical culture.[#] Dance and song were always dear to the
// File: 051.png
.pn +1
Greeks. We have also hints of acrobatic shows that remind us
of the Cretan scenes. On the shield of Achilles was wrought
“a dancing place like unto that which once in wide Cnossus
Daedalus wrought for Ariadne of the fair tresses ... and among
the dancers as the minstrel played two tumblers whirled.”[#]
“Verily,” says Patroclus to Meriones, as smitten by a stone
he falls from his chariot, “verily there are tumblers among
the Trojans too.”[#] Still more suggestive of the circus is the
comparison of Ajax rushing over the plain to a man driving
four horses and leaping from horse to horse as they fly along.[#]
With the origin of the Homeric poems we are not here
concerned. Whether we regard them as the work of a single
poet or as evolved by a series of poets, whether as a contemporary
picture of the Mycenaean age or as based upon
tradition, it is generally agreed that the state of society
described is separated by a long interval from any of which
we have historical knowledge in Greece, and that, despite
slight discrepancies, this description is in its general features
consistent. Of this society the games are the natural product.
Just as in the Homeric polity we can trace the elements from
which the various later institutions were evolved, and yet the
polity as a whole is distinct from all later developments, so in
athletics the events are the same as are found in the later
festivals, but the spirit that pervades them is purely Homeric
and separated by a wide interval from the spirit of the Olympic
games. Critics tell us that the chief passages referring to
the sports are comparatively late, later than the founding of
the Olympic games in 776 B.C. If this is so, the poet must
have followed closely traditions of a much earlier date. Otherwise
we can hardly explain the contrast between the Homeric
and the Olympic games, and the absence, with one doubtful
exception, of any allusion to the latter. This silence is
especially remarkable when we remember the large part played
in the games of the Iliad by Nestor and the Neleidae, who lived
in the neighbouring Pylos, and the close connexion in the
Odyssey between Elis and Ithaca.
The distinctive character of the Homeric games may be
summed up in two words—they are aristocratic and spontaneous.
They are spontaneous as the play of the child, the natural
// File: 052.png
.pn +1
outlet of vigorous youth. There is no organized training,
no organized competition, and sport never usurps the place
of work. They are aristocratic because, though manly exercises
are common to all the people, excellence in them belongs
especially to the nobles; and when sports are held on an
elaborate scale at the funeral of some chieftain, it is the nobles
only who compete.
.fn #
B.S.A. vii. p. 94; viii. pp. 74, 77; ix. p. 56; x. p. 41. R. M. Burrows,
Discoveries in Crete, Pl. i.
.fn-
.fn #
The ταυροκαθαψία proper is a feat rather of the hunting-field than of
the circus, and should be connected rather with the bull-snaring scenes on
the Vaphio cups, vide E. Gardner, Greek Sculpture, p. 61, or with the feat known
as βοῦς αἴρεσθαι depicted in Tischbein ii. 3, and referred to in inscriptions
relative to the Epheboi. The only representation that I know of this sport
is on a late relief from Smyrna in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, No. 219.
The performers are represented pursuing bulls on horseback, leaping on to
their backs, and seizing their horns, by twisting which they throw them on to
the ground. The Greek bull was clearly a small animal, but must still have
been a formidable opponent. The records of the gladiatorial shows afford
abundant proof that man could by the aid of skill triumph over the strongest
animal. The principles of jiu-jitsu could be applied against animals as easily as
against men.
.fn-
.fn #
B.S.A. vii. p. 95, Fig. 31; ix. p. 57, Fig. 35.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. iv. 626, xvii. 168, 174; Il. ii. 774.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. viii. 153 sq. (Butcher and Lang’s translation).
.fn-
.fn #
Od. viii. 147.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. viii. 100.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xi. 697, xxiii. 630.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. iv. 341 sq.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. xviii. 15 sq.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. ii. 774.
.fn-
.fn #
Murray, Sarcophagi in British Museum,
Pl. ii., iii.
.fn-
.fn #
Athenaeus, pp. 153, 154. The true Hoplomachia,
as described in Homer and practised
apparently by the Mantineans and Cyrenaeans,
must not be confounded with the later so-called
Hoplomachia, competitions in which were held at the Athenian Thesea between
boys of all ages as well as men, and which was regularly taught in the gymnasia
by officials known as Hoplomachoi. The latter was merely a military training
in the use of arms, and the competitions therein were probably as harmless as
modern fencing competitions. The Spartans at all events regarded the Hoplomachia
as unpractical and useless for a nation of soldiers, and Plato, though
he recommends the armed combat between men in heavy or light armour as
preferable to the pankration for his ideal state, yet has no great regard for
the fashionable exponents and teachers of the art in his time. Plato, Laches
182, Gorg. 456, Leg. 834. Cp. Dar.-Sagl, s.v. “Hoplomachia.”
.fn-
.fn #
Od. xxi. 4, 61.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xi. 385.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. viii. 186 sq.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. v. 302.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xii. 445.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xvi. 774. In Professor Furtwängler’s reconstruction of the Aegina pediment
one of the fallen warriors holds a stone which he is about to hurl. Stone-throwing
by hand and with the sling is mentioned as part of the peltast’s training
by Plato, Leg. 834 A.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xxiii. 431; but cp. Od. viii. 189; Il. xxiii. 840.
.fn-
.fn #
For this interpretation of καλαῦροψ, and for the discussion of the terms
diskos and solos, vide infra, p. #313:chap15#.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xxiii. 431, 529; xvi. 589.
.fn-
.fn #
Od. vi. 100, viii. 370.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xviii. 605 (= Od. iv. 18).
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xvi. 742, 750.
.fn-
.fn #
Il. xv. 679.
.fn-
// File: 053.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap03
CHAPTER III | THE RISE OF THE ATHLETIC FESTIVAL
.sp 2
The athletic meeting was unknown to Homer: in historic times
it is associated with religious festivals celebrated at definite
periods at the holiest places in Greece. If the growth of the
athletic festival was due to the athletic spirit of the race,
its connexion with religion may be traced to those games with
which the funeral of the Homeric chieftain was celebrated.
Though the origin of the great festivals is overgrown with a
mass of late and conflicting legends in which it is difficult
to distinguish truth from fiction, there is no reason for discrediting
the universal tradition of their funeral origin, confirmed
as it is by survivals in the ritual of the festivals, by the
testimony of the earliest athletic art, and by later custom.[#] So
we may conjecture that these games, originally celebrated at the
actual funeral, tended like other funeral rites to become
periodical, and as ancestor-worship developed into hero-worship
became part of the cult of heroes, which seems to have preceded
throughout Greece the worship of the Olympian deities. When
the latter superseded the earlier heroes, they took over these
games together with the sanctuaries and festivals of the older
religion.
The custom of celebrating funerals with games and contests
is not confined to Greece. Among the funeral scenes that
decorate the walls of Etruscan tombs we see depicted chariot-races,
horse-races, boxing, wrestling, and other athletic sports,
together with contests of a more brutal nature.[#] From the
// File: 054.png
.pn +1
Etruscans the custom spread to the Romans, who borrowed
from the same people their gladiatorial games, which were
likewise possibly of funeral origin. Funeral games are found
in Circassia, in the Caucasus, among the Khirgiz, and yet further
afield in Siam and in North America.[#] But the most instructive
example for our purpose is furnished by the old Irish fairs,
which lasted from pagan times down to the beginning of the
last century.[#] These fairs, founded in memory of some departed
chieftain, took place at stated intervals commonly in the
neighbourhood of the ancient burial-place. Thus the triennial
fair of Carman, near Wexford, was instituted in fulfilment of the
dying charge of Garman “as a fair of mourning to bear his
name for ever.” These fairs, which lasted several days, and
to which people of all classes flocked from every part of Ireland,
and even from Scotland, furnished an opportunity for the
transaction of a variety of business public and private. Laws
were promulgated, councils and courts were held, marriages
were arranged and celebrated.
There was, of course, buying and selling of every sort, but
the principal business of these gatherings was the holding
of sports and competitions. Of these there was an endless
variety—horse-races, athletic exercises, games, pastimes, special
sports for women, competitions in music, in the recitation of
poems and tales. There were shows and performances by
jugglers, clowns, acrobats, circus-riders, and for everything there
were prizes, “for every art that was just to be sold, or rewarded
or exhibited or listened to.” Like the sacred month of the
Olympic festival, the time of the fairs was “one universal
truce,” during which all quarrels and strife were repressed, no
distraint for debt, no vengeance was allowed, and the debtor
might enjoy himself with impunity. “The Gentile of the
Gael,” says an old writer, “celebrated the fair of Carman without
breach of law, without crime, without violence, without dishonour.”
On the introduction of Christianity the Church took
over the old pagan fairs; the pagan rites were abolished, each
day began with a religious service, and the fair concluded with
a grand religious ceremonial. In every detail the history of
these fairs bears an extraordinary resemblance to that of
the Greek athletic festivals.
// File: 055.png
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.if h
.il fn=fig003.png w=100% id=fig003 alt="Amphiaraus Vase. Berlin, 1655."
.ca Fig. 3. Amphiaraus Vase. Berlin, 1655.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Amphiaraus Vase. Berlin, 1655.]
.if-
// File: 056.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig004.png w=100% id=fig004 alt="Dipylon Vase. Copenhagen."
.ca Fig. 4. Dipylon Vase. Copenhagen.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Dipylon Vase. Copenhagen.]
.if-
In Greek lands there is everywhere evidence of the existence
of funeral games at all periods, from the legendary games of
Pelias to those celebrated at Thessalonica in the time of
Valerian, or perhaps in his honour.[#] The games of Pelias
and those celebrated by Acastus in honour of his father were
represented respectively on the two most famous monuments
of early decorative art—the chest of Cypselus dedicated in the
Heraeum at Olympia, and the throne of Apollo at Amyclae.
Both works are lost, and known to us only from the descriptions
of Pausanias, but the manner in which the games
of Pelias were represented can be judged from the similar
scene on a sixth-century vase, the Amphiaraus vase in Berlin
(Fig. #3:fig003#).[#] A still earlier representation of funeral games
occurs on a geometric cup from the Acropolis, possibly
dating from the eighth century (Fig. #4:fig004#).[#] On one side are
two naked men, with one hand holding each other by the arm,
and with the other preparing to stab one another with swords,
a mimic fight perhaps rather than a real one, but one which,
like the Pyrrhic dance depicted on the other side, may recall
more sanguinary funeral contests. On the reverse stand two
boxers in the centre between a group of warriors, and a group
of dancers; an armed dancer leaping off the ground to the
accompaniment of a four-stringed lyre, and two others holding
possibly castanets. A similar scene occurs on a silver vase from
// File: 057.png
.pn +1
Etruria, said by Furtwängler to be of Cyprian origin; while the
wide distribution of funeral games is further shown by the
Clazomenae sarcophagus already described, and by a fragment
of a sixth-century vase manufactured at Naucratis (Fig. #140:fig140#).[#]
The games depicted on these monuments are very similar to
those described in Homer. The prizes are generally tripods
and bowls which stand between the combatants or at the finish
of the course. The contests were not confined to athletics and
chariot-races. Hesiod tells us that he was present at Chalcis
at the games held in honour of Amphidamas by his sons, and
himself won a tripod as a prize for a “hymn.”[#] At Delphi, too,
the only contests previous to the sixth century were musical.
Of periodical games in memory of the dead the earliest
example, apart from the great festivals, is furnished by the
games of Azan in Arcadia, where, according to Pausanias, the
chariot-race was the oldest event.[#] At Rhodes the festival of
the Heliea seems to have originated in the funeral games of
Tlepolemus.[#] In more historical times we frequently find the
memory of generals and statesmen kept alive by games founded
in their honour by their countrymen, or those whom they had
benefited. Miltiades was honoured by games in the Chersonese,
Leonidas and Pausanias at Sparta, Brasidas at Amphipolis,
Timoleon at Syracuse, Mausolus at Halicarnassus. Kings and
tyrants followed the example: Alexander instituted games in
honour of his friend Hephaestion. Those, too, who had fallen
in war were often commemorated by their states with athletic
festivals. The Pythia were reorganized by the Amphictions as
a funeral contest in honour of those who fell in the first Sacred
war, in memory of which the victors received crowns of bay
cut in the Vale of Tempe, and the Eleutheria at Plataea were
established by the victorious Greeks to commemorate those
who had died in battle against the Persians. At Athens, too,
a festival was held in the Academy under the direction of the
polemarch in memory of those citizens who had died for their
country.[#]
The origin of funeral games is too difficult a question to be
discussed here. Many explanations have been offered. Roman
critics held the Etruscan combats, from which their own
gladiatorial games were borrowed, to have been originally a
// File: 058.png
.pn +1
substitute for human sacrifice; and this explanation has been
suggested above in connexion with the armed fight in the
games of Patroclus. This view receives some support from
the occurrence of the armed fight, whether real or mimic, and
of the armed Pyrrhic dance, which was certainly a mimicry of
battle, on some of the monuments representing funeral games,
perhaps, too, from the prominence in these games of boxing,
which may be regarded as a further modification of the more
brutal combats. Plutarch suggests apologetically that in early
days such fights took place even at Olympia,[#] and the lads of
the Peloponnese, we are told, every year lashed themselves upon
the grave of Pelops till the blood ran down. But the significance
of the latter rite is doubtful. Another view connects
these contests with those fights for succession with which Dr.
Frazer’s Golden Bough has made us familiar. In support of this
we may cite the famous chariot-race between Pelops and
Oenomaus for the hand of Hippodameia, or such later myths
as the wrestling match by which Zeus won from Cronus the
sovereignty of heaven. Connected with the idea of succession
is the credit and popularity accruing to the heirs from the
magnificence of the games with which they celebrated their
dead predecessor. The costly prizes offered must assuredly
have caused no less pleasure to the living than to the dead.
Comparatively late is the idea that the dead man somehow
assisted as spectator and enjoyed the games held in his honour.[#]
In all these views there is probably some truth, the amount of
which varied in different places; but whatever truth there is
in any or all of them as applied to the Greeks, they afford no
adequate explanation of the variety and importance of Greek
funeral games unless full account be taken also of the intense
love of competition and the strong athletic spirit of the race.
But whatever the origin of funeral games, there can be no
doubt that they adequately account for the close connexion
between athletics and religion; nor is this view discredited by
doubts as to the particular funeral legends which later invention
attached to particular festivals.
// File: 059.png
.pn +1
The athletic festival required for its growth fairly settled
conditions of life, and during the troubled period which
intervened between the time of Nestor and the first Olympiad
no progress was possible. Long before the Homeric poems
were composed, love of adventure, quickened perhaps by pressure
from the North, had driven the Achaeans and other kindred
tribes forth from the mainland of Greece to find fresh homes
in the islands and on the eastern shores of the Aegean. Other
tribes, Aeolians, Ionians, Dorians, followed, and for centuries
the stream of colonization flowed eastwards, carrying Greek
civilization to every part of the Aegean. This civilization
gathered fresh life from contact with the East. There, while
Greece itself was paralyzed by wars and migrations, great cities
grew and flourished, cities great not only in material prosperity
but in art and literature and science. Of the history of these
cities unfortunately we know nothing; we can only judge of
their greatness by the results which we find in the seventh and
sixth centuries when the rise of the Lydian and Persian empires
first brought them into conflict with these powers. But of one
thing we may be sure—the Greek settlers brought with them
their love of sport. This must be a truism to all who hold
that the 23rd Iliad was composed in the Eastern Aegean; it
is confirmed by the many victories gained in later days at
Olympia by athletes from the cities and islands of the East,
and by the numerous athletic festivals existing in those parts
in historical times.
Under the settled and luxurious conditions of Eastern life
it is probable that the athletic festival developed at an early
date,[#] though owing to the same conditions athletics never
attained in the East to the position which they occupied in the
Peloponnese, and the athletic business was often secondary to
the other business of the festivals. This at least is suggested
by the history of the Delian festival. The antiquity of this
festival is vouched for by the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. At
// File: 060.png
.pn +1
a time when Olympia was still little more than a local gathering,
the long-robed Ionians were already flocking to Apollo’s isle
with their children and their wives. Even from the mainland
of Greece choirs came with hymns to Apollo. We still possess
a fragment of Eumelus, a Bacchiad of Corinth, said by Pausanias
to have been written for the Messenian choir sent to Delos in
the eighth century.[#] “There when the games are ordered they
rejoice to honour Apollo with boxing and dance and song.”
The picture in the Hymn to Apollo is full of joy and grace:
the fair ships drawn up by the water’s edge, the costly
merchandise spread out upon the shore, the throng of long-robed
men and fair-girdled women, and in the background the
slopes of Mount Cynthus, halfway up which stands out the rocky
archway of Apollo’s ancient shrine. A fair scene truly, and
typical no doubt of many another festival where men of kindred
race gathered together for sacrifice and song, for sport and
traffic. But in this joyous festival of the jovial Delians we
feel that athletics hold but a secondary place. For the more
serious business of athletics we must go to the sterner, more
strenuous festivals of the Peloponnese—above all to Olympia.
“Best of all is water and gold as a flaming fire in the night
shineth eminent amid lordly wealth: but if of prizes in the
games thou art fain, O my soul, to tell, then as for no bright
star more quickening than the sun must thou search in the void
firmament by day, so neither shall we find any games greater
than the Olympic whereof to utter our voice.”[#] The sanctity
of Olympia and its festival go back to days far earlier than
the coming of the Dorians, perhaps of any Greek race; but
the growth of the festival dates from the time when, after the
Dorian invasion, the movements of the peoples ceased and the
land became settled, and its greatness is largely due to the
athletic ideal and the genius for organization which characterized
that race. “It is not the least of the many debts which we
owe to Heracles,” says Lysias in his Panegyric, “that by instituting
the Olympic games he restored peace and goodwill to a
land torn asunder by war and faction and wasted by pestilence.”
Pausanias uses similar language of the restoration of the games
by Iphitus and Lycurgus, whose action another tradition ascribes
to the advice of the Delphic oracle. But though we can hardly
// File: 061.png
// File: 062.png
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credit the founders of the games, whoever they were, with this
far-sighted Panhellenic policy at so early a date, the tradition
is founded upon facts: the first Olympiad does mark the settlement
of Greece, and the festival did promote the unity of Greece.
Its growth, though not its origin, was due to the Dorians.
.if h
.il fn=fig005.png w=100% id=fig005 alt="Plan of Olympia."
.ca Fig. 5. Plan of Olympia.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Plan of Olympia.]
.if-
Olympia lies about ten miles from the sea on the northern
bank of the Alpheus, at the point where its valley spreads out
into a wide and fertile plain. In an angle formed by this river
with its tributary the Cladeus, which rushes down from the
mountains of Elis between steep banks formerly shaded with
plane-trees, at the foot of the pine-clad hill of Cronus, stood
the grove of wild olive-trees, brought there according to tradition
by Heracles from the land of the Hyperboreans, the
sacred grove from which the Altis took its name. The slopes
of the neighbouring hills were covered with a variety of trees,
and in the rich undergrowth of flowering shrubs the wild boar,
deer, and other game found cover. It was to Scillus, only a
few miles distant, that the veteran Xenophon retired to spend
his old age in literature and sport. In old days the vegetation
was far more luxuriant than now; besides the olive groves, the
white poplars, from which alone the wood for the sacrifice to Zeus
and Pelops might be cut, and even the palm-tree flourished
there. The rich well-watered plain was covered with vines and
crops, while its meadows afforded abundant pasturage for horses
and for cattle.[#]
To the modern traveller Olympia seems too much out of
the way to be the scene of a great national gathering; even
to the Greek of the fifth century it must have seemed to stand
outside the busy centres of Greek life, and perhaps it was this
very remoteness, combined with its ancient sanctity, that saved
Olympia, like Delphi, from being the battle-ground between the
rival states of Greece. But it had not been so always. The
flat, rich, alluvial plains of the western Peloponnese had not
formerly lagged behind the rest of Greece. The long, almost
unbroken curves of sandy shore offered little harbourage for the
triremes of a later day. But the earlier mariner or trader
from the East who coasted around Greece had no love for deep
land-locked harbours; all he wanted was a sandy shore where
he could beach his ships sheltered by some convenient headland
as at Triphylian Pylos, or at the open mouth of some river like
// File: 063.png
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the Alpheus. Hence there is no reason to doubt the traditions
that connect Cretans and Phoenicians with Olympia.[#] The
coastline has advanced considerably since those days, and the
small boats of these ancient mariners could advance up the
river with perfect safety through the flat open plain as far as
Olympia. This accessibility of Olympia by sea had yet more
important consequences at a later age when the festival attracted
men from the great colonies of Italy and Sicily. Olympia may
even have been associated with the founding of these colonies; for
the coast road round Elis and the shores of the gulf of Corinth
connected it with Sicyon, Corinth, and Megara. May we not
suppose that, as the colonists sailed down the gulf of Corinth,
many of them would turn aside before they bade farewell to
their native shores to visit the venerable grove of Olympia and
consult its ancient oracle?
Again, Olympia stood full in the way of the Achaean tribes
as they pressed southwards from their first settlement at Dodona.
In speaking of the Achaeans we are using the word provisionally
for convenience’ sake to denote the pre-Dorian Greeks of the
Peloponnese as opposed to the original inhabitants and the later
Dorians. In the Odyssey they have spread over the islands, over
Pleuron by the sea and rocky Calydon, over Elis and Messenia.
So close was the connexion between the islands and Elis, then
the land of the Epeans, that the princes of Ithaca used its
broad plains for breeding cattle and horses. The narrow
straits offered no obstacle to this adventurous people, and for
centuries before the passage of Oxylus, the one-eyed Aetolian
from Naupactus, the Achaeans and others had been crossing
over in larger or smaller companies till they had spread over the
whole Peloponnese. Hence for the Achaeans in the Peloponnese
Olympia stood in the same position as Dodona in northern
Greece. The Dorians, indeed, seem to have failed in their
attempt to follow in the same course; but legend connected with
the return of the Heracleidae the invasion of their Aetolian
allies under Oxylus, who dispossessed the Epean lords of Elis.
The quarrel between these newcomers and the earlier settlers
for the possession of Olympia lasted for centuries, but through
all the changes of population, though many fresh cults were
added by the invaders, the superstition with which all newcomers
// File: 064.png
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in those days regarded the gods and sanctuaries of the
earlier inhabitants preserved the old cults inviolate, so that in
the buildings and altars of Olympia, and the ritual of its festival,
all the various strata of its history are plainly visible.
Lastly, though remote from the struggles of later history,
no place in the Peloponnese was more accessible to other
parts. Besides the coast-route that connected it with Messenia
and the gulf of Corinth, the valleys of the Alpheus and its
tributaries afforded a natural means of communication with all
parts of the interior, and it was to the athletic character of
the inhabitants of the Peloponnese that the athletic fame of the
festival in the first place was due. Without this native talent
it could never have attracted competitions from northern Greece
or from the colonies of the West, nor could it ever have acquired
its peculiar sanctity but for the position it had held
in the earlier migrations.
It is unnecessary here to discuss the various myths which
Greek imagination wove about the beginnings of Olympia, and
the perplexing problems which they raise. Two propositions
may be regarded as fairly established. In the first place,
Olympia was a holy place before the Achaeans came to the
Peloponnese. In the second place, the beginning of the games
was earlier than the Dorian invasion, but later probably than
the coming of the Achaeans.
The antiquity of Olympia is proved by the presence
there of those elements of primitive religion which preceded
the worship of the Olympian deities. The altar of Cronus
on the hill top which bore his name recalled a sovereignty
earlier than that of Zeus. An ancient oracle of earth preceded
the oracle of Zeus. Of the worship of the powers of the
underworld there is abundant evidence at Olympia, as in the
rest of the Peloponnese; the priestess of Demeter Chamyne,
for example, was exempted from the rule that excluded women
from Olympia, and had her place of honour in the stadium
opposite the seats of the Hellanodicae. In Hera, whose worship
at Olympia was earlier than that of Zeus, we may probably
recognize a Hellenized form of the great Mother Goddess of
the Aegean world. Lastly, that Pelops claimed precedence
of Zeus is clear from the fact that the athletes sacrificed to
Pelops first and then to Zeus. At his tomb within the Altis,
originally a barrow, only afterwards enclosed in a shrine, he
// File: 065.png
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was worshipped with all the ceremonial due to the dead, and
every year the youths of the Peloponnese lashed themselves
upon his grave till the blood ran down.[#] Yet it does not
follow that the cult of Pelops was pre-Achaean. We cannot
clearly draw the line between what belonged to the Achaeans
and what to the original inhabitants. There was no violent breach,
but rather a gradual fusion of the races, in the course of which
the Achaeans made their own much of the earlier civilization.
Certainly the cult of heroes continued all through Greek
history; in later days even noted athletes were canonized.
The ancient writings of the Eleans, according to Pausanias,
ascribed the institution of the games to the Idaean Heracles,
one of the Cretan Curetes to whom the infant Zeus was
entrusted. But to Pindar and Bacchylides the games are
associated with the tomb of Pelops. Pelops, as the story goes,
came to Olympia as a suitor for the hand of Hippodameia,
whose father Oenomaus challenged all her suitors to a chariot-race,
and slew with his spear all whom he defeated. Thirteen
suitors had been slain when Pelops came and, by the aid of
Myrtilus, the charioteer of Oenomaus, who removed the lynch-pins
from his master’s chariot wheels, slew him and won his
bride and kingdom. This story, afterwards represented on
the chest of Cypselus and on the pediments of the temple of
Zeus, was commemorated by the earliest monuments of the
Altis. Besides the tomb of Pelops himself, there was an ancient
wooden pillar said to be the only remnant of the house of
Oenomaus, which was struck by lightning,[#] and also the
Hippodamium, apparently a funeral mound, surrounded afterwards
by a wall, where the women of Elis every year offered
sacrifice.
It was at the ancient tomb of Pelops, Pindar tells us, that
Heracles the son of Zeus, returning from his victory over Augeas,
founded the Olympian games. There “he measured a sacred
grove for the Father, and having fenced round the Altis marked
the bounds thereof. There he set apart the choicest of the
spoil for an offering from the war and sacrificed and ordained
the fifth year feast.” “In the foot-race down the straight course
// File: 066.png
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was Likymnius’ son Oeonus first, from Nidea had he led his
host; in the wrestling was Tegea glorified by Echemus;
Doryclus won the prize of boxing, a dweller in the city of
Tiryns, and with the four-horse chariot Samos of Mantinea,
Halirrhothius’ son; with the javelin Phrastor hit the mark; in
distance Eniceus beyond all others hurled the stone with a
circling sweep, and all the warrior company thundered a great
applause.”[#]
The poet has glorified into a Peloponnesian festival what
can have been no more than a local gathering in which the
neighbouring chieftains took part, and the introduction of
Heracles may have been an invention of the Eleans; for,
according to Pausanias, it was Iphitus who first induced the
Eleans, or, as he should have said, the Pisatans, to sacrifice to
Heracles whom they had before regarded as their enemy. Yet
there is probably some truth in the connexion of the games
with Pelops’ grave, a tradition which we find also in Pindar’s
great rival Bacchylides. But who was Pelops? Was he god,
man, or hero? Like the oracle of Delphi when asked a similar
question about Lycurgus, we may well doubt. Yet in spite of
certain modern authorities, who see local gods in most of the
heroes of legend, it is perhaps safer to accept the universal
belief of the Greeks that he was a man, some chieftain who
after his death was worshipped as a hero. Moreover, the
tradition of his Phrygian origin is a strong argument against the
view that he was a native pre-Achaean god of the Peloponnese,
though it is by no means incompatible with his connexion with
the Achaeans in view of the original kinship of the latter
with the Phrygians. At all events Pelops is pre-Dorian, and
the victors in these games, according to Pindar, are pre-Dorians.
The existence of the games in pre-Dorian times agrees
entirely with the athletic character of the Achaeans in the
Peloponnese as described in Homer; and if we find in the poet
no mention of Olympia, his silence is easily explained by the
simple, local character of the festival at this time. It will be
remembered that in the funeral games of the north-western
Peloponnese chariot-racing played a prominent part. The
antiquity of this sport at Olympia is confirmed by the discovery
of a number of very early votive offerings, many of them models
of horses or chariots, found in a layer that extends below the
// File: 067.png
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foundations of the Heraeum. This temple was founded, it is
said, by the people of Scillus some eight years after the coming
of Oxylus; and even if we cannot go so far as Dr. Dörpfeld,
who assigns it to the tenth or eleventh centuries, there is no
doubt of its great antiquity, and that the Scilluntines were of an
Arcadian, not a Dorian stock.
Before the building of the Heraeum we must picture Olympia
as a sacred grove surrounded by a hedge interspersed with open
spaces where stood the barrow of Pelops and sundry earth
altars, such as the great altar of Zeus, or the six double altars
at which the competitors offered sacrifice. Thither the country-folk
resorted to inquire of the future from the ancient earth
oracle, or perhaps, as at Dodona, from the rustling of the leaves.
These oracles were interpreted by certain hereditary families,
the Iamidae and Clytidae, who maintained their privileges even
when Dorian influence had prevailed. Thither at set times the
neighbouring tribes flocked to take part in the games held at
the tomb of Pelops. The sanctuary and festival of Olympia
were in the territory of the Pisatae, a tribal group of village
communities possibly nine in number situated on either side of
the Alpheus valley, and loosely bound together by the common
worship of the hero Pelops.[#] They took their name from the
village of Pisa, perhaps on account of its nearness to Olympia.
The Pisatae were one of many such tribal groups, or
amphictyonies in the Peloponnese, in parts of which this form
of life continued into the fifth century or later. Such were
the groups of nine cities mentioned in the catalogue of the ships
in the Iliad, the nine Arcadian cities grouped round the tomb of
Aepytus, the nine Pylian cities of Nestor’s kingdom, the nine
Argive cities under Diomed, the nine Lacedaemonian cities under
Sparta. Such, too, were the Caucones, a wandering tribe whose
hero Caucon was in later times supposed to be buried near
Lepreum; such were the Epeans of Elis; while the Eleans who
supplanted them retained this form of government till the
founding of the city-state of Elis in the fifth century. Like all
such clans these leagues were intensely aristocratic: the chieftains
were regarded with superstitious reverence, and the tribal
centre was often the tomb of some departed hero-chief. Of
cities, properly speaking, there were none in the western
// File: 068.png
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Peloponnese. A few strong fortresses served as residences for
powerful chieftains and as refuge for their followers in danger;
but most of the people lived in unwalled villages like the Scotch
Highlanders. Their wealth consisted largely in horses and
cattle, which they bartered with the islanders or with Cretan
or Phoenician traders who landed at Pylos or sailed up the
Alpheus to Olympia. In search of pasturage they ranged
in winter over the lowland plains, retiring in summer to the
sheltered upland valleys. The constant pressure of newcomers
kept them constantly on the move, southwards and eastwards.
This shifting of the tribal centres may be traced in the places
that bore the name of Pylos. Settling originally in Elean
Pylos, the gateway of the netherworld, these Pylians, united by
some netherworld cult, were forced to move first to Triphylian
Pylos, probably the Pylos of Nestor, and at a later stage to
Messenian Pylos. Of their raids and cattle-lifting, their feuds
and their reprisals, we have a vivid picture in the Odyssey.
Such, we may suppose, was the life of the Pisatae and their
neighbours, the pre-Dorian inhabitants of Elis, Triphylia,
Arcadia and Messenia. The Pisatae perhaps enjoyed a position
more established than the rest, thanks to the superstitious
reverence which alone saved the rich valley of Olympia from
attack, but under these unsettled conditions the real development
of the festival was impossible, though the prestige which
it had already acquired is shown in the building of the
Heraeum by the Scilluntines.
The coming of the Dorians brought order into the Peloponnese,
but only after a long and bitter struggle. The settling of
Oxylus and his Aetolians in Elis checked the stream of migration
from the north-west, and the power of the Dorians prevented
further aggression from other quarters. Meanwhile such of
the earlier inhabitants as clung to their independence were
driven into the mountains of Arcadia and Achaea, or into
Messenia. In the south-west the civilization, of which we have
a glorified picture in Nestor’s kingdom, lasted perhaps till the
final conquest of the country by the Spartans; in the mountains
the inhabitants developed into a race of hardy mountaineers
and shepherds, fond of sport and war, clinging tenaciously to
their ancient customs and manner of government, but playing
no part in the history of Greece save as mercenaries in the
pay of more progressive states.
// File: 069.png
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In the long struggle that preceded the final settlement even
Olympia was involved. The Eleans—as we may call the
newcomers from Aetolia—strove hard to wrest from the
Pisatans the control of the sanctuary; but the latter doggedly
maintained their rights, which had been recently vindicated by
the building of the Heraeum, and religious feeling was on
their side. Still, the prestige of the festival suffered to such an
extent that the games, it is said, were neglected and forgotten.
At length, weary of incessant strife and a pestilence that
followed it, the contending factions, on the advice, according to one
story, of the Delphic oracle, resolved to re-establish the Olympic
games as a means of restoring goodwill and unity to the land.
This work was ascribed to Iphitus, king of Elis, a descendant of
Oxylus, to Cleosthenes, king of Pisa, and to Lycurgus of Sparta.
The ordinance regulating the festival was engraved on a diskos
preserved in the temple of Hera down to the time of Pausanias,
on which the names of Iphitus and Lycurgus were still legible
in the days of Aristotle.[#] The antiquity of the diskos is unquestionable,
but it may well be doubted if it was contemporary
with the event described. More probably it dated from the
seventh century, when Sparta, as we shall see, took an active
part in the games. The introduction of Sparta and Lycurgus
at this early date is certainly suspicious. Be this as it may, the
organization of the festival by Iphitus and Cleosthenes may be
regarded as the first definite historical fact in its history.
From this date the festival was held every fourth year
until its abolition by the emperor Theodosius at the close of
the fourth century A.D. It took place at the time of the
second or third full moon after the summer solstice in the
Elean months Apollonios and Parthenios, which correspond
approximately to August and September. For the sacred
month (ἱερομηνία) in which the festival took place, a holy
truce (ἐκεχειρία) was proclaimed beforehand by the truce-bearers
of Zeus (σπονδοφόροι). During this truce there was to be peace
throughout the land, no one was permitted to bear arms
within the sacred territory, and all competitors, embassies,
and spectators travelling to Olympia were regarded as under
the protection of Zeus and sacrosanct. The effect of this truce,
// File: 070.png
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at first purely local, spread with the growth of the festival to
all the states taking part in it till the whole Greek world felt
its influence. Any violation of the truce, any wrong inflicted
on the pilgrims of Zeus, was punished by a heavy fine to
Olympian Zeus. The Spartans at the time of the Peloponnesian
war, having entered the sacred territory during the truce
under arms, were condemned to pay a fine of two minae for
every hoplite; on their refusal to pay they were excommunicated.
Even Alexander condescended to apologize and
make restitution to the Athenian Phrynon, who had been seized
and robbed by some of his mercenaries on his way to
Olympia.[#]
By the truce of Iphitus the control of the festival seems to
have been divided between the Eleans and Pisatans, vested
probably at an early date in a joint council representing the
various village communities. The council certainly existed in
later days as a final court of appeal, and the fact that the
earliest building under the new régime was the council-house,
part of which dates from the middle of the sixth century,
points to the antiquity of such a body. The dual control was
recognized in the appointment of two executive officials, the
Hellanodicae. The royal robes of purple worn by these officials
indicate that they were originally the kings of the respective
tribes. One of them, according to Elean tradition the only
one, was always a descendant of Oxylus; but the official position
of the Pisatae survived in later times in the priestly families
of the Iamidae and Clytidae. As was to be expected, the
dual control did not work smoothly. The Pisatae, mindful
of their ancient rights, and jealous of the interference of the
Eleans, made repeated but futile efforts to regain the sole
control. But the superior might of the Eleans, supported at
first at all events by the Spartans, prevailed more and more,
till shortly after the Persian wars the Eleans laid waste the
revolting cities of Triphylia, destroyed Pisa itself, and remained
henceforth sole masters of Olympia, save for a spasmodic effort
of the Pisatans and Arcadians in Ol. 104 (364 B.C.).
The view of Olympian history taken above differs considerably
from the orthodox view taken from Pausanias and Strabo,
and based on “the ancient writings of the Eleans.” This
priestly fiction may be summarized as follows. The games
// File: 071.png
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originally established by Oxylus were refounded by Iphitus
and Lycurgus, and were under the management of the Eleans.
In Ol. 8 the Pisatans called in Pheidon, king of Argos, and
with his help dispossessed the Eleans, but lost their control in
the next Olympiad. In Ol. 28 Elis, being at war with Dyme,
allowed the Pisatans to celebrate the games. In Ol. 34
Pantaleon, king of Pisa, celebrated the games at the head of
an army. According to one account the Pisatans had control
of the festival for twenty-two successive Olympiads, from the
30th to the 51st. Finally, somewhere between Ols. 48 and
52, the Eleans defeated the rebellious Pisatans, destroyed Pisa,
laid waste Triphylia, and henceforth held undisputed control
of Olympia with the exception of Ol. 104, which was celebrated
by the Arcadians and Pisatans. In consequence this Olympiad,
together with the 8th and 34th, were expunged from the register
and reckoned as Anolympiads. Till Ol. 50 there was only one
Hellanodicas, a descendant of Oxylus; at this date a second
was appointed, and both were chosen by lot from the whole
number of the Eleans.
This story is obviously a pious fraud invented by the priests
of Elis to justify their usurpation by asserting a prior claim,
a claim contradicted by all the evidence, and expressly denied
by Xenophon.[#] For the same reason the part played by
Cleosthenes in the truce of Iphitus is omitted by Pausanias,
though fortunately preserved in another account. It is only
possible to point out briefly some of the inconsistencies and
absurdities in the priestly story. Elis is represented throughout
as in control of Olympia, which is situated outside its boundaries
in Pisatis, an independent state with a king of its own, and
this independent state is represented as continually trying to
usurp what is its own. The story of the Anolympiads is discredited
by the fact that in the Olympic register, a document
of at least equal value, these Olympiads were reckoned and
the names of the victors were given. The part played by
Pheidon is involved in all the obscurity that surrounds that
most tantalizing character, but that the great tyrant, whenever
he lived, did try to increase his prestige by seizing control of
the Olympia, is rendered probable by the connexion of similar
tyrants with Olympia and the other festivals. The story of
the addition of the second Hellanodicas in Ol. 50, at the very
// File: 072.png
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time when Pisa is said to have been destroyed, is a manifest
absurdity. The two Hellanodicai represent a dual monarchy,
and a dual monarchy represents a union of races. Assuming,
what is now generally admitted, the pre-Dorian origin of the
festival, the original Hellanodicas must have been a Pisatan,
the second must have been added when Elis secured a share in
the government. Moreover, the selection of the two officials
by lot, a thoroughly democratic institution, is unthinkable in
Elis, at that time an oligarchy of oligarchies, though it may
well have been introduced when the democrats of Elis obtained
the mastery. Lastly, the date of the final destruction of Pisa,
about which Pausanias is obviously confused, is contradicted
by the direct statement of Herodotus, who speaks of the war
in which it took place as “in my days” (ἐπ’ ἐμέο).[#] The
earlier date has been supported by reference to a sixth-century
inscription at Olympia recording a treaty for mutual defence
between Elis and Heraea, by the terms of which either party
failing to help the other is liable in case of need to a fine of a
talent of silver to Olympian Zeus.[#] Too much, perhaps, has
been made of this inscription, which is probably one of many
such local treaties, the record of which has perished. Moreover,
it seems highly probable that Heraea, so far from being opposed
to Pisa, was a member of the early Pisatan league. The
original claims of Pisa are admitted by all modern historians;
all further difficulties vanish on the supposition of a subsequent
dual control, in which Elis gradually became the predominant
partner until, in the fifth century, she ousted Pisa completely.
The regulations for competitors may be traced back to the
earliest times. No one in later days was allowed to compete
who was not of pure Greek parentage on both sides, or who
had neglected to pay any penalty incurred to Olympian Zeus,
or who had incurred ceremonial pollution by manslaughter,
committed, we may suppose, in the sacred territory. These
restrictions had their origin in a religious festival that formed
a bond of union between neighbouring communities, which was
gradually extended through the sacred truce-bearers till it
embraced the whole Greek race. That this local or tribal
exclusiveness grew into a Panhellenic exclusiveness, was due
partly to the influence of the Dorians, partly to the close
// File: 073.png
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connexion of the colonies with Olympia. In the fifth century
Alexander, the son of Amyntas, was not allowed to compete
at Olympia until he had first satisfied the Hellanodicae that
he was of Greek descent.
Similarly, the exclusion of women from Olympia was doubtless
due to some religious taboo rather than to any sense of
modesty or decorum. Such a feeling cannot have existed in
these times. Certainly the Ionian women attended the festival
of Delos, and Spartan girls took part in all athletic exercises
with the boys. Pausanias in one passage tells us that the
restriction did not extend to unmarried girls, but the truth
of his statement is at least doubtful. We never hear of any
unmarried women being present at the festival, and Olympia
can have afforded little or no accommodation for them. The
only certain exception is in the case of the priestess of Demeter,
Chamyne, an exception that is quite consistent with the idea
of an ancient taboo. Otherwise no woman was allowed to
cross the Alpheus during a stated number of days. The penalty
for so doing was death, the transgressor being thrown from
the Typaean rock. Only one instance is recorded of this rule
being broken. Pherenice, a member of the famous family of
the Diagoridae, in her anxiety to see her son Peisirodus compete
in the boys’ boxing, accompanied him to Olympia disguised as
a trainer. In her delight at his victory she leapt over the
barrier and so disclosed her sex. The Hellanodicae, however,
pardoned her in consideration for her father and brothers and
son, all of them Olympic victors, but they passed a decree that
henceforth all trainers should appear naked.[#]
Yet, though personally excluded from the games, women
were allowed to enter their horses for the chariot-race, and
even to set up statues for their victories. They had also
their own festival at Olympia, the Heraea.[#] Every four years
a peplos was woven for Hera by sixteen women of Elis,
and presented to the goddess. At the festival there were
races for maidens of various ages. Their course was 500
feet, or one-sixth less than the men’s stadium. The maidens
ran with their hair down their backs, a short tunic reaching
just below the knee, and their right shoulder bare to the
breast. The victors received crowns of olive and a share of
the heifer sacrificed to Hera. They had, too, the right of
// File: 074.png
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setting up their statues in the Heraeum. There is in the
Vatican a copy of a fifth-century statue of one of these girl
victors, represented just as Pausanias describes them (Fig. #6:fig006#).
She seems to be just on the point of starting. Unfortunately
the arms of the statue are restored, and we cannot feel certain
of the motive. The Heraea were said to have been instituted
by Hippodameia in gratitude for her marriage with Pelops.
Of their real origin and history we are unfortunately ignorant.
According to Curtius the Heraea were the prototype of the
Olympia, and races for maidens were earlier than those for men,
but this is most improbable. The weaving of the peplos
reminds us, of course, of the similar ceremony at the Panathenaea,
while the races for maidens suggest Dorian influence.
Certainly we can hardly make the Dorians responsible for the
exclusion of women from Olympia, which may be safely referred
to the earlier non-Greek race.
.if h
.il fn=fig006.png w=60% id=fig006 alt="Statue of Girl Runner. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original."
.ca Fig. 6. Statue of Girl Runner. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original. (From a photograph by Alinari).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Statue of Girl Runner. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original.]
.if-
In early days athletes wore the loin-cloth which Cretan
excavations have shown to have been worn generally in the
Mediterranean world. The Homeric Greeks girded themselves
for sports, and on some of the earliest athletic vases the loin-cloth
is depicted (Figs. #128:fig128#, #142:fig142#). Generally, however, the Greek
athletes were absolutely naked. This custom is ascribed to an
accident. Orsippus of Megara, in Ol. 15, 720 B.C., accidentally
or on purpose dropped his loin-cloth in the race. The advantage
which he gained thereby produced such an impression that
from this date all runners discarded the loin-cloth. This
story was commemorated by an epigram, written possibly by
Simonides, which was inscribed on his tomb. The practice
does not seem to have been adopted by all athletes till a
later date, for Thucydides states that the abandonment of the
loin-cloth even at Olympia dated from shortly before his own
time.[#]
The prizes were originally tripods and other objects of value.
It was in Ol. 7 that the crown of wild olive was first
introduced on the advice of the Delphic oracle. The branches
of which the crowns were made were cut from the sacred olive-trees
with a golden sickle, by a boy whose parents were both
living. This was henceforth the only prize given at Olympia.
Of the rewards and honours bestowed by the victor’s countrymen,
and of other details connected with the games, we shall
// File: 075.png
// File: 076.png
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speak in another chapter. Our knowledge is not sufficient for
a description of the festival at this early period.
The athletic records of Olympia date from the year 776 B.C.,
the 28th Olympiad from the organization of the games by Iphitus.
This Olympiad, in which Coroebus of Elis won the foot-race, is
counted as the first Olympiad in the Olympic register,[#] and
from this date we have a complete list of winners in this race
copied by Eusebius from the work of Julius Africanus, who
brought the register down to the year 217 A.D. The register
was originally compiled by Hippias of Elis at the close of the
fifth century. It was revised and brought up to date by
various writers from Aristotle and Philochorus down to Phlegon
of Tralles in the time of Hadrian and Julius Africanus in the
third century A.D. A list of victors was set up at Olympia by
Paraballon, an Olympic victor, and the father of the boy victor
Lastratidas, whose date is fixed by Hyde in the first half of
the fourth century B.C.[#] It was not till the third century B.C.
that the Olympic register was used as a means of reckoning
dates, the year being dated by the number of the Olympiad
and the name of the winner of the stade-race. Hence the
preservation by Eusebius of the names of the winners of this
race. The earlier lists, as we know from fragments of Phlegon
and a fragment recently found on an Oxyrhynchus papyrus,
contained the names of winners in other events.
The value of the early portions of the register has been
called in question by Mahaffy, Busolt, and Körte, who, starting
from Plutarch’s sceptical remark that Hippias had no sure
basis for his work, contend that no credit should be attached to
the records previous to the sixth century. They have proved
that the register was imperfect—it could hardly have been
otherwise; that the task of compiling it was difficult—men like
Hippias and Aristotle would not otherwise have devoted their
time to it. But we can hardly believe that Hippias could have
imposed a purely fictitious list of victors on the critical Greek
world at the end of the fifth century, or that Aristotle would
have revised it without some evidence for his work. What
sort of record was kept by the priests of Olympia, and when it
began, we cannot say. The use of writing at Olympia is
// File: 077.png
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proved for the seventh century by the diskos of Iphitus and the
decrees or Ϝράτραι of the Eleans with regard to the sacred
truce. The official register of Athenian archons dates from
683 B.C., if not earlier, and recent discoveries as to the antiquity
of writing in Crete make us hesitate to deny the existence of
written records for the eighth century. Besides official lists
there must have been many local lists of victors, family records,
genealogies, besides inscriptions on monuments. Of the first
sixteen victors in the register four at least are connected
by Pausanias with monuments or inscriptions, possibly not
contemporary with the people commemorated but yet valuable
as evidence. If you set up a monument to your great-grandfather,
it may be of great importance to a future antiquarian
in making out your genealogy. Most people in the present
day have no knowledge of their great-grandfathers, or prefer
to forget their existence; but in a tribal society with intense
respect for birth it is very different, especially in a poetical race.
Their only history is the history of the family and clan; family
traditions and genealogies are remembered and handed down
with a care and accuracy unknown to our cosmopolitan
civilization. Such were the sources from which the sophist
must have collected material for his register in his travels, and
though his list may have been imperfect and often inaccurate,
it is yet sufficiently accurate to afford valuable indications of
the growth and development of the festival.
In two points we may certainly reject the evidence of the
register, and of Elean tradition. During the period of war and
confusion preceding Iphitus, they said, the games had been
forgotten. For many Olympiads the only competition was the
stade-race, but gradually, as the memory of the old games
came back to them, one event after another was added. In
Ol. 14 the double race (δίαυλος) was added, in Ol. 15 the
long race (δολιχός), in Ol. 18 the pentathlon and wrestling, in
Ol. 23 boxing, in Ol. 25 the four-horse chariot-race, in Ol. 33
the pankration and the horse-race, in Ol. 37 the first events for
boys, the foot-race and wrestling, in Ol. 38 the pentathlon for
boys, which, however, was not repeated, in Ol. 41 the boys’
boxing, in Ol. 65 the race in armour. After this date various
events for horses and mules were introduced at different times,
competitions for heralds and trumpeters, and in Ol. 145 the
pankration for boys.
// File: 078.png
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The first part of this account is obviously absurd in view
of the evidence given above for funeral games. There can be
no doubt that in the first Olympiad the programme included
at least all the events described by Pindar, the foot-race,
the diskos, the spear, boxing, wrestling, and the chariot-race.
If the Olympic games did develop from a single event, it was
probably not from the foot-race, but from the armed fight or
the chariot-race. Probably the compiler dated the introduction
of each new event from the first occasion on which he found a
mention of it. This may explain the number of first events
won by Sparta, a state particularly well known to Hippias, one,
too, where we should expect athletic records to be kept with
especial care. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the
programme received many additions, variations of the foot-race
such as the double race and the long race, complicated events
such as the pentathlon and pankration, especially boys’ events,
and there is no valid reason for doubting the date of such
additions.
Connected with this story of the evolution of the games
is the precedence given to the stade-race, the winner of which
gave his name to the Olympiad. This custom, as we have
seen, is not earlier than the third century, and arose not from
the excessive importance of that event, but from the mere
accident of its coming first on the programme and also on the
list of victors. The Greek sportsman had doubtless long been
in the habit of dating the years by reference to the victory of
some famous athlete, especially if he were a fellow-countryman.
Thucydides twice quotes in dates Olympic victories, each time
victories in the pankration, an event very popular at Athens. In
the earliest inscription that uses the Olympiads for chronology
the pankration is also the event mentioned.[#] Hence one is
inclined to suspect the completeness of the list of winners in
the stade-race. Possibly early records and traditions often
stated the fact of a victory without mentioning the event in
which it was won, and the compiler of the register, having
adopted his theory of development, assumed that all such
victories were won in the foot-race.
In 776 B.C. Olympia itself had as yet changed but little.
The only building was the Heraeum, a long, low, narrow temple
built originally of wood. One of the wooden pillars was still
// File: 079.png
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standing in the time of Pausanias. As the wooden pillars
decayed they were replaced by stone pillars. Hence the pillars,
many of which are still standing, differed in size, in material,
in their fluting and their capitals, the earliest belonging in
style to the seventh or sixth centuries, the latest to the Roman
period. The temple was a treasure-house. There was kept
the diskos of Iphitus, and at a later period the chest of
Cypselus, and the table of ivory and gold on which the crowns
for the victors were placed. Of the wealth of votive offerings
and statues that once adorned this temple nearly all have
perished; but there, at the exact spot described by Pausanias,
the German excavators found the Hermes of Praxiteles, which
represents the most perfect type of that physical beauty and
harmonious development that Greek athletics produced.
The number of altars had no doubt grown. The altar of
Zeus already rivalled, if it did not eclipse, the earlier altar of
Hera and the tomb of Pelops. This altar stood on a double
elliptical base of stone, the lower base 125 feet, the upper 32
feet in circumference. The altar itself was built up of the
ashes of the victims which were brought once every year by
the seers from the Prytaneum, kneaded with water from the
Alpheus and deposited on the altar. In the time of Pausanias
it had reached a height of 22 feet.
There was as yet no race-course at Olympia. The races and
games must have taken place in the open space that stretched
from the altar of Zeus and tomb of Pelops, below the slopes of
the hill of Cronus, from which the spectators doubtless looked
on. The races probably finished at the altar, and there, under
the immediate protection of Zeus, the victors were crowned.
The race, according to a tradition related by Philostratus,[#]
originated in a torch-race, in which the competitors, starting
from the distance of a stade, raced with lighted torches to the
altar, the one who arrived first and lighted the fire receiving the
prize; similarly for the double race or diaulos, the runners
raced from the altar to summon to the sacrifice the deputations
from Greek states and then raced back to the altar; while the
long race originated in the practice of the heralds whose office
it was to carry declarations of war to different parts of Greece.
Of such ceremonial races we shall find examples in many parts
of Greece, but the tradition deriving from them the races at
// File: 080.png
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Olympia may be rejected as a late invention, which perhaps
had its origin in the fact that before the stadium was constructed
the races did finish at the altar. Certainly in Pindar’s
time boxing and similar events still took place there, and it is
doubtful whether they were ever transferred to the stadium.
For the first half-century Olympia remained the local
festival of the Elean and pre-Dorian countryfolk of the West.
The first victor was Coroebus of Elis,[#] whose tomb appropriately
marked the boundary between Elis and Heraea, a symbol of
the truce between the two races. Yet the Eleans could not
appeal to their athletic records in support of their claims. Of
the first eleven victors only one other was an Elean, while the
older race was represented by seven Messenians, one Achaean
from Dyme, and one native of Dyspontium, a town near the
mouth of the Alpheus that belonged to the Pisatan league.
According to a scandalous tradition quoted by Athenaeus,
Coroebus was a cook, but the scanty records which we possess
of these earlier victors prove that the games still maintained
their aristocratic character, and the tradition may be set aside
as the invention of the enemies of Elis, or the anti-athletic
party of a later age.
After Ol. 11 only one Messenian victory is chronicled till
the restoration of Messenia in the fourth century. Hypenos,
who won the double race on its introduction in Ol. 15, was a
Pisatan, though Elis tried to claim him. With these exceptions
the old stock disappears, and the Eleans are too supine, or too
much occupied with feuds with Argos, to take their place.
Yet the athletic vigour of the old race reappears afterwards
from other quarters in families like the Diagoridae of Rhodes
who were descended from a daughter of the Messenian patriot
Aristomenes, in colonies like Achaean Croton, in the late
successes of Arcadia at a time when athletics had become a
sufficiently lucrative profession to tempt from their poor homes
these hardy mountaineers and shepherds. Perhaps the long
roll of Spartan successes owed something to the Messenians
whom they had conquered. The records of their ancient
successes were doubtless jealously treasured by those who had
// File: 081.png
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left their homes, and we may well suppose that from such
records the early part of the Olympic register was compiled.
The eclipse of the “home counties,” as we may call them, was
partly due to the growing importance of the festival, partly to
the pressure of Argos and Sparta. Of the part played by
Argos we know but little; what we do know is that Pheidon
of Argos, whenever he lived, like other tyrants tried to exploit
the festival for the extension of his own dominion, that he
espoused the cause of the Pisatans, and that there was a feud
between the Eleans and the Argives,[#] which perhaps explains the
complete absence of Argos in the list of early victors. Elis found
a natural ally in Sparta. The valleys of the Eurotas and the
Alpheus form a direct means of communication between Sparta
and Olympia, and the control of this route by Sparta after the
conquest of Messenia gave her a natural advantage over her rival.
The influence of Olympia spread first along the northern
coast of the Peloponnese, secondly to Sparta. In the second
half-century, Ol. 13-25, Corinth, Megara, Epidaurus, Sicyon,
Hyperesia, Athens, Thebes, figure in the list of victors, and yet
farther east, Smyrna. All these places communicate with
Olympia by the Gulf of Corinth. It is significant that this
extension of its influence eastwards coincides with the founding
of the first Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily. The Corinthians,
passing along the north coast of the gulf to Corcyra, crossed
over and founded Syracuse 734 B.C. Six years later the
Megarians founded a new Megara beside the hills of Hybla,
and a century later the two Megaras combined to colonize
Selinus. The Achaeans, making a stepping-stone of Zacynthos,
founded the rich cities of Sybaris and Croton, and later
Metapontum, and built on the Lacinian promontory south of
Croton a temple of Hera, which became a centre of worship for
the Greeks of Italy. Even the Eastern Greeks of the islands
took part in this movement. Gela was colonized by settlers
from Rhodes and Crete. All these colonies and many others
played a great part in the history of Olympia, the importance
of which we can see, not only in their list of victories, but in
the remains of the so-called treasuries which they built there,
and it is hardly fanciful to suppose that their connexion with
Olympia dated from the time when the settlers were leaving
the shores of Greece.
// File: 082.png
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The victory of Onomastus of Smyrna in Ol. 23 is no less
significant of the full communication existing between the
mainland and the East at the commencement of the seventh
century.[#] Eastern despots sent offerings to Delphi; poets
from the islands and Asia Minor brought into Greece the
Phrygian and Aeolian modes of music; even the alphabet came
from the East. At Olympia, when the victors’ friends held
revel in their honour in the evening, they sang down to the
time of Pindar the triumphal song of Heracles composed by
Archilochus of Paros.[#] Smyrna, at that time the foremost city
of the Eastern coast, was closely connected with the Peloponnese.
The poet Mimnermus tells us that his race had come from
Neleian Pylos to Colophon first, and had then dispossessed the
Aeolian inhabitants of Smyrna.[#]
The first appearance of Thebes is on the occasion of the
introduction of the chariot-race in Ol. 25. As we have seen,
the chariot-race seems to have been one of the earliest, if not
the earliest, event at the Olympia, and one is inclined to suspect
that the innovation consisted in the substitution of the four-horse
chariot for the older two-horse chariot, which was revived
at Olympia in later times.
Thus we see that within a century of the first Olympiad,
Olympia had become a centre to which competitors came not
only from the Peloponnese, but from Athens, Thebes, and even
from the East.
The long list of Spartan successes begins in Ol. 15 (720 B.C.),
and continues till Ol. 50 (576 B.C.), from which date they cease
almost entirely. During most of this period the superiority
of Sparta is undisputed. This superiority may be partially
explained by the careful records of athletic victories kept in
that most methodical of states, whereas the records of other
states were less careful and less accessible to the historian.
Yet making full allowance for our imperfect knowledge of other
states, the Spartan successes are sufficiently remarkable, and
their sudden cessation hardly less so. Aristotle has given us
the explanation of these facts.[#] Sparta was the first Greek
state to introduce a systematic physical and military training,
// File: 083.png
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which for a time made her unrivalled in sport and war; when
other states followed her example, her superiority disappeared.
Moreover, in the seventh century Sparta was still a progressive,
enlightened state, fond of poetry and music, taking an energetic
part in all the manifold activities of Greek life; only the good
effects of her system were yet apparent; its iron rule had not
yet produced that narrow spirit of exclusiveness which was fatal
to progress.[#] Hence Spartan participation in the Olympic
festival not only raised the prestige of the festival, but gave a
new importance and seriousness to athletics. Hitherto they
had been a diversion of the nobles; henceforth they were to be
part of the education of the people. The physical education
of Greece was largely due to Spartan example. At the
beginning of the sixth century we find Solon making laws for
the palaestrae and gymnasia, and we may suspect that most
important cities possessed these institutions.
Sparta is credited with no less than five victories in events
said to be introduced for the first time—the long race in Ol. 15,
wrestling and the pentathlon in Ol. 18, the boys’ wrestling in
Ol. 37, and the boys’ pentathlon in Ol. 38. The latter event
was abolished in the next Olympiad owing to Elean jealousy at
the success of the Spartan boy Eutelidas. Perhaps the various
events for boys were introduced for the benefit of the home
counties which had been ousted by increased competition from
without, and if so we can understand a certain feeling of soreness
at the Spartan success, especially as Eutelidas won the
boys’ wrestling in the same Olympiad. The statue in his honour
at Olympia was the oldest of all the statues of athletes; it
seems to have stood originally on the site occupied by the
temple of Zeus, and on the building of the temple to have been
moved to the south.[#] Special notice is due to Hipposthenes,
the victor in the boys’ wrestling in Ol. 37, who subsequently
won five more victories in wrestling at Olympia, and who had
a temple built in his honour at Sparta. His son almost
equalled his father’s record, winning five victories in wrestling.[#]
// File: 084.png
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Another equally famous athlete was Chionis, who won four
victories in the stade-race and three in the double race,
besides victories in other sports, Ols. 28-31. He is said to have
taken part with Battus in the colonization of Cyrene, and his
exploits were commemorated at a later date by his countrymen
on stone pillars at Sparta and at Olympia, where they also set
up in his honour a statue, the work of Myron.
Meanwhile, during the period of Spartan pre-eminence, the
influence of Olympia had been steadily spreading, especially
among the colonies of the West. In Ol. 33 two new events
were added—the riding race, which was won by a Thessalian
from Crannon, and the pankration, a combination of boxing and
wrestling, which was won by Lygdamis of Syracuse, who was
said to have had the proportions of Heracles, his foot, like that
of the hero, being exactly an Olympic foot. The various events
for boys were introduced between Ol. 37 and Ol. 41, and in the
boys’ boxing the first winner came from Sybaris. Croton had
already begun her victorious career. From Miletus in Ol. 46
came the boy runner Polymnestor, who, as a shepherd boy, was
said to have captured hares by speed of foot; while from
Samos came the effeminate-looking Pythagoras with his long
hair and purple robes. Rejected from the boys’ boxing as a
weakling, he entered for the men’s competition and won it. So
rapid was the progress of the colonies, and so keen their
participation in the Olympic festival, that from Ol. 50 they
outstripped the mother country, and the following century may
be described as the colonial period of Olympia. The first
attempt made by any Greek state to secure for itself a local
habitation at Olympia was the building of a treasury by the
Geloans at the close of the seventh century. Before the close
of the sixth their example had been followed by Metapontum,
Selinus, Sybaris, Byzantium and Cyrene, the only representatives
of the Peloponnese being the Megarians. Nothing indicates
more clearly the predominance of the colonies than this line of
treasuries, or rather communal houses,[#] standing on a terrace
at the foot of the hill of Cronus between the Heraeum and the
entrance of the later stadium, and commanding a view of the
Altis, of the altars, and the games. One wonders if the Spartans
indulged in lamentations over the decay of Spartan athletics.
// File: 085.png
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I think not, for that reserved and silent people had too much
pride and dourness; moreover athletics to them were but a
means to an end, the training of soldier citizens. Certainly from
this date they ceased to figure in the victors’ lists, engrossed
perhaps in more serious contests and schemes of aggrandizement,
or else estranged from the festival by the new democratic, Panhellenic
spirit introduced there by the colonies, and unwilling
to suffer defeat at the hands of upstarts.
The influence of the colonies was great. Their competition
gave a fresh impulse to that wave of athleticism which reached
its height in the sixth century. To Olympia they gave a Panhellenic
character as a meeting-place for all the scattered
members of the Greek race, and thereby tended to preserve and
strengthen that feeling of unity which contact with other
nations had already quickened into life. No foreigner could
enter as a competitor at Olympia, no barbarous potentates
sent offerings to its shrines or consulted its oracle. Olympia
remained throughout its history purely and exclusively Hellenic.
Again, the colonies brought Olympia into touch with the
democratic spirit of the age, and broke down the barriers
of Elean and Spartan exclusiveness. The colonial claimed
admission purely by virtue of his Greek birth, and no distinctions
of rank or caste or wealth were known in the Olympic
games. Sport, especially national sport, is a great leveller of
social distinctions.
The political importance of such a festival, which drew
competitors and spectators from all quarters of the Greek world,
could not escape the notice of the clear-sighted and ambitious
tyrants and nobles of the seventh century. But the sanctity of
the place and the new democratic spirit of the festival were
too strong for them. Pheidon of Argos had tried to make himself
master of Olympia by force of arms. Other tyrants tried
more peaceful means, seeking to win popularity among the
assembled crowds and influence with the powers of Olympia
by victories in the chariot-race, or by sumptuous offerings to
Olympian Zeus. In the middle of the seventh century Myron
of Sicyon won a victory in the chariot-race and commemorated
his success by dedicating two treasure-chests of solid bronze,
one of which weighed 500 talents. These treasure-chests were
afterwards placed in the treasure-house of the Sicyonians,
built in the fifth century possibly in the place of some more
// File: 086.png
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ancient structure. The excavations of Olympia have revealed
the solid floor intended to bear the weight of these treasure-chests.
His grandson Cleisthenes, himself a victor, took advantage
of the festival to proclaim the famous competition
for the hand of his daughter Agariste, which Herodotus
describes. Cypselus of Corinth, too, dedicated at Olympia a
golden statue of Zeus made in the style of the early metal-workers,
of beaten gold plates riveted together. His son
Periander was victor in the chariot-race, and gave to Olympia
the famous chest of Cypselus in which, according to the story,
the infant Cypselus had been hidden by his mother from the
assassins sent by the oligarchs of Corinth to murder him. From
Athens came the would-be tyrant Cylon, who won the diaulos
race in Ol. 35; and in the next generation the chariot-race was
won by Alcmaeon, the son of that Megacles who was responsible
as archon for the death of Cylon and the consequent pollution
of the Alcmaeonidae, and the father of Megacles, the successful
suitor of Agariste. Yet, in spite of their victories and their
offerings, no tyrant secured influence at Olympia, no building
there bore a tyrant’s name. The so-called treasuries were the
communal houses of states, that of the Megarians, which dates
about this time, being set up probably not by the tyrant
Theagenes but by the people after his fall, and before their
power was weakened by the successes of Athens.
Thus at the beginning of the sixth century Olympia had
acquired a unique position as the national festival of Hellas.
Competitors and spectators of all classes gathered there from
every part of Greece. The sacred truce-bearers proclaimed the
month of peace throughout the Greek world, and in response,
cities of Asia and of Sicily vied with one another in the
splendour of the official embassies (θεωρίαι) sent to represent
them at the festival. The old aristocratic character survived
in the chariot-race and horse-race, which afforded to tyrants
and nobles an opportunity of displaying their riches and their
power. The athletic programme was now practically complete,
the only important innovation of later times being the race
in full armour introduced 520 B.C., and this programme was
truly democratic. In athletic events noble and peasant met
on equal terms. The aristocratic prejudice against these
popular contests did not yet exist; and though the honour of
the Olympic crown was open to the poorest citizen of Greek
// File: 087.png
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birth, such was the prestige of the festival that it was coveted
even by the highest. The representative character of Olympia
was due to a variety of causes. The geographical position of
the place, its ancient sanctity, the athletic vigour of the pre-Dorian
Greeks, the discipline and training of the Spartans, the
enthusiastic patriotism of the colonies, the ambition of tyrants,
the new spirit of democracy,—these and other causes contributed
to the result, and the importance of the result was recognized
by the founding within the next half-century of three other
Panhellenic festivals at Delphi, at Nemea, and at the Isthmus, and
of many another festival which, like the Panathenaea, aspired to
but never attained Panhellenic dignity.
Yet, despite the growth of the festival and the development
of athletics, there was little change in the appearance of the
Altis or the organization of the games. Some of the wooden
pillars of the Heraeum were perhaps replaced by stone, but
no fresh building appeared till the treasuries, the earliest of
which date from the close of the seventh century. The games
still took place near the altar, where a course could be easily
measured and marked out before each meeting. The new
events added were merely variations of those which we find in
Homer. Popularity and competition had no doubt improved
the standard of performance, but athletic training did not yet
exist. In the towns, indeed, gymnasia and palaestrae were
already springing up; but these were educational rather than
athletic, intended to train and discipline the young as useful
soldiers rather than to produce champion athletes. The bulk
of the population living an open-air country life in which war,
hunting, and games played a considerable part, had no need of
training. Thus, though athletics had become popular, they still
maintained the spontaneity and joy of the Homeric age: they
were still pure recreation.
.fn #
Frazer, Pausanias, i. 44, 8; Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings, pp. 4, 10; Körte,
“Die Entstehung der Olympionikenliste,” Hermes, xxxix., 1904, pp. 224 ff.;
Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen, und Isthmien, pp. 9, 112, 171.
.fn-
.fn #
Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 2nd Ed. i. 374; ii. 323, 330.
.fn-
.fn #
Frazer, loc. cit.
.fn-
.fn #
P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ireland, ii. pp. 435 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
C.I.G. 1969, ἀγὼν ἐπιτάφιος θεματικός.
.fn-
.fn #
Berl. Vas. 1665. Mon. d. I. X. Pl. iv., v.
.fn-
.fn #
Arch. Zeit., 1885, Pl. viii. The vase is now at Copenhagen. The silver cup
referred to below is in the Uffizi Palace, and is reproduced in Schreiber’s Atlas,
xiii. 6, and Inghirami, Mon. Etr. iii. 19, 20.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Vases, B. 124.
.fn-
.fn #
Hesiod, Op. 654.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. viii. 4, 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. vii. 77-80.
.fn-
.fn #
Frazer, Paus. i. 29, 30.
.fn-
.fn #
Plut. Quaest. Symp. v. 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Unless we accept Mr. Myers’ translation of Pindar, Ol. i. 94, “And from
afar off he beholdeth the glory of the Olympian games in the courses called of
Pelops.” Most modern editors translate κλέος τηλόθεν δέδορκε, “his glory
shineth from afar,” which, in view of the words which follow, ἐν δρόμοις Πέλοπος,
seems decidedly preferable to making Pelops the subject.
.fn-
.fn #
It is perhaps no accident that in our imperfect records of the Olympic games
the earliest victor outside the Peloponnese is Onomastus of Smyrna, who in Ol. 23
won the boxing, an event said to have been then introduced for the first time.
He is said to have drawn up rules for boxing which were adopted at Olympia.
Again, no family was more distinguished in the history of Greek athletics than
the Diagoridae of Rhodes, whose victories in boxing and the pankration were
immortalized by Pindar. The prominence of boxing in the East reminds us of
Minoan times, and perhaps the tradition may have survived from these days.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. iv. 4, 1; iv. 33, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. i. (E. Myers’ translation).
.fn-
.fn #
Vide Bötticher, Olympia, ch. i.
.fn-
.fn #
For the history of Olympia vide Curtius, “Entwurf einer Geschichte von
Olympia,” in Ol. Text. i. pp. 16-68.
.fn-
.fn #
For the cult of Pelops vide Paus. v. 13, 2; Schol. to Pindar, Ol. i. 146, 149.
.fn-
.fn #
The latest excavations show that this site had been inhabited in prehistoric
days. Traces of six buildings have been discovered below the geometric
stratum; they are characterized by a semicircular apsidal ending. Ath. Mitth.
xxxiii. 185; Year’s Work in Classical Studies, 1908, p. 12.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. xi. 64.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. Louis Dyer, “The Olympian Council House,” in Harvard Classical
Studies, 1908, where a full account of these Peloponnesian leagues will be found.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 20, 1; Plut. Lycurgus 1, 1. The part taken by Cleosthenes is
vouched for by Phlegon, Frag. Hist. Gr. p. 602, and in a scholion on Plato’s
Republic, 465 D. Vide Dyer, l.c. pp. 40 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Thuc. v. 49; Demosth. De fals. leg., ὑπόθ. p. 335.
.fn-
.fn #
Hell. iii. 2, 31; vii. 4, 28.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. iv. 148.
.fn-
.fn #
C.I.G. 11; Roberts’s Greek Epigraphy, 291.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 6, 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 16.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. i. 44; Anth. Pal. App. 272; Thuc. i. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
For a full discussion of the register, its history and its sources, vide Jüthner,
Philostratus, pp. 60-70.
.fn-
.fn #
De Olympionicarum Statuis, p. 36.
.fn-
.fn #
Thuc. iii. 8, v. 49; Ditt. Syll., 2nd Ed., 256.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 8, 6; viii. 26, 3; Athen. ix. 382 B. Details with regard to the
various victors mentioned in this and the following chapters may be found under
their names in Krause, Olympia, H. Förster, Olympische Sieger, and W. Hyde,
De Olympionicarum Statuis, in all of which full references are given.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 2 and 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Bury, History of Greece, p. 110.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. ix. The date of Archilochus is fixed by Hauvette in the first
half of the seventh century. Cl. Rev. xxi. p. 143.
.fn-
.fn #
Mimnermus, Fr. 9 (Bergk).
.fn-
.fn #
Aristot. Politics, v. 4.
.fn-
.fn #
The recent excavations at Sparta prove that the decline of athletics coincided
with the decline of art. Mr. R. M. Dawkins, writing in last report of the B.S.A.,
vol. xiv. p. 2, says: “In every case we have the remarkable result that the finest
works belong to the seventh century, and that the sixth already shows the
beginning of the decline which is so marked in the very poor character of the
finds of the fifth century.”
.fn-
.fn #
Hyde, op. cit. p. 56.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. iii. 13, 9.
.fn-
.fn #
For the treasuries at Olympia vide Louis Dyer, in J.H.S. vols. xxv. and
xxvi.
.fn-
// File: 088.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap04
CHAPTER IV | THE AGE OF ATHLETIC FESTIVALS, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.
.sp 2
The sixth century is the age of organized athletics. The rise
of Sparta and her success in sport and war gave to the Greek
world an object lesson on the value of systematic training,
and henceforth the training of the body was an essential part
of Greek education. Palaestrae and gymnasia were established
everywhere, and Solon found it necessary to lay down
laws for their conduct. These institutions were originally
intended for the training of the young, but the growth
of athletic competition soon called into being a new and
specialized form of training, the training of competitors for
the great games. An art of training sprung up, and in the
time of Pindar the professors of the new art, besides reaping
a rich harvest from their pupils, received honour scarcely
inferior to that of the victors themselves. The rapid development
of the Olympic festival had shown the value of athletics
as a bond of union between Greeks throughout the world,
and the general yearning after a unity which was destined
never to be realized found expression in the establishment
of other festivals for which Olympia served as a model.
At Delphi, the Isthmus, and Nemea, local festivals and
competitions had long existed.[#] The oracle of Delphi had
already acquired a Panhellenic, almost a cosmopolitan importance,
rivalling that of Olympia. The Pythian festival was
said to have been founded to commemorate Apollo’s victory
over the Python. To expiate the death of the dragon, Apollo
had been condemned to nine years of exile, and the festival
// File: 089.png
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was therefore held every ninth year, or, according to our
reckoning, once in eight years. Later legend asserted that
there had been athletic games at Delphi, and various heroes
were named as victors in these sports. But it seems probable
that the original competitions at Delphi were purely musical,
and in the hymn for Apollo Delphusa expressly commends
Delphi as the home for the god on the ground that there
his altar will be undisturbed by the “whirling of fair chariots
or the sound of swift-footed steeds.” The innate ambition of
the Greek and his desire to outshine his fellows found vent in
competitions of every sort. Musical competitions were specially
connected with the worship of Apollo at Delos and at Sparta;
at Delphi a prize was given for a hymn to Apollo chanted
to the accompaniment of the cithara.
Such the festival remained till the outbreak of the first Sacred
war. The war was due to the impious conduct of the Crisaeans,
who, having command of the plain and the harbour of Cirrha,
had enriched themselves at the expense of the Delphians
and Apollo, by levying exorbitant tolls on the pilgrims who
landed at Cirrha on their way to the oracle. The Delphians
appealed to their natural protectors, the Amphictyonic League
at Thermopylae, who straightway proclaimed a sacred war.
The command of the expedition was given to the Thessalian
Eurylochus; the Athenians, on the advice of Solon, sent a
contingent under Alcmaeon, while Cleisthenes, the ambitious
tyrant of Sicyon, eagerly embraced the opportunity of posing
as a champion of Greek religion. The festival was restored
and reorganized in 590 B.C. New musical events were added,
a solo on the flute and a song accompanied by the flute;
athletic and equestrian competitions also were introduced
on the model of those at Olympia; but since Delphi as yet
had no stadium, the games were held in the plain of Crisa
below. The chariot-race for some reason or other was omitted,
but two additional athletic events found a place, a long race
and a diaulos race for boys.
The war, however, broke out afresh and lasted for six
years, at the end of which, in 582, the festival was finally
reorganized out of the spoil of Crisa as a pentaëteris, and
placed under the control of the Amphictyons. The year 582
dates as the first Pythiad, and from this time the festival
was held every fourth year, in the August of the third year
// File: 090.png
.pn +1
of each Olympiad. The valuable prizes which had been offered
of old were abolished, and in their place was substituted a
crown of bay leaves plucked from the Vale of Tempe. The
somewhat scanty details which we possess as to the festival
and its history will be discussed in a later chapter. For the
present it is sufficient to note one significant fact: the chariot-race
which had been omitted in 590 was introduced in 582, and
the first victor was Cleisthenes of Sicyon himself. The plains
of Sicyon were admirably adapted for breeding horses, a pursuit
which afforded its tyrants a ready means of increasing and
displaying their wealth. Myron had already gained a victory
in the chariot-race at Olympia, and his grandson Cleisthenes,
shortly after his Pythian success, secured the same honour on
the occasion when he issued his invitation to the suitors for
the hand of Agariste. At Sicyon itself he commemorated
the part which he had played in the Sacred war by a splendid
colonnade built out of the spoils of Cirrha, and at the same
time he reorganized as a local Pythia an ancient festival
connected with the Argive hero Adrastus, whose memory he
delighted to insult.[#] We may therefore safely regard the
introduction of the chariot-race at Delphi as due to the tyrant’s
influence, and the remodelling of the festival as part of his
pushing Panhellenic policy.
Almost at the same time, perhaps in the same year, 582 B.C.,
the Isthmian festival was reorganized. This festival, which
claimed an antiquity greater even than that of Olympia,
was celebrated at the sanctuary of Poseidon, which stood in a
grove of pine-trees at the south-east of the Isthmus, a little to
the south of the eastern end of the present Corinth canal.
The various legends of its origin are all connected directly or
indirectly with the worship of Poseidon. The wreath of dry
celery leaves, which in the time of Pindar was the prize, recalled
the story that the games were first founded in honour
of the luckless Melicertes at the spot to which his dead body
was carried by a dolphin. According to another legend they
were instituted by the Attic hero Theseus, when he had freed
the land from the terror of the robber Sinis. This story points
to the close connexion of the Isthmia with Athens. The
Athenian envoys enjoyed the privilege of precedence (προεδρία)
// File: 091.png
.pn +1
at this festival, and a space was reserved for them, as much
as could be covered by the sail of the ship which brought them
to the Isthmus. No other festival was so conveniently situated
for the Athenians. Athens and Corinth had much in common,
and were on most friendly terms before the relations between
them were embittered by commercial rivalry, and their friendship
was especially close in the period following the fall of
the Cypselidae. Another version of the Theseus legend represents
him as founding the Isthmia in rivalry of Heracles,
who had founded the Olympic games; and here we may trace
a certain jealousy existing between the two festivals.[#] We
know on good authority that the Eleans were not allowed
to compete at the Isthmia. This ban, which Elean tradition
represented as a self-denying ordinance imposed by the curse
of Molione, may well have originated in this rivalry. We can
imagine that the Elean authorities regarded with no favour
the rise of a rival festival on a site so central, the meeting-place
of the trade of East and West. Yet, after all, Olympia
had no reason to fear its rival. The central position of
Corinth involving her in all the feuds and wars of Greek
history, prevented the Isthmia from ever acquiring that unique
independence which characterized the more remote Olympia.
There can be little doubt, too, that from the first the festival
reflected the luxurious commercial character of Corinth.
There the joyous life of the Ionian race found vent in a sort
of cosmopolitan carnival which contrasted strangely with the
more strenuous Dorian festival of remote Olympia.
The remodelled festival was a trieteris, held in the spring
of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. The
programme was a varied one, including, besides athletics
and horse-races, musical competitions, and possibly a regatta.
The presidency of the festival belonged to the Corinthians.
Whether its establishment as a Panhellenic festival was due
to the tyrant Periander or expressed the joy of the people
at their liberation from his rule, the evidence does not allow
us to determine. The latter seems to me more probable.
// File: 092.png
.pn +1
The great tyrant, laid by his victory in the chariot-race at
Olympia, and by costly offerings to Olympia and Delphi, tried
to win the support of the authorities at these places, and it
may well be that the founding of a rival festival marked the
popular reaction against his policy. Be this as it may, the
establishment of the Isthmia is another sign of the great
national movement towards unity. Tyrants recognized and
tried to utilize the movement for their own advantage. But
Panhellenism was independent of tyrants; it was a spontaneous
movement of the people, and it need cause no surprise that
one Panhellenic festival should owe its origin to a tyrant,
another to the people.
A similar doubt attaches to the last of the Greek festivals,
the Nemea. The cypress grove of Nemea, where stood the
temple of the Nemean Zeus, lay in a secluded valley among
the hills, half-way between Phlius and Cleonae. Here under
the presidency of the latter state local games had long been
celebrated. They were said to have been founded by Adrastus
as funeral games in honour of the child Opheltes, who, having
been left by his nurse in the grove, had been devoured by a
serpent. According to another story, they were founded by
Heracles after his slaying of the Nemean lion, and by him
dedicated to Zeus. They were reorganized in the year 573
B.C. as a trieteris, and took place like the Isthmia in the second
and fourth year of each Olympiad, probably at the very
beginning of the Olympic year in July. The prize was a
wreath of fresh celery, but was said to have been originally
a wreath of olive. As at Olympia, the managers of the games
bore the title of Hellanodicae. As at Olympia, the contests
were until later times purely athletic and equestrian. The
striking resemblances to Olympia are clearly due to Dorian
influence, and may perhaps help us to understand how it was
that, within a few years of the founding of the Isthmia, a
second Panhellenic festival was established in its immediate
neighbourhood.
The little town of Cleonae, which held the presidency
of the Nemea down to the time of Pindar, could certainly
never have raised its festival unaided to Panhellenic dignity.
Cleonae seems to have been for a time under the dominion
of Cleisthenes of Sicyon; yet it seems hardly likely that the
tyrant, who had already helped in establishing the Pythia
// File: 093.png
.pn +1
at Delphi, besides a local Pythia at Sicyon, and whose policy
was so markedly anti-Dorian, should have founded a second
Panhellenic festival of so purely Dorian a type. Moreover,
it seems that Cleonae had already thrown off the yoke of
Cleisthenes, whose power was on the decline. Argos, too,
was on the decline, and though Argos in the year 460 B.C.
usurped the presidency of the games, we find similar claims
put forward by Corinth and by Mycenae. The fact that so
many states claimed the presidency of the festival suggests that
its re-establishment was not the work of any one state but of
the Dorians of the north-eastern Peloponnese generally. If we
are right about the jealousy felt by the authorities of Olympia
towards the newly-founded Isthmia, and the character of the
latter festival, we may perhaps see in the founding of the
Nemea the protest of Dorian puritanism against innovations
which seemed to degrade the serious business of athletics.
Scandalized by the laxness of the new festival, with its traffic
and its pleasures and its multitude of entertainments, the
Dorians of Argolis conceived the idea of founding at Cleonae
an eastern counterpart of Olympia. The strenuousness of
athletics in Argolis is surely indicated in the strength and
severity characterizing the athletic school of sculpture which
had its origin in Sicyon and Argos, half-way between which
places appropriately lay Cleonae. The view suggested above
is of course hypothetical, but it accords with what we know of
the Isthmia and the Nemea, and satisfactorily explains the
Panhellenic character of the latter.
Thus by the year 570 the four Panhellenic festivals were
established. They were distinctively the sacred meetings (ἱεροὶ
ἀγῶνες) and the games of the crown (στεφανῖται), so called to
distinguish them from the numerous games where prizes of
value were given (θεματικοί). It is no little proof of the true
athletic feeling of the Greeks that in their four greatest
festivals no prize was given but the simple crown of leaves.
The cycle of these festivals will be best understood by a glance
at the following table, which shows the order of the festivals
during a single Olympiad.[#] It must be remembered that the
Greek year began with the summer solstice, and consequently
belongs half to one, half to the next year, according to our
reckoning.
// File: 094.png
.pn +1
.ta l:10 l:7 l:1 l:3 l:11 l:10
Olympiad.| B.C.||||
55. 1 | 560/559| |560| Late Summer| Olympia.
2 | 559/8 | {|559 | Summer | Nemea.
| | {|558 | Spring | Isthmia.
3 | 558/7 | | 558 | August | Pythia.
4 | 557/6 | {|557| Summer | Nemea.
| | {|556 | Spring | Isthmia.
56. 1 | 556/5 | |556 | Late Summer | Olympia.
.ta-
Thus we see that in the even years there were two Panhellenic
festivals, in the odd years one.
The competition of other Panhellenic festivals threatened
the supremacy of Olympia, and forced the easy-going conservative
authorities of that place into activity. Hitherto they
had allowed the festival to develop from without; they had
allowed Gela and Megara to build treasuries overlooking the
Altis, and so to establish some sort of claim to a share in the
management; content with their traditional customs they had
made no attempt to provide adequate organization for an
athletic meeting of such importance. Now they saw that if
they were to maintain their position they must set their house
in order. A significant story is told by Herodotus.[#] In
the reign of Psammetichus II. (594-589 B.C.) some Elean
ambassadors visited Egypt to see if the Egyptians could
suggest any improvement in the rules for the Olympic games,
which they boasted were the fairest and best that could be
devised. The Egyptians, after considering a while, asked if
they allowed their own citizens to compete. The Eleans
replied that the games were open to all Greeks, whether they
belonged to Elis or any other state. To this the Egyptians,
with true commercial instinct, answered that the rules were far
from just, for that it was impossible but that they would favour
their own countrymen and deal unfairly with foreigners; if,
therefore, they wished to manage the games with fairness they
must confine the games to strangers and allow no native of
Elis to compete. It is to the credit of the Greeks that no
such self-denying ordinance was introduced or found to be
necessary, and that the Greeks themselves never raised any
such objection till a much later date. It is only when sport
becomes too competitive and too lucrative and the professional
and commercial spirit enters in that elaborate safeguards are
required against unfairness.
// File: 095.png
.pn +1
This story is valuable evidence that the Eleans were at this
time seeking to improve their arrangements. What the
improvements were we do not know, but that some sort of
reorganization took place is rendered probable by the tradition
recorded above, that in Ol. 50 a second Hellanodicas was first
appointed. Possibly the Olympic Council was remodelled.
We find this Council in the fourth century acting as a
court of appeal, and in Imperial times it is mentioned in inscriptions
as authorizing the setting up of honorific statues.[#]
The Hellanodicae were its executive officers, and from their
history and numbers it seems probable that the Council
represented the various tribes which formed a sort of
amphictyony originally controlling the festival. Their existence
in the sixth century is proved by the remains of their
Council-house. This building lay below the south wall of the
Altis. It consists of two long buildings, terminated at the
west end by an apse, parallel to each other, and united by a
square chamber between them. The northern wing of the
building dates from the middle of the sixth century at the
latest. The apsidal chamber at the end was divided by a
partition, and served probably for the storage of archives and
treasure, while the rest of the building formed the business
quarters of the Council and the Hellanodicae. There the
competitors had to appear and take an oath before the altar of
Zeus Horkios that they had observed, and would observe the
conditions of the festival. Another building connected with
the permanent management of the festival was the Prytaneum,
also built about the same time. In it was the altar of Hestia,
on which the sacred fire was kept always burning. The ashes
from this altar, collected and mixed with the water of the
Alpheus, were used to build up the great altar of Zeus. Here,
when the games were ended, distinguished guests and victors
were feasted, and songs of victory were chanted in their
honour.
The Council must have exercised a control over all new
buildings erected at Olympia. In the second half of the sixth
century fresh treasuries were built by the states of Selinus,
Sybaris, Byzantium, and Cyrene, a list which sufficiently illustrates
the widespread influence of the festival. The planning
// File: 096.png
.pn +1
and alignment of these buildings clearly implies the supervision
of some local authority.
Significant of the new energy of these authorities and of
their desire to render Olympia itself worthy of the festival,
was a practice, which began in this century, of allowing victors
to commemorate their victories by votive statues. The earliest
of these statues, according to Pausanias, were those of Praxidamas
of Aegina, who won the boxing in Ol. 59, and of Rhexibius of
Opus who won the pankration two Olympiads later. These
statues were of wood, and we may, therefore, suspect that those
seen by Pausanias were not really the first but only the oldest
which had survived. Certainly there were statues of earlier
victors. Some of these, like that of the Lacedaemonian Chionis,
or that of the famous pankratiast Arrhichion, at his native
home Phigalia, were set up by their countrymen many years
after their death. Others, like that of the Spartan boy
Eutelidas, who won the boys’ wrestling and the boys’ pentathlon,
may have been contemporary. The first sculptors of athletic
statues, whose names we know, are Chrysothemis and Eutelidas
of Argos, who made the statues for the Heraean Damaretus, who
won the race in armour in Ols. 65, 66, and for his son Theopompus,
who won two victories in the pentathlon. On the
inscriptions beneath these statues the artists claimed to have
learnt their art from former artists. Argos and Sicyon, the
homes of the earliest athletic sculpture, were, as we have seen,
closely connected with the newly organized Panhellenic festivals,
in addition to which there were a number of minor local festivals
throughout that district. We may, therefore, safely connect
the rise of the athletic school of art with the athletic movement
that produced these festivals. These early statues were, of
course, not portrait statues. We learn from Pliny that the
right of setting up a portrait statue was confined to winners
of a triple victory. The accuracy of this statement is open to
doubt; certainly it cannot have been true before the fourth
century, previous to which portrait statues were practically
unknown. The early artists must have contented themselves
with type statues, representing the various events in which
victory had been gained.
Towards the close of the century certain additions were
made to the programme. In Ol. 65 (520 B.C.) the race in heavy
armour was introduced at Olympia, and in 498 B.C. at Delphi.
// File: 097.png
.pn +1
This innovation was clearly due to the growing importance of
the heavy-armed infantry in Greek warfare. Greek sports were,
as we have seen, in their origin practical and military, but with
changed conditions of warfare they had lost their military
character and become purely athletic. The chieftain no longer
went to war in his chariot; his men no longer threw stones or
light javelins. Individual warfare was giving place to the
manœuvring of masses of heavy-armed troops. The introduction
of the race in armour was an attempt to restore to athletics
their practical character. The race was a diaulos, i.e. up the
stadium and back to the starting-point, a distance of about four
hundred yards. The men wore helmets, greaves, and round
shields. At a later time the greaves were discarded, perhaps
as a concession to athletes who regarded such a race as a
spurious sort of athletics. Certainly the race never attained
to the same prestige as the other events.
In Ol. 70 (500 B.C.) a mule chariot-race (ἀπήνη) was introduced,
and in the next Olympiad a riding race for mares
(κάλπη), in which the riders dismounted in the last lap and ran
with their steeds. In both these events, which were discontinued
after a short trial in Ol. 84, we may see the influence of
the Elean nobility, whose wealth and power were derived largely
from their horses and cattle. The introduction of mule chariot-races
may have been partly due to the influence of the Lords of
Sicily; the victory of Anaxilas is commemorated on the coins
of Rhegium and Messana (Fig. #168:fig168#). The κάλπη is of especial
interest. Helbig has shown that the Hippeis of Athens and other
Greek states in the sixth century were not cavalry soldiers in the
strict sense of the word, but mounted infantry, the true successors
of the Homeric chieftains.[#] Just as the latter went to war in
their chariots, but dismounted in order to fight, leaving the
chariot in charge of the charioteer, and remounting for flight or
for pursuit, so the Hippeis of the sixth century merely used
their horses for advance or for retreat, dismounting when they
came into close contact with the foe, and leaving their horses
with their squires, who accompanied them, either mounted
behind them en croupe, or on horses of their own. The Homeric
custom survived only in sports, in the ἀποβατής, whom we see
represented on the frieze of the Parthenon in the act of dismounting;
the later custom was represented for a brief time
// File: 098.png
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only by the κάλπη. As we have seen in discussing the race in
armour, the system of individual warfare was passing away.
Sparta had shown the superiority of masses of armed infantry.
Previous to the Persian wars, Thessalian cavalry had already
been employed by Peisistratus, and these served in the fifth
century as the model on which corps of cavalry proper were
organized in Athens and other states. But in 500 B.C. there
were no cavalry in the Peloponnese, and the conservative nobles
may well have regarded with jealousy a change which
threatened to put them on a level with the ordinary foot-soldier.
The introduction of the κάλπη then was an attempt to
stimulate and encourage the older style of fighting. But the
attempt was doomed to failure; the progress of military tactics
was not to be checked by the Eleans, and while the hoplite
race survived as long as the festival itself, the κάλπη was
ignominiously abandoned in 444 B.C.
Besides the four great festivals of the Crown there were
countless local festivals where competitions of various sorts were
held.[#] The prizes offered were often tripods, and bowls of
silver or of bronze; sometimes articles of local manufacture,
such as a cloak at Pellene, a shield at Argos, vases of olive-oil
at Athens; sometimes a portion of the victim sacrificed, or the
victim to be sacrificed. The British Museum possesses a
bronze caldron[#] of about the sixth century, which was found
at Cyme in Italy, and was given as a prize at some local
games founded by, or held in honour of, a certain Onomastus.
It bears the inscription, “I was a prize at the games of
Onomastus.” Many of these festivals were connected with
the cults of local heroes, and had existed for generations.
Sometimes the competitions themselves bore a distinctly ritual
character; thus the torch-race, which we meet with in many
parts of Greece, was connected with the primitive custom of
periodically distributing new and holy fire from the sacred
hearth where it had been kindled. Sometimes the competitions
were musical, as at the Spartan Carnea; more frequently they
were purely athletic. The athletic competitions acquired fresh
life from the stimulus given to athletics by the growth of the
Panhellenic festivals. At first purely local, even these minor
gatherings in Pindar’s time drew competitors from various
parts of Greece. Many fresh festivals were added, and old
// File: 099.png
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ones reorganized during the sixth century, especially in the
eastern parts of Greece, but of most of these we know little
besides the names. The greatest of all was the Panathenaic
Festival.
Athenian nobles had won distinction at Olympia in the
seventh century. Four Athenian victories are chronicled in
the stade-race. Cylon, as already mentioned, won a victory
in the diaulos in Ol. 35 (640 B.C.), a victory which perhaps cost
him dear. Having consulted the Delphic oracle as to the
success of his plot to make himself master of Athens, he was
advised to carry out his plan at the greatest festival of Zeus.
The former Olympic victor naturally concluded that the oracle
meant the Olympia, and not the Athenian Diasia, and this
mistake is said to have led to his failure and his death.
Another prominent Athenian victor was Phrynon, who in the
Olympiad after Cylon’s victory won the pankration, an event
in which the Athenians seem to have excelled. He was general
in the Athenian expedition to Sigeum, where he fell in single
combat against Pittacus of Mitylene, who, according to later
tradition, arraying himself as a fisherman, entangled Phrynon
in his net and then ran him through with his trident in
true gladiatorial style. Early in the sixth century we find
Hippocrates, the father of Peisistratus, present as one of
the Athenian envoys to Olympia. It was on this occasion,
says Herodotus,[#] that he had a dream respecting the birth
of Peisistratus, which dream was explained to him by the
Spartan Ephor Chilon. Chilon, who was reckoned among
the seven wise men of Greece, is said to have died some years
later at Olympia from joy at the victory of his son Damagetus
in boxing.[#] During the sixth century we have no record of
Athenian successes in athletic contests, but many of the
rival nobles won victories in the chariot-race. Peisistratus
himself was proclaimed victor under strange circumstances.
Cimon, the half-brother of Miltiades, the tyrant of the Chersonnese,
himself a victor, had been banished from Athens by
Peisistratus. This Cimon had a remarkable record. He won
the chariot-race with the same team of mares at three successive
Olympiads. At the second he agreed with Peisistratus that if
// File: 100.png
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he proclaimed the tyrant winner, he should be recalled from
exile.[#] In spite of this he was put to death by the thankless
sons of Peisistratus shortly after his last victory. Curtius
ascribes to Peisistratus an inscription on the altar of the
twelve gods at Athens recording the distance from Athens to
Olympia.[#]
The value of athletics and their political importance had
been realised by Solon. Besides making rules for the conduct
of gymnasia he offered a public reward of 500 drachmae to
each Olympian victor, 100 to each Isthmian victor, and so on
to the victors in other games. This measure is sometimes
misrepresented as an attempt on the part of Solon to check
the extravagant rewards lavished on athletes. Such a view is
utterly false. There is no evidence that athletes did receive
extravagant rewards in Solon’s time: and 500 drachmae, though
perhaps a trivial sum to the professional athletes of a later and
degenerate age, was then a considerable amount.[#] Rather we
may see in this measure an attempt to encourage athletics among
the people, and perhaps to counteract the growing love of
chariot-racing among the aristocracy.
It is tempting to ascribe to Solon’s influence and policy
the founding of the Panathenaea, or rather the remodelling
of the old Athenaea, under this name. This event is assigned
to the year 566 B.C., about the time when Athens, by the
efforts of Solon and Peisistratus, finally made herself mistress
of Salamis, and thus, by securing the control of the bay
of Eleusis, was at last enabled to develop, unchecked, her
maritime and commercial policy. The founding of the Panathenaea
is attributed to Peisistratus, who certainly encouraged
athletics and developed the festival; but, if the date 566
B.C. is correct, the festival was founded six years before he
became tyrant, and while he was still the trusted friend
of Solon, and, owing to his success in war, the hero of the
people. The name Panathenaea seems significant, both of
that unity of the Athenian people, which Solon tried with
somewhat chequered success to promote, and also of that
dream of expansion which Athens, freed from the rivalry of
// File: 101.png
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Megara, was now beginning to cherish. At the same time we
can see in the name why the Panathenaea could never become
truly Panhellenic. Olympia, Delphi, Nemea were fitted to
become Panhellenic by virtue of the political insignificance of
the states that controlled them; even the Isthmia, though held
under the presidency of Corinth, was by its name dissociated
from that power, and Corinth herself was in her own way a
Panhellenic centre where politics were as yet subordinate to
commerce. In such places the national desire for unity found
a natural expression. But the Panathenaic festival was in the
first place the festival of the union of Attica in the worship of
Athene, and the only unity which it could offer to the rest of
Greece was unity beneath the Aegis of Athene. Thus, while
at the Panhellenic festivals all events were open to the whole
of Greece, at Athens, besides such open events, we find others
confined to her own citizens.
The Panathenaea were said to have been founded, or perhaps
refounded, by Theseus, who, according to legend, united into
one state the village communities of Attica. Certainly there
existed an ancient yearly festival in honour of Athene, though
we cannot say if it bore the name Panathenaea. This festival
continued to be celebrated every year after the founding of the
greater festival, and was called the Little Panathenaea.[#] The
Great Panathenaea were a pentaëteris, and were held in the
third year of each Olympiad in the month of Hekatombaion
or about the end of July. The programme of the festival
was even more varied than that of the Isthmia. The great
event of the festival, the procession that bore the peplos to the
temple of Athene on the Acropolis, afforded an opportunity
for the display of all the forces of Athens. The competitions
included, besides athletics and horse-races, musical
contests, recitations, torch-races, Pyrrhic dances, a regatta,
and even a competition for good looks. For most of the
events the prizes consisted in jars of Attic oil. Olive-oil
was the most valuable product of Attica: the olive trees
were under the control of the state, and the export of olive-oil
was a state monopoly. As many as 1300 amphorae of oil
were distributed as prizes, the winner in the chariot-race
receiving as many as 140 amphorae. As even at a later
period an amphora of oil was worth 12 drachmae, it is clear
// File: 102.png
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that the prizes had a considerable commercial value. Some
of the jars containing the oil were ornamented with scenes
representing the various competitions. It is probable that
only one such painted vase was given for each victory. The
manufacture and painting of vases was already an important
industry at Athens, and the prize vase full of oil represented,
therefore, the chief natural product and the chief industry
of early Attica. These prize vases must have been greatly
cherished. Numbers of them have been found in Italian tombs
and elsewhere, and the variety of the subjects depicted throws
no little light on the events of the festival. But details must
be reserved for another chapter.
The multiplication of athletic festivals and the valuable
prizes offered at them must have been a source of no small
profit to the successful athlete. The victor at the Panhellenic
games, it is true, received no other reward from the authorities
than the wreath of leaves;[#] but at the lesser festivals, where
he would be a welcome and an honoured guest, he was sure of
a rich harvest of prizes. Moreover, he received substantial
rewards at the hands of his grateful fellow-citizens. For in
these games the individual was regarded as the representative
of his state: the herald who proclaimed his victory proclaimed,
too, the name of his state, and in his success the whole state
shared and rejoiced. Hence we can understand the righteous
indignation of the people of Croton in Ol. 75, when their famous
fellow-countryman, Astylus, who had already won the stade-race
and the diaulos in two successive Olympiads, on the third
occasion entered himself as a Syracusan in order to ingratiate
himself with the tyrant Hieron. Such an act was felt to be
almost a sacrilege, and the Crotoniats in their wrath destroyed
the statue of Astylus, which they had erected in the precinct
of Lacinian Hera, and converted his house, perhaps the house
which they had given him, into a common prison.[#]
The representative character of the Panhellenic athlete and
the connexion of the games with the national religion explain
the honours paid to him by his fellow-citizens.[#] His homecoming
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was an occasion of public rejoicing. The whole city
turned out to welcome him and escort him in triumph to his
home and to the chief temples of the city, where he offered
thanksgiving and paid his vows to the gods and heroes to
whom he owed his victory. Songs were composed expressly
for the occasion by the greatest poets of the age, and sung by
choirs of youths and maidens before the temples or before his
house. His exploits were recorded on pillars of stone, and his
statue was set up in some public place, or even in the sanctuary
of the gods, to serve as an incentive to posterity. He received,
too, more substantial rewards. We have seen how Solon granted
considerable sums of money to the victors in the great games,
and we may be sure that the example of Athens was followed
by other states. At Athens and elsewhere the victor had the
privilege of a front seat at all public festivals, and sometimes,
too, the right of free meals in the Prytaneum. At a later time
he was exempted from taxation. At Sparta, which seems to
have stood somewhat aloof from the athletic movement, he was
rewarded characteristically with the right of fighting in battle
next to the king and defending his person. In the rich cities
of the West the adulation of the victor, at a somewhat later date,
took the most extravagant forms. Exaenetus of Agrigentum,
who won the foot-race at Olympia in Ol. 92, was drawn into
the city in a four-horse chariot, attended by three hundred of
the chief citizens, each riding in a chariot drawn by a pair of
white horses. Sometimes, it seems, a breach in the city walls
was made for the victor’s entry. It is in Italy that we first
hear of the worship of the athlete as a hero. Philippus of
Croton, an Olympic victor, renowned as the handsomest man
in Greece, was worshipped as a hero after his death.[#] Euthymus
of Locri Epizephyrii, who won three Olympic victories in boxing
in Ols. 74, 76, 77, was even said to have been so worshipped
during his lifetime. It was perhaps a righteous retribution
for such impiety that his statues at Locri and Olympia were,
according to the story, struck by lightning on the same day.[#]
Theagenes of Thasos and Polydamas of Scotussa were also
worshipped as heroes, and the statue of Theagenes was credited
with the power of healing fevers.[#] But these extravagances,
if true, belong to a later period, and must have been repugnant
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to the religious feeling and sound sense of the Peloponnese
before the Persian wars.
Of all these honours the most significant are the hymn of
victory and the statue. It was not merely that the greatest
artists and poets were employed to immortalise the victor, and
that they demanded a high price for their services. The statue
and the hymn were honours confined originally to gods and
heroes, and, bestowed on mortal athletes, did literally lift these
“lords of earth to the gods.” “Not even the mighty Polydeuces
nor the iron son of Alcmene could hold up their hands against
him.” So wrote Simonides of Ceos, the earliest writer of
epinikia, of the famous boxer Glaucus of Carystus, language
which, as the late Sir Richard Jebb remarks, would have
sounded very like an impiety to Alcman. The words are
significant of the changed attitude towards athletics, and the
hero-worship founded by the artist and the poet was perhaps
largely responsible for the extravagances of a later age. But
the influence of athletics on art and literature, and that
of art and literature on athletics, are subjects that belong
chiefly to the fifth century, and will be dealt with in the
next chapter.
The growing popularity of athletics and the excessive
honours showered upon physical excellence could hardly escape
criticism. In that age of intense intellectual activity there
must have been many far-sighted observers who resented the
predominance of athletics, though perhaps they feared to express
their feelings. One at least there was who knew no such fear,
and fortunately his protest has survived. The bold and
original thinker, Xenophanes of Colophon, was exactly contemporary
with the movement which we have been describing.
Born at Colophon about the year 576 B.C. he was forced to
leave his native place at the age of twenty-five, and for sixty-five
years travelled about the cities of Greece and Sicily, finally
settling at Elea in Italy, where he became the founder of the
Eleatic school of philosophy, and died in the year 480 B.C. A
fearless critic of the current ideas about the gods, denying that
the godhead could be like unto man, he may well have been
scandalized at the representation of gods and heroes as athletes,
and at the offering of divine honours to victors in the games;
and his wide experience of men and cities showed him clearly
the danger of the growing worship of athletics. After
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enumerating the honours shown to the athlete he continues:
“Yet is he not so worthy as I, and my wisdom is better than
the strength of men and horses. Nay, this is a foolish custom,
nor is it right to honour strength more than excellent wisdom.
Not though there were among the people a man good at
boxing, or in the pentathlon, or in wrestling, nay, nor one
with swiftness of foot which is most honoured in all contests
of human strength—not for his presence would the city be
better governed. And small joy would there be for a city
should one in contests win a victory by the banks of Pisa.
These things do not make fat the dark corners of the city.”
Less than a century later the words of Xenophanes are
echoed by Euripides, but the object of the protest is no longer
the same. The class of professional athletes whom Euripides
denounces did not exist in the days of the older poet. It is
against the excessive importance attached to athletics, the false
and one-sided ideal, that Xenophanes protests. In his wanderings
through the cities of Greece he has learnt by bitter
experience the evils that exist, evils of tyranny and party strife,
extremes of luxury and poverty, and he feels that the energies
of his countrymen are being misdirected. It is not a little
curious that foreign writers, deceived by the glamour of
Olympia, are wont to treat the protest of Xenophanes as the
captious utterance of a soured and peevish cynic. Yet the
fragments of his writings which exist show him to have been a
man of wide experience and sympathies; and in England, where
we have witnessed a similar wave of athleticism, his wisdom is
generally recognized. Let us pause to consider what was the
state of athletics in the time of Xenophanes.
The popularity of athletics, the growth of competition, and
the rewards lavished on successful athletes completely changed
the character of athletics in the sixth century. The actual
events remained the same, but a change came over the attitude
of performers and spectators. It was a change which will be
readily understood by any one familiar with the history of our
own sports and games during the last century, the change
from spontaneous to organized sport. The change brought
with it both good and evil; the standard of performance was
greatly improved, but athletics ceased to be pure recreation,
and something of the old Homeric joy was lost; and though
the spirit of sport survived for a century more, even in the
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sixth century we can trace signs of the evils which over-competition
inevitably brings in its train.
In every Greek state all boys, whatever their station,
received a thorough physical training. Sometimes, as in Sparta,
this training was extended to girls. This training consisted
partly in the traditional exercises of the public games, partly
in dances which corresponded to our musical drill in which
the performers went through the various movements of the
palaestra or of actual war to the accompaniment of music.
Thus every boy was trained to take his part in athletic
competitions. Local festivals provided the promising athlete
with an opportunity of testing his strength and skill from early
boyhood. At Olympia there had been only two classes of
competition, for boys and for men. In the festivals of the sixth
century we find a third class added for those betwixt the age
of boy and man, the beardless (ἀγένειοι). In local festivals of
a later date we find three or even four classes for boys only,
sometimes confined to local competitors; and perhaps, if we
had details of the local festivals of the sixth century, we should
find the same. These boys’ events were clearly intended to
foster local talent. The youth who won success in his home
festival would try his luck in the neighbouring competitions,
and if still successful would go farther afield and perhaps enter
for the Panhellenic games. Hence the competitors, especially
at the Olympia, represented the picked athletes of all the
states. The prizes offered at the various festivals enabled
many to compete, who in a previous age could not have
afforded the necessary time or money; and we may be sure
that the emulation of the various states would not have
allowed any citizen to lose his chance of the crown for lack
of funds. The popular character of athletics is illustrated by
a fragment of an epigram ascribed to Simonides on an Olympic
victor “who once carried fish from Argos to Tegea.”[#] At the
same time the noble families which had for generations been
famed in athletics exerted themselves to their utmost to
maintain their hereditary prestige. All classes caught the
athletic mania. It was at the close of the century that
Alexander, the son of Amyntas, king of Macedon, competed
in the foot-race at Olympia.
Competition naturally raised the standard of athletics.
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Natural ability and ordinary exercise were no longer sufficient
to secure success without long and careful training. Hence
there arose a class of professional trainers. These men, who
were often old athletes, acquired considerable repute, and
doubtless were handsomely rewarded by the rich individuals
or states that employed them. In their hands athletics became
scientific; instead of being regarded as a recreation and a training
for war they became an end in themselves. One state
alone, Sparta, held aloof from the new athletics and competitions.
At Sparta the one object was to produce a race of hardy
soldiers, and the new science, which aimed at producing athletes,
could find no place there. No Spartan was allowed to employ
a trainer in wrestling. Boxing was said to have been introduced
by the Spartans, but though they recognized the value of
boxing as a sport, they realized the dangers of it as a competition,
and forbade their citizens to take part in competitions
for boxing or the pankration, on the ground that it was disgraceful
for a Spartan to acknowledge defeat. Hence the disappearance
of Sparta from the list of the Olympic victors which
has already been noticed. Sparta in athletics fell behind the
rest of Greece, and Philostratus, comparing them with the more
scientific athletics, describes them as somewhat boorish.[#] Yet
perhaps the Spartans and Xenophanes were right.
The new training required no little expenditure of time and
money. The would-be victor at Olympia must have lived in
a constant state of training and competition, which left time for
little else. Theagenes of Thasos, who lived at the time of the
Persian wars, is said to have won no less than fourteen hundred
crowns.[#] To such men athletics were no longer a recreation,
but an absorbing occupation. The professional amateur is but
a short step removed from the true professional. For a time
wealth and leisure gave a great advantage to the wealthy
individual, and the wealthy city. In the sixth century the
most successful states are the rich cities of Sicily and Italy.
The sons of noble families still figure prominently in the
epinikia of Pindar and Bacchylides. But the increase of rich
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prizes was soon to put the poor man on a level with the rich.
Before the close of the fifth century we shall find athletics left
to the professional, while princes and nobles compete only in
the chariot-races and horse-races. For this result states like
Sybaris and Croton were hugely responsible. They thought
to encourage athletics by offering large money prizes; in
reality they killed the spirit of sport. Sybaris indeed—or,
according to another account, Croton—endeavoured to outshine
Olympia by holding a festival of her own at the same
time as the Olympia, and attracting away the pick of the
athletes by the magnificence of the prizes.[#] When such an
attempt was possible, professionalism was near at hand.
These evils, however, did not yet exist in the sixth century,
though implied already in that excessive love of athletics which
aroused the indignation of Xenophanes. The nation had
become a nation of athletes, and not the least important
characteristic which distinguished the Greek from the barbarian
was henceforth his athletic training. The result was a standard
of athletic excellence never again perhaps equalled. Most of
the athletes whose names were household words for centuries,
belong to the sixth and the first half of the fifth centuries.
Such were Milo of Croton, Glaucus of Carystus, Theagenes of
Thasos. Though we occasionally find distinguished runners,
such as Phanas of Pellene, who, by winning three races at
Olympia in one day, won the title of triple victor (τριαστής),
or a little later Astylus of Croton, of whom we have heard
already, the typical athlete of the sixth century was the strong
man—the boxer, the wrestler, or the pankratiast. The object
of the old gymnastic was to produce strength only, says
Philostratus,[#] contrasting the ancient athletes with their
degenerate successors, and the success of the old training was
shown in the fact that these old athletes maintained their
strength for eight or even nine Olympiads. There was nothing
artificial or unnatural about their training: the careful dieting,
the elaborate massage, the rules for exercise and sleep introduced
by later trainers were unknown. The trainers of those days
confined themselves to actual athletics, to the art of boxing or
wrestling especially, and the athletes owed their strength to
a healthy, vigorous, out-of-door life.
This fact is illustrated by the legends that sprang up about
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the famous athletes of this age, which, amid much invention
and exaggeration, probably contain some substratum of truth.
The father of Glaucus discovered his son’s strength from seeing
him one day hammer a ploughshare into the plough with his
naked fist. Theagenes first displayed his strength at the age
of nine in a youthful escapade. Taking a fancy to a certain
bronze statue in the market-place, he one day shouldered it and
carried it off. The exploits of Samson with wild beasts find
many parallels in the stories of Greek athletes; but the most
characteristic exercise of the sixth century was weight-lifting.
Milo practised weight-lifting on most scientific principles with a
young bull calf, which he lifted and carried every day till it was
fully grown. A still more famous weight-lifter was Titormus,
a gigantic shepherd who lived in Aetolia, and did not, as far as
we know, compete in any competitions. Challenged by Milo
to show his strength, he took him down to the river Euenus,
threw off his mantle, and seized a huge boulder which Milo
could hardly move. He first raised it to his knees, then on to
his shoulders, and after carrying it sixteen yards, threw it.[#]
He next showed his strength and courage by seizing and
holding fast by the heels two wild bulls.
These stories of weight-lifting have been strangely confirmed
by discoveries in Greece. At Olympia a block of red sandstone
was found, bearing a sixth-century inscription to the effect that
one Bybon with one hand threw it over his head.[#] The stone
weighs 143-1/2 kilos (315 lbs.), and measures 68 × 33 × 38 cms.
A one-handed lift of such an object is clearly impossible, and I
can only suggest that Bybon lifted the weight with both hands
in the manner described above, then balanced it on one hand
and threw it. At Santorin another such block has been found,
a mass of black volcanic rock, weighing 480 kilos. The
inscription on it, which belongs to the close of the sixth century,
runs as follows: “Eumastas the son of Critobulus lifted me
from the ground.” To lift such a weight from the ground,
though possible, is quite a good performance.
Swimming, too, was a favourite exercise, and Philostratus
tells us that Tisander, a boxer of Naxos, who lived, on a promontory
of the island, kept himself in training by swimming
// File: 110.png
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out to sea. These old athletes, says the same author, hardened
themselves by bathing in the rivers, and sleeping in the open
air on skins or heaps of fodder. Living such a life they had
healthy appetites, and were not particular about their food,
living on porridge and unleavened bread, and such meat as
they could get. The strong man is naturally a large eater, and
all sorts of tales were current as to the voracity of these
athletes. Milo, according to an epigram, after carrying a four-year-old
heifer around the Altis, ate it all on the same day;
and a similar feat is ascribed to Titormus and Theagenes.[#]
These tales are clearly the invention of a later age, when
the strong man trained on vast quantities of meat; and as
Milo excelled all men in strength, it followed that he must
also have excelled them in voracity. But whatever the truth
of these stories, it is certain that the athletes of those times
were healthy and free from disease, preserved their strength,
and lived long. If athletic training did occupy an undue
share of their time, it did not unfit them for the duties of
ordinary life and military service. Many of them won distinction
as soldiers and generals, while the effects of athletic
training on the nation were shown in the Persian wars.
When we turn to the records of art we still find strength
the predominant characteristic of the period. We see this in
those early nude statues, so widely distributed throughout
Greece and the islands, which are generally classed under the
name of Apollo. In all we see the same attempt to render
the muscles of the body, whether we regard the tall spare type
of the Apollo of Tenea, or the shorter heavier type of the
Argive statues. It is in the muscles of the trunk rather than of
the limbs that real strength lies, and it is the careful marking
of these muscles that distinguishes early Greek sculpture from
all other early art, and the sculpture of the Peloponnese in
particular from the softer school of Ionia. Perhaps the most
characteristic figure of the sixth century is that of the bearded
Heracles, not the clumsy giant of later days, but the personification
of endurance and trained strength, a man, as Pindar says,
short of stature, but of unbending soul. So we see him on
many a black-figured vase of the sixth century, and the type
survives in the pediments of Aegina or the Metopes of Olympia
in the next century. Matched against giants and monsters he
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represents the triumph of training and endurance over mere
brute force. If we compare the figures of athletes on these
vases with those on the red-figured vases of the next century,
we find the same result; the ideal of the fifth century is the
grace of athletic youth, that of the sixth is the strength of fully
developed manhood; the hero of the former is Theseus, of the
latter Heracles. Finally, if we would realise the true greatness
of sixth-century athletics, let us remember that it was this
century which rendered possible and inspired the athletic ideal
of Pindar in the next.
“For if a man rejoice to suffer cost and toil, and achieve
god-builded excellence, and therewithal fate plant for him fair
renown, already at the farthest bonds of bliss hath such an one
cast anchor.”
.fn #
The legends connected with these festivals are collected in Krause, Pythien,
and the various articles on them in Dar.-Sagl.
.fn-
.fn #
The victory of Chromius of Aetna, celebrated by Pindar, Nem. ix., was won
not at Nemea but at the Sicyonian Pythia.
.fn-
.fn #
The existence of such rivalry is suggested by the quarrel recorded by Pausanias
v. 2, 3, with regard to the colossal statue set up by Cypselus at Olympia, and
in the account given by Herodotus ix. 81 of the distribution of the Persian
spoils. A statue of Zeus 10 cubits high is set up at Olympia, while that of
Poseidon at the Isthmus is only 7 cubits high. So Pindar, Ol. xiii. 25, prays
that Zeus may not be jealous if he sings the praise of Corinth.
.fn-
.fn #
Adapted from Jebb’s Bacchylides.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. ii. 160.
.fn-
.fn #
Louis Dyer, “The Olympic Council” in Harvard Studies, 1907, p. 36;
Paus. vi. 3, 7; Ol. Ins. 372-486 passim.
.fn-
.fn #
W. Helbig, Les Hippeis athéniens.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. ix, xiii. etc.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Bronzes, 135.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. i. 59.
.fn-
.fn #
Hermipp. Fr. 14. The story is suspicious, because the Spartans are said not
to have been allowed to compete in boxing.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. vi. 103.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. ii. 7.
.fn-
.fn #
At a later time a drachma was a day’s pay for a sailor, hoplite, or artisan,
and in Pericles’ time a juryman received only two obols. In Solon’s time, owing
to the scarcity of money, the value of a drachma must have been considerably
higher.
.fn-
.fn #
On the Panathenaea vide A. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen.
.fn-
.fn #
The palm branch as a symbol of victory does not occur till the close of the
fifth century. Mr. F. B. Tarbell traces its origin to Delos, and derives its
popularity from the restoration of the Delian festival by Athens in 426 B.C.
“The Palm of Victory” in Classical Philology, vol. iii. pp. 264 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 13, 1. Hieron is apparently a mistake for Gelon.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Olympia, pp. 195-201.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. v. 47.
.fn-
.fn #
Pliny, H. N. vii. 47. Strabo, vi. 255.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 11, 9; Lucian, Deor. Concilium, 12.
.fn-
.fn #
Simonides, 163 (Bergk). Quoted by Aristotle, Rhet. i. 7 and 9.
.fn-
.fn #
The attitude of the Spartans towards athletics is expressed in a poem of
Tyrtaeus (Bergk, No. 12), in which he declares that he would set no store by
speed of foot or skill in wrestling, apart from warlike might. Later their contempt
of training and skill degenerated into sheer brutality. Phil. Gym. 9 and
58; Plutarch, Apophthegm. Lac. Var. 25 (233 E); Anth. Plan. i. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 11, 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Athenaeus, 522, 523.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 43.
.fn-
.fn #
Aelian, V.H. xii. 22.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 717. This and the Santorin stone (I.G. xiii. 449) are discussed
in J.H.S. xxvii. p. 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Athenaeus, 412 D, E.
.fn-
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.sp 4
.h2 id=chap05
CHAPTER V | THE AGE OF THE ATHLETIC IDEAL, 500-440 B.C.
.sp 2
Though the Greeks of the sixth and fifth centuries attained
a remarkable standard of athletic excellence, it is probable
that in individual performance the modern athlete could at
least have held his own with them. Yet despite our modern
athleticism it is certain that no other nation has ever produced
so high an average of physical development as the Greeks did
in this period. This result was due largely to the athletic ideal
which found its highest expression in the athletic poetry and
art of the fifth century. The ideal is unique in the history of
the world, nor are the circumstances which produced it ever
likely to occur again. Due, in the first place, to the early
connexion of athletics with religion, it owed its development
in the fifth century to two causes, firstly, to the growth of
athletic art and poetry, secondly, to the intense feeling of
Panhellenic unity produced by the struggle with Persia. It
was this ideal that checked the growth of those evils which
inevitably result from the excessive popularity of athletics,
and maintained their purity till the short-lived unity of Greece
was shattered by the Peloponnesian war. To understand this
ideal we must briefly trace the history of athletic art and literature,
and then note how the national feeling found expression
in the Panhellenic and especially in the Olympic games.
.if h
.il fn=fig007.png w=60% id=fig007 alt="Apollo, found at Tenea. Munich."
.ca Fig. 7. Apollo, found at Tenea. Munich.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Apollo, found at Tenea. Munich. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 20.)]
.if-
Without athletics, says the late Professor Furtwängler,[#]
Greek art cannot be conceived. The skill of the Greek artist
in representing the forms of the naked body is due in the first
instance to the habit of complete nudity in athletic exercises,
a habit which, even if it were, as Thucydides says, not
// File: 113.png
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introduced into all athletic competitions at Olympia till shortly
before his own time, must certainly, if we may judge from the
evidence of the black-figured vases, have been almost universal
in the palaestra of the sixth century. Besides the unrivalled
opportunities that this habit afforded the sculptor of studying
the naked body in every position of activity, it must have
served as a valuable incentive to the youths of Greece to keep
themselves in good condition. The Greek, with his keen eye
for physical beauty, regarded flabbiness, want of condition,
imperfect development as a disgrace, a sign of neglected
education, and the ill-trained youth was the laughing-stock of
his companions. Hence every Greek learnt to take a pride in
his physical fitness and beauty. This love of physical beauty
is strikingly illustrated in one of the war-songs of Tyrtaeus:[#]
“It is a shame,” he says, “for an old man to lie slain in the
front of the battle, his body stripped and exposed.” Why?
Because an old man’s body cannot be beautiful. “But to the
young,” he continues, “all things are seemly as long as the
goodly bloom of lovely youth is on him. A sight for men to
marvel at, for women to love while he lives, beautiful, too,
when fallen in the front of the battle.”
.if h
.il fn=fig008.png w=60% id=fig008 alt="Statue by an Argive Sculptor. Delphi."
.ca Fig. 8. Statue by an Argive Sculptor. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 134.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Statue by an Argive Sculptor. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 134.)]
.if-
We have seen how there arose in the sixth century a demand
for athletic statues, and how the early artists endeavoured
to express trained strength by the careful treatment of the
muscles of the body, especially those of the chest and abdomen.
The early athletic statues must have been of the type of those
archaic figures which are rightly or wrongly classed under the
name of Apollo, and which, whether they represent a god or a
man, are certainly inspired by athletics. Though we see in all
the same evident desire to express strength yet we find considerable
variety of physical type, far more so, in fact, than we
find in the fifth century, which was dominated by a more or
less definite ideal of physical beauty and proportion. In the
sixth century the artists were experimenting, and therefore we
may suppose were influenced more by local or individual
characteristics. Thus the slim, long-limbed Apollo of Tenea
(Fig. #7:fig007#), with his well-formed chest, spare flanks, and powerful
legs is the very type of the long-distance runner. These
long, lean, wiry runners are often depicted on Panathenaic
vases, and suggest inevitably these day-runners (ἡμεροδρόμοι),
// File: 115.png
// File: 116.png
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who acted as scouts or couriers in the Persian wars. Quite
different is the type of the early Argive statues found at
Delphi (Fig. #8:fig008#). Square and thickset, with powerful limbs
and massive heads, they seem naturally to lead up to the
type of the Ligourio bronze and of Polycleitus, and suggest
that such a build was characteristic of Argolis. Between
the two extremes comes an extensive series of statues from
Boeotia, one of which shows strong signs of Aeginetan
influence.[#] In the fifth century we look in vain for such
divergences of type, and the reason is that Greek art was
tending more and more towards an ideal, and neither the
typical runner nor the typical strong man quite fulfils the
artist’s ideal. Vase paintings afford an interesting illustration
of this change. The wrestling groups on the black-figured
vases show far greater variety and originality, a
more realistic imitation of the manifold positions of wrestling
than we find on the red-figured vases of the fifth century,
where only such types are preserved as commended themselves
to the more highly-trained artistic sense of the later
craftsmen.
.if h
.il fn=fig009.png w=60% id=fig009 alt="Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo. British Museum."
.ca Fig. 9. Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo. British Museum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo. British Museum.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig010.png w=80% id=fig010 alt="Figure from E. pediment at Aegina. Munich."
.ca Fig. 10. Figure from E. pediment at Aegina. Munich. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 41.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Figure from E. pediment at Aegina. Munich. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 41.)]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig011.png w=80% id=fig011 alt="Bronze Statuette from Ligourio. Berlin."
.ca Fig. 11. Bronze Statuette from Ligourio. Berlin. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 39.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 11. Bronze Statuette from Ligourio. Berlin. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 39.)]
.if-
In the early part of the fifth century we still find a variety
of physical type. On the one hand we have the Choiseul-Gouffier
Apollo (Fig. #9:fig009#) with his broad square shoulders,
powerful chest and back—essentially a big man, and therefore
identified by Dr. Waldstein with the boxer Euthymus, though
recent evidence tends to show that the statue really represents
the god and no mortal athlete. At the other extreme we have
the neat, small, sinewy forms of the warriors on the Aeginetan
pediments (Fig. #10:fig010#). Between the two come a number of types.
Unfortunately we have no extant examples of the great Argive
school. The bronze in which the Argive sculptor worked was
too valuable to escape the ravages of the plunderer, and a
certain monotony, which must have characterized purely
athletic sculpture, prevented the later copyist from reproducing
these works. But if we may argue from the Ligourio bronze
(Fig. #11:fig011#), the Argive type was short like the Aeginetan but
heavier and more fleshy. On the other hand, the statues which
are recognized as copies of the famous group of Critias and
// File: 117.png
.pn +1
Nesiotes[#] representing Harmodius and Aristogeiton show a
// File: 118.png
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taller, larger-boned type, more approaching that of the Choiseul-Gouffier
Apollo, which may perhaps be recognized as Athenian.[#]
But in all this diversity of physical type we ask ourselves in
vain what class of athlete is represented in any particular
statue, whether a boxer, a wrestler, a pentathlete, or a runner.
The reason seems to be that in all these statues the ideal
element is strong; there is a difference of build, but each build
is shown with the fullest all-round development of which it is
capable. Certainly there is not in this period a single figure
that represents a typical runner so clearly as does the Apollo
of Tenea. Perhaps the nearest type to that of the runner
is the Aeginetan; but unfortunately we know that the events
// File: 119.png
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in which Aegina won most distinction were wrestling and
the pankration, winners in which we should expect to find
characterized by a heavier build. The fact is that the real
specialization of the athlete was only just beginning, and the
universal athletic training had produced in the first half of the
fifth century so uniform a standard of development that,
runners perhaps excepted, it must have been difficult to
distinguish between the representatives of other events, in all
of which strength was more important than pace. Hence the
earlier sculptors, in order to indicate an athlete’s victory, were
forced to attach to his statue some special attribute, a diskos,
or a pair of jumping weights for a pentathlete, a boxing thong
// File: 120.png
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for a boxer.[#] As their technical skill increased they began to
represent the athlete in some characteristic position. Glaucias
of Aegina showed the famous boxer Glaucus of Carystos
sparring with an imaginary opponent.[#] At Athens Pausanias
saw a statue of Epicharinus by Critius in the attitude of one
practising for the hoplite race, perhaps in the attitude of the
well-known Tübingen bronze, which represents a hoplitodromos
practising starts[#] (Fig. #12:fig012#).
.if h
.il fn=fig012.png w=60% id=fig012 alt="Bronze Statuette of Hoplitodromos. Tübingen."
.ca Fig. 12. Bronze Statuette of Hoplitodromos. Tübingen.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 12. Bronze Statuette of Hoplitodromos. Tübingen.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig013.png w=60% id=fig013 alt="Myron’s Diskobolos (from a bronzed cast made in Munich, combining the Vatican body and the Massimi head)."
.ca Fig. 13. Myron’s Diskobolos (from a bronzed cast made in Munich, combining the Vatican body and the Massimi head).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 13. Myron’s Diskobolos (from a bronzed cast made in Munich, combining
the Vatican body and the Massimi head).]
.if-
// File: 121.png
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The last-named statues at once suggest the Diskobolos of
Myron (Fig. #13:fig013#). This statue marks a new departure in
athletic art. It is not, as far as we know, a statue in honour
of any particular victor, but a study in athletic genre. To
the same class belong the Doryphoros and Diadumenos of
Polycleitus.[#] The earlier statues had been ideal in as far as
they were not portrait statues, but statues of athletic types
connected with the name of some victor, and many such
statues are assigned to Myron and Polycleitus. But the statues
of which we are speaking were avowedly and professedly ideal
studies in athletic art. Myron undertook to represent the
athlete in motion. He chose that most difficult, yet most
characteristic moment in the swing of the diskobolos, which
alone combines the idea of rest and that of motion, when
the diskos has been swung back to its full extent, and the
momentary pause suggests stability, while the insecurity of
the delicate balance implies the strong movement which has
preceded it, and the more violent movement which is to
follow. No other moment could give the same idea of force
and swiftness. If we look at the countless representations
of the diskobolos on vases and in bronzes, we see that the
fixing of any other moment in the swing destroys at once
all idea of motion. The movement is checked at an unnatural
point, and the result is lifeless. Only at the close of the
swing backward does the brief pause give the artist an excuse
for fixing it in bronze. It is a magnificent conception, and in
spite of minor defects magnificently executed. Unfortunately
we know the statue only through more or less late and inaccurate
marble copies. Perhaps the truest idea of the grace
of the original bronze can be obtained from the bronzed cast
in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, from which our illustration
is taken. The diskobolos is, as has been said, a study
of athletic action, and it is therefore difficult to form a true
idea of his proportions, nor was the artist concerned so much
with proportions as with movement. Yet if we can imagine
the diskobolos standing at rest, he might well take his place
besides the glorious youths of the Parthenon frieze, tall like
the Tyrannicides, yet of somewhat lighter build, taller and
lighter likewise than the type of Polycleitus.
.if h
.il fn=fig014.png w=60% id=fig014 alt="Doryphoros, after Polycleitus. Naples."
.ca Fig. 14. Doryphoros, after Polycleitus. Naples. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 74.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 14. Doryphoros, after Polycleitus. Naples. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 74.)]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig015.png w=60% id=fig015 alt="Diadumenos from Vaison, after Polycleitus. British Museum."
.ca Fig. 15. Diadumenos from Vaison, after Polycleitus. British Museum. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 75.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 15. Diadumenos from Vaison, after Polycleitus. British Museum.
(Greek Sculpture, Fig. 75.)]
.if-
// File: 122.png
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In the Doryphoros (Fig. #14:fig014#), and Diadumenos (Fig. #15:fig015#), we
// File: 123.png
.pn +1
have another type of athletic genre. These statues are studies
of the athlete at rest, studies in proportion. The Doryphoros
indeed was called the canon, because in it the artist was said
to have embodied his ideal of the proportions of the human
body. If we consider what such a canon implies, we shall
understand why the old diversity of type tended to disappear.
The artist of this period was seeking an ideal of human proportion.
Such an ideal is not to be found in any extremes of type,
in strength or beauty by itself, but only in a combination of
the two, in the golden mean, that avoidance of all excess which
dominated Greek life and thought. The influence of athletic
training had impressed upon him the value of physical strength
systematically trained and developed; his artistic sense taught
him that no subject was fitting for his art which did not
present beauty of outline and proportion. Hence that union
of strength and beauty which characterizes the athletic art of
this period.
Other circumstances contributed to produce uniformity of
type. The three great sculptors of the age, Myron, Pheidias
and Polycleitus, whom we now know to have been almost
contemporaries, and in the full activity of their art in
the middle of the century, were all, according to traditions,
pupils of the Argive sculptor Ageladas. In the stern, manly
discipline of the Argive school they acquired their consummate
knowledge of the human body. The influence of these artists
was increased by the concentration at this period of all art
at Athens. Polycleitus indeed remained at Argos; but Myron
and Pheidias worked at Athens, and through Pheidias the
art of Athens spread over the Greek world. The school in
which these artists had been trained had devoted itself to
the study of athletic proportion, and it was therefore only
natural that a similar athletic ideal should prevail generally,—a
similar but not quite the same ideal. Polycleitus remained
true to the Argive tradition of a somewhat thick-set, massive
type, with square-jawed, powerful head. At Athens the
influence of the softer Ionian art, perhaps, too, the prevalence
of other characteristics in the population, produced
a slighter, taller, more graceful type. Both schools combined
strength and beauty. In both it is impossible to
decide in what event any particular athlete had excelled;
but while strength continued to be the prevalent idea of
// File: 124.png
// File: 125.png
.pn +2
Polycleitus, Athenian art was rather dominated by the idea
of beauty.
This union of strength and beauty belongs especially to
the time of full-grown youth and opening manhood. It is
the age when the Greek youth began to undertake some of
the duties of citizenship, and when the state took upon itself
his training. In most Greek cities somewhere between the
ages of sixteen and eighteen the youths were enrolled in corps,
and for two years were subject to a strict military discipline
under officers appointed by the state. They learnt to use
their weapons and to ride; they hardened their bodies by
athletic exercises and hunting; they gained practical experience
in war by acting as police patrols on the frontiers. This
time of life was especially devoted to athletics and physical
training. At many of the games there were special competitions
for youths of this age—the beardless or ἀγένειοι. To
the same age belong these romantic boy friendships which
figure so largely in Greek life, from the time of Harmodius
and Aristogeiton or earlier. That these friendships did at
times lead to serious abuse cannot, unfortunately, be denied.
But the charge of immorality brought against them seems
to me greatly exaggerated,[#] at least as far as regards the
fifth century and the most enlightened states. These friendships
arose on the one side from the natural hero-worship of
youth, on the other from an intense appreciation of bodily
beauty.
This strong artistic feeling is illustrated by the practice
which arose among the vase painters of inscribing on their
cups the name of some popular youth with the word καλός,
or sometimes the more general inscription καλὸς ὁ παῖς, “the
boy is fair.” The term “love names” applied to these inscriptions
is somewhat unfortunate. The word καλός implies
none of that modern maudlin sentimentality so often mistaken
for love, but rather the artist’s sense of the beautiful,
sometimes his admiration for some popular youth, sometimes,
perhaps, merely his satisfaction in the form he has himself
created. The point, however, which interests us here is
that the beauty which appealed to the Greek of the latter
half of the fifth century was not the beauty of woman, nor
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even of the mature man, but the beauty of manly youth, and
the art of the Periclean age has been well described as the
glorification of the ephebos.
The growing preference for the younger type can be traced
in the lists of athletic statues at Olympia recorded by Pausanias.
There is a steady increase during the fifth century of the proportion
of boy victors as compared with men, and the increase
is more than maintained during the fourth century. The
change is perhaps connected with a change in the character of
athletics. There can be no doubt that athletics were already
becoming more specialized, and the specialized athlete did not
appeal to the artist of the fifth century. In the following age
we find an increasing diversity of type, but in the Periclean
age the ideal of athletic youth dominates all treatment of the
human figure. We can see it in the figures of children and
young boys which, despite their small stature, have the proportions
and muscular development of men, or in the figures of
women which, whether undraped or, as was more usual, draped,
differ little in framework and proportion from the figures of
graceful youths. In the Periclean age, we cannot distinguish
between the athlete and the ephebos. Every educated youth
is an athlete, and every athlete is an educated youth and a
citizen of a free state. Of the strictly athletic statues unfortunately
we possess only marble copies, which in the transference
from bronze have lost much of the grace of the originals.
But the ephebos is known to us from many a grave relief,
and above all from the sculptures of the Parthenon. The
grave reliefs are at least originals, though we do not know the
artists’ names, while the Parthenon sculptures were executed
under the direction of Pheidias. A truer idea of the athletic
youth of this age can be formed from the Theseus of the
pediment, or the epheboi of the frieze, than from late copies of
Polycleitus.
In all these figures the prevailing impression is one of a
perfect harmony, an absence of all exaggeration. Beauty of
line is not exaggerated into softness, nor strength into coarseness.
There is, too, a graceful ease of movement and of action
which tells of an education in which music goes hand in hand
with gymnastic. Musical drill and dances formed an important
part of Greek education; even at the great festivals the competitors
in the pentathlon performed to the accompaniment of
// File: 128.png
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the flute. The influence of music is especially suggested by
the rhythmic movement and poise of the Diadumenos. Hence
these harmonious shapes produce an effect deeper than that
of mere physical beauty, they seem to be the outward
expression of the spirit within. καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθός—beauty
and goodness—are inseparable to the Greek. The heads,
too, are in perfect harmony with the body; somewhat passionless
perhaps, they seem to denote a mind well ordered as the
body. They are not the heads of students or philosophers,
// File: 129.png
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much less of mere athletes, but the heads of healthy, vigorous
youths, to whom all activity whether of mind or body is a
joy. In the clear-cut, strong features we read courage and
resolution, endurance and self-control. The expression is calm
and dignified, yet without a trace of arrogance or pride. The
face is often turned slightly downwards, and the downcast eyes
produce an impression of modesty which is most marked in
those statues which, like the Diadumenos binding the victor’s
fillet round his head, expressly represent victory. Such is the
beautiful bronze head of the ephebos shown in Fig. #16:fig016#. This
combination of dignity and modesty is part of what the Greeks
called αἰδώς,[#] a word which we shall see is the keynote of
Pindar’s athletic ideal, and which expresses more than any
other the spirit of these statues.
.if h
.il fn=fig016.png w=60% id=fig016 alt="Bronze head of ephebos. Munich, Glyptothek, 457."
.ca Fig. 16. Bronze head of ephebos. Munich, Glyptothek, 457. (From a photograph by Bruckmann.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 16. Bronze head of ephebos. Munich, Glyptothek, 457.
(From a photograph by Bruckmann.)]
.if-
The influence of athletics is equally plain in the lesser
arts. On coins and gems it is seen chiefly in the nude
figures of gods and heroes. Sometimes, however, we find a
purely athletic type. On the coins of Aspendus in Pamphylia
we have a long series of wrestling groups (Fig. #109:fig109#), and on the
other side a naked slinger, a punning allusion it seems to the
name Aspendus. On the coins of Cos occurs a most interesting
figure of the diskobolos, a crude attempt to represent the very
moment selected by Myron (Fig. #86:fig086#). Both series date from
the early fifth century. On gems of a later date we have
frequent copies of the actual work of Myron. In Sicily we
find no representations of the athlete proper, but the close
connexion of Sicily with Olympia, and the successes of its cities
and tyrants in the chariot and horse races are commemorated
by numerous coins bearing a horseman or a chariot.[#]
These, however, are but isolated examples; the art which
above all other was influenced by athletics was that of the vase
painter. Athletic scenes are among the earliest on the vases.
This may be partly due to the connexion of games with funeral
rites, for which many of the painted vases were made. But
there is another and more general reason for the vase painter’s
preference. Athletic scenes were especially adapted for the
// File: 130.png
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spaces which he wished to fill, whether it were a long band
running round the whole vase, or an oblong panel. In the
former case, the foot-race or the horse-race, or a series of
athletes engaged in various sports, offered an effective variation
of the procession of men or animals so common on early vases,
while nothing could be better adapted for a panel than a boxing
or a wrestling match with umpires or friends looking on. So
effective was the latter scheme found that it was applied to
mythological subjects. The contests of Heracles with giants
or with monsters become a wrestling match or pankration in
which gods and goddesses take the place of umpires. So in
the fifth century, on the red-figured cups the exploits of Theseus
in ridding the world of monsters and bullies are depicted as
events in the palaestra. To Theseus was ascribed the invention
of scientific wrestling: he appears on the vases as a graceful
youth triumphing by trained skill over the brute force of his
opponents.
The story of athletic types follows the same course on
the vases as in sculpture, though, as the development of the
simpler art was more rapid, the changes took place earlier.
The bearded athletes of the black-figure vases disappear at the
beginning of the fifth century, and on the red-figure vases,
from the time of the Persian wars, the ephebos is ubiquitous.
Moreover, it is not so much the actual competitions that we
see as the daily life and training of the palaestra. Strigils,
oil-flasks, and jumping-weights hang upon the walls; picks and
javelins are planted in the ground. Trainers in their long
mantles and naked assistants stand about and watch the
practice of the youths. Sometimes with outstretched hands
they instruct them; sometimes they correct them with their
long forked rods. The youths themselves run, leap, wrestle,
throw the diskos or the javelin; some look on and chat, others
prepare for exercise, anointing their bodies with oil, binding
on the boxing thongs, or fitting the cord to the javelin; others
having finished their work scrape themselves with strigils,
or standing round a basin empty vessels of water over each
other. All the varied life of the palaestra is before us.
The vases on which these scenes abound belong chiefly to
the middle of the century, the period of the “fine style,” as it
is called. But, as I have noted before, the actual athletic types
have already become somewhat conventional, and we feel that
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the artist’s interest in them has become secondary. It is rather
the variety of the life, with its possibilities of grouping and
composition, that appeals to him. At Athens, at least, a change
is beginning in the attitude of the people towards athletics.
The fine period of vase painting ends about the year 440 B.C.,
and in the vases of the decline this change is more marked.
We still see the palaestra; but it is indicated sketchily by an
occasional pair of halteres on the wall; and the youths stand
about idly gossiping and arguing, but take no part in manly
exercise. This disappearance of athletics from the vases is
significant: the sculptor could still work out his own ideals, but
the vase painter was dependent for his trade on the popular
taste, and the vases are therefore a true index of the feeling of
// File: 132.png
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the time. If we compare one of these later vases with such a
vase as the Panaetius kylix in Munich (Fig. #17:fig017#), we cannot
help being reminded of the contrast drawn by Aristophanes in
the Clouds between the old education of the men who fought
at Marathon and the education of his day. The vases enable
us to date the change about the year 440, and we shall find
other indications that confirm this date.
.if h
.il fn=fig017.png w=80% id=fig017 alt="R.-f. kylix. Munich, 795."
.ca Fig. 17. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 795.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 17. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 795.]
.if-
There is, however, in this athletic art something more than
mere beauty or mere strength. The outward harmony is but
the expression of that harmonious development of mind and
body which it was the aim of Greek education to produce by
means of music and gymnastic. For the interpretation of this
spirit we can turn to the living word—a surer guide than
merely subjective impressions. Athletic poetry arose like
athletic sculpture in the sixth century, but while the athletic
ideal continued to influence Greek art during the whole of its
history, the hymn of victory, like the athletic painting on the
vase, disappears abruptly before the Peloponnesian wars. The
earliest writer of the epinikion, Simonides of Ceos, was born in
the year 556 B.C.; his nephew Bacchylides, born at Iulis in the
same island, lived till the year 428 B.C.[#] His great Theban
rival, Pindar, born a few years earlier, had died in 443 B.C.
With Pindar and Bacchylides the epinikion almost ceased to
exist. We have indeed a fragment of a hymn written some
years later by Euripides to celebrate the triumphs of Alcibiades
in the chariot-race at Olympia. But this is a mere accident, and
it is, we may mark, in honour not of an athletic event but of a
chariot-race. Euripides, we shall see, was little inclined to
hymn the athletes of his day. The last of Pindar’s Odes, the
8th Pythian, was written in honour of a victory in wrestling
won by Aristomenes of Aegina in 446 B.C., and the latest
odes of Bacchylides which we can date are six years earlier.
The agreement of these dates with the evidence of the vase
paintings can hardly be an accidental coincidence.
Particularly noticeable are the number and importance of
those odes which belong to the years immediately following the
Persian wars. The writer of epinikia, like the sculptor of
athletic statues, was by the very nature of his art Panhellenic.
His muse, as Pindar tells us, was a hireling. He wrote for
those who could pay him best, for the wealthy nobles of
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Thessaly or Aegina, or the princes of Sicily. Neither in Ceos
nor in Thebes could a poet find sufficient scope for his genius.
The little island of Ceos, famed for its athletes and its music,
lay somewhat outside the main currents of Greek life. Thebes
had fallen from her legendary greatness, and played but an
inglorious part in the Persian wars. Hence, though the poets
turned with special tenderness and pride to sing of the victors
of their native cities, they spent much of their lives at the
courts of powerful patrons, and found their highest inspiration
in that burst of Panhellenic feeling that the Persian wars
produced, and which for the moment united in the service of
Hellas tyrant and oligarch and people. If Theban Pindar
could not, like Simonides, sing of those who fell at Thermopylae
or Salamis, his patriotism found vent in no less than six odes
in honour of the victors in the great national celebration at
Olympia in 476 B.C.
The defeat of Persia not only gave a fresh impulse to the
Panhellenic festivals: it raised athletic training into a national
duty. The consciousness of a great danger safely past arouses
a nation to a sense of its military and physical needs. We
can remember only a few years ago the growth of rifle clubs,
the cry for military and physical training that followed the
Boer war. The danger, it is felt at such times, may occur again,
and it behoves every citizen to be ready to play his part.
Among the Greeks this feeling gathered force not from any
consciousness of their own shortcomings, but from a consciousness
of their superiority. At Marathon the Greeks of the
mainland had for the first time found themselves face to face
with the Orientals, and for the first time realized the gulf that
separated them from themselves. Their triumph was the
triumph of freedom and law over slavery and despotism. A
handful of free citizens had defeated a horde of slaves, and this
result was due in no small degree to their athletic training.
Witness the famous charge of Marathon. Critics may throw
doubt on its truth: it is sufficient that Herodotus supposed it
possible. An army charging a distance of eight furlongs over
ground that would try any cross-country runner! No wonder
the Persians regarded the Greeks as madmen. The mere existence
of such a story is proof enough of the athletic training of
the nation. Moreover, the sight of the long-haired, effeminate
Persians, whose bodies were not hardened by exercise and
// File: 134.png
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tanned by exposure to the air, seems to have impressed itself
indelibly on the national imagination. Hence the extraordinary
popularity during the years that followed of all those military
and athletic exercises which we see so constantly depicted on
the red-figured vases. We must remember that at Athens this
training was for the most part voluntary. It was only during
the two years’ training of the epheboi that the state undertook
the education of its members. Yet from this time the palaestra
and gymnasium became the resort of all classes and all ages.
And what was true of Athens, was true, we may feel sure,
of the rest of Greece. For a time Athenian influence prevailed
everywhere. The old Spartan pre-eminence had passed
away, and even in athletics Athens had become the school
of Greece. If Athens produced few victors in the games, she
at least set an example in physical training. “Meet is it
that from Athens a fashioner of athletes come,” says Pindar of
the Athenian Menander who trained Pytheas of Aegina for a
Nemean victory, won probably in 481 or 479 B.C.[#] The effect
of this national athletic movement is seen in the great games.
The lists of the victors at Olympia, or the lists of those for
whom Bacchylides and Pindar sang, are representative of the
length and breadth of Greece from Rhodes to Agrigentum,
from Cyrene to Thasos.[#] Finally, the national rejoicing over
the victory of Plataea could find no fitter expression than the
founding, at that city, of a new athletic festival, the Eleutheria.
Before we consider the individual writers of epinikia two
points may be noticed which are common to all poems of this
class. In the first place, the epinikion was essentially Panhellenic
in its theme and also in its structure. The hymn itself
consisted of three parts—an allusion to the victory, a legend
suggested by the victor’s home or lineage, or by the locality of
the festival, and some moral reflections or advice. The heroes
and gods of the legends had for the most part lost their local
character and become the common property of the race, and
the poet, by coupling the present with the past, thereby
proclaimed the continuity and unity of Hellas. Secondly, the
epinikion was aristocratic. The victors whom the poet praised
were princes and nobles, who competed for pure love of sport,
// File: 135.png
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and for whom athletics were in no sense a profession, nor
even the chief occupation of their lives. Life was not all
sport in Greece at this period, and these men did not shirk
their duties, but played their part with honour in the more
serious contests of war and politics.
Of the epinikia of Simonides only a few fragments survive.
To these we may add several epigrams of somewhat doubtful
authenticity. Little more was known of Bacchylides till a few
years ago the discovery of an Egyptian papyrus by Drs.
Grenfell and Hunt restored to us, besides other poems, large
portions of thirteen of his epinikia. Bacchylides came from an
island of athletes: his own family seems to have been athletic,
his grandfather is said to have been distinguished as an athlete,
and his uncle was the poet Simonides. He dwells with intense
delight on the details of the games, the light foot and strong
hands of the victor, the whirlwind rush of the chariots, the
cheers of the spectators, the triumphal rejoicings at the victor’s
home. But of the deeper meaning, the spirit of the games, we
learn little from him.
With Pindar it is different. He is a prophet with a theory
of life which he applies to everything of which he sings, to the
stories of gods and heroes, or to the deeds of men. He has,
too, a high conception of the poet’s office, which is to give to
all excellence that immortal fame which should be the chief
incentive to all noble deeds. It has been said that to be an
athlete and the father of athletes is for Pindar the highest reach
of human ambition. The criticism is unfair for two reasons.
In the first place, it takes account only of a portion of Pindar’s
work. He is said to have written poems of ten different classes,
most of them connected with the worship of the gods. Of nine
of these classes we possess but a few fragments; only the
epinikia have survived. In the epinikia the poet’s theme is
necessarily the praise of winners at the games, in other words
the praise of youth, and early manhood. But Pindar himself
recognizes clearly that every age has its own excellence. The
virtues of the old are good counsel and prudence, those of youth
are courage and endurance. “By trial is the issue manifest,”[#]
and the virtues of youth are proved in battle,[#] or in the
peaceful contests of the games, which are, as we have seen,
the training of the citizen for the sterner contests of war.
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Secondly, the word “athlete” is ambiguous. It suggests too
much the professional athlete of a later age, the man who,
from selfish and mercenary motives, devoted his whole life to
athletics and who, as Euripides tells us, was after his prime
“useless as a worn-out coat.” But the well-born youths
and princes for whom Pindar sang were actuated by no
mercenary motives, but by that pure love of physical effort
and of competition which is natural to all healthy youth. “The
shepherd, and the ploughman, the fowler, and he whom the sea
feedeth, strive but to keep fierce famine from their bellies;
but whoso in the games or in war hath won delightful fame,
receiveth the highest of rewards in fair words of citizens and of
strangers.”[#]
What then are the qualities of Pindar’s athlete? They are
summed up in that most typical of all his athletic odes, the
11th Olympian, in honour of Agesidamus of Epizephyrian Locri,
the winner of the boys’ boxing match in the great Ol. 76.
“If one be born with excellent gifts, then may another who
sharpeneth his natural edge, speed him, God helping, to an
exceeding weight of glory. Without toil there have triumphed
a very few.”
Firstly and above all the athlete must be born “with
excellent gifts.” Strength and beauty are the gifts of Zeus, of
the graces, of fate. They are bestowed especially on members of
ancient and honourable families, and Pindar as a true aristocrat
delights to enumerate the great deeds of the victor’s ancestors
in war and sport. He has, too, to the full, the artist’s appreciation
of physical beauty, and he never tires of describing it.
But physical beauty must be matched by beautiful deeds;
the athlete must not shame his beauty. Natural gifts imply
the duty of developing them, and excellence can only be
attained, God helping, by “cost and toil.”[#] Here, as Professor
Gildersleeve has well said, Pindar gives a moral dignity to
athletics; for the cost and toil are undertaken not by
compulsion or for selfish motives but for fame. Even the
desire for fame is not selfish. Victory is a delight and honour
to the victor’s city, to his family, even to his dead ancestors.
Moreover, the true sportsman “delights” in the toil and
cost.
.if h
.il fn=fig018.png w=70% id=fig018 alt="Charioteer. Delphi."
.ca Fig. 18. Charioteer. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 138.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 18. Charioteer. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 138.)]
.if-
The expense of competing in the chariot and horse races was
// File: 137.png
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naturally far heavier than that of competing in athletic events;
yet even the latter involved considerable sacrifice of time and
money, and the services of the famous trainers mentioned by
the poets must have been dearly bought. The toil, too, was not
unaccompanied by risk. More than two-thirds of Pindar’s victors
won their crowns in wrestling, boxing, or the pankration, events
which involved no little danger to limb, if not to life. The
chariot-race had been equally dangerous in days when the
owners drove their own chariots. In Pindar’s time this was no
longer the rule. We could hardly expect a Hieron or a Gelon
to compete in person, any more than we could expect to find one
of our own horse owners riding his own horse in the Derby.
Yet we still find the owner occasionally acting as charioteer,[#] and
more frequently still some son or younger member of his family.[#]
Such, it seems likely, was the aristocratic youth whose bronze
statue has been recently discovered by the French at Delphi[#]
(Fig. #18:fig018#). The element of risk must always add a zest to sport,
and it certainly does in Pindar’s eyes. “Deeds of no risks,” he
says, “are honourless whether done among men or among hollow
ships.”[#] It follows then that the most necessary qualities for
an athlete are courage and endurance. On the latter virtue
Pindar, like his countrymen generally, insists even more than on
courage, perhaps because the Greeks felt the need of it more.
Heracles for example, Pindar’s ideal athletic hero, is a “man of
unbending spirit.” Yet neither physical strength nor endurance
is sufficient without skill, and skill can only be obtained by
constant practice under skilful teachers.
In the old days athletic skill had been handed down in
noble families from father to son; such families still existed.
Lampon of Aegina, the father of two athletes, Phylacidas and
Pytheas,[#] is described as a “whetstone among athletes,” bestowing
practice on all that he does, and exhorting his sons
to follow the precept of Hesiod, “Practice perfects the deed.”
His son Phylacidas, too, is commended for his training of his
// File: 138.png
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younger brother Pytheas. More often, however, the services of
a professional trainer were called in. Thus Pytheas owed his
victory largely to the Athenian trainer Menander. But though
training can help to develop natural gifts, without natural
gifts it can do little. “The natural,” says Pindar, “is ever
best.”[#]
But when athlete and trainer have done their best, the issue
still rests in the hands of the gods. Pindar, like Aeschylus, is
deeply religious, and regards the gods as the moral rulers of
the world. Every good gift of mind or body, every excellence
comes from the gods, and victory is bestowed on those who are
pleasing to them. Man wins their favour partly by piety, by
observance of their festivals and offerings at their altars, but
still more by such conduct as averts their jealousy. Their
jealousy is excited by all excess, by pride and insolence; it is
appeased by that attitude of mind which is expressed by that
untranslatable and indefinable word αἰδώς. Aidos is the direct
opposite of ὕβρις or insolence; it is the feeling of respect for
what is due to the gods, to one’s fellowmen, to oneself, a feeling
that begets a like feeling towards oneself in others. It is the
spirit of reverence, of modesty, of courtesy. Above all it is
the sense of honour, and as such inspires the athlete and the
soldier, distinguishing them from the bully and the oppressor.
Strength may tempt its owner to abuse it; success may engender
“braggart insolence.”[#] But aidos puts into men’s
hearts “valour and the joy of battle.”[#] Aidos, mark, not
passion, aidos, the child of forethought, and therefore the true
man feels for his might “aidos,” which prevents him from
abusing it.[#] Hence while the bully inspires terror and
loathing, the warrior and the athlete win in the sight of citizens
and strangers grace and honour (αἰδοία χάρις).[#]
In sport aidos is that scrupulous sense of honour and fairness,
which is of the essence of that much abused word “a sportsman.”
No sports demand so high a sense of honour as boxing
and wrestling, the events which, with the pankration, were most
popular in Greece, and no sports are therefore so liable to abuse
and corruption. It is aidos which makes a man a “straight
fighter,” εὐθυμάχας, the epithet with which Pindar describes the
// File: 139.png
// File: 140.png
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boxer Diagoras of Rhodes, “who walks in the straight path
that abhors insolence.”[#] The commercial spirit is incompatible
with this feeling. “Aidos is stolen away by secret gains,”[#]
says Pindar in his praise of Chromius of Aetna. Was he
thinking of the scandal aroused a few years before by Astylus
of Croton when for the sake of gain he proclaimed himself a
Syracusan? It is tempting to suppose so. The resentment
that this conduct caused was at least a healthy sign. Further,
aidos is akin to and includes the principle of self-control,
σωφροσύνη, which is implied in Pindar’s favourite doctrine of
the mean,[#] and which plays so important a part in the philosophy
of the next century. The self-control of the athlete was a
commonplace, but aidos is something more subtle, more indefinable,
more effective than any rule or principle; and the comprehension
of it helps us to understand how even sports which
seem at first sight brutal are yet under the special patronage
of those fair-haired graces who, in Professor Gildersleeve’s
expressive phrase, “give and grace the victory,” “from whom
come unto men all pleasant things and sweet, and the wisdom
of man and his beauty and the splendour of his fame.”[#]
Such an ideal could not fail to exercise a lasting influence
on athletics. Literature and art increased the popularity of
athletics by appealing not merely with new force to the old
motives of patriotism and religion but also to the growing
aesthetic feeling of the race. To this may be ascribed the
importance which the Greeks ascribed to style and grace. It
was not sufficient, for example, to throw an opponent in
wrestling, it had to be done in style and with skill. The cult
of style grew sometimes, it would seem, almost into affectation.
Aelian tells a story of a trainer, Hippomachus, who hearing the
crowd applaud a pupil of his for throwing his opponent, at
once chastised him, saying that he must have done something
wrong, for the people would never have cheered a scientific
throw.[#] We do not know the date of Hippomachus, but the
story undoubtedly illustrates a tendency which actually existed.
The same love of beauty must have helped to check the
growth of specialization with its exaggerated and one-sided
// File: 141.png
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development, and also to preserve the purity of sport against
the influence of professionalism. Thanks largely to this ideal
Olympia maintained her prestige, and to a great extent her high
standard of athletic honour, long after the liberty of Greece had
become a memory, and her gods a laughing-stock of the satirist.
An inscription of the reign of Hadrian, discovered at Olympia,
is a striking illustration of this vitality. It records a decree
in honour of T. Claudius Rufus, a pankratiast of Smyrna, who,
though matched in the final heat of the pankration with an
opponent who had drawn a bye in the preceding heat, fought
on till nightfall, and left the contest drawn.[#] The decree
relates how he had resided at Olympia for the necessary course
of training so that his σωφροσύνη was recognized by all men,
how he had trained according to the traditional customs of the
games, and had in the stadium given an exhibition worthy of
Olympian Zeus, and of his own training and reputation, in
recognition of which the Eleans had voted him the right of
erecting his statue in the Altis. The decree is perhaps somewhat
fulsome, and suggests that such examples of σωφροσύνη must
have been exceptional at the time. Yet it shows that the
memory at least of the old ideal survived even under the
empire and was still cherished at Olympia.
We have already seen what an impulse was given to athletics
and to the Panhellenic festivals by the Persian wars. No
festival was more Panhellenic than that of Olympia, and no
place felt more keenly than Elis the invigorating effects of the
new spirit of unity and of freedom. Elis had played an
inglorious part in the national struggle. The narrow and
unprogressive oligarchy showed the same lack of energy and
initiative which they had shown in the management of the
Olympic festival during the sixth century. The Elean
contingent arrived at Plataea too late to take part in the
battle. Returning home full of bitter self-reproach they at
once determined to put an end to the old régime, and banished
the leaders who had been responsible for the fiasco. This was
the beginning of the Synoecism of Elis which was not finally
completed till 471 B.C., when the government of the scattered,
unwalled villages was for the first time centred in the newly
founded city state of Elis. The change was facilitated by the
eclipse of Spartan prestige in the Peloponnese, while the
// File: 142.png
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growing influence of Athens was clearly shown both in these
political changes and in the outburst of artistic activity at
Olympia which followed the founding of Elis. But the new
order could not fail to excite violent opposition, especially
among the conservative folk of Pisatis and Triphylia, and their
opposition culminated in a civil war which only ended about
the year 470 or 469 with the devastation of the whole district
by the Eleans.
The opposition of Pisatis was due partly to the transference
of the political centre to Elis, perhaps in a greater degree to
the new régime inaugurated at Olympia. The old dual control
of the festival by Elis and Pisatis was, as we have seen already,
passing away; possibly its death-blow was given by the banishment
of the aristocrats, some of whom may have had hereditary
connexion with the festival. At all events, from the time of
Plataea the two Hellanodicae who represented the dual
control were replaced by a board of nine,[#] and permanent
quarters were provided for the new administration by the
enlargement of the Bouleuterion, the south wing of which
was added about this time. The increase in the number of
officials may have been rendered desirable by the increasing
strenuousness of the competitions. The nine were divided
into three groups of three each, in charge respectively of the
horse-races, the pentathlon, and the other athletic events, an
excellent arrangement which at once commends itself to
the modern athletic mind. Yet it seems more likely that the
number nine was dictated by political considerations, and the
fact that there were nine tribes of the Eleans. It was a change
to a sort of popular representation, and its popular character
is further marked by the fact that these officials were elected
by lot, a democratic institution which can hardly have belonged
to the earlier régime.
This change first took effect in Ol. 76, and possibly was
introduced in view of that great national Olympiad. It was
on this occasion, according to a popular story, that Themistocles
himself appeared and received such an ovation from the crowd
that the athletes themselves were neglected. The national
character of this Olympiad assured the success of the new
order. In the following festival the competition was so great
that the pankration could not be decided before nightfall, and it
// File: 143.png
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was decided from this date to extend and rearrange the festival.
In the 77th Olympiad, too, a tenth Hellanodicas was added
apparently to represent the newly conquered district of Triphylia.
This number remained unchanged till Ol. 103, when, the number
of tribes having been raised to twelve in consequence of a still
further extension of territory southwards, a corresponding change
was made in the number of the Hellanodicae. The war with
Arcadia which ensued reduced the number for a time to eight,
but in Ol. 108 the number was restored to ten and no further
change was made. These Hellanodicae must be regarded as
the executive officers of the Elean Council, to whom in case of
doubt or dissatisfaction there was a right of appeal.
The intimate connexion between the political changes in
Elis and the Olympic festival can be best realized from Pausanias’
account of the new city.[#] Everything in Elis seems to have
been planned purely and simply with a view to the festival.
The agora was nothing more or less than a training-ground
for horses, it was a large open square or oblong surrounded
by colonnades with no other ornaments than a few altars to
Zeus and other gods, and even these so constructed as to be
easily removable. Close to this agora, appropriately called the
hippodrome, were no less than three gymnasia with running
tracks, and rings for boxing or wrestling, and conveniently
connected with agora and gymnasium was the Hellanodiceon,
or headquarters of the Hellanodicae. Here the latter had to
reside for ten months before the festival, receiving instruction
in all the ancient usages of the games from the Guardians of
the Lavs (Nomophylakes). During the last month before the
games they themselves were engaged in superintending the
practice of the athletes, who spent the last thirty days of their
training at Elis, and in classifying men and horses according
to age, a matter of no little difficulty when no registers of
births were kept. The principal buildings of Elis city were all
connected with the games, and though we cannot tell the date
of those which Pausanias saw, there can be little doubt that
they truly indicate the character of the city from the start.
The agora was typical of the rest, and Pausanias pointedly
contrasts it with the cheerful market-places of Ionian towns.
Certainly it cannot have been an attractive place to live in,
and the Eleans never took kindly to it; indeed many an old-fashioned
// File: 144.png
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country gentleman lived and died without even setting
foot in his chief city.[#]
Meanwhile great changes were taking place at Olympia.
Its national character was recognized by the dedication in the
Altis, from the spoil of Plataea, of a colossal bronze statue of
Zeus, on the base of which were inscribed the names of all
states which had taken part in the battles. But the new
feeling of national unity found a yet worthier monument in the
whole series of buildings which the new administration undertook,
to render the sacred precinct worthy of its Panhellenic
dignity. Hitherto, as we have seen, various states had been
allowed to secure for themselves points of vantage at the
festival by building, along the foot of the hill of Cronus,
treasuries, or communal houses. Three more of these buildings—the
last of them—were added shortly after Plataea. All
these were at the western end of the terrace. One of them
was dedicated by the Syracusans in commemoration of their
victory over the Carthaginians at Himera; another was built
by the Sicyonians, possibly on the site of an older foundation,
containing the great bronze treasure-chests dedicated by
Myron; the builders of the third are unknown, but it has
been plausibly suggested that they were the Samians. Sicyon
had played an important part in the war with Persia both by
land and sea, Samos was closely connected with the victory at
Mycale, and it is tempting to imagine that both these treasuries
were memorials of the national victory. This, however, is mere
conjecture; what is certain is, that these treasuries were built
shortly after Plataea and that from this date the building of
such treasuries ceases abruptly. Henceforth the Eleans took
into their own hands the embellishment of the Altis, and their
first work was in connexion with the treasuries.[#]
The loose nature of the soil had rendered the building of
the westernmost treasuries a matter of considerable difficulty.
Accordingly, the Eleans constructed nine rows of stone steps
extending continuously from the western end of the Heraeum
along the whole length of the treasury terrace. These steps
not only served as a retaining wall to the treasuries but
furnished a capacious stand from which thousands of spectators
could view the games and sacrifices, which still centred round
// File: 145.png
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the altar of Zeus. Shortly afterwards was built the additional
wing of the Bouleuterion mentioned above.
The next move of the Eleans was to provide a temple worthy
of Olympian Zeus, and the money for this work was provided
from the plunder gained in Triphylia and Pisatis. The new
temple was begun about the year 468 B.C., and perhaps its
buildings suggested to Pindar the opening lines of his 6th
Olympian Ode in which he compares the prelude of his song to
the façade of a stately fane. The temple must have been completed
about the time of the defeat of the Athenians and Argives
by Sparta at Tanagra in 457; for the Spartans commemorated
their victory by a golden shield which was placed on the summit
of the temple. It would be out of place here to attempt any
description of the temple: we may notice, however, that while
the architect Libon was an Elean, the great chryselephantine
statue of Zeus afterwards erected in it was the masterpiece of
Pheidias, and Pausanias ascribes some of the sculptural decorations
to the Athenian sculptors Paeonius and Alcamenes, though
modern authorities generally discredit the statement. And
just as Pheidias in his Zeus tried to represent the highest ideal
of Greek manhood, so in the lesser works, the mythological
scenes of the pediments and metopes, the chariot-race of
Pelops and Oenomaus, the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs,
the labours of Heracles, we have in reality various renderings
of the theme which inspires all the art of this period, the
triumph of the Greek over the barbarian, of trained skill
over undisciplined force. Thus the temple of Zeus was truly
a national memorial of the Persian wars.
The new temple was built on the site of the ancient grove,
and its building had no doubt interfered with anything in
the nature of fence or hedge which may have bounded the
sacred grove. Perhaps we may assign to this period the idea
of marking out the Altis in the rough quadrilateral shape
which has been revealed by later ruins. This plan seems to
be implied in the building of the first colonnade at the eastern
end of and at right angles, to the treasury terrace. This
colonnade was built about the middle of the fifth century, and
was obviously intended for the convenience of spectators at
the festival, commanding, as it did, a full view of the ancient
altar and of the east end of the newly built temple of Zeus.
Its building necessitated a change in the athletic arrangements.
// File: 146.png
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The foot-races could no longer take place near the altar,
and a new permanent “dromos,” or race-course, was provided
to the east of the colonnade. This may have been partly
a concession to the growing demands of professional athletes,
but the new race-course was still of the simplest. The ground
was approximately levelled, the course was measured and
perhaps marked by a permanent line of stone slabs at either
end, and water-channels were provided to carry the water from
the west of the Altis to the race-course, for the convenience of
spectators and athletes alike. Perhaps permanent seats were
provided for the Hellanodicae, and for the priestess of Demeter
Chamyne, who had a place of honour opposite them. The rest
of the spectators had no seats, but reclined or stood on the
slopes of the hill of Cronus, or else on the flat plain that
stretched between the stadium and the Alpheus.
Whether all the athletic events or only the races were transferred
to the new course is uncertain. The only evidence on
the point is contained in a passage of Xenophon, describing the
battle which took place at Olympia in 364 B.C. In this year the
wrestling of the pentathlon undoubtedly took place near the
altar as it had done in Pindar’s time; but it is not quite clear
whether this was the usual thing or exceptional. In the dearth
of evidence it is a matter for individual judgment, and my own
opinion is that only the foot-races and throwing the diskos and
javelin were transferred to the new dromos, and that boxing,
wrestling, and the pankration continued to take place in the
triangular space commanded by the treasury terrace and
the colonnade. The treasury terrace and colonnade formed
the theatre of which Xenophon speaks, and certainly offered
far better accommodation for spectators of such events than
was possible in the stadium proper, at least until it was
improved and banked up after the battle of Chaeronea.[#]
About the same time improvements were made in the
hippodrome. Hitherto the arrangements for the equestrian
events must have been as simple as for the athletics. But
now a permanent hippodrome was provided south of the
stadium, and an elaborate starting-gate for the chariots was
constructed by the artist Cleoetas.[#] The chariots were arranged
in pairs opposite each other along the sides of a triangle, the
apex of which pointed down the course. In the centre of this
// File: 147.png
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triangle was an altar of Poseidon, on which stood a bronze
eagle. At the apex was a brazen dolphin. At the moment of
starting this dolphin fell to the ground and the eagle rose, thus
announcing the start to the spectators. At the same time the ropes
in front of the pair of chariots nearest to the base were withdrawn.
As they drew level with the next pair, the next ropes
were withdrawn, and so on till the whole field were fairly started.
We may notice here a work which, though perhaps of somewhat
later date, illustrates the Panhellenic character of Olympia.
The old tripod on which the branches of sacred olive tree for
the prizes were placed, was replaced by an ivory and gold table,
the work of Colotes of Heraclea,[#] a disciple of Pheidias, who
assisted the latter in constructing the chryselephantine statue
of Zeus. The table was kept in the Heraeum and at the time
of the festival was placed beside the seat of the Hellanodicae
in the stadium. On one side were representations of Hera and
Zeus, of the Mother of the Gods, Hermes, Apollo, and Artemis.
On the other side were figures of Pluto and Persephone, recalling
those ancient Chthonic cults which had existed at Olympia
from time immemorial, and of which many traces survive,
especially to the east of the Altis.
The activity of the Eleans had, as we have seen, put an end
to architectural dedications by other states; but the piety of
the Greek world found expression in the dedication of statues
and votive offerings. During the nine Olympiads which followed
the Persian wars 476-444 B.C., no less than thirty-five statues
of victors were set up on the Altis, while in the next nine
Olympiads the number drops to twenty.[#] These statistics bear
out the date of the change in Greek athletics which will be
discussed in the next chapter.
.fn #
A. Furtwängler, Die Bedeutung der Gymnastik in der griechischen Kunst.
.fn-
.fn #
x. ll. 21 ff. (Bergk).
.fn-
.fn #
Greek Sculpture, Fig. 25; cp. B.C.H., 1907, p. 187.
.fn-
.fn #
Greek Sculpture, Figs. 34, 35, 36.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. a fine archaic bronze diskobolos in the Metropolitan Museum of New
York, published in the Museum Bulletin, iii. p. 33; vide infra Fig. #83:fig083#.
.fn-
.fn #
Such attributes are common in bronzes, cp. Pausanias v. 26, 3; 27, 12; vi.
3, 9; 10, 4; 13, 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 10, 1-3.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. i. 23, 9.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. Walter Pater, Greek Studies, pp. 281 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide Krause, Gym. pp. 943 ff., a criticism of the exaggerated view put
forward in Becker’s Charicles.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. Aristoph. Nub. 995—
.pm verse-start
ἄλλο τε μηδὲν
αἰσχρὸν ποιεῖν, ὅ τι τῆς Αἰδοῦς μέλλει τἄγαλμ’ ἀναπλήσειν.
.pm verse-end
The Spartans considered Αἰδῶς a goddess, Xen. Symp. 8, 36.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide infra, Figs. 167 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
For the following sections vide Jebb’s Bacchylides, Introduction.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, N. v. 49.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide the list of Olympic victors for Ol. 75-83 found on an Oxyrhyncus papyrus.
Grenfell and Hunt, Ox. Pap. ii. 222; C. Robert, Hermes, xxxv. pp. 141 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
N. iii. 70.
.fn-
.fn #
P. ii. 63.
.fn-
.fn #
I. i. 47 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
I. i. 42, iv. 57, v. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Herodotus of Thebes, I. i.
.fn-
.fn #
Thrasybulus, P. vi.; I. ii.
.fn-
.fn #
Greek Sculpture, Fig. 138. The identification of this statue is uncertain.
It has been suggested that the word “Polyzalos” on the basis is an adjective,
and that the victory recorded is that of Arcesilas of Cyrene. This view has
been assailed in Ath. Mitth. xxxiv. by A. D. Keramopoullos, who believes that
the statue was vowed by Gelon and actually set up by Polyzalos.
.fn-
.fn #
O. vi. 9.
.fn-
.fn #
I. iv., v.; N. v.
.fn-
.fn #
O. ix. 100.
.fn-
.fn #
O. i. 56, xiii. 10; N. i. 65; I. iii. 2.
.fn-
.fn #
O. vii. 44.
.fn-
.fn #
P. iv. 173.
.fn-
.fn #
O. vii. 89; cp. vi. 76, where χάρις is αἰδοία as the giver of αἴδως.
.fn-
.fn #
O. vii. 15, 90.
.fn-
.fn #
N. ix. 33.
.fn-
.fn #
σωφροσύνη does not occur in Pindar; σώφρων only twice: P. iii. 63, of
Cheiron; I. vii. 27, of the sons of Aeacus. For the meaning of αἰδώς cp. Gilbert
Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 88.
.fn-
.fn #
O. xiv. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Aelian, V.H. ii. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 54.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 9, 5.
.fn-
.fn #
vi. 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Polybius iv. 73.
.fn-
.fn #
L. Dyer, “The Olympian Theatron” in J.H.S. xxviii. p. 265.
.fn-
.fn #
L. Dyer, l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 20, 14. Vide infra, Fig. #164:fig164#.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 20, 2; Pliny, N.H. xxxv. 54.
.fn-
.fn #
These figures are taken from the lists given in Hyde’s De Olympionicarum
Statuis.
.fn-
// File: 148.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap06
CHAPTER VI | PROFESSIONALISM AND SPECIALIZATION, 440-338 B.C.
.sp 2
Literature and art purified and refined athletics for a while,
but at the same time by encouraging competition intensified
these very evils which result from excessive competition, and
when the Panhellenic movement had spent its force, and strife
and faction once more resumed their sway in the Greek world,
the decline of athletics was rapid. Nowhere is excess more
dangerous than in athletics, and the charm of poetry and art
must not blind us to that element of exaggeration which
existed in the hero-worship of the athlete. The nemesis of
excess in athletics is specialization, specialization begets professionalism,
and professionalism is the death of all true
sport.
We have seen how even before the time of Pindar the growth
of competition had developed athletics beyond their legitimate
sphere of exercise and recreation till they became an end in
themselves, and how success in the great games demanded an
undue expenditure of time and of money. During the fifth
century specialization made rapid progress in the hands of professional
trainers, whose business it was to train competitors for
the great games.[#]
The earliest trainers were boxers and wrestlers, who probably
confined themselves to giving instruction in these exercises.
Such training was of course necessary and useful, but shortly
after the Persian wars it was discovered that excellence in
any particular event could be secured by special training and
// File: 149.png
// File: 150.png
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special diet, and the trainer began to take upon himself the
whole direction of his pupil’s life. This specialized artificial
training was good neither for the athlete nor for the nation.
.if h
.il fn=fig019.png w=50% id=fig019 alt="Apoxyomenos. Rome, Vatican."
.ca Fig. 19. Apoxyomenos. Rome, Vatican.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 19. Apoxyomenos. Rome, Vatican. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 98.)]
.if-
The aim of the earlier training had been to produce a
harmonious development of the whole body. The new training,
by prescribing concentration on some particular exercise, produced
a one-sided development. “The runner,” says Socrates,
“has over-developed his legs, and the boxer the upper part of
his body,”[#] and he humorously suggests that he finds dancing
a better form of exercise than athletics. In another passage
of the Memorabilia, Socrates compliments a sculptor, whom under
the name of Cleiton we may perhaps recognize as Polycleitus,[#]
on his power of representing the different physical types produced
by different forms of sport. Unfortunately we have not
sufficient material to enable us to verify this statement for the
sculpture of the end of the fifth century. But some idea of
the diversity of type produced may be obtained by comparing two
somewhat later works, the Apoxyomenos, formerly ascribed to
Lysippus (Fig. #19:fig019#), and the Agias, a genuine work of Lysippus,
recently discovered at Delphi[#] (Fig. #20:fig020#). In the former we
see the thoroughbred type of the runner with his length of
limb and fine ankles, in the latter the sturdier, heavier type
of the pankratiast. Neither of these two statues, however,
is open to the charge of one-sided development which Socrates
brings against the athletes of his time, and which would
probably be more noticeable in inferior works of art. For
this we must turn to the vases. A Panathenaic vase in the
British Museum, dated 336 B.C., shows us the typical boxer of
the period, with his clumsy, bulky body and small coarse head[#]
(Fig. #135:fig135#). A comparison of these boxers with the athletes
on the red-figured vases affords convincing proof of the change
which had come over athletics.
.if h
.il fn=fig020.png w=50% id=fig020 alt="Statue of Agias by Lysippus. Delphi."
.ca Fig. 20. Statue of Agias by Lysippus. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 141.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 20. Statue of Agias by Lysippus. Delphi. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 141.)]
.if-
The old athlete had lived a simple, natural, open-air life.
Training in the strict sense of the word he had none. His
diet had been mainly vegetarian. Like the diet of the country-folk
// File: 151.png
.pn +1
in Greece at all times, it consisted mainly of figs and
// File: 152.png
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cheese from the baskets, of porridge and meal-cakes with only
such meat as occasion offered.[#] It has been often stated that
a diet of figs and cheese was prescribed by the law of the
Olympic festival, and various fanciful interpretations of this
custom have been suggested. It is possible that certain forms
of food were forbidden to competitors at particular festivals;
thus at Delphi we know that the introduction of wine into the
stadium was forbidden, and that any breach of this rule was
punished by a fine, half of which was paid to the god, the other
half to the informer.[#] But such prohibitions were of the
nature of a religious taboo, and there is no reason for supposing
that the diet of athletes was otherwise regulated by any law.
Indeed we have direct evidence to the contrary, for the introduction
of a meat diet in the fifth century is ascribed to two
private individuals—to Dromeus of Stymphalus, a runner who
twice won the long race at Olympia in Ols. 80 and 81, and
to Pythagoras of Samos, who trained Eurymenes, the winner
of the boxing in Ol. 77.[#]
The introduction of a meat diet was a momentous change:
it created an artificial distinction between the life of an athlete
and the life of the ordinary man, who ate meat but sparingly
and only as a relish. Its object, of course, was to produce the
bulk of body and weight which are important considerations
in boxing and wrestling, and which were especially so in
Greece inasmuch as classification by weight was unknown in
those competitions. Boxing, wrestling, and the pankration were,
as I have stated, the most popular and most honoured of all the
events in Greek sport, and it is in these events that specialization
and professionalism first made their appearance, and that
their results were most fatal. To produce the necessary bulk
// File: 153.png
.pn +1
of body the trainer prescribed for his pupils vast quantities of
meat, which had to be counteracted by violent exercise. Eating,
sleeping, and exercise occupied the athlete’s whole time, and
left little time or leisure for any other pursuits.[#] “Socrates,”
says Xenophon, “disapproved of such a life as incompatible
with the cultivation of the soul.” Even from a physical point
of view this system of training was vicious and unscientific.
It might produce weight and strength, but it did so at the
sacrifice of activity and health. In the case of the young it
tended to stunt the growth and destroy all beauty of form;
and Aristotle, speaking no doubt of his own time, remarks on
the fact that the boy victors at Olympia rarely repeated their
successes as men.[#] Moreover, the athlete’s strength was useless
for practical purposes. Epaminondas, we are told, when he
came of age and began to frequent the palaestra, devoted himself
to such exercises as produced activity rather than great
strength, considering that the latter was of little use for war.
So he exercised himself in running, and in wrestling “only so
far as he could stand on his feet,” but he spent most of his time
in the practice of arms.[#] Equally unsuitable for war was the
habit of life produced by athletic training. “The athlete’s
nature,” says Plato, “is sleepy, and the least variation from
his routine is liable to cause him serious illness.”[#] Such a
man is incapable of standing the various vicissitudes of a
campaign, and therefore we find athletics condemned not
only by philosophers like Plato and Aristotle but by generals
such as Epaminondas, Alexander, and Philopoemen.[#] “The
athlete,” says Euripides, “is the slave of his jaw and of his
belly.”
Medical science confirmed the verdict of the philosopher
and the soldier. Hippocrates of Cos, “the father of medicine,”
and a contemporary of Herodicus and Gorgias, condemned the
// File: 154.png
.pn +1
high state of training produced by athletics as a dangerous and
unstable condition of body.[#] To live in a constant state of
training is bad for any man, and especially under a system so
unscientific as that of the Greeks.
There was another reason for the condemnation of athletics
by military authorities. The old Homeric sports had been
practical and military: the system of physical education which
had grown out of them had produced that all-round development
which made a man fit for all the duties of life in peace or war;
but the new specialized education produced only a one-sided
development, and at the same time was so exacting as to leave
no time for the practice of military exercises. Plato was an
ardent advocate of physical training. Trained by his father
Ariston, who was a distinguished athlete, he had won victories
in wrestling at Delphi, Nemea, and the Isthmus, and is even
stated, though with less probability, to have won the Olympic
crown. But the philosopher could find no place for the athletics
of his day in his ideal state, and he therefore, in the Laws,[#]
proposes a new and more practical gymnastic based on the
requirements of war. From the age of six, boys, and girls too,
are to learn to ride, to learn the use of the bow, the javelin,
and the sling, and to learn to use the left hand as well as the
right. In wrestling and boxing all tricks invented “out of a
vain spirit of competition” are to be eschewed and only such
forms practised as are likely to be of service for war. The
dances, too, must be military in character, marches and processions
in armour and on horseback, or mimic contests like the
dances of Crete and Sparta. In another passage[#] he describes
the competitions suitable for his ideal state. All foot-races are
to be run in armour, there is to be a long-distance race of sixty
stades in heavy armour, and a still longer race of 100 stades
over mountains and across every sort of country for the light-armed
archer. Instead of wrestling and the pankration there
are to be conflicts in armour, and for the light-armed troops
combats with bows, and javelins, and slings under a code of
laws drawn up by military experts. The military character
of Plato’s scheme indicates the philosopher’s opinion on the
unpractical character of the existing athletics.
// File: 155.png
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An interesting development of athletic training which has its
parallel in our own day was the rise of “medical gymnastics.”
The valetudinarian school of gymnastic originated with Herodicus
of Selymbria, a contemporary of Socrates whom Plato ridicules
for corrupting the arts of gymnastic and medicine.[#] “By a
combination of training and doctoring he found out a way
of torturing, first and chiefly, himself, and, secondly, the rest
of the world, by the invention of a lingering death. Having
a mortal disease, which he perpetually tended, he passed
his whole life as a valetudinarian.” By the introduction of
elaborate rules for eating and drinking he corrupted athletics,
and is justly described by Plato as a gymnastic sophist, a name
that might well be applied to many of the advertizing quacks
of our own day. In this respect he is coupled by Plato with
the somewhat earlier trainer, Iccus of Tarentum, who won the
pentathlon at Olympia in Ol. 76, and who was famed for his
temperance and self-restraint.[#] These trainers are credited with
the invention of medical massage (ἰατραλειπτική), a development
of the massage applied to athletes before and after training by
the ἀλειπτής. Alexander had in his suite an Athenian Athenophanes,
whose duty it was to attend his master in the bath and
anoint him with oil.[#]
Of the rich rewards lavished upon successful athletes we have
spoken in a previous chapter. In the Plutus of Aristophanes
Hermes, having deserted the gods, takes service with Plutus as
the “presider over contests.” “For,” says he, “there is no service
more profitable to Plutus than holding contests in music and
athletics.”[#] Plato knows no life more blessed from a material
point of view than that of an Olympic victor, and in the myth
of Er he describes the soul of Atalanta choosing the body of
an athlete on seeing “the great rewards bestowed on the
// File: 156.png
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athlete.” Still more significant is the story of the Rhodian
Dorieus, one of the famous Diagoridae. Banished from Rhodes
by the Athenians he went to Thurii, and, as a commander of a
Thurian ship, took part in the war against Athens. Taken
prisoner by the Athenians in 407 B.C. he was set free without
ransom in consideration of the fame which he and his family
had won at Olympia.[#]
The result of specialization is professionalism. There is a
point in any sport or game where it becomes over-developed,
and competition too severe, for it to serve its true purpose of
providing exercise or recreation for the many. It becomes the
monopoly of the few who can afford the time or money to
acquire excellence, while the rest, despairing of any measure
of success, prefer the role of spectators. When the rewards of
success are sufficient there arises a professional class, and when
professionalism is once established the amateur can no longer
compete with the professional.
Before the close of the fifth century the word ἀθλητής had
already come to denote the professional athlete as opposed to
the amateur or ἰδιωτής. Xenophon relates a conversation
between Socrates and an ill-developed youth, in which the
philosopher taunts the latter with his very “unprofessional”
condition of body.[#] Athletics were out of fashion at that time
among the smart young men of Athens, who, like Alcibiades,
disdained to compete with their inferiors. “Of course,” replies
the youth indignantly, “for I am not a professional, I am an
amateur.” Whereupon the philosopher reads him a lecture on
the duty of developing the body to its utmost. “No citizen
has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical
training: it is part of his profession as a citizen to keep
himself in good condition, ready to serve his state at a
moment’s notice. The instinct of self-preservation demands
it likewise: for how helpless is the state of the ill-trained
youth in war or danger! Finally what a disgrace it is for a
man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength
of which his body is capable!” The ideal of Socrates is
the earlier ideal which was already passing away, while the
reply of Epigenes illustrates the change which had taken place
// File: 157.png
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in the character of the athlete and in the popular attitude
towards athletics.
At the time of the Persian wars the Greeks had been a nation
of athletes. At the time of the Peloponnesian wars the mass
of the people were no longer athletic. Aristophanes bitterly
deplores the change.[#] At Athens the young men had deserted
the palaestra and gymnasium for the luxurious baths and the
market-place; pale-faced and narrow-chested, they had not even
sufficient training to run the torch-race. The labour of training
was distasteful to the Athenians, who, as Thucydides tells us,
preferred to be spectators of the deeds of others rather than
doers. Sparta had long taken little part in athletic competitions,
with the exception of the foot-race, but her rigorous system of
education, brutalizing as it was, saved her at least from the evils
of specialized athletics. Of other parts of Greece we know
little; in the richer and more progressive cities it is probable
that life was much the same as at Athens, while the records of
Olympia show that the victors were drawn more and more from
the poorer and less progressive country districts, from Thessaly,
and particularly from the mountains of Arcadia.[#] It was
only when athletics became a profitable profession that the
poor but healthy countryman could afford to compete at
the great festivals. The large number of competitions for
boys and youths offered the promising boxer or wrestler a
source of profit from an early age, and at Olympia these
competitions were almost monopolized by the youth of Elis
and Arcadia.
The severest indictment of professionalism occurs in the
well-known fragment of Euripides’ lost play, the Autolycus.
Euripides was no enemy of sport. His parents had wished to
train him as an athlete, and he had won prizes as a boy at
the Eleusinian and the Thesean games. He is said to have
offered himself as a candidate at Olympia, but to have been
disqualified owing to some doubt about his age. Countless
allusions in his writings show his appreciation of all manly
sports. But athletic success could not satisfy his restless and
ambitious spirit, and, like Xenophanes two generations before,
he could not be blind to the unreality of the worship of athletics,
// File: 158.png
.pn +1
and to the evils which it was producing. “Of all the countless
evils throughout Hellas,” he cries, “there is none worse than
the race of athletes.” The evil is not confined to Athens; it is
widespread throughout Hellas. “In youth they strut about in
splendour, the pride of their city, but when bitter old age comes
upon them they are cast aside like threadbare garments.” It is
not the athletes themselves but the nation that is to blame for
such results. “I blame the custom of the Hellenes who gather
together to watch these men, honouring a useless pleasure.”
And then, echoing the words of Xenophanes, he proceeds:
“Who ever helped his fatherland by winning a crown for
wrestling or for speed of foot, or hurling the diskos, or striking
a good blow on the jaw? Will they fight the foe with diskoi
in their hands or, driving their fists through the foemen’s
shields, cast them out of their land? Crowns should be
given to the good and wise, to him who guides his city best,
a temperate man and just, or who by his words drives
away evil deeds, putting away war and faction.” How did the
Athenians in the theatre receive this daring denunciation of
their idols? Many, at least, with sympathy, and among the
number, I believe, would have been the poet’s inveterate foe,
Aristophanes.
While athletics were passing into the hands of professionals
and losing their hold upon the people, the richer classes
devoted themselves more and more to chariot and horse races.
These had long been the sport of tyrants and nobles; especially
brilliant were the victories of the tyrants of Sicily and Italy at
Olympia. But the Persian wars gave a fresh impulse to horse-breeding
and riding in Greece. Cavalry and light-armed troops
played a more and more important part in war. Themistocles,
we are told, himself taught his sons to ride, to throw javelins
standing on horseback, and perform other equestrian feats.[#]
At the Panathenaea, besides a variety of races for chariots
and horses, there were parades, processions, and military
manœuvres on horseback. The frieze of the Parthenon bears
witness to the grace and skill of the Athenian horsemen. The
horsiness of the fashionable young Athenian is ridiculed by
Aristophanes.[#] He spent large sums on horses, affected horsy
names, and talked of horses all the day long. Alcibiades
entered no less than seven chariots at Olympia in 416 B.C., and
// File: 159.png
.pn +1
obtained first, second, and fourth places in the race.[#] He
celebrated his success by entertaining the whole assembly at a
sumptuous banquet.
At Sparta chariot-racing had long been popular; one
Euagoras in the sixth century had won the chariot-race in
three successive Olympiads with the same team, and King
Damaratus himself had won a victory there. After the
Persian wars the Spartans gave increased attention to horse-breeding;
their victories were frequent, and their enthusiasm
for the sport is shown by the story of Lichas. Their victories
at the Panathenaea are proved by the recent discovery at
Sparta of a number of Panathenaic vases representing the
chariot-race,[#] and an inscription detailing the victories of
one Damonon in chariot and horse racing records the fact that
his horses were got by his own stallion out of his own mares.[#]
The addiction of the Spartans to chariot-racing did not meet
with the approval of Agesilaus, if we may believe Plutarch’s
story about his sister Cynisca, who won the chariot-race in
Ol. 96, 97.
Chariot-racing was, of course, merely a fashionable amusement,
and except so far as it encouraged horse-breeding, of no
service for war. Poorer states could not compete in it at all
unless, like Argos, they entered public chariots or horses.[#]
But the chariot-race was a great attraction to the spectators,
and its growing popularity is evidenced by the introduction
of two new races at Olympia and at Delphi. A two-horse
chariot-race was introduced at Olympia in 408 B.C., at Delphi
in 398 B.C., a four-horse chariot-race for colts at Olympia
in 384 B.C., and at Delphi in 378 B.C. The introduction of
colt-races was of course dictated by the wish to encourage
horse-breeding, in which the country gentlemen of Elis were
greatly interested.
// File: 160.png
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The evil results of professionalism were not long in showing
themselves. When money enters into sport, corruption is sure
to follow. It will be remembered how Astylus of Croton had
sold his victory for the favour of a Sicilian tyrant. In Ol. 97
or 98 the boys’ boxing match was won by Antipater of Miletus,
the first Ionian to have his statue erected at Olympia as he
recorded in the inscription.[#] Some emissaries of Dionysius of
Syracuse had bribed his father to let his son be proclaimed a
Syracusan; but Antipater despised the tyrant’s bribe and
proclaimed himself of Miletus. Not so Sotades of Crete,[#] who,
having won the long race in Ol. 99, in the next Olympiad
accepted a bribe from the Ephesians to proclaim himself an
Ephesian, for which offence he was deservedly banished by his
countrymen. Worse, however, than this transfer of victories
was their actual sale. The first instance of such bribing
occurred in Ol. 98 (388 B.C.) when Eupolus of Thessaly[#] bribed
his opponents in boxing to let him win the prize. These
were Agenor of Arcadia, Prytanis of Cyzicus, and Phormio of
Halicarnassus, who had won the boxing in the previous Olympiad.
The offence was discovered, and Eupolus and those who had
been bribed by him were heavily fined by the Eleans. From
the fines were made six bronze statues of Zeus, called Zanes,
which were set up at the entrance to the Stadium, with
inscriptions commending the justice of the Eleans, and warning
competitors that “not with money but with speed of foot and
strength of body must prizes be won at Olympia.” The
warning apparently had its effect for a time. It was not till
332 B.C. that another case of bribing occurred. On this
occasion the Athenian Callippus bribed his opponents in the
pentathlon.[#] The guilty parties were fined, but the Athenians
despatched the orator Hyperides to beg the Eleans to remit the
fine. His mission failed, and the Athenians thereupon, with
a high hand, refused to pay, and absented themselves from
Olympia till they were compelled to give in by the Delphic
god, who declined to give them any answers until the fines were
paid. Six more Zanes were made out of the money, with
inscriptions similar to the first. It is a high testimonial to the
sanctity of Olympia and the prestige of its authority that
cases of corruption were so rare. Yet the Eleans themselves
// File: 161.png
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did not escape without reproach. In Ol. 96 (396 B.C.) there
was a scandal in connection with the foot-race.[#] Two of the
Hellanodicae decided in favour of Eupolemus of Elis, and the
third in favour of Leon of Ambracia. The latter appealed to
the council, who upheld his appeal and punished the two
officials. It seems, however, that an award once given could not
be reversed, and Eupolemus therefore retained his victory,
and even commemorated it by a statue. A few years later,
in Ol. 102, there was a similar scandal with regard to the
horse-race which was won by another Elean Troilus, who
owed his victory, says Pausanias, partly to the fact that he was
a Hellanodicas.[#] In consequence of this incident a regulation
was introduced forbidding the Hellanodicae to compete in the
chariot or horse races.
The apparent breakdown in the machinery of Olympia
during the early years of the fourth century is partly due to
political circumstances with which we shall deal shortly. The
struggle between Athens and Sparta, involving the whole Greek
world in strife, contributed in no small degree to the decay of
athletics. But when corruption was possible at Olympia we
may be sure that it was rife elsewhere. A class of useless
athletes, an unathletic nation of spectators, a corrupt and
degraded sport, such were the results which we find in Greece
within a century of the glorious 76th Olympiad that celebrated
the freedom of Greece. Yet such was the strength and
persistency of the old ideal that it was destined to survive for
centuries after all freedom had been lost.
The character of the competitions themselves underwent
little change during this period. Such changes as took place
were due to changes in the conditions of war and to the increased
importance of light-armed troops and cavalry.[#] Not only were
equestrian events multiplied, but separate competitions were
introduced in javelin-throwing and in archery. The javelin
had hitherto been confined to the pentathlon. Now we find
separate prizes offered for javelin-throwing, both on foot and
on horseback, at a target as well as for distance. But such
innovations seem to have been confined to local festivals like
the Panathenaea, and found no place in the programme of the
// File: 162.png
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great festivals. The brutalising effects of professionalism may
be traced in the change of the caestus. The soft leather
thongs which alone appear on the fifth-century vases were, by the
addition of bands of hard leather round the knuckles, developed
into the formidable weapon called the σφαῖρα, which we see
depicted on the Panathenaic vase in Fig. #135:fig135#. It is curious
to find Plato commending the use of the σφαῖρα on account
of its brutality as more closely reproducing the conditions
of warfare, and so more suitable for training soldiers than
the “soft thongs.” We are less surprised at the approval
with which he and Aristotle regard the pentathlon, the one
competition which required the all-round development of the
older athletics. But it is to be feared that this event was not
really popular. Of the victors in the pentathlon at Olympia
during this period we know only three, and of these, two,
Stomius and Hysmon, were Eleans, the third the Athenian
Callippus, who owed his victory to corruption. Of the statues
erected at Olympia the vast majority were in honour of boxing,
wrestling, and the pankration.[#]
Despite the decline of athletics there was no diminution of
the influence and popularity of the athletic festivals. Wealth
had increased, means of communication had improved, and
with the growing attractions of the festivals and the growing
love of sight-seeing among the people the crowds that flocked
to the games showed no falling off. It is hardly possible to
exaggerate the importance of these gatherings. In an age
distracted by civil war and faction they served to remind the
Greeks of their common brotherhood and to promote a spirit
of good-will.[#] Especially was this true of Olympia, which,
under the rigorous administration of the Eleans, had become
the chief centre of Panhellenism. The sacred month, jealously
guarded by the Eleans, afforded a brief respite from arms and
security for all who wished to attend the festival, whether in
a public or private capacity. All through the Peloponnesian
war the representatives of Athens could travel unmolested to
the festival.[#] There all states, unless under the ban of the
Eleans, sent embassies, composed of wealthy and prominent
// File: 163.png
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citizens, who vied with one another in displaying the wealth
and power and culture of their cities.[#] At Olympia the
representatives of states at war with one another laid aside
their animosities for a time, and opportunity was afforded for
the discussion and settlement of many a grievance and dispute.
To these meetings we may partly attribute the growing
tendency to the formation of leagues. There, too, the terms
of treaties could be proclaimed and made known to the whole
Greek world. The terms of the thirty years’ truce between
Athens and Sparta were recorded on a stele at Olympia;[#] so
too was the 100 years’ treaty made in 420 B.C. between
Athens, Argos, Mantinea, and Elis, and it was ordered that
the treaty should be periodically renewed at the Olympia and
the Panathenaea.[#] It was to Olympia that the envoys of
Mytilene came at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war[#]
to protest against the tyranny of Athens and plead for their
autonomy before the assembled Greeks. Finally, when Athens
and Sparta, false to the cause of Hellenism, were treacherously
intriguing with Persia, it was at Olympia that on three
occasions a noble appeal for unity was made. In 408 B.C.
Gorgias of Leontini, addressing the assembled crowds from the
steps of the temple of Zeus, appealed to them to forget their
rivalries and unite together in the crusade of Hellenism against
Persia.[#] His voice was unheeded at the time, but a later
generation appropriately commemorated his appeal by erecting
his statue in the Altis.[#] Twenty-four years later Sparta, in
alliance with Artaxerxes and the Sicilian tyrant Dionysius,
was once more trampling on the liberties of Greece. Dionysius
had sent to Olympia a magnificent embassy headed by his
brother Thearion; his tents of gold and purple were pitched
within the sacred precincts, splendid chariots were entered in
his name for the four-horse chariots, while hired rhapsodists
recited continually the praises of their master. By a curious
chance the winner of the foot-race was Dicon, proclaimed of
Syracuse, but in reality a citizen of Caulonia, a city that
Dionysius had recently destroyed, transferring its citizens to
// File: 164.png
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Syracuse.[#] Such were the circumstances in which the Athenian
Lysias, in graceful but vigorous language, warned the Greeks
that Artaxerxes and Dionysius were the real enemies of Hellas,
and, bidding them lay aside their differences, called on them
to unite and show their patriotism by an attack on the tyrant’s
tents.[#] The appeal was only partially successful, and one
cannot but rejoice that the peace of the festival was not broken
by such an outrage upon hospitality. Lastly, at the next
Olympiad of 380 B.C. Isocrates distributed at the festival
copies of his famous Panegyric, a work to which he is said to
have devoted ten years’ work, in which he once more advocated
a Panhellenic crusade against Persia, under the united
command of Athens and Sparta.[#]
It was one of the fictions of a later time that no memorial
might be set up in the Altis to commemorate the triumph of
one Greek state over another. But though Olympia did
undoubtedly work for unity, the monuments prove that the
ideal was often disregarded, and the Altis bore witness to the
divisions as well as to the unity of Greece. Apart from votive
offerings of helmets, spears, and shields[#] Pausanias saw at
Olympia a statue of Zeus twelve feet high, set up by the
Spartans to commemorate the repression of the Messenian
revolt.[#] It is doubtful whether this refers to the revolt of
464 B.C. or to an earlier war in the sixth century, but certainly
this statue, and probably other statues, mentioned by Pausanias
were offerings for wars in which Greeks fought against Greeks.[#]
In 424 the Messenians had their revenge, and they commemorated
the part which they had played at Pylos by erecting
a statue of victory with an inscription stating that it was
dedicated by the Messenians and Naupactians from the spoil
of their enemy. The statue was the work of the sculptor
// File: 165.png
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Paeonius, who is said to have made the sculptures of the
eastern pediment of the temple of Zeus.[#] Raised on a lofty
triangular pedestal, it must have been the most conspicuous
monument in the Altis. The Messenians, says Pausanias,
omitted to insert the name of their enemies from fear of the
Spartans, but no such fear deterred the Eleans, who celebrated
a victory won at Olympia itself in the war at the beginning
of the fourth century by setting up a trophy in the Altis
with an inscription on the shield that it was dedicated out
of the spoils of the Lacedaemonians, and their final triumph
over the Arcadians after the 104th Olympiad was commemorated
by a colossal monument that rivalled the Victory
of the Messenians.[#]
Interest at Olympia was no longer confined to religious
ceremonies and sports. It is true that there were no musical
or dramatic competitions such as were held at other festivals.
The contests for heralds and trumpeters introduced in 396 B.C.
had certainly no such character.[#] But the gathering together
of crowds from all parts of the Greek world afforded a unique
opportunity for profit and advertisement which appealed to
many classes, not only to the huckster and pedlar, who provided
for the material wants of the people,[#] to the acrobat and
mountebank, who catered for their amusement, but to the man
of science, of literature, and of art. The artist, the writer, or
the inventor had little means of making himself known outside
his own city except by travelling from place to place. All
such flocked to Olympia, where all would find an appreciative
and critical audience. Lucian[#] tells us that Herodotus was
the first to realise the unique possibilities of Olympia for
purposes of advertisement, and read his history to the people
in the Opisthodome of the temple of Zeus; and another account
adds that the youthful Thucydides, who happened to be
present, was moved to tears by his recitation. He is also said
to have recited his work at Athens, Thebes, and Corinth.
// File: 166.png
.pn +1
Whatever the truth of these stories, it is certain that the
practice of public recitation was widely spread in the fifth
century, and nowhere could such an audience be found as at
Olympia. Moreover, the demand for hymns of victory and
athletic statues must have brought thither poets and artists
before the day of Herodotus. The practice commended itself
especially to the sophists and rhetoricians who travelled about
amassing large sums of money by their learning, real or
pretended. Some of these have been already mentioned.
Olympia was a meeting-place for all. There one might have
seen Socrates listening with polite amusement to the encyclopaedic
Hippias of Elis as he proclaimed to an admiring audience
his varied knowledge and accomplishments, and told them that
everything he had about his person was the work of his own
hands, from the shoes on his feet to the girdle of his tunic,
fine as the most costly fabric of Persia. There, too, one might
have seen many another whose person is familiar to us in
Plato’s dialogues, the great Gorgias himself, with his pupil,
Polus, “impetuous as a runaway colt”; or Prodicus of Ceos
declaiming in that fine bass voice of his on subtleties of
language or of grammar. Or one might have listened to the
mathematician, Oenopides, explaining to a select few the
mysteries of the great year, a diagram of which, engraved on a
bronze tablet, he had set up in the Altis. There one might
have gazed on Zeuxis as he strutted about in his peacock
clothes, displaying to the world his vanity and wealth. Every
one who had anything to sell, to exhibit, or make known came
to Olympia, which thus became a centre from which Hellenic
culture was diffused throughout the world.
This expansion of interests is evident in the list of honorary
statues which cease in this period to be confined to victors in
the games. Thus the Samians commemorated the freedom which
they thought they had gained by the victory of Aegospotami
by setting up in the Altis a statue of Lysander.[#] The statue
of Gorgias has been already mentioned. In Macedonian times
the custom spread, while the number of athletic statues steadily
declined. Besides kings and princes, the historian Anaximenes
of Lampsacus and the philosopher Aristotle received this
honour.[#]
Neutrality was the natural and obvious policy of the Eleans.
// File: 167.png
.pn +1
Removed by their geographical situation from the main stress
and turmoil of Greek politics, they appreciated to the full the
advantages of the position which they had usurped as sole
guardians of the Olympian precinct, and lost no opportunity
of enforcing and extending the privilege attaching to that
position. Thus they claimed for the whole of Elis the sanctity
belonging to the sacred plain; their lives were consecrated and
their territory immune from war.[#] Elis city was the official
headquarters of Olympia, with which it was connected by a
sacred road, and there all competitors were forced to assemble
to undergo a month’s training before the games. Yet the scanty
records of history show that the immunity enjoyed by the Eleans
was due more to the accident of their position than to a general
recognition of their sanctity. Religious scruples, though often
convenient as an excuse, were seldom allowed to stand in the
way of more practical considerations. Hence the Eleans,
however anxious to preserve their neutrality, could not avoid
being involved in the complications caused by the Peloponnesian
war. Sparta must have regarded with jealousy and suspicion
the influence possessed by Athens and the growth of democracy
in the new state. In Triphylia and Arcadia the cause of the
Pisatans was still popular, and the control of Elis was regarded
as an act of usurpation. It was in connection with Lepreum,
one of the cities of the old Pisatan league, that difficulties
arose.
Sparta had interfered in a quarrel between Elis and Lepreum,
which from the commencement of the Peloponnesian war had
refused to pay its tribute of a talent to Olympian Zeus, and a
Spartan force of 1000 men was despatched in the summer of
424 B.C. to the help of the Lepreates. The Eleans complained
that this act was a violation of the Olympic truce which had just
been proclaimed, and imposed a fine of 2000 minae—2 minae
per head—payable half to Olympian Zeus, half to themselves.
The Spartans refused to pay, and after fruitless negotiations the
Eleans, unable to obtain satisfaction, excommunicated Sparta,
and forbade her to take any part in the forthcoming festival.
So, says Thucydides,[#] while all other states were represented
the Spartans and Lepreates had no representatives, and offered
their sacrifices at home. Alarmed at their own bold action, the
Eleans had so little confidence in the protection of sanctity that
// File: 168.png
.pn +1
they put their whole force under arms and summoned assistance
from Argos, Mantinea, and Athens. The alarm of the assembly
was increased by another insult inflicted on Sparta in the course
of the games. Lichas, the son of Arcesilaus, a member of the
Spartan royal family, unable to compete in his own name, had
entered his team for the chariot-race under the name of the
Boeotian commonwealth. When his chariot won, he advanced
boldly into the course to bind the fillet of victory on the
charioteer’s head, but was publicly driven off by the officials
and beaten with their rods. Yet in spite of this fresh insult
Sparta, deeming the occasion inexpedient to excite the religious
susceptibilities of Greece, did nothing, but bided her time, and
Elis, three years afterwards, joined the Argive alliance.
Sparta never forgot and never forgave. In 399 Agis led an
army against Elis, nominally to force Elis to acknowledge the
independence of the Arcadian and Triphylian towns, in reality
to wreak vengeance for her conduct during the Peloponnesian
war. Agis had also a recent and more personal grievance.
Having gone to Olympia to consult the oracle, he had been
refused an answer by the Eleans, who invoked an ancient
canon forbidding oracles to be given to Greeks engaged in war
against Greeks. This time their sanctity could not save them.
Frightened away the first year by a providential earthquake,[#]
Agis returned in the following summer, and, reinforced by the
Triphylian towns, advanced to Olympia, where he offered the
sacrifice which had been forbidden before. He then marched
through the rich plains of Elis, the plunder of which attracted
to his standard numerous Arcadian and Achaean volunteers.
In spite of assistance from Xenias and the oligarchical party he
failed to take the city, but finally, by occupying a fortified
post on the border and ravaging the country, he reduced the
Eleans to complete submission. They were forced to raze
their fortifications, surrender their harbour, and acknowledge
the independence of all the towns of Arcadia and Triphylia.
Only the presidency of the Olympic festival was left to them,
for, though the Pisatans claimed it as having belonged to them
originally, the Spartans refused to acknowledge their claim,
// File: 169.png
.pn +1
considering, says Xenophon, that they were country bumpkins,
and incapable of exercising the presidency, a remarkable
testimony to the efficiency of the Elean administration.[#]
The effects of this humiliation were seen in the scandals
which disgraced the following Olympiads. The prestige of the
festival itself must have suffered. In the next Olympiad,
396 B.C., the competition was so reduced that no less than six
events were won by Eleans.[#]
The Spartans had refused to deprive the Eleans of the
presidency from no respect for their sanctity, but from disinclination
to increase the importance of the country districts
of Arcadia and Triphylia. How little real respect they had
for religious tradition may be judged from the conduct of
Agesilaus at the Isthmia in 390 B.C., when, at the head of an
army, he interrupted the games, and, in conjunction with the
Corinthian exiles, himself presided at them.[#] The rise of Thebes
once more raised the hopes of the disappointed Triphylians.[#]
In 371 B.C. Arcadia was consolidated into the Pan-Arcadian
league, with its headquarters at the newly founded Megalopolis.
The Messenians, who had been so prominent at Olympia in its
early days, recovered their liberty. The Messenian exiles from
every part flocked to the rising city of Messene, founded by
Epaminondas, at the foot of Mount Ithome, and they celebrated
their return by winning a victory at Olympia in the boys’ foot-race—the
first victory, says Pausanias, that they had won since
their exile.[#] Everything seemed favourable to the Triphylians.
Unfortunately a breach occurred between Thebes and Arcadia,
and when Thebes, following the example of Sparta and Athens,
sent Pelopidas to Persia to secure the sanction of the great king
for her authority, the terms of the imperial rescript reaffirmed
the rights of Elis in Triphylia. The Arcadian ambassador, the
pankratiast Antiochus, returned home in dudgeon, without even
deigning to receive the royal gifts.
The Arcadians refused to accept the king’s rescript. When
// File: 170.png
.pn +1
in 365 the Eleans attempted to assert their authority over
Lasion, on the Arcadian border, they were driven off by the
Arcadians, who followed up their success by overrunning Elis,
and occupied Olympia itself, fortifying and garrisoning the hill
of Cronus. The next year, under the protection of the whole
armed force of Arcadia, the Pisatans at last found themselves
presiding over the games. But the festival was not to pass off
undisturbed. The Eleans, with some Achaean allies, arrived
on the west bank of the Cladeus while the pentathlon was in
progress. There was general alarm among the spectators, who
had just left the Stadium and were congregated on the steps
of the Treasuries and in the Colonnades watching the progress
of the wrestling match which took place in the open space
between the buildings and the great altar. The Arcadian
troops advanced to the Cladeus and fell in opposite to the
Eleans. But the latter, having crossed the river, charged them
with unexpected courage, and drove them back into the Altis,
where a desperate fight took place in the space “between the
Council House, the shrine of Hestia, and the Theatre adjoining
these buildings.”[#] There, however, they were exposed to a shower
of missiles from the roofs of the Council House, the Colonnades,
and the Temple of Zeus. And though they maintained the
combat and bore their opponents back towards the altar, their
losses were heavy, and Stratolas, their captain, being slain, they
drew off to their encampment. During the night the Arcadians,
fearful of a renewed attack, occupied themselves in pulling to
pieces their elaborately constructed quarters between the Altis
and the Cladeus and making a stockade of the material; and in
the morning the Eleans, seeing the strength of the fortifications,
returned home, leaving the Pisatans to celebrate the festival.
Their triumph was only short-lived. The religious feeling of
Greece, outraged by the sacrilege at Olympia, was still further
scandalized by the appropriation of the sacred treasures of Zeus
for the use of the Arcadian league. There was disunion in the
league itself, and when, two years later, the Peloponnese was
once more threatened by a Theban invasion, the Arcadians made
peace with Elis and acknowledged her rights over Olympia.
// File: 171.png
.pn +1
This was the last attempt of the Pisatans. The Eleans
rapidly recovered their power. The 104th Olympiad was
expunged from the records and declared an Anolympiad.
And the triumph of the Eleans was commemorated by a
colossal statue of Zeus, with an inscription truly appropriate
to the part which Olympia had played in Greek history—“The
Eleans for concord” (Ϝαλείων περὶ ὁμονοίαρ).[#]
.fn #
The first trainer of whom we hear is Tisias, who trained Glaucus of Carystus
(Philostratus, Gym. 20). Pindar mentions Menander (N. v.; cp. Bacchylides
xii.), Orseas (I. iii.), Ilas (O. xi.), Melesias (O. viii.; N. iv., vi.).
.fn-
.fn #
Symposium, 2, 17.
.fn-
.fn #
Mem. iii. 10, 6; iii. 8, 4; cp. P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, p. 17.
.fn-
.fn #
Greek Sculpture, p. 550; and J.H.S. 1905, p. 235.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Vases, 607. Quite different is the type of the long-distance runner of
B. 611 (328 B.C.) and B. 609 (333 B.C.), and of the Hoplitodromos of B. 608
(336 B.C.). Vide Figs. 51, 58.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 7, 10 τυρὸν ἐκ τῶν ταλάρων. Diogen. Laert. ἰσχάσι ξηραῖς καὶ
πυροῖς. Philostrat. Gym. 43 αἵ τε μᾶζαι καὶ τῶν ἄρτων οἱ ἅπτιστοι καὶ μὴ ζυμῖται
καὶ τῶν κρεῶν τὰ βόειά τε καὶ ταύρεια καὶ τράγεια καὶ δόρκοι. Vide Jüthner,
Philostratus, pp. 268 ff., and Krause, Gym. pp. 654 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H., 1899, p. 611. I have accepted the rendering of the inscription
given by A. D. Keramopoullos in Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1906, p. 167. Instead of the name
Εὐδρόμου, an utterly unknown hero, of whose shrine not a vestige has been
found, he reads δρόμου. He repeats a misstatement made in Dar.-Sagl.,
Paully-Wissowa, and other dictionaries to the effect that athletes were not allowed
to drink any wine. The only authority for the statement is a single passage
from Galen, de Salub. vict. rat., in which he says that “after exercise athletes
do not drink wine but water first, having learnt this from experience!” An
egregious example of the absurdities which crowd the pages of our dictionaries!
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 7, 3; Diogen. Laert. viii. 13; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxiii. 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Mem. i. 2, 4; Aristoph. Pax, 33, 34; Aristot. Eth. Nic. ii. 6, 7.
Eating like a wrestler was proverbial.
.fn-
.fn #
Pol. v. 1339 a. Krause (Gym. p. 645, n. 3), and other writers following him,
discredit this statement, not realizing that Aristotle is speaking of professional
athletics. Of the eight examples quoted by Krause of athletes who had won
victories both as boys and as men, five belong to the sixth or early fifth century,
one is later than Aristotle, one is contemporary with him, the date of the eighth
is doubtful.
.fn-
.fn #
Corn. Nepos, Epam. 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Rep. iii. 404 A; cp. Arist. Pol. 1335 b.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, Vit. Alexander and Philopoemon.
.fn-
.fn #
Galen, Προτρεπτ. λόγ. ii. ἡ δὲ τῶν ἀθλητῶν ἐπ’ ἄκρον εὐεξία σφαλερά τε
καὶ εὐμετάπτωτος. Krause, Gym. p. 47, n. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Leg. 794 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Leg. 833 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Rep. 406 B; Protag. 316 D; Aristot. Rhet. i. 5.
An entirely different view of Herodicus is ably stated by Dr. Jüthner in the
introduction to his Philostratus. He regards Herodicus as the father of scientific
and medical gymnastic, as applied to the preservation of health and the cure of
disease, and he claims that Plato himself shows warm recognition of his merits in
the passage in the Protagoras, where he classes him with Homer, Hesiod, and
others, among the great sophists who beguiled mankind. The passage certainly
proves the ability and popularity of Herodicus, but I can see in it no evidence
that Plato did not genuinely dislike his system. The strongest proof of the
unscientific and useless character of his system is supplied by the deterioration of
the athlete and of the national physique, which dates from this period.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Leg. 839 C.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, Vita. Alexand. 35.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutus, 1161.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Hell. i. 5, 19; Paus. vi. 7, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Mem. iii. 12. For the contrast between ἀθλητής and ἰδιωτής cp. Hieron,
4, 6; Mem. iii. 7, 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Nub. 961-1023; Ran. 1086.
.fn-
.fn #
Thus in the present day professional football-players are largely drawn from
the country districts of Scotland.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Meno, 93 D.
.fn-
.fn #
Nubes, passim.
.fn-
.fn #
Thuc. vi. 16, 2. The epinikion written by Euripides states that he was
first, second, and third. So too does Isocrates, de Bigis, 34.
.fn-
.fn #
vide infra, Fig. #165:fig165#.
.fn-
.fn #
Part of the inscription was found in 1877, and is now in the Museum at
Sparta. Tod, Sparta Mus. Cat. 440. The rest has been recently discovered
during the excavations of the British School, and is discussed in the B.S.A. xiii.
p. 174. It contains a list of victories won by Damonon and his son, Enymacratidas,
in the chariot-race, horse-race, and foot-races at nine local festivals, most of
them in Laconia. The inscription belongs to the middle or end of the fifth
century. It throws an interesting light on the number of local festivals at this
period.
.fn-
.fn #
Ox. Pap. ii. 222.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 2, 6.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 18, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 21, 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 21, 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 3, 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 1, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
These changes were particularly connected with the Athenian Iphicrates and
Jason of Therae.
.fn-
.fn #
Taking the lists given by Hyde, pp. 75-77, we find that between Ols.
84-106 out of 54 statues 20 were in honour of boxers, 6 of pankratiasts,
11 of wrestling, 7 of runners, 2 of pentathletes, and 8 of chariots or horses.
.fn-
.fn #
Isocrates, Panegyric, 43 ff.; Lysias, Olymp.
.fn-
.fn #
Thuc. v. 49; cp. viii. 10 of the Isthmia.
.fn-
.fn #
Isocrates, de Bigis, 32, ὁρῶν τὴν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ πανήγυριν ὑπὸ πάντων
ἀνθρώπων ἀγαπωμένην καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐπίδειξιν ἐν αὐτῇ ποιουμένους πλούτου
καὶ ῥώμης καὶ παιδεύσεως, κτλ.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 23, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 12, 8; Thuc. v. 47.
.fn-
.fn #
Thuc. iii. 8 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Vita. Soph. i. p. 209.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 17, 7; Ol. Ins. 293.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 3, 11; Anth. Pal. xiii. 5; Hyde, Olymp. Stat. p. 33.
.fn-
.fn #
Lysias, Olympiakos; Dionys. Hal. Jud. de Lysia, p. 519; Diodor. xiv. 109.
A similar tale is narrated by Aelian of Themistocles, who is said to have urged the
Greeks in 476 not to allow Hieron of Syracuse to compete, on the ground that he
had not shared in the dangers of Greece. Ael. V.H. 9. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Isocrates, Panegyrikos.
.fn-
.fn #
Helmet of Argives (Ol. Ins. 250), spears of Sicyonians, Methonii,
Tarentines (Ins. 245, 247, 254), of Argives and Athenians for Tanagra (Paus.
v. 10, 4).
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 24; Ol. Ins. 252.
.fn-
.fn #
Such must certainly have been the statue of Victory by Calamis set up by
the Mantineans. Paus. v. 26, 6.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 26, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 27, 11; 24, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
They were merely competitions in strength of lung. Herodorus of Megara,
a famous trumpeter who won ten times at Olympia, was said to be able to blow
two trumpets at once with such force that no one could stand in his neighbourhood.
Athen. 10, 7, p. 415.
.fn-
.fn #
Hence the term “Mercatus Olympiacus,” Vell. Paterc. i. 8; Cicero, Tuscul.
v. 3; Krause, Olympia, p. 190, n. 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Herodotus.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 3, 14.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 18, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Polyb. iv. 73.
.fn-
.fn #
Thuc. v. 31 and 49.
.fn-
.fn #
From Pausanias, v. 4, 8, and 27, 11; vi. 2, 8, we gather that the Eleans, in
the course of this war, obtained a decided success in a fight which took place at
Olympia, and erected a trophy for the same in the Altis. Was it really this
success which prevented the Spartans from depriving them of the presidency of
the games, or have we here the Elean version of the war?
.fn-
.fn #
Xenophon, Hell. iii. 2, 31.
.fn-
.fn #
Förster, Ol. Sieger.
.fn-
.fn #
Xenophon, Hell. iv. 5. 1, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Inscriptions found at Olympia illustrate the political relations of this time.
In Ol. Ins. 31, Theban, Sicyonian, and Argive benefactors of Olympia are
named πρόξενοι of the Arcadians. In Ol. Ins. 36, two Sicyonians are named
πρόοξενοι and θεαροδόκοι of the Pisatans. Curtius, Ol. Text, i. 50.
.fn-
.fn #
Compare the triumphant inscription on Sophius of Messene, who won the
same events circa 300 B.C. Paus. vi. 2, 10, and 3, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
The view adopted above is that of the late Mr. Louis Dyer, and is fully
discussed by him in J.H.S. vol. xxviii. pp. 250 ff. The word θέατρον is here used
of the arrangements for spectators overlooking the bare north-eastern corner of
the Altis, and consisting in (1) the tiers of steps at the foot of the treasuries,
(2) the Colonnade and its southward extension by the Hellanodiceon.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 260.
.fn-
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.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap07
CHAPTER VII | THE DECLINE OF ATHLETICS, 338-146 B.C.
.sp 2
From this time onward there is little change to record in the
history of athletics. Competitions became more and more
the monopoly of professionals and all the evils attendant on
professionalism became rampant. The training of the athlete
became more artificial and more irrational, rendering him still
more unfit for practical life. The degeneration of the physical
type and of the artistic ideal is evident in the statue known
as the Farnese Heracles, a copy of a Lysippean original
exaggerated by the copyist to suit the taste of a later and more
decadent age. Those huge bulging muscles,[#] which even repose
cannot relax, are a type of clumsy, useless strength, utterly
foreign to the ideal of the fifth century, or to that of Lysippus
himself as we know it from the Agias. Perhaps it was the
type of those professional strong men who called themselves
successors of Heracles as having, like Heracles, won the wrestling
and pankration at Olympia on the same day.[#] The first of
these was Caprus of Elis, who in the year 212 defeated, in
the pankration, the redoubtable Cleitomachus of Thebes, who
is sometimes supposed to be the original of the boxer of the
Terme (Fig. #136:fig136#).
.if h
.il fn=fig021.png w=50% id=fig021 alt="Farnese Heracles, by Glycon. Naples."
.ca Fig. 21. Farnese Heracles, by Glycon. Naples. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 125.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 21. Farnese Heracles, by Glycon. Naples. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 125.)]
.if-
A tale told by Polybius about the latter throws a curious
light on the state of sport at the time.[#] He had, it appears,
incurred the displeasure of King Ptolemy—presumably Ptolemy
IV.—who went to the trouble and expense of training and
sending to Olympia a rival boxer, Aristonicus, to compete with
// File: 173.png
// File: 174.png
.pn +2
him. The contest excited great public interest, and the fickle
crowd favoured the new man until Cleitomachus, exasperated
at their attitude, taunted them with backing one who was
fighting not for the glory of Greece but for King Ptolemy.
This appeal caused such a revulsion of feeling that Aristonicus
was vanquished, not, says our author, so much by Cleitomachus
as by the crowd. With such hired prize-fighters it was only
natural that methods became more brutal, and science
deteriorated. The increasing weight of the caestus rendered
boxing a contest of brute strength and fit to take its place in
the Roman gladiatorial shows. The science of wrestling had
also suffered. As early as 364 B.C. we read of one Sostratus
of Sicyon who won the wrestling at Olympia not by skill in
wrestling but by breaking his opponent’s fingers.
Corruption naturally throve under such conditions.[#] Only
Olympia, thanks to its ancient prestige and sanctity, maintained
the purity of sport, and though even there all sport was
professional, cases of corruption were rare.
The decay of athletics was accompanied by an increased
activity in the construction and improvement of gymnasia and
stadia, which continued all through Hellenistic and Roman
times. The stadia at Olympia and Delphi were reconstructed
during the fourth century; the Panathenaic stadium at Athens
was the work of the Athenian administrator Lycurgus, who
also rebuilt the Lyceum Gymnasium, planted it with trees,
and built a new palaestra or wrestling-school in it. But this
building activity did not denote any improvement of the
national athletics. The people took little interest in the games,
save as a spectacle, and the improvements made in the stadia were
connected solely with the accommodation and comfort of spectators.
Some of these buildings were the work of a sort of athletic
revival, a temporary demand for physical and military training.
Such a movement occurred at Athens in the time of Alexander,
under the wise leadership of Lycurgus, who, among the numerous
services which he rendered to Athens, reorganized the Athenian
epheboi. More often these buildings were the monuments of
the generosity or vanity of wealthy princes or ambitious citizens.
// File: 175.png
.pn +1
But the palaestra and gymnasium, even in the fourth
century were no longer devoted principally to gymnastics.
The colonnades of the palaestra, the shady walks of the
gymnasium were popular resorts and lounging-places. There
the Athenian gentleman would betake himself in the afternoon
to get an appetite for his evening meal; and a whole series of
rooms was provided for his accommodation—dressing-rooms,
oiling-rooms, dusting-rooms, bath-rooms, cloisters where he
could take his exercise in wet weather, rooms for ball-play,
and, for the more active, wrestling-rings and running tracks.
Many of the rooms and the walks were provided with benches
and seats for the convenience of visitors and spectators.
Sophists especially resorted there in the hope of attracting
pupils; some of them attached themselves to particular
gymnasia. Plato delivered his discourses in the Academy;
Aristotle took his morning and evening walks in the Lyceum.
Gradually the social and educational side of the gymnasium
became more important than the athletic. The gymnasium
of Cynosarges in the fourth century was the meeting-place of
a celebrated club known as the Sixty Wits. The earlier
gymnasia of Athens had been outside the walls. The first
gymnasium inside the walls was the gift of the versatile
Ptolemaeus Philadelphia (285-247 B.C.), the founder of the
museum and library of Alexandria. The gymnasium at Athens
bore witness to the culture of its founder: it contained a
library formed and increased by contributions from the students
who attended it. Lectures continued to be given in it by
philosophers and men of science down to the time of Cicero,
who listened there to the lectures of Antiochus. These
gymnasia were intimately connected with the life of the
epheboi in whose training philosophy and literature were
rapidly taking the place formerly occupied by athletics and
military science. From this ephebic training grew up what has
been aptly called the University of Athens, to which the young
Romans of the time of Cicero resorted to study philosophy.
Our knowledge of the training given to the epheboi is
mostly derived from inscriptions of this period or later. The
Athenian inscriptions date from the year 334 B.C. to the third
century A.D.[#] These inscriptions contain lists of the epheboi
and decrees in honour of the epheboi themselves and of their
// File: 176.png
.pn +1
officers. The physical training of the epheboi was largely
military in character, and particular attention was paid to those
exercises which were likely to be of service in war. This
training was under the general supervision of the Kosmetes,
one of whose duties was to provide the necessary oil for use in
the gymnasium. Under him were subordinate officials, the
hoplomachos, a sort of fencing instructor; the akontistes,
toxotes, and katapaltaphetes or aphetes, who taught the use of
the javelin, bow, and catapult respectively. At the local
festivals competitions were held to test the proficiency of men
and youths in these and other more purely athletic accomplishments.
Many of these competitions, especially those for the
younger, were confined to local competitors. Sometimes they
took the form of squad competitions between companies
representing local tribes and divisions. Torch-races between
individuals or teams on foot or on horseback figure frequently
on the programme. At Athens cavalry parades formed an
important feature of these festivals. The most splendid of
these local festivals, the Panathenaea, must be reserved for
fuller discussion, but a few examples of the inscriptions dealing
with the less-known festivals, will illustrate the character of the
festivals and of the physical training of the young in the period.
The Thesea at Athens had been founded shortly after the
Persian wars, when, in accordance with the oracle’s command,
the bones of Theseus were brought from Scyros and reburied
at Athens. The programme comprised parades, gymnastic,
naval, and equestrian competitions, and a great public sacrifice.
We have a list of the victors at this festival in an inscription
recording a decree of honour to Nicogenes who held the office
of Agonothetes, or official manager of the games, for the year
161 B.C.[#] Among the services rendered by Nicogenes, it is
recorded that he provided prizes and money for other expenses
out of his own pocket, and that he took special pains to prevent
any competitor in the torch-race from “losing through foul
play.” For these services, and for his goodwill towards the
Council and people of Athens, Nicogenes is to be crowned with
a golden crown, and proclamation thereof is to be made at the
Dionysia, the Panathenaea, the Eleusinia, and—a strange
fourth in such a list—the Ptolemaea!
// File: 177.png
.pn +1
Similar training and similar competitions are found at many
other places, at Ceos, Teos, Chios, Samos, and Tralles.[#] A
third-century inscription of Ceos contains arrangements for the
holding of a festival at a cost of 65 drachmae. A gymnasiarch
is to be chosen to organize the torch-race, take general supervision
of the training in the gymnasium, three times a month
to take the epheboi out to practise with the bow and javelin
and catapult, and to inflict a fine on any who did not attend.
The prizes for the men’s competitions are: for archery, first
prize, a bow and quiver; second prize, a bow;—for the javelin,
first prize, three spears and a helmet; second prize, three spears;
while the boy victors in these events are to receive a portion
of meat. There are prizes also for the use of the catapult and
for a torch-race.
At Teos in the third century a patriotic citizen, Polythrous,
presented the State with the sum of 34,000 drachmae for the
education of boys and girls. The interest on this sum was
used to provide salaries for various instructors, including two
paidotribai or athletic instructors, at a salary of 500 drachmae
each, a hoplomachos at a salary of 300 drachmae, and an
instructor in the use of the javelin and the bow at 250 drachmae.
The hoplomachos was required to give at least two month’s
instruction. The highest paid of all the staff was the teacher
of music, who received 600 drachmae. The general supervision
of this education was in the hands of a paidonomos, who, it is
specified, must not be less than forty years of age. In the
present day, in making appointments to head-masterships it is
commonly specified that candidates must not be over forty.
Which is right?
Such training seems to have been universal in Greek states.
The instances given suffice to show how entirely it differed from
the training of athletes who competed in the great games.
Unfortunately education in Greece was, except at Sparta,
purely voluntary, and the training afforded only affected, therefore,
a small portion of the population.
We have been anticipating; we must now return to the
history of Olympia under the Macedonians. It was the policy
of the kings of Macedon to encourage and support in every way
the Panhellenic festival, and especially Olympia. In the first
place, the Macedonians were regarded by the other Greeks
// File: 178.png
.pn +1
almost as barbarians, and it was of supreme importance that
their claim to be considered Greeks had been recognized by the
most exclusively Hellenic of all festivals. It will be remembered
that Alexander, the son of Amyntas, had established this claim
for the royal family of Macedon at the close of the sixth century,
when he had been allowed to compete in the foot-race at
Olympia. A century later Archelaus won a victory in the
chariot-race. This able and energetic prince aimed at spreading
Greek culture through his dominions. He invited to his court
Greek poets, philosophers, and artists; above all, to show his
respect for Olympia, he founded at Dium a new Olympic festival
of nine days in honour of Zeus and the nine Muses.[#] The
precedent was widely followed during Hellenistic and Roman
times, when a host of festivals sprung up bearing the title of
the four great Panhellenic meetings. The new Olympia were
not confined to athletic contests, which seem to have been less
important than dramatic competitions, and their pomp and
splendour are indications of the growing taste for spectacular
effect.
Philip and Alexander had special reasons for associating
themselves with the Panhellenic festivals. Like the tyrants
of an earlier age, they realized that if they were to unite Greece
under their rule it must be by utilizing those forces which made
for unity. Two places in particular represented the spirit of
national unity,—Delphi, in Northern Greece, and Olympia in
the Peloponnese,—and of both festivals the Macedonians made
full use.
Already in 370 B.C. the ambitious tyrant of Thessaly, Jason
of Pherae, who dreamt of invading Persia as commander of
united Greece, had schemed to consolidate his power by setting
himself up as president of the Pythian games. He had made
preparation to celebrate the festival with barbarian pomp,
sending messengers to all the cities of Thessaly, to bid them
provide oxen, sheep, and goats for the sacrifices, and offering
a crown of gold as a prize for the finest ox.[#] But his scheme
was frustrated by his assassination, which was doubtless partly
due to his attempted usurpation of the sacred functions.
Fortune was kinder to Philip. The Sacred war gave him an
// File: 179.png
.pn +1
opportunity of posing as the protector and saviour of Delphi.
His defeat of the Phocians and restoration of Delphi to the
Delphians were rewarded by his election to the place on the
Amphictionic Board, of which the Phocians were deprived, and
in 346 he received the further honour of being nominated as
the president of the approaching games. Thus he stood out
the acknowledged head of the most ancient and influential
league in Greece. Only Athens protested, but her protest was
unavailing, and Philip’s newly-acquired dignity was the death-blow
to her opposition.
At Olympia Philip had already ingratiated himself with the
authorities by a victory in the horse-race in 356 B.C., and two
victories in the four-horse chariot-race in the two following
Olympiads. The news of his victory in the horse-race reached
him, says Plutarch, shortly after his capture of Potidaea, and
on the same day he received the news of a victory gained by
Parmenio over the Illyrians, and of the birth of Alexander.
Following the example of the tyrants of Sicily, he commemorated
his victories in the chariot-race by representing a
chariot on his coins. After the battle of Chaeronea Philip
marched into the Peloponnese, and having ravaged Laconia and
reduced Sparta to impotence, summoned a congress of all the
Greek states at Corinth. Then he came forward as the
champion of united Hellas, declaring his resolve of leading a
new crusade against Persia, and was appointed by the congress
sole commander of the forces of Greece. It will be remembered
how time after time this policy of union against Persia had
been preached at Olympia, and nowhere can Philip’s proclamation
have been more welcome. Did he visit Olympia in person?
It is tempting to suppose so. At least we may connect with
this time the founding of the Philippeum, a small circular
building consisting of a cella surrounded by eighteen Ionic
columns, and containing statues in gold and ivory of Philip
himself and his ancestors, and even of female members of his
family, Eurydice and Olympias. The Philippeum seems to
have been an offering similar in character to the treasuries of
an earlier age, the founders of which by their erection sought
to establish for themselves a right and locus standi in the
management of the festival. There was no room for further
buildings on the treasury terrace itself, and a yet more honourable
and unique position was found for Philip’s monument to
// File: 180.png
.pn +1
the south-west of the Heraeum within the limits of the Altis
itself, the boundary of which had to be moved westward to
enclose it. It was the first such building to be placed within
the Altis, the first to bear the name of its founder, who was
thereby placed on a level with the mythical presidents of
Olympia, Pelops and Oenomaus, and acknowledged as the
freely-appointed leader of united Greece at the very centre of
Panhellenism.
Philip was assassinated in the very act of celebrating the
marriage of his daughter Cleopatra with Alexander of Epirus
by a magnificent festival at Aegae, where the lavish prodigality
of the Macedonian expended itself in banquets, gymnastic and
musical contests, dramatic competitions, and every variety of
attraction which could appeal to and impress the imagination
of the Greek world. Even the name Olympia was given to the
games at Aegae, and the statues of the twelve gods of the
Olympic pantheon were carried in procession to the theatre
followed by the statue of Philip himself who thus anticipated
the claim of Alexander to divine honours.
Alexander’s ambition was too vast to find satisfaction in
victories at Olympia. He treated with contempt the athletics
of his day. Though himself vigorous and athletic of body,
he had an aversion for the exercises of the palaestra, regarding
them as useless for war. When asked whether he would
compete in the foot-race at Olympia, he replied, “Yes, if I had
kings for my antagonists.” There is no doubt that his refusal
was fully justified; he could gain no honour by entering into
competition with professionals. But though he despised the
athletic part of the festivals, he appreciated to the full their
social and political importance. He recognized the importance
of amusing the people. He celebrated his victories by brilliant
Olympic games at Aegae and at Dium, at which he offered
prizes for tragic poets, musicians, and rhapsodists, and
entertained the people not with athletic competitions but
with the hunting of wild beasts, and with fencing or
fighting with the staff. Similar entertainments were provided
by the king at various places in his triumphal progress
through Asia. Olympia itself was to him the true capital
of Greece. In spite of his personal aversion to athletic
competitions, he is related to have restored to liberty
Dionysodorus of Thebes, whom he had taken prisoner at
// File: 181.png
.pn +1
Issus, in consideration of his claims as an Olympic victor.[#]
Thither during the course of his eastern campaigns he sent
dispatches which were publicly read at the festival. There
in 324 Nicanor arrived as bearer of two imperial mandates
bidding the cities of Greece receive back their exiles and
acknowledge Alexander as a god. This decree was publicly
read by the herald in the presence of 20,000 exiles who
had mustered for the occasion.
The conquests of Alexander opened the door for the extension
of Hellenism over the eastern world, and of this extension,
an interesting illustration was discovered at Olympia. It is
the monument of Philonides of Crete, who describes himself as
courier of King Alexander, and road surveyor of (βηματωτής)
of Asia. On one side of the pedestal is a bronze tablet
on which Curtius aptly suggests was engraved a map of Asia,
enabling visitors to Olympia to trace the course of his master’s
conquests.[#] Under his successors Asia and Egypt became
Hellenized, and this process is illustrated by the appearance
in the lists of Olympic victors of athletes from the newly-founded
cities, and later on from the kingdoms and provinces
of Asia. The new cities sought to reproduce the main
features of the old Hellenic ideal, and from this ideal athletics
and the athletic festivals were inseparable. Everywhere
athletic festivals were founded bearing the names of the
ancient festivals, everywhere elaborate stadia and gymnasia
were erected. The athletic enthusiasm which had died out
in the mother country revived in many of her daughter cities:
especially was this the case in Alexandria, which under the
rule of the Ptolemaei became a stronghold of Hellenism.[#]
This revival of athletic interest, if somewhat artificial, must
have helped to keep alive the ancient festivals of the
mainland.
At Olympia the building of the Philippeum after Chaeronea
was the first of a series of improvements, stimulated, no doubt,
by Macedonian encouragement, perhaps paid for by Macedonian
gold. The choice of a site for the Philippeum had, as we
// File: 182.png
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have seen, necessitated a reconstruction of the western
boundary of the Altis. A similar reconstruction took place
on the east, where the old Stoa was extended and rebuilt,
and as part of the same scheme, the west and southern sides
of the Stadium were banked up so as to provide better
accommodation for the spectators. At the same time a
passage was made through the north side of the western
embankment on the site of the later Roman tunnelled passage
and gateway giving entrance into the Stadium. The use
of this entrance was probably confined to officials and athletes:
for the latter the sight of the Zanes lining the steps outside
the entrance served as a warning only too necessary.
The chronology of the various Olympic buildings is full of
difficulty, especially from the fourth century onward. But we
are probably justified in assigning to the early period of
Macedonian influence the building of the Theocoleon on the
west side of the Altis close to the ancient Heroum, to serve as
quarters for the Olympic priesthood, and of the Leonidaeum to
the south of it. The latter building was the gift of Leonidas of
Naxos. The inscription on the pedestal of his statue, which
has been found, is apparently contemporary with the inscription
on the monument of Philonides, Alexander’s courier, which
stood close by, and the architectural evidence agrees with
this date.[#] In later times the building served as the headquarters
of the Roman governors, and this fact renders
probable the view that it was originally intended for the
use of distinguished visitors. The arrangements for the entertainment
of visitors, and for the requirements of the priesthood
as provided in the Leonidaeum and the Theocoleon seem
entirely in keeping with the pomp and state which were so
marked a feature of Macedonian festivities. A record of
hospitality shown at Olympia by another islander is preserved
on a bronze tablet containing the decree of the Hellanodicae
in honour of one Democrates of Tenedos, a wrestler whose
strength was such that when he stood behind a line no man
could draw him across it. He and his father had taken up
their residence in Elis, and the decree, which dates about the
first half of the third century, records that in consideration of
his services in entertaining guests at the festival, he shall
be named Proxenos and Benefactor, and shall have a place
// File: 183.png
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of honour in the Dionysian festival and a share in the
sacrifices.[#]
On the death of Alexander, Elis joined in the general
revolt of the Greek states against Macedon, but on the failure
of the revolt found herself once more compelled to acquiesce
in the Macedonian supremacy. From this time she seems
to have adopted a wise policy of neutrality, and amid
the struggles of rival kings and leagues the sanctity of
Olympia was respected and her support courted by all parties.
The only occasion on which this sanctity was violated was
when Telesphorus, who had revolted from Antigonus, plundered
the treasury of Olympia, but the plunder was restored not
long afterwards by the unprincipled usurper and murderer
Ptolemaeus Ceraunus, who hoped to win the support of
Olympia for his ambitious schemes.
The neutrality of Elis is evident in the votive offerings of
the period. Side by side with the statues of Antigonus
Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius we find the statues of
Spartan kings, of Areus who tried to free Greece from the
yoke of Macedon, and Cleomenes who attempted to revive the
military hegemony of Sparta, of Aratus of Sicyon, the founder
of the Achaean league and enemy of Sparta and Macedon alike,
of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus of Egypt at whose hospitable court
the opponents of Macedon found shelter in defeat; lastly of
that brilliant but semi-barbarian conqueror Pyrrhus of Epirus,
who in his meteoric career twice occupied the throne of
Macedon. Some of these statues were the gifts of the kings
themselves, some of the Eleans or other states that wished
to show honour to the individual or win favour at Olympia.
The statue of Pyrrhus was the gift of the Elean seer
Thrasybulus, who took part in the campaigns of Aratus
against Sparta, and was himself honoured by a statue in
the Altis. Perhaps the honour shown to Pyrrhus was due
to his friendship with the Aetolians, whose connexion with
Elis dates back to the earliest days of the festival. The
Eleans early joined the Aetolian league, and showed their
loyalty to their friends by refusing to desert them in spite
of the most tempting offers of Philip V. Numerous statues
in the Altis bore witness to this friendship. Especial interest
attaches to that of the Aetolian Pleistaenus, whose father
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Eurydamus, as leader of the Aetolian forces, helped in the
memorable fight near Delphi, which saved Greece from
Brennus and his barbarous horde of Gauls.[#] Lastly, we
may notice the significant monument of Antigonus Doson
set up after the defeat of Cleomenes at Sellasia in 222 B.C.
Greece was represented crowning with one hand Antigonus,
with the other Philip Arridaeus the nominal successor of
Alexander, while opposite stood a similar group, in which
Elis crowned Demetrius Poliorketes and Ptolemaeus the son
of Lagus. Both groups it seems probable, as Curtius suggests,
were the gift of Antigonus Doson, recalling as they did
the earlier group of the personified Ekecheiria crowning Iphitus,
and setting forth in emblematic fashion the renewal of Olympic
peace and restoration of unity under the beneficent rule of the
princes of Macedon.
The period of Macedonian influence is marked by numerous
victories gained by Macedonians, or by citizens of Macedonian
towns such as Amphipolis or the newly-founded Philippi. But
the Macedonian kings had little leisure or peace for competing
at festivals, being occupied with more serious contests. And the
same is true for the most part of the princes of Asia. From
Pergamum, left in peace for a period under the strong rule of
Philetaerus, we have an interesting inscription which records
the victory in the chariot-race at Olympia of Attalus, brother
of Philetaerus and father of Attalus I.[#] But in Egypt life was
more settled, and more prosperous, and the Ptolemaei showed
themselves devoted supporters of the Hellenic festivals.
Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus, won the chariot-race with a pair
of colts in 314 B.C. at Delphi, where he was proclaimed a
Macedonian. For, adds Pausanias, the Ptolemaei delighted to
call themselves Macedonians. At Olympia he dedicated statues,
one of himself and another of an unnamed athlete. His
successor Philadelphus erected the statue of Areus of Sparta as
a monument, says his inscription, of his goodwill to himself
and to all Greece.[#] Among those who took refuge at his
court was Glaucon of Athens, distinguished not only for a
victory in the chariot-race 260 B.C., but for his spirited
// File: 185.png
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resistance to Antigonus. His statue at Olympia was erected by
Ptolemy Euergetes. There, too, was the statue of Belistiche of
Macedon, the mistress of Philadelphus, who won the pair-horse
chariot-race for colts on the first occasion that this event was
introduced, in Ol. 129. The statues of Philadelphus and
Arsinoë, his wife and sister, were set up by the Samian Callicrates
on lofty pillars placed upon a raised basement of stone in front
of the Echo Colonnade.[#]
It has been already mentioned that Philadelphus founded a
gymnasium at Athens. Curtius suggests that the palaestra and
gymnasium at Olympia were the work of the same benefactor.
Neither of these buildings is likely to be earlier than his time,
but there is no real proof to connect them with Philadelphus.
The fact recorded by Pausanias that Euanoridas, who won
the boys’ wrestling match in 252 B.C., afterwards as Hellanodicas
had the list of Olympic victors inscribed and set up in
the gymnasium at Olympia, proves at the most that the
gymnasium must have existed at the close of the third
century.[#] There is still less evidence for Curtius’ view that the
founding of the gymnasium and palaestra was an attempt to
counteract the one-sided athleticism of Olympia by founding a
sort of public school at Olympia where the youth of Greece
could receive mental as well as physical instruction. Olympia
was not, and was not likely to become, a residential place. This
is proved by the story of the eccentric philosopher Alexinus
the Litigious, as he was nicknamed, who tried to set up there
a school of philosophy but failed, being deserted by all his
followers owing to the want of accommodation and difficulty of
obtaining supplies. The palaestra of Olympia, which will be
described in a later chapter, was of the ordinary Greek type, and
the fact that some of the rooms were provided with benches
does not prove that the place was intended for a school. Seats
and stools are no uncommon accompaniment of athletic scenes
on the vases, where they serve, among other purposes, for the
athletes to put their clothes upon. That the gymnasium and
palaestra were intended for competitors at the festivals and
were little used at other times is proved by an inscription at
// File: 186.png
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Delphi which contains the contracts for preparing for the
festival not only the stadium and hippodrome, but also the
gymnasium and palaestra.[#] Before the festival and during it
these must have been thronged with athletes practising, and
must have been as favourite a resort of visitors interested in
their performances as is the paddock to-day at Epsom or Ascot.
I have dwelt at some length on the monuments of this
period because they illustrate the extension of Hellenism and
therefore of the influence of Olympia over the East. Further,
while honorary statues of distinguished men are multiplied the
athletic statues gradually fall off in number, ceasing almost
entirely after the middle of the second century.[#] Of the thirty-two
statues erected during this period no less than fifteen were
erected by the Eleans, a striking testimony to the wealth of
Olympia. In the list of Olympic victors the noticeable feature
is the almost complete disappearance of names from Sicily
and Italy,[#] and also from the old states of the mainland, such
as Athens and Sparta. Their place is taken by competitors
from the East, from Aetolia and Achaia and the newer cities of
the Peloponnese.
Though, as we have said above, athletics were largely
neglected by the upper classes, we still as at all times find a
few notable exceptions. Such were Aratus, who, though his
only victory at Olympia was in the chariot-race, is stated to
have won various successes in the pentathlon, the competition
which appealed least to professionals; on the other hand, the
other great general of the Achaean league, Philopoemen, would
have nothing to do with athletics, and even forbade his
soldiers to take part in training which only unfitted them for
the hardships of a campaign. Another notable pentathlete
was Gorgus of Messene, who won considerable renown as
a statesman and was sent as ambassador to Philip III. of
Macedon. Besides the pentathlon he won the diaulos and the
race in armour.
The falling off in competition and the growth of professionalism
are shown by the number of men who won victories
// File: 187.png
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in more than one event at the same festival. Philinus of
Cos, who won the stadium race in Ols. 129, 130, is credited
with three other victories at Olympia, four in the Pythia,
four in the Nemea, and eleven in the Isthmia—twenty-four in
all. A still finer record is that of Leonidas of Rhodes, who won
all four foot-races in three successive Olympiads 164-156 B.C.,
thus three times earning the title of τριαστής or triple victor
given to those who won the stade-race, diaulos, and dolichos.
Besides the professional runner, we have the professional fighter
represented by the successors of Heracles already alluded to,
with regard to whom we may add that with the exception of
Caprus of Elis all holders of the title came from the East.
The successors of Heracles are further honoured with the title
of παράδοξος or παραδοξονίκης, and in the second century we
find for the first time in Olympic inscriptions the term περίοδος
or περιοδονίκης used of those who won victories in all the four
great festivals which formed the athletic cycle or period. Such
terms suggest the age of athletic “records” which was to come
under the Romans.
Two more equestrian events were added during this period—the
two-horse chariot-race for colts, and the riding-race for colts,
introduced in Ols. 129 and 131 respectively. Both these events,
introduced obviously with the intention of encouraging horse
breeding, had been introduced half a century earlier at Delphi,
doubtless owing to Macedonian influence. Lastly in Ol. 145
the athletic programme was completed by the introduction of
the pankration for boys, which was won by Phaedimus, described
variously as from Alexandria Troas, or from Naukratis in
Egypt. The pankration was not a competition suited for boys,
and it was a true athletic feeling which had so long excluded
it from the boys’ events at Olympia. Its introduction is
significant of the growing love of sensational and brutal displays
which we associate rather with the Romans than the Greeks.
It was only a few years later that Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164
B.C.) introduced into Syria the Roman gladiatorial games,
and though the innovation at first met with criticism and
opposition, the Greeks only too soon became accustomed to
such sights.
With the advent of the Romans the history of Greek
athletics really ends, though the athletic festivals were destined
to survive four centuries or more under their patronage. The
// File: 188.png
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Romans posed as the champions and kinsmen of the Greeks,
and like the Macedonians fully realised the importance of these
festivals. As early as 228 B.C. they had been admitted to
participation in the Eleusinian mysteries and the Isthmian
games, in recognition of their services in freeing the Adriatic
from Illyrian pirates, though it may be doubtful if Roman
citizens deigned to compete in the actual sports. Again in
196 B.C. it was at the Isthmian games that Flamininus proclaimed
the liberation of Greece from the tyranny of Macedon. At
Olympia Titus Manlius had appeared as ambassador in 208 B.C.
to secure the support of the Sicilian and Italian Greeks against
their common foe Carthage. Finally Mummius commemorated
the defeat of the Achaeans, the destruction of Corinth, and the
restoration of unity to Greece by dedicating at Olympia a
bronze statue of Zeus and twenty-one golden shields arrayed
above the colonnade surrounding the temple of Zeus. But the
unity thus commemorated was secured at the cost of liberty.
It was the spirit of independence which had given life to those
great athletic meetings where the free citizens of free states
contended not for personal glory so much as for the honour of
their states. These states were no longer free, and all the
pomp and splendour lavished on the festivals by their imperial
patrons could not recall to life the spirit that had fled.
.fn #
Quintilian aptly contrasts the bulging muscles, “tori,” of such athletes
with the “lacertus” of soldiers.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 21, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Polyb. 27, 7 A.
.fn-
.fn #
A third-century inscription from Epidaurus, Dittenb. Syll. 2nd Ed., 689, records that
three athletes, a stadiodromos, a pentathlete, and a pankratiast, were fined 1000
staters each διὰ τὸ φθείρειν τοὺς ἀγῶνας. The next inscription, 690, records a
similar fine on certain actors.
.fn-
.fn #
Roberts and Gardner, Greek Epigraphy, ii. p. 145.
.fn-
.fn #
Roberts and Gardner, Greek Epigraphy, ii. 61, p. 162 ( = I.G. ii. 444); cp.
I.G. ii. 445, 446. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athens, pp. 278 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 522, 523, 524, 672, 673, 674.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Olymp. p. 215. Diodorus and Ulpian assign the founding of these
games to Archelaus, another account assigns it to Philip II.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Hell. vi. 4, 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Arr. Anab. ii. 15.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 276, 277. Another such courier was Deinosthenes of Sparta,
who won the foot-race in Ol. 116, and set up beside his statue a pillar giving
the distance from Olympia to Sparta as 630 stades, and from Sparta to the
next pillar (at Amyclae) as 30 stades. Paus. vi. 16, 8; Ol. Ins. 171.
.fn-
.fn #
Alexandrian victories in 272, 256, 240, 228, 212 B.C. Vide Förster, op. cit.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 294.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 39.
.fn-
.fn #
This victory was commemorated by the founding of a new festival, the
Soteria, which is mentioned in various athletic inscriptions of the period.
.fn-
.fn #
Fränckel, Antiq. Pergam. viii. 1, pp. 8, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 308.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 306, 307.
.fn-
.fn #
Little weight can be attached to such a statement. The list may well have
been transferred to the gymnasium when it was built. A similar list was set up
by the father of Paraballon whose victory in the diaulos is placed by Hyde
between Ol. 91-101, when the gymnasium certainly did not exist.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H., 1899, pp. 565 ff. The inscription is dated by the archonship of
Dion, 258 B.C.
.fn-
.fn #
Of the statues seen by Pausanias none can be much later than 150 B.C.
(vide Hyde, Olymp. Statues). The Olympic inscriptions show that the custom was
revived at the close of the first century B.C. Ins. 213, 219, 224, 225, etc.
.fn-
.fn #
The only statue from Sicily is that of Hieron II. of Syracuse.
.fn-
// File: 189.png
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.sp 4
.h2 id=chap08
CHAPTER VIII | ATHLETICS UNDER THE ROMANS
.sp 2
Greek athletics must have been familiar to the Romans from
early times. We have seen how prominent a part the Greek
cities of Italy and Sicily had taken in the festivals of Greece
during the sixth and fifth centuries. The popularity of athletics
among the Etruscans is proved by the numerous scenes painted
on the walls of Etruscan tombs, where every variety of sport
is represented. The “ludi Maximi” of Rome herself show
strong traces of Greek influence. Moreover the Romans, like
all vigorous nations, were fond of physical exercises—running,
wrestling, throwing the diskos and the spear, and especially
games of ball. But they were not fond of competitions.
Consequently athletics never acquired at Rome the importance
which they possessed in Greece, and their festivals, if originally
similar in character to those of Greece, soon became mere
spectacles in which the performers, whether actors, riders, or
athletes, were professionals belonging to subject races and the
lower classes, hired for the amusement of the Roman citizens.
Rome recognized no peers among the neighbouring states, and
free competition between independent states was therefore
impossible at Rome. Moreover, the centuries of struggle during
which she step by step extended and consolidated her power
had left little time or inclination for less serious contests, and
had developed in her citizens a strongly practical type of
character that could feel no sympathy with the athletic ideal
of Greece. To the Roman as to the Spartan athletics were
nothing but a means to an end, and that end military efficiency.
To devote to sport the time and energy necessary to secure
success at Olympia, to submit for months to the tyranny of a
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trainer, often a man of no birth or position, and above all to
exhibit oneself naked before the eyes of one’s fellow-citizens—these
were things quite inconsistent with the Roman’s idea of
his dignity as a citizen. Even as spectacles the Greek sports
did not appeal to his taste. Brutalized by incessant war, he
preferred more exciting contests, and took more pleasure in the
gladiatorial shows of his Etruscan and Campanian neighbours
than in musical or gymnastic competitions. It was 186 B.C.
that Greek athletes and actors first appeared at the Roman
games; but a more pleasing innovation must have been the
importation in the same year of lions and panthers from Africa
to provide more exciting sport for the spectators in the circus.
When in 167 B.C. some famous Greek flute-players who were
performing at a festival failed to please the Roman audience,
the managers ordered them to box, a performance which caused
boundless delight to the spectators.
When in the second century B.C. the Romans were first
brought into closer contact with Greece, they found ample
justification for their anti-athletic prejudice in the vicious and
corrupt state into which athletics had fallen at that period in
Greece. The competitions were in the hands of professional
athletes, whose training rendered them useless as soldiers;
the gymnasia, instead of producing healthy, useful citizens,
had become schools of idleness and immorality; from a physical
and military point of view the whole nation had degenerated.
The athletic festivals were useful political factors, and as such
the Romans knew how to utilize them. Some, like Aemilius
Paulus, standing before the Zeus of Pheidias might feel something
of the beauty and the grandeur of the Greek ideal, or,
like Cato, that odd mixture of conservatism and Hellenism, might
train their sons in the athletic exercises of Greece; but the
mass of the nation was unaffected; for a long time no gymnasia
or palaestrae rose in Rome, no Roman deigned to compete in
the games of Greece.
The old Roman prejudice died hard. More than a century
after the founding of the Empire, in spite of imperial Philhellenism,
we find an echo of it in the reign of Nero, in the
protests of the old school against the introduction in Rome of
a festival on Greek lines. “The youths were degenerating
under the influence of foreign tastes, passing their time in
athletics, in idling, and low intrigues; what remained for them
// File: 191.png
.pn +1
but to strip themselves naked, put on the caestus, and practise
such battles instead of the arms of legitimate warfare?”[#]
Such being the feeling of Rome towards Greek athletics, it
is no matter for wonder that in spite of the growing influence
of Hellenism, the festivals languished during the century which
followed the fall of Corinth. In 80 B.C. Sulla transferred the
whole Olympic festival, athletes and all, to Rome, leaving only
the boys’ foot-race to be decided at Olympia. Perhaps his object
was to transfer the festival permanently to Rome; but ere
another Olympiad came round Sulla himself was dead, and his
purpose was never accomplished. But the prestige of the festival
suffered. We possess the list of Olympic victors for the year
72 B.C. In this Olympiad, as in the Olympiad which followed
the Spartan invasion of 399 B.C., the falling off in the competition
is marked by a series of local victories. Eight, possibly eleven
events fell to Elis, Hecatomnus, the winner of three of the foot-races,
being variously assigned to Elis and Miletus; two events
fell to Sicyon, one to Cyparissia in Messenia, the remaining
four events being divided between Alexandria, Mysia, Asia,
and Cos. Elis carried off all the equestrian events. In the
Olympic inscriptions which belong to this period it is remarkable
that nearly all the victors are Eleans and nearly all their
victories are gained in the horse-races.[#] This local predominance,
coupled with the depression produced by Sulla’s invasion, may
account for the fact, recorded by Africanus, that the chariot-race
and perhaps other equestrian events were discontinued in the
year 68 B.C., not to be revived until the time of the Empire.[#]
Meanwhile a change had come over the character of the
Roman people. No longer occupied incessantly in war, the
dwellers in the capital had become more and more addicted to
amusements. Festival after festival was added to their calendar,
and ambitious politicians vied with one another in the variety
and magnificence of the entertainments which they provided in
the hopes of winning the favour of the sovereign people. These
// File: 192.png
.pn +1
entertainments, though containing athletic and equestrian competitions,
were, however, purely spectacular, and it was regarded
as a disgrace for a Roman citizen to take part in them personally.
The character of these entertainments and their difference from
the Greek festivals may be illustrated by the account given by
Suetonius of those provided by Julius Caesar.[#] Besides a variety
of dramatic and musical performances, there were the games in
the circus, athletic displays, and a sea-fight. In these certain
Roman citizens of position actually took part. There was a
gladiatorial contest between Furius Leptinus, a member of a
praetorian family, and Quintus Calpenus, an ex-senator. The
Pyrrhic dance was performed by noble youths from Asia and
Bithynia; and one Decimus Laberius, a Roman knight, actually
performed in a farce of his own composition, for which he
was handsomely rewarded by Caesar, and restored to the rank
which he had forfeited by his performance. At the games in
the circus youths of noble birth took part in the chariot and
horse-races. Two companies of boys exhibited the semi-military
manœuvres called the Trojan game. Five days were occupied
in venationes, or combats with wild beasts, and there was a
sham fight between two forces consisting each of 500 foot-soldiers,
30 cavalry and 20 elephants. To provide more space
for this performance the metae of the circus were removed and
a camp was formed at either end. A temporary stand was
erected in the field of Mars, where athletic competitions took
place lasting three days. Lastly, a huge artificial lake was constructed
in which biremes, triremes, and quadriremes from Tyre
and Egypt joined in mimic battle. All the neighbouring roads
and streets were occupied by the tents of visitors, and so great
was the crowd that many were crushed to death. But Caesar
himself, the giver of all, cared for none of these things; and his
enemies accused him of amusing himself with reading and writing
when he ought to have been watching the progress of the games.[#]
With the Empire a new era opened for Greece. As the
conquests of Alexander had spread Hellenism throughout the
East, so the Roman Empire gradually hellenized the whole
civilized world. Though Greece was incorporated in the Roman
Empire, cities like Athens and Sparta preserved the outward
forms of independence; the bodies which controlled her ancient
festivals continued to exercise their hereditary functions, and
// File: 193.png
.pn +1
were treated as a rule with all honour and respect. In the
sphere of literature and art Greece had long been recognized as
the mistress and teacher of her conqueror. Hence the feeling
of subjection disappeared, and so complete was the fusion
between conquered and conqueror that in the second century,
while the ancient families of Elis or of Sparta bore the names of
their Roman patrons, such as the Julii, or the Flavii, and were
enrolled in Roman tribes, the Greek language had become the
language of communication throughout all the Eastern half of
the Empire, and at Rome herself was supplanting Latin as the
language of literature. These results were largely due to the
Philhellenism of the emperors, and nowhere is this Philhellenism
more conspicuous than in connection with athletic
festivals. The old festivals were celebrated with increased
splendour and ceremony, new festivals were introduced in close
imitation of them, sumptuous race-courses and gymnasia were
provided not merely in Greece but in Italy and in Rome herself,
athletic guilds were formed; and though the athletic revival
was purely professional and had little effect on the people,
whether of Greece or Rome, the privileges and rewards
showered on the successful athletes were certainly no less
substantial if less honourable than those bestowed on the
victors of the fifth century B.C.
The Julii claimed admission to the festivals of Greece as the
descendants and heirs of the gods who presided over those
festivals. At Olympia their claim was recognized by the re-dedication
to their service of the little temple of the Mother of
the Gods, in which were placed the statues of Augustus and his
successors. Under their patronage the festival recovered much
of its ancient glory. The horse-races, which had been discontinued,
were revived shortly before our era, when members of
the imperial family, emulating the triumphs of the princes of
Sicily and Macedon, entered as competitors for the Olympic
crown. Inscriptions record the victory of the youthful Tiberius
in the chariot-race, and a few years later of Germanicus Caesar
in the same event. The building of the arched entrance into
the stadium and other improvements possibly belong to the
reign of Augustus. The remarkable continuity of Olympic
administration is shown by a series of inscriptions recording the
names of the various officials connected with the sanctuary.[#]
// File: 194.png
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These lists begin in 30 B.C. and continue down to A.D. 265.
They include every variety of official, from the seers and heralds
of the sacred truce down to the cook and baker who provided
the sacrificial feasts, and perhaps catered for the higher officials
and for distinguished visitors. One important officer bore the
title of official guide or exegetes; his duty doubtless was to
explain to the crowds of visitors the historical monuments of
the Altis. In the second century, owing to the increasing
numbers of visitors a second guide was appointed. It was
from these guides that Pausanias derived much of the information
contained in his books on Elis. The higher offices seem to
have formed a regular scale of honours, a cursus honorum,
hereditary in the families of the Elean nobility, most of whom
bear Roman names. It is curious to find one bearing the name
of Flavius Heracleitus, who had the charge of the statue of Zeus,
calling himself a descendant of Pheidias. The activity of the
administration is shown by the revival of the practice of
dedicating honorary statues of athletes and others: perhaps it
is to this revival that we may ascribe the rule recorded by
Pliny that portrait statues were only allowed in the case of
athletes who had won three Olympic victories.[#] It is in the
inscriptions of these honorary statues that after a long interval
we find mention of the council who seem to have held supreme
authority over the sanctuary and whose sanction was necessary
for the erection of statues in the Altis.[#] The revival of ancient
forms of administration is characteristic of Roman conservatism
and love of order.
The Philhellenism of the Caesars and their Roman love of
archaism are particularly manifest in the numerous festivals
founded by them in various parts of the Empire. Of most of
these we know little besides the names which are mentioned in
inscriptions and on coins; a few deserve special notice and may
be taken as typical of the rest. Augustus celebrated his victory
at Actium, not only by holding Actian games at Rome but
by instituting at the newly founded Nicopolis an Actian festival
intended to rival or even surpass Olympia. A local festival
// File: 195.png
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had long been held at Actium every two years. The new
festival which, besides athletic, musical, and equestrian competitions,
included a regatta, was, like the Olympic festival, held
every four years. The victors received crowns and bore the title
Actianicae, and the Actiads were intended to form the basis of
a new chronology which was to supplant that of the Olympiads.
We feel in all this something of that spirit of conscious rivalry
between Rome and Greece which made the Roman poet herald
the Aeneid as a work greater than the Iliad. But though in
imperial inscriptions the Actia rank with, or even take precedence
of the Panhellenic festivals, the new games were
destined never to acquire the prestige of the old.
The same spirit of conscious rivalry appears again in the
proud title “ἰσολύμπια” applied to the Augustalia at Naples.
These games, founded in 1 B.C., were reorganized in A.D. 2 as a
quinquennial festival with the magniloquent name “Italica
Romaia Sebasta Isolympia.” The new era which began with
them was reckoned by “Italids.” The terms ἰσολύμπια and
ἰσοπύθια referred originally to the conditions of competition
and particularly to the age of competitors. Thus the expressions
Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian boys, denote boys within
the age-limit for the boys’ events at these respective festivals.
Under the Empire the terms have often merely an honorary
significance, and such apparently is the use of the word here.
A long, unfortunately much mutilated, inscription[#] found at
Olympia contains regulations for this festival, for the age of
competitors, the date of entry, provision for them during the
time of training, and the penalties imposed for any breach
of these rules. The festival fell into two parts, the first part
of which, like the old Olympia, consisted only of equestrian and
athletic events. The prize, as at Olympia, was a wreath. The
second part, as we learn from another inscription, resembled
the Pythian and Nemean festivals in its regulations with regard
to ages and prizes. It contained, besides athletic and equestrian
events, musical and dramatic competitions, and some of the
competitions were confined to citizens of Naples. The prizes
consisted in sums of money.
Somewhat similar was the character of the Olympic and
Pythian festivals which we find in Rome, Athens, Ephesus, and
a number of other places. The right to bestow these titles
// File: 196.png
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must originally have rested with the authorities at Olympia and
Delphi, but seems later to have been exercised by the emperors.[#]
Each new festival founded was the beginning of a new series of
Olympiads. At Rome the great Capitolia, founded by Domitian
in A.D. 86, bore the title Olympia, and Flavius Archibius, an
Olympic victor in Ols. 220, 221, is also described as victor at
Rome in the 3rd and following Olympiads. The judges at
these festivals were sometimes called Hellanodicae,[#] and doubtless
many other features of the original festivals were reproduced.
Perhaps the most interesting of all these games are
those held at Daphne near Antioch. Founded originally by
Antiochus Epiphanes, they obtained from the Eleans the
title of Olympia in A.D. 44. Their interest lies in the fact
that the model of Olympia was followed in every particular,
not only in the programme and administration, but in the
relations existing between Daphne and Antioch, which corresponded
entirely to these between Olympia and Elis. In the
fourth century a fierce dispute arose between a popular party,
which wished to transfer the important part of the festival from
Daphne to Antioch, and the conservative party headed by
Libanius, who characterized the proposed change as sacrilege
and a violation of the true Olympia. We have frequent
references to the festival in the writings of St. Chrysostom,
for a long time presbyter at Antioch; and it continued to
be celebrated as late as the reign of Justinus in the sixth
century.[#]
Imperial patronage was not at all times an unmixed
blessing for the Greeks. Caligula would have carried off to
Rome the statue of Olympian Zeus had he not been prevented
by the miraculous protest of the statue itself. Nero actually
carried off to Rome thousands of works of art, and in his
jealousy caused the statues of victors at the games to be pulled
down and thrown into the sewers. Despite his pretended
flattery of the Greeks and desire to win their approbation for
his art, he had so little respect for religion that he caused the
times of the festivals to be altered so that they might all be
celebrated during his visit to Greece.[#] At Olympia contests in
// File: 197.png
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tragedy and singing were introduced into the programme at his
behest; a house was built for his entertainment at the south-east
corner of the Altis, and almost opposite it a magnificent
processional entrance was constructed, the Altis wall being
at the same time extended southward so as to include the
triangular strip between the old wall and the northern line of
the council house. The story of his performances at the
games is a piteous proof of the degradation of the festivals and
of the servility of the Greeks. At Olympia he won crowns in
the chariot-races, in the competitions for singing and for tragedy,
and in the heralds’ competition. For the latter he entered
wherever he competed in order to have the privilege of proclaiming
his victories with his own voice. In the hippodrome
he appeared in a chariot drawn by ten horses; thrown from
his chariot, he was picked up and replaced, resumed the race,
and was finally awarded the prize by the obsequious officials.
Though he was said to be fond of wrestling, he had sufficient
respect for Roman prejudice to abstain from exhibiting his
skill in the stadium, and contented himself with playing the
part of a brabeutes, sitting on the ground during the rounds,
and with his own hands pulling the combatants back if they
got too far away. The servile Hellanodicae were rewarded
with Roman citizenship and with large sums of money, which
they had to disgorge in the reign of his successor. Finally, at
the end of his tour, he proclaimed himself at the Isthmian games
as the restorer of the liberty of Greece. Returning to Italy
with 1808 crowns which he had won, he was welcomed at
Naples with all the most extravagant honours which were ever
recorded to have been paid to an Olympia victor. A breach
was made in the city wall through which he entered in a
chariot drawn by white horses. The same farce was repeated
at Antium and Albanum. He entered Rome in the chariot in
which Augustus had triumphed, clothed in purple, with the
Olympic crown upon his head, and holding the Pythian crown
in his right hand, while before him marched a procession of
courtiers carrying the crowns which he had won, and proclaiming
to the populace the names and details of his triumphs.
No wonder that such as remained of the old Roman stock
regarded the competitions of the Greeks with amused contempt,
that Seneca and other writers of the first century were
unanimous in their condemnation of Greek athletics, and that
// File: 198.png
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the Olympic competitor became the butt of the epigrammatist.
That Olympia survived even this degradation is perhaps the
strongest proof of its vitality.
While the emperors were introducing Greek festivals into
Italy, the influence of Rome was degrading and brutalizing the
public taste of Greece. Gladiatorial shows had been introduced
into the East nearly two centuries before Christ. They had
long been popular with the cosmopolitan crowds of Antioch and
Alexandria. In Greece they found a congenial home in the
equally cosmopolitan crowd of Corinth, which, refounded as a
Roman colony by Julius Caesar, quickly regained her commercial
supremacy, and eclipsed even the records of her past in wealth
and luxury and vice. Athens followed and even improved
upon the example set by her rival. For while at Corinth
the gladiatorial shows had been held in a ravine outside the city,
at Athens they were exhibited in the theatre of Dionysus.[#]
The growing love of excitement and bloodshed is evident
in boxing. The caestus had, as we have seen, become gradually
more ponderous and more murderous, and boxing consequently
less scientific. Every one is familiar with the description of
the boxing match in the Aeneid. The brutal, unscientific fight
is in perfect keeping with the ponderous character of the weapons,
and even the gentle and refined Vergil can only represent a
heroic fight by heaping horror upon horror, and by ascribing
the heavy caestus to heroic times, he actually reverses the whole
history of boxing. We should not perhaps take Vergil’s description
as typical of Greek boxing even in his day, but only
of the feeling at Rome, where scientific boxing was of so little
account that even Augustus preferred to watch a fight between
two street roughs to a match between trained boxers. But the
brutality of boxing even in Greece is strikingly illustrated in a
collection of epigrams written by or collected by one Lucilius
in the reign of Nero. Their tone of persiflage, so different from
that of the early Greek epigrammatist, is just what we should
expect from such an age. Some of them are skits upon the
athletes or would-be athletes of the age; a whole series are
devoted to describing the disfigurement and mutilation of the
boxer. Here is an old translation of one of them which may
be taken as typical of them all:—
// File: 199.png
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.pm verse-start
This victor, glorious in his olive wreath,
Had once eyes, eyebrows, nose, and ears and teeth.
But turning cestus champion, to his cost,
These, and still worse! his heritage he lost,
For by his brother su’d, disowned, at last
Confronted with his picture he was cast.[#]
.pm verse-end
Dion Chrysostom gives us an interesting glimpse of the
Isthmia during the first century, in the story he tells of
Diogenes’ visit to the festival.[#] The scene is laid in the fourth
century B.C., but the details are clearly drawn from the orator’s
own experience. Diogenes the Cynic happens to visit Corinth
at the time of the festival. There, at the cross-roads of the
world, he finds gathered together visitors from Ionia and Sicily,
from Italy and Libya, from Massilia and the Borysthenes.
Around the temple of Poseidon are wretched sophists shouting
and abusing one another, their pupils are fighting, historians
are reading meaningless compositions, poets are reciting verses,
miracle-mongers are working miracles, augurs are interpreting
omens, thousands of orators are wrangling, and merchants of
every sort are bargaining. The crowd, regardless of all other
interests, is watching the performances of the athletes, “mere
slaves,” he calls them, “that run and jump and dance.” Here
Diogenes sees a band of friends carrying a victor in the foot-race
in triumphant procession, while the people shout and
cheer and heap upon him fillets and garlands. The Cynic
stops him and points out that after all he is not as swift as
the hare or the deer, the most cowardly of animals. He
himself has won a victory over adversaries that cannot be
overcome by men “stuffed and puffed, who spend whole days
in eating and snore all night like pigs,” for he has won a
victory over pain and pleasure. Finally he boldly puts upon
his head the celery crown, and when the indignant officials
protest, asks them, “Will ye take the crown from me and give
it to him who is stuffed with most meat?” The rhetoric is
for the most part mere commonplace of the schools; yet we
cannot doubt that the description is true of the Isthmia and
of other festivals, especially of those in the rich cities of the
East.
// File: 200.png
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In such soil corruption throve. Philostratus, writing more
than a century later, tells us that victories were publicly
bought and sold; even the trainers encouraged the traffic,
lending money for bribery to athletes at exorbitant rates
of interest.[#] At the Isthmia a competitor who had promised
his rival 3000 drachmae to let him win, refused to pay on
the ground that he had won on his merits. Recourse was had
to the oath, and the defeated competitor publicly swore before
the altar of Poseidon that he had been promised the money
if he allowed himself to be defeated. “What,” adds Philostratus,
“might not happen in Ionia or in Asia?”
At Olympia the honour of the games was still maintained.
Bribery was severely punished. In Ols. 192 (12 B.C.) and 226
(A.D. 125) we read of fines exacted for corruption from which
as of old Zanes were erected.[#] In the former case it was a
father who bribed his son’s opponent, and the fine was therefore
exacted from the parents. In Ol. 218 (A.D. 93) one Apollonius
of Alexandria was fined for coming too late and thereby disqualifying
himself from competition. He pleaded that he
had been detained by contrary winds. But it was proved
that the plea was false, and that the real cause of his delay
was that he had been “pot-hunting” in Ionia. It seems as
if the authorities at Olympia even made an attempt to check
the arrogant pretensions and self-advertisements of the professional
fighter by abolishing the title “Successor of Heracles.”
The title was won for the last time in Ol. 204 (A.D. 37) by
one Nicostratus, after whose victories the Eleans made a secret
decree that no one should thereafter be allowed to win in
both wrestling and the pankration. The account given by
Dion of the Isthmia gathers force from its contrast with
the veneration which he expresses for the Olympia, and
his charming picture of the youthful Melancomas.[#] He and
his father, himself an Olympic victor, seem even in that
age of athletic decay to have lived up to the ideal of the
best days.
A curious development of professionalism which we now
meet with was the growth of athletic guilds resembling the
dramatic guilds which had long existed. Victorious athletes
at Rome, as in Greece, received certain privileges, including
maintenance at the public cost, which privilege Maecenas
// File: 201.png
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advised Augustus to confine to winners at Olympia and Delphi
and Rome.[#] Augustus, we are told, maintained and increased
the privileges of athletes.[#] Guilds were one of the features
of the early Empire, and it was therefore natural for athletes
to form such combinations. These athletic guilds were called
Xystoi from the xystos or covered colonnade which formed
part of a gymnasium. The most famous of these clubs
was that of the Herculanei,[#] a club which seems originally
to have been formed at Sardis. In the reign of Trajan it
was dissolved and transferred to Rome. One M. Ulpius came
to the emperor as their spokesman to petition for quarters
at Rome, and we possess copies of two letters of Trajan
granting their petition.[#] He appoints them a house where
they may keep their sacred things and records, near the baths
built by his grandfather Trajan, and conveniently situated for
the great Capitolia. Here they had a gymnasium and a
council-chamber in which discussions could take place on
all questions affecting the welfare of athletes, the holding
of competitions, and the erection of honorary statues. They
were a sacred guild, and within their precinct were statues
of emperors and members of the guild. Their president or
xystarches was also high-priest of the guild. He was often
a distinguished athlete and held the office for life; and with
it also the office of overseer of the imperial baths. The
religious character of these guilds is a curious survival of the
immemorial connexion between religion and athletics. Sometimes
there were special competitions for members of certain
guilds. At the Augustalia at Naples we find a series of
competitions confined to members of the Augustan class, while
mention is also made of a pankration for Claudian boys. These
expressions seem to denote clubs or guilds bearing the name
of Augustus and Claudius.[#] The most important guild at
Naples was “the holy itinerant synod of the Alexandrini.”
The term περιπολιστική, which corresponds to our “nomads”
or “wanderers,” indicates that they did not confine their
attentions to local festivals, but went about from place to
place.[#] An Olympic inscription of the year A.D. 85 records
// File: 202.png
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the erection of a statue in honour of Lucius Vetulenus Laetus
by the whole body of athletes gathered together “from the
inhabited world” for the festival, and by the holy synod of
the Xystos.[#] This particular xystos was presumably a local
Elean guild. The title xystarches is known also at Sparta,
and occurs in an inscription recently discovered at Sparta by
the British excavators. The inscription contains regulations
for a Spartan festival, probably the Leonidaea, a festival held
in honour of those who fell at Thermopylae, and confined to
Spartan competitors.[#] The xystarches is to place oil in the
stadium, and discharge the usual duties of his post. As the
president of the local gymnasium, he naturally took an important
part in local festivals. He seems generally to have
been a man of some importance, often an old athlete. His
duties were probably as vague and depended as much on his
personal inclination as those of the president of a modern
athletic club.
.if h
.il fn=fig022.png w=80% id=fig022 alt="Athletics under the Romans. From a mosaic found at Tusculum."
.ca Fig. 22. Athletics under the Romans. From a mosaic found at Tusculum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 22. Athletics under the Romans. From a mosaic found at Tusculum.]
.if-
A mosaic found at Tusculum (Fig. #22:fig022#) gives a vivid picture
of the life of these professional athletes under the Empire. A
comparison of these scenes with those represented on the
Panaetius kylix in Fig. #17:fig017# will illustrate better than any
description the difference between the two ages.
The renaissance of Hellenism which marked the second
century brought with it a revival of the Greek athletic festivals
and Greek athletics, which, under the patronage of the “Greekling”
Hadrian and his successors, attained an outward prosperity and
splendour unparalleled since the fifth century. It was the
object of these emperors, who were as much at home in Greece
as in Italy, to revive the glories of the past, and restore to the
mainland of Greece that pre-eminence in the Hellenic world
which had been usurped by the great cities of the East. Everywhere
splendid buildings testified to the lavish munificence, if
not always to the good taste, of the emperors, and of wealthy
subjects who emulated their example. Countless monuments
and inscriptions throughout Greece bear witness to the activity
of Hadrian. At Athens he built a gymnasium and library, at
Corinth he provided baths, at Nemea he instituted a winter
festival, while at Mantinea and Argos he founded quinquennial
festivals in honour of his beloved Antinous, whose cult spread
rapidly throughout the Empire. His reverence for Olympia
// File: 203.png
// File: 204.png
.pn +2
and its ideals is shown by a series of coins bearing on one side
the emperor’s head, on the other a representation of the Zeus
of Pheidias.[#] But Hadrian’s monuments sink into insignificance
in comparison with the prodigal generosity of Herodes Atticus,
who rebuilt in stone the stadia at Delphi and Athens, the
latter in marble from Pentelicus. At Olympia he contributed
to the comfort of the spectators by providing a new system of
water-supply, while he left a more conspicuous if less useful
monument of himself in the so-called exedra, a pompous and
incongruous semicircular building erected between the Heraeum
and the western end of the treasuries, at the only vacant spot
commanding a view of the altar of Zeus. The exedra was
dedicated to Zeus in the name of his wife Regilla, who held
at Olympia the honoured position of priestess to Demeter
Chamyne. Statues of Regilla and Herodes were placed by the
Eleans in the exedra, which also contained the statues of
Hadrian, Antoninus and other members of the imperial family,
who from this place of honour seemed to look on for ever as
spectators and patrons of the festival. Under such patronage
the games attracted crowds from all parts of the “inhabited
world,” and indeed exercised considerable influence. For the
religious idea expressed in the statue of Olympian Zeus
fascinated the thought of the age. But for the Greeks themselves
regeneration was no longer possible. Physically, morally,
politically they were too degenerate. In the Olympic records
of the second century there are few names from the mother-country;
most of the victors came from the cities of Egypt
and the East, especially from Alexandria. The marble stadium
of Herodes Atticus at Athens witnessed all the brutalities of
the Roman gladiatorial shows.
The artificiality of the athletic revival is nowhere more
evident than in the numerous inscriptions of this period, which
in their pompous verbosity afford a striking contrast to the
severe simplicity of the time when athletics were a real part of
the national life. As we read them we feel ourselves in another
world, a world-of professionalism, of self-advertisement, and of
records, which bears no little resemblance to that in which we
are living to-day. Compare, for example, the simple inscriptions
at Olympia recording the victories of the Diagoridae[#] with the
first-century inscription in honour of Publius Cornelius Ariston
// File: 205.png
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of Ephesus, who won the boys’ pankration in Ol. 207 (A.D. 49),
or better still with the second-century inscriptions found in
Italy enumerating the exploits of Titus Flavius Artemidorus
of Adana of Cilicia, or of Marcus Aurelius Asclepiades of
Alexandria. The very names are significant of the change that
has taken place. “Diagoras (son) of Damagetus a Rhodian”
such is the simple formula of early days. The only description
of the contest vouchsafed is the name of the festival and the
event, with the single word ἀκονιτεί added occasionally to denote
a “walk over.” Occasionally a simple couplet is added. But
the pedestal of Ariston’s statue[#] had inscribed on it, besides
the usual formula, a poem of twenty-four lines describing his
powers and his fame, how in a field of seven he won all his
heats without having the advantage of a bye, and how his glory
was proclaimed not only throughout all Hellas but throughout
Asia.
A few examples of these inscriptions will best illustrate the
character of the age. They begin with a fulsome list of the
victor’s honorary titles. That on Asclepiades[#] informs us that
he and his father both held for life the office of “high-priest
of the whole xystos and overseer of the imperial baths,” that
he was “chief of the temple guardians of Great Serapis, a
citizen of Alexandria, Hermopolis, and Puteoli, and councillor
of Neapolis, Elis, Athens, and many other cities.” Then
follows a glowing description of his unbeaten record as “a
pankratiast, a periodonikes invincible, immovable,[#] unrivalled.”
“I neither challenged any nor did any one in my time dare to
challenge me, nor did I divide the crown with any, nor did I
decline a contest or enter any protest,[#] nor did I abandon any
contest, nor take part in a contest to please royalty, nor did I
gain a victory in any new-fangled games, but in all the contests
for which I ever entered my name I was crowned in the actual
ring and was approved in all the preliminary trials.” This
// File: 206.png
.pn +1
emphatic insistence on the cleanness of his record is clearly an
answer to those malicious attacks of which he complains at the
end of the inscription, and which caused him to abandon athletics.
He proceeds to enumerate his victories in a manner which
reminds one of nothing so much as those photographs which we
see often in illustrated papers representing some professional
athlete with his whole body covered with medals, belts and
scarves which he has won, or standing triumphant in the midst
of his cups and trophies. “I contended,” he says, “among
three nations in Italy, in Hellas, and in Asia, and in all the
contests mentioned below I was victorious in the pankration,—in
the Olympia at Pisa in Ol. 240, in the Pythia at Delphi
twice, at the Isthmia twice, in the Nemea twice, at the contest
for the shield of Hera at Argos, in the Capitolia at Rome twice,
in the Eusebea at Puteoli twice, in the Sebasta at Neapolis
twice, five times at Athens in various games, five times at
Smyrna, three times at the Augustea at Pergamum, three times
at Ephesus, at Epidaurus in the Asclepiea, at Rhodes in the
Haliea, at Sardis in the Chrysanthina, besides numerous games
for money prizes (Θεματείτας), including the Heraclea in
Lacedaemon, the games at Mantinea and others.” In this list
Olympia and Adriania are mentioned at Athens, Smyrna, and
Ephesus. At Ephesus one of his victories was won at the
Balbillea founded by the celebrated astrologer Balbillus in the
reign of Vespasian. It is interesting to compare this list of
victories with the victories won by Diagoras of Rhodes or
Epharmostus of Locrian Opous which are enumerated in the
odes of Pindar.[#] With the exception of Rhodes, all their
recorded victories were won in festivals of the mother-country,
at the four Panhellenic festivals, at Argos, Athens, Pellene,
Aegina, Megara, and at various places in Arcadia and Boeotia.
The difference may be summed up in the word οἰκουμένη which
occurs frequently in late inscriptions. The games are no longer
Hellenic, they are Oecumenical, and with this change their
whole character is altered. Even at Olympia, most Hellenic
of all festivals, athletes and spectators alike are gathered no
longer from Hellas only but from “the inhabited world.”[#]
// File: 207.png
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In the enumeration of his exploits Asclepiades constantly
records that “on various occasions” he brought his opponents
to a standstill (στήσας), sometimes without further comment,
but usually with the words “from the start, after the first lot,
after the second lot.” The phrase seems to imply that on these
occasions his opponents all withdrew from the competition after
the first or second heat, or even before any contest. Such
incidents may have been misinterpreted by his enemies, who
maliciously accused him of bribing or intimidating his rivals.
At all events, he tells us that after six years he retired from
athletics at the age of twenty-five, owing “to the dangers and
jealousy which beset him.” After an interval of some years
he was induced to reappear at the Olympic games of his
native Alexandria, where he won the pankration in the sixth
Alexandrine Olympiad.[#]
It was an age of record-breaking. We see it in the expenditure
on magnificent buildings and entertainments, in which
each new public benefactor aimed at surpassing the work of
his predecessors, and it is no wonder that the same spirit
affected athletics. The inscription set up by the itinerant
synod of the Alexandrines in honour of Flavius Archibius,[#] and
recording his long list of victories, is punctuated by the incessant
refrain, “first of mankind.” For example, in the Pythian
festival he won the pankration at one Pythiad, the pankration
and wrestling in the next, the pankration again in the next,
“first of mankind.” Similarly, Marcus Tullius of Apamea in
Bithynia describes himself as “the first boxer from all time”[#]
to win a certain series of victories. Such phrases are of
constant occurrence. A passage in Pliny’s Natural History[#]
suggests that at Rome records were kept in long-distance
running, and that running against time was a popular amusement.
After describing various feats of strength, he notes how
records in distance-running had been frequently broken. The
record of Pheidippides, he says, long held the field until
Philonides, and Anystis in Alexander’s time ran from Sicyon
to Elis and back, a distance of 1300 stades, in a single day. “In
// File: 208.png
.pn +1
the circus,” he adds, “we know that some athletes have run 160
miles in a day; and recently in the Consulship of Fonteius and
Vipsanius, a youth of eight (surely a mistake for eighteen)
ran 75 miles between mid-day and sunset.” The accuracy of
Pliny’s statements on athletics is not beyond question, but
the passage is good evidence as to the practice of the times.
The second century was an age of antiquarianism. Conscious
of their own inferiority, men thought to make up for their want
of originality by studying and reproducing the forms of the
past, regardless of the fact that these forms had lost their
meaning. The writings of this period abound in allusions to
the great athletes of earlier times. Lucian of Samosata sets
forth at length the old athletic ideal in his dialogue entitled
“Anacharsis,” in which he makes Solon defend Greek athletics
against the criticism of the barbarian. The gist of his argument
is that athletics make a man a better and more useful citizen,
and fit him to serve his city in peace and war. But alas! the
cosmopolitan Greek of his day had no longer any city to defend,
and the appeal to civic patriotism can have carried little weight
with men who claimed the citizenship of half-a-dozen cities at
the same time. Philostratus, an equally enthusiastic admirer
of the old athletes, seeks to find a cure for the athletic degeneracy
of his own time by a return to the simpler and more
rational methods of training of the past. But his appeal likewise
fell on deaf ears. Athletics had become the monopoly
of professional trainers and quacks, who regarded them merely
as a source of selfish profit.
Olympia, above all, appealed to the antiquarian spirit of the
age. It is chiefly to the traveller and antiquarian Pausanias,
who visited Elis in 173 A.D., that we owe our knowledge of the
festival. The mass of details which he gathered from the
official guides of Olympia is sure evidence of the interest
which the festival aroused. Phlegon of Tralles, like Aristotle
in Macedonian times, revised and edited the Olympic register,
making it the chronological basis of his history from 776 B.C.
to 137 A.D. One C. Asinius Quadratus carried his zeal for
Olympia to such lengths as to place the founding of Rome in
the year of the first Olympiad, for which act of flattery he
received from the Eleans a monument, “because he had honoured
Olympia both in word and deed.”[#] Others, not content with a
// File: 209.png
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chronology that dated back only to Coroebus, invented a new
Olympic era 800 years earlier. On an inscribed diskos dedicated
by Publius Asclepiades, a pentathlete of Corinth, the date is
given according to the two chronologies, Ol. 255 and Ol. 456!
and also by the name of the Alytarch for the year, “Flavius
Scribonianus, kinsman of senators and consulars.” Archaism
took a more practical shape in the minute observance of
ceremonies and customs. In the inscription of Claudius Rufus,
mentioned in a previous chapter, he is commended especially
for having diligently practised in the sight of the Hellanodicae,
“in accordance with the ancestral custom of the games.” Our
knowledge of the usages of the festival is chiefly derived from
authors of this period. We have already seen how these usages
were reproduced in the new festivals.
No state preserved so large a measure of independence under
Roman rule as Sparta. In A.D. 214, when Caracalla appeared
in Greece as a second Alexander to lead a new war against the
East, he appealed to Sparta for assistance; and Sparta, as a free
federate state, sent two regiments of volunteers bearing the time-honoured
names of the Laconian regiment, and the regiment of
Pitane, as her contribution to what an inscription styles “the
most fortunate alliance against the Persians.” The excavations
conducted by the British School of Athens have shed a flood
of light upon the history and condition of Sparta at this period.[#]
We see her as a flourishing provincial town with her Roman
fortifications, theatre, baths, and suburban villas. But though
changed in outward appearance, Sparta clung only the more
tenaciously to the traditions and customs which she derived
from Lycurgus. The love of archaism characteristic of this
period showed itself in an exaggerated revival of the Lycurgean
discipline. Sparta, for centuries, had taken little part in the
athletic history of Greece. The one object of her physical
education was to produce endurance, and the supreme test of
this endurance was the so-called “Contest of Endurance” by
means of successive scourgings which took place upon the altar
of Artemis. The altar itself has been discovered standing on
the site of earlier altars, where from time immemorial this
ancient ceremony had taken place. The interest attaching to
the contest in Roman times is shown by the numerous references
// File: 210.png
.pn +1
in contemporary writers; and still more by the fact that towards
the close of the second century A.D., a large theatre, surrounding
the altar, was built for the convenience of spectators. An
inscription discovered in the Artemisium records the victory
of a boy in this contest. Greek writers represent the contest
as a humane substitute for human sacrifice; but Professor
Bosanquet[#] has shown that there is good reason for thinking
that Greek tradition mistook the meaning of the ceremony,
which originated in an ancient ritual practice of whipping
away boys who tried to steal cheeses from the altar; and that
the “Contest of Endurance” was a brutal exaggeration of the
old practice, due to the late and artificial revival of the Lycurgean
discipline. It certainly justifies, in part, the contemptuous tone
in which Philostratus speaks of Spartan athletics.
If Sparta took little part in the great competitions, she
had her own games and her own competitions. One of these,
the Leonidaea, was celebrated in honour of those who fell at
Thermopylae. Two inscriptions have been discovered containing
regulations for this festival which it appears must have
been reorganized about the time of Nerva.[#] It was a yearly
festival, and only Spartans were allowed to compete. This is
perhaps the reason why the programme contained the pankration,
an event for which no Spartan might enter at other
festivals. The most interesting inscriptions are those referring
to certain games in which teams of Spartan boys competed.
The late Mr. Kenneth Freeman, in his book, The Schools of
Hellas, maintained that the prototype of the English public
school system was to be found in the Spartan system of education.
Certainly the Spartan games resemble our English games
more closely than any other games of which we know in the
ancient world. The game of Platanistas was played on an
island surrounded by a ditch, between two teams of boys who,
entering the ground by bridges at either end, strove by fighting,
hitting, kicking, and biting, to drive their opponents into the
water. But for the absence of the ball, this game bears considerable
resemblance to the primitive football scrimmage before
any of the existing rules were introduced, and, as we shall see,
// File: 211.png
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ball games were of considerable importance at Sparta. The
game of Platanistas, like the scourging, may have had its origin
in some ritual practice denoted by the sacrifice of a boar, but
in the time of Pausanias it was certainly played in the form
described.
A series of inscriptions, all with one exception dating from
the time of the Antonines, commemorate victories won by
teams of ball-players at some yearly competition.[#] The name
σφαιρεῖς was given to Spartan youths in their first year of
manhood. The competitions took place in the Dromos under
the direction of the Bideoi, a board of five officials responsible
for the management of the Platanistas and other ephebic games.
The teams represented the local districts of Sparta called the
Obes, and it seems probable that the expenses connected with
the team were provided by a local obe official, the διαβετής,
who is mentioned in the inscriptions. Each team was under
a captain called the πρέσβυς, but the number of members in a
team cannot be decided owing to the mutilation of the inscriptions.
It seems not to have been less than fifteen. The
competition was arranged on the tournament system, for
several inscriptions record the fact that the winning team had
not drawn a bye. Unfortunately, we have no clue to the
manner of playing the game.
A yet more numerous group of inscriptions found in the
Artemisium, and belonging mostly to the same period, consists
of dedications to Artemis in honour of victories won by teams
of young boys in certain musical and athletic competitions.[#]
The competitors seem to be mostly about the age of ten, the
age denoted by the term μικιζόμενοι, and each team was under a
captain, βοαγός, chosen perhaps for family reasons, who held the
title for life. There seem, however, to have been similar competitions
for older boys, for one of the inscriptions commemorates
a βοαγός whose team was successful in a boys’ competition and
also in a competition for youths of twenty (εἴρενες). Two
musical contests are mentioned, called, respectively, Μῶα and
Κελῆα, the precise nature of which cannot be determined. The
third competition bears the name Καθθηρατόριν, which seems to
describe some rough game resembling the hunting of wild beasts,
perhaps some such game as prisoner’s base. The victor was
crowned with bay and received as a prize a sickle which was
// File: 212.png
.pn +1
affixed to the inscribed tablet and dedicated to Artemis. The
presence of musical competitions suggests that the narrowness
of Spartan education has been perhaps exaggerated by Greek
historians. Much of our knowledge of Sparta is derived from
the accounts of her enemies.
In spite of all these outward signs of athletic life, the writers
of this period leave us in no doubt as to the real character of
the athletic revival. We are no longer forced to draw what
inferences we can from the doubtful evidence of casual allusions;
we possess in the works of Plutarch, Galen, and Philostratus
definite treatises on physical culture and gymnastic. Different
as is the point of view of these authors, they agree in condemning
the athletics of their day, and prove beyond possibility of
doubt how far from realization was the old ideal set forth
by Lucian and Dion of Prusa. That old ideal, in which the culture
of body and of mind went hand in hand, was inseparable
from the ideal of free citizenship that existed when every citizen
was both soldier and politician, and when to develop mind and
body to the full extent of which each was capable was a duty
that the citizen owed to the state. All this had long been
changed; war was now the business of paid professional soldiers,
politics of the imperial government. The individual, thrown
back on self, had no other interest but personal profit and
enjoyment. Speculative and mystical philosophy and religion
taught men to despise the body, and as a consequence the training
of the body no longer maintained its importance in education.
Gymnastic, deprived of its proper province in education, found
itself confined to the training of professional athletes, who
developed the body but neglected the mind. But as life
became more sedentary and less active the claims of the body
reasserted themselves: hunting was impossible except for the
few, games were of little importance in most places, hence there
arose a need for artificial exercise, and the need was supplied by
the medical gymnastic which aimed at producing health. The
Romans, though they despised athletics, realized the importance
of exercise for maintaining health. The bath and massage were
essential parts of this gymnastic, and the exercises prescribed
included walking, gentle running, jumping up and down, the use
of halteres as dumb-bells, throwing the diskos and the javelin.
Health-culture has its use for men who lead a sedentary,
artificial life, but it is not athletics; neither is physical
// File: 213.png
.pn +1
training or gymnastics, to use the word in its restricted
modern sense—invaluable as such training is in education of
the young, especially in thickly populated cities. But health-culture
and gymnastics lack the moral value which friendly
rivalry gave once to Greek athletics and gives to-day to the
games of our public schools. Professional athletics equally lack
this moral value; for when livelihood depends on success, rivalry
ceases to be friendly, and the door is opened for corruption.
Both health-culture and professionalism are poles removed
from the true Greek ideal of athletics.
Plutarch’s opinion about the athletics of his day is evident
from many passages in his Lives, to which reference has already
been made. His tract on the Preservation of Health, intended
as it is chiefly for the ordinary, middle-aged, business man,
hardly concerns us here except so far as it continually condemns
by implication the artificial and unhealthy training to which
athletes were subjected. Galen and Philostratus are so little
known to the ordinary reader, and their works are so important,
that some account of them is indispensable.
Born at Pergamum in A.D. 130, Galen studied philosophy and
medicine at Alexandria, Smyrna, and Corinth. At Alexandria
he was appointed physician to the school of gladiators. At
the age of thirty-four he came to Rome, where he became the
friend and physician of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, but after
a few years he returned to his native land. His wide experience
of men and countries, his knowledge of medicine and anatomy,
his breadth of mind and fearless love of truth make his judgment
of special value. He wrote numerous works on Health, but
the two which are of most importance to us here are his essay
on “Exercise with the Small Ball,” a masterly statement of the
true principles of exercise, and his “Exhortation to the Arts,”
an attack on professional athletics.
The best of all exercises, he says in his treatise on Ball-play,
are those which combine bodily exertion with mental recreation,
such as hunting and ball-play. But ball-play has this advantage
over hunting that its cheapness puts it within reach of the very
poorest, while even the busiest man can find time for it. Moreover,
it can be practised with any degree of violence or moderation,
at all times and in all conditions. It exercises every part of
the body, legs, hands, and eyesight alike, and at the same time
gives pleasure to the mind. In contrast with athletic exercises,
// File: 214.png
.pn +1
which make men slow or produce one-sided development, ball-play
produces strength and activity, and therefore trains all
those qualities which are most valuable for a soldier. Finally,
it is free from dangers, and does not expose the player to all
those accidents which too often leave the wrestler, “like the
Homeric Litai, either halt, or distorted, or altogether bereft of
some limb.” The practice of games of ball is of particular
interest in view of the importance which they possessed at
Sparta. These games must have varied in character almost
as much as those with which we are familiar to-day, and no
better defence of such games has ever been written, though we
may doubt whether Galen would have approved of the extent
to which they are carried in the present day.
The ostensible object of the “Exhortation” is to urge men
to devote themselves to some art or profession which will last
them all their life; but the real subject of the discourse is
whether athletics deserves the title of an art or profession.
τέχνη is defined as having for its aim “the improvement of
life,” and therefore there can be no art in tumbling or walking
the tight-rope. Does the athlete’s life benefit the athlete himself
or the state? To this question Galen replies emphatically,
“No.” “The mind is higher than the body, for the mind we
share with the gods, the body with the animals. In the
blessings of the mind athletes have no share. Beneath their
mass of flesh and blood their souls are stifled as in a sea of
mud. Nor do they enjoy the best blessings even of the body.
Neglecting the old rule of health, which prescribes moderation
in all things, they spend their lives in over-exercising,
over-eating, over-sleeping, like pigs. Hence they seldom live
to old age, and if they do, they are crippled and liable to all
sorts of disease. They have not health nor have they beauty.
Even those that are naturally well-proportioned become fat
and bloated; their faces are often shapeless and unsightly,
owing to the wounds received in boxing or the pankration.
They lose their eyes and their teeth, and their limbs are
strained. Even their vaunted strength is useless. They can
dig and plough, but they cannot fight. They cannot endure
heat and cold, nor, like Heracles, wear one garment summer and
winter, go unshod and sleep on the open ground: in all this
they are weaker than new-born babes.” Such is the picture
which Galen draws of the professional athletes of his day, most
// File: 215.png
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of whom, as we have seen, were boxers and wrestlers; and we can
judge of the truth of the picture from the mosaics in the baths
of Caracalla, where we see represented, in all their brutality
and coarseness, the portraits of those professional prize-fighters
and athletes whom the degraded and unathletic mob and court
of Rome delighted to honour (Fig. #23:fig023#).[#] There they stand
with their clumsy, ill-proportioned bodies, their scarred and
mutilated faces, their small and brainless heads rendered yet
more hideous by the top-knot (cirrus) in which their scanty hair
is tied. It is the last stage in the decline of athletics, which
had begun centuries earlier in the exaggerated honours paid to
mere bodily strength, to that lower nature which man shares
with the animals, and in which man must remain the inferior
of the animals. Galen ends his argument by pressing home
this lesson in a parable, in which he imagines an Olympia to
which the heralds have summoned all the animals to compete.
There man would not win a single event. The horse would
win the long race, the hare the short race, the deer the diaulos.
None of the successors of Heracles could compete with the lion
or the elephant. And I expect, says he, that the bull will win
the crown for boxing, and the donkey in a kicking match will
carry off the crown. Yes, and in an elaborate history, donkey
will record that “once he defeated man in the pankration, and
that it was the twenty-and-first Olympiad when Brayer was
victorious.”
.if h
.il fn=fig023.png w=60% id=fig023 alt="Professional boxer, from mosaic in Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran."
.ca Fig. 23. Professional boxer, from mosaic in Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 23. Professional boxer, from mosaic in Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran.]
.if-
The athletes of the second century must at least be credited
with a certain amount of brute strength, but in the generation
which succeeded Galen even their strength fell off, if we may
believe the statement of Philostratus, who wrote in the first half
of the third century. His work on the art of gymnastic reads
like an answer to Galen’s attack on athletics, and is marked by
a strong bias against the medical profession, whom he holds
responsible for enervating athletics by the introduction of
ridiculous and effeminate rules of diet.[#] By gymnastic, he
understands the art of training athletes, which in opposition to
Galen he describes as an art inferior to no other and akin to
// File: 216.png
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the arts of the doctor and paidotribes. The latter is concerned
merely with actual exercises and movements, while the trainer
requires a knowledge of the human body which may enable
him to prescribe in each case the diet and training necessary to
correct any defect. Thus the gymnastes cures by exercise and
massage diseases for which the doctor employs potions, plasters,
// File: 217.png
.pn +1
and fomentations. The decline in the athlete’s physique Philostratus
ascribes to a vicious system of training due in the first
instance to the quackery of doctors. The valetudinarianism
of the second century had produced, as it always does, a host of
impostors with quack systems and rules for health, some of
which were imported into athletics. Medicine, says Philostratus,
has pampered athletics, and rendered athletes dainty and
luxurious. They are told to remain seated, stuffed with food,
for a long time before taking exercise. Their diet consists of
seasoned breads, of fish, and pork. Different kinds of fish are
credited with different qualities; their pork must come from
pigs fed only on cornel nuts and acorns and not reared in the
neighbourhood of the sea or of rivers. We all know this sort
of fad; our own age has produced by the score systems no less
absurd. The inventors of such systems always insist that their
patients must follow their rules without deviating from them a
hairbreadth. So the Greek trainers developed hard-and-fast
systems of training which they applied indifferently to all alike,
to boys as well as men, without any regard to the individual’s
needs. Boys trained on the same principles as men lost all the
buoyancy and activity natural to their age and became lazy,
heavy, and sluggish. The most absurd of these systems was
that known as the Tetrad, a scheme of work for four days, by
which the athlete’s life was regulated. Each day had its own
work. The first day’s work, consisting of light and quick
movements, “prepared” the athlete; the second “extended”
him and tested all his powers of endurance; the third “relaxed”
him by means of gentle movements; the fourth, consisting
apparently of movements of defence, left him in a middle state.
Such is the somewhat obscure account given of the tetrad.[#]
It was intended clearly for pankratiasts and boxers who
practically formed the whole class of professional athletes.
The principle of the gradual increase and diminution of work
on which it is founded is absolutely sound, and is one of the
essential principles of the “Ling” system of physical training.
The fault lay in the ignorant and pedantic application of the
principle. No deviation from its routine was permitted, and
no account was taken of the individual’s actual condition.
Philostratus tells a story of a contemporary athlete, Gerenius,
who three days after winning an Olympic victory celebrated
// File: 218.png
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his success by a banquet at which he ate and drank things to
which he was not accustomed. The next day, suffering from
indigestion and want of sleep, he repaired to the gymnasium as
usual, and being put through a more than usually severe course
of exercise by his irritated trainer, actually died under the
treatment. The tetrads, says Philostratus, have ruined all
athletic training; and the purpose of his book is to show the
absurdity of such artificial systems, and by introducing sounder
principles of athletics to restore the glory of the stadium. The
main principle which he inculcates is the necessity of a
thorough knowledge of the human body, and of suiting the
training to the individual’s requirements. He discusses at
length the various physical qualities which are best for different
sports,—the qualities of the boxer, the wrestler, or the runner,—and
gives a fanciful classification of the different types of
athletes, the lion type, the eagle type, the bear type, the plank
type, the rope type! He has a profound reverence for the
traditions of Olympia, and regards the Eleans as the sole
repositories of athletic lore, accepting all that they tell him
with childlike simplicity. With much common sense he mingles
an amount of rhetoric and fancifulness such as we should
expect from the credulous biographer of Apollonius of Tyana,
which seriously diminishes the practical value of his work.[#]
With Philostratus our history draws to a close. The
Olympic records of Africanus end with Ol. 249 (A.D. 217); the
last victor recorded on Olympic Inscriptions is the herald
Valerius Eclectus of Sinope, who won the heralds’ competition
in Ol. 256 and the three succeeding Olympiads; the lists of
Olympic officials cease almost at the same time. The Roman
empire was now engaged in a desperate struggle with hordes of
invading Goths, and in the struggle the Greeks were once
more called upon to fight for their country. The Goths were
repulsed, but the silence which ensues tells but too clearly of
the effects of their ravages. The end was close at hand.
Hitherto the Greeks had preserved some semblance of political
liberty; but the policy of centralization and unification
// File: 219.png
.pn +1
introduced by Constantine stamped out the last vestiges of the
city state. The ancient festivals of Greece were the stronghold
of paganism, and therefore recognized as the greatest obstacle
of Christianity, now adopted as the Imperial religion. Delphi
was dismantled by Constantine, and its treasures removed to
adorn his new-built Hippodrome at Constantinople, and in the
time of Julian its site was desolate. The Olympic festival
was abolished by the emperor Theodosius, though whether by
Theodosius I. or Theodosius II. is not certain. The generally received
tradition is that it was abolished in 393 by Theodosius I.
The emperor had set himself to sweep away all vestiges of
paganism, but in 390 he had incurred the displeasure of the all-powerful
St. Ambrose by his cruel massacre of the Thessalonians,
and had been forced to do public penance for his sin. Was
the edict that abolished the Olympia a token of his new-born
zeal for righteousness? Be this as it may, the last Olympic
victor whose name we know was the Armenian prince
Varazdates, who won the boxing-match in Ol. 291 (A.D. 385).
Varazdates traced his descent from the Arsacidae, and was
subsequently placed by Theodosius on the throne of Armenia.
There is a pathetic irony in the circumstance that, at the
festival linked beyond all others with the cause of Hellenism
at war with barbarism, the last-recorded victor came not from
Hellas but from the land of her hereditary foes.
.fn #
Tacitus, Annals, xiv. 20. For the attitude of the Romans towards athletics
vide Wilkins, Roman Education, pp. 31-33.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 191-210.
.fn-
.fn #
Africanus states that the discontinuance of these events lasted from Ol. 178
to Ol. 194, when the chariot-race, after being “long prohibited,” was won by
Germanicus. The inaccuracy of this statement is proved by the discovery of an
earlier inscription recording the victory of Tiberius Claudius Nero. Ol. Ins.
220-221.
.fn-
.fn #
Julius Caesar, c. 39.
.fn-
.fn #
Octavianus, c. 45.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 59-141.
.fn-
.fn #
No satisfactory explanation of this rule has been offered. It certainly
does not seem to have been always observed in earlier times. For example,
Xenombrotus, Ol. Ins. 170, seems to have set up a portrait statue of himself
for a single victory in the horse-race.
.fn-
.fn #
Louis Dyer, “The Olympian Council House,” in Harvard Studies,
vol. xix. pp. 36 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 56; cp. Mie, Quaestiones Agonisticae, p. 43.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Olympia, p. 203.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. xiv. 739, πρωτελληνοδίκης ἐν Ἐφέσῳ καὶ ἐν Σμύρνη.
.fn-
.fn #
Curtius, Ol. Text, i. 52; Krause, Olympia, p. 207.
.fn-
.fn #
Suetonius, Nero, c. 23 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Dion of Prusa, Or. xxxi.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Pal. xi. 75. The translation is taken from the “Dissertation on the
Olympic Games,” in a translation of the Odes of Pindar, by Gilbert West
(London, 1753), vol. ii. p. 92.
.fn-
.fn #
Or. vii. Διογένης ἢ περὶ ἀρετῆς; Or. viii. Διογένης ἢ Ἰσθμικός.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 45.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 21.
.fn-
.fn #
Or. xxix., xxx.
.fn-
.fn #
Dio Cassius, lii. 30.
.fn-
.fn #
Suetonius, Octavianus 45.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 131; I.G. xiv. 1102-1110.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. xiv. 1054, 1055.
.fn-
.fn #
Mie, Quaestiones Agonisticae, p. 46.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. xiv. 746.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 436.
.fn-
.fn #
B.S.A. xii. p. 452.
.fn-
.fn #
Historia Numorum, p. 357.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 150-153.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 225.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. xiv. 1102-1104.
.fn-
.fn #
The word ἀσυνέξωστος recalls the feats recorded of Milo and other athletes,
whom no one could move from the place where they had taken their stand.
.fn-
.fn #
Such I take to be the meaning of the words μήτ’ ἐπεξελθὼν μήτε παραιτησάμενος.
But the precise meaning of this and the following phrases μήτε
κατὰ χάριν βασιλικήν ἀγῶνα ἔχων μηδὲ καινὸν ἀγῶνα νεικήσας is hard to
determine. ἐπεξελθόντα bears this meaning in the Iobacchi Inscription. Roberts
and Gardner, Epigraphy ii. 91, l. 92. The antithesis of παραιτησάμενος would
rather suggest the rendering “seeking a contest,” e.g. “pot-hunting.”
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. vii., ix.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 54, 436. Both inscriptions belong to the close of the first century
A.D. In two earlier inscriptions of the time of Augustus (53, 366) the distinction
between οἱ Ἕλληνες and ἡ οἰκουμένη is still maintained.
.fn-
.fn #
The Alexandrine Olympia were probably founded in A.D. 176 by Marcus
Aurelius, I.G. xiv. 1102.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. xiv. 746.
.fn-
.fn #
πρῶτος τῶν ἀπ’ αἰῶνος πυκτῶν, I.G. iii. 128. Cp. πρωτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης,
C.I.G. 2723.
.fn-
.fn #
N.H. vii. 20; cp. ii. 73.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 356.
.fn-
.fn #
The matter of this section is taken from the reports of the B.S.A., vols.
xii., xiii.
.fn-
.fn #
B.S.A. xii. 314.
.fn-
.fn #
B.S.A. xii. 445 ff. Another Spartan festival mentioned in inscriptions is
the Euryclea founded by Eurycles, a rich and powerful friend of Herod the
Great, C.I.G. 1378, 1389.
.fn-
.fn #
B.S.A. x. 63, xii. 212.
.fn-
.fn #
B.S.A. xii. 352, xiii. 182.
.fn-
.fn #
The whole mosaic is published by Secchi in his Musaico Antoniniano, and
a large portion of it in Baumeister’s Denkmäler, Fig. 174.
.fn-
.fn #
Dr. Jüthner, in the introduction to his Philostratus, shows that there was a
long-standing quarrel between doctors and trainers. The doctors resented the
encroachments of the trainers on their domain, and regarded them as ignorant
and unscientific quacks.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide Jüthner, op. cit. pp. 285 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
I am glad to find my estimate of Philostratus in substantial agreement with
that of Dr. Jüthner. Philostratus had, as he shows, no technical knowledge of
gymnastic. He was a rhetorician, writing an essay on what was evidently a
burning question, and, like a modern journalist, he naturally derived his knowledge
from one of the many technical treatises on gymnastic which existed, and as
naturally made mistakes (op. cit. pp. 97-107).
.fn-
// File: 220.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap09
CHAPTER IX | THE OLYMPIC FESTIVAL
.sp 2
.if h
.il fn=fig024.png w=100% id=fig024 alt="Staters of Elis, in British Museum."
.ca Fig. 24. Staters of Elis, in British Museum (enlarged). Fifth century. (a) Head of nymph Olympia. (b) Victory seated, with palm; olive twig below.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 24. Staters of Elis, in British Museum (enlarged). Fifth century.
(a) Head of nymph Olympia. (b) Victory seated, with palm; olive twig below.]
.if-
.sp 2
Many of the details and regulations connected with the
Olympic festival have been already mentioned in previous
chapters, where the reader can readily find them by consulting
the index. In the present chapter we shall attempt to give
some account of the festival itself, as it existed in the fifth
century. First we must premise that the details of the festival
are involved in the greatest obscurity, largely owing to the
fact that the bulk of our information is derived from late
writers whose evidence as to what took place five or six
hundred years before their time must always be received with
a certain amount of reserve. Still, religious conservatism was
nowhere stronger than at Olympia, and much that is recorded
of the second century of our era existed with little difference
in the fifth century B.C. Therefore, though many details remain
obscure we can feel fairly certain as to the general outline of
the festival.
The festival took place at the second or third full moon after
the summer solstice, in the months of Apollonios and Parthenios
respectively.[#] Its date was fixed by a cycle of eight years or
ninety-nine-months, the divergence between the year of twelve
lunar months and the solar year being rectified by the insertion
of three intercalary months, one in the first four years, two in
// File: 221.png
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the second. Thus it fell alternately after forty-nine or fifty
lunar months. The fourteenth day of the month seems to have
been reckoned as the day of the full moon, though the actual full
moon varied from the 14th to 15th. This day must, from the
earliest time, have been the central day of the festival.[#] The
Greek day was reckoned from sunset to sunset, and as Greek
custom demanded that sacrifice to the Olympian gods should
be offered in the morning, before mid-day,[#] it follows that
the great sacrifice to Zeus was offered on the morning after
the full moon. The festival lasted five days. According to
Herodotus, a historian of the fifth century, the five days’
festival was ordained by Heracles.[#] Certainly it lasted five
days in Pindar’s time.[#] Scholiasts of various dates, while
affirming that it lasted five days, state that it began on the
10th or 11th and lasted till the 15th or 16th.[#] The discrepancy
may be due to the variation in the date of the full moon already
noticed, more probably to the addition to the festival of one
or more preliminary days necessitated in later times by the
multiplication of competitions and religious ceremonies. To
these days the preliminary business of the festival may have
been transferred, but they were not reckoned as part of the
actual festival. The seventh ode of Bacchylides, written in
honour of Laches of Ceos, who won the boys’ foot-race in 452
B.C., proves beyond doubt that in this year the festival ended
on the sixteenth day. If then the festival lasted five days,
the fourteenth, the day of the full moon, was the central day
of the whole festival. The recognition of the importance of
this fact is due to Ludwig Weniger, whose conclusions I have
in the main adopted in the following pages.
These five days included sacrifices, sports, and feasts.
Sacrifices and feasts, both private and public, formed part of
each day’s programme, especially of the first and last days,
which must have been largely, if not entirely, occupied by such
// File: 222.png
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ceremonies. How many days were devoted to the actual
sports we do not know. A scholiast states that they took place
on five days,[#] but the statement is unsupported and certainly
was not true of earlier times. The growth of the programme
must have necessitated readjustment from time to time, and an
extension of the time allotted to competitions. Such an
extension took place, according to Pausanias, in Ol. 77, though
it did not, of course, take effect till Ol. 78. “The order of
the competition,” he says,[#] “existing in our time—which is
that the sacrifice to the god is offered after the pentathlon
and the horse-race—this order was introduced in the 77th
Olympiad. Previous to this date, events both for men and
horses took place on the same day. But on this occasion
the competitors in the pankration were kept on into the
night, not having been called in time, and the delay was
caused by the horse-races and still more by the pentathlon.”
This passage gives no countenance to the statement commonly
made that at this time the length of the festival, or the number
of days allotted to sport was suddenly extended from one day
to five. Nor does it prove that before this date all events for
men took place on the same day as events for horses, and that
after this date none did. If the literal meaning of the words
is pressed, it may be argued, and indeed has been argued, that
from this date a separate day was assigned to the horse-races,
and a separate day to the pentathlon. Unfortunately, we have
a definite statement by Xenophon[#] proving that in Ol. 104
the horse-races preceded the pentathlon on the same day.
Those who assert that they took place on different days are
forced[#] to reject the evidence of a contemporary writer, who
lived for years in the neighbourhood of Olympia, in favour of
a doubtful interpretation of an obscure and ill-expressed passage
written by a traveller who owed his information to a visit paid to
Olympia some five hundred years later. The alternative is to
assume that after Xenophon’s time a separate day was assigned
// File: 223.png
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to the horse-races, presumably at the time when the programme
of these events was raised to its full complement of six. But
this is a mere supposition. All that we can definitely assert
is that, after Ol. 77, the pentathlon and horse-races were
transferred to the day before the sacrifice to the god.
What is “the sacrifice to the god”? and when did it take
place? On the answer to these questions depends the
interpretation of the passage of Pausanias, and the reconstruction
of the order of the festival. There can be little
doubt that the sacrifice was the official offering of a hecatomb
to Olympian Zeus by the Eleans.[#] It is generally assumed
that this took place on the 16th, the last day of the festival,
and it is certainly natural to connect it with the official
banquet in the Prytaneum which took place on the evening
of that day. This arrangement naturally appeals to a modern
sentiment which demands a climax. But the Greeks had
not this sentiment, and there is a mass of evidence to prove
that the usual order of a Greek festival was—sacrifice, sports,
feast.[#] That this was the ancient order at Olympia is clear
from two odes in which Pindar describes the inauguration
of the games by Heracles. In the eleventh Olympian we read
how Heracles, returning victorious from Cleonae, marked out the
Altis, and paid honour to the river Alpheus and the great
gods. Then, having first offered sacrifice of his spoil, he
ordained the games, and in the evening the precinct resounded,
as in Pindar’s time, “with songs of festal glee.” So, too, in the
third ode, first he sanctifies the altars, then he ordains the
games. The scholiast, commenting on this ode, explains
carefully that the full moon came first, then followed the
sacrifice, and “the rest of the competitions.” If the games
followed the sacrifice, the sacrifice cannot have taken place on
the 16th, but rather on the 14th, the morning after the full
moon. In speaking of “the rest of the competitions” he is
thinking, of course, of the order of the festival in his own time,
and this phrase is a strong argument in favour of the views
of Weniger.
The meaning of Pausanias is now clear, and there is no need
// File: 224.png
.pn +1
with modern editors to assume that the passage is hopelessly
corrupt. Previous to Ol. 78 all the sports followed the sacrifice,
mostly on the 15th; but I see no reason why some should not
have taken place on the afternoon of the 14th, or even on the
16th. The preceding days were occupied with preliminary
business and various religious ceremonies. In Ol. 78 the
horse-races and the pentathlon were transferred to the 13th,
the day before the sacrifice. Some of the preliminary business
may at the same time have been shifted to the 11th day. If at
a subsequent date separate days were allotted to the horse-races
and pentathlon, or if, as Weniger suggests, the boys’ events were
after the introduction of the boys’ pankration shifted to the
12th, the 10th day may also have been required for the
preliminaries; but there is not sufficient evidence for either of
these changes.
The same uncertainty prevails as to the order of the
events, and still more as to their distribution into days. The
attempts which have been made to prove that the order was
the same as that preserved in two fragments of the Olympic
register must, in my opinion, be regarded as failures. The order
for the fifth century as given in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus is as
follows:—(1) Stade-race, (2) Diaulos, (3) Dolichos, (4) Pentathlon,
(5) Wrestling, (6) Boxing, (7) Pankration, (8) Boys’
foot-race, (9) Boys’ wrestling, (10) Boys’ boxing, (11) Race
in armour, (12) Chariot-race, (13) Horse-race. The list omits
the mule chariot-race (ἀπήνη) and the race for mares, which
were discontinued after 444 B.C. Phlegon’s list for Ol. 177
(72 B.C.) agrees with this except that the boys’ pankration is
added after the other events for boys, and the four new
equestrian events after the horse-race in their order of
introduction.
The principle adopted in this list is obvious. The competition
is divided into athletic and equestrian. The athletic
part is divided into events for men and events for boys. Each
division is arranged in the order, real or fictitious, in which the
various events were introduced. The only exception is the race
in armour, which is placed after the boys’ events, owing to its
late introduction, its peculiar character, and the fact that it was
the last event on the programme. The arrangement is perfectly
simple and logical, but it does not follow that it was the order
adopted in the sports. We have seen that in 468 B.C. (Ol. 78)
// File: 225.png
.pn +1
a change was made in the order, and we know that the
Hellanodicae had power to alter the order under special
circumstances. In Ol. 142, at the request of Cleitomachus, who
was competing both in boxing and in the pankration, they
placed the pankration before the boxing.[#]
From the general uncertainty a few facts emerge:—
1. Plutarch definitely states that at Olympia the boys’
competitions took place before any of the men’s,[#] and there is
no reason for disbelieving his statement. In framing a register
it may be natural to place the most important events first; in
arranging a programme it would be a ludicrous anti-climax
to do so.
2. The foot-races all came on the same day, and probably
before any other of the competitions for men. Their order is
doubtful. Pausanias in his account of Polites[#] implies that he
won the dolichos first, then the stade-race, lastly the diaulos.
But practical considerations make this unlikely. Unless a
considerable time elapsed between the events it is hard to
imagine a three-miler proceeding at once to win a 200 yards
and a quarter! Learned writers who have discussed the
question all seem to have forgotten that in the stade race and
perhaps in the diaulos there was a round of preliminary heats,
which may well have complicated the order.[#]
3. Wrestling, boxing, and the pankration took place on the
same day and in the same order.[#]
4. The race in armour was the last event of the whole
programme.[#] It seems possible from the words of Philostratus
that it came on the very last day of the festival.
5. The pentathlon followed the horse-races, and in
Xenophon’s time took place on the same day, the day preceding
the sacrifice. Previous to Ol. 78 these events may have followed
the foot-races.
6. When the competitions for heralds and trumpeters were
introduced in Ol. 96, they naturally came off on the first day,
// File: 226.png
.pn +1
seeing that the winners had the privilege of officiating at the
festival.
The horse-races and the men’s foot-races took place in
the morning; the pentathlon, and the heavy events, boxing,
wrestling, and pankration, after mid-day.[#] The pentathlon and
horse-races, as we know, were in Xenophon’s time on the
same day, i.e. the 13th. The foot-races and heavy events for
men also presumably occupied one whole day, the 15th.[#] There
was certainly no time on this day for the boys’ events, which
were not sufficiently numerous to occupy a whole day. We
may conjecture that they took place on the afternoon of the
14th. We arrive therefore at the following probable arrangement
for the period beginning 468 B.C.:—
.ta l:30 l:30
Chariot and horse-races | 2nd day of festival (the 13th).
Pentathlon |
Boys’ events | afternoon of the 3rd day (the 14th).
Foot-races for men |
Wrestling, boxing, pankration | 4th day of festival (the 15th).
Race in armour |
.ta-
It is uncertain when and where the victors were crowned.[#]
The only definite pronouncement on the point is that of a late
scholiast, who states that the prizes were distributed on the
sixteenth day.[#] In support of this statement is quoted the
commencement of the seventh ode of Bacchylides, unfortunately
much mutilated, which appears to connect the sixteenth day
“with judgment for speed of foot and strength of limb.” But
it may be noted that the verb ἐγκρίνω here used, like the ἁγνὰ
κρίσις of which Pindar speaks, does not necessarily imply the
prize-giving, but would be equally applicable to the actual
competitions, or to the rejoicings and feast in which all the
victors took part on the sixteenth day. At the same time, this
passage of Bacchylides may well have given rise to the scholiast’s
note on Pindar. On the other hand, there are certain allusions
which seem to indicate that the victors were crowned by the
// File: 227.png
.pn +1
Hellanodicas immediately after each event. This is certainly
the natural inference from the story told by Pausanias of
Apollonius, who having been disqualified by the Hellanodicae
in the boxing for arriving too late, bound on the boxing thongs,
and made a violent attack on Heracleides, to whom the
Hellanodicae had already awarded the crown, and who had the
olive already on his head.[#] Again, Ageus who won the long-distance
race in 328 B.C. ran straight home to Argos and
reported the news of his victory the same day.[#] Surely he
must have received the crown first. Otherwise he must have
returned that same night from Argos to Olympia in order to
receive his prize the next day! Lastly, the picture described
by Philostratus of the death of Arrhichion, who died in the
moment of victory in the pankration, represents the Hellanodicas
in the act of crowning him.[#] The stories themselves
are fanciful, and their evidence is by no means conclusive, but,
agreeing as they do with the undoubted practice of the heroic
age,[#] it seems to me probable that the victor received his crown
immediately after his victory.
Let us now try to form some idea of the Olympic festival
in the middle of the fifth century, the moment of Olympia’s
greatest glory, when Libon’s temple had been completed, when
the stadium and hippodrome had been laid out, when Pindar
and Bacchylides were still singing the praises of the victors, and
Myron and Polycleitus were immortalizing them in bronze.
Some details will be inserted for the sake of convenience which
may belong to a later date, but in such cases the fact will be
noted.
Some weeks before the actual festival the three truce-bearers
of Zeus (σπονδοφόροι), wearing crowns of olive and bearing
heralds’ staves, set forth from Elis to proclaim the sacred truce
to all the states of Greece and bid them to the festival. The
truce began from the moment that they left Elis, and lasted
probably three months. During this time all competitors
and visitors on their way to or from the festival enjoyed its
// File: 228.png
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protection, and none might bear arms within the sacred
territory.[#]
Competitors were obliged to give in their names by a fixed
date. If they failed to do so, they rendered themselves liable
to a fine or even to disqualification.[#]
In later times—we do not know when the custom was introduced—they
underwent thirty days’ training at Elis under the
supervision of the Hellanodicae, who had themselves undergone
ten months training for their duties. During this period, and
during the festival itself, it seems probable that they were
lodged and boarded by the authorities of the festival. The training
at Elis was noted for its severity: the Hellanodicae exacted
absolute obedience to their orders, and punished all infraction
with the rod.[#] They tested the capabilities of the athletes,
rejecting those who were not fit; they satisfied themselves as
to their parentage and claim to compete; above all, they had
opportunity for judging the claims of boys and colts to compete
as such.[#] Philostratus tells us that at the close of the training
they called together the competitors and addressed them[#] in
words which well illustrate the high standard which Olympia
maintained even under the Empire:—
“If you have exercised yourself in a manner worthy of the
Olympic festival, if you have been guilty of no slothful or
ignoble act, go on with a good courage. You who have not so
practised, go whither you will.”
The whole company quitted Elis a few days before the
festival. First came the Hellanodicae and other officials, then
the athletes and their trainers, the horses and chariots, their
owners, jockeys, and drivers. They went by the sacred way,
which, skirting the mountains, followed the coast-line till it
entered the valley of the Alpheus. The journey lasted two
days. At the fountain of Piera, which marked the boundary
between Elis and Olympia, a halt was made, a pig was sacrificed
and other rites of purification were performed.[#] The night was
// File: 229.png
.pn +1
passed at Letrini, and the next day the whole procession wound
up the valley to Olympia.[#]
Meanwhile, visitors of all classes were flocking to Olympia
from every part of the Greek world. Some came to see, some
to be seen; some for pleasure, some for profit. Tyrants and
statesmen, poets and philosophers, peasants and fishermen, all
met at Olympia. The whole Greek world was represented
from Marseilles to the Black Sea, from Thrace to Africa. The
country folk came on foot along the valleys of the Peloponnese,
the richer classes in chariots or on horseback. The river
Alpheus was still navigable, at its mouth was a small port,
and tyrants and merchant-princes from the West could sail in
rich barges up to Olympia itself. Particularly magnificent
were the official embassies from the various states, each of them
anxious to outshine the rest. For all this crowd there can have
been little accommodation or provision at Olympia. Competitors
and members of the embassies may have been lodged
at the public expense. The rest had to provide for themselves.
Some slept in tents or booths of wood in the plain around the
Altis, the majority slept on the ground in the open air—no
great hardship in summer at Olympia. There was no town,
or even village near, and the needs of the assembly must
have been supplied by merchants, hucksters, pedlars, who
brought in provisions from the country and set up rough stalls
and booths such as may be seen to-day at any local fair.
The first day of the festival, perhaps the day preceding
the festival, was devoted to preliminary business and sacrifice.
There were no competitions, except perhaps those for trumpeters
and heralds, which were not introduced till 396 B.C.; they took
place near the entrance to the stadium, the competitors taking
their stand upon an altar. It was probably on this day that
the ceremony in the Council Chamber described by Pausanias
took place.[#] There the competitors, their trainers, and their
friends underwent a solemn scrutiny. They took their stand
before the statue of Zeus Horkios, who was represented with
// File: 230.png
.pn +1
the thunderbolt in his right hand as a warning to evildoers,
and there having sacrificed a pig, they swore on its entrails to
use no unfair means to secure victory, and further, that they
had trained for ten months in a manner worthy of the festival.
The ceremony of the oath is represented on a red-figured
kylix in Fig. #132:fig132#. Next came the turn of the judges
who decided on the eligibility of boys and colts to compete
as such. They swore to give their decisions honestly and
without bribes, and not to reveal the reasons for their decision.
Then the final list of entries was drawn up and published
perhaps on a white board (λεύκωμα).[#] Throughout the day
there must have been various sacrifices both public and
private, but little is known of their details. All through
the year there was daily sacrifice at the great altar of Zeus.
Sacrifice was probably offered on this day at the six double
altars which Pindar mentions, and an offering of blood was
made on the mound of Pelops.[#] Competitors and their friends
would offer sacrifices and vows at the altars of the gods
or heroes whom they regarded as their patrons, or who were
specially connected with the events in which they were competing.[#]
The superstitious would consult the oracles and soothsayers
as to their chances of success.[#] The crowd of sight-seers
would wander through the Altis admiring the statuary of the
treasuries or Libon’s new-built temple, perhaps listening to some
rhapsodist reciting Homer, or to Herodotus as he read the story
of the Persian wars, or else visiting the workshop to the west
of the Altis where Pheidias was busy on his ivory and gold
statue of Zeus. There were friends, too, to be seen and greeted—friends
from distant parts of the Mediterranean, who after years
spent in the colonies had returned to meet their kinsfolk and
acquaintances at Olympia.
The following days were occupied with the sports, on the
details of which we need not dwell. These took place in the
stadium, or the hippodrome, some of them probably in the
open space east of the altar of Zeus. They began early in the
morning and lasted all day. Before daybreak every point of
vantage was occupied. There were no seats: spectators sat or
stood on the banks of the stadium, or hippodrome, on the slopes
of the hill of Cronus, on the rows of steps beneath the treasuries,
// File: 231.png
.pn +1
on every point which commanded a view of the games or
ceremonies. They were bareheaded, and suffered severely from
the sun, and dust, and thirst. Yet nothing could damp their
enthusiasm. As they watched the sports they shouted and
cheered on their friends and favourites; in their excitement
they sprang from their seats, waving their arms, or their
clothes, embracing their neighbours in their joy.[#]
A special entrance was reserved for the Hellanodicae and
competitors at the north-east corner of the Altis. The vaulted
tunnel which served for this purpose in Roman times still exists.
Through this the Hellanodicae entered first, robed in purple,
with garlands on their heads, and took their places on the
seats reserved for them.[#] After them came the competitors,
and the herald proclaiming their names asked if any one had
any charge against any of them. Each day’s proceedings were
opened by the herald with a solemn proclamation.[#] Sometimes
the Hellanodicas, or some other distinguished person,
delivered an address to the assembled competitors. Each event
in turn was proclaimed by the herald, together with the names
of the competitors, their fathers, and their cities. Possibly the
names were written on a white telegraph board (λεύκωμα). In
the case of any events requiring heats or ties, lots were drawn
in the presence of the Hellanodicae and spectators. The lots
marked with letters of the alphabet were thrown into a silver
urn; each competitor after uttering a prayer to Zeus drew one
in turn, holding it in his hand but not looking at it till all the lots
were drawn. Then the Hellanodicas went round and examined
the lots, arranging the heats or ties accordingly.[#] Each event
was started with a blast of the trumpet, and after each event
the herald proclaimed the victor (Fig. #37:fig037#).
We have seen that the olive crowns were probably presented
// File: 232.png
.pn +1
to the victors at once. These crowns were made of branches
cut from the sacred olive-tree, “the olive of fair crowns” which
stood behind the temple of Zeus. They were cut with a golden
sickle by a boy of pure Greek birth whose parents were both
living, and were placed on a tripod. At the time of which we
are speaking, the old iron tripod had been already replaced by
the ivory and gold table made by Colotes, which was kept in
the temple of Hera.[#] The table was probably set beside the seats
of the Hellanodicae. There, when the herald had proclaimed
his name, the victor advanced, having bound his head with
fillets of wool, and the chief Hellanodicas set on his head the
olive crown, and in later times put in his hand the palm of
victory; while the spectators cheered and showered upon him
garlands, flowers, and presents of all sorts. The crowning of
the victor and the showering him with flowers (φυλλοβολία)
are depicted on the interiors of two kylices, in Figs. #25:fig025#, #26:fig026#.[#]
In the case of a tie or dead-heat the crown was not awarded, but
was dedicated to the god; hence the phrases ἱερὸν ποιεῖν, ἱερὸν
γενέσθαι, hieram facere, are used to express a dead-heat or draw.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig025.png w=50% id=fig025 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 25. R.-f. kylix. Bibliothèque Nationale, 532.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 25. R.-f. kylix. Bibliothèque Nationale, 532.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig026.png w=50% id=fig026 alt="R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll."
.ca Fig. 26. R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 26. R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll.]
.if-
Then in the evening, beneath the brightness of the mid-month
moon, the precinct rang with revelry and song. The victors
and their friends in festal attire, with garlands on their heads,
// File: 233.png
.pn +1
went in glad procession round the Altis, while crowds of fellow-citizens
chanted to the accompaniment of the flute the old
triumphal refrain of Archilochus,[#] or some new hymn of victory
written for the occasion by Pindar or Bacchylides. The victors
wore the crowns which they had won, but there is no ground
for the statement that they dedicated them to Zeus; rather it
seems that they took them home and dedicated them in the
temples of their own cities. The processionals followed by
banquets given by the victors.[#] Alcibiades after his victory in
the chariot-race entertained the whole assembly at a feast, and
borrowed for the occasion all the plate and vessels belonging
to the Athenian theoroi. Anaxilas of Rhegium and his son
Leophron celebrated their victories in like manner. Empedocles
of Aetna being a Pythagorean, and therefore a vegetarian, had
an ox made of costly spices, which he distributed to the spectators.
The banquets often lasted all night long, and in the morning
the victors paid their vows and offered sacrifices to the gods to
whom they owed their victories.
The most brilliant of all the ceremonies was the great sacrifice
to Zeus on the morning after the full moon. The victors,
the officials and the representatives of the different states, went
in stately procession to the altar, where a hecatomb of oxen
was sacrificed by the Eleans. This was the opportunity for
the theoroi to display their magnificence and the wealth of
their cities. So we can understand the indignation of the
Athenians at Alcibiades[#] when instead of returning to the
theoroi the vessels which he had borrowed for his banquet
the evening before, he used them the next morning for his private
offering; so that when a few hours later the Athenian theoroi
took part in the public procession, the positions were reversed,
and the magnificence of the State appeared but as the reflection
of the magnificence of a private citizen.
Of the sacrifices, processions, and rejoicings on the last day
of the festival we know no details save that in the evening all the
victors were entertained at a public banquet in the Prytaneum.
The rewards and honours which they received on their return
home have been described in a previous chapter.
.fn #
L. Weniger, Clio, 1905, pp. 1-38.
.fn-
.fn #
L. Weniger, Clio, 1904, pp. 126 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. p. 127, n. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Quoted in Schol. Pindar, Ol. v. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. v. 6 ὑπὸ βουθυσίαις ἀέθλων τε πεμπταμέροις ἁμίλλαις. The
reading and interpretation are much disputed. The scholiasts certainly interpreted
πεμπταμέροις “as lasting five days,” and even if the reading πεμπταμέροις is
correct, the occurrence of the form πεμπτάς for πεμπάσ, and the analogy
of forms like ὀγδώκοντα, ἑβδομήκοντα make this meaning at least possible, while
there is considerable evidence against the rendering “fifth-day contests.” Mie,
Quaestiones Agonisticae, p. 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Schol. Pindar, Ol. v. 8, iii. 33.
.fn-
.fn #
Schol. vet. Pindar, Ol. v. 8 πεμπταμέροις ἁμίλλαις· ἐπεὶ ἐπὶ πέντα ἡμέρασ
῎θγετο αὐτὰ τὰ ἀγωνίσματα.
.fn-
.fn #
v. 9, 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Hellen. vii. 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Carl Robert in Hermes xxxv.; C. Gaspar in Dar.-Sagl. s.v. “Olympia.” It had
been my intention to discuss Robert’s theory in the J.H.S., but I find that
nearly all my objections to it have been anticipated by Frederic Mie in Philologus,
lx. Mie’s own theory has in its turn been superseded by Weniger’s, which alone
offers a satisfactory explanation both of Xenophon and of Pausanias.
.fn-
.fn #
Robert’s theory of the two sacrifices of thanksgiving offered after the
pentathlon and horse-races on the 3rd and 5th days of the festival is pure fiction,
and has been conclusively disproved by Mie, l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Clio, 1904, p. 127; Krause, Olympia, p. 84.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 15, 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Quaest. Symp. ii. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 13, 3. The same order is twice adopted by Philostratus in Gym.
ch. 4 and 32.
.fn-
.fn #
If the final of the stade-race followed the dolichos, the heats would naturally
precede it, so as to allow competitors a rest between the heats and the final.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 6, 5; vi. 15, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Plut. Quaest. Symp. ii. 5, 2; Paus. iii. 14, 3; Phil. Gym. 7; Artemidorus,
Oneirocrit. i. 65.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 24, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Timon, 50.
.fn-
.fn #
Robert and Mie hold that the crowns were presented after each event,
Weniger that they were all presented on the 16th.
.fn-
.fn #
Schol. Pindar, Ol. v. 8 τῆς ἑκκαιδεκάτης ἐν ᾖ τὰ ἆθλα ἐδίδοτο. This is
possibly a paraphrase of an earlier scholion on Ol. iii. 35 καὶ τῃ ἑκκαιδεκάτῃ
γίνεται ἡ κρίσις.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 21, 14.
.fn-
.fn #
Africanus, 6, 67, R.
.fn-
.fn #
Imag. ii. 6. This passage is particularly important, as the picture represents
the very moment after the contest is over.
.fn-
.fn #
In Homer the prizes are set at the finish of the race, or beside the ring, and
are awarded immediately afterwards. They are represented similarly on black-figured
vases. The same idea is suggested by the well-known epigram on Myron’s
statue of Ladas, Anth. Pal. xvi. 54 πηδήσει τάχα χαλκὸς ἐπὶ στέφος.
.fn-
.fn #
Weniger, Clio, 1905, pp. 184-218.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 21. 13, 14. Cp. Ol. Ins. 56, l. 20-30, regulations for the Augustalia
at Naples, which were modelled on those of Olympia. Athletes were required
to give in their names to the Agonothetai thirty days beforehand; if they
failed to give full information, they incurred a fine; if a competitor arrived late,
he had to report the cause to the Agonothetai, and any one might lodge a protest
against him; if found guilty, he was disqualified from competing.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostr. Gym. 11, 18, 54.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. 25; Paus. vi. 23, 24.
.fn-
.fn #
Vit. Apoll. Tyan. v. 43.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 16, 8.
.fn-
.fn #
The statement that they quitted Elis a month before the festival is quite
inconsistent with the account given by Pausanias vi. 23, 24, and with the
narrative in Lucian’s De Morte Peregrini, ch. 31, 32. The scene of the earlier
chapters is laid in Elis, where the Hellanodicae are training the athletes. From
Elis Lucian goes straight on to the festival at Olympia. Perhaps the procession
from Elis to Olympia took place on the 10th or 11th of the month.
.fn-
.fn #
v. 24, 9.
.fn-
.fn #
Dio Cass. lxxix. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Pind. Ol. v. 6; i. 90.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 20, 15; vii. 17, 14.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Pal. xi. 16, 33.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostrat. Im. ii. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
The evidence for most of the statements contained in this paragraph is late.
It will be found in Krause, Olympia, pp. 138, 139.
.fn-
.fn #
Quoted in Julian, p. 318:
.pm verse-start
Ἄρχει μὲν Ἀγων, τῶν καλλίστων
Αθλων ταμίας. καιρὸς δε καλεῖ
μηκέτι μέλλειν. ἀλλὰ κλύοντες
τὰν ἁμετέραν κάρυκα βοάν....
Ιτ’ ἐς ἀντίπαλον ἴστασθε κρίσιν
Νίκης δε τέλος Ζηνὶ μελήσει.
.pm verse-end
A similar proclamation closed the proceedings, vide Lucian, Demonax, 65. Cp.
Clio, 1904, pp. 141, 142.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Hermotim. 39.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 20, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Arch. Zeit., 1853, 52, 3; Gerl. A. V. 274, 1. Cp. Stephani, O. R. Atlas,
1874, pl. vii.; Krause, Olympia, p. 173.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 54, and notes thereon.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. ix. 1, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Olympia, pp. 180, 181.
.fn-
.fn #
Pseudo-Andocides, iv. 29, p. 126.
.fn-
// File: 234.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap10
CHAPTER X | THE PYTHIAN, ISTHMIAN, AND NEMEAN FESTIVALS
.sp 2
.if h
.il fn=fig027.png w=80% id=fig027 alt="Imperial coins of Delphi, in British Museum (enlarged)."
.ca Fig. 27. Imperial coins of Delphi, in British Museum (enlarged). (a) Prize table. (b) Crown of bay leaves.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 27. Imperial coins of Delphi, in British Museum (enlarged).
(a) Prize table. (b) Crown of bay leaves.]
.if-
.sp 2
.h3
(1) The Pythia
.sp 2
We have seen how in 582 B.C. the old local musical festival
which had been held at Delphi every eight years was transformed
into a Panhellenic four-yearly festival with an athletic
and equestrian programme copied from Olympia under the
presidency of the amphictyonic league. Delphi now became
a second centre of this league, which consisted originally of the
twelve tribes dwelling round the shrine of Demeter at Phylae
or Anthela. The league was administered by a council
composed of two representatives from each tribe, the Hieromnemones,
who met twice a year in spring and autumn at Phylae
and Delphi alternately. Their autumn meeting must have
coincided every fourth year with the Pythian festival which
took place in the month of Boukatios, about the end of
August. An amphictyonic law of the year 380 B.C.[#] contains
full details of the duties of the Hieromnemones. Besides the
general care of the sacred territory, precinct, monuments, and
revenues, they were responsible for all the preparations
necessary for the Pythia. They saw to the repairs of the
stadium, hippodrome, and other buildings; they arranged the
programme, made provision for the sacrifices and processions;
they saw that the sacred truce was duly proclaimed, and sent
invitations to the various states of Greece, while each
// File: 235.png
.pn +1
Hieromnemon was individually responsible for the state of the
roads and bridges by which the official theorioi would travel to
the festival. At the games themselves certain of their number,
with the title of ἐπιμεληταί, acted as stewards and judges, and
presented the laurel crowns to the victors. The actual
presidency at the games seems usually to have been entrusted
to the Thessalians, whose influence predominated in the league.
Though as a festival the Pythia were second only to the
Olympia, it may be doubted whether from a purely athletic
point of view they equalled in importance the Nemea or even
the Isthmia. The Peloponnese was, as we have seen, the real
home of Greek athletics, and, moreover, musical competitions
seem always to have held the chief place at Delphi, as was
but fitting in the precinct of Apollo. The chief event in
the musical programme remained throughout all time the
ancient Hymn to Apollo, sung to the lyre (κιθαρωδία), recounting
his victory over the Python. Chrysothemis, Philammon,
and Thamyris were among the legendary victors in this competition,
which was said to have been won in the seventh
century four times in succession by Terpander of Lesbos. In
582 two competitions were added: one in singing to the flute
(αὐλωδία)—a competition which was, however, at once discontinued—and
a solo on the flute, which, like the ancient
hymn, represented the various phases in the contest between
Apollo and the Python. This was the celebrated Pythian
nome. The prize was won in 582, and on two subsequent
occasions, by Sacadas of Argos; and Pythocritus of Sicyon is
credited with no less than six successive victories, probably at
the close of the sixth century. Pindar’s twelfth Pythian ode
was written to celebrate the victory of Midas of Agrigentum
in flute-playing. The musical programme was completed in
558 B.C. by the introduction of a competition in playing on
the lyre, of a somewhat similar character. The first winner
was Agesilaus of Tegea. Under the Empire dramatic and
poetical competitions took place at the Pythia; but we cannot
say whether they existed at an earlier date. If we may trust
Pliny’s[#] statement, there must have been a competition in
painting in the fifth century; for he tells us that Timagoras
of Chalcis defeated Panaenus, the brother or nephew of
Pheidias.
// File: 236.png
.pn +1
Next in importance to the musical competitions were the
chariot and horse races, which rivalled in popularity even those
at Olympia. At first they were confined, as at Olympia, to
the four-horse chariot and the horse race. The pair-horse
chariot-race (συνωρίς) and the chariot-race for colts were
introduced at Delphi in 398 B.C. and 378 B.C., only a few years
after their introduction at Olympia. The remaining two
events, the synoris for colts and the riding race for colts, which
were introduced at Delphi in 338 B.C. and 314 B.C., did not
figure at Olympia till the next century. The popularity of
horse-racing at Delphi was due to the wide-spread influence of
the Delphic oracle among the Greek colonies, and particularly
to the intimate connexion between Delphi and the great horse-breeding
lands of Northern Greece, which belonged to the
Thessalian Amphictyony; at a later time also to the influence
of Macedon. Delphi was no less accessible than Olympia to
the Greeks on either side of the Corinthian Gulf, and to the
colonies of the West, and of Africa. The earliest victor in the
chariot-race was Cleisthenes of Sicyon, and in the fifth century
we find among the victors Megacles, the Alcmaeonid of Athens;
Hieron of Syracuse, twice victor in the horse-race, once in the
chariot-race; Xenocrates of Agrigentum, for whom Pindar
wrote his earliest hymn of victory; and Arcesilas of Cyrene.
The “Charioteer” is supposed by some archaeologists to be
part of the monument commemorating the victory of Arcesilas.
Still more significant than these names is the number of
competitors. Pindar, in his ode on the victory of Arcesilas,
states that in this race no less than forty chariots fell. The
entries, then, must have been still more numerous. We may
doubt whether such a field was possible at Olympia. The
princes of the West can have formed but a small portion of
the entries; few of them can have cared to undertake the
expense and labour necessary to compete so far from home
unless they had a good prospect of success. A field of forty
implies large entries from the home district, and the home
district of Delphi afforded an abundant supply of competitors.
Northern Greece was a land of horses, and therefore, as
Aristotle remarks, of oligarchies. Thessaly, in particular, was
famed for producing the finest horses in Greece, and Thebes
was famous for its chariots.[#] In both countries the power
// File: 237.png
.pn +1
was in the hand of the land-owning classes, whose wealth
consisted largely in their studs of horses. In Thessaly cavalry
were first organized and employed for war. Thebes was
credited with the first victory in the chariot-race, Thessaly
with the first victory in the horse-race at Olympia. They had
celebrated local festivals. Pindar’s second Pythian is in honour
of a victory in the chariot-race won by Hieron at some Theban
festival, either the Heraclea or the Iolaea, and the thirteenth
ode of Bacchylides celebrates the victory of Cleoptolemus of
Thessaly in the Thessalian Petraea. Some idea of the proportion
of local entries at the Pythia may be formed from the
list of competitors given in the description of the chariot-race
in the Electra of Sophocles. There are ten competitors. One
comes from Sparta, one from Achaea; Orestes himself is
proclaimed an Argive, but drives a team of Thessalian horses;
two are Libyans from Barca, which reminds us of the victory
of Arcesilas; the remaining five are an Athenian, a Boeotian,
an Aetolian, a Magnesian, and an Aenianian. The Magnetes
and Aenianes were Thessalian tribes belonging to the ancient
Amphictyony. Thus five came from Northern Greece, two
from the colonies, and three from the Peloponnese, if we
suppose the Achaean to belong to the Peloponnesian and not
to the Thessalian Achaeans. The few records which we possess
of the fourth century and later suggest that the competition
was now practically confined to Northern Greece, the only
exception being the victory of Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus,
in 314 B.C., and he, though king of Egypt, was a Macedonian.
In the second century there seem to have been horse-races in
connexion with the official deputations, Pythaids, sent from
time to time from Athens to Delphi; but these deputations had
no necessary connexion with the Pythian games. In Roman
times we find no mention of horse or chariot races at Delphi,
and we may therefore assume that, owing to the impoverishment
of Greece, these competitions had ceased to exist.
The athletic programme was the same as that of Olympia,
with the addition of two races for boys, the diaulos and the
dolichos. In 498 B.C. the race in armour, which had been
introduced at Olympia a few years previously, was introduced
at Delphi, and in 346 B.C. the boys’ pankration, which did
not appear at Olympia till 200 B.C. The strong local element
which we have noticed in the horse-races is apparent in athletics,
// File: 238.png
.pn +1
and in the fifth century the festival also attracted numerous
athletes from the colonies of the West. Many of those who
were victorious at Olympia were also victorious at Delphi.
The scanty records do not allow us to draw definite conclusions;
but it seems probable that the athletic competition did not
reach the same standard as in the festivals of the more
athletic Peloponnese. Of individual athletes in the fifth century
Phayllus of Croton and Agias of Thessaly deserve especial
mention. Phayllus, who served with distinction in the Persian
wars, won two victories in the pentathlon and one in the
stade-race, which were commemorated by a statue the basis of
which still exists. Agias was a pankratiast of the fifth century.
Daochus, a member of the same family, two generations later
set up in Thessaly a group of bronze statues representing those
of his family who had distinguished themselves, including a
statue of Agias by Lysippus. A replica of this statue in
marble has been found at Delphi (Fig. #20:fig020#).
In Pindar’s time the athletic competitions as well as the
horse-races took place not at Delphi but in the Crisaean plain
below. The horse-races continued to be held there, Delphi
itself affording no suitable space for a hippodrome. But in
the second half of the fifth century the athletics were transferred
to a new stadium constructed above the precinct of Apollo.
The change is connected by M. Homolle with an attempt of
the Phocians to reassert their rights to the control of the
games at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.[#] The
fourth century was one of great activity among the states
of Northern Greece, in Thebes, in Thessaly, and in Macedon,
and the Pythian festival regained the importance which it had
somewhat lost owing to the doubtful part played by Delphi
and the Northern States in the struggle with Persia. The
Pythian games appealed to the ambitious rulers of Thessaly
and Macedon in the same way as the Olympic games had to
the tyrants of an earlier age. Jason of Pherae usurped the
presidency of the games, and was preparing to celebrate them
with extraordinary magnificence when his ambition was cut
short by his murder. Philip of Macedon was more politic.
By espousing the cause of the Amphictyons against the Phocians
in the Sacred war he won their gratitude, and was appointed
by them as president of the games. The new activity at Delphi
// File: 239.png
.pn +1
may be seen in the numerous additions to the programme made
in this century. The gymnasium was built in this period,
and Aristotle undertook the task of drawing up a register of
Pythian victors, being assisted in the task by his nephew
Callistratus. A copy of this register was placed in the temple
of Apollo.[#]
In 290 B.C. during the war between Demetrius Poliorketes
and Pyrrhus, the roads leading to Delphi were in possession
of the Aetolians, and Demetrius therefore ordered the Pythia
to be celebrated at Athens, there being, he said, no more fitting
place for the worship of Apollo than Athens, where he was
regarded as the father of the race. The intimate relations
between Athens and Delphi at this period are proved by the
splendid deputations the Pythaids, as they were called, sent
to Delphi from time to time.[#] The splendour of the Pythaids
reached its height in the second century. Their arrival at
Delphi was celebrated by equestrian, musical and dramatic
displays and competitions; but these deputations did not
necessarily coincide with the Pythian festival, and after the
capture of Athens by Sulla in 87 B.C. they practically ceased.
We know little of the Pythian games under the Empire:
we have the names of a few victors, many of them in musical
or dramatic competitions, others professional periodonikai.
Nero won the Pythian crown, and in return for it carried off
hundreds of works of art from Delphi to Rome. At a later
period Herodes Atticus rebuilt the stadium in the form in
which it exists to-day. The Pythian games still existed in the
time of the Emperor Julian, and were probably abolished finally
at the end of the fourth century when the Olympic games
were abolished.
The festival must have lasted several days, but the precise
duration is unknown. The musical competitions appear to
have come first, then the athletic events, and lastly the chariot
and horse races. The boys’ events were not, as at Olympia,
grouped together; but each boys’ competition preceded the
corresponding competition for men.[#] The prize was a wreath
// File: 240.png
.pn +1
of bay leaves plucked in the vale of Tempe by a boy whose
parents were both living. It is represented on one of the coins
in Fig. #27:fig027#, while the other coin shows the prize table and on
it a crow, five apples, a vase and a laurel wreath. As at
Olympia, the victors had the privilege of erecting their statues
in or near the precinct. The chief religious ceremony of the
festival must have been the official procession along the sacred
way to the temple of Apollo.
.sp 2
.if h
.il fn=fig028.png w=60% id=fig028 alt="Imperial coin of Corinth, in British Museum."
.ca Fig. 28. Imperial coin of Corinth, in British Museum (enlarged).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 28. Imperial coin of Corinth, in British Museum (enlarged).]
.if-
.sp 2
.h3
(2) The Isthmia
.sp 2
The Isthmian festival, though inferior in athletic standard
to the Olympia and in sanctity to the Pythia, was perhaps
the most frequented of all the Panhellenic festivals.[#] It was
held in the second and fourth year of each Olympiad, under
the presidency of Corinth; and though there is some doubt
as to the exact date, it seems certain that it was held in the
spring, probably in April or early May.[#] No festival was so
central and so accessible to all parts of the Greek world, whether
by land or sea, and no place offered such innumerable attractions
to visitors of every sort as Corinth, the city of commerce
and of pleasure. The description which Dion Chrysostom has
left of the crowds which flocked to the Isthmia in the first
century A.D. has already been quoted. It reminds one of the
crowd at a modern race-meeting, where princes, statesmen,
// File: 241.png
.pn +1
millionaires, jostle with beggars, mountebanks, and sharpers.
“The Isthmian festival,” says Livy,[#] “owed its popularity not
only to the national love of witnessing contests of every sort in
arts or strength or agility, but especially to the advantageous
situation of the Isthmus, which, commanding the resources of
two seas, was the natural meeting-place of the human race,
the mart of Greece and Asia.” In these words we have, summed
up, the essential characteristics of the Isthmia, the attractiveness
and variety of their programme, their cosmopolitanism,
and last but not least their commercial importance. Livy is
speaking of the time in the opening years of the second century,
when Flamininus proclaimed the liberty of Greece at the
Isthmian festival. We cannot doubt that he had also in
his mind the revived splendour of the festival in his own time,
since Corinth which had been destroyed by Mummius had
been refounded by Julius Caesar and become the capital of
Achaia. Of the earlier history of the festival we unfortunately
know little; but the few notices which have survived indicate
that from the very first the character of the festival differed
little from that ascribed to it by Livy and Dion Chrysostom.
The reorganization of the ancient local festival in honour of
Poseidon as a Panhellenic trieteris seems to have taken place
either during the closing years of the Cypselidae, or shortly
after their fall. These princes had laid the foundation of the
maritime and commercial greatness of Corinth, which, under
their patronage, took the lead in trade and literature and
art. From this time her wealth and luxury were proverbial;
but wealth and luxury are not the soil on which athletics
flourish best. Corinth was not an athletic state; few great
athletes hailed from her, and, whatever athletic vigour existed
in early times in families such as the Oligaethidae soon died
away. The character of the Isthmia cannot fail to have been
determined by the character and relations of Corinth.
Corinth, though traditionally Dorian, had little in common
with the other Dorian states of the Peloponnese. All her
sympathies were Ionian. With the Ionians of the East she
was closely connected by that trade which was the basis of her
wealth, and by the common worship of Poseidon. The influence
of the East is clearly marked in the early art of Corinth,
especially in her pottery. Equally close were her relations
// File: 242.png
.pn +1
with Athens. We have seen that Theseus was one of the
reputed founders of the Isthmia; and that the Athenian
theoroi had a special place of privilege at the festival. Indeed,
the Isthmia seem almost to have been regarded as an Attic
festival, and were an occasion of merry-making, a sort of public
holiday for all classes of Athens, even for slaves. Many an
Athenian was debarred from visiting Olympia by the length of
the journey, the heat, and other discomforts of the festival
itself. The Isthmia suffered from no such drawbacks; it was
but a few hours’ journey, either by land or sea; the festival
took place in the spring; Corinth offered ample accommodation
for such as could afford it; those who could not afford it might
take their tents with them and encamp in the neighbourhood.
Under these circumstances it is reasonable to suppose that the
Isthmia bore more resemblance to the Panathenaea, or even to
the Delia, both of which festivals were also said to have been
founded by Theseus, than they did to the more strenuous
Olympia; and such few facts as we know about the programme
confirm this idea.
It is perhaps to this essential difference in character that we
may ascribe the sort of feud existing between the Olympia and
the Isthmia. The Olympia were accounted “the most athletic”
of all festivals.[#] The inferiority of the Isthmia in athletic
prestige is proved by the fact that Solon assigned only 100
drachmae to a winner at the Isthmia, while he assigned 500
to an Olympic winner.
Of the history of the Isthmia in the fifth and fourth centuries
we know practically nothing. The records of victories in the
games are too scanty to enable us to form any trustworthy
conclusions;[#] as far as they go they indicate that the athletic
competition was far more local than at Olympia. There are
hardly any names of victors recorded from Sicily and Italy
which figure so largely in the Olympic records. With the
exception of a few periodonikai the competitors come chiefly
from Corinth, Aegina, Thebes, and Athens, and some of the
islands of the Aegean. Bacchylides in his Second Ode on
Argeius of Ceos mentions that at this date the Ceans had
already won seventy victories at the Isthmus, and a Cean
inscription, now at Athens, records numerous victories which
they had won at the Isthmia and the Nemea, including victories
// File: 243.png
.pn +1
of Argeius.[#] The Oligaethidae of Corinth had, according to
Pindar, themselves won sixty crowns at these two festivals,
and the Timodemidae of Athens had won eight victories at the
Isthmus and seven at the Nemea. We can find no such records
as these at Olympia.[#]
During the Peloponnesian war the festival must have
suffered greatly from the enforced absence of the Athenians.
In the Peace of Aristophanes, written shortly after the peace
of Nicias, one of the slaves expresses his delight at the
prospect of once more taking part in the Isthmia.[#] The
Corinthians had probably equal cause for rejoicing; without
the Athenians and their allies the festival must have been
shorn of half its splendour. A few years later, in 412 B.C., we
find the Corinthians insisting vigorously on the observance of
the Isthmian truce, and turning a deaf ear to the suggestions of
Sparta for a joint expedition to free Chios from the Athenian
yoke.[#] They even invited the Athenians to the festival, and
thus enabled them to discover the plot of the Chians, and to
destroy the fleet which sailed for Chios at the conclusion of the
festival. The policy of Corinth was to preserve the balance of
power. Her bitter opposition to Athens was the natural result
of commercial rivalry, but the supremacy of Sparta was still
less to her liking, and within a few years of the humiliation of
Athens we find her leagued with Athens, Thebes, and Argos
in an anti-Spartan league. The Spartans had no scruples as
to the observance of festivals, except when it suited their convenience;
and Agesilaus, with certain Corinthian exiles of the
Spartan party, actually invaded Corinth during the progress
of the Isthmia.[#] The games were being conducted by the
Corinthians and Argives, who seem to have been for a time
united into one state. On the approach of Agesilaus they took
to flight, and Agesilaus himself encamped in the sacred precinct,
while the Corinthian exiles offered the customary sacrifice to
Poseidon and conducted the games. When Agesilaus withdrew,
the Argives returned and celebrated the festival all over again.
From this point we hear no more of the Isthmia till the
// File: 244.png
.pn +1
Romans began to interfere in Greek politics. The cosmopolitanism
of the festival and the commercial importance of
the Isthmus as the meeting-place of East and West naturally
appealed to the Romans, and a new era of prosperity opened
for the Isthmia, which for a time seemed likely to eclipse even
Olympia. The Corinthians had no narrow national prejudices,
and allowed the Romans to take part in the Isthmia as early
as 228 B.C.[#] Consequently, it was at the Isthmus and not at
Olympia that Flamininus proclaimed the liberty of the Greeks
in 196 B.C. Even the destruction of Corinth was not allowed
to interrupt the festival which continued to be held under the
presidency of Sicyon till the rebuilding of Corinth by Julius
Caesar.[#] Under the Empire Corinth became richer and more
luxurious, and the Isthmian festival more popular than ever.
The enthusiasm for athletic spectacles at Corinth seems to have
made a deep impression on St. Paul. Preachers are wont to
draw glowing pictures of the Isthmian games in this connexion.
But few perhaps realize how corrupt and degraded were Greek
athletics during St. Paul’s lifetime, and nowhere were they
more degraded than at the Isthmia. Yet in outward appearance
the festival had never been more brilliant. Most of the
buildings, which excavations of the sanctuary of Poseidon have
revealed, belong to the period of Augustus and his successors.[#]
Nero was so deeply impressed with the importance of the site
that he conceived the idea of cutting a canal through the
Isthmus, and was only prevented from doing so by the opposition
of certain ignorant scientists, who maintained that the level
of the sea was different in the Gulf of Corinth and in the
Aegean.[#] However, he took part in person at the Isthmia, and
issued a letter summoning the Greek world to the festival, a
copy of which has been recovered.[#] It appears that to suit
the emperor’s convenience the festival was postponed from the
spring to November, or perhaps it was celebrated a second time
the same year. He was proclaimed victor in singing to the
lyre and also in the heralds’ competition; and in obedience to
his wishes a competition in tragedy was added to the programme,
though, according to Lucian, such competitions were
barred by a special Isthmian law. He was forced, moreover,
to resort to force in order to secure his victory; for a certain
// File: 245.png
.pn +1
Epirote, possessed of a fine voice and less complaisant than the
officials, refused to withdraw from the competition unless the
emperor paid him ten talents; and Nero, recognizing that he
would be defeated, despatched a band of his creatures, who so
battered and ill-treated the Epirote as to spoil his voice.
Finally, in imitation of Flamininus, he went through the farce
of bestowing freedom on the province, and himself proclaimed
his clemency standing in the middle of the stadium.
The venality of athletics at the Isthmia under the Empire is
evident from the story already quoted of a disappointed athlete,
who actually took proceedings to recover the amount of a bribe,
and published his own shame before all the assembled crowds.[#]
Such an incident implies a degraded public opinion and the
absence of all true love of sport. Indeed, it is evident from
Dion Chrysostom that the Corinthians and Athenians had
already acquired from the Romans a taste for the more exciting
and more brutal exhibitions of the amphitheatre.[#] The festival
seems to have survived down to the time of the Emperor
Julian; but there was no longer any interest in athletic or
musical competitions. The vast sums spent by the Corinthians
on their games were spent, the emperor tells us, in the purchase
of bears and leopards to be hunted in the arena.[#]
The sanctuary of Poseidon where the Isthmian games were
held has been excavated, but the excavations throw little
light on the history of the games themselves. It consisted
of a small acropolis surrounded by a wall, the north side
of which was formed by the great military wall that guarded
the Isthmus. The sacred way, according to Pausanias, was
lined on one side by a row of pine trees, on the other by
statues of athletes who had won victories at the festival.
Traces have been found of the temples of Poseidon and
Palaemon, of the sacred way, of the theatre, and of the
stadium, but all are of late date. The stadium lay in a
ravine, formed by a stream which must have been diverted
from its course, but has now returned to it. It was about
650 feet long. It was seated with marble; and some traces
of the seats survive. An inscription in honour of Publius
Licinius Priscus, a Roman citizen of Corinth who lived in
the second century A.D., records that he built a stoa adjoining
the stadium with vaulted rooms opening into it.[#] The same
// File: 246.png
.pn +1
benefactor provided, at his own expense, buildings for the
accommodation of the athletes, who came to the Isthmia
from “all the inhabited world,” and repaired various buildings
which had suffered from the ravages of time and earthquakes
including the “judging-rooms” (ἐγκριτηρίονς οἴκους), by which
phrase, apparently, are meant the rooms where competitors
were examined and classified. No traces of these buildings
have been found, nor has the site of the hippodrome been
discovered.
.if h
.il fn=fig029.png w=60% id=fig029 alt="Silver Vase."
.ca Fig. 29. Silver Vase. Bibliothèque Nationale. Imperial period.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 29. Silver Vase. Bibliothèque Nationale. Imperial period.]
.if-
The festival must have lasted several days. It began
with a sacrifice to Poseidon,[#] and included athletic, equestrian,
and musical competitions, and perhaps also a regatta. The
athletic and equestrian events differed little from those at
other festivals. There were separate competitions for men,
youths, and boys, and the youths’ competitions included the
pankration.[#] There was also, as at Nemea, a four stades’ or
hippios foot-race.[#] The multiplication of boys’ events here, as
// File: 247.png
.pn +1
at Nemea and at the Panathenaea, indicates the comparatively
local character of the competition at these festivals.
From the connexion of the festival with Poseidon we should
expect to find that the equestrian events were an important
part of the programme. Herodotus of Thebes and Xenocrates
of Agrigentum won the chariot-race in Pindar’s time,[#] and somewhat
later one Theochrestus of Cyrene and two Spartans,
Xenarches and Polycles.[#] A horse named Lycus had in the
sixth century won two victories for Pheidolas of Corinth or
his sons.[#] These are all the records that we possess; but the
occurrence of the two-horse chariot on coins of Commodus may
perhaps be an indication that chariot-racing still took place at
the Isthmia under the Empire.
There is no mention of musical contests previous to the
third century B.C., when a certain Nicocles of Tarentum won
six victories as kitharodos.[#] He claims apparently to have
been the first victor in this competition, but the existence
of musical competitions from the earliest days of the festival
is rendered probable by the tradition that in mythical times
Olympus was victorious in flute-playing, Orpheus on the
lyre, Linus in song, and Eumolpus in singing to the lyre
and the flute.[#] In Roman times there were numerous musical
competitions. There must also have been poetical competitions.
The poetess Aristomacha of Erythrae is stated to have won
a prize at the Isthmia, and a pupil of Herodes won a prize
for an enkomion.[#] During the Hellenistic age it seems
probable that there were dramatic competitions held in
connexion with the guilds of Dionysiac players, but these
competitions must have disappeared under the Empire.
Finally, Pliny asserts that at the Isthmus as at Delphi, a
competition in painting existed in the time of Panaenus.[#]
The only evidence for the regatta is the statement that
in mythical times the Argo won the boat-race at the Isthmus.
The Isthmus was certainly a fitting place for such a race:
there were boat-races at the Panathenaea, and the Athenian
theoria came to the Isthmia in a ship. But we have no
definite information on the point.
// File: 248.png
.pn +1
In Pindar’s time the Isthmian crown[#] was made of wild
celery, dry celery, as the scholiast explains, to distinguish
it from the fresh celery of which the Nemean crown was
made. According to later writers the Isthmian crown was
of pine leaves; the pine tree was sacred to Poseidon, and
an avenue of pines lined the sacred road at the Isthmus.
It seems not unlikely that the original crown was of pine
leaves, and this practice was revived under the Empire.
On the coins of Augustus and Nero the celery crown is
still represented, while on those of Antoninus Pius and
Verus, we see the inscription Ἴσθμια encircled by a crown of
pine leaves[#] (Fig. #28:fig028#).
.if h
.il fn=fig030.png w=80% id=fig030 alt="Scene from Silver Vase."
.ca Fig. 30. Scene from Silver Vase (Fig. 29).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 30. Scene from Silver Vase (Fig. 29).]
.if-
A scene connected with the Isthmian games occurs on a
silver cup, which was part of an offering dedicated to Mercurius
of Canetum by Q. Domitius Tutus (Figs. #29:fig029#, #30:fig030#). To the left
is a victorious athlete crowned, and holding in his hands a
palm branch. Before him is a table on which stands a herm,
to which he has dedicated a fillet and a crown, which curiously
appears to be of oak leaves, not of pine or celery. Beyond
the table is seated an Agonothetes; and a woman holding a
torch stands next to him. In spite of the crown of oak,
the identification of the scene with the Isthmia is rendered
certain by the representation of the Acrocorinthus and
// File: 249.png
.pn +1
Pegasus, to whom a nymph gives water from the fountain
of Peirene.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig031.png w=60% id=fig031 alt="Imperial coin of Argos."
.ca Fig. 31. Imperial coin of Argos, in British Museum (enlarged).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 31. Imperial coin of Argos, in British Museum (enlarged).]
.if-
.sp 2
.h3
(3) The Nemea
.sp 2
Little is known of the history of the Nemean games. Their
importance dates from the year 573 B.C., when they were re-organized
as a Panhellenic festival. This year was reckoned
as the first Nemead, and from this date the games were
held regularly every two years in the deep-lying vale of Nemea,
“beneath the shadeless hills of Phlious.” The presidency
of the games belonged to the neighbouring town of Cleonae,
until about the year 460 B.C. it was usurped by the Argives,
and in spite of rival claims it remained in their hands ever
afterwards. The control of a Panhellenic festival was of
considerable political importance, and the Argives had no
scruple in manipulating the sacred truce to their own interests.
On more than one occasion, it seems, a Spartan invasion had
been met by sacred heralds proclaiming the sacred truce.[#]
At last, Agesipolis in 390 B.C. appealed to Olympian Zeus and
Pythian Apollo for leave to disregard the fraudulent truce,
and, having obtained their approval, marched through Nemea,
and gave such a lesson to the Argives that they never again
tried to shelter themselves behind the truce.
// File: 250.png
.pn +1
At some date between this event and the close of the
third century, the festival itself was transferred to Argos.
Aratus, when engaged in war with Argos, made an attempt
to restore the festival to the Cleonaeans who had joined
the Achaean league.[#] The games were once more held at
Nemea, and the athletes who had gone to compete at the
rival games at Argos were, in defiance of the sacred truce,
arrested and sold as slaves by the Achaeans. But the attempt
of Aratus failed, and the festival continued to be held at
Argos under Argive presidency. It was at Argos probably
that musical competitions were first introduced into the
festival. Plutarch[#] relates how Philopoemen, after defeating
the Spartan tyrant Machanidas in the battle of Mantinea,
came to Argos and reviewed his troops before the people
assembled for the games. He entered the theatre during
the musical competitions at the moment when the musician
Pylades was reciting the opening verse of the Persae of
Timotheus—
.pm verse-start
The palm of liberty for Greece I won—
.pm verse-end
and the whole assembly, struck by the coincidence, with
one accord hailed him as the saviour of Greece. Philip V.
of Macedon had, some years previously, been appointed by
the Argives to preside over the games on the ground that
the kings of Macedon were of Argive descent, and the same
honour was afterwards bestowed on Flamininus.[#] Under the
Empire the festival was still celebrated at Argos. Hadrian
seems to have revived its glory. He instituted a winter
festival, in which the race in armour was a conspicuous
feature, and he also revived the hippios or four stades’ race
which had fallen into disuse at the Nemea and the Isthmia.[#]
The Argive coins of Antoninus Pius bear the inscription
Νέμεια, surrounded by a celery wreath (Fig. #31:fig031#), and the latter
occurs still later on the coins of Gallienus. Meanwhile the
old Nemean sanctuary had fallen so far into disuse that when
Pausanias visited Nemea, he found the temple of Nemean
Zeus roofless and the statue of the god gone.
Little is left to-day of the Nemean sanctuary, nor has the site
ever been properly excavated. There was no town at Nemea,
// File: 251.png
.pn +1
merely a sanctuary of Zeus with a stadium and a hippodrome,
and we must suppose also a gymnasium. The cypress grove in
which the temple of Zeus stood has disappeared, and of the temple
itself only three pillars are left, sufficient, however, to show that
the temple cannot have been much earlier than the close of the
fifth century. The site of the stadium is also visible in a deep
ravine some 650 feet long, the end of which forms a natural
sphendone. There is no trace of hippodrome or gymnasium.
There are said to be traces of a theatre, but the statement
appears to be doubtful. Possibly the semicircular end of the
stadium has been mistaken for a theatre.[#]
The Nemea took place on the 12th day of the month
Panemos, which seems to correspond approximately to our
July. The old idea that the festival was held alternately in
summer and winter is now abandoned, and it is generally
agreed that the winter Nemea was a local festival founded by
Hadrian. The duration of the festival is unknown; it must
certainly have lasted several days. The prize, as has been
already stated, was a wreath of wild celery (σέλινον), and the
officials, who bore the title of Hellanodicae, wore dusky robes of
mourning in commemoration of the funeral origin of the games.
The athletic programme, like that of the Isthmia, included
numerous events for boys and youths. The boys’ pentathlon
was introduced in the 53rd Nemead, and in the next Nemead
was won by Sogenes of Aegina; and the boys’ pankration, an
event not introduced at Olympia till a much later period, was
won by Pytheas of Aegina, and probably by Argeius of Ceos,
whose victory at the Isthmia has been already noticed.[#] There
was also a hippios-race for boys. Races in armour seem to
have been a special feature of the Nemea. They were run
over the hippios course and were, according to Philostratus, of
great antiquity.[#]
We hear little of equestrian competitions. The chariot-race
and the horse-race are mentioned in the account of the mythical
founding of the games by the Seven Chieftains, and the chariot-race
was won in the fifth century by Chromius of Aetna,
Alcibiades of Athens, and Xenarches of Sparta; after this we
hear no more of it. Nor have we any record of the horse-race
which, if we may argue from the mythical tradition, probably
// File: 252.png
.pn +1
existed. The site of the hippodrome is lost; Pausanias tells us
that its course was twice the length of the stadium.
There was a competition for trumpeters; but we have no
record of musical competitions previous to the transference of the
festival to Argos. The absence of any mention of musical competitions
in the mythological accounts of the founding of the Nemea,
and the association of the Nemea with Zeus and Heracles, makes
it improbable that these events existed in early times. The only
victors in them known to us belong to the time of the Empire.
They are either kitharodoi, singers to the lyre, or Pythaulai,
players of the Pythian nome on the flute. In late times there
were probably dramatic competitions at Nemea, as at the Isthmus.
From the length of the athletic programme and the scarcity
of records of other competitions, we may safely infer that the
interest of the Nemea was almost entirely athletic. In fact, if
Olympia was “the most athletic of all festivals,” Nemea may
almost claim second place. At Delphi the musical competitions
took precedence of the athletic, at the Isthmus there was a
variety of counter-attractions, even at Olympia the chariot-race
rivalled athletics in popularity. At the Nemea, previous
to their transference to Argos, athletics were supreme.[#]
The scanty records of victors in the Nemea seem to show
that in the fifth century competitors came mostly from the
Peloponnese, from Athens, and from the islands of the Aegean.[#]
Particularly numerous are the victors from Aegina, though the
preponderance of this island in the records may be partly
due to the fact of its close connexion with Pindar, most of
the Aeginetan victors being known to us from his odes. The
Cean inscription, to which reference has already been made,
shows that here, as at the Isthmus, the Ceans were constant
competitors. The victories of the Oligaethidae of Corinth and
the Timodemidae of Athens have been already mentioned. On
the other hand, we find few victors at Nemea from either Italy
or Sicily. In the succeeding centuries the interest of the
festival seems to have declined; the few victors known to
us are mostly Peloponnesian; many came from Elis. Under
the Empire the only recorded victors are professionals from
Alexandria and the powerful cities of Asia Minor.
.fn #
C.I.G. 1688.
.fn-
.fn #
N.H. xxxv. 58.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Fr. 83.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H. xxiii. p. 613.
.fn-
.fn #
A list of victors in the Pythian games is given in Krause, Pythien, Nemeen
und Isthmien, pp. 85 ff. Details of the stadium and gymnasium at Delphi will
be found below, pp. #257#, #483#.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H. xxx., 1906, pp. 191-328.
.fn-
.fn #
Plut. Quaest. Symp. ii. 5; Sophocles, El. 698.
.fn-
.fn #
Strabo viii. 6, 20; Aristid. Isthm. 45; Dion of Prusa, Διογ. ἡ Ἵσθμ. etc.
.fn-
.fn #
Unger, Philologus, xxxvii. p. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
xxxiii. 32.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Nero, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, op. cit. p. 209.
.fn-
.fn #
A full account of this inscription is given in Jebb’s Bacchylides, pp. 187 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, O. xiii. 98; N. ii. 22.
.fn-
.fn #
Pax, 880. In this play the personified Theoria comes back to earth in the
train of Eirene, but Theoria is not confined to the Isthmian theoria.
.fn-
.fn #
Thucyd. viii. 9.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Hell. iv. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Polyb. ii. 13.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. ii. 2, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Gaz. Arch., 1884, 1885.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Nero.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H. xii. 510-528.
.fn-
.fn #
Supra, p. #174#.
.fn-
.fn #
Supra, p. #172#.
.fn-
.fn #
Julian, Epist. 35.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. iv. 203.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Hell. iv. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacchylides i., ii.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. ix.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, I. i., ii.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 1, 7; 2, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 13, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 1367.
.fn-
.fn #
Hyginus, Fab. 165, 173.
.fn-
.fn #
Plut. Quaest. Symp. ii. 4, v. 2, viii. 4.
.fn-
.fn #
H.N. xxxv. 58.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, op. cit. p. 197.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Cat., Coins of Corinth, 509-512, 564, 602, 624; cp. I.G. ii. 1320,
where we find Ἴσθμια enclosed in a wreath of pine leaves.
.fn-
.fn #
The cup, which forms part of the Bernay treasure, is in the Cabinet des
médailles at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Le Prevost, Mém. sur la collection des
vases de Bernay, Pls. viii., ix.; Schreiber, Atlas, xxv. 1, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Hell. iv. 7, 2; v. 1, 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, Aratus, 17.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, Philopoemen, 11.
.fn-
.fn #
Livy xxvii. 30, xxxiv. 41.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 16, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Frazer, Pausanias, iii. 91.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, N. v., vii.; Bacchylides, i. xii.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Gym. 7; Paus. vi. 16, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
The athletic character of the Nemea is emphasized in Bacchylides’ Twelfth
Ode, in which the origin of the pankration is traced to the victory of Heracles
over the Nemean lion.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, op. cit. p. 147.
.fn-
// File: 253.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap11
CHAPTER XI | THE ATHLETIC FESTIVALS OF ATHENS
.sp 2
It is impossible within the limits of this work to give any
account of the various local festivals which existed in every
state of Greece. Such an account would too often resolve
itself into a barren list of names. With regard to Athens we
are more fully informed; and from the fifth century onwards
we may regard Athens as typical of the Greek world. A brief
account of the Athenian festivals and competitions will enable
us to form some idea of the part which such events occupied in
the life of the Greeks. Athens was not the most athletic of
the states of Greece; but nowhere was the love of festivals
more developed, and nowhere were competitions more various
and more numerous. The Athenian must have spent a large
portion of his life in attending festivals and witnessing competitions.
In the following list I shall confine myself to those
festivals at which we know that there were competitions, and
to the festivals of Athens; but we must remember that there
were many other festivals in Athens itself, and that there were
numerous competitions, athletic or other, on the borders of Attica,
at which Athenians could attend as spectators or competitors.
The Attic year[#] commenced with the month of Hekatombaion
(July), and in this month took place the great festival
of Athene Polias, the Panathenaea, extending over several days
and attracting visitors from the whole Aegean world. The
lesser Panathenaea were held yearly; the great Panathenaea of
which details will be found below, were held every fourth year,
the third year of each Olympiad.
In the next month, Metageitnion, the feast of the Heraclea
took place at Marathon. These were athletic games which seem
// File: 254.png
.pn +1
to have been much frequented in Pindar’s time.[#] The prize was a
silver cup. There were also Heraclea held at Athens in Cynosarges;
but we have no evidence of any competitions held there.
Next came the Eleusinia in the month of Boedromion, like
the lesser Panathenaea, celebrated yearly; but every second
year of the Olympiad they were celebrated as a trieteris, and
every fourth year as a pentaeteris. On these occasions there
were athletics, horse-races, musical competitions, and a special competition
called “the contest of the fathers” (πάτριος ἀγών), which
seems to have been equestrian in character. As at the feast of
Athene the prize consisted in jars of olive oil, so at Demeter’s
feast it consisted in measures of corn and barley. Epharmostus
of Opous is stated by Pindar to have won a victory in wrestling
at Eleusis, and Herodotus of Thebes in the chariot-race.[#] The
Eleusinia claimed an antiquity greater than that of the Olympia
or the Isthmia, and the earliest athletic implement which we
possess is an inscribed jumping-weight found at Eleusis which
cannot be later than the beginning of the sixth century (Fig. #60:fig060#).
The month of Pyanepsion (October) was a very busy one
for the athletic youth of Athens. First came the Oschophoria,
a festal race in which two boys, chosen from each tribe, raced,
dressed in women’s clothes, from the temple of Dionysus to the
temple of Athene Skiras at Phalerum. They carried bunches
of grapes, and the winner received as his prize a mixed drink,
composed of wine, honey, cheese, flour, and oil.[#] On the sixth
day of the month began the Thesea, the great athletic festival
of the Athenian epheboi, and this was immediately followed
by the Epitaphia. The details of the programme will be discussed
below. Lastly, in connexion with the Apaturia there were
musical competitions and torch-races in honour of Prometheus
and Hephaestus.
With October the athletic season seems to have ended. The
winter months and early spring were occupied with the dramatic
competitions connected with the Dionysia and Lenaea. There
may, of course, have been lesser competitions, of which we
know nothing. At the “Country Dionysia,” for example, there
appear to have been various rustic sports, such as the game
of Askoliasmos,[#] which correspond to such sports as climbing
the greasy pole and other Mayday festivities.
// File: 255.png
.pn +1
The month of Munychion or April was the beginning of
the boating season. At the festival of Munychia there was
a procession in honour of Artemis, followed by boat-races in
the harbour.[#] At a later date these were replaced by a mimic
naval battle, for which prizes were also given.[#] Then the
epheboi sailed to Salamis to celebrate the Aiantea. There were
more boat-races, and also a long-distance foot-race, in which the
youths of Athens competed with the youths of Salamis.
In the same month took place the Athenian Olympia, founded
by the Peisistratidae at the time when they commenced to build
the temple of Olympian Zeus. There were athletic and equestrian
competitions. It is perhaps to this festival that Pindar alludes,
when he says that Timodemus won “at home crowns more
than may be numbered in the games of Zeus.”[#] The festival
was apparently a yearly one. It was reorganized on a more
magnificent scale by Hadrian.
During the rest of the year there are few important competitions.
There were musical competitions at the Thargelia,
torch-races on horseback and on foot at the Bendidea, founded
in the fourth century, and, lastly, more boat-races at the
Diisoteria in the month of Skirophorion.
This list, though probably far from complete, will give some
idea of the number of competitions and festivals in Attica.
The competitions fall into two divisions, those, like the Panathenaea,
which, though not Panhellenic, were open to competitors
from all parts of Greece, and those, like the Thesea, which were
practically confined to inhabitants of Athens. The character of
these festivals will be readily understood from the programme
of the Panathenaea and the Thesea, with regard to which we have
considerable information from inscriptions and other sources.
The Panathenaic festival undoubtedly occupied several days.
According to the highly probable scheme suggested by August
Mommsen,[#] it began on the 21st day of Hekatombaion, and
lasted nine days. The first three days were occupied by
musical competitions, the next two by athletics, the sixth by
horse and chariot races, the seventh by the Pyrrhic and other
military competitions. The seventh day closed with the torch-races
in the evening, which were the beginning of an all-night
revel, Pannychis, which preceded the procession and sacrifices
// File: 256.png
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on the 28th day of the month—the great day of the festival.
A regatta on the last day brought the festival to the end.
The details of the sacrifices and procession do not concern
us here. The procession is known to us from the frieze of the
Parthenon. Its object was the offering to Athena of the new
peplos or mantle wrought by certain selected maidens of Athens,
and interwoven with scenes representing the battle between the
gods and the giants. In the procession the whole population
of Athens was represented, and not only that of Athens but
also that of Athenian colonies and allies who sent to the
Panathenaea official deputies bearing their offerings and
sacrifices.[#] An admirable account of the procession will be
found in the British Museum Guide to the Parthenon Sculptures,
while those who wish for fuller information as to the literary
evidence will find it in Michaelis’ Parthenon or Mommsen’s
Feste der Stadt Athen.
The musical competitions certainly date back to the time
of Peisistratus, who reorganized the earlier yearly festival as
a pentaeteris, increased the programme, and gave to the
festival a wider and more popular scope. It was either
Peisistratus himself or his son, Hipparchus, who organized
recitations by rhapsodists of the Homeric poems, which had
perhaps taken place at a yet earlier date at Brauron. These
recitations were confined to Homer, and it is recorded as a
special mark of honour that an exception was made in favour
of the Perseis of Choerilus, which described the triumph of
Athens over Xerxes.[#] There seem also to have been competitions
in lyric and elegiac poetry.
According to Plutarch[#] Pericles was the first to introduce
contests in singing and playing on the lyre and on the flute.
The competitions were held in the newly built Odeum, and
Pericles himself presided as judge. In the first part of his
statement Plutarch is mistaken. Midas of Agrigentum, whose
Pythian victory on the flute is celebrated in one of Pindar’s
earliest odes, is also credited with a victory in the Panathenaea.[#]
The existence of musical competitions at a yet earlier date is
proved by two small sixth-century Panathenaic amphorae in the
// File: 257.png
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British Museum.[#] One represents a citharist playing on the
chelys, the other a player on the double flute, standing on a
platform before a bearded man, clothed in a long chiton and
striped himation, while at the side of the platform is seated a
judge similarly clothed and holding a wand. The vase from
which our illustration is taken belongs to the class of vase
described as imitations of Panathenaic amphorae (Fig. #32:fig032#).
The musical competition is represented on both sides. At a
later date the musical prizes consisted in a sum of silver and
crowns of gold. In any case, the small amphorae cannot have
been used to hold oil, and may be regarded as commemorative
prizes bestowed on musicians, perhaps in addition to some
more substantial prize, on the analogy of the larger amphorae
bestowed on victors in athletics or chariot-races.
.if h
.il fn=fig032.png w=60% id=fig032 alt="Small Panathenaic(?) amphora."
.ca Fig. 32. Small Panathenaic(?) amphora, in British Museum, B. 188. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 32. Small Panathenaic(?) amphora, in British Museum, B. 188. Sixth century.]
.if-
An early black-figured kylix in the British Museum points
to the existence of choral and dramatic competitions at the
Panathenaea (Fig. #33:fig033#). The central group represents a sacrifice
to Athene, who stands beside her altar armed with shield and
// File: 258.png
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spear, much as she is depicted on Panathenaic vases. Advancing
towards the altar is a procession formed of a tragic chorus,
a comic chorus, and a dithyrambic chorus. Diogenes Laertius[#]
states that dramatic competitions existed at the Panathenaea,
but we have no further information concerning them.
.if h
.il fn=fig033.png w=80% id=fig033 alt="B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, B. 80."
.ca Fig. 33. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, B. 80.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 33. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, B. 80.]
.if-
The musical programme for the fourth century is partly
known to us from an inscription, which is unfortunately much
mutilated.[#] The opening lines, which apparently referred to
the recitations of rhapsodists, are almost entirely wanting.
Then come four competitions. For singers to the lyre there
are no less than five prizes: a crown of gold valued at
1000 drachmae with 500 drachmae of silver for the winner;
prizes of 1200, 600, 400, and 300 drachmae respectively for
the next four in order of merit. The “men singers to the flute”
receive only two prizes—the first a crown of 300 drachmae,
the second a sum of 100 drachmae. For “men players on the
lyre” there are three prizes: the first is a crown valued at 500
drachmae; the third is a sum of 100 drachmae; the amount
of the second prize is uncertain. Flute-players again have only
two prizes, the figures for which are missing in the inscription.
There were doubtless many other competitions. The insertion
of the word “men” before “singers to the flute” and “players
on the lyre” implies that there were also musical contests for
boys, as was undoubtedly the case at Aphrodisias.[#] Another
competition mentioned in connection with the Panathenaea was
called συναυλία,[#] by which perhaps is meant a duet on flutes.
The preference shown at Athens for the lyre over the flute is
noticeable in the value of the prizes assigned for these events.
Playing on the lyre was part of every Athenian’s education,
but whereas flute-playing had become popular in the early part
of the fifth century, it did not commend itself to Athenian
educationalists. Its moral effect was considered bad, and it was
an ungraceful performance which distorted the face. So it was
in the fourth century left for the most part to professional flute-girls.[#]
From the number of prizes offered it is obvious that there
must have been large entries for the musical competitions, and
Mommsen is probably right in assigning three days to these events.
Next came the athletic competitions. The early Panathenaic
// File: 259.png
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vases show that all the events of the Olympic programme existed
in the Panathenaea in the sixth century, and that there were
competitions for men and boys, but there is no evidence as to
the division of boys into boys and youths at this period. In
the fourth century the inscription already mentioned proves
the existence of all three classes.[#] There were five events for
boys and youths respectively, the stade-race, the pentathlon,
wrestling, boxing, and the pankration. There were two prizes
// File: 260.png
.pn +1
for each event, consisting of so many amphorae of oil; the winner
received five times as many amphorae as the second. The following
table shows the amounts of amphorae awarded in the different events:—
.ta l:10 l:9 l:6 l:11 l:6
| Boys (παῖδες).|| Youths (ἀγένειοι).|
| 1st Prize.| 2nd Prize.| 1st Prize.| 2nd Prize.
Stadion| 50| 10| 60| 12
Pentathlon| 30| 6| 40| 8
Pale| 30| 6| 40| 8
Pygme| 30| 6| 40| 8
Pankration| 40| 8| 50| 10
.ta-
The portion of the inscription referring to men’s events is
wanting, but we know from Panathenaic vases and other sources
that the programme for men included the diaulos, the dolichos,
the hippios-race,[#] and the race in armour. When the last two
events were introduced we cannot say: the diaulos and dolichos
certainly existed in the sixth century. The dolichos is frequently
represented on early Panathenaic vases, and a fragment of such
a vase found at Athens bears the inscription: “I am a diaulos
runner.” The prizes for men were of course proportionately
higher than those for boys and youths. In inscriptions of the
second century we find that the pentathlon has disappeared
from the programme for boys; but two races have been added
in its place, the dolichos and the diaulos. The programme for
youths and men remains unchanged. The whole programme
can hardly have taken less than two days. Probably the first
day comprised the ten or eleven events for boys and youths, the
second day the nine events for men. In the fourth century we
learn from Plato that the sports opened with the stade-race,
which was followed by the diaulos, the hippios, and the dolichos.
The last event was the race in armour—a favourite subject
of the Athenian vase-painters, and frequently associated on
the red-figured vases with the pankration, which immediately
preceded it. In the second century it seems probable from the
inscriptions that each day began with a long-distance race;
the first day with the boys’ dolichos, the second day with the
men’s.
A noticeable feature in this programme is the large proportion
of events for boys and youths. All events were open to
competitors from all the Greek states; but events for the
young naturally appeal chiefly to local competition. Such being
// File: 261.png
.pn +1
the case, we should expect to find Athens well represented in
the lists. But the reverse is the case. Out of more than sixty
names only seven are Athenians, and of these five are pankratiasts.[#]
These figures show how utterly unathletic Athens
became after the fifth century in spite of all her competitions.
Watching sports never makes an athletic nation; at Athens it
produced a crowd of idle critics and spectators. Nearly half
the victors known to us come from Asia Minor and the Aegean:
not only Colophon and Ephesus, but Tyre and Sidon figure in
the lists. On the mainland Corinth, Sicyon, Argos, Boeotia, and
Epirus are best represented.
Previous to the erection of the Panathenaic stadium by
Lycurgus the athletic competitions took place in the deme of
Echelidae, and this site continued to be the scene of the chariot
and horse races. The Hippodrome of Athens is stated to have
been of the unusual length of eight stades.[#] The Athenians
were at all periods passionately fond of horses. The four-horse
chariot-race, the pair-horse chariot-race, and the horse-race are
represented on the Panathenaic amphorae of the sixth century.
The earliest of these vases which we possess, the Burgon vase in
the British Museum, was the prize for the pair-horse chariot-race.[#]
The apobates race must have existed in the fifth century, for
the apobates is represented on the frieze of the Parthenon.
For the fourth century we have only a portion of the
equestrian programme, preserved in the inscription already
quoted. We have apparently only the last six events, with the
number of measures of oil presented for each of them. The
inscription runs as follows:—
.ta l:40 l:10 l:10
| 1st Prize.| 2nd Prize.
||
Chariot-race for colts (ἵππων ζεύγει πωλικῷ)| 40| 8
Chariot-race for full-grown horses (ἵππων ζεύγει ἀδηφάγῳ)[#]| 140 | 40
War (πολεμιστηρίοις), horse-race (ἵππῳ κέλητι νικώντι)| 16 | 4
War (πολεμιστηρίοις), chariot-race (ἵππων ζεύγει νικῶντι) | 30 | 6
Processional chariot-race (ζεύγει πομπικῷ νικῶντι)|4 | 1
Javelin throwing on horseback (ἀφ’ ἵππου ἀκοντίζοντι) | 5 | 1
.ta-
// File: 262.png
.pn +1
In the light of later inscriptions it seems probable that the last
four events, if not all six, were confined to Athenian competitors.
In this case there must have been other events open to all
comers. The introduction of local events of a military type
was undoubtedly due to the development of Athenian cavalry
in the latter part of the fifth century. According to Photius
the war-horse was not really a horse used for war, but merely
one equipped as for war in competitions. It is just possible
that in the second century the race for war-horses had become
a purely artificial event and the war-horse had then as little
practical value as the Athenian hoplite of that time. But we
can hardly suppose that this was the case in the fourth century,
when Athens still possessed a real army. Every Athenian of
the first two classes was bound to provide a horse for military
service, and the races for war-horses must have been introduced
in order to encourage cavalry training, just as the hoplite race had
been intended for the benefit of the heavy-armed infantry. But
the war-horse was not the same type of animal as the highly-trained
and expensive race-horse, and the difference is marked in
the amount of the prizes. The team of war-horses receives only 30
amphorae, the team of race-horses 140. The same difference exists
in the present day between the prizes given at military or hunt
steeple-chases, and those given for race-horses. Still smaller are
the prizes for the processional chariots. In this event the chariots
and horses may possibly have been provided by the State.
We do not know how many events constituted the full
programme in the fourth century; an inscription of the second
century enumerates twenty-four events, and another, which is
incomplete, contained at least as many.[#] It is possible that
on these occasions the programme was exceptionally elaborate,
owing to the presence of kings and other distinguished visitors
at the festival. Certainly the inscriptions prove that at this
period the programme varied considerably from time to time.
On one occasion, when four sons of King Attalus were present,
it appears that there were three if not four chariot-races for
their benefit. Three of their names appear as victors in the
chariot-race; the name of the fourth also occurs, but the
// File: 263.png
.pn +1
inscription is here broken, and the name of the event which he
won is lost. Still, making allowance for such circumstances,
we can form a fairly accurate idea of the programme as it
existed at this time and probably also in the fourth century.
The programme is divided into open events (ἐκ πάντων) and
local events (ἐκ τῶν πολιτῶν). The open events are the six events of
the Olympic programme. These take place in the hippodrome.
The local events take place partly in the hippodrome, partly in the
city in the neighbourhood of the Eleusinium, where perhaps the
races ended. Some of the events are ceremonial in character,
others military. Of the latter some are confined to soldiers. There
are three riding races for officers (ἐκ τῶν φυλάρχων), a straight race
(ἄκαμπτον) and a diaulos, and a diaulos ἐν ὅπλοις, i.e. in which
the riders wear full armour. Similarly there are three races
for cavalry (ἐκ τῶν ἱππέων). In all these races the riders rode
their war-horses (ἵππῳ πολεμιστῇ). There are twelve events
open to all citizens—five held at the Eleusinium, seven in the
hippodrome. These include no less than eleven chariot-races,
three ceremonial,—the apobates race, and two races in processional
chariots,—four races in racing chariots over the
straight and the double course, and four races in war-chariots
(ἅρματι πολεμιστηρίῳ, συνωρίδι πολεμιστηρίᾳ) by which perhaps
we may understand that, as in Homeric days, there were two
men in each chariot, the driver and the soldier. There was
only one horse-race, a race ἵππῳ πολυδρόμῳ, by which word I am
inclined to understand a war-horse, though it may be merely
a variant for fully grown.
The “apobates”[#] was a ceremonial race peculiar to Athens and
Boeotia, and recalled, according to tradition, the invention of
the chariot by Erechtheus. At the founding of the Panathenaea
he had himself appeared as charioteer, having with him in his
chariot a companion armed with small round shield and triple-crested
helmet, as represented in the frieze of the Parthenon.
The event undoubtedly preserves the tradition of Homeric
warfare when the chieftain was driven to the scene of action
and dismounted to fight, remounting again for pursuit or flight.
There is some doubt as to the manner of the race. According
to one statement[#] the apobates mounted the chariot in full
course, by placing a foot on the wheel, and again dismounted,
the performance being repeated apparently at fixed intervals.
// File: 264.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig034.png w=80% id=fig034 alt="Votive Relief."
.ca Fig. 34. Votive Relief. Acropolis Museum. Hellenistic period.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Votive Relief. Acropolis Museum. Hellenistic period.]
.if-
This account finds some confirmation in one of the groups
of the Parthenon frieze, which represents the apobates in the
very act of mounting a chariot.[#] Dionysius of Halicarnassus[#]
makes no mention of the mounting, but states that at the close
of the race, apparently the beginning of the last lap, the
apobates dismounted, and from this point chariots and apobatai
raced together to the finish. The two accounts are not really
irreconcilable if we suppose that Dionysius is thinking merely
of the finish, the most interesting part of the race. In most
of the groups on the north side of the Parthenon the apobates
is represented in the act of dismounting, as he is in Fig. #34:fig034#.
In those on the south side he is standing in the chariot or by
its side.[#] The latter scene represents the moment before the
race, the other scenes different moments in the race, and there
is no need to assume with Michaelis two different motives for the
south and north frieze. In inscriptions the twofold character
of the race is brought out by the mention of charioteer and
apobates as two separate victors. The charioteer is described
as ἡνίοχος ἐγβιβάζων, the charioteer “who lets his companion
dismount,” a title which suggests the assistance which the
charioteer could render to his fellow by a momentary checking
// File: 265.png
.pn +1
of the pace. The course of the race seems to have been from the
Cerameicus to the Eleusinium, on the slopes of the Acropolis.
So extensive a programme required at least two days: in one
inscription a torch-race is inserted in the middle of the programme,
perhaps as marking the close of the first day. The popularity of
the Panathenaea in the second century is proved by the number
of distinguished competitors. Besides the sons of King Attalus
mentioned already, we find Mastanabas, the son of King Mastanassus,
King Antiochus, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and
Ptolemaeus, king of Egypt, who competed as an Athenian citizen
of the Ptolemaid tribe. There are numerous victors from Argos,
and the lists include the names of several women. In one list
alone we find two victories won by women, or perhaps by the same
woman from Argos, and a third won by a woman of Alexandria.
Besides these individual competitions, there seems to have
been a cavalry competition between tribes, which took place
in the hippodrome, though we do not know on what day.
This ἀνθιππασία[#] was a sort of sham-fight between two
squadrons, each consisting of the cavalry of five tribes under
the command of a hipparchos. Xenophon describes the sight
with enthusiasm. They pursued one another in turn, charged,
passed through each other’s lines, wheeled round, and charging
down the whole length of the hippodrome came to a sudden
halt, front to front. It seems that prizes were given to the
tribe which performed best, or perhaps to their officers.
The day after the horse-races was occupied by a series of
competitions between companies or tribes, in which the local
and religious character of the festival is yet more clearly
manifest. First came the Pyrrhic chorus, an event which took
place at the lesser Panathenaea as well as the great.[#] Our
inscription enumerates three prizes: one for boys, one for
youths, one for men. Each prize is an ox of the value of 100
drachmae, which furnished the victors with a victim for sacrifice
and provision for a feast. The composition of the Pyrrhic
chorus is known to us from a relief on the basis of a statue set
up by Atarbus to commemorate the victories gained at the
Panathenaea by a cyclic chorus, and a Pyrrhic chorus that he
had provided in the archonship of Cephisodorus, i.e. either
366 or 323 B.C.[#] On one side is represented the Pyrrhic chorus
// File: 266.png
.pn +1
(Fig. #35:fig035#): it consists of eight youths linked, and armed with
helmets and shields, who move in rhythmic dance under the
direction of a trainer, robed in a long mantle and holding in
his hand a scroll. The whole Pyrrhic chorus of boys, youths,
and men must therefore have numbered twenty-four. Whether
they competed as a single chorus or as three is uncertain. On
the other side of the relief we see a cyclic chorus, also consisting
of eight youths, but clothed in long mantles wrapt close about
them, and revolving apparently in a circle. Next came two
competitions between tribes, for which the prize again is the
sacrificial ox, destined perhaps to be led in the procession of
the morrow. The first competition is for εὐανδρία, which in
the fourth century seems to mean merely “good looks.” In the
Panathenaic procession certain old men were selected for their
beauty to carry the sacred olive branches. Each tribe chose
certain representatives, and this competition was apparently
intended to decide which tribe should provide these “handsome
old men.”[#] The nature of the second competition is not stated
in the inscription, but as the next line refers to the torch-race,
it is probable that this too was a competition for good looks, to
decide which tribe should take part in the evening’s torch-race.
The torch-race at the Panathenaea was an individual competition,
in which the winner received a hydria valued at 30 drachmae.
.if h
.il fn=fig035.png w=80% id=fig035 alt="Relief on monument of Atarbus."
.ca Fig. 35. Relief on monument of Atarbus. Acropolis Museum. Fourth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 35. Relief on monument of Atarbus. Acropolis Museum. Fourth century.]
.if-
Lastly, the regatta which took place on the last day of the
festival was also a competition between tribes. According to
the inscription two prizes were offered: the winning tribe
received 200 drachmae for a feast besides some other object,
possibly three oxen, valued at 300 drachmae. The prize for
the second place is also broken off in the inscription, but
// File: 267.png
.pn +1
its value was 200 drachmae. Of the details of the regatta we
know nothing. Perhaps we may connect with the Panathenaea
a relief found at Athens representing torch-race, wrestling, and
boat-race (Fig. #36:fig036#). It forms part of an ephebic inscription of
Roman times in the archonship of C. Helvidius.[#]
The prizes in the athletic and equestrian events consisted,
as we have seen, in certain quantities of oil. This oil, which
was obtained from the sacred olive-trees scattered over Attica,
belonged to the state, and none might sell or export it except
the victors in the games. The olive-trees were under the care
of the Areopagus, and were every year inspected by its officials,
and the oil itself was collected by the archon, who handed it
over to the treasurers of the festival. In later time this system
was abolished and the land was assessed at a certain number
of olive-trees, each proprietor being required to supply a certain
quota of oil to the state.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig036.png w=80% id=fig036 alt="Relief on Stele."
.ca Fig. 36. Relief on Stele. Athens, National Museum, 3300. Imperial period.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 36. Relief on Stele. Athens, National Museum, 3300. Imperial period.]
.if-
Besides this the victor received as a memento “a richly painted
amphora.”[#] In view of the care with which these amphorae
were preserved it seems unlikely that the victor received more
than one such amphora. A large number of them are still in
existence. They date from the middle of the sixth to the close
of the fourth century. They are painted in black on a red
ground or panel. On one side is an athletic scene, typical of
the event for which the amphora was given; on the other, the
figure of Athene clothed in her aegis, and brandishing her
// File: 268.png
.pn +1
shield and spear. She stands usually between two Doric pillars
surmounted by some emblem, a cock, sphinx, siren, panther, or
vase, or in later times by the figure of Victory or Triptolemus.
Along the left-hand pillar runs an inscription: “One of the
prizes from Athens,” ΤΟΝΑΘΕΝΕΘΕΝ.Α.ΘΥΟΝ: to which is added
on the Burgon amphora[#] the word ΕΜΙ, “I am.” On the early
amphorae the letters are parallel, on the later at right angles to
the column. To the inscription is sometimes added the name
of the archon. The earliest of these dated vases belongs to
the archonship of Polyzelus in 367 B.C., the latest to that of
Polemon in 312 B.C.[#] Two fragmentary inscriptions suggest
that sometimes the name of the Kosmetes, or Agonothetes, was
substituted for that of the archon.[#] The dates of the archon
do not always coincide with the years in which the great Panathenaea
took place; and Michaelis therefore assigns such vases
to the lesser Panathenaea. It seems more likely that, as the
oil was collected every year by the archons, the inscription
merely records the name of the archon who collected the oil.
On two vases we also find the name of the vase-painter.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig037.png w=80% id=fig037 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 37. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 144. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 37. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 144. Sixth century.]
.if-
The scene on the reverse usually represents the actual
contest. Occasionally the name of the event is added. On
some of the sixth-century amphorae, made perhaps before the
tradition was absolutely fixed, the painter seems to have
allowed himself more licence in his choice of subject. Thus a
British Museum amphora represents the proclamation of a
victory in the horse-race (Fig. #37:fig037#). The victorious youth is
mounted on his horse, and in front of him stands a herald
in full official robes, from whose lips issue the words: “The
horse of Dyneicetus is victorious”: ΔΥΝΕΙΚΕΤΥ: ΗΙΠΠΟΣ: ΝΙΚΑΙ.
Behind the rider an attendant bears a wreath and a tripod:
we often hear of tripods as prizes; perhaps in early days they
may have been given as prizes at the Panathenaea. On another
amphora in the British Museum (Fig. #38:fig038#) a seated athlothetes
binds a fillet of wool on a youthful victor’s head. The latest of
the signed vases has a more fanciful representation of victory.[#]
Two naked youths have just received palm branches from an
// File: 269.png
.pn +1
athlothetes, by whom a herald stands. One of the youths is
standing still, the other, who is perhaps a victor in the foot-race,
runs off joyfully. Occasionally the reference to the contest
is more obscure. For example, on one early Panathenaic
vase in the British Museum the battle of the Giants is depicted,
on another an acrobatic scene[#] (Fig. #39:fig039#). The Athenians were
intensely fond of acrobatic performances, and, as we know from
the story of Hippocleides,[#] even high-born Athenians did not
disdain to acquire proficiency in them. The scene is certainly
in keeping with all that we know of Athenian festivals, where
such side-shows must have been common. Are we, however,
to suppose that a sacred prize amphora was actually given as
a prize for acrobats? or was this a special mark of honour
bestowed on some popular acrobat, like the statue erected at
a later age at Athens in honour of a professional ball-player?
Perhaps the simplest course is to regard the vase as an
imitation Panathenaic amphora. It was found at Camirus in
Rhodes, and its provenance, its general character, and the absence
of the usual inscription render this explanation probable.[#]
// File: 270.png
.pn +1
Imitation Panathenaic amphorae are numerous: many of them
bear representations of musical contests for which, in Aristotle’s
time at least, a different prize was given. There are also
numerous small amphorae, the object of which is uncertain.
Were they prizes for boys’ events, or second prizes? These are
some of the numerous questions with regard to these interesting
vases which still await solution.
.if h
.il fn=fig038.png w=70% id=fig038 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 38. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 138. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 38. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 138. Sixth century.]
.if-
The painted vases come to a sudden close at the end of
the fourth century.[#] The name “Panathenaic vase” occurs
occasionally at a later date; but appears merely to denote a
particular shape of vase. But a representation of a Panathenaic
amphora was found a few years ago on the mosaic floor of a
house in Delos, belonging to the early part of the second
century.[#] The complete absence of any evidence for their
existence in the previous century makes it probable that the
vase, which represented a chariot-race, was an heirloom which
had been won by some ancestor of the builder of the house.
The Panathenaic amphora is, however, still represented on
// File: 271.png
.pn +1
Athenian coins, and on a late relief adorning a marble
chair which was probably one of the seats reserved for the
judges or agonothetai at the Panathenaea[#] (Fig. #40:fig040#). The
vase, which holds a branch, stands on a table, on which are also
three crowns. Underneath the table is a palm branch, and by
the side of it is represented Athene’s sacred olive-tree. The
appearance of the vase on the relief and on coins suggests that
at this period the earthenware vase had been replaced by a
metal vase, but this theory still awaits confirmation.
.if h
.il fn=fig039.png w=80% id=fig039 alt="Panathenaic (?) amphora from Camirus."
.ca Fig. 39. Panathenaic (?) amphora from Camirus. Bibliothèque Nationale, 243.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 39. Panathenaic (?) amphora from Camirus. Bibliothèque Nationale, 243.]
.if-
Though the Panathenaic programme contained a considerable
number of local events, these were of quite secondary importance
in comparison with the open competitions which, if hardly
Panhellenic, were certainly Pan-Ionic. It was for these open
competitions that the sacred oil and the Panathenaic amphorae
were awarded. In the Thesea, on the contrary, most of the competitions
were confined to the youth of Attica, and even in those
which were open to foreigners, the extreme rareness of foreign
successes sufficiently indicates the local character of the festival.
The Thesea[#] were instituted in the year 476 or 475 B.C. to
celebrate the discovery and restoration to Athens of the bones
of the national hero Theseus. The popularity of the worship
of Theseus at this period is abundantly attested by the red-figured
vases, on which the story of Theseus now takes the
// File: 272.png
.pn +1
place of the labours of Heracles. The Thesea were associated
with certain primitive agricultural rites, the Pyanepsia and
Oschophoria, ceremonies of the harvest and the vintage, in
which the legend of Theseus had been somehow incorporated.
They were followed immediately by the Epitaphia, a funeral
festival in memory of those who had fallen fighting for their
state, which had been held occasionally from the earliest times,
but did not take its place as a permanent festival till the time
of Pericles, or even later.
.if h
.il fn=fig040.png w=60% id=fig040 alt="Marble chair of judge at Panathenaea."
.ca Fig. 40. Marble chair of judge at Panathenaea. Imperial period.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 40. Marble chair of judge at Panathenaea. Imperial period.]
.if-
Our knowledge of the programme of the Thesea is derived
from inscriptions of the second century B.C.,[#] with regard to
// File: 273.png
.pn +1
which I need only repeat that late though they are, such was
the religious conservatism of the Greeks, that they may be considered
as representing the general character of the festival in
the fifth century, and that such changes as had been introduced
were merely changes in detail. Theseus was the patron of the
Athenian ephebos, and the Thesea were essentially the games of
the epheboi. The festival was a yearly one, and included a procession,
sacrifice, torch-races, athletics, and horse-races. There
was also a banquet provided at the public cost for all free citizens.
The programme of sports opened with the usual competitions
for heralds and trumpeters, followed by certain military competitions
for general smartness and equipment, εὐανδρία and
εὐοπλία. These were divided into three or more classes: first,
“the picked troops,” οἱ ἐπιλέκτοι; next the foreign troops, οἱ ἐν
τοῖς ἔθνεσιν; lastly, the cavalry, οἱ ἱππεῖς, as a subdivision of
which we find the Tarantini, so called from their equipment.
The competition was between tribes, or, in the case of the
foreign troops, regiments (τάγματα), the captain of the successful
tribe or regiment being mentioned in the inscriptions. It is
evident that εὐανδρία is used here in a slightly different sense
to that in which it is used in the Panathenaic inscriptions.
There, as we have seen, the object of the competition was
purely ceremonial, here it is manifestly military. εὐανδρία
like many another word varies in meaning with the object to
which it is applied. When used of a regiment, it implies good
physique, activity, and general smartness. There is a certain
pathos in the existence of these elaborate military reviews and
competitions at an age when Athens had no more any freedom
to defend, and when her military service was of no practical
value. It may be that with the loss of the reality she clung
the more closely to the empty form and semblance of an army.
But it seems to me more probable that these competitions were
not the futile invention of her decadence, but were the survival
of the great outburst of patriotism and militarism in the fifth
century.
Next came torch-races. At the Thesea these seem to have
been contests between teams. There are torch-races for boys,
epheboi, and men; sometimes also for young men, νεανίσκοι,
who come between the epheboi and the men. The teams
are sometimes representatives of a particular palaestra or
gymnasium—boys from the palaestra of Timeas or Antigenes,
// File: 274.png
.pn +1
youths or men from the Lyceum. The mention of a torch-race
of the Tarantini indicates that there were also torch-races on
horseback.
The athletic programme contains the seven ordinary competitions—the
dolichos, stade-race, diaulos, wrestling, boxing,
pankration, and the race in armour—and in addition certain
military competitions, hoplomachia, and javelin-throwing. The
hoplomachia, which must have been somewhat similar to our
fencing or bayonet competitions, was of two sorts: one with the
hoplite’s round shield and spear, ἐν ἀσπιδίῳ καὶ δόρατι; the other
with the oblong target and sword of the light-armed soldier,
ἐν θυρεῷ καὶ μαχαίρα. There are no less than five different
classes for these events: there were competitions for boys of
the first, second, and third age, open competitions for boys (ἑκ
πάντων), and competitions for men. The two younger classes
of boys were excluded from the long race, but all classes took
part in the five following events. The race in armour was
confined to men, javelin throwing to epheboi. The hoplomachia
was open to three classes of boys, and to the epheboi. The
boys’ open competitions and the men’s were open to foreign
competitors, though few appear to have been successful;[#] the
other competitions were confined to the youth of Athens.
The equestrian events are similar in character. A chariot
race is only mentioned in one inscription, and there the
reference is possibly to an apobates race. The rest of the
events are horse-races. There is one race apparently with
race-horses (λάμπρῳ ἵππῳ), the rest are military races, either for
officers or for men, over the single or the double course. Lastly,
there is an open competition (ἐκ πάντων), and javelin throwing
on horseback. Not a single foreigner occurs among the names
of the victors; but it must not be forgotten how extremely
fragmentary is our information.
At the Epitaphia which followed the Thesea there were
further competitions, torch-races and military displays. We
hear in particular of a race in heavy armour, in which the
epheboi ran, starting from the Polyandreum in the Cerameicus.
.fn #
The following section is taken chiefly from A. Mommsen’s Feste der Stadt Athen.
.fn-
.fn #
O. ix. 89, xiii. 110; I. viii. 79.
.fn-
.fn #
O. ix.; I. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Athen. 495 F.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide p. 296.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 466, 468, 470, 471.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. iii. 1160.
.fn-
.fn #
N. ii. 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Op. cit. p. 153.
.fn-
.fn #
e.g. Priene, Priene Inschriften, 5; a decree of the people of Priene not
later than 326 B.C. for the sending of two Theoroi to Athens with a panoplia.
Similarly Colophon 306 B.C., I.G. ii. 164, ii. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Suidas, ii. 2, p. 1691.
.fn-
.fn #
Pericles, 13.
.fn-
.fn #
Schol. to Pindar, P. xii.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Vases, B. 139, 141; cp. Berl. Vas. 1873.
.fn-
.fn #
iii. 56.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 965.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 2758.
.fn-
.fn #
Pollux, iv. 83.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Rep. 398-399; Aristotle, Pol. 1341 a.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 965; cp. 966-970.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Leg. 833 A.
.fn-
.fn #
Mommsen, p. 83.
.fn-
.fn #
Etym. M., ἐν Ἐχελιδῶν.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M., B. 130.
.fn-
.fn #
ἀδηφάγος, “eating its full,” appears to be a fanciful synonym for τέλειος,
perhaps with a special reference to the cost of breeding race-horses. To those
familiar with the ordinary type of horse existing in Greece to-day, there is a
peculiar appropriateness about the word. In the Thesean inscription, I.G. ii.
445, λαμπρός has a similar meaning.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 968, 969.
.fn-
.fn #
Mommsen, op. cit. p. 89.
.fn-
.fn #
Bekker, Anecd. 426.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Guide to Parthenon, p. 109.
.fn-
.fn #
vii. 73.
.fn-
.fn #
Op. cit. pp. 102 ff., 121.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 1291, 5, 1305b; Xen. Hipparch. 3, 11.
.fn-
.fn #
Lys. 21. 1, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Beulé, L’Acropole d’Athènes, ii. pl. 4; Schreiber, Atlas, xx. 8, 9.
.fn-
.fn #
Xenoph. Quaest. Symp. iv. 17; Athen. p. 565 F.
.fn-
.fn #
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1862, Pl. xxix.
.fn-
.fn #
1-1/2 kotylai for each tree. These details are mostly derived from Aristotle,
Ἀθ. πολιτ. 60.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, N. x. 36.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Vases, B. 130.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. B. 603; American Journal of Archaeology, ii. p. 332, xii. p. 48.
.fn-
.fn #
Cecil Smith in B.S.A. iii. 194 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Sikelos, 5th cent., Kittos, 4th cent., B.M. B. 604.
.fn-
.fn #
Mon. d. I. X. 48, g. 11.
.fn-
.fn #
B. 145; Salzmann, Nécropole de Camiros, lvii.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. vi. 129.
.fn-
.fn #
On either side of Athene is a diminutive figure of a man, a most unorthodox
addition. The inscription is wanting on most of the smaller vases.
.fn-
.fn #
Cecil Smith in B.S.A. iii. 183 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. Pl. xvi.
.fn-
.fn #
Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, iii. 3, p. 20; Schreiber, Atlas, xxv. 9.
.fn-
.fn #
Mommsen, op cit. p. 278 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 444-450.
.fn-
.fn #
Only four foreigners’ names appear, Mommsen, op. cit. p. 295, n. 1; F. Mie
in Ath. Mitth. xxxiv. p. 1. Mie distinguishes the term in ἐκ πάντων, which occurs
in athletic and equestrian events, and denotes competitions open to all comers,
and the term διὰ πάντων, which occurs only in musical competitions, and appears
to denote a final competition in which all the competitors in different musical
events took part.
.fn-
// File: 275.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
PART II | THE ATHLETIC EXERCISES OF THE GREEKS\
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR STADIA AND GYMNASIA
// File: 276.png
// File: 277.png
.pn +2
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap12
CHAPTER XII | THE STADIUM
.sp 2
The stadium[#] or racecourse of the Greeks was the natural
development of that primitive type of race which is described
in Homer, and which we may still see at school treats and
rustic meetings. The competitors, drawn up in a line, race to
some distant point which is the finish, or, turning round this
point, race back again to the starting-point. Here we have the
germ of the stade or straight race, and of the diaulos, and
other turning races, as the Greeks called them (κάμπειοι). The
start is marked by a post (νύσσα) or by a line drawn in the
sand (γραμμή), and the finish or turning-point (καμπτῆρες) by
a similar post or by some natural object, a stone, or tree-stump.
From this primitive course two types of racecourse are derived.
Both differ from the modern oval course in that they are long,
narrow, and straight, the runners not describing a curve but
running straight up and down the track. The first, which we
may call the hippodrome type, is that in which the runners
race round two posts placed at either end of the course and
connected by one or more intermediate posts, or by a low wall
called by the Romans the “spina.” One or both ends of the
course were rounded off for the convenience of spectators, and
this circular end was known as the σφενδόνη. This form was
long regarded as the regular type of the Greek racecourse; but
recent excavations have rendered it probable that though used
by the Greeks for horse-races it was not employed by them
for the foot-race, at least until Roman times. The true Greek
// File: 278.png
.pn +1
stadium, as we now know, was strictly rectangular, both
starting-point and finish being marked by parallel lines of
stone slabs (βαλβίς, βατήρ), and even the seats at the end
following the same lines.
For such a course any fairly level plain was suitable; but
for the convenience of spectators it was natural to select some
level stretch surrounded on one or more sides by some rising
ground, along the foot of a hill as at Olympia, or in a dip
between two hills as at Epidaurus or Athens. All that
was required in such cases was to level the ground for the
actual track, and to improve the natural standing-ground by an
artificial embankment, which might or might not be afterwards
provided with seats. Most of the stadia in Greece, says
Pausanias, were formed by such an embankment;[#] it was not
till a comparatively late period that the seats were built up
on masses of masonry and surrounded by walls and colonnades.
The length of the actual track was always a stade or 600 feet;
but, as there was no universal standard of measurement, the
length of the stadium varied locally with the length of the
foot.
The simplest of all Greek stadia was that at Olympia, and
it retained its simplicity throughout its history.[#] We have
seen that before the middle of the fifth century all the games
were held in the plain commanded by the treasury terrace, and
that the permanent running track was first constructed about
450 B.C., after the completion of the first eastern colonnade.
At this date the ground at the foot of the hill of Cronus was
levelled so as to form a parallelogram some 212 metres long
by 29 broad, somewhat broader, however, at the centre than at
the ends. This parallelogram was enclosed by a stone sill, and
within this sill at a distance of about a metre ran an open stone
gutter, opening at regular intervals into stone basins. This
gutter, fed from the conduit which ran along the foot of the
treasury steps, provided competitors and spectators with the
water which they must have sorely needed, exposed as they
were all day long, without protection, to the parching rays of
the summer sun. The running track lay some 10 feet below
// File: 279.png
.pn +1
the level of the Altis, and slightly below the level of the
surrounding plain which sloped gradually upwards to the south
towards the bank of the Alpheus. The only accommodation
for spectators was afforded by the slopes of the hill of Cronus
and this open plain, which it has been calculated would have
accommodated from 20,000 to 30,000 people. At a later date,
possibly after the battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C., the ends and
southern slope were raised by an artificial embankment. This
embankment extended to the south some 40 metres from the
actual track, and on it some 40,000 or 45,000 spectators could
find standing room. The ends of the embankment were
straight, there was no curved theatre or σφενδόνη, nor during
the whole history of the stadium did any seats exist. Seats,
probably of wood, were provided for a few privileged officials,
but the spectators stood or reclined on the banks. At the
north-west corner of the stadium a postern gate communicated
with the Altis by means of a tunnel through the embankment,
which in Roman times was roofed with a stone vault. This
was the secret entrance reserved for officials and competitors.[#]
The spectators found their way into the stadium over the
embankments or along the slopes of Mount Cronius.
.if h
.il fn=fig041.png w=100% id=fig041 alt="Portion of starting lines at Olympia."
.ca Fig. 41. Portion of starting lines at Olympia.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 41. Portion of starting lines at Olympia.]
.if-
The most interesting discovery at Olympia was that of the
actual lines which marked the start and finish of the races
(Fig. #41:fig041#). These lines consist of stone sills about 18 inches wide
extending nearly the whole breadth of the course. Each sill is
divided at intervals of about 4 feet by square sockets obviously
intended to hold posts. Between each pair of sockets are two
parallel grooves cut in stone about 7 inches apart. Their
object was clearly to mark the place for the runners’ feet.
There are twenty of these sections in the western sill and
twenty-one in the eastern sill, one of which is, however, a short
one. Each section afforded room for a single runner. The
western sill is 11 metres from the end of the stadium, the
// File: 280.png
.pn +1
eastern only 9-1/2. The distance between the two sills is 192·27
metres, which gives ·32045 as the length of the Olympic foot.
The Olympic foot was said to have been determined by Heracles,
who measured out the stadium with his own feet. Hence the
stadium at Olympia is slightly longer than other stadia on the
mainland.[#]
The discovery of similar stone sills in the gymnasium at
Olympia, and subsequently at Delphi and Epidaurus, makes it
probable that they were universally employed in Greek stadia,
though it is impossible definitely to fix the date at which they
replaced the earlier custom of marking the lines in the sand.
The reason why the lines are alike at either end is obvious.
In the stade-race the finish was at the opposite end from the
start, in the diaulos and other races consisting of an even
number of stades the runners finished where they started.
Hence, as it was clearly desirable that all races should finish
at the same point, it was necessary to have starting lines at
both ends. At Olympia it seems probable that the finish was
at the eastern end of the course. Here were the seats of the
Hellanodicae, and opposite them was the seat of the priestess
of Demeter Chamyne, the only married woman, possibly the
only woman, who was allowed to be a spectator at the
Olympia.
Closely resembling the Olympic stadium was that at
Epidaurus,[#] where the festival of the Asclepiea was celebrated
as early as the time of Pindar. It lies in a shallow trough
formed by two low ridges descending into the plain from the
hills which encircle the sanctuary of Asclepius. The bottom
of the valley has been levelled and its eastern end and part of
the sides raised by an embankment. Its western end lies open
giving free access to visitors, who here as at all Greek festivals
might enter freely without payment. The actual track is
181·30 metres long. Finish and start are alike, marked at
either end by a pair of stone pillars between which lies a row
of stone slabs with parallel grooves and sockets precisely similar
to those found at Olympia, save that there are only eleven
divisions and that the parallel grooves are somewhat closer,
// File: 281.png
.pn +1
about four inches apart. The fact that traces of lead were
found in some of the sockets confirms the view that iron posts
were fastened in them. The pillars possibly belong to an
earlier time than the slabs, when start and finish were still
marked by lines drawn in the sand between the pillars. The
stone slabs seem to have been added in Macedonian times when
the stadium was improved, and a record of this reconstruction
is preserved in an inscription which states that one Philon of
Corinth having undertaken a contract for providing the starting
lines (ὕσπλακα) and having failed to fulfil his contract within
the specified time was condemned by the Agonothetes and
Hellanodicae to pay a fine of 500 drachmae.[#] A still later,
possibly Roman arrangement for the start is seen in five half
pillars placed at either end in front of the stone sill which they
were obviously intended to supersede (Fig. #42:fig042#). On each side
// File: 282.png
.pn +1
these pillars have a shallow groove intended apparently to hold
some form of barrier or starting gate, such as we find used in the
Roman Circus.[#] A further difficulty is caused by the remains
of four small stone platforms which stood immediately in front
of the stone sills, two at each end between the outside pillars
and the edge of the course. Their use is quite unknown; but
the fact that they completely block the grooved starting lines
immediately behind them proves that they belonged to some
later arrangement. Possibly they are remains of an intermediate
arrangement between the stone sill and the pillars,
or possibly they served for starters and judges in later times.
.if h
.il fn=fig042.png w=60% id=fig042 alt="The Stadium of Epidaurus, S.E. corner."
.ca Fig. 42. The Stadium of Epidaurus, S.E. corner, showing the starting lines\
and rectangular end. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 42. The Stadium of Epidaurus, S.E. corner, showing the starting lines
and rectangular end.
(From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.)]
.if-
Another interesting feature of the course is that it was marked
off on either side at distances of a plethron (100 feet) by
small square pillars. These pillars would have been very useful
for races in which, as in the girls’ race at the Olympic Heraea,
only a portion of the course was run. They may also have
served for measuring the distance in a javelin or diskos throw.
The finish of the course was obviously at the east end, round
which alone the rows of seats extend. Between the actual
finish and the seats is a further space some 16 metres deep,
which may have been used like the curved sphendone of later
times for events like wrestling which did not require much
room. The three sides of the rectangle were surrounded by
a stone border a little less than a yard from the embankment
and seats. This contained an open runnel supplied with water
by a pipe at the north-east corner of the stadium, and opening
out at intervals of 30 yards into oblong basins, like those found
at Olympia.
The seating arrangements like the starting lines bear traces
of different periods; in contrast to Olympia it seems that from
early times a certain number of seats were provided, if we
may dignify by the name of seats the five rows of small stones
cemented with mud which enclose the eastern end of the
course. Beyond the points where these terminate are numerous
tiers of seats on either side built of large blocks of dressed
stone. The irregularity in the number and dressing of the
stones shows that they were not constructed all at the same
time. Some of them bear the inscriptions of the dedicators,
// File: 283.png
.pn +1
which seem to date from the Macedonian period to the close of
the Roman Republic. But even these seats cease entirely
in the western half of the stadium, where as at Olympia
spectators can only have stood or reclined on the banks. Staircases
give access at intervals to the seats. In the centre of the
seats on the northern side is an arched passage communicating
with a square enclosure on the other side of the embankment.
The enclosure was possibly the place of assembly for officials and
competitors who entered the stadium in state through the arch-way.
On the southern side of the stadium close to the finish
are four stone blocks some 15 feet long and 16 inches high
which were probably the seats of the Hellanodicae. Lower down,
opposite to the arched passage, there are remains of a curved
seat which may also have served for officials. It is rather more
than 40 yards from the finish, and if the javelin or diskos were
thrown from the finish, would have been a convenient seat for
judges in these events. It seems likely too that, at all events
after the erection of the later seats, wrestling and other events
of the sort took place opposite these seats and not at the east
end of the course. Behind this curved seat a broad staircase
leads to a platform half-way up the seats. Here, Cavvadias
conjectures, stood the table on which the prizes were placed,
here the herald proclaimed the victor’s name and city, and here
the victors received their crowns from the hands of the Hellanodicae.
From this point too we may suppose, when the games
for the day were finished, the Hellanodicae followed by the
victors started in a triumphal procession, and passing through
the official entrance on the north side, made their way to the
temple of Asclepius to render thanks and pay their vows to the
patron of the festival.
.if h
.il fn=fig043.png w=100% id=fig043 alt="Stadium of Epidaurus."
.ca Fig. 43. Stadium of Epidaurus.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 43. Stadium of Epidaurus.]
.if-
A further stage in the development of the stadium is seen
in the stadium of Delphi, the best preserved and the most
romantic in its situation of all Greek stadia. It lies on a
rocky shelf to the north-west of the sacred precinct at the foot
of the cliffs of Parnassus, which rise sheer above it to a height
of 800 feet, and looking down over the valley of the Pleistus
and the Crisaean plain. As at Olympia, there seems to have
been no permanent stadium till the second half of the fifth
century.[#] In Pindar’s time the athletic competitions took place
in the plain below, where, for want of sufficient room at Delphi
// File: 284.png
// File: 285.png
.pn +2
itself, the hippodrome must have continued to exist.[#] It seems
probable that the change took place between the years 448 and
421 B.C. when the control of the festival was in the hands of the
Phocians. To construct a stadium on the steep slope of the
mountain it was necessary to build a massive retaining wall,
and the date of this wall is approximately fixed by a fifth-century
inscription built into it forbidding the introduction of
wine into the dromos.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig044.png w=100% id=fig044 alt="Stadium of Delphi."
.ca Fig. 44. Stadium of Delphi.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 44. Stadium of Delphi.]
.if-
The stadium as we see it to-day is mainly the work of
Herodes Atticus, who is said by Pausanias to have reseated it
with marble, as he certainly did at Athens.[#] The French
excavations, however, show that Pausanias’ statement can
hardly be accurate. The seats are not of marble but of local
stone, and are apparently quite complete. There is no sign of
any marble facing having existed, and not a trace of marble has
been found in the stadium. If marble was used at all, it can
only have been for special parts of the seats. Yet even without
marble the appearance of the stadium is sufficiently imposing.
The actual track is bounded at either end by a stone sill
similar to those found at Olympia and Epidaurus. The stone
sill is composed of 17 or 18 sections, and the parallel grooves
are about 3-1/2 in. apart. The length of the track is 177·5
metres, and its breadth varies from 25-1/2 metres at the ends to
28-1/2 metres in the centre. The object of this curve, which we
find at Athens and in a much less marked degree elsewhere, was
to give a better view of the whole course to the spectators.
The west end terminates in a shallow curved sphendone 9-1/2
metres deep, and the east end is similarly curved, though the
curve is interrupted at the south by the main entrance to the
stadium from the precinct below. In this eastern end there
stand four pillars of poor and late workmanship which seem to
have formed a triumphal entrance for officials and competitors.
The two sides and the western sphendone are surrounded by
rows of stone seats raised on a stone basement 5 feet high.
There are six rows of seats on the south and west, twelve on
the north, affording places for some 7000 spectators, though
many more could find room on the slopes above the stadium to
// File: 286.png
.pn +1
the north. Flights of steps at the east end gave access to two
// File: 287.png
.pn +1
corridors which ran right round the stadium, above and below
the tiers of seats. The latter were further divided by flights of
steps placed at regular intervals. There were thirteen of these
on either side, dividing the stadium into twelve equal lengths
of half a plethron, and these divisions may have served like the
similar divisions at Epidaurus for purposes of measurement.
Another detail which recalls the stadium of Epidaurus is a seat
of honour occupying the centre of the first two rows of seats on
the north side.
.if h
.il fn=fig045.png w=70% id=fig045 alt="The starting lines at Delphi."
.ca Fig. 45. The starting lines at Delphi. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 45. The starting lines at Delphi. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.)]
.if-
Such was the Pythian stadium as restored by Herodes
Atticus. Before his time it must have been something much
simpler. The curved end and the stone seats did not exist.
Instead, the northern slope was roughly levelled and an embankment
raised above the southern retaining wall, so that the
track seemed to lie in a trough, from which fact it derived its
popular name the Lakkoma or “hollow.” In the intervals
between the festivals it can have been used but little; it
was overgrown with weeds, perhaps it was used for pasturage.
Hence, as the time for the festival approached, the stadium had
to be set in order, and the work was let out on contract. We
have various records of these contracts. In 338 B.C. one
Helixius obtained the contract for work on the Pythian stadium.
In the accounts of the Archonship of Dion (258 B.C.) a number of
items of work are enumerated in connexion with the gymnasium,
stadium, and hippodrome, which throw invaluable light on the
details of these institutions.[#]
First the course itself and the surrounding embankments
(τὰ στέφοντα) were thoroughly cleared of weeds and rubbish.
This clearing (ἐκκάθαρσις) cost 15 staters. Then the track and
the jumping-places (τὰ ἅλματα) were dug up and rolled (σκάψις
καὶ ὁμάλιξις) at a further cost of 110 staters, and finally it was
covered with 600 medimnoi of white sand, which, at 1-2/3 obols
per medimnos, amounted to 83 staters 4 obols. Next a barrier
(φράξις) was erected round the course at a cost of 5 staters,
and a scaffolding of seats costing 29 staters. The small amount
spent on the last item proves that the erection was merely a
temporary structure, probably of wood, intended not for the
whole body of spectators, but merely for a few distinguished
persons. 36 staters were expended on the starting lines
and turning posts (καμπτῆρες), and 8 staters on the arrangements
// File: 288.png
.pn +1
for the pentathlon, presumably those for throwing the
diskos and the javelin. Further, 77-1/2 staters were spent—if
the restoration of the inscription is correct—on arrangements
for the boxers, a considerable sum in proportion to
other items, which suggests that some sort of raised platform
may have been erected to enable as many as possible to view
this extremely popular event. A stage, too, was erected for
musical competitions, and a triumphal arch, or ψάλις, probably
on the site occupied afterwards by the four pillars described
above.
.if h
.il fn=fig046.png w=70% id=fig046 alt="The Stadium of Delphi."
.ca Fig. 46. The Stadium of Delphi.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 46. The Stadium of Delphi.]
.if-
The temporary character of these arrangements is indicated
sufficiently by their cost. The stater was equal to two Aeginetic
drachmae of 96 grains, and equivalent approximately to two
shillings of our money, though its purchasing power was considerably
greater. In the time of Pericles an Attic drachma
of 67 grains was a day’s wage for an artisan; in the third
century its purchasing power was probably less. Allowing
// File: 289.png
.pn +1
half a drachma as the wage for a labourer, we find that the
clearing of the course and embankments took 60 men a day’s
work.
The recent restoration of the Panathenaic stadium[#] for the
revived Olympic games has enabled us to realize something of
the splendour which it owed to its reconstruction by Herodes
Atticus in the second century of our era. Previous to the fourth
century B.C., the Panathenaic games seem to have been held
at some spot in the deme of Echelidae which lay between the
Peiraeus and Athens. No traces of this stadium have yet been
found, and it is probable that the arrangements were as simple
as those existing in early time at Olympia. We gather from
Xenophon that there was no artificial barrier to keep spectators
off the course; in his treatise on the duty of a cavalry officer
he recommends that horsemen should be placed in front of the
crowds at reviews and races to keep them in order, but at
sufficient intervals not to interfere with the spectators’ view.[#]
The first permanent stadium was constructed by Lycurgus in
the second half of the fourth century, in a deep ravine on the
left bank of the Ilissus. The land was the property of a patriotic
citizen Demias, who as a mark of respect to Lycurgus presented
it to the state. Other citizens followed his example: one
Eudemus, who lent a thousand yoke of oxen for the work, was
rewarded by a public vote of thanks. The work consisted in
closing up the southern end of the ravine by an embankment
and levelling the ground for the course, which was further
separated from the spectators by a low wall, behind which
ran a conduit for carrying off the rain-water. The finish and
start were probably marked out as at Olympia by lines of stone
slabs, but there were no seats for spectators except for officials
and distinguished visitors. We hear of repairs made in the
stadium at various times, but it probably maintained substantially
its original form till the time of Herodes Atticus. Most
of the remains discovered belong to his reconstruction.
The arena which was enclosed by a marble parapet measured
something over 205 metres long by 33 metres broad. It ended
in a semicircular sphendone which was separated from the actual
running track by the stone starting line of which remains have
been found. As, however, no trace has been discovered of the
// File: 290.png
.pn +1
corresponding line at the other end, it is impossible to determine
definitely the length of the course. It must have been approximately
177 metres. At either end of the starting line stood a
stone pillar, and between these pillars stood four curious double-headed
herms. Two of these have been found almost intact,
and portions of the other two have also been found.[#] They
consist of square pillars about 6 feet high, on which stand back
to back two heads, one bearded, the other beardless, sometimes
said to represent a youthful Apollo and a bearded Dionysus.
The heads, which are of rude and unfinished workmanship, are
probably second-century copies of early originals. The pillars
are divided to the height of 3 feet by a narrow slit through
which, it has been suggested, may have passed the rope used in
starting the races. The position of these herms along the
starting line reminds one, however, of the somewhat similar
rows of pillars at Epidaurus and Priene. The pillars at
Epidaurus, it will be remembered, had likewise grooves on
either side, though these did not as at Athens extend right
through the pillars. In view of this resemblance it seems
probable that both grooves and slits served for fixing either a
sort of starting gate or a barrier used to enclose the course
when dangerous exhibitions, such as fights of wild beasts, took
place. Such shows it is known were exhibited in the stadium.
The Emperor Hadrian on one occasion presented 1000 wild
animals for this purpose. It was probably to secure the safety
of the spectators on such occasions that the seats surrounding
the whole arena were raised on a marble basement nearly 6
feet high. Above this rose 46 rows of marble seats, capable of
seating at least 50,000 spectators. At the point where the
curve of the sphendone began on the northern side a vaulted
passage led underneath the seats and through the hill into the
valley beyond. This passage may have served originally like
the secret entrance at Olympia for the entrance of officials
and competitors. In its later and more elaborate form it was
probably intended by Herodes for the introduction of wild
beasts, like the similar vaults in Roman amphitheatres. The
principal entrance was at the other end of the stadium, near
the Ilissus, where, it seems, elaborate Propylaea were erected,
while the whole effect was greatly enhanced by a marble Doric
// File: 291.png
.pn +1
colonnade which crowned the hills above the upper seats of the
sphendone.
The stadium at Priene[#] presents similar difficulties to those
at Epidaurus and Athens. It appears to have been constructed
at the same time as the lower gymnasium in the second century
B.C., but to have been considerably modified in later times. It
is built inside the south wall of the town, and is supported
along the south side by a massive retaining wall. The ends
are square, and the seats are placed along the north side only.
There are twelve rows of marble seats, the lowest of which rest
on a marble basement 3-1/2 feet high. The marble seats are only
found in the centre, extending for a distance of about a third
of the course. Beyond them at either end the spectators
must have sat on wooden seats or on the embankment. In
the absence of any sphendone, the ceremonial part of the
games, the proclamation of the victors, and presenting of
prizes must have taken place in the centre of the course.
Above the seats is a terrace, behind which is a Doric colonnade
extending the whole length of the stadium. The starting lines
at the west end have been discovered; but excavations at the
east end have been fruitless. The western starting line shows
traces of an earlier and of a later arrangement. The earlier
arrangement is represented by eight square slabs in which are
cut sockets for posts of wood or metal, such as are found at
Olympia and elsewhere, but there is no sign of the slabs marked
with parallel grooves between the pillars. Just behind this line
of slabs is a row of ten pillar bases standing on a stone sill, in
which is cut a runnel extending the whole length of the sill
with two short offshoots in the centre. This runnel, which
clearly served to carry off some of the water which naturally
drained down into the stadium, must have been covered by stone
slabs between the pillars. Only small fragments of the pillars
have been found; but these seem to indicate that there were
longitudinal grooves down the sides which may have served for
some form of barrier or starting gate. The total length of
the stadium is 191 metres; perhaps the actual course was as at
Delphi about 177 metres.
It is unnecessary to describe in detail the remains of the
numerous other stadia which have been found in Greek lands;
but a few peculiarities which they present may be noted as
// File: 292.png
.pn +1
illustrating the development of the stadium and the way in
which the Greeks adapted themselves to the character of the
ground. At Messene advantage was taken as elsewhere of a
shallow valley.[#] The stadium consists of two parts—an old
embanked part, forming the actual racecourse, and an unusually
elaborate sphendone. In the former the sides of the valley
were carefully banked up into terraces, but no stone seats were
provided and no attempt was made to render the two sides
parallel. The sphendone was considerably narrower than the
actual course and of unusual depth, the sides of the semicircle
being continued for some distance in straight parallel lines. It
is seated with stone, and the height above is enclosed in an
elaborate square court surrounded on three sides by colonnades,
which are continued along both sides of the course. A similar
narrowing of the entrance of the sphendone occurs at Ephesus,[#]
where the curve of the sphendone is produced on either side
so as to project into the course. This elaboration of the
sphendone is clearly connected with its use for musical and
dramatic performances, and marks the declining importance of
athletic competitions. At Aezani one end of the stadium was
rounded; the other was straight, and formed the stage of an
elaborate stone theatre. Finally, the last stage in the evolution
of the stadium is reached at Aphrodisias in Caria.[#] Here the
course is symmetrical with a sphendone at either end, and the
whole is surrounded by a colonnade and wall, through which
fifteen openings along one side afford entrance to the spectators’
seats, and various underground passages give access through
the side of the hill to the arena. It is only in its proportions,
its narrowness as compared with its length, that such a stadium
differs from the Roman amphitheatre. Indeed, we learn that
the large stadium at Laodicea was actually converted into an
amphitheatre.[#]
In all the stadia described the essential part is the rectangular
course, bounded at either end by a straight line. Not one of
the stadia which have been excavated has revealed any trace
// File: 293.png
.pn +1
of the three pillars or metae forming a line down the middle of
the course which were the characteristic features of the Greek
hippodrome and Roman circus, and which still figure in the
descriptions and plans which our handbooks and dictionaries
give of the Greek stadium. The only authority for this
arrangement is the note of a scholiast on the well-known
description of the Pythian games in the Electra of Sophocles.[#]
He states that there were in the course three stones or square
pillars, bearing on one side the respective inscriptions ἀρίστευε,
σπεῦδε, κάμψον—“Be stout,” “Make speed,” “Turn.” Now it
is by no means certain that the worthy scholiast is referring to
the foot-race at all; the note on the pillars would be far more
appropriate in connexion with the horse-race, in which, as every
reader will recollect, the pillar is the cause of the supposed
catastrophe to Orestes; moreover, practically the same note is
repeated in connexion with the chariot-race by another scholiast,
who implies that there were several of these square pillars
along the course. But even if the passage is intended to refer
to the stadium, it does not follow that the posts are in the
centre of the course, and the description would apply equally
well to the square pillars which are placed along both sides of
the course at Epidaurus, if we suppose them to be inscribed.
When in 1870 the first of the double herms at Athens was
found, it was at once concluded to be one of these three pillars,
but the subsequent discovery of portions of the other three
herms almost in situ along the starting line proves this view
to be untenable. At the same time, though we must abandon
the idea of any line of metae for the Greek stadium, we shall
find that in the long race the runners did probably race round
two pillars placed in the centre of the starting lines at either
end, but these pillars must have been of metal or wood.
The examples described above enable us to trace with some
certainty the history of the Greek stadium. In its simplest
form it is a long parallelogram, marked by two lines at either
end. The spectators stand along the course on raised banks,
natural or artificial. Stone seats occur first perhaps in the fifth
century at Epidaurus. In the second half of the third century
more elaborate stone seats appear near the centre of the course,
which seems to have been usually the place of honour. The
curved sphendone with its rows of seats does not appear till
// File: 294.png
.pn +1
the Hellenistic period. Finally, when both ends are curved
the stadium approaches the type of the Roman circus, and the
resemblance is increased by the addition of colonnades either
round the sphendone or round the whole course. The development
of the actual racecourse is more rapid: the needs of
competitors came before the needs of spectators. The starting
lines and finish seem to have been first marked by pillars
temporary or permanent on either side. These pillars exist
at Epidaurus, and survive at a much later period in the
Panathenaic stadium. Pillars are commonly represented in
athletic scenes on fifth-century vases.[#] Often they are merely
the shorthand symbol used by the vase-painter to denote the
buildings of the gymnasium or palaestra. In foot-races and
horse-races it is reasonable to suppose that they represent the
pillars at the start or finish of the race. They occur chiefly on
the red-figured vases, and the usual type is that of a fluted
pillar often standing on a square basis. The starting lines
with double grooves appear certainly in Macedonian times,
though their introduction may well date back to the laying
out of the stadia at Olympia and Delphi in the fifth century.
The importance attached to the starting lines is proved by their
frequent mention in inscriptions. Finally, in Roman times
these starting lines were superseded by a row of pillars, between
which was fixed some sort of barrier. The details and use of
all these arrangements will be more conveniently discussed in
connexion with the actual foot-race.
The stadium was used for other events besides the foot-race;
but where these took place and what arrangements were made
for them we cannot say. The Delphic inscription quoted above
proves that special arrangements were made for the jump, for
throwing the diskos or javelin, and for boxing. It is reasonable
to suppose that the starting lines were utilized for the diskos
and the javelin, which must certainly have been thrown along
the length of the course. It is probable that at a later period
wrestling and boxing matches took place in the sphendone.
But in many earlier stadia there was hardly sufficient room
at the end for these events, which would have been too far
removed from the bulk of the spectators. At Olympia we
// File: 295.png
.pn +1
have seen reason for thinking that they took place not in
the stadium but in the Altis. Otherwise it seems likely that
they were held in the centre of the stadium, where seats of
honour seem often to have been erected. But all this is mere
conjecture.
.fn #
Krause, Gym. pp. 131 ff.; J.H.S. xxiii. pp. 261 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. ii. 27. 5. The stadium of Epidaurus is στάδιον οἷα Ἕλλησι τὰ πολλὰ
γῆς χῶμα. Cp. viii. 47. 4, ix. 23. 1, of the stadia of Tegea and Thebes.
That at Corinth in contrast is described as λίθου λευκοῦ, ii. 1. 7; cp. Delphi
x. 32. 1, and infra.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Text. ii. 63 ff.; Frazer, Pausanias, iv. 78.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 20, 8.
.fn-
.fn #
The stadium of Pergamum was, however, 210 m. according to Dörpfeld, the
standard settled by Philetaerus being higher than that on the mainland. Ath.
Mitth. xxxiii. 341.
.fn-
.fn #
Πρακτικά. 1902, pp. 78-92, Pl. A-D; Frazer, Pausanius, v. 576.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., ii. 688.
.fn-
.fn #
A drawing from the Codex Ursinianus in the Vatican, published in Röm.
Mitth. 1890, p. 156, Taf. vii., represents runners standing behind a wooden
barrier.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H., 1899, pp. 601-615.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Pyth. viii. 19-20, x. 15, xi. 21.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H. l.c. p. 611, and supra, p. #126#.
.fn-
.fn #
Pausanias, x. 32, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
B.C.H., 1899, pp. 564, 613.
.fn-
.fn #
Frazer, Pausanias, ii. 205; Politis in The Olympic Games in 1896, pp. 31 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Hipparch. ch. 3.
.fn-
.fn #
One may be seen in the museum at Athens, another has been re-erected in
the stadium.
.fn-
.fn #
Wiegand u. Schrader, Priene, pp. 258 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Schreiber, Atlas, xxvi. 1; Blouet, Expéd. de Morée, ii. Pl. xxxix. The
stadium is stated to belong to the third century B.C.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. Pl. iv. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Ionian Antiquities of the Dilettanti, iii. Pl. xxi.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. ii. Pl. lxxxiv. Durm, Baukunst der Griechen, gives in his “Register”
numerous references to accounts by early travellers of stadia at Aezani, Aphrodisias,
Ephesus, Laodicea, Messene, Perga, Pessinus.
.fn-
.fn #
Electra, 680 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
On earlier black-figured vases the finish is represented by tripods or vases
set as prizes (Gerh. A. V. 257), or by the seats of the judges as on the Amphiaraus
vase (Fig. #3:fig003#).
.fn-
// File: 296.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap13
CHAPTER XIII | THE FOOT-RACE
.sp 2
The length of the various foot-races was determined for the
Greeks by the length of the stadium. The stade-race, as its
name implies, was a single length, approximately 200 yards.
The diaulos was twice the length of the stadium, or 400 yards.
The length of the dolichos or long race is variously stated as
7, 12, 20, or 24 stades, from seven furlongs to nearly three
miles.[#] The divergence of these statements is probably due to
the fact that the distances varied at different festivals, and at
different periods, as they do at the present day. For Olympia
the evidence is slightly in favour of a 24 stades race. These
three races seem to have been universal. At the Isthmia,
Nemea, and Panathenaea there was also a double diaulos of
four stades called the horse diaulos (ἵππιος or ἐφίππιος) from
the fact that the length of the course in the hippodrome was
two stades, or double that of the stadium.[#] There were different
races for different ages, and it is possible that the boys’ races
were shorter than those for men. Plato, in sketching his ideal
scheme of physical education, lays down that boys are to run
half the length of the men’s course, and the “beardless” two-thirds
of the course.[#] We do not know whether his scheme
had any foundation in fact, but it is certain that in the girls’
races at Olympia the course was one-sixth shorter than the
usual course.[#] Besides these purely athletic events, there were
races in armour, introduced for military purposes towards the
// File: 297.png
.pn +1
close of the sixth century, and various ceremonial races such
as the torch-race, survivals of ancient religious rites.
It will be convenient here to say a few words as to the ages
of competitors. What is true of the foot-race holds good, of
course, of all other competitions.
The classification of competitors according to age varied at
different festivals. At Olympia and Delphi there were only
two classes, men and boys. An inscription containing regulations
for the Augustalia at Neapolis lays down that competitors
in boys’ events must be over seventeen and under twenty years
of age.[#] As the Augustalia were modelled closely on the
Olympia, it seems probable that these were the Olympic limits
of age. But it is reasonable to suppose that a certain latitude
was allowed, and that the Hellanodicae exercised considerable
discretion in their judgment, taking into account not merely
a competitor’s reputed age, but also his size and strength.
Thus we are told that Agesilaus induced the officials to admit
as a competitor in the boys’ competitions a young Athenian
whom they would otherwise have disqualified because he was
bigger than the other boys. On the other hand, one Nicasylus of
Rhodes, who was eighteen years of age, was actually disqualified,
and accordingly entered for and won the men’s competition.[#]
The possibility of a boy winning among men proves that the
upper limit of age was a high one. It is mentioned as a
remarkable record that a youth of twenty should be victorious
in the open events at all the four Panhellenic festivals.[#] In
view of these facts, we may regard with some suspicion the
story told by Pausanias that one Damiscus of Messene won
the boys’ foot-race at the tender age of twelve![#]
At the Nemea and Isthmia we find a threefold division into
boys, youths (ἀγένειοι), and men. The ages denoted by these
terms varied according to the regulations of different festivals.
In later inscriptions we find the expressions “Pythian boys,”
“Isthmian boys” used to denote boys within the limits of age
prescribed at these festivals.[#] Approximately it seems likely
that the boys were those between the ages of twelve and
sixteen, the beardless those between sixteen and twenty.[#]
// File: 298.png
.pn +1
Elsewhere, especially in local competitions, we have a far more
elaborate classification. At the Erotidia in Boeotia the boys
were divided into “the younger” and “the older.”[#] In Chios
we find five classes—boys, younger epheboi, middle epheboi, older
epheboi, men.[#] At the Athenian Thesea there are competitions
for boys of the first, second, and third ages, confined to Athenians,
and an open competition for boys of any age.[#] Similarly, in
the girls’ foot-races at the Olympic Heraea the girls are divided
into three ages.[#]
There is a general but mistaken idea that the stade-race
was honoured above all other events among the Greeks.[#]
There is no evidence for assigning pre-eminence to the foot-race
over other events, or to the stade-race over other foot-races.
It is true that Xenophanes speaks of speed of foot as honoured
more than strength. The fact that out of the eight athletic
events for men existing at Olympia in his day, four were foot-races,
while the foot-race also formed part of the pentathlon, is
sufficient explanation of such a statement. But an examination
of the Epinikia of Pindar and Bacchylides, or the list of athletic
statues at Olympia, is sufficient to prove that Xenophanes’
words must not be pressed. Out of 25 athletic odes of Pindar,
6 are in honour of victories in the foot-race, including one for
a double victory in the pentathlon and stade-race, 19 for other
events. In Bacchylides three out of nine odes are for victories
in the foot-race. At Olympia 45 statues were erected for
victories in the four foot-races, 59 for victories in boxing,
39 for wrestling, 20 for the pankration.[#] These figures are
conclusive for Olympia and the Peloponnese. The only evidence
to the contrary comes from Athens. At the Panathenaea the
winner of the stade-race received 50 amphorae of oil, the
pankratiast 40, and the other winners only 30.[#] The inscription
which records these facts refers only to competitions
for boys and youths, but probably the same proportion was
observed in those for men. The popularity of the foot-race at
Athens is shown by the fact that at the Panathenaea in the
second century there were no less than nine foot-races, not
// File: 299.png
.pn +1
counting that in the pentathlon. Of the Panathenaic vases
which we possess many more belong to the foot-race than to any
other event. Most of the victories gained by the Athenians at
Olympia were in the short-distance races, the only other event
in which they show excellence being the pankration. These
facts are in entire accordance with all that we know of the
Athenian character, which combined with a certain reckless
daring and love of adventure a constitutional dislike of
prolonged exertion.[#] But the home of Greek athletics was
not Athens but the Peloponnese, and here at least the stade-race
enjoyed no pre-eminence. The selection of the winner of
this race as eponymos for the Olympiad has been explained
already as due to the fact that this race came first in the list;
it may also be due in part to the literary supremacy of Athens.
From a very early time the Greeks discarded the use of
the loin-cloth in racing, and ran absolutely naked. For this,
as for all athletic exercises, the body was carefully oiled.
Bacchylides describes how Aglaus of Athens in the double
diaulos, as at the finish of the race he rushed on into the
cheering crowds, bespattered with oil the garments of the
spectators.[#] Competitors ran barefooted and bareheaded.
The soft leather boots (ἐνδρομίδες) which Pollux says that they
wore, were worn only by couriers and messengers, not by
athletes.[#] We see no trace of them on the vases.
We have seen that the start (ἄφεσις) of the running track
was marked by two parallel grooves a few inches apart. Though
the evidence of the excavations does not allow us accurately
to determine the date of the stone sills in which these lines are
cut, the frequent allusions in writers of the fifth century to the
starting line (γράμμη) proves beyond all doubt that this was
the method of starting in the fifth century and earlier. Here,
as an old song tells us, the herald summoned the competitors
to “take their stand foot to foot,” just as we see them represented
on vases.[#] The signal to start was given by the herald calling
“Go” (ἄπιτε),[#] or perhaps as in the chariot-race, by a blast of
// File: 300.png
.pn +1
the trumpet.[#] Then, as to-day, runners would try to get a
good start, and poach a yard or two. But Greek methods of
discipline were more drastic than our own. “Those who start
too soon are beaten,” says Adeimantus to Themistocles in the
historic council before Salamis.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig047.png w=70% id=fig047 alt="R.-f. Amphora."
.ca Fig. 47. R.-f. Amphora. Louvre.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 47. R.-f. Amphora. Louvre.]
.if-
But what was the use of the double line? Here again the
parallel grooves can have been no innovation introduced with
the stone sills; they must surely represent the practice of an
earlier time. Two lines were cut in stone, because two lines
had been marked in the sand previously. They certainly
cannot have been intended to give a firm foothold for the
runners’ feet, nor is there a particle of evidence for the natural
and attractive suggestion that the Greek started off his hands
like the modern sprinter, and that the grooves afforded a grip
for his fingers.[#] The lines seem only to have been intended to
// File: 301.png
.pn +1
mark the position for both feet. Why this was done is doubtful.
The position implied is somewhat cramped for a starter. Perhaps
the object was to render it more difficult to poach at the start.
Be this as it may, it is certain that the Greek runner did start
with his feet close together in the position required by the
lines.[#] The position is depicted on several vases; but the
best example of it is the charming bronze statuette of a
hoplitodromos from Tübingen (Fig. #12:fig012#).[#] He stands with his
right foot a few inches behind the left, the toes of the right
nearly level with the left instep. Both knees are slightly bent,
the body is leaning forward, and the right arm is advanced to
preserve the balance. The whole attitude is that of a man on
the alert, ready to start at any moment. The shield on the
left arm has been broken away. On a red-figured amphora
in the Louvre (Fig. #47:fig047#)[#] a hoplitodromos is represented in
an almost identical position. Opposite stands a draped and
wreathed official with his right arm extended and his hand
turned somewhat upwards and backwards. It is a singularly
appropriate gesture, which we often meet with in athletic scenes.
We seem almost to hear him say to the runners, “Steady on
the mark.” Another drawing shows us an unarmed runner
// File: 302.png
.pn +1
standing beside a pillar ready to start, while a youthful
official holds over him a forked rod with which to correct him
if he leaves the mark too soon (Fig. #48:fig048#). The position of the
feet is the same, but the body is inclined more forwards, and
having no shield to inconvenience him he holds both arms to the
front. A more upright position is shown in Fig. #49:fig049#, which is
taken from Hartwig’s Meisterschalen. The attitude illustrated
in these examples is in its essence the same as that adopted by
many runners in the present day, the chief difference being that
the modern runner starts with his feet somewhat wider apart,
and his position is therefore less cramped.
.if h
.il fn=fig048.png w=60% id=fig048 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 48. R.-f. kylix. Formerly at Naples.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 48. R.-f. kylix. Formerly at Naples.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig049.png w=60% id=fig049 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 49. R.-f. kylix. Chiusi.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 49. R.-f. kylix. Chiusi.]
.if-
Such was the position adopted at the start in the fifth
century, and it continued as long as and wherever the double-grooved
starting lines continued to be used. It seems, however,
that sometimes the runners were stationed behind a barrier
formed by a rope (ὕσπληξ) or by a wooden bar, and that the
signal for the start was given by dropping this rope or bar.[#]
Ropes, as we know, were used in the chariot-race, a separate
rope being stretched in front of each chariot. Aristophanes
// File: 303.png
.pn +1
uses the phrase “from a single rope” (ὥσπερ ἀπὸ μιᾶς
ὑσπλάγιδος) to denote a simultaneous movement “of one
accord.”[#] The vase paintings do not furnish the faintest
indication of the use of a rope in the foot-race. The only
possible trace of its use revealed by excavation is the line of
herms at Athens, which cannot be earlier than imperial times.
The posts, which were placed in the square sockets along the
starting line, cannot have been used to support a rope; for
such a rope is incompatible with the use of the starting lines.
There is no evidence of its use in the foot-race till the third
century B.C., when we find reference to the ὕσπληγες in inscriptions
relating to the stadia at Epidaurus and Athens,[#]
and an undoubted allusion to it in the poet Lycophron, who
speaks of a “winged runner bursting through the balbis rope.”[#]
Even then we may doubt whether its use was ever universal.
With a rope a false start is impossible; and yet allusions to
runners poaching at the start occur in literature from
Herodotus to Plutarch, or even later.[#] Still, it is certain that
a rope was sometimes used, that it was raised at some height
above the ground and stretched tight in front of the runners,
and that the signal to start was given by the dropping of the
rope. A late epigram tells us that this was accompanied by
an audible sound.[#] In default of definite evidence, it may be
suggested that it was worked by a spring, perhaps somewhat
after the manner of the modern starting-gate. Some support
for this suggestion is afforded by the use of the word ὕσπληξ
to denote a spring hunting-trap.
Allusion is also made to a bar of wood placed in front of
the runners, the removal of which gave the signal to start.[#]
Such a barrier can hardly have been introduced earlier than
the time of the Empire, and was probably borrowed from the
Roman circus. As stated in the last chapter, it is possible
that the grooves in the pillars at Athens and Epidaurus served
to hold some solid barrier of this sort.
In the stade-race, the runners were divided into heats
// File: 304.png
.pn +1
(τάξεις), which were drawn by putting into a helmet lots
marked with the different letters of the alphabet.[#] If, as seems
probable at Olympia, each heat consisted of four, there would
be four lots marked A, four B, and so on. It appears that
there was no second draw, but that all the winners of heats
ran together in the final, so that the final winner had won
twice.[#] The starting lines at Olympia provided room for
twenty runners at once. In short races the field is often a
large one, and we hear of no less than seven Crotoniats
winning their heats in a single Olympiad.[#] There is no reason
for supposing that the heats were always limited to four.
The number would naturally be determined by the number
of entries and the length of the starting lines. On the
Panathenaic vases representing this race we find usually four,
but sometimes two, three, or five runners taking part, though
it is unsafe to draw conclusions from this evidence, the number
of figures being largely determined in a drawing by considerations
of space.[#] Of one thing we may feel sure in spite of
assertions to the contrary in modern text-books: the heats
were so arranged as to avoid the necessity of a bye. A single
odd runner would be attached to one of the heats, two or more
would form a heat by themselves. Whether heats were employed
in the longer races we have no evidence to determine.
The runners were separated from one another at the start
by posts placed in the stone sill, and in later times by more
massive pillars, and similar posts or pillars marked the finish
or turning point. It has been suggested that ropes were
fastened to these posts, which ran the length of the course and
separated the runners from one another. Unfortunately,
there is no evidence for this natural and attractive explanation,
and such evidence as we do possess is unfavourable. We
hear occasionally of runners interfering with one another by
holding, tripping, and running across.[#] Such foul practices
// File: 305.png
.pn +1
seem to have been rare, and were of course strictly forbidden.
The competitors at Olympia swore a solemn oath to abstain
from all foul play. But on a roped course these practices are
impossible. They may, of course, have been confined to the
long-distance races, in which the course was certainly not roped.
But this is mere supposition, and in the dearth of evidence
we must look for some other explanation of the posts. In
the first place they must have served as guide-posts for
the runners, a very necessary aid in a broad track 200
yards long,—in which it is by no means easy to run straight
without assistance. Possibly each post was distinguished by
some special sign or colour. Then in the diaulos the runners
probably turned round these posts, each turning round his
own post. Finally, as the use of the tape seems to have been
unknown at the finish, they must have given the judges a
most useful line for judging a close finish. It is possible that
the first who touched his pillar won, and that in the turn the
runners had to touch their respective pillars. But this is
mere conjecture.
.if h
.il fn=fig050.png w=60% id=fig050 alt="Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century."
.ca Fig. 50. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I. I. xxii. 7 b.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 50. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century.
(Mon. d. I. I. xxii. 7 b.)]
.if-
In the stade-race each runner ran straight to the post
opposite his starting point. The manner of running the other
races is more difficult to determine. The centre socket in one
of the lines at Olympia is larger than the rest, and Dr. Dörpfeld
// File: 306.png
.pn +1
is of opinion that in the diaulos and dolichos the other posts
were removed and only the central one was left, round which
all competitors raced. In the diaulos such a system would
have put those who started on the outside at a serious disadvantage
compared with those who started in the centre, a
disadvantage accentuated by the confusion and crowding at
the turn. It seems therefore probable that the runners raced
each to his own post, and turning round it to the left raced
back along the parallel track. In the longer races the objection
is less important, and the representations of the dolichos
on vases seem to show that all the runners raced round and
round the central posts at either end. On an early Panathenaic
vase (Fig. 50) four runners are shown running to the left towards
a rough post. The foremost runner has just reached
the post, his left foot just passing it, but he has not yet turned.
The style of running shows that the post denotes the turn and
not the finish.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig051.png w=60% id=fig051 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 51. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 609. Archonship of Niceratus, 333 B.C.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 51. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 609.
Archonship of Niceratus, 333 B.C.]
.if-
The difference in style between the sprinter and the long-distance
runner is clearly marked on Panathenaic vases. The
// File: 307.png
.pn +1
style of the latter is excellent; his arms are held close in to
the sides, yet swinging freely without any stiffness; his body is
slightly inclined forward, with chest advanced and head erect;
and he moves with a long sweeping stride, running on the ball
of the foot, but without raising the heel unduly (Fig. #51:fig051#).
At the finish he, too, like the sprinter, swung his arms violently
in making his spurt, using them as wings, says Philostratus.[#]
This idea of the winged runner seems to have influenced the
early representation of the stade runner, which at first sight
appears almost grotesque. He seems to be advancing by a
series of leaps and bounds with arms and fingers spreadeagled
(Fig. #52:fig052#).
.if h
.il fn=fig052.png w=60% id=fig052 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 52. Panathenaic amphora. Munich, 498. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 52. Panathenaic amphora. Munich, 498. Sixth century.]
.if-
In criticizing these drawings we must not forget that the
subjects on the Panathenaic vases are usually treated in a
conventional manner. The earliest of these vases are archaic
work of the sixth century, the latest archaistic work of the
fourth century, and, as is usual in objects connected with
religion, the conventions of the earlier period are preserved
// File: 308.png
.pn +1
in the later. Now, if we make allowance for the limitations of
the early artist, and the extreme difficulty of the subject, we
shall find that the artists have succeeded in reproducing the
essential points of a sprint. The runners run well on the ball
of the foot, the heel somewhat higher than in the long race;
their knees are well raised and their bodies erect. The movement
of the arms seems exaggerated at first, till we compare
the vase paintings with snapshot photographs of a short-distance
race. Then we see that every sprinter uses his arms.
The Americans have certainly reduced running to a science,
and I will therefore quote a passage from a well-known
American trainer and athlete: “The arms are of great service
in sprinting, and the importance of this fact is generally under-estimated.
They are used in bent form and moved almost straight
forward and back, not sideways across the body.”[#] This is just
what we see on the vases. Why, then, is the effect
grotesque? Because the vase painter has made the right arm
move with the right leg and vice versa, whereas, in reality, the
right arm moves with the left leg. A similar mistake may
often be observed in the drawings of horses. In both cases the
mistake is due partly to the difficulty of representing the action
accurately; partly, and this is true especially of the finer red-figured
vases, to artistic causes. A side view of a sprinter
always looks awkward, and the artist therefore tries to improve
upon nature. But that the Greek really used his arms
just as we do is shown by the fact that on some of the later
Panathenaic vases the arms are represented quite correctly
(Fig. #53:fig053#), and occasionally even on sixth-century vases, as in the
leading runner of Fig. #52:fig052#.[#] The grotesqueness of movement
is enhanced by the stiff manner in which the fingers are outstretched—another
purely artistic peculiarity, which we need
not therefore, as a popular lecturer did recently, hold up as an
example for the imitation of modern athletes. As a matter of
fact, the action of the Greek sprinter is not so violent as that
of the modern, and this is natural, seeing that the Greeks had
no race shorter than 200 yards.
In the diaulos and hippios the style must have been less
// File: 309.png
.pn +1
violent. Perhaps some of the existing vases represent these
events, but owing to the absence of any inscription we cannot
say for certain. One fragment found at Athens bears the
inscription “I am a diaulos runner”; and the style, as we
should expect, is a compromise between that of the sprinter
and that of the long-distance runner. The arms are swung,
but not as violently as in the sprint, while the stride is long
and even, the knees not raised unduly.[#] On another fragment
found at Athens we find the position of the arms typical
of the dolichos combined with the high action of the sprinter.
Unfortunately this fragment is uninscribed.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig053.png w=60% id=fig053 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 53. Panathenaic amphora. Fourth century. (Stephani, C. R. Atlas, 1876, Pl. i.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 53. Panathenaic amphora. Fourth century.
(Stephani, C. R. Atlas, 1876, Pl. i.)]
.if-
The physical types represented on these vases vary considerably.
On the earlier vases a short, thick-set, bearded type
prevails, with powerful shoulders and thighs. On the later
vases we see greater length of limb. The thinness of the
sprinters is sometimes exaggerated to the point of emaciation.
On the other hand, some of the long-distance runners, in spite
of their length of limb, seem too heavy in build for the distance.
They are of the type of the Apoxyomenos, who, though he
might be excellent over 200 yards or quarter of a mile, is
too heavy for a three-mile race.
A peculiarity ascribed in our text-books to the Greek
// File: 310.png
.pn +1
runner is the habit of encouraging himself to greater efforts
by shouting as he ran, with all the strength of his lungs.
The only evidence for so absurd and improbable a practice is a
rhetorical passage in Cicero,[#] who can hardly be regarded as an
authority on Greek athletics, even on those of his own day,
when athletics were at their lowest ebb. Nor need we credit
the statement that the Greeks raced in deep sand. Lucian, it
is true, describes the youths in the gymnasium practising
running in the sand as a severe form of exercise,[#] but the
account preserved of the careful preparation of the stadium at
Delphi proves that the racing track was something very
different.
It is difficult to form any estimate of value as to the
respective merits of different districts in different branches of
athletics. The evidence is too fragmentary and extends over
too vast a period. Many of the extraordinary performances
which Pausanias records belong to the time of the Empire. For
the period of Greek independence it seems safe to say that in
the Peloponnese the Spartans and Arcadians were most successful
in the foot-race, and outside the Peloponnese, the Crotoniats
and Cretans.[#] The excellence of the latter in long-distance
running is illustrated by Xenophon’s account of the games held
by the remnant of the ten thousand at Trapezus, at which no
less than sixty Cretans competed in the dolichos.[#] Most of the
celebrated runners have been mentioned in the course of our
history. To these we may add the names of Phayllus of
Croton, a stadiodromos and pentathlete, of whom we shall
have more to say, and Ladas of Sparta, a long-distance runner
of the fifth century, who must not be confused with a later
Ladas of Achaea, who won the stade-race in Ol. 125. The
popular idea that Ladas died as he reached the goal, in the
very moment of victory, is hardly creditable to the training
of the most famous runner of his day. It seems to be a myth,
derived from a misunderstanding of the epigram which describes
// File: 311.png
.pn +1
the statue of the runner made by Myron.[#] Pausanias merely
tells us that he died shortly after his victory, on his way home.
We have no means of comparing the performances of Greek
runners with those of our own. We hear of a sprinter who
could outrun and catch hares,[#] of another runner who raced
a horse from Coronea to Thebes and beat it.[#] Pheidippides,
as we all know, ran from Athens to Sparta in two days;
Ageus, who won the long race at Olympia in Ol. 113, is
reported to have carried the news of his victory to Argos on
the same day; and a still better performance is recorded in a
fourth-century inscription found at Epidaurus of one Drumos,
who records as an “example of manliness,” that he brought the
news of his Olympic victory from Elis to Epidaurus on the same
day. The distance as the crow flies is nearly ninety miles.[#]
All this is too vague for comparison. Such scanty evidence
suggests that the Greeks obtained a generally high standard
of excellence in running, and that such superiority as they
may have possessed was shown rather in long races than in
short.
The race in armour was first introduced at the close of the
sixth century.[#] It was a military exercise, and its introduction
was an attempt to restore to athletics that practical character
which under the stress of competition was even then in danger
of being lost. Its practical character naturally won for it the
approval of Plato, who proposed to introduce in his ideal state
races in heavy and in light armour. Appealing as it did to
the whole body of soldier-citizens rather than to specialized
athletes, it was an extremely popular event, and its popularity
was enhanced by its picturesqueness, which made it a favourite
subject for the vase painter. For the same reason it seems not
to have possessed, at all events in later times, the same athletic
importance as the purely athletic events: it was no race for the
specialist; rather it belonged to that class of mixed athletics,
such as obstacle races and races in uniform, which are a popular
and also a valuable feature in military sports. Hence at
Olympia and elsewhere the race in armour was an appropriate
// File: 312.png
.pn +1
close to the athletic programme,[#] marking as it did the connexion
between athletic training and real life.
.if h
.il fn=fig054.png w=100% id=fig054 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 54. R.-f. kylix ascribed to Euphronius. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 523.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 54. R.-f. kylix ascribed to Euphronius. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 523.]
.if-
There were many varieties of the armed race, differing from
one another in distance, in equipment, and in rules. The most
strenuous of all these competitions was that at the Eleutheria
at Plataea, partly, Philostratus tells us, owing to the length
of the course; partly owing to the completeness of the armour
worn, which enveloped the athlete from head to foot; partly
owing to a remarkable rule that any competitor who having
// File: 313.png
.pn +1
once won the race entered again and failed incurred the penalty
of death. Perhaps this regulation means no more than that
no previous winner was allowed to compete a second time.[#] At
Nemea the race was over the hippios course of four stades, at
Olympia and at Athens it was a diaulos of two stades.[#] Elsewhere
the distance may have been different. Similarly the
equipment varied. The runners at Olympia originally wore
helmets and greaves, and carried round shields, twenty-five of
which were kept there for the use of competitors. The wearing
of greaves was discontinued at a later date.[#] The vase paintings,
// File: 314.png
.pn +1
which mostly represent Athenian practice, show that while
the usage varied previous to 520 B.C., greaves became general
after that date, but disappear entirely after 450 B.C.[#] There
is no evidence that the runners ever carried weapons. The
danger of such a practice is obvious. We often see processions
of hoplites thus armed proceeding at a double, and these are
// File: 315.png
.pn +1
often described as races.[#] It seems safer and more reasonable
to regard them merely as military processions, or perhaps competitions
such as we know took place at the Athenian festivals.
.if h
.il fn=fig055.png w=90% id=fig055 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 55. R.-f. kylix. Formerly in Berlin. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 278.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 55. R.-f. kylix. Formerly in Berlin. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 278.)]
.if-
All the various details of the race are pictured on the vases.
On a red-figured vase by Euphronius in Paris we see the preparations
for the race (Fig. #54:fig054#). In the centre stands a robed
official or trainer with his rod, and around him are various
runners practising. One of them is putting on his armour,
others, perhaps, are engaged in a preliminary canter such as
is described by Statius.[#] The position at the start has already
been described. From the number of shields kept for this
race at Olympia it would seem that the field was usually a
large one, as we should expect, and certain vases representing
the turn indicate that whatever was the case in the unarmed
diaulos the runners in armour raced, not each round his separate
post, but all together round the central post, turning round it
to the left. This critical moment is perhaps represented in the
left-hand group on the Euphronius kylix, where the runner to
the left has just completed the turn, and is starting on his way
back, but has not yet got into his stride. Another vase shows
a pair of runners—one checking his pace before the turn, and
another in the very act of turning (Fig. #55:fig055#). Their attitude
seems to show that the turn took place round a pillar, and
that the runners had not merely to toe the line. The most
// File: 316.png
.pn +1
complete picture of the race is represented on a red-figured
kylix in Berlin (Fig. #56:fig056#). On one side we see a group of
three. To the right a runner is in the position of the start;
to the left another is almost in the act of swinging round the
post at the turn. Both these runners move to the left; the
central runner, who is already starting back, moves to the right.
On the other side we see three runners in full race, one of
whom is guilty of the fatal mistake of looking round. Is he
protesting against his fellow-runner for some unfairness?
.if h
.il fn=fig056.png w=90% id=fig056 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 56. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2307.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 56. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2307.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig057.png w=100% id=fig057 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 57. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 818.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 57. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 818.]
.if-
Finally, on a red-figured vase in the British Museum, we see
the finish of the race (Fig. #57:fig057#). A bearded runner who has
passed the winning post looks back in triumph on his rival,
who, as he reaches the goal, seems to have thrown down his
shield in disgust. The winner holds in his hand his helmet,
which he has just taken off. This gesture, which occurs on a
number of vases, seems to be symbolical of victory. What
could be more natural at the finish of a 400 yards’ race over
the hot sand and beneath the scorching sun of Olympia than
to take off the heavy, cumbrous helmet? The action reminds
one, too, of a cricketer who after a fine innings takes off his
cap as he returns to the pavilion. Of the style of the runners
little need be said; it resembles the style of the stade runner
in the swinging of the arm, and for obvious reasons of symmetry
the vase painter always makes the right arm work with the
right leg, the left arm, which holds the shield, being generally
stationary. The type of runner represented on Panathenaic
// File: 317.png
.pn +1
vases is, as we should expect, sturdier and heavier than is
shown in other races. The hoplites on one in the British
Museum exhibit that length of body in comparison with length
of leg which Philostratus mentions as a useful quality for this
event, and we may further note that they run on a flat foot
(Fig. #58:fig058#). Yet in spite of such examples a foreign archeologist
has maintained that the hoplitodromos advanced by a series
of leaps and bounds, and has deduced therefrom the theory that
jumping was the best training for this race, and that therefore
the statue of a hoplitodromos practising, described by Pausanias,
represented him not running, but jumping! The Greek athlete
has certainly been hardly treated by some of his admirers.
.if h
.il fn=fig058.png w=90% id=fig058 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 58. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 608. Archonship of Pythodelus, 336 B.C.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 58. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 608.
Archonship of Pythodelus, 336 B.C.]
.if-
The popularity of the armed race in the fifth century is
partly due to that spirit of military enthusiasm which animated
athletics after the Persian wars, and partly to its attractiveness
as a spectacle. There is something amusing in the sight of a
body of men racing at full speed in incongruous costume, and
the comic element in the armed race is brought out in the
Birds of Aristophanes,[#] where Peisthetaerus as he watches the
chorus of birds advancing on the stage with their quaint plumage
and crests aptly compares them to the hoplites assembling to
run the diaulos. Amusing incidents must have been frequent,
especially in the crowding at the turning post. On vases, for
example, we often see a runner who has dropt his shield, or
stoops to pick it up.[#] A race of this kind naturally lends itself
to variations, and of these we have evidence on the vases. A red-figured
kylix at Munich shows two armed runners racing to the
left, holding their shields in front of them in a decidedly quaint
style (Fig. #59:fig059#). Three others race in the opposite direction,
two of them with helmets only, the third unarmed. The sponge
and other implements hanging on the walls indicate that the
scene is placed in the gymnasium where athletes are practising;
but the idea suggested is undoubtedly that of a race in which
the runners at the end of the lap put down their shields and ran
the next lap without them, and then, perhaps, doffed their
helmets also. No certainty is attainable as to details, but the
vases establish the general fact that such variations did exist
at different places.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig059.png w=100% id=fig059 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 59. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 1240.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 59. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 1240.]
.if-
// File: 318.png
.pn +1
The comic element is still more apparent in the Lampadadromia
and in the Oschophoria described above.[#] These old
ritual races hardly come within the sphere of true athletics,
although connected with the gymnasia and the training of the
epheboi. They are of the type of events which we find in the
modern gymkhana, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe
them here at length.
The torch-race was widely spread throughout Greek lands
and its popularity was maintained till Roman times. At
Athens there were torch-races at the Panathenaea, at the
Epitaphia and the Thesea, and in the time of Socrates a torch-race
on horseback was instituted at the festival of Bendis.
The torch-race took place at night. There were two principal
varieties of it—one a race between individuals, the other
between teams. In the former the runners started from the
altar of Prometheus in the Academy, and raced into the city,
the one who arrived first with his torch lighted being proclaimed
victor. The efforts of the runners to keep their torches alight
as they ran along stooping like boys in an egg and spoon race
caused endless amusement among the spectators, and as they
passed through the narrow gateway into the city, the ribald
// File: 319.png
.pn +1
dwellers in the potters’ quarter sped them on their way with
loud resounding slaps.[#] The team-race is familiar to all from
the famous simile in the Agamemnon. The members of the
teams were posted at intervals along the way; the first runner
handed it to the second as he reached him, and so on till it
came to the last. The team that brought their torch still
lighted to the finish first was declared the winner. The teams
must have been originally representative of the tribes. In
the first century B.C. we find teams mentioned from various
palaestrae; thus victories are recorded of boys from the
palaestra of Timeas, and of Antigenes, or from the
Lyceum.[#] The training of the teams was a voluntary service
(λειτουργία) performed by the Gymnasiarchoi, or by special
officials, the Lampadarchoi, whose names are mentioned on
inscriptions when their teams won. There were torch-races for
boys and youths of various ages. Aristophanes speaks of
torch-racing and hunting as the fashionable amusements of a
smart youth.[#] At a later time the torch-race is mentioned in
inscriptions as one of the duties expected from the epheboi,
rather as a ceremonial duty than as an athletic exercise.[#] The
religious character of the race was maintained in Roman times.
An inscription from Scyros prescribes penalties for any one,
whether slave or freeman, found guilty of unfair practices in
the torch-races of the tribes. If a slave, he is to be scourged
and his master fined; if a freeman or one of the runners, he is
not only to be fined but considered a “sacrilegious person
and accursed.”[#]
Little is known of the methods of training employed by
Greek runners. The gymnasia at Olympia and Delphi were
provided with running tracks corresponding in length to the
actual stadia, and that at Olympia was provided with grooved
starting sills. Thus the runners could practise the start, and,
what was equally important, the turn, under the same conditions
as obtained in competition. To gain endurance they ran in
heavy sand. Aristotle mentions as an exercise practised in the
palaestra running or rather waddling on the knees![#] At a
later date we learn from Epictetus that the training for the
long-distance runner was different from that of the sprinter in
// File: 320.png
.pn +1
its regulations for diet, massage, and food; but he gives us no
details.[#] Philostratus tells us that the long-distance runner
instead of training over the whole course would run eight or
ten stades only, a practice quite in accord with that of the
present day.[#] In those degenerate days athletes had also
recourse to quack medicines and charms. A concoction of
equisetum was recommended as a cure for the stitch, and some
runners for a similar purpose wore a girdle of horses’ teeth.
Athletes have always been superstitious.[#]
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 348.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacchylides, ix. τετραέλικτον ἐπεὶ κάμψεν δρόμον; Eurip. Electra, 825;
Pausanias, vi. 16, 4; Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 676.
.fn-
.fn #
Leg. viii. 833, C, D.
.fn-
.fn #
Pausanias, v. 16, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Inschr. 56.
.fn-
.fn #
Pausanias, vi. 14, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. 15, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. 2, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Mie, Quaestiones Agonisticae, p. 48; Ditt. Syll. 2nd. Ed., 677, 678.
.fn-
.fn #
Roberts and Gardner, Greek Epigraphy, ii. p. 166.
.fn-
.fn #
C.I.G. 1590.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 524.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 444.
.fn-
.fn #
Pausanias, v. 16, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
In J.H.S. xxiii. p. 266 I have myself made the mistake.
.fn-
.fn #
These figures are drawn up from the tables given in Hyde’s De Olympionicarum
Statuis.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 965. Vide supra, p. #234#.
.fn-
.fn #
Mr. R. E. Macnaghten, in a very suggestive paper in the Classical Review,
xxi. p. 13, attributes to the Athenians the degradation in meaning of all words
denoting toil, among which he cites ἄθλιος.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacchylides, ix.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 362.
.fn-
.fn #
Pomtow, Poetae Lyrici Graeci Minores, ii. p. 154 βαλβῖδι ποδῶν θέντες
πόδα παρ πόδα. Julian, 318.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristophanes, Eq. 1161.
.fn-
.fn #
Sophocles, El. 711.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. viii. 59.
.fn-
.fn #
The only vase which could possibly represent this position is a r.-f. skyphos
reproduced in J.H.S. xxiii. p. 283. It represents a hoplitodromos leaning
forward, his right hand resting on the ground. But it will be remarked that his
feet are in the usual position, level with the pillar where the starting lines should
be. Opposite stands an official in the attitude shown in Fig. #47:fig047#, and I am now
inclined to think that the runner in practising a start has overbalanced himself,
and that the official is telling him to get back to his mark.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiii. pp. 269 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Jahrb. 1886, Pl. ix. Cp. Dr. Hauser in Jahrb. 1887 and 1895; M. A. de
Ridder in B.C.H., 1897; criticisms on the same in J.H.S. l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Bull. Nap. nouv. sér. vi. 7; J.H.S. l.c. p. 270, Fig. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
The passages relating to the ὕσπληξ are collected by me in J.H.S. xxiii.
p. 263. To these may be added, Bekker, Anecd. 220, 31 βαλβίς. Ξῦλα δύο τῶν
δρομέων ἀφ’ ὧν σχοινίον τί διατέταται, ὃ καλεῖται βαλβίς, ἵνα ἐνεῦθεν ἐκδράμωσιν
οἱ ἀγωνιζόμενοι; Fränckel, Antiq. Pergam. viii. 1, p. 8, 10, epigram on the
victory of Attalus in the chariot-race; Schol. to Aristoph. Eq. 1159 βαλβίς· ἡ
ὑπὸ τὴν ὕσπληγα γενομένη γράμμη.
.fn-
.fn #
Lysist. 1000.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 688; Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1884, 169.
.fn-
.fn #
Lycophron 13 βαλβῖδα μηρίνθου σχάσας.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. l.c. p. 264.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Pal. ix. 557.
.fn-
.fn #
Schol. to Aristoph. Eq. 1159 βαλβὶς δὲ καλεῖται τὸ ἐν τῇ ἄρχῃ τοῦ δρόμου
κείμενον ἐγκαρσίως ξῦλον, ὃ καὶ ἀφετήριον καλεῖται, ὅπερ μετὰ τὸ ἐτοιμασθῆναι
τοὺς δρομέας εἰς τὸ δραμεῖν ἀφαιρούμενοι ἀφίεσαν τρέχειν.
.fn-
.fn #
This is the method for drawing the ties for wrestling and boxing described
by Lucian, Hermotim, 40.
.fn-
.fn #
Pausanias, vi. 13, 2. The text of the passage is unfortunately corrupt.
.fn-
.fn #
Strabo, vi. 12.
.fn-
.fn #
Out of fifteen such vases, one has two runners, three have three, three have
five, and eight have four. The number four is more usual also in representations
of the longer races.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 363. J.H.S. l.c. p. 262. In Vergil Nisus trips Salius,
Aen. v. 335; in Statius, vi. 616, Idas seizes Parthenopaeus by the hair. More
important is a passage in Lucian, Calumn. non temere cred. 12 ἄναθλος
ἀνταγωνιστὴς ἀπογνοὺς τὴν ἐκ τοῦ τάχους ἐλπίδα ἐπὶ τὴν κακοτεχνίαν ἐτράπετο
καὶ τοῦτο μόνον ἐξ ἅπαντος σκοπεῖ ὅπως τὸν τρέχοντα ἐπιοχὼν ἣ ἐμποδίσας
ἐπιστομιεῖ. Cp. Cicero, de Officiis, iii. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
It is unnecessary to repeat here the arguments on which these conclusions
are based. They are stated fully in J.H.S. xxiii. p. 267.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 32 οἷον πτερούμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν χειρῶν. Winged figures are very frequent
in early Greek art: a very beautiful later representation of a winged runner
occurs on a r.-f. vase published in B.C.H., 1899, p. 158.
.fn-
.fn #
Practical Track and Field Athletics, by John Graham and Ellery H.
Clark (D. Nutt), p. 24. A photograph of two runners (Pl. vi.) taken in an actual
race bears a striking resemblance to the pictures on Greek vases.
.fn-
.fn #
C.R., 1876, Pl. i.
.fn-
.fn #
National Museum, 761.
.fn-
.fn #
Mon. d. I. X. 48 h, 15.
.fn-
.fn #
Tusc. Disp. ii. 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Anacharsis 27.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 379.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Anab. iv. 8, 27. The Damonon inscription records the successes of
Damonon and his son in local festivals. Damonon won many victories in the
stade and diaulos; his son twice won the stade, the diaulos and the long race
on the same day. The inscription is a good proof of the athletic ability of the
Spartans in the fifth century; specialization in athletics found no favour at
Sparta, B.S.A. xiii. 179.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Plan. iv. 54; Pausanias, iii. 21.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostr. Gym. 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Diodor. Sic. xiv. 11.
.fn-
.fn #
Jul. Africanus, Ol. 113; I.G. iv. 1349.
.fn-
.fn #
Artemidor. i. 63; Plutarch, Quaest. Symp. ii. 5; Pausanias, iii. 14, 3;
Philostr. Gym. 7; Heliodor. Aeth. iv.
.fn-
.fn #
For a full discussion of the armed race vide J.H.S. xxiii. p. 280 ff. On vases
this race is frequently connected with boxing and the pankration, the events
which probably preceded it in the programme. Vide Figs. #54:fig054#, #151:fig151#.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Gym. 8, 24. I have already pointed out that Philostratus is somewhat
credulous, and too much inclined to accept without investigation the tales
poured into his ears by the authorities at Elis and elsewhere. It was the fashion
in his time to exaggerate the Spartan severity of Greek athletics.
.fn-
.fn #
For Nemea vide Philostratus, l.c.; for Olympia, Paus. ii. 11, 8; for Athens
Aristoph. Av. 291, and Scholiast.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 12, 8; vi. 10, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Hauser, Jahrb., 1895, p. 199.
.fn-
.fn #
B.M. Vases, E. 22; Gerh. A. V. 258, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Theb. vi. 587.
.fn-
.fn #
Av. 291.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. l.c. pp. 284-287.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. l.c. pp. 282-284. The argument which I drew from the use of the
epithet ποικίλοι in the passage of Philostratus must be abandoned. Dr. Jüthner’s
recent edition of the Gymnastik proves that there is no authority for this
reading; he himself suggests πάλαιοι. The general conclusions drawn in my
article are not really affected by the change.
.fn-
.fn #
P. #228#.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristophanes, Ran. 1087; Lysistr. 1002.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. ii. 444, 446.
.fn-
.fn #
Vesp. 1203.
.fn-
.fn #
I.G. 444.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 680.
.fn-
.fn #
De Gressu Animal. p. 709.
.fn-
.fn #
Arrian, iii. 22.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 11.
.fn-
.fn #
Pliny, H. N. xxvi. 13, 83; xxviii. 19, 78. The spleen was supposed to cause
stitch; Plautus, Merc. i. 2, 14.
.fn-
// File: 321.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap14
CHAPTER XIV | THE JUMP AND HALTERES
.sp 2
Jumping is not a military exercise but an amusement of
peace. It is useful, of course, at times for a soldier to be
able to leap over any obstacle in his way. But the Homeric
chieftain was not suitably dressed for such feats of agility,
whether he went to war in Mycenaean style with his long-shadowing
spear and towerlike shield reaching down to his
feet, or like the later hoplite arrayed in panoply of bronze.
For flight or pursuit he trusted in his chariot and horses.
Hence jumping was no part of his training, and it is mentioned
in Homer only as an accomplishment of the peaceful Phaeacian
traders. Pindar, true to Homeric tradition, does not include
it among the sports introduced by Heracles in the first
Olympic games, and Plato has no use for it in the training
of his soldier-citizens. In athletic festivals the jump was
one of the events of the pentathlon, but never existed as an
independent competition. Yet it must have been always a
popular exercise and amusement, and its popularity during
the sixth and fifth centuries is shown by the frequency with
which it is depicted on vases. Pentathletes were sometimes
represented with jumping weights in their hands, and the jump
seems to have been regarded as the typical event of the
pentathlon.[#] Perhaps it owed its importance to the part
which the jumping weights played in physical training, at
least in later times. They were used much in the same way
as the modern dumb-bells, and many of the modern dumb-bell
exercises were known to the Greeks and freely practised,
especially in medical gymnastics.
// File: 322.png
.pn +1
The only form of jumping that had any place in athletic
competitions was the long jump. The explanation of this is
obvious. Greece was not a land of fences or hedges, and the
only natural obstacles which it afforded were streams and
ditches. There is no ground for the statement frequently
made that the Greeks practised also the high jump, and the
deep jump, much less that they practised the pole jump.
They certainly used a spear or a pole in vaulting on horseback
(Fig. #174:fig174#), but the so-called jumping poles are now universally
recognized as either javelins or measuring rods. A
certain number of vase paintings may possibly represent the
high jump, but they may just as well represent a standing
long jump; none represent jumping from a height, or the deep
jump.
It would be rash to say that such exercises were never
practised; but certainly they were unknown in athletic competitions.
In the daily life of the palaestra and gymnasium
there must have been countless exercises and feats practised, of
which no record survives. Lucian describes the athletes in the
gymnasium jumping up and down like runners, but without
moving from their places, and kicking the air.[#] The exercise
is that known in the modern gymnasium as “knees up,” and
is apparently the same as that described by Seneca as “the
fuller’s jump,”[#] from its resemblance to the action of a fuller
jumping up and down on the clothes in his tub. The Spartan
Lampito in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes ascribes her complexion
and figure to her athletic training, and mentions an exercise,
not unknown in foreign gymnasia and dancing-schools, of
jumping up and down and kicking the buttocks with alternate
feet.[#] Another Spartan lady claims to have made a record by
repeating this feat a thousand times. But these tricks belong
rather to the sphere of dancing than to that of athletics,
though we must remember that dancing was an important
part of Greek physical training. Its value consisted chiefly in
graceful and rhythmic movement; but its practice also involved
a variety of jumps, hops, flings, and kicks. Hopping (ἀσκωλιασμός)[#]
was a favourite amusement, but can hardly claim
to be classed under athletics, unless we suppose that the Greek
// File: 323.png
.pn +1
jump was a hop, skip, and jump.[#] At the Dionysia there was
a popular competition in which the competitors had to hop on
to a greased wine-skin full of wine. He who succeeded in
hopping on to it and staying there took it as a prize, while the
falls of the unsuccessful were a source of boundless amusement
to the populace. Mr. Henry Balfour informs me that the game
still exists in Northern Greece.
The Greeks jumped into a pit (σκάμμα)[#] the ground of
which had been carefully dug up and levelled. The same
term skamma is also used of the wrestling ring. The picks
(σκαπάναι) used for loosening the ground are frequently
represented on athletic scenes on the vases, and the exercise
of digging with them was regarded as a valuable means of
training, especially for wrestlers and boxers.[#] The ground
of the skamma was soft, so as to take the impress of the
jumper’s feet. No jump was allowed to be measured unless
the impress of the feet was regular, says Philostratus, meaning
thereby that if the jumper fell or stumbled or landed with one
foot in advance of the other, the jump was not counted.[#] In
all athletics the Greeks attached great importance to style. If
we are to believe the legends recorded by scholiasts and lexicographers
about Phaÿllus, the length of the skamma was 50
feet. One version of this story is that Phaÿllus having jumped
5 feet beyond the skamma, on to the hard ground, broke his
leg—a contingency by no means unlikely if such a jump were
possible.[#]
The take-off (βατήρ) was at one end of the skamma. It
is marked in vase paintings, sometimes by spears or poles
placed in the ground, sometimes by pillars similar to those
that mark the start of the running track.[#] Possibly the stone
starting-lines of the stadium may have served as the bater. The
word merely denotes a stepping-place or threshold. We know
that the bater must have been hard and firm,[#] but whether
// File: 324.png
.pn +1
it was made of wood or stone we cannot say. There is no
evidence for the use of any kind of spring-board in athletics.[#]
The jumps were measured by rods (κανόνες),[#] and the
individual jumps were marked either by pegs or by lines
drawn in the sand. On a vase in the British Museum
(Fig. #67:fig067#) three vertical lines are drawn beneath the figure
of a jumper in mid-air, and three similar lines occur under a
jumper depicted on an Etruscan carnelian. They mark the
jumps of previous competitors, but may equally well be interpreted
as pegs or as lines in the sand. Certainly they are
not, as has been sometimes suggested, spikes or arrows set
there to give zest and danger to the sport. The acrobat might
turn somersaults over swords and spikes, but the acrobat was
a slave-girl usually, not a free citizen, and the Greeks fully
appreciated the difference between acrobatics and athletics.
.if h
.il fn=fig060.png w=70% id=fig060 alt="Leaden halter found at Eleusis."
.ca Fig. 60. Leaden halter found at Eleusis. Athens, National Museum, 9075.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 60. Leaden halter found at Eleusis. Athens, National Museum, 9075.]
.if-
The Greek jumper generally used jumping weights (ἁλτῆρες).
These halteres were of stone or metal, and differed considerably
in shape and weight. We cannot say when their use came
in. Homer does not mention them, but we find them already
in existence at the very beginning of the sixth century, if
not earlier. To this period belongs an inscribed halter of
lead found at Eleusis, perhaps one of a pair, dedicated by a
certain Epaenetus to commemorate his victory in the jump
(Fig. #60:fig060#).[#] It is merely an oblong piece of lead about 4-1/2 inches
// File: 325.png
.pn +1
long, 1-1/2 broad, and with the sides slightly concave, varying
in depth from 1-1/4 inch at either end to less than an inch in
the centre. It weighs 4 lbs. 2 oz. (1·888 kg.).
.if h
.il fn=fig061.png w=100% id=fig061 alt="Halteres in the British Museum."
.ca Fig. 61. Halteres in the British Museum.\
(a) Cast of halter found at Olympia, L. 11-1/2 in.\
(b) Limestone halter found at Camirus, L. 7-1/2 in. (c) Leaden halter, L. 8 in.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 61. Halteres in the British Museum.
(a) Cast of halter found at Olympia, L. 11-1/2 in.
(b) Limestone halter found at Camirus, L. 7-1/2 in. (c) Leaden halter, L. 8 in.]
.if-
The vase paintings show that a large variety of shapes
existed during the sixth and fifth centuries. There are two
main types. On the earliest black-figured vases the halter
appears as a nearly semicircular piece of metal or stone with
a deep recess on the straight or lower side, which affords a
convenient grip. The two club-like ends are equal, and the
effect is that of a curved flattened dumb-bell. This type does
not occur after the sixth century, towards the close of which
the halter is improved by an increase in the size of the end
projecting to the front, and a decrease in the hinder part.
Numerous modifications of this type appear on the vases,
differing mainly in the size and shape of the club-like ends.
The British Museum possesses a pair of these halteres
(Fig. #61:fig061#). They are of lead about 8 inches long, affording a
comfortable grip for the hand in the centre. One of the pair
is damaged, the other weighs about 2 lbs. 5 oz. (1·072 kg.).
A similar pair found at Athens are in the Museum at
Copenhagen. They are somewhat shorter and heavier (1·610
and 1·480 kg. respectively), and the recess is so narrow
that they can only have been held by the smaller end, and
not in the centre.
Side by side with this club-like type we find in the fifth
century another type consisting of an elongated, roughly
// File: 326.png
.pn +1
semispherical block of metal or stone, thickest in the middle,
with the ends pointed or rounded, the upper side being
pierced or cut away, so as to furnish a grip for the thumb
and fingers. These are the “old-fashioned” dumb-bells which
Pausanias describes as held by a statue of Agon, which was
dedicated by Micythus in the second half of the fifth century.
Of this type we possess two interesting examples both of
stone, a pair of halteres found at Corinth, and now in the
Museum at Athens, and a single halter found at Olympia,
and now at Berlin, a cast of which may be seen in the British
Museum. Those from Corinth (Fig. #62:fig062#) are nearly 10-1/4 inches
long, and 4 inches deep by 3 broad. A little distance behind
the centre they are cut through, the depression on one side
affording a hold for the thumb, that on the other side for
the four fingers. The Olympic halter (Fig. #61:fig061#) is larger and more
primitive. It is a right-handed halter 11-1/2 inches long, and
weighs over 10 lbs., or four times as much as the leaden halteres
in the British Museum. The surface of the stone is left
rough, and the grip is formed by cutting away the stone
on either side, so as to enable the hand to grasp it.
.if h
.il fn=fig062.png w=90% id=fig062 alt="Stone halter found at Corinth (10 inches)."
.ca Fig. 62. Stone halter found at Corinth (10 inches).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 62. Stone halter found at Corinth (10 inches).]
.if-
After the fifth century there is no evidence as to the form
of the halteres until Roman times. On Roman copies of
athletic statues a new cylindrical type of halter is represented,
and the same appears on mosaics and wall paintings.[#] It is
merely a cylinder slightly narrower at the centre than at
// File: 327.png
.pn +1
the ends, like a dice-box, and though very useful for dumb-bell
exercises, can hardly have been as handy for jumping
as the earlier types. We do not know when this type came
in. The British Museum possesses a curious example of it,
found at Camirus in Rhodes (Fig. #61:fig061#). It is made of limestone,
7-1/2 inches long, and carefully grooved, so as to afford grips for
the thumb and each of the fingers. References in late authors
indicate that the halteres were usually not of stone, but of
lead.
Philostratus distinguishes two kinds of halteres: “the long,”
which “exercise shoulders and hands”; the spherical, which “also
exercise the fingers.”[#] It is clear that these cannot correspond to
the two types which we found prevalent in the fifth century. For
Pausanias regards one at least of these types as “old-fashioned,”
and Philostratus is speaking of the halteres in use in his own
day. Though he describes the halteres as an “invention of the
pentathlon, and invented, as its name denotes, for the jump,”
his ideas of their use for this purpose are of the vaguest,[#] and
he regards them principally as a means of training, employed,
he says, by all athletes alike, “whether heavy or light.” It
seems, therefore, that his “long halteres” are those used by
the heavy athletes, the boxer or the wrestler, while the spherical
ones are those used by light athletes, the runner or the spear-thrower.
The former may be identified with the cylindrical
halteres; the latter are perhaps little more than balls of wood
or lead, such as are recommended by a medical writer in the
early fifth century A.D., for the use of those suffering from gout
in their hands.[#]
The manner of using the halteres is clearly shown on the
vases. The principle is the same as that of a standing jump,
the utilization of the swing of the arms to assist the spring of
the legs. The jumper swings the halteres forwards and
upwards till they are level with, or higher than, his head, and
then swings them vigorously downwards, at the same time
// File: 328.png
.pn +1
bending his body till his hands are just below his knees. The
actual jump takes place on the return swing. As the hands
swing to the front, and the centre of gravity is shifted forward,
the knees, which have been bent on the back swing, are vigorously
straightened, and the swing of the halteres combines
with the push of the legs to propel the body forwards. In
the case of a standing jump the preliminary swing may be
repeated two or three times.
.if h
.il fn=fig063.png w=50% id=fig063 alt="R.-f. pelike."
.ca Fig. 63. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 427.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 63. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 427.]
.if-
It is this preliminary swing which is most frequently
depicted on vases. On a red-figured pelike in the British
Museum (Fig. #63:fig063#) we see a
youth preparing to jump. The
right leg, which is advanced, is
straight, and he is just in the
act of swinging the halteres to
the front. Opposite him stands
a flute-player in a long striped
and spotted robe, playing the
double flute. The jump was
always accompanied by music.
But why the jumper especially
required this assistance is not
clear. Philostratus gives as
the reason that the Greeks
regarded the jump as the most strenuous of all exercises. But
this is hardly satisfactory. It seems probable that in early
days flute-playing was a common accompaniment of all athletic
exercises. The Argives wrestled to the accompaniment of the
flute. On the chest of Cypselus, Admetus, and Mopsus were
represented boxing to music, on vases the flute-player accompanies
the diskos-thrower in his exercise, and less frequently
the spear-thrower.[#] Possibly the rhythmical swing of the
diskos and the halteres may have been assisted by the strains
of music. But I suspect that the special connexion between
the jump and the flute dates from the time when the halteres
had already begun to be used as dumb-bells, and it was found
that music was of great assistance as an accompaniment of
physical drill for large classes.
The two typical moments in the swing, and those therefore
which the artist usually selects, are the top of the upward
// File: 329.png
.pn +1
swing and the bottom of the downward swing, though the two
types are connected by a closely graduated series of intermediate
types.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig064.png w=100% id=fig064 alt="R.-f. krater."
.ca Fig. 64. R.-f. krater. Copenhagen (?). (Annali, 1846, M.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 64. R.-f. krater. Copenhagen (?). (Annali, 1846, M.)]
.if-
A good example of the upward swing occurs on a red-figured
krater presented by Campana to the King of Denmark
(Fig. #64:fig064#). It is a scene from the life of the gymnasium, and
represents youths practising the exercises of the pentathlon. A
diskos in its case hangs on the wall. In the centre stands a
flute-player. To the left a youth has swung the halteres
vigorously upward; his body is thrown well back, and its
weight rests on the right leg, which is behind, the left foot
being lifted off the ground by the swing. Next to him stands
a javelin-thrower, who has just adjusted the thong of his
javelin, and is drawing back his arm to throw. Beyond the
flute-player a diskos-thrower prepares to throw the diskos. All
three are depicted at similar stages in their respective exercises.
They seem to be moving in time to the music. The fourth
figure is also that of a jumper: he is in the attitude of a runner
suddenly checking his pace; perhaps he is practising a long
jump, and after a short run checks himself in order to swing
the halteres before the spring. The upward swing is also
represented on black-figured vases, but less vigorously, and
with the arms raised slightly higher and somewhat bent.
.if h
.il fn=fig065.png w=90% id=fig065 alt="R.-f."
.ca Fig. 65. R.-f. kylix. Bologna. (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. 16.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 65. R.-f. kylix. Bologna. (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. 16.)]
.if-
The downward swing is represented on a red-figured kylix
found at Bologna (Fig. #65:fig065#). The same motive is repeated in
a number of red-figured vases, though it does not occur on earlier
// File: 330.png
.pn +1
vases. The scene takes place in a gymnasium, as the strigils
and other objects hanging on the walls show. A robed trainer
in the centre is resting on his staff and directing the practice
of two jumpers. The pillar and javelins on either side mark
the bater from which the jumpers take off. The impression
produced is of an exercise performed in time to music, or by
word of command. Perhaps the Greek trainer taught his
pupils jumping “by numbers” as the modern instructor teaches
vaulting. At all events, the position shown is one essential to
a jumper swinging the halteres before his spring, and is not a
mere gymnastic exercise. Nor does the scene represent jumpers
jumping from a height, as one writer has suggested. A jumper
doing so in this position with weights would probably perform
a somersault or land on his head.
.if h
.il fn=fig066.png w=100% id=fig066 alt="R.-f. fylix."
.ca Fig. 66. R.-f. kylix. Bourguignon Coll. (Arch. Zeit., 1884, xvi.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 66. R.-f. kylix. Bourguignon Coll. (Arch. Zeit., 1884, xvi.)]
.if-
On another red-figured kylix we see an excellent picture of
a jumper in mid-air (Fig. #66:fig066#). The style is perfect: he has
jumped high, and arms and legs are extended to the front and
almost parallel. This vase also represents a practice-scene from
the gymnasium. To the right stands a trainer ready to correct
any mistake with his rod, and to the left another jumper is
swinging his halteres in a somewhat curious style, to which we
shall refer again. On the other side of the kylix we see
another trainer, a diskobolos, and another jumper, while a pick
lies on the ground.
Immediately before alighting the jumper quickly forces his
arms backwards, a movement which increases the length of the
jump and enables him to land firmly and securely. This
// File: 331.png
.pn +1
moment is admirably represented on a black-figured imitation
Corinthian amphora in the British Museum (Fig. #67:fig067#). The three
lines underneath the jumper represent the jumps of other competitors,
as has been already explained. A somewhat later
moment is shown in an Etruscan wall-painting in a tomb at
Chiusi.[#] The jumper is in the very act of alighting and his
body is almost straight.
.if h
.il fn=fig067.png w=50% id=fig067 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 67. B.-f. amphora. British Museum, B. 48.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 67. B.-f. amphora. British Museum, B. 48.]
.if-
The method of swinging the halteres and the positions
depicted on the vases seem at first sight more suitable for a
standing jump than a running jump, and the Greek jump has
// File: 332.png
.pn +1
therefore been described usually as a standing jump. A
representation of a jumper running with halteres occurs,
however, on a number of vases both black-figured and red-figured.[#]
The realism of the earlier vases despite their
grotesqueness makes their evidence very valuable. The run
as represented on these vases is by no means incompatible
with the use of the halteres. It is not like the run of the
modern long-jumper who uses his pace to increase his spring,
but like that of the high-jumper, consisting of a few short,
springy steps, intended to prepare the limbs and muscles for
the final spring. A somewhat exaggerated picture of such a
run is seen on a Panathenaic amphora at Leyden,[#] representing
the pentathlon (Fig. #108:fig108#), and a later picture of it occurs on
the interior of a red-figured kylix by Euphronius (Fig. 68).
A jumper running appears as the device of a shield on a kylix
in the British Museum, representing a hoplitodromos arming
for the race.[#] The run in all these cases is similar, and is quite
reconcilable with the upward and downward swings of the
halteres. The jumper starts with arms close to the side and
takes a short run, holding the halteres to the front. As he
nears the bater he checks himself in the manner represented in
// File: 333.png
.pn +1
Fig. #64:fig064#. As he does so he swings the halteres upwards, and
then with a slow stride forwards swings them down again, and
on the return swing takes off. Such a run is in accordance
with the practice of modern professionals who use jumping
weights.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig068.png w=50% id=fig068 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 68. R.-f. kylix. (Klein, Euphronius, p. 306.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 68. R.-f. kylix. (Klein, Euphronius, p. 306.)]
.if-
It seems, then, that the Greeks certainly practised the
running jump, and probably also the standing jump. In the
pentathlon the somewhat doubtful evidence of the Panathenaic
amphorae is in favour of a running jump.
The pentathlete in competition seems always to have used
the halteres, but in the gymnasia jumping was also practised
// File: 334.png
.pn +1
without weights. Sometimes the jumper is represented swinging
his arms in the same way as he does with the halteres,
but on several vases a totally distinct type occurs.[#] The
jumper stands with both feet together, knees well bent, and
arms stretched to the front. On one vase he seems to be
standing on a low bema or platform, and opposite him is a
short pillar, over which Krause supposes he is preparing to
jump. The attitude is, however, quite as appropriate to the
long jump as to the high jump, and on the interior of a red-figured
kylix in Munich we see an almost identical figure, but
with the pillar behind and not in front of him. The best
example of this attitude is found on a red-figured pelike
belonging to Dr. Hauser (Fig. #69:fig069#). Opposite to the jumper
stands a robed trainer, stretching out his hand with a familiar
gesture of command. There can be no doubt that these figures
represent jumpers, but whether long jumpers or high jumpers
we cannot say for certain. What is certain is that the jump
is a standing jump.
.if h
.il fn=fig069.png w=60% id=fig069 alt="R.-f. pelike."
.ca Fig. 69. R.-f. pelike, belonging to Dr. Hauser. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 272.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 69. R.-f. pelike, belonging to Dr. Hauser. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 272.)]
.if-
The use of jumping weights adds considerably to the length
of jump possible. The present record for the long jump
without weights is 24 feet 11-3/4 inches, whereas with jumping
weights and off a board 29 feet 7 inches has been cleared
by a jumper, who unassisted could probably not have jumped
more than 21 feet. But neither weights nor spring-board can
explain the discrepancy between these figures and the feats
ascribed to the Greeks. Till recently it was commonly stated,
and perhaps believed, that the Greeks jumped 50 feet or more.
Even if we make the fullest allowance for the fact that jumping
was a national exercise of the Greeks, a single jump of 50 feet
is a physical impossibility. Two explanations are possible.
Either the Greek jump was not a single jump or the record is
pure fiction.
It has been suggested that the Greek jump was a hop, step,
and jump, in which case the jump of 55 feet ascribed to
Phaÿllus would be a very fine performance, but not perhaps
impossible. Unfortunately there is absolutely no evidence in
support of this suggestion. For the suggestion that the jump
was a triple jump some evidence may be found in the fact that
a triple jump is known in the present day in parts of Northern
Greece. By itself this fact can hardly be regarded as adequate
// File: 335.png
.pn +1
proof, and there is, I believe, good reason for discrediting all
the evidence on which the supposed record rests.
The evidence consists in (1) the well-known epigram on
Phaÿllus, which states that he jumped 55 feet;[#] (2) various
statements of scholiasts and lexicographers of late and mostly
uncertain date; (3) a passage in Africanus, who states that one
Chionis, an Olympic victor in Ol. 29 (i.e. seven or eight hundred
years before the time of Africanus), jumped 52 feet.
The 52 feet of Africanus is probably a simple mistake for
22 feet, which is the reading of the Armenian Latin text. The
various statements of scholiasts and others can all be traced
back to the epigram on Phaÿllus, and to an explanation given
by some collector of proverbs on the use of the phrase “to jump
beyond the pit,”[#] to denote something extraordinary or excessive,
and they have no independent value apart from the epigram.
The Phaÿllus of the epigram is identified by the scholiasts
with Phaÿllus of Croton, who in the first half of the fifth
century won two victories in the pentathlon and one in the
foot-race at Delphi, but won no victory at Olympia. He fought
at Salamis in a ship equipped at his own expense. Aristophanes
alludes to one Phaÿllus, probably the same man, as a noted
// File: 336.png
.pn +1
runner. He had a statue at Delphi which Pausanias saw, and
Alexander the Great is said to have honoured his memory by
sending a portion of his Asiatic spoils to Croton. He was
evidently a popular hero, just the sort of man about whose
exploits all sorts of tales arise. But though Herodotus,
Aristophanes, Plutarch, and Pausanias all mention him, they
know nothing of the epigram or of the jump. Moreover,
according to one statement the epigram was inscribed on the
basis of his statue. Parts of this basis and of the inscription
have been recently found at Delphi, but, needless to say, there
is no trace of the epigram. When the epigram was written
we cannot say. Certainly it is not a contemporary commemorative
epigram. We meet with it first in Zenobius, a
collector of proverbs who lived in the time of Hadrian, and the
artificiality of its style is characteristic of the epigrams of this
period. But whatever its date it can hardly be regarded as
serious evidence. The sporting story is notorious, and the
sporting epigram is even less trustworthy than the sporting
story. The pages of the Anthology abound in epigrams on famous
athletes such as Milo and Ladas, some of them no less incredible.
Milo, we are told in one epigram, picked up a four-year-old heifer
at Olympia, and after carrying it round the Altis in triumph,
killed it and ate it all in a single day. Nobody has yet elaborated
a theory to account for this extraordinary gastronomic feat, and
yet it rests upon just as good evidence as Phaÿllus’ jump. The
mere fact that the numbers five and ten were used by the Greeks
proverbially, just as we use the terms “half a dozen” or “a dozen,”
sufficiently explains why an epigrammatist wishing to describe
a prodigious jump should select such a number as fifty-five.
In Roman times the halteres were used as dumb-bells. The
details of such exercises preserved in medical writings prove
that they were very similar to those in use at the present
day.[#] Antyllus describes three kinds of this “halter-throwing”
(ἁλτηροβολία). The first consists in bending and straightening
the arms, an exercise which strengthens the arms and shoulders.
In the other two exercises the arms are extended and take
little part in the movement, which consists in lunging with the
arms advanced as in boxing, or in alternately bending and
// File: 337.png
.pn +1
straightening the trunk. The former strengthens the legs chiefly,
the latter the back. Galen adds a variety of the latter exercise
for strengthening the side muscles of the body. The performer
places the halteres 6 feet apart, and standing between them
picks up first the left-hand halter with his right hand, next the
right-hand halter with his left, and then replaces them, repeating
the movement. The prominence given to exercises for developing
the important muscles of the trunk is interesting, because
the careful representation of these muscles in Greek sculpture
and on vases shows that they were developed to a marked
degree by the athletic exercises of the Greeks. Wrestling,
jumping, and throwing the diskos all helped to develop these
muscles. The absence of light clothing round the waist
contributed to the same result, and, above all, the fact that
the Greek stood and walked, but seldom sat. In the present
day these muscles are the worst developed of all muscles in the
ordinary man, a result due partly to the character of our games,
partly to our clothing, chiefly to our habit of sitting, and sitting
in a radically wrong position. It is to these causes that we
may ascribe the general absence in the modern figure of the
roll of flesh above the iliac crest which is so prominent in all
ancient sculpture, and the difference in the form of the iliac line.[#]
// File: 338.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig070.png w=80% id=fig070 alt="R.-f. oinochoe."
.ca Fig. 70. R.-f. oinochoe. British Museum, E. 561.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 70. R.-f. oinochoe. British Museum, E. 561.]
.if-
When were the halteres first used as dumb-bells? We have
no definite evidence, but I venture to suggest as probable that
the practice began about the time of the Persian wars, when the
Greeks first consciously realized the national importance of
athletic training. The first signs of such a use of the halteres
occur on the red-figured vases. It began, I conjecture, in
connexion with the jump. We have seen how certain vase
paintings suggest that the various movements of the jump and
the swinging of the halteres were practised in classes and in
rhythmical time. Take the swing of the halteres and make of it
a separate exercise, and you have at once a familiar and valuable
dumb-bell exercise. Not that this exercise was practised by
the Greeks at this period consciously as a physical exercise; it
was an exercise for jumpers, and practised for the sake of the
jump. It was soon found that the swinging of halteres was
useful for other exercises. In Fig. #66:fig066# we see to the left a
youth swinging the halteres sideways, his head is turned towards
his extended left arm, and his right arm is bent, the hand being
level with the breast. The type occurs on several vases, sometimes
the left, sometimes the right arm being extended, but the
head is always turned towards the extended hand. Now, if we
compare this type with the type of the javelin-thrower drawing
back his javelin to throw, we shall find that the position of
body, arms, legs, and head is identical in the two types. Does
it not seem, then, that we have here a halter exercise suggested
by javelin-throwing, perhaps invented by the javelin-thrower
to develop the special muscles and practise the special positions
required for the throw? Perhaps we may recognize an intermediate
position of this swing on a red-figured oinochoe in the
British Museum (Fig. #70:fig070#). In this sideways swing of the
halteres we have another familiar exercise of the modern
gymnasium. Such exercises intended originally for the jumper
or javelin-thrower were subsequently adopted by trainers and
medical men, and were incorporated by them in their systems of
physical training. This conjectural history of the use of the
halteres is confirmed by the fact that on later vases, when athletic
scenes have given place to groups of idle epheboi, the halteres
are still frequently seen hanging on the wall as the symbol of
athletic training.
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiii. p. 60; Paus. v. 27, 8; vi. 3, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Anacharsis, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Ep. xv.
.fn-
.fn #
Lysistrata, 82; cp. Krause, Gym. p. 398, n. 11.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristoph. Plut. 1129; Plato, Symp. 190 D; cp. Krause, Gym. p. 399.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide J.H.S. xxiv. pp. 74 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiv. pp. 70 ff., where I have shown that there is no distinction
between σκάμμα and τὰ ἐσκαμμένα.
.fn-
.fn #
Theocrit. iv. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 55 οὐ γὰρ συγχωροῦσι διαμετρεῖν τὸ πήδημα ἢν μὴ ἀρτίως ἔχῃ τοῦ
ἔχνους.
.fn-
.fn #
All the evidence about Phaÿllus is collected and discussed in J.H.S.
xxiv. l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Fig. 65; cp. J.H.S. xxiv. p. 186.
.fn-
.fn #
This is clear from the proverb κέκρουκα τὸν βατῆρα.
.fn-
.fn #
The bater is perhaps represented on a vase reproduced by Krause, Gym.
ix. 23, as a small raised platform. We may remark that in this case the jump is
a standing one and without halteres.
.fn-
.fn #
Pollux, iii. 151. The so-called measuring ropes and compasses have been
shown by Jüthner to be merely boxing thongs and amenta.
.fn-
.fn #
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1883, 190. Roberts and Gardner, ii. 391, give the inscription
Ἁλ(λ)όμενος νίκησεν Ἐπαίνετος οὕνεκα τοῦδε ἁ.
.fn-
.fn #
e.g. supra, Fig. #22:fig022#; cp. Jüthner, Antike Turngeräthe, pp. 10, 11.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 55. Dr. Jüthner in his Antike Turngeräthe, p. 11, identifies them,
wrongly as I think, with the two early types. It is hard to see how either of
these types could exercise the fingers.
.fn-
.fn #
“They lighten the jump, serving as a guide to the hands, and enabling the
jumper to land firmly and evenly.”
.fn-
.fn #
Caelius Aurelianus, De morb. acut. et chron. v. 2, 38. Such sufferers are to
be given “wax to mould, or manipuli, which athletes call halteres, to hold, and
to move, either of wax or of wood, at first with only a little lead, afterwards
gradually increased in weight.”
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, De musica, 1140; Paus. v. 17, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
For vase paintings representing jumpers in various positions vide J.H.S.
xxiv. pp. 184 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Inghirami, Mus. Chius. cxxv.; Krause, ix. c. 25.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiv. p. 187.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxvii. p. 260.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiii. p. 288, Fig. 15.
.fn-
.fn #
Mr. George Rowdon, who formerly held the championship for the high jump,
once gave me the following description of the method of using weights in the
high jump: “The jumper starts about 14 yards from the posts, taking two-thirds
of the distance with short, quick steps, scarcely swinging the weights
at all, after which he takes one or two comparatively long, slow strides, swinging
the bells together twice, and on the second swing taking off from the ground as
the bells come to the front.” The weights used are usually 5 lb. dumb-bells or
even heavier. The run for the long jump with such weights would be very
similar, the chief difference being that while in the high jump the weights are
thrown away at the moment of jumping, in the long jump they are retained.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiv. pp. 193, 194.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Pal. App. 297—
.pm verse-start
πέντ’ ἐπὶ πεντήκοντα πόδας πήδησε Φάϋλλος
δίσκευσεν δ’ ἑκατὸν πέντ’ ἀπολειπομένων.
.pm verse-end
The argument in the following passage is stated more fully in J.H.S. xxiv. pp.
77 ff., where the reader will find full references.
.fn-
.fn #
ἄλλεσθαι ὑπὲρ τὸ σκάμμα. J.H.S. l.c. p. 71.
.fn-
.fn #
In Oribasius, vi. 14. 34, the passages from Antyllus and Galen are quoted.
The chapter of Oribasius on exercises contains a variety of interesting quotations
from earlier medical writers.
.fn-
.fn #
On this subject vide Ernst Brücke, The Human Figure, translated by William
Anderson, pp. 115 ff.
.fn-
// File: 339.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap15
CHAPTER XV | THROWING THE DISKOS
.sp 2
It will be remembered that while frequent reference is made in
the Homeric poems to throwing the diskos,[#] the weight thrown
at the games of Patroclus was a lump of unwrought iron described
as “solos.” The word diskos seems already to have acquired
its special athletic meaning, but there is in Homer nothing
distinctively athletic about “solos,” which probably meant
originally a boulder, then a mass of iron. Later writers
occasionally use “solos” as equivalent to diskos, and scholiasts
and lexicographers are much exercised in distinguishing the two
terms.[#] Their arbitrary and often contradictory distinctions
still find a place in our dictionaries and commentaries. The
diskos, they tell us, is flat, the solos round and ball-shaped; the
diskos of stone, the solos of metal; the diskos has a hole in it
and is thrown by means of a cord; the solos is solid. The first
distinction is fairly accurate: the diskos is more or less flat, the
solos is a mass which may be roundish. As to material, we
know that the diskos was made in stone and in metal; the solos
might also be stone or metal. As to the hole and cord, authorities
differ: some assign them to the diskos, some to the solos. That
they belonged to the solos is disproved by every passage in
which the word is used; that they belonged to the diskos
is still more conclusively disproved by the monuments. The
origin of this blunder, which is ascribed to Eratosthenes, may
perhaps be found in some popular game in which a round object
is bowled along by means of a cord wound round it. A game
// File: 340.png
.pn +1
of this sort called “ruzzola” is still played in parts of Italy on
the roads, much to the danger of pedestrians.[#] It is played with
round stones about a foot in diameter, or sometimes with cheeses,
which are believed to be improved by the treatment. A more
probable explanation of the mistake is that suggested to me by
Mr. J. L. Myres, and already accepted in Chapter II., that the
scholia to Iliad xxiii. have become dislocated, and that the
hole and string belong not to the diskos or the solos, but to
the word καλαῦροψ mentioned in the same passage. This word,
usually interpreted as a shepherd’s staff, is explained by Mr.
Myres as a kind of bolas, an implement formed by a string to
which one or more perforated stones are attached, which is used
in the present day in South America for catching cattle, and is
still a plaything with boys in the country districts of Greece.
Whatever the explanation, the hole and string have nothing to
do either with diskos or with solos, nor is there any ground for
the statement that the solos was an athletic implement distinct
// File: 341.png
.pn +1
from the diskos. The popular translation of diskos as “quoit”
is erroneous and most misleading.
.if h
.il fn=fig071.png w=90% id=fig071 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 71. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 271.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 71. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 271.]
.if-
The diskos of the fifth century was of bronze, but the Homeric
diskos was of stone, and Pindar, therefore, makes the heroes
Niceus and Castor hurl the older stone diskos rather than the
bronze diskos of his own day.[#] The stone diskos is clearly
represented on the black-figured vases of the sixth century as a
thick white object (Fig. #71:fig071#), but the metal diskos must have
been introduced before the close of this century. The British
Museum possesses a bronze diskos found at Cephallenia which
bears a sixth-century inscription (Fig. #73:fig073#).
.if h
.il fn=fig072.png w=100% id=fig072 alt="Bronze diskos found at Aegina."
.ca Fig. 72. Bronze diskos found at Aegina. Berlin.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 72. Bronze diskos found at Aegina. Berlin.]
.if-
There exist in our museums various inscribed and carved
marble diskoi.[#] But though in size and shape they differ little
from the bronze specimens, they are too fragile and thin for
actual use, and their inscriptions prove clearly that they are
merely votive offerings. The practice of inscribing and dedicating
diskoi was an ancient one, as we see from the diskos of
Iphitos dedicated at Olympia. With regard to the metal diskos
we are more fortunate. Of the fifteen specimens which we
possess, four are probably votive offerings, but one of these
certainly, possibly three, had also been used; the rest were
certainly intended for use. Their weights and measurements
can be best seen from the following table:—
// File: 342.png
.pn +1
.ta l:15 l:20 l:9 l:8 l:9
Finding-place. | Museum. |Weight in kilos.|Diameter in cms. |Thickness in mms.
| | | |
1. Olympia |Olympia, Inv. 7567 |5·707 | 34 | 5-13
2. Corfu |B.M. 2691 |3·992 | 23 | 6-13
3. Gela |Vienna |3·800 | 28 | 7
4. Amyclae |Athens, De Ridder, Cat. 530|3·349 | 19 |
5. Olympia |Olympia, Inv. 4257 |2·945 (?)| 22 | 6-12
6. Olympia |Olympia, Inv. 12,892 |2·775 | 18 | 11-12
7. Olympia |Rome, Museo Kircheriano |2·378 | 21, 21·5|
8. Olympia |Olympia, Inv. 2859 |2·083 | 19, 22·5|3 at edge
9. Sicily |B.M. 248 |2·075 | 21 | 5
10. Olympia |Berlin |2·023 | 17·5 | 9-10
11. Aegina |Berlin |1·984 | 21 |
12. Olympia |Berlin |1·721 | 20 | 7
13. Olympia |Berlin, Inv. 2286 |1·353 (?)| 20·5 | 4
14. Olympia |Olympia, Inv. 12,891 |1·268 | 17 | 4-12
15. Cephallenia|B.M. 3207 |1·245 | 16·5 | 5
.ta-
Of these diskoi No. 1 is ornamented with concentric circles
and bears on one side a dedication by the Corinthian pentathlete
Publius Asclepiades, on the other side the name of the alytarch.
The difference in the date, which is given respectively as Ol. 255
and 456, has been already explained.[#] From its style and
weight it is probable that it was purely a votive offering and
was never intended for use. Nos. 9 and 11 are of cast bronze,
engraved on one side with the figure of a jumper, on the other
with that of a javelin-thrower (Fig. #72:fig072#). The engraving belongs
to the best period except that of the javelin-thrower on the
British Museum diskos, which, if not actually spurious, is probably
a late addition. Though in weight and size they approximate
closely to Nos. 8 and 10, their flatness and the sharpness of
their edges makes it doubtful if they were ever actually used.
No. 11 is also ornamented with concentric circles. No. 3 had
originally an inlaid dolphin, possibly of silver. No. 12 is of
lead and has probably lost considerably in weight. No. 15,
which is very badly worn, must also have been considerably
heavier (Fig. #73:fig073#). It bears the following inscription in archaic
letters of the sixth century:[#] “Exoïdas dedicated me to
the twin sons of Great Zeus, the bronze diskos wherewith he
conquered the high-souled Cephallenians.”
// File: 343.png
.pn +1
The dimensions of the diskos as represented in art correspond
with those given in our table. On the vases, too, the diskos is
often ornamented with concentric circles, as in Nos. 1 or 2, or
with various forms of crosses and dots; while the dolphin on
the diskos from Gela has its counterpart in the owl, the symbol
of Athens, which is frequently depicted on Attic vases.[#]
When not in use, the diskos was kept in a sort of sling, the
two ends of which were tied in a knot. In such a sling the
diskos is often represented hanging on the wall or carried in
the hands of some youth (Fig. #17:fig017#).
.if h
.il fn=fig073.png w=80% id=fig073 alt="Diskos of Exoïdas."
.ca Fig. 73. Diskos of Exoïdas. British Museum, 3207.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 73. Diskos of Exoïdas. British Museum, 3207.]
.if-
It is difficult to form any definite conclusion as to the size
and weight of the diskos used in competitions. The diskoi are
all more or less worn, and the weights are therefore only
approximate. They seem, however, to fall into certain groups.
The best marked group is formed by Nos. 8-11 and perhaps 12,
which suggest a standard of about 2·1 kilos. Heavier standards
are suggested by Nos. 2 and 3, and by Nos. 4 and 5, say 4·0
and 2·8 kilos respectively, while Nos. 14 and 15 point to a
standard of 1·3. The difference between these standards is
partially due to the fact, vouched for by Pausanias, that boys
// File: 344.png
.pn +1
used a smaller and lighter diskos than men.[#] No doubt the
standard varied greatly at different times and places. At
Olympia three bronze diskoi were kept in the treasury of the
Sicyonians[#] for the use of competitors in the pentathlon, and
it seems probable that the diskos used there was heavier than
that in use elsewhere.[#] Unfortunately, though there was only
one competition with the diskos at Olympia, there are great
differences in the eight diskoi found there, and no conclusion is
possible even for Olympia. If any inference can be drawn from
the heavy votive diskos dedicated by Publius in the third
century A.D., it would be that in later times the weight of the
diskos was greatly increased, much, of course, to the detriment
of the sport. Certainly the lightest diskos which we possess is
the sixth-century diskos from Cephallenia.
The scanty records which we possess give us little help
towards determining the weight used. Phaÿllus is said to
have thrown the diskos 95 feet, and Philostratus speaks of the
hero Protesilaus throwing beyond a hundred cubits, and that
with a diskos twice the size of the Olympian.[#] Statius, again,
describes Phlegyas as hurling a diskos across the Alpheus at
its widest.[#] As far as they go, these data agree with the one
fact emphasized by ancient writers that the diskos was a heavy
object. In the revived Olympic games a diskos is used weighing
2 kilos. It is made of wood with a metal core, and is a clumsy,
ugly object for which there is absolutely no authority, infinitely
inferior in every way to the ancient diskos. J. Sheridan
threw it 135 ft. 8 in. at Athens in 1906, throwing in the
free style, while in the cramped and artificial Greek style he
succeeded in throwing 124 ft. 8 in. in the games of 1908. It
would seem then that the men’s diskos was probably heavier
than 2 kilos; usually but not always, for Exoïdas, as we have
seen, used one much lighter.
The place from which the diskos was thrown was called the
βαλβίς. Our knowledge of the balbis is derived entirely from
an obscure and much misunderstood passage in Philostratus,[#]
describing the death of Hyacinthus who was accidentally killed
by Apollo with a diskos. “The balbis,” he says, “is small and
// File: 345.png
.pn +1
sufficient for one man, marked off except behind, and it supports
the right leg, the front part of the body leaning forward while
it takes the weight off the other leg which is to be swung
forward and follow through with the right hand.” Then
follows a description of the method of throwing the diskos,
evidently based on Myron’s diskobolos, perhaps an extract
from some handbook of gymnastics. “The thrower is to bend
his head to the right and stoop so as to catch a glimpse of his
(right) side, and to throw the diskos with a rope-like pull, and
putting all the force of the right side into the throw.”
All that we learn from this passage is, that the balbis was
marked off by a line in front, and by lines on the side, but not
behind, so that the thrower could take as many preliminary
steps as he chose. There is nothing to show that it was in
any way a raised platform, much less a sloping platform such
as has been adopted by the modern Greeks for the so-called
“Hellenic style.”[#] This extraordinary platform is 80 cm. long
by 70 cm. wide, with a height of not more than 15 cm. behind
and not less than 5 cm. in front. The only authority for this
platform is Dr. Kietz’ interpretation of an old, corrupt reading
of the passage in Philostratus just quoted. Even if the old
text were correct its evidence would be worthless in face of the
manifest absurdity of the idea, and the fact that in all the
numerous representations of the diskobolos there is not the
slightest trace of such a platform. Again, the following words,
as has been pointed out, are an obvious reminiscence of Myron’s
diskobolos. Can any one conceive of Myron’s statue tilted
forward on a sloping platform? Were it so, there would be
indeed some excuse for Herbert Spencer’s criticism that he is
about to fall on his face.
It is natural to suppose that in the stadium the diskos and
spear were thrown from the line of stone slabs which mark the
start, and which are also called βαλβῖδες. The stone pillars
placed along the sides of the course at regular intervals would
have been useful for measuring the distance of the throw. But
there is no direct evidence for identifying the balbis with the
starting lines. In the Delphic inscription, containing contracts
for the Pythian festival,[#] we find mention of “the arrangements
// File: 346.png
.pn +1
for the pentathletes,” the contract for which was eight staters.
These would seem to refer to arrangements for the diskos and
spear competitions, i.e. the balbis and means for measuring the
throws.
The throw was measured from the front line of the balbis
to the place where the diskos or spear fell, and it is obvious
that the competitor might not overstep this line under penalty
of disqualification.[#] In the gymnasia this line might be
marked out temporarily by means of spears stuck in the
ground on either side, or, as Dr. Pernice has suggested, by a
line traced on the sand, though I cannot agree with his
interpretation of certain vases on which he fancies the tracing
of this line to be represented.[#] The place where the diskos
fell was marked by a peg or arrow as described by Statius,[#]
and on several vases we see a diskobolos in the act of putting
down or taking up such a mark (Fig. #74:fig074#).
.if h
.il fn=fig074.png w=90% id=fig074 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 74. (a) R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (b) R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 357, A.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 74. (a) R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (b) R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 357, A.]
.if-
In the modern “free style” the diskos is thrown from a
circular area 2-1/2 metres in diameter, and the method of
throwing is a modification of throwing the hammer, the
thrower’s body making two or three complete turns. There
is no trace in ancient times of such a method or of a circular
// File: 347.png
// File: 348.png
.pn +2
area and, effective as it is, we may doubt if it would ever have
been invented but for the experience acquired in hammer-throwing
or in slinging weights.
Throwing the diskos has acquired a practical interest of late
years owing to the revival of this event in the modern Olympic
Games. Unfortunately neither of the styles at present in
vogue can be regarded as satisfactory from an archaeological
standpoint. For our knowledge of the ancient method of
throwing we depend almost entirely on the monuments. The
scanty literary evidence has no independent value. Fortunately
the monumental evidence is exceptionally rich and varied.
The two statues—the Standing Diskobolos and Myron’s
Diskobolos—are of first-rate importance, such works being
independent of the accidents which affect the types in the
lesser arts. Besides these we have a multitude of vases,
bronzes, coins, and gems connected with this subject. Most
of the schemes based upon this evidence are, however, more or
less unsatisfactory, because the authors have failed to recognise
two important factors.[#] In the first place, apparent divergence
of type is often due not to a difference in motive but to artistic
causes, to differences in material, or space, or to the age or
style of the artists. Secondly, though the principle of the
Greek throw appears to have been always the same, there can
be no doubt that the styles of individual performers were as
varied as the styles of modern golfers, and these differences of
style were naturally reflected in art. Hence the absurdity
of endeavouring, as so many writers have done, to force all
the attitudes depicted on the vases into a single series of
movements.
The principle of the throw is clearly shown in Myron’s Diskobolos
(Fig. #13:fig013#). The thrower, taking his stand with the right
foot forward, swings or lifts the diskos to the front in his left
hand, and then grasping it with his right hand, swings it vigorously
downwards and backwards, turning both head and body
to the right until he reaches the position represented by Myron.
The right foot is the pivot on which the whole body swings.
This swing of the body round a fixed point is of the essence
of the swing of the diskos as it is of the swing of a golf club.
// File: 349.png
.pn +1
The force comes not from the arms, which merely connect the
body and the weight, but from the lift of the thighs and the
swing of the body.
If we confine ourselves to the two statues, we see that no
movement of the feet is necessary in the preliminary movements;
but this simple scheme fails to explain a number of vase
paintings and bronzes representing intermediate positions in
which the diskobolos has his left foot forward. There are two
types of such frequent occurrence that we may feel sure that
they belong to the usual method of throwing the diskos.
.if h
.il fn=fig076.png w=100% id=fig076 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 76. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 6.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 76. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 6.]
.if-
1. The diskobolos holds the diskos in front of him in
both hands (Fig. #76:fig076#).
2. He holds the diskos flat in his right hand which is turned
outwards so that the diskos rests against the forearm. The
left hand is usually raised above the head.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig077.png w=60% id=fig077 alt="B.-f. kelebe."
.ca Fig. 77. B.-f. kelebe. British Museum, B. 361.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 77. B.-f. kelebe. British Museum, B. 361.]
.if-
The first of these positions is the natural connecting link
between the preliminary stance and Myron’s statue. If no
movement of the feet took place, we should expect to find
that the right foot was always advanced. In many cases this
is so, but in the majority the left foot is advanced (Fig. #77:fig077#).
This circumstance can hardly be due to accident, or carelessness,
// File: 350.png
.pn +1
or even to the tendency general in Greek sculpture to put the
left foot forward. The uniformity of other details is remarkable.
The advanced leg is always straight or nearly so, the other
leg more or less bent. The right hand always grasps the
diskos, the left merely supports it. We are forced to conclude,
therefore, either that the thrower took up his stand with the
left foot forward, or that, as the diskos swung forward in the
left hand, the left foot was advanced. How then did he pass
from this position with the left foot forward to the position of
Myron’s statue? The change of feet may be effected in two
ways—either by making another step forward with the right
foot, or by drawing back the left foot. The former was the
method adopted by some of the competitors in the Olympic
games of 1896. Starting with the left foot forward, the
thrower raised the diskos in both hands to a level with the
shoulders and at the moment of swinging it back advanced the
right foot, stepping forward again with the left in making the
actual throw. This method requires room for three steps,
the impetus being helped by this forward movement. The
// File: 351.png
.pn +1
other method requires room only for one step, and the pendulum-like
swing of the left leg, first forward, then back, and finally
forward again, seems at least equally effective as helping the
swing of the body, like the preliminary waggle of a golf club.
Both methods are effective and it seems probable from the
vases that both were employed. The former method is suggested
by Fig. #79:fig079#, the latter by Fig. #78:fig078#.
.if h
.il fn=fig078.png w=60% id=fig078 alt="R.-f. krater of Amasis."
.ca Fig. 78. R.-f. krater of Amasis. Corneto.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 78. R.-f. krater of Amasis. Corneto.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig079.png w=60% id=fig079 alt="R.-f. pelike."
.ca Fig. 79. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 395.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 79. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 395.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig080.png w=60% id=fig080 alt="Interior of Fig. 66."
.ca Fig. 80. Interior of Fig. 66.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 80. Interior of Fig. 66.]
.if-
An examination of the second type with the diskos flat in
the right hand confirms these conclusions. This type is an
excellent illustration of differences due to artistic causes. The
attitude of the body varies from the stiff upright pose of archaic
bronzes and vases to the graceful curves of the stooping figure
on a vase assigned to Euphronius (Fig. #80:fig080#). Sometimes the
body is inclined forward, sometimes it is upright, sometimes
it is thrown well back. The essential point, however, is the
position of the arms, and this is always constant. The diskos
rests against the right forearm, and the left hand is raised above
the head or stretched to the front. There can be little doubt
that in all these cases the moment represented is the backward
swing of the diskos. The position of the right hand turned
// File: 352.png
.pn +1
outward is necessary to prevent the diskos from slipping while
the left arm is raised to balance the body as it swings. The
best example of this type is a beautiful little bronze, exhibited
at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1903 (Fig. #81:fig081#). Here
the right foot is well advanced, the right knee bent, and the
weight, as in Myron’s statue, rests entirely on the right leg,
the left foot touching the ground only with the toes. This is
the normal position of the right leg: but just as in the first
type when the normal position was with the left foot forward
we found numerous exceptions with the right foot advanced, so
here the left foot is occasionally in front.[#] This variation
points to a variation in the style of throwing. A thrower who
has advanced the left foot in the forward swing, must, as we have
seen, either advance the right foot, or draw back the left to
reach the position of Myron’s statue. If he draws back the
left foot, he may let go the diskos with the left hand first, in
which case we have the diskos swinging back in the right hand
and the left leg still advanced. If, however, he draws back the
left leg first, he will for a moment be still holding the diskos in
// File: 353.png
.pn +1
both hands but the right leg will be still advanced, and it is
noticeable that on vases which show this attitude, the left foot
rests very lightly on the ground and the body is slightly
inclined forward. The precise moment at which the change
takes place is just one of those details in which we should
expect to find a difference in style.
.if h
.il fn=fig081.png w=60% id=fig081 alt="Fifth-century bronze."
.ca Fig. 81. Fifth-century bronze. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 18.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 81. Fifth-century bronze. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 18.)]
.if-
We see then that while the principle observed in Myron’s
statue remained constant, considerable latitude was allowed as
to the movements of the feet and the style of throwing. Bearing
this in mind, we may proceed to reconstruct the method of
throwing.
.if h
.il fn=fig075.png w=70% id=fig075 alt="The Standing Diskobolos."
.ca Fig. 75. The Standing Diskobolos. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original. (From a photograph by Anderson.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 75. The Standing Diskobolos. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original.]
.if-
(a) The Stance and Preliminary Movements.—After first rubbing
the diskos with sand to secure a firm grip as described by
Statius, the thrower takes his stand on the balbis, which is
marked out by a line in front, and possibly at the sides, but not
behind, so that he may take as many steps as he pleases. He
takes his stand a little behind the front line, carefully measuring
with his eye the space which he requires, so as not to
overstep the line before the diskos has quitted his hand.
This is the precise moment represented in the Standing
Diskobolos (Fig. #75:fig075#). The care with which the thrower is planting
his right foot, the firm grip which the toes are taking of the
ground, and the consequent contraction of the muscles of the
calf, all indicate that though for the moment the weight may
rest on the left leg, it will immediately be transferred to the
right. The position is one of rest; but it is the rest which
precedes action, and every line of the figure betokens the
readiness for action. Particularly noticeable is the direction of
the head and eyes. The head is inclined to the right and
slightly downwards, and the eyes are fixed on the ground a
few feet in front; he is, as I said, measuring his distance.
The right forearm is said to be modern; if so, the restoration
is particularly happy; the position of the arm is found in
certain bronzes resembling the statue, and the nervous curl
of the fingers appropriately suggests the alertness which
characterises the whole figure.
Starting, then, in this position, the thrower swings the
diskos forward. He may either keep the left leg stationary
or bring it forward. In the latter case he will be in the
position depicted on the exterior of the Panaetius kylix in
Munich (Fig. #17:fig017#). The left leg is advanced and straight, the
// File: 354.png
.pn +1
body leans forward, and the right hand is extended to the
front, ready to grip the diskos as it swings to the front. The
completion of the movement is shown on the interior of the
same kylix where the thrower grasps the diskos in both hands,
his body leaning backward with a pendulum-like movement
preparatory to the swing backwards.
The position of the standing diskobolos is reproduced in
certain bronzes but does not occur on the vases. The latter
suggest an alternative method of starting, the diskos being
swung forward not in the left hand but in both hands. Such
is perhaps the explanation of the figure on a black-figured
lekythos in the British Museum (Fig. #82:fig082#) and of certain
other vases.
.if h
.il fn=fig082.png w=90% id=fig082 alt="B.-f. lekythos."
.ca Fig. 82. B.-f. lekythos, in British Museum, B. 576.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 82. B.-f. lekythos, in British Museum, B. 576.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig083.png w=70% id=fig083 alt="Bronze statuette."
.ca Fig. 83. Bronze statuette. New York.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 83. Bronze statuette. New York.]
.if-
A totally distinct stance is represented by a fine bronze in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Fig. #83:fig083#).
The thrower stands with the right foot forward and the diskos
raised in the left hand level with the head. A similar type
occurs on several vases, the best of which is a red-figured krater
in the Ashmolean at Oxford.[#] From this position the diskos
is raised above the head in both hands. This moment is represented
in a bronze in the National Museum at Athens.[#] The
thumb of the left hand is turned inwards on the inside of the
diskos, whereas on the vases it is usually on the outside. The
thumb could not be on the inside if the diskos was swung
upwards in the manner first described. There can therefore be
// File: 355.png
// File: 356.png
.pn +2
no doubt that we have here a totally distinct style. A British
Museum bronze (Fig. #84:fig084#) carries the movement a little further
and shows the moment of transition to the downward swing.
The diskos, instead of being upright, lies flat on the palm of the
right hand, while the left hand only touches it lightly and is
on the point of letting go. Here, too, the thumb is on the
inside. In all these bronzes the right
leg is advanced, and it seems probable,
therefore, that there has been no movement
of the feet.
.if h
.il fn=fig084.png w=60% id=fig084 alt="Bronze diskobolos."
.ca Fig. 84. Bronze diskobolos, in British Museum, 675.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 84. Bronze diskobolos, in British Museum, 675.]
.if-
(b) The Backward Swing.—At this
point the left hand releases its hold and
the diskos is swung back in the right
hand. If the right foot is in front, no
change of feet is necessary; if the left
is in front, either the left must be
drawn back or the right foot advanced.
The body, which at the end of the swing
forward was upright or inclined backwards,
is bent first forwards and then
sideways, the head following the movements
of the body. The diskos is held
flat in the hand and the hand turned
outwards till it passes the body. We
have already seen several representations
of the early part of the swing.
The later part is finely represented on
a red-figured kylix in the Louvre (Fig.
#85:fig085#), and a fragment of an alabastron at
Würzburg shows an interesting back
view of the same movement.
.if h
.il fn=fig085.png w=60% id=fig085 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 85. R.-f. kylix. Louvre.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 85. R.-f. kylix. Louvre.]
.if-
The top of the swing is, of course,
represented in Myron’s statue. An
interesting variation of the top of the swing occurs on a
number of coins of Cos belonging to the early part of the
fifth century (Fig. #86:fig086#). These coins have been often misinterpreted
and supposed to represent a distinct moment either
before or after the top of the swing. A few experiments would
convince any one that no one but a contortionist could pass
from this position to that of Myron’s statue or vice versa. An
examination of a series of these coins leads to the conclusion that
// File: 357.png
.pn +1
the peculiarities which they present are due to artistic causes.
The maker of the coin die has tried to represent the top of
the swing from the front, and the difficulty of the task has
been too much for him. The amount of foreshortening
required to represent the forward bend of the body was
far beyond him, and even if it had not been, the success
of the result on a coin would be more than doubtful. He
therefore adopted the obvious expedient of bending the body
to the right instead of forwards. The bend of the right
arm which is noticeable on some of the coins is clearly due
to considerations of space. The diskos is represented at
right angles to the body, because, if drawn parallel, it would
appear from the front as a thin line, which in so small a
space would be almost unrecognisable. The position of the
unemployed left hand may point to a difference in the style of
throwing.
.if h
.il fn=fig086.png w=90% id=fig086 alt="Coins of Cos."
.ca Fig. 86. Coins of Cos, in British Museum (enlarged).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 86. Coins of Cos, in British Museum (enlarged).]
.if-
(c) The Throw.—“The diskobolos,” says Lucian, speaking
of Myron’s statue, “seems as if he would straighten himself up
// File: 358.png
.pn +1
at the throw.”[#] At the beginning of the swing forward the
extensor muscles come into play, and by a vigorous lift from
the right thigh the whole body is raised and straightened.
This momentary but most important movement is cleverly
represented on two vases, a Panathenaic vase in Naples and a
black-figured hydria in the British Museum (Figs. #87:fig087#, #88:fig088#).[#]
// File: 359.png
.pn +1
The attitude depicted is unique in Greek athletic art, which
prefers positions of comparative rest and equilibrium. But
here we have a sort of snapshot, an impressionist picture of a
position almost too momentary to be seen, too unstable to
maintain. On the Panathenaic vase especially, the thrower
seems to be flying from the ground in a way which recalls
the figures of winged Victory so strongly as to suggest the
idea that the attitude is borrowed from that type. The
diskobolos, however, has no wings, and unless he quickly
recovers his equilibrium by advancing
one foot, he must fall to the
ground.
.if h
.il fn=fig087.png w=60% id=fig087 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 87. Panathenaic amphora. Naples, Racc. Cum. 184.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 87. Panathenaic amphora. Naples, Racc. Cum. 184.]
.if-
The modern thrower in the Hellenic
style does contrive to rid himself of
the diskos in this attitude without
advancing the left foot, but the
throw inevitably suffers, and there
is no evidence that the ancients ever
imposed such a restriction. Moreover,
in the modern style the downward
swing of the diskos almost
precedes the straightening of the
body; on the vase the body is
already lifted while the diskos remains
behind. The inevitable conclusion
is that the actual throw takes
place off the left foot which is
advanced before the diskos leaves the hand. This is the only
rational method of throwing, and that this was the method of
the Greeks is proved by the evidence of literature and art.
“The left foot,” says Philostratus in the passage already quoted,
“must be swung forward and follow through with the right
hand.” These words are confirmed by the less definite language
of Lucian and Statius, and by the vases. A red-figured kylix
at Boulogne (Fig. #89:fig089#) shows the early part of the movement,
and the continuation is seen on a black-figured hydria in Vienna
(Fig. #90:fig090#). On both vases the diskobolos strides forward with
the left leg.
The so-called bronze diskoboloi of Naples are said to represent
the movement after the throw, but this interpretation seems
impossible, in view of the position of the arms and the alertness
// File: 360.png
.pn +1
and expectancy expressed both by the figures and the heads,
and I have no doubt that they are really wrestling boys. Moreover,
as the diskos leaves the hand, the natural tendency is to
advance the right foot to prevent the thrower from falling forward,
and in the bronzes the left foot is advanced. The attitude
of the follow through must have been somewhat similar to that
of the youth on the right hand in Fig. #89:fig089#, but it is impossible
with certainty to identify such figures with diskos throwers.
.if h
.il fn=fig088.png w=100% id=fig088 alt="B.-f. hydria."
.ca Fig. 88. B.-f. hydria. British Museum, E. 164.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 88. B.-f. hydria. British Museum, E. 164.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig089.png w=100% id=fig089 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 89. R.-f. kylix. Boulogne.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 89. R.-f. kylix. Boulogne.]
.if-
In modern throwing competitions it is generally the rule
that the thrower may not overstep the line till the object
has quitted the hand. If this was the rule of the Greeks, the
diskos thrower was not allowed to overstep the line with the
left foot; such a rule offers a natural explanation of the position
of the head in the Standing Diskobolos described above. Dr.
Pernice has recently tried to prove that the diskos thrower
took his stand with the right foot immediately behind the line,
and that it was this foot which was not allowed to cross the line.
There is little difference between his view and mine, seeing
that in any case the right foot is stationary till the throw is
completed, and only follows through after the diskos has left the
hand. In support of his view Dr. Pernice cites certain vases
where, as he says, a figure is seated on the ground carefully
// File: 361.png
.pn +1
watching the thrower’s right foot.[#] This evidence seems to me
far from conclusive, seated figures being commonly introduced
in early art for the sake of variety or to fill empty spaces.
Moreover, this view does not explain the position of the statue.
In the dearth of further evidence no certainty is attainable.
A summary of the movements described may be useful—
.in +4
1. The stance.
.in +4
(a) Position of standing diskobolos (Fig. #75:fig075#), or
(b) Diskos held in both hands level with the waist
(Fig. #82:fig082#), or
(c) Diskos raised in left hand level with the head
(Fig. #83:fig083#).
.in -8
From these positions, with or without a change of foot, the
diskos is raised to
.in +4
2. Position with left foot forward (usually) and diskos in
both hands,
.in +4
(a) Extended horizontally to the front (Fig. #76:fig076#, etc.), or
(b) Raised above the head.
.in -4
3. The diskos is swung downwards, resting on the right
forearm. If the left foot is forward, either before or
in the course of the swing,
.in +4
(a) The left foot is drawn back (Fig. #78:fig078#), or
(b) The right foot is advanced (Fig. #79:fig079#), so that we reach
.in -4
// File: 362.png
.pn +1
4. The position of Myron’s diskobolos (Fig. #13:fig013#).
5. At the beginning of the swing forward the body is
straightened (Figs. #87:fig087#, #88:fig088#).
6. And as the diskos swings down, the left foot is vigorously
advanced (Figs. #89:fig089#, #90:fig090#).
7. Finally after the diskos has left the hand, the right foot
is again advanced.
.in -4
.if h
.il fn=fig090.png w=60% id=fig090 alt="B.-f. hydria."
.ca Fig. 90. B.-f. hydria. Vienna, 318.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 90. B.-f. hydria. Vienna, 318.]
.if-
We see then that the principle contained in Myron’s statue
remains fixed, while there is room for considerable diversity in
style and detail, especially in the
movement of the feet. This scheme
differs essentially from both the styles
employed in the modern Olympic
games. The “free style” abandons
the principle; the so-called Hellenic
style demands a slavish adherence
to an artificial model. When diskos-throwing
was first revived in Athens
in 1896, the Greeks and other competitors,
taking for model Myron’s
statue and untrammelled by theories,
naturally developed a style which certainly approximated
to the true style of the ancients. A new method was invented
shortly afterwards by foreign athletes, particularly
Americans, who applied to the diskos the principles employed
in throwing the hammer and the heavy weight, in which the
force is gained by one or more complete turns of the body.
This method was certainly effective, but it was not Greek, and
it destroyed the distinctive character of the exercise. This
annoyed the Greeks, and to check such innovations they
devised the so-called “Hellenic style,” and in the last two
Olympic games there were separate competitions in the two
styles. Unfortunately “the Hellenic style” is as far removed
from the true style as the free style. The throw is made from
the ridiculous sloping balbis already described, and it is
ordained that because Myron’s diskobolos has his right foot
forward, the right foot must be kept forward till the completion
of the throw. A more senseless restriction it is hard to
imagine. Not only is it fatal to all grace and freedom of
movement, but it shows a complete misunderstanding of the
statue, and is, as we have seen, contrary to all the evidence of
// File: 363.png
.pn +1
literature and art. The mistake is much to be regretted.
Diskos-throwing is a valuable and graceful exercise, which
well deserves to find a place in our modern sports; but if ever
it is to regain its popularity, it must be by a return to the
true methods of the ancients.
In heroic times throwing the diskos was a separate event,
and various gods and heroes excelled therein; in historical
times it only occurs as part of the pentathlon, and as such it
was accompanied by the flute as represented in Fig. #77:fig077#. The
only separate competition with the diskos was at Olbia, a
Milesian colony in Scythia, at the festival of Achilles Pontarches.[#]
The diskos, however, seems to have played an important part
in the life of the gymnasium and palaestra if we may judge
from the frequent allusions to it in literature and the countless
representations of it in art. It even won favour with the
Romans, who despised most Greek sports, and Horace mentions
throwing the diskos and the javelin as manly exercises fit for
a young soldier.[#] As a physical exercise it was certainly
valuable. According to Lucian it strengthened the shoulders
and gave tone to the extremities.[#] Doctors approved of it,
and Aretaeus recommends it as a cure for chronic headache and
dizziness.[#]
.fn #
For this chapter vide J.H.S. xxvii. 1-36, where full references will be found;
and Jüthner’s Antike Turngeräthe, pp. 18 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
References collected by Jüthner, pp. 19-21.
.fn-
.fn #
Dodwell, Tour through Greece, 1819, ii. p. 39.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. x. 72; Isthm. i. 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, 70, 72; Kavvadias Ἰλυπτὰ τοῦ Ἐθνικοῦ
Μους. 93; Salzmann, Nécropole de Camiros, Pl. viii.
.fn-
.fn #
supra, p. #183#.
.fn-
.fn #
Ἐχσοίδα(ς) μ’ ἀνέθηκε ΔιϜὸς Φο(ύ)ροιν μεγάλοιο χάλκεον ᾦ νίκασε Κεφαλ(λ)ᾶνας
μεγαθύμους.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, pp. 28, 29; Figs. 21, 22, 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. i. 35, 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 19, 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostratus, Heroic. p. 291.
.fn-
.fn #
l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Theb. vi. 675.
.fn-
.fn #
Im. i. 24 (Benndorf and Schenkl). Fully discussed in J.H.S. xxvii. 9;
cp. Jüthner in Eranos Vindob. p. 317; Pernice in Jahrb., 1908, p. 95.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. G. S. Robertson, “On throwing the Discos,” in Official Handbook of the
Olympic Games, 1908, pp. 79-85.
.fn-
.fn #
vide p. 261.
.fn-
.fn #
This is the obvious meaning of μὴ τέρμα προβάς in Pindar, Nem. vii. 70.
.fn-
.fn #
In Jahrb., 1908, pp. 95 ff., he enumerates Gerh. A. V. 22, Naples 3084, B.M.
Vases, E. 256. On the B.M. vase we see a familiar type of a youth preparing to
throw a javelin; the vase in Gerh. represents the same type, but left-handed,
whether by accident or intention; the Naples vase is equally inconclusive.
.fn-
.fn #
Theb. vi. 679-712.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide Kietz, Diskoswurf, Munich, 1892. Six in Gaz. Archéolog. 1888, 291.
Jüthner l.c. Chryssaphis, Bulletin du Comité des Jeux Olympiques 1906, p. 57.
Criticisms of these schemes will be found in J.H.S. l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
A full list of the vases and bronzes representing these two types is given in
J.H.S. l.c. pp. 14-24.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. l.c. p. 18.
.fn-
.fn #
No. 561.
.fn-
.fn #
No. 7412. Cp. r.-f. amphora, Munich, 374, published in Hoppin’s
Euthymidês.
.fn-
.fn #
Philopseud. 18.
.fn-
.fn #
Dr. Jüthner deduces from these vases his theory of the Kreisschwung, an
impossible method of throwing the diskos by whirling the arm right round, for a
criticism of which vide J.H.S. l.c. p. 33.
.fn-
.fn #
Gerh. A. V. 260, Naples 3084, B. M. Vases, B. 361 (Fig. 77), and a lekythos
in Boulogne (J.H.S. l.c. Fig. 22).
.fn-
.fn #
C.I.G. i. 2076.
.fn-
.fn #
Carm. i. 8, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Anacharsis, 27.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 464, n. 9.
.fn-
// File: 364.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap16
CHAPTER XVI | THROWING THE JAVELIN
.sp 2
The javelin used in Greek sports is called variously ἄκων,
ἀκόντιον, μεσάγκυλον, ἀποτομάς.[#] The latter term appears to
denote merely a lath or stick, and accurately describes the
javelin as represented on the vases. A straight pole, in
length nearly equal to the height of a man, though occasionally
longer, and about the thickness of a man’s finger, it is
one of the commonest objects in palaestra scenes, whether in
use or planted in the ground singly or in pairs, perhaps to mark
a starting-line for jump or throw. These rods were formerly
described as jumping-poles, but the fact that the throwing-strap
or ankyle is often attached to them proves that they
are nothing more than javelins. At the same time there is
no reason why they should not have served as measuring
rods (κανόνες) for measuring the jump, a use which is perhaps
represented on the British Museum kelebe (Fig. #77:fig077#).
The athletic javelin is in the vast majority of cases pointless.
On early black-figured vases such as the kelebe just mentioned,
it is represented by a black line which seems to taper, but this
is a mere accident of technique, the natural result of a line
drawn with a single rapid stroke of brush or pen. On the red-figured
vases the rod is usually square at the end, and often
appears to have a blunt cap or ferule, indicated by a thickening
of the end, or by a black patch or by lines which represent
the binding by which it is attached. Such, we may suppose,
were the javelins which Xenophon recommends cavalry soldiers
to use in practice, provided with a round end (ἐσφαιρωμένα)
// File: 365.png
.pn +1
like the button on the modern foil or bayonet.[#] These caps
served not only for protection, but to give to the head of
the javelin the necessary weight, without which it would not
fly properly. Blunt javelins were naturally used for practice,
especially for distance throws.
Pointed javelins are rarely represented in athletic scenes;
but their use even in practice is shown by the speech of
Antiphon in defence of a youth who accidentally hit and
killed a boy who ran across the range as he was throwing.[#]
On the vases which represent javelin throwing on horseback
at a target, the javelins are all pointed, and in two cases
have long leaflike heads such as we see in hunting scenes.[#]
For throwing at a target, pointed javelins were necessary, at
all events in competitions: but the enormous preponderance
of the blunt javelins justifies the conclusion that these were
generally used for practice, and that, down to the close of
the fifth century distance-throwing was more usual than
throwing at a target.
Whether pointed or blunt, the athletic javelin was evidently
a light weapon, and Anacharsis contemptuously contrasts it
with more formidable weapons which are not carried about
by the wind.[#] It was thrown by means of a thong, called
ἀγκύλη or amentum, fastened near the centre of the javelin,
which was therefore called μεσάγκυλον. The amentum was
a leather thong, a foot or eighteen inches in length, if we
may judge from the numerous representations of a javelin
thrower (ἀκοντιστής) holding the javelin in one hand, and the
thong in the other.[#] It was detachable, but before use was
firmly bound round the shaft, in such a way as to leave a
loop three to four inches long, in which the thrower inserted
his first, or his first and middle fingers. The point of
attachment was near the centre of gravity, in the lightheaded
javelins of athletics almost in the centre of the shaft, in
the heavier javelins of war or the chase generally nearer to
the head. Possibly, too, its place varied, according as the
javelin was to be thrown for distance, or at a mark. By
// File: 366.png
.pn +1
putting the amentum behind the centre of gravity, it is
possible to increase the distance thrown, but at a sacrifice of
accuracy. Hence the athlete fastened it to suit his taste
shortly before use. On the British Museum hydria shown
in Fig. #88:fig088# a youth is seated on the ground in the act of
attaching the amentum. On a red-figured kylix at Würzburg
(Fig. #91:fig091#) we see a youth winding the amentum round the
shaft, while he holds the other end tight with his foot. Some
of the ways in which the amentum was fastened can be seen
in the accompanying illustration. The clearest example is that
from the Alexander Mosaic in Naples (Fig. #92:fig092#e). In every case
it is only the actual loop which is left free.
.if h
.il fn=fig091.png w=60% id=fig091 alt="R.-f. hydria."
.ca Fig. 91. R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 432.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 91. R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 432.]
.if-
The amentum was no invention of the gymnasium but was
adopted by the gymnasium from war and the chase. Whether
it was used in Homeric times we cannot say. The principle of
the sling was certainly known to the Homeric shepherd, and
besides the long-shadowing spear of the chieftain, there was a
lighter and shorter weapon (αἰγανέη) which like the bow was
used for hunting, and by the common soldiery in war and in
sport. The warrior vase from Mycenae[#] shows two types of
spear, a long spear clenched firmly in the hand, and a short
spear raised almost at arm’s length behind the head, the hand
being pointed as if the fingers were extended as they are in
holding the amentum.
From the sixth century onwards the amentum was used for
throwing the javelin in war, in hunting, and in the chase. It
is frequently represented on early black-figured vases. Its use
is admirably shown on the interior of a Chalcidian kylix in
// File: 367.png
.pn +1
the British Museum, where a fully armed warrior with his
fingers inserted in the thong, prepares to throw a javelin with
a sort of underhand throw, a throw in which certain savages
to-day are said to be extraordinarily skilful (Fig. #93:fig093#). The
more usual overhand throw is employed by some of the
warriors on the François vase (Fig. #94:fig094#), who advance to the
attack with arms drawn back and fingers inserted in the thong
in the manner which Xenophon recommends to his peltasts.[#]
The fingering and the whole attitude are precisely the same as
we find in athletic scenes, except that in the latter the head is
usually turned backward, a position obviously ill-suited to the
warrior or hunter. In a boar-hunting scene, depicted on a
Corinthian vase in the British Museum, B. 37, javelins fitted
with amenta are seen sticking in the boar’s back, a clear
proof that they were fixed to the shaft and did not remain in
the thrower’s hand.
.if h
.il fn=fig092.png w=100% id=fig092 alt="Various methods of attaching the amentum."
.ca Fig 92. Various methods of attaching the amentum. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 250.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 92. Various methods of attaching the amentum.
(J.H.S. xxvii. p. 250.)]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig094.png w=90% id=fig094 alt="François vase."
.ca Fig. 94. François vase. Florence.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 94. François vase. Florence.]
.if-
The light javelin, fitted with the amentum, was primarily
intended for throwing; but the vases show that it could also
be used for thrusting or stabbing, in which case the thong
served as a convenient handle or grip. It also marked the
proper place to grasp the javelin, and is therefore occasionally
represented on the long spear, which, though generally used
// File: 368.png
.pn +1
for thrusting, could on occasions be thrown. These long spears
were the weapons of the Homeric chieftains and of the hoplites
who formed the chief strength of the Greek forces at the time
of the Persian wars. The light javelin was the weapon of the
common soldiery and light-armed troops, and its real importance
dates from the closing years of the Peloponnesian War, when
the value of light-armed troops and cavalry began to be
realized. These light-armed troops were mostly mercenaries,
Lydians, Mysians, Arcadians, Aetolians, Thessalians, Thracians.
All these races were skilled in the use of the javelin. At
Athens, where the cavalry were recruited from the ranks of the
young nobles, the javelin was the special weapon of the
ephebos, who is frequently represented on horseback, holding
in his hand a pair of javelins. Javelin throwing was an
important part of his training; competitions in it were
multiplied, and in the third century B.C. we find special
teachers of the javelin, ἀκοντισταί, engaged by the state to
train the epheboi at Athens and elsewhere.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig093.png w=70% id=fig093 alt="B.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 93. B.-f. kylix. British Museum, B. 380.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 93. B.-f. kylix. British Museum, B. 380.]
.if-
The distribution of the amentum[#] is a point of some interest
// File: 369.png
.pn +1
and importance. It does not seem to have been a Greek
invention. It was known at an early date in Italy, and was
freely used by Etruscans, Samnites, and Messapians, but it does
not appear to have been used in the Roman army till after
the Punic Wars. The tragula, the weapon of the Spanish in
the second Punic War, was thrown with an amentum. In
Caesar’s time it was the weapon of the Gallic cavalry. From
this time it was widely used by the light-armed mercenaries.
There are traces of the amentum on the Roman weapons found
at Alise Sainte Reine, and we even find it attached to the heavy
spear of the legionary. Going yet further afield, we find it
represented on an embossed sword-belt discovered at Watsch in
Austria, and there is reason to suppose that the light javelins
found at La Tène were thus thrown. Undoubtedly the
amentum was known in Denmark in the early Iron Age.
Remains of it have been found at Nydam. The spears found
there are 8 to 10 feet long. On the middle of the shaft are
often visible certain small bronze rivets, between which a cord
was fastened. In some cases the cord was found still fastened
between the rivets. Lastly, we find the amentum frequently
mentioned in old Irish story. Thus in the battle of Moyreth
“Cuanna, pressing his foot on the solid earth, put his finger in
the string of his broad-headed spear and made a cast at Congal.”
This loop, called suanem or suaineamh, was made of silk or flax,
and the laigan or spear to which it was attached is said to
have been brought to Ireland by Gaulish mercenaries in the
fourth century B.C. An interesting survival of this old Irish
// File: 370.png
.pn +1
spear with its loop is seen in a picture of Captain Thomas Lee,
painted in 1594, now in the possession of Lord Dillon.
We see, then, that the amentum was known throughout
Greece and Italy, in Spain and Gaul, in Central Europe, in
Denmark, and Ireland. The light javelin to which it belongs
is the weapon of the less highly civilized peoples. It is a
weapon of the chase and of the common people, but it plays
little part in the heavily-equipped citizen armies of Greece and
Rome. In both lands it comes into prominence with the
organization of light-armed troops, and then chiefly as the
weapon of subject states and mercenaries. Hence we are
forced to the conclusion that the amentum was the invention
of the tribes of Central Europe, and in the course of their
wanderings was carried throughout the southern and western
portions of the Continent.
.if h
.il fn=fig095.png w=90% id=fig095 alt="Illustrations of the use of the throwing-thong."
.ca Fig. 95. Illustrations of the use of the throwing-thong.\
a, b, Jüthner, Figs. 47, 48. Reconstruction of throw.\
c, Detail from B.M. Vases, B. 134. d, The ounep of New Caledonia.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 95. Illustrations of the use of the throwing-thong.
a, b, Jüthner, Figs. 47, 48. Reconstruction of throw.
c, Detail from B.M. Vases, B. 134. d, The ounep of New Caledonia.]
.if-
The fixed amentum does not appear to be known outside
Europe, but somewhat similar contrivances exist to-day among
savage tribes. Such is the ounep used by the people of New
Caledonia and the New Hebrides. It is a thickish cord, 6 or
8 inches long, with a loop at one end and a knot at the
other. The spears are 9 to 12 feet long, with a slight
projection just behind the centre of gravity, behind which the
cord is placed and twisted over the knot in such a way as to
// File: 371.png
.pn +1
untie as the spear is thrown, remaining itself in the thrower’s
hand. Examples of it can be seen in the Ethnographical
Gallery of the British Museum, and our illustration is taken from
a drawing exhibited there (Fig. #95:fig095#). A combination of this
thong with the throwing-stick is found in New Zealand. The
throwing-stick is by far the commonest contrivance for
increasing the throw of a spear. It is widely used in
Australia, Melanesia, Central America, and among the Eskimos,
but is unknown in Europe, although throwing-sticks made of
bone appear to have been used by Palaeolithic man in France.
The working of the amentum can be easily understood from
our illustration. In preparing for an overhand throw the spear
rests on the web between the thumb and fingers, but is really
held by the two fingers inserted in the loop and projecting
// File: 372.png
.pn +1
above the shaft. At the moment of throw the position is
reversed; the pull on the amentum gives a half-turn to the
shaft, and the javelin is held only by the amentum, the fingers
being below the shaft. The action of the amentum is similar
to that of the rifling of a gun. By imparting a rotatory
movement to the missile it not only helps it to keep its
direction but also increases its carry and penetrating power.
The carry is further increased by the additional leverage given to
the thrower’s arm. It is obvious that, as Philostratus points out,[#]
length of finger was a considerable advantage to a javelin thrower.
The effect of the amentum on a light javelin has been
demonstrated by practical experiments carried out by General
Reffye for the Emperor Napoleon. It was found that a javelin
which could only be thrown 20 metres by hand could, after
a little practice, be thrown 80 metres, with the help of an
amentum. Jüthner further records that an inexperienced
thrower increased his throw from 25 to 65 metres by its
use. The meaning of these figures can be realised from the
fact that the record for javelin throwing made by Lemming,
the winner at the Olympic games, was only 57·33 metres. It
must be noted, however, that the javelin used in these games
was a heavy one, weighing 800 grammes (about 2 lbs.),
whereas the Greek javelin was very much lighter.[#]
// File: 373.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig096.png w=90% id=fig096 alt="R.-f. psykter."
.ca Fig. 96. R.-f. psykter. Bourguignon Coll.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 96. R.-f. psykter. Bourguignon Coll.]
.if-
The method of throwing the javelin is clearly shown on
the vases. Two things are necessary: the amentum must
be firmly fastened to the shaft, and the loop must be drawn
tight by the fingers before the throw. The fastening of the
amentum has been already described. On a red-figured
psykter (Fig. #96:fig096#) we see the next stage in the preparation.
A group of youths are preparing to practise under the supervision
of a paidotribes and his assistant, while two other
paidotribai are occupied with a pair of wrestlers. Two of
the youths are testing the bindings; resting one end of the
javelin on the ground, and holding it firm with their left
hand, they pass the right hand along the shaft to see that
the binding is secure. A third in the same position is passing
his fingers through the loop, the lines of which have disappeared.
A fourth has already inserted his fingers in the
loop, and, raising the javelin breast-high, presses it forward
with his left hand so as to draw the thong tight.
Two styles of javelin throwing can be distinguished, one
in which the javelin is horizontal, the other in which it is
pointed more or less upwards. The horizontal style is the
practical style of war or the chase, the other the style of
pure athletics. In the latter distance is the one and only
object, and the thrower may take his time; in the former
distance is only a secondary consideration compared with
// File: 374.png
.pn +1
force and accuracy, and everything depends on rapidity of
action. It is the difference between throwing in a cricket
ball from the long field and throwing it in competition.
(a) The Practical Style.—The soldier or hunter must have
his javelin ready for use at a moment’s notice. He therefore
carries it with his fingers passed through the loop
(διηγκυλισμένος). He may carry it horizontally at his side, as
does the warrior in Fig. #93:fig093#, but a freer and more natural
position is with the arm bent and the javelin sloped over
the shoulder and pointed downwards. From this position
he can draw his arm straight back for the throw, or raise
the elbow so that the javelin is level with his head, the
natural position for taking aim. This manner of holding
the javelin is implied or represented in numerous scenes of
war or the chase, and is equally serviceable on horseback
or on foot. Perhaps the best examples of it occur on two
Panathenaic vases representing the pentathlon, one in the
// File: 375.png
.pn +1
British Museum, the other in Leyden (Figs. #107:fig107#, #108:fig108#). On the
Leyden vase the akontistes carries his javelin still on the slope;
so does the athlete who heads the procession on the British
Museum vase, but the other akontistes has raised it horizontally.
This position with the javelin poised on a level with
the head is the natural position for starting, whether the
thrower uses an amentum or not. The javelin may remain
in this position during the run, or may be at once drawn
back. Where time was no object, the thrower might, before
starting to run, adjust the javelin by pressing the point back
with the left hand, in the manner represented on a black-figured
stamnos in the Museo Gregoriano (Fig. #97:fig097#).
.if h
.il fn=fig097.png w=60% id=fig097 alt="B.-f. stamnos."
.ca Fig. 97. B.-f. stamnos. Vatican.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 97. B.-f. stamnos. Vatican.]
.if-
From the carry the arm is drawn back to its full extent,
as shown on the François vase (Fig. #94:fig094#). In the actual throw
the movement is reversed, arm and spear travelling back
through the same positions, except that when the amentum
is used the hand at once releases the shaft of the spear,
which is merely held by means of the thong. A realistic
picture of this moment is shown on an early black-figured
vase from the Acropolis, the lower zone of which contains a
cavalry fight between archers and javelin throwers (Fig. #98:fig098#).
.if h
.il fn=fig098.png w=90% id=fig098 alt="B.-f. vase."
.ca Fig. 98. B.-f. vase. Acropolis, Athens, 606.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 98. B.-f. vase. Acropolis, Athens, 606.]
.if-
// File: 376.png
.pn +1
This style of throw is typical of the black-figured vases,
and quite distinct from that which we find general on the
red-figured vases of the fifth century. It is the practical style
of the chase and of war adapted to sport. It is, of course,
the natural style for throwing at a target, and at first sight
one is tempted to suppose that this is what the artists wish
to represent; but the care with which they emphasize the
bluntness of the javelins is conclusive for a distance throw.
(b) The Athletic Style.—The purely athletic character of the
style depicted on the red-figured vases is obvious from the
most casual inspection. Till the actual moment of the throw
the head is turned backwards, the eyes fixed on the right
hand, a position equally absurd for war, or the chase, or
aiming at any sort of mark. After carefully adjusting and
testing the amentum in the manner described, and inserting
one or two fingers in the loop, the thrower extends his right
arm backwards to its full extent, while, with his left hand
opposite his breast, he holds the end of the spear, and pushes
it backwards to draw the thongs tight. The spear is sometimes
horizontal, sometimes pointed downwards, as we see
it on the British Museum amphora, E. 256 (Fig. #99:fig099#). On
// File: 377.png
.pn +1
this vase it will be noticed that the little finger and the third
finger, which play no part in the practical style in which
the spear is poised above the shoulder, are required to keep
the javelin steady when the right hand is dropped.
.if h
.il fn=fig099.png w=100% id=fig099 alt="R.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 99. R.-f. amphora, in British Museum, E. 256.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 99. R.-f. amphora, in British Museum, E. 256.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig100.png w=100% id=fig100 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 100. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 562 A.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 100. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 562 A.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig101.png w=90% id=fig101 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 101. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 3139 inv.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 101. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 3139 inv.]
.if-
As the thrower starts to run, he draws his right hand
still further backwards, turning his body sideways, and extends
his left arm to the front. On a Munich kylix (Fig. #100:fig100#) we
see two consecutive positions; the youth on the left still
steadies the javelin with his left hand, the youth on the right
has just let go. The next moment, with the left hand fully
extended to the front, is represented on a kylix in Berlin (Fig.
#101:fig101#). From the position of the head and arm it is obvious
that the violent, rapid run, of which some authors speak, is
an impossibility. Just as in throwing a cricket ball, the run
consists of a few short, springy steps. Immediately before the
throw a further turn of the body to the right takes place,
the right knee being well bent and the right shoulder dropped,
while the hand is turned outwards, so that the shaft almost
rests on the palm of the hand. This attitude is vividly
depicted on a Torlonia kylix (Fig. #102:fig102#).
.if h
.il fn=fig102.png w=60% id=fig102 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 102. R.-f. kylix. Torlonia, 270 (148).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 102. R.-f. kylix. Torlonia, 270 (148).]
.if-
The actual throw is very rarely shown, and the artists
who attempt it fall into hopeless confusion. For example,
on the Munich kylix (Fig. #100:fig100#) the youth in the centre is
intended to be throwing a javelin to the right, but the
fingering of the right hand is only compatible with a throw
to the left. Not much better is the drawing of the javelin
// File: 378.png
.pn +1
thrower on the Panaetius kylix (Fig. #17:fig017#). Here, as in a red-figured
amphora in Munich (Fig. #103:fig103#), though the general attitude
is vigorous and lifelike, the position of the hand is hopeless,
the wrist being curved over the shaft instead of bent back
under it. The amentum too is conspicuous by its absence.
The carelessness of the painters of red-figured vases in
such details is in marked contrast to the carefulness of the
earlier painters. This is partly due to the fact that the
athletic types have become conventional, partly to the fact
that, whereas in the black-figured vases the amentum was
painted black like the spear itself, on the red-figured vases
it had to be added in some other colour, usually white or
purple, after the rest of the drawing was finished. Hence
this detail was often omitted altogether, or if inserted, was
the first to be obliterated.
.if h
.il fn=fig103.png w=80% id=fig103 alt="R.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 103. R.-f. amphora. Munich, 408.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 103. R.-f. amphora. Munich, 408.]
.if-
The javelin was usually thrown with a short run, but
one or two vase paintings suggest that a standing throw was
also practised. Such is the figure on a kylix in Rome
(Fig. #104:fig104#), the attitude being evidently borrowed from that of
the diskobolos. Possibly the Torlonia kylix may also represent
a standing throw.
.if h
.il fn=fig104.png w=70% id=fig104 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 104. R.-f. kylix. Rome(?) (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 43.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 104. R.-f. kylix. Rome(?) (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 43.)]
.if-
Was the javelin thrown with the left hand as well as the
right? Plato recommends the training of both hands alike,
and the fact that the Greek always carried two javelins, often
one in either hand, renders the suggestion possible. But the
only direct proof of a left-handed throw is a figure on a kylix
of Nicosthenes in Berlin.[#] Even if a left-handed throw was
practised in the gymnasia, there is no evidence of it in competitions.
Nor is there any evidence to show that the Greeks
ever threw the javelin without the amentum. The omission of
the amentum on the vases is a detail too untrustworthy to
warrant us in drawing any definite conclusion from it.
It is hardly necessary to point out that the vases in which
the spear is pointed upwards offer no support at all to the
remarkable theory that the Greeks practised high throwing
“le tir en haut,” as it is described by a French writer. To
obtain the maximum of distance it is, of course, absolutely
necessary to throw high. A similar theory has been put
forward for the diskos. One wonders how “le lancement
en haut” of the diskos was measured.
// File: 379.png
.pn +1
In the games of Patroclus javelin throwing was a separate
event. Here, and wherever it is mentioned in Homer as a
sport, the competition is for distance only. Throwing at a
mark may be implied in the association of javelin throwing
with the bow, which meets us again in fourth-century inscriptions,
and Pindar definitely refers to such a competition when
he describes how at the founding of the Olympic games
“Phrastor with the javelin hit the mark.”[#] On a fragment
of a large vase found on the Acropolis which represents the
funeral games of Pelias a javelin competition is shown. The
prize is a tripod, and the javelins are not the blunt weapons of
the palaestra, but have broad metal points. On one of them
the amentum is clearly shown.[#]
As the weapon of the chase, every Greek boy must from
boyhood have practised throwing the javelin both for distance
and at any improvised target. At an early date its
use was taught in the gymnasia, and its popularity is shown
by the numerous representations of it in art, and by the
frequent metaphors which Pindar borrows from it. But in the
Greek games, at least, the javelin, like the diskos, only figured
as part of the pentathlon, and with the exception of the
// File: 380.png
.pn +1
competition on horseback at Athens, there is no evidence for any
separate competition for javelin throwing, either for distance or
at a target, till the fourth century.
Towards the close of the fifth century increased importance
was given to the javelin as the weapon of light-armed troops
and of the epheboi; and from the fourth century onwards we
find ἀκοντισμός quoted in inscriptions as a separate competition
at Athens and elsewhere.[#] The association of the javelin and
the bow suggests that in these competitions some sort of target
was used, and the case cited by Antiphon proves the use of a
target and pointed javelins in practice. But the only direct
evidence for such a competition, apart from that on horseback,
is furnished by two later inscriptions from Larisa of the time
of Hadrian which mention victors σκοπῷ πεζῶν and σκοπῶ
ἱππέων.[#]
What was the character of the competition in the pentathlon?
The question has been discussed at wearisome length by commentators
on Pindar and others, but Dr. Jüthner’s conclusion
seems to me incontestable, namely, that the competition in the
pentathlon was one for distance only.
On this point the evidence of the vases seems conclusive.
The javelins are blunt, the head is turned backward just before
the throw, and there is no sign of any target. The last point
// File: 381.png
.pn +1
is particularly convincing because in the competition on horseback
the target is always represented. Certain archaeologists,
it is true, have discovered evidence of targets in the badly-drawn
amenta held in the hand of the javelin thrower on
the Panaetius kylix and other vases. These have been interpreted
as compasses for drawing circles on the ground at which
the throwers aimed; or again as a sort of croquet-hoop stuck
in the ground to serve as target! The authors of these delightful
suggestions forget that the hunter or soldier does not aim
at his opponent’s feet but at his body, and that if a target is
used it is at a reasonable height.
The literary evidence agrees with that of the vases. The
passages of Pindar referring to a mark, with the exception of
the passage already quoted on the Olympic games, have no
necessary connexion with any competition, certainly none with
the pentathlon. They are metaphors borrowed from the
practice of everyday life. One passage in Pindar certainly
refers to the pentathlon, two others possibly; all three indicate
a distance-throw.[#] Lastly, Lucian, in a passage referring to
Olympia and therefore to the pentathlon, definitely states that
in throwing the javelin athletes compete for distance.[#]
// File: 382.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig105.png w=70% id=fig105 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 105. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2728.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 105. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2728.]
.if-
The conditions for throwing the javelin must have been
similar to those for the diskos. The competitors threw from
behind a line which they were not allowed to overstep. This
line was perhaps the starting-line of the stadium; it is certainly
the τέρμα of Pindar’s Seventh Nemean Ode. It appears probable
from this ode that a competitor who overstepped the line was
disqualified from taking any further part in the competition.
On a kylix in Berlin the line is marked by a pillar in front of,
or perhaps on a level with, the thrower (Fig. #105:fig105#). Further,
common-sense and the safety of the spectators required that the
throw should keep within certain limits as regards direction;
and this is implied by Pindar when in the first Pythian he
prays that his throw may not fall “outside the lists,” ἔξω ἀγῶνοσς,
but that with a far throw he may surpass all his rivals.
The javelins which we see so frequently sticking in the
ground in palaestra scenes have been adduced as an argument
to prove that no throw counted unless the javelin stuck in the
ground; clearly an impossible condition with blunt javelins
on the hard-baked ground of Greece. How the throw was
measured we know no more than in the case of the diskos.
Nor do we know how many throws were allowed. Various
scraps of evidence have been brought forward to prove that
two or three throws were allowed, but the evidence is quite
inconclusive.
We have seen that from an early date the javelin was
employed by horsemen, both in war and in the chase. At
Athens, especially, horsemanship, was the duty and also the
recreation of the richer classes. Plato tells us that Themistocles
himself taught his son Cleophantus not only to ride but to
throw the javelin standing on horseback, and in the Laws he
recommends javelin throwing on horseback as a useful accomplishment.[#]
Xenophon,[#] in his treatise on the duties of a
cavalry officer, urges the latter to encourage his men to practise
the javelin and to stir up emulation among them by offering
prizes. In his treatise on horsemanship he gives further instructions.
Velocity and distance are the most important points
for war. To secure these, he tells us, the thrower must
advance the left side of the body and draw back the right,
straightening himself from the thighs and holding the
javelin pointed slightly upwards. If, however, the object
// File: 383.png
// File: 384.png
.pn +2
is accuracy, the javelin must point straight at the mark. At
Athens there were competitions in this sport as early as the
fifth century. At the Panathenaea five amphorae of oil were
given for the first prize, and one for the second. In the
second century this competition is mentioned in inscriptions
relating to the Thesea. The Larisa inscription already referred
to makes it probable that it still existed in Thessaly in the
time of Hadrian.
.if h
.il fn=fig106.png w=100% id=fig106 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 106. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 106. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum.]
.if-
Fortunately we are able to supplement these scanty details
from the vases. A fifth-century aryballos from Eretria, now
at Athens, a fourth-century krater in the Louvre,[#] and a Panathenaic
amphora in the British Museum (Fig. #106:fig106#), give vivid
pictures of the competition. The target is a shield with a crown
forming a sort of bull’s-eye in the centre, raised on a post to a
level with the horses’ heads. The competitors gallop past this
target, hurling their javelins at it as they pass. The javelins
are pointed, and are held a little above the shoulder with the
point directed slightly downwards towards the target. The
riders on the Panathenaic vase wear the typical dress of the
Athenian ephebos, a flat, broad-brimmed hat called petasos,
and a bright-bordered chiton fastened over the shoulder. On
the Eretria vase they also wear high boots, and on the krater
in the Louvre the hats are replaced by wreaths, and winged
victories hover over the riders bearing wreaths.
The Panathenaic amphora of course refers to the Panathenaic
festival, and the festal character of the other vases suggests a
definite connexion with some other festival or festivals, but we
can say no more. The sport was probably a common one in
Attica, Thessaly, and other horse-breeding lands, and formed
an attractive feature of other festivals besides the Thesea and
Panathenaea. There is certainly no ground for connecting it
with the Argive Heraea.
.fn #
Jüthner, Antike Turngeräthe, p. 37; J.H.S. xxvii. pp. 249-273.
.fn-
.fn #
De re equestri, viii. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Tetralogia, ii. 4. An example of the pointed javelin occurs in Fig. #150:fig150#.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide infra, p. #358#.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Anacharsis, 32.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, l.c., Figs. 34, 35, 36. Jüthner proves conclusively that the objects
represented on the Panaetius kylix and elsewhere (Fig. #17:fig017#) are not compasses,
but amenta misdrawn.
.fn-
.fn #
Schliemann-Schuchardt (Eng. Trans.), Figs. 284, 285.
.fn-
.fn #
Anab. v. 2, 12.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., ii. 520, 521, 522, 523.
.fn-
.fn #
For fuller details vide J.H.S. xxvii. p. 255.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 31, and Jüthner’s note, p. 249.
.fn-
.fn #
The lightness of the Greek javelin is illustrated by Xenophon. In the
passage of the Ten Thousand through the mountainous territory of the Carduchi,
the Greeks picked up the long arrows of the enemy, and, fitting thongs to them
(ἐναγκυλῶντες), used them as javelins. By means of a thong it is possible to
throw a dart too light to be thrown effectively by hand alone. Anab. iv. 2, 28.
.fn-
.fn #
Berlin Vas., 1805.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. x. 71.
.fn-
.fn #
Vasen von d. Acrop. 590, Pl. xxvii.
.fn-
.fn #
Ceos, Sestos, Samos, Tralles, Larisa. Vide J.H.S. l.c. notes 21 and 53.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., ii. 670, 671.
.fn-
.fn #
Nem. vii. 70; Isthm. ii. 35; Pyth. i. 44.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Anacharsis, 27.
.fn-
.fn #
Meno 93 D; Leg. 834 D.
.fn-
.fn #
Hipparch. i. 6; De re equest. viii. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Collignon, 1478; Millin, i. 45. Both vases are reproduced by P. Wolters,
Zu griechischen Agonen (Würzburg Programm, 1901).
.fn-
// File: 385.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap17
CHAPTER XVII | THE PENTATHLON
.sp 2
The pentathlon was a combined competition in five events,
running, jumping, throwing the diskos, throwing the javelin,
and wrestling. This is one of the few facts regarding the
pentathlon which may be regarded as absolutely certain.
These five events are vouched for by three epigrams, one of
them assigned to Simonides, and by the repeated testimony of
Philostratos in his Gymnastike.[#] Nothing proves more conclusively
the utter unreliability of the statements on athletics
made by late scholiasts and lexicographers, than the mistakes
which they contrive to make on a matter so clearly established.
The lexicon of Phavorinus, following certain late scholia, substitutes
boxing for throwing the javelin; and Photius quotes
certain writers as substituting the pankration for the jump.
Stranger still, such mistakes survive in the present day; and our
own standard Greek Lexicon by Liddell and Scott contains, in
the latest edition, the appalling statement that the five exercises
were the jump, the diskos, running, wrestling, boxing, the last
being afterwards exchanged for javelin throwing. After this
we are not surprised to find quoted the antiquated theory of
Böckh, that “no one received a prize unless he was winner in
all five events,” a theory that was disproved by Philip, years
before the first edition of Liddell and Scott was published.
// File: 386.png
.pn +1
The introduction of boxing into the pentathlon is due to the
mischievous habit of using such inaccurate expressions as “the
Homeric pentathlon.”[#] In heroic days, as Pindar tells us,
there was no pentathlon, “but for each several feat there was
a prize.”[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig107.png w=100% id=fig107 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 107. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 134. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 107. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 134. Sixth century.]
.if-
Of these five events, three—the jump, the diskos, and the
javelin—were peculiar to the pentathlon, and formed its
characteristic feature. These three events were regarded as
typical of the whole competition; on the Panathenaic vases
given as prizes for the competition one or more of these three
events, on two vases all three of them, are represented[#]
(Figs. #107:fig107#, #108:fig108#). The same events are among the commonest
on other vases, especially red-figured vases; but we are not
justified in connecting these with the pentathlon, or using them
as evidence in discussing the pentathlon. These scenes for the
// File: 387.png
.pn +1
most part represent the daily life of the gymnasium, and all
that they prove is the important part which these sports played
in that life. They were the only three events which required
any form of apparatus; the exercises seem to have been taught
in classes, and were performed both in practice and in competition
to the accompaniment of the flute. If any of the three
was regarded as more representative than another, it was the
jump, which perhaps owed its importance partly to the extensive
use of halteres in the gymnasium. The halteres were the special
symbol of the pentathlon, and were frequently represented on
statues of victorious pentathletes.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig108.png w=100% id=fig108 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 108. Panathenaic amphora. Leyden. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 108. Panathenaic amphora. Leyden. Sixth century.]
.if-
These three events, together with running and wrestling,
were representative of the whole physical training of the
Greeks, and the pentathlete was the typical product of that
training. Inferior to the specialised athletes in his special
events he was superior to him in general development, in that
harmonious union of strength and activity which produces
perfect physical beauty; and this beauty of the pentathlete
won him the special commendation of thinkers such as Aristotle,
who condemned all exaggerated or one-sided development.[#]
A combined competition like the pentathlon is obviously
later than any of the individual events of which it is composed,
and implies a considerable development in athletics and
// File: 388.png
.pn +1
physical education. Not that we are to regard it with certain
German writers as an elaborate scheme based on abstract
physiological principles evolved with much expenditure of
midnight oil out of the brain of some athletic student. The
pentathlon was the natural product of a number of exercises
which had been familiar for centuries. But before the idea
could originate of combining these exercises into a single
competition to find the best all-round athlete, these exercises
must have become part of the national education. The
combination implies a certain amount of thought and conscious
reflexion. There is in it an artificiality of which we find no
trace in the Homeric sports. In view of this it is remarkable
that, according to Greek tradition, the pentathlon was introduced
at Olympia as early as the 18th Olympiad.
No importance need be attached to the statement of
Philostratus that the pentathlon was invented by Jason. The
Greeks always loved to trace their institutions back to heroic
times. As, however, the passage which contains the statement
is of considerable importance in discussing the method of
deciding the pentathlon, it will be useful to quote it in full:—
“Before the time of Jason there were separate crowns for
the jump, the diskos, and the spear. At the time of the Argo’s
voyage Telamon was the best at throwing the diskos, Lynceus
with the javelin, the sons of Boreas were best at running and
jumping, and Peleus was second in these events but was
superior to all in wrestling. Accordingly, when they were
holding sports in Lemnos, Jason, they say, wishing to please
Peleus combined the five events, and thus Peleus secured the
victory on the whole.”[#]
The order of the events and the method of deciding the
pentathlon have given rise to a literature equally extensive
and inconclusive.[#] Almost every combination of events has been
tried, and every conceivable method has been devised. Many
of the systems proposed are so utterly unpractical that they have
only to be stated to be rejected by any one with a rudimentary
knowledge of practical athletics. None can be regarded as
// File: 389.png
.pn +1
established. The evidence is too scanty and too contradictory.
It consists largely in extracts from scholiasts and lexicographers,
and we have seen in considering the constitution of the
pentathlon the untrustworthiness of this class of evidence. It
is well, therefore, to recognise from the outset that whatever
solutions we may accept are only provisional, and that it is
therefore in the highest degree unsafe to use such theories as
evidence in the interpretation of Pindar or other poets.
First, as to the order of events, it must be premised that we
are not certain that the order was fixed, and did not vary at
different times and places. Still, the conservatism of the Greeks
in such matters certainly makes it probable that there was a fixed
order at Olympia, and that this order was generally adopted
elsewhere. At all events we shall assume that this was so.
The one fact which we know for certain about the order is
that wrestling came last. Bacchylides definitely describes it
as last, and the evidence of Bacchylides is confirmed by
Herodotus and Xenophon.[#] Describing the attack on Olympia
by the Eleans in Ol. 104, when the Arcadians had usurped the
presidency of the games, Xenophon says: “They had already
finished the horse-race and the events of the pentathlon held
in the dromos (τὰ δρομικὰ τοῦ πεντάθλου) and those who had
reached the wrestling were no longer in the dromos but were
wrestling between the dromos and the altar.” It is generally
agreed that τὰ δρομικά are the first four events, which were
held in the stadium, whereas according to the view set forth in
a previous chapter wrestling took place in the open space in
front of the treasury steps.[#] At all events, it is clear from
Xenophon’s words that wrestling came last, and common sense
tells us that this was the only possible position for it consistent
with fairness. After several hard bouts of wrestling no
competitor could do himself justice in the other events.
For the order of the first four events we have to fall back
on the uncertain and contradictory evidence of various passages
in which the events of the pentathlon are enumerated. Now
in none of these passages is the order of events of any importance
to the writer; in the case of an epigram it is obvious
that the order is likely to be modified by metrical considerations.
Still, the probability remains that such passages will in
// File: 390.png
.pn +1
spite of metre and carelessness reflect more or less the actual
order.[#] Thus we find that in five passages wrestling comes last,
in two passages it comes first, and in both of these the order
of events is merely reversed, in one passage it comes second.
The epigram of Simonides gives the following order: Jump,
foot-race, diskos, javelin, wrestling. The epigram quoted by
Eustathius gives the same order except that the foot-race
comes fourth instead of second. Now, except in the epigram
of Simonides, the three events peculiar to the pentathlon are
always grouped together. It is probable, therefore, that they
were grouped together in practice, and that the foot-race cannot
have occupied the second place. Why Simonides put it after
the jump is obvious, neither δρόμος nor ποδωκείν could possibly
begin a hexameter. The foot-race, therefore, came either first
or fourth. Once more, if we examine the lists we find the
foot-race first in two lists, last in the two reversed lists, while
two scholia follow the epigram and place it fourth. As the
order in these scholia is identical with that of the epigram,
it is doubtful whether they have any independent authority.
The evidence, therefore, is slightly in favour of first place for
the foot-race, and this order receives some slight support from
the passage in Philostratus already quoted concerning the
pentathlon of Peleus, and the passage of Herodotus discussed
below about Tisamenus and Hieronymus.
For the remaining events the lists appear to support the
order of the two epigrams—jump, diskos, javelin, though there
is not much to show whether the diskos or the javelin came first.
Certain passages in Bacchylides and Pindar have been quoted
to prove that the diskos preceded the javelin.[#] On the two
// File: 391.png
.pn +1
Panathenaic vases reproduced above, the javelin comes between
the jump and the diskos. This is the position assigned to it
by Philostratus when he enumerates the events of the pentathlon.
Unfortunately the value of this passage is lessened by the
distinction which he introduces between light events and heavy
events. The heavy events, he says, are wrestling and throwing
the diskos; the light events, the javelin, the jump, and the
foot-race. The order is obviously reversed, but whether all
three light events preceded both heavy events or not cannot be
decided from this passage. Such distinctions give us no clue
to the actual order, and all attempts to discover the system on
which the order of events depended are absolutely futile. It is
easy enough to argue that all the exercises were arranged in an
ascending scale, or that easy exercises alternated with difficult,
that similar exercises were grouped together, or that leg
exercises alternated with arm exercises, and if we were constructing
an ideal pentathlon such arguments might be of
some use. As it is, we are not concerned with an ideal
pentathlon but with that of the Greeks, and there is not a
particle of evidence to prove that the Greeks arranged their
pentathlon on any abstract principle however plausible. All
we can do is to confine ourselves to the actual evidence, and
the order which this evidence renders probable is foot-race,
jump, diskos, javelin, wrestling.
It is unnecessary to discuss in full the various systems
that have been suggested for deciding the pentathlon. These
systems for the most part fall into certain well-defined groups
based on certain hypotheses, and it will be sufficient briefly to
examine these hypotheses.
The old hypothesis perpetuated by Liddell and Scott, that
victory in all five events[#] was necessary, may be briefly
dismissed as not only unpractical but contrary to the little
evidence which we possess. On such a system a victory in the
pentathlon must have been an extremely rare event; for it
can seldom have happened that one competitor won all five
events. The idea seems to have arisen from the epigram of
Simonides, and from a misunderstanding of an important
passage in Herodotus (ix. 33), which is in reality a conclusive
proof against it.
“Tisamenus,” says Herodotus, “came within a single contest
// File: 392.png
.pn +1
or fall (πάλαισμα) of victory, being matched against Hieronymus
of Andros.” Pausanias confirms the victory of Hieronymus
(vi. 14), and says of Tisamenus (iii. 11, 6), “In two events he
was first, for he was superior to Hieronymus in running and
jumping, but he was defeated by him in wrestling and so failed
to win the victory.” The true interpretation of the passage is
obvious. “Tisamenus came within a single contest of victory,”
i.e. he won two events but lost the odd; or perhaps we may
go farther still and give to πάλαισμα its literal meaning, “a fall
in wrestling.” He came within a “single fall” of winning.
Each had won two events, each had scored two falls in wrestling,
and the whole contest depended on the last fall![#] just as we
talk of winning a golf match by a single putt, or winning a
rubber by the odd trick.
Yet obvious as this interpretation is, Hermann and other
more recent German writers have asserted that, according to
Herodotus, Tisamenus won the first four events, and only missed
the victory because he was defeated in wrestling. It is more
than doubtful whether the words of Herodotus can bear the
meaning “he missed victory by wrestling only”; but apart from
this, Hermann’s theory is absolutely contradicted by the very
circumstantial statements of Pausanias. If Tisamenus won all
four events, why should Pausanias expressly state that he won
two? If victory in all five events was necessary, how can
Hieronymus have won the pentathlon, seeing that on Hermann’s
showing he only won one event? If victory in five events was
not necessary, is it not ridiculous to suppose that a solitary
victory in wrestling should have not only cancelled the four
victories of Tisamenus, but secured the prize for Hieronymus?
The only inference which we are justified in drawing from
the story of Tisamenus is that victory in three out of the five
events was sufficient. This is expressly stated by a scholiast
to Aristides, and is implied in a highly metaphorical passage in
Plutarch describing the different points in which the letter A
is superior to all the other letters of the alphabet.[#] It has
been further inferred that victory in three events was not only
// File: 393.png
.pn +1
sufficient but necessary. The writers who have taken this view
generally assume that with several competitors competing
against one another it would be unusual for any individual to
win three events, and various elaborate theories have been
devised to get over this difficulty. Of these theories by far
the most reasonable was that suggested by Professor Percy
Gardner in the first volume of the Journal of Hellenic Studies.
He supposed that the pentathlon was treated as a single event,
and the competition was conducted as a tournament, the
competitors being arranged in pairs, and each pair competing
against each other in all five contests. The winner of each
pair, and therefore the final winner, must necessarily have won
three out of the five events. This plan has the conspicuous
merit of fairness and simplicity, but it is open to several serious
objections. In particular, the passage of Xenophon quoted
above seems decisive against it, for Xenophon’s words naturally
mean that all the events in the dromos took place before any
of the wrestling. There are many practical objections. The
length of such a competition would have made it tedious to
spectators and competitors alike, and it must have degenerated
into a mere test of endurance, in which the elements of skill,
activity, and grace which made the pentathlon so popular
would have been lost. I need not dwell on the hopelessly
unpractical modifications of this theory proposed by Dr.
Marquardt, nor on the ludicrously unfair systems suggested by
Fedde, and more recently by Legrand in Daremberg and Saglio,
the principle of which is the arrangement of all competitors in
groups of three. It will be sufficient to examine the two
assumptions on which these theories rest, viz. that in an open
competition it would be unusual for any competitor to win
three events, and that victory in three events was necessary.
If these assumptions prove to be unfounded, the raison d’être
of all these theories disappears at once; for they have no
merit whatsoever except that they satisfy these supposed
conditions.
In considering the first point we must remember that the
pentathlete was not a specialist in any one exercise, but an all-round
athlete who combined strength and activity. Among
competitors of this sort it is not unusual to find one or two
men surpassing their fellows not in one event but in several,
especially if most of the events require much the same qualities
// File: 394.png
.pn +1
and physique. This was undoubtedly the case with the
pentathlon. It is obvious that the same man might often win
the foot-race and the long jump, or the diskos and the spear.
Though less obvious it is equally probable that the diskos and
the long jump might fall to the same man. It is not uncommon
to find a hammer-thrower who is also a good long-jumper. The
reason is that weight-throwing and jumping both require a
harmonious well-timed effort of every part of the body. The
use of jumping weights increased the resemblance between the
two exercises; for the swing of the weights was not unlike the
swing of the diskos. The general development and complete
control of the muscles necessary for these events would give
an equal advantage in wrestling, especially with men of the
same weight, for the heavy-weight wrestler would be excluded
by the very nature of the pentathlon. These considerations
make it probable that the five events would commonly be
divided between two or at most three competitors, and the
few details which we know of actual winners confirms this
view. Phayllus of Croton must have won the jump, the
diskos, and the foot-race, for he won the stade-race at Delphi.
Hieronymus won the diskos, spear, and wrestling. So apparently
did Automedes of Phlius.[#] Diophon, the subject of Simonides’
epigram, apparently won all five events. The only example to
the contrary is the mythical pentathlon of Peleus, in which
none of the heroes won more than one event.
The pentathlon of Peleus is fatal to the second assumption
that victory in three events was necessary. We must either
reject the evidence of the story, or abandon the assumption.
And inasmuch as there is absolutely no proof of the assumption,
the latter is the only course. The principal evidence on which
the assumption is based has already been stated. The utmost
that we can infer is that victory in three events was sufficient,
and was by no means an unfamiliar result. We may further
add the statement of Pollux that the term used for victory in
the pentathlon was ἀποτριάξαι, “to win a treble,” a statement
confirmed by a quite unintelligible scholion on the Agamemnon.
The word τριάσσειν is properly a wrestling term, meaning “to
win three falls,” “to win in wrestling,” and so generally “to
win a victory” or “conquer.” The cognate words τριάκτηρ and
ἀτρίακτος mean no more than “conqueror,” “unconquered.”
// File: 395.png
.pn +1
There is no evidence of the connexion of the word in early times
with the pentathlon; but the fact that wrestling was the last
event in the pentathlon is itself sufficient explanation of the late
use of the word ἀποτριίξαι to denote victory in the pentathlon,
especially if, as was frequently the case, the final victory was
decided by the wrestling. It is, of course, possible that the
word contained some allusion to a victory in three events, but
this supposition is unproved and unnecessary, and certainly
does not warrant the assumption that victory in three events
was necessary.[#] Such being the case we may reject all theories
based upon this assumption. Above all, there is no longer any
necessity for dividing competitors into heats of two or three.
A common feature in the systems proposed is the gradual
reduction of the number of competitors at each stage of the
competition, so that in the final wrestling only two or three
competitors were left. The only evidence for the theory in this
form is the rhetorical passage in Plutarch already noticed—evidence
as untrustworthy as it is possible to conceive. There
is, however, more evidence for a modified form of the theory, viz.
that only those who had qualified in the first four competitions
were allowed to compete in the wrestling. This appears to me
now the only possible conclusion from the words of Xenophon
already quoted:[#] “The events in the dromos were already
finished, and those who had reached the wrestling were no longer
in the dromos, etc.” Such a system would give an advantage
to the all-round athlete, and exclude the specialised wrestler.
But what constituted qualification? It certainly was not
confined to the winners in the first four events, otherwise
Peleus would have been excluded; nor does it seem to me
probable that only the two or three who had obtained the
best averages in the first four competitions were permitted to
wrestle. Speculation is useless; we must be content for the
// File: 396.png
.pn +1
present to accept Xenophon’s words, and hope that some
inscription or papyrus may be discovered to enlighten us.
Much has been written by archaeologists about the bye
(ἔφεδρος) in the pentathlon. It is not a little curious that there
is absolutely no evidence for a bye in the pentathlon at all.
We hear of a bye in wrestling, in boxing, and in the pankration,
but in no other competitions. Of course, if all competitors
competed in wrestling a bye was unavoidable. But a bye
necessarily introduces an element of luck, especially in a long
competition, and we may be sure that the Greeks avoided it as
far as possible. If only a certain number of competitors were
admitted to the wrestling, the necessity for a bye could be easily
avoided. German archaeologists, with a strange perverseness,
seem to delight in introducing compulsory byes at every turn.
So far, then, we have established the principle that victory in
three events was sufficient but not necessary. If no competitor
won three events, or two won two events, how was the victory
decided? The pentathlon of Peleus supplies the answer. Each
of the heroes won one event. Peleus, besides winning the
wrestling, was second in the other four events. Only two
explanations of the victory of Peleus are possible. Either
wrestling counted more than other events, an assumption
adopted by various writers, but contrary to the whole spirit
of the pentathlon, or in case of a tie at least, account was taken of
second or third places, i.e. the result was decided by marks.
These two principles, that the result was decided in the first
place by victories in the separate events, and in the case of a tie
by some system of marks, are sufficient to explain all possible
cases, though the details of their application are uncertain.
Let us try to see how the competition would work out on
these lines.
The pentathlon began with the foot-race. The distance
was a stade. The race might be run in heats if necessary;
but there is no evidence for them in the pentathlon. The
starting lines at Olympia could accommodate twenty starters,
and it does not seem probable that there were often so many
entries. The competitions in jumping, throwing the diskos and
the javelin, were conducted as in the present day, all competing
against all. The jump was a long jump; the diskos and the
javelin were thrown for distance, not at a mark. Wrestling was
conducted on the tournament principle. “Upright wrestling”
// File: 397.png
.pn +1
only was allowed, and three falls were required for victory.
Only those who had qualified in the first four events took part
in the wrestling. If there were only two competitors, one of
them must have won three events. Suppose there were more,
at least five, A, B, C, D, E; there is no evidence that it was
possible to win the pentathlon without being first in at least
one event, and, therefore, what holds good of five will hold
good of any smaller or larger number. There are only four
possible cases.
(1) A 3, B 2, or B 1, C 1.—A wins by the first principle.
(2) A 2, B 2, C 1.—The victory would depend on the result
of the fifth event which C won. If this event were wrestling,
it would be reasonable to suppose that other competitors would
drop out, and A and B would be matched together. If the
event won by C was one of the earlier events, the issue must
have been decided by the performances of A and B in that
event, or perhaps by marks, i.e. by their performances in all
the events.
(3) A 2, B 1, C 1, D 1.—This is a very doubtful case: the
victory might be awarded to A as having won more firsts than
any of the others, or it might be decided by marks.
(4) A 1, B 1, C 1, D 1, E 1.—In this highly improbable
case victory can only have been decided by marks.
Complications may have been introduced by dead heats or
ties: all such cases would, no doubt, have been settled by the
same common-sense principles. This scheme, which I stated
more fully in vol. xxiii. of the Journal of Hellenic Studies,
is not affected by the modification which I have since adopted
about admission to the wrestling. It is in entire accordance
with modern athletic experience, and there is no passage in
any ancient author which contradicts it.
.fn #
Epigram of Simonides on Diophon—
.pm verse-start
Ἴσθμια καὶ Πυθοῖ Διοφῶν ὁ Φίλωνος ἐνίκα
ἅλμα, ποδωκείην, δίσκον, ἄκοντα, πάλην.
.pm verse-end
Epigram quoted by Eustathius, Il. Ψ 621, p. 1320—
.pm verse-start
ἅλμα ποδῶν δίσκου τε βολὴ καὶ ἄκοντος ἐρωὴ
καὶ δρόμος ἤδε πάλη· μία δ’ ἔπλετο πᾶσι τελευτή.
.pm verse-end
cp. Epigram of Lucilius, Anth. Pal. xi. 84; Philostratus, Gym. 3, 11, 31, 55;
Artemidorus, Oneir. i. 55; and numerous scholia.
.fn-
.fn #
E.g. of the games at the court of Alcinous. No argument can be based on
the accidental occurrence on vases of boxing together with some of the events of
the pentathlon, e.g. Fig. #150:fig150#.
.fn-
.fn #
Isthm. i. 26.
.fn-
.fn #
Three events, B.M. B. 134. Arch. Zeit., 1881, ix.; diskos and javelin, B.M.
B. 142, Mus. Greg. xliii. 2 b; jump and javelin, Munich, 656; diskos, B.M.
B. 136, 602, etc.; javelin, B.M. 605, etc.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxiii. p. 60.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristot. Rhet. i. 5; cp. Plato, Amatores 135 D, E.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Gym. 3.
.fn-
.fn #
To the works enumerated by me in J.H.S. xxiii. pp. 55 ff., I may
add K. E. Heinrich, Über das Pentathlon d. Gr., Würzburg, 1892; C. A. M.
Fennell in Pindar: Isthm. and Nem. Odes, 1883; Ph. E. Legrand in Dar.-Sagl.
s.c. “Quinquertium,” 1907.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacch. ix. 30-36 τελευταίας ἀμάρυγμα πάλας; Hdt. ix. 33; Xen. Hellen.
vii. 4. 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide p. 120.
.fn-
.fn #
The following are the orders given in the various lists:—
.ta l:30 l:30
1. Simonides | jump, race, diskos, javelin, wrestling.
2. Epigram quoted by Eustathius | jump, diskos, javelin, race, wrestling.
3. Schol. Pind. Isthm. i. 26|
4. Schol. Soph. El. 631 |
5. Artemidorus, Oneirocrit. i. 55| race, diskos, jump, javelin, wrestling.
6. Schol. Plato, Amat. 135 E| race, diskos, jump, javelin, wrestling.
(reversed)
7. Phil. Gym. 3 (reversed)| race, jump, javelin, diskos, wrestling.
8. Schol. Aristid. Pan. p. 112| race, wrestling, diskos, javelin, jump.
9. Epigram Anth. Pal. xi. 84 | wrestling, race, diskos, jump, javelin.
.ta-
In 6 and 7 the order of the text is obviously reversed, and I have therefore
reversed again. No. 9 is of very little value and may be disregarded.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacch. ix. 30-36; Pind. Nem. v. 72; Isthm. ii. 30. Little value can be
attached to these passages or to the vases.
.fn-
.fn #
The system adopted by Böckh, Hermann and Dissen.
.fn-
.fn #
This interpretation is, I am glad to find, adopted by Dr. Jüthner in his
recent edition of Philostratus.
.fn-
.fn #
Schol. Aristid. Pan. p. 112 οὐκ ὅτι πάντως οἱ πένταθλοι πάντα νικῶσιν·
ἀρκεῖ γὰρ αὑτοῖς γ’ τῶν έ πρὸς νίκην. Plut. Symp. ix. 2 διὸ τοῖς τρισὶν ὥσπερ οἱ
πένταθλοι περίεστι καὶ νικᾷ.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacchylides, l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
For a fuller treatment of this point vide J.H.S. xxiii. p. 63, and Jüthner,
Philostratus, p. 207. The passage quoted by me from Philostratus on p. 65
n. 47, γυμνάζεταί τι τῶν τριῶν, appears to be corrupt and cannot be used as evidence
for speaking of τριαγμός as applied to the three events of the pentathlon which
secured victory, or the three events peculiar to the pentathlon, and Jüthner seems
to me correct in his criticism that this use of the word is “mehr als unsicher.”
.fn-
.fn #
In J.H.S. xxiii. p. 65 I was mistaken in rejecting this conclusion. I
cannot, however, accept as proved either Holwerda’s or Heinrich’s application of
it. Holwerda in particular, like many of the Germans, attaches an altogether
undue importance to wrestling, which was certainly not the most important of
the five events.
.fn-
// File: 398.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap18
CHAPTER XVIII | WRESTLING
.sp 2
Wrestling is perhaps the oldest and most universal of all
sports. The wall-paintings of Beni Hassan show that almost
every hold or throw known to modern wrestlers was known to
the Egyptians 2500 years before our era. The popularity of
wrestling among the Greeks is proved by the constant metaphors
from this sport, and by the frequency with which scenes from
the wrestling ring appear not only in athletic literature and
art but also in mythological subjects. Despite the changes
in Greek athletics caused by professionalism, which affected
wrestling and boxing more than any other sports, the popularity
of wrestling remained unabated. On early black-figured vases
Heracles is constantly represented employing the regular holds
of the palaestra not only against the giant Antaeus but against
monsters such as Achelous or the Triton, or even against the
Nemean lion, and centuries later the language in which Ovid
and Lucan describe these combats is in every detail borrowed
from the same source. Still more is this the case with the
wrestling match between Cercyon and Theseus which occurs so
often on the red-figured vases of Athens. On coins wrestling
types survive into imperial times. The fight with the Nemean
lion is represented on the fourth-century gold coins of Syracuse,
and that with Antaeus on imperial coins of Alexandria (Fig.
#109:fig109#).
.if h
.il fn=fig109.png w=100% id=fig109 alt="Wrestling types on coins."
.ca Fig. 109. Wrestling types on coins, in British Museum.\
a, b, c, Aspendus, fifth and fourth centuries. d, Heraclea in Lucania, fourth century.\
e, f, Syracuse, circa 400 B.C. g, Alexandria, Antoninus Pius. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 271.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 109. Wrestling types on coins, in British Museum.
a, b, c, Aspendus, fifth and fourth centuries. d, Heraclea in Lucania, fourth century.
e, f, Syracuse, circa 400 B.C. g, Alexandria, Antoninus Pius. (J.H.S. xxv. p. 271.)]
.if-
These fights are one of the many forms under which Greek
imagination loved to picture the triumph of civilization and
science over barbarism and brute force. To the Greek
wrestling was a science and an art. Theseus, the reputed
discoverer of scientific wrestling, is said to have learnt its rules
// File: 399.png
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from Athena herself.[#] The greatest importance was attached
to grace and skill; it was not sufficient to throw an opponent,
it had to be done correctly and in good style.[#] Hence even when
athletics had become corrupted by professionalism, wrestling
remained for the most part free from that brutality which has
so often brought discredit on one of the noblest of sports.
Pausanias records the case of a certain Sicilian wrestler,
Leontiscus, who defeated his opponents by trying to break their
fingers.[#] But such tactics did not commend themselves to the
Greeks, although it does not seem that they were formally
prohibited, and Pausanias expresses his disapproval by the
comment that he did not understand how to throw his
opponents.
The very name palaestra sufficiently indicates the early
// File: 400.png
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importance of wrestling in Greek education, an importance
which it maintained even during the Empire. The method
of instruction was strictly progressive.[#] There were separate
rules for men and boys; the different movements, grips, and
throws were taught as separate figures, the simpler movements
first, then the more complicated. In learning them the pupils
were grouped in pairs, and more than one pair could be taught
at the same time. In the early stages a beginner would be
paired with a more advanced pupil, who would help him.
Later on the movements were combined, and practice was
allowed in free play. The paidotribes seems to have enforced
his instruction with a free use of the rod. In Fig. #96:fig096# a vivid
picture of a wrestling lesson is seen. A pair of paidotribai
are engaged in instructing a pair of youthful wrestlers. One
of the latter has seized his opponent round the waist and
prepares to give him the heave; the other has allowed him to
obtain his grip and stands with outstretched hands waiting
for the paidotribes to give his next order.
There were doubtless numerous text-books of drill in
wrestling and other sports for the use of paidotribai. A
fragment of such a text-book has been found on a papyrus of
the second century A.D.[#] It contains orders for executing a
number of different grips and throws, and each section ends
with the order “complete the grip” (πλέξον) or “throw him”
(ῥεῖψον). The sections dealing with the throws are hopelessly
mutilated, but considerable portions of four sections dealing
with the grips remain. Unfortunately, the brevity of the
commands, characteristic of all drill books, makes them
extremely difficult to understand accurately, and the interpretation
is too technical to deal with here.
Competitions in wrestling, boxing, and the pankration were
conducted in the same way as a modern tournament. Lucian’s
description of the manner of drawing lots has already been
quoted. In case of an odd number of competitors one of them
drew a bye. This of course gave him a considerable advantage
in the next round over a less fortunate rival, who had perhaps
// File: 401.png
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been exhausted by his previous contest. Thus the crown may
sometimes have depended on the luck of the lot. It is to such
an accident that Pindar refers at the close of the sixth Nemean
Ode when he says that Alcimidas and his brother were
deprived of two Olympic crowns by the fall of the lot. So it
is mentioned as an additional distinction for an athlete to have
won a crown without drawing the bye, and Pausanias speaks
with some contempt of such as have ere now won the olive by
the unreasonableness of the lot and not by their own strength.[#]
There is, of course, no ground for the idea that one who had
drawn a bye in the first round remained a bye till the final. To
draw a bye in a single round is quite sufficient advantage, and
archaeologists should really credit the Greeks with a certain
amount of practical common-sense.
The number of competitors varied. Lucian, in the passage
referred to, speaks of five or twelve competitors,[#] and this
statement agrees generally with our other evidence. Pindar’s
heroes, the Aeginetan wrestlers Alcimedon and Aristomenes,[#]
were each victorious over four rivals, that is, in four rounds.
The same number is mentioned in the Olympic inscriptions on
the wrestler Xenocles and the boxer Philippus.[#] Four rounds
imply nine to sixteen competitors. A long epigram on Ariston,[#]
who won the pankration in Ol. 207, tells us that there were
seven competitors, and that he took part in all three rounds
and did not owe his crown to the luck of the lot.
Sometimes a famous athlete was allowed a walk over, in
which case he was said to have won ἀκονιτεί, without dust,
that is, without having even dusted his body with the fine sand
which athletes used before exercise. Such a victory is recorded
of Milo at some unknown festival when he was the only
competitor in wrestling.[#] The first victory of this sort
recorded at Olympia is that of Dromeus in the pankration
of Ol. 75.[#] An inscription found at Olympia enumerating the
victories of the Diagoridae at Rhodes records that Dorieus won
a victory in boxing (ἀκονιτεί) at the Pythia.[#] These instances,
which could be multiplied, are sufficient to prove that Philostratus
is mistaken when he asserts that no crown was awarded at
// File: 402.png
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Olympia without competition (ἀκονιτεί).[#] The case of Dorieus
disproves the similar statement made by Heliodorus with regard
to the Pythia.[#] There can hardly have been any necessity for
such a rule in early times, but a rule requiring more than one
competitor may well have been introduced at the time of the
athletic revival under the Empire, if not at the Olympia or
Pythia, at some of the many festivals which bore their names.
A rule to this effect might be reasonably expected at festivals
where valuable prizes were offered.
The Greeks distinguished two styles of wrestling, one which
they called “upright wrestling” or wrestling proper (ὀρθὴ πάλη,
or σταδιαία πάλη,[#] or simply πάλη) in which the object was to
throw an opponent to the ground (καταβλητική), the other “ground
wrestling” (κύλισις or ἁλίνδησις) in which the struggle was continued
on the ground till one or other of the combatants
acknowledged defeat. The former was the only wrestling
admitted in the pentathlon and in wrestling competitions
proper; the latter did not exist as a separate competition, but
only as part of the pankration, in which hitting and kicking
were also allowed.[#]
In the practice of the palaestra ground wrestling as well
as wrestling proper was freely indulged in. We gather from
Lucian that separate places were assigned to the two exercises.
Ground wrestling took place in some place under cover, and
the ground was watered till it became muddy.[#] The mud
rendered the body slippery and difficult to hold, and so rendered
accidents less likely; while wallowing in the mud was supposed
to have a most beneficial effect on the skin. Wrestling proper
took place on the sandy ground in the centre of palaestra. This
was called the skamma, the same word that is used for the
jumping pit. It denotes a place dug up, levelled and sanded
so as to form a smooth soft surface. For actual competitions a
skamma must have been provided somewhere in the stadium,
probably, where such existed, in the semicircular theatre at
the end.
In heroic times boxers and wrestlers wore a loin-cloth
// File: 403.png
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(περίζωμα), such as is occasionally depicted on black-figured
vases (Fig. #128:fig128#), but this loin-cloth seems to have been usually
discarded even in the sixth century. Wrestlers, especially boys,
sometimes wore ear-caps (Fig. #17:fig017#), but there is no evidence of
their use in competitions. For obvious reasons they always
wore their hair short.[#] Professional athletes under the Empire
wore the little hair that was left uncut, tied up in an unsightly
little topknot called the “cirrus.”[#]
In the present chapter we are concerned only with wrestling
proper. Before discussing its rules let me utter an emphatic
protest against the slanderous fallacy implied in the use of the
term Graeco-Roman to describe a style of wrestling in vogue in
some of the Music Halls at the present day. There is nothing
in Greek wrestling proper, or in the pankration, which bears any
resemblance to, or can offer any justification for, this most useless
and absurd of all systems, which, as Mr. Walter Armstrong remarks,
might have been invented for the express purpose of
bringing a grand and useful exercise into disrepute.
We have no definite statement as to the rules of Greek
wrestling, and are forced to infer them from the somewhat
fragmentary evidence of literature and art. The two essential
points which distinguish one style of wrestling from another
are the definition of a fair throw and the nature of the holds
allowed.
In most modern styles a man is considered thrown only
when both shoulders, or one shoulder and one hip touch the
ground at the same time; in the Cumberland and Westmorland
style he is thrown if he touches the ground with any portion
of his body, or even with his knee. A throw may be either a
clean throw or the result of a struggle on the ground. With
the Greeks it is practically undisputed that only clean throws
counted; if one or both wrestlers fell to the ground the bout
was finished. Further, it is certain that a fall on the back,
on the shoulders, or the hip counted as a fair throw.[#] An
epigram on one Damostratus is conclusive evidence for the
back, an epigram on Cleitomachus for the shoulders.[#] Another
epigram relates how Milo, advancing to receive his crown after
// File: 404.png
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a “dustless” victory, slipped and fell on his hip, whereupon the
people cried out not to crown a man who had fallen without
an adversary.[#] The question of a fall on the knee is more
difficult. The passages quoted from Aeschylus are doubtful,
and capable of being interpreted either way. So is the epigram
on Milo ascribed to Simonides, which states that he won seven
victories at Pisa without ever falling on his knee.[#] The
evidence of the monuments is divided. We have a group
of bronzes, apparently copies of some well-known Hellenistic
original, which represent a wrestler who has fallen on one knee
(Figs. #130:fig130#, #131:fig131#). His victorious opponent stands over him with
one hand pressing down his neck, with the other forcing back his
arm. There can be no doubt that he is in a position to throw
him on his back if necessary, but he seems to make no effort to
do so. On the other hand, we have a group of vases and wall-paintings
representing the throw known as “the flying mare,”
in which the wrestler as he throws his opponent over his head
sinks on one knee (Figs. #114:fig114#, #115:fig115#). Various explanations are
possible, the most plausible being that these scenes really
belong to the pankration; but none of them is quite convincing.
Where the evidence is so evenly balanced, certainty is impossible.
On the whole I am inclined to abandon the view which I
formerly held and to accept Jüthner’s view that a fall on the
knee did not count.
What happened if both wrestlers fell together? The only
evidence for this is the wrestling match in the Iliad, described
in our second chapter. There it will be remembered that in
the first bout Odysseus fell on the top of Ajax, in the second
they both fell sideways, after which Achilles declared the contest
drawn. From this we inferred that if both wrestlers fell
together no fall was counted. The accounts of wrestling in
later writers are merely literary imitations of Homer, and of
little independent value.
One fall did not decide the victory; three falls were
necessary. There are numerous allusions in literature to the
three throws.[#] The technical word for winning a victory in
// File: 405.png
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wrestling was τριάσσειν, “to treble,” and the victor was called
// File: 406.png
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τριακτήρ. At first sight it seems uncertain whether the
reference is to three bouts or three falls. But the latter interpretation
is the only one which suits every passage, and is
rendered certain by the categorical statement of Seneca that a
wrestler thrice thrown lost the prize.[#]
So much for the actual throw and the number of throws
necessary for victory. We pass on to the question of the
means employed by the Greek wrestler to throw his opponent.
In particular, was tripping allowed, and were leg-holds allowed?
In the artificial “Graeco-Roman” style of to-day tripping is
forbidden and no holds are allowed below the waist. Tripping
is seldom represented in art; but the frequent references to it
in literature from the time of Homer to that of Lucian leave
no doubt that it played an important part in Greek wrestling,
as it has in every rational system in every age.[#] The evidence
for leg-holds is less definite, but it seems certain that in practice
at least the Greeks made little use of them. This is the natural
inference from a passage in the Laws,[#] where Plato contrasts the
methods of the pankration in which leg-holds and kicking played
a conspicuous part with the methods of upright wrestling. The
latter is the only form of wrestling which he will admit as
useful in his ideal states, and he defines it as consisting in
“the disentangling of neck and hands and sides,” a masterly
definition showing a true understanding of wrestling, for the
wrestler’s art is shown more perhaps in his ability to escape
from or break a grip than in his skill in fixing one. The
vases show that the omission of leg-holds in Plato’s definition is
no accident. In the pankration one competitor is frequently
represented in the act of seizing another’s foot in order to
throw him; Antaeus and Cercyon, whose methods Plato in the
above passage strongly condemns, are commonly depicted as grabbing
at the feet of Heracles and Theseus. But in wrestling proper,
though arm, neck, and body-holds occur constantly, we never
see a leg-hold. It is probable that this is the result not so much
of a direct prohibition as of the practical riskiness of such a
hold under the conditions of upright wrestling. A wrestler who
stoops low enough to catch an opponent’s foot is certain to be
thrown himself if he misses his grip. On the other hand, there
// File: 407.png
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is no practical objection when once the wrestlers are engaged
to catching hold of an opponent’s thigh whether for offence or
defence. Indeed, one of the commands of the papyrus implies
that it was lawful to take a grip between an opponent’s legs, or
round the thigh.[#] In wrestling groups which represent the
heave we sometimes see a wrestler trying to save himself
by seizing the other’s legs. Perhaps we may recognize as a
wrestling scene a group which occurs on an Etruscan tomb.[#] One
man has lifted another on to his shoulder, with his right arm
clasped round his right thigh, and his left hand holding his right
hand. He may intend to throw him, or he may merely be
carrying him. Further, we must remember that upright
wrestling formed part of the pankration, and such groups may
therefore belong to the pankration.
The conditions of Greek wrestling may be summed up as
follows:—
.in +4
1. If a wrestler fell on any part of the body, hip, back or
shoulder, it was a fair fall.
2. If both wrestlers fell together, nothing was counted.
3. Three falls were necessary to secure victory.
4. Tripping was allowed.
5. Leg-holds, if not actually prohibited, were rarely used.
.in -4
// File: 408.png
.pn +1
The positions of the Greek wrestler, the grips and the throws
which he employed, are known to us from numerous monuments.
In view of the number of the monuments and the complexity
of the subject it is impossible within the limits of this work to
treat them exhaustively, and I must confine myself to the most
important and most interesting of the types represented.
The attitude adopted by the Greek wrestler before taking
hold was very similar to that of the modern wrestler. Taking
a firm stand with his feet somewhat
apart and knees slightly
bent, rounding (γυρώσας) his back
and shoulders, his neck advanced
but pressed down into the shoulder
blades, his waist drawn in (σφηκώσας),
he tried to avoid giving
any opening (λαβή) himself, while
his outstretched hands were ready
to seize any opportunity offered
by his opponent.[#] This position
is frequently represented in art;
but no better illustration of it
can be found than the Naples
wrestling-boys, generally miscalled
Diskoboloi (Fig. #110:fig110#).
.if h
.il fn=fig110.png w=90% id=fig110 alt="One of a pair of bronze wrestling boys, generally known as Diskoboloi."
.ca Fig. 110. One of a pair of bronze wrestling boys, generally known as Diskoboloi.\
Naples. (Photograph by Brogi.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 110. One of a pair of bronze wrestling boys, generally known as Diskoboloi.
Naples. (Photograph by Brogi.)]
.if-
Generally the wrestlers stand square to one another, and
prepare to take hold somewhat in the style of Westmorland
and Cumberland wrestlers, “leaning against one another like
gable rafters of a house,” or “butting against each other like
rams,” or “resting their heads on each other’s shoulders.”[#]
This position, known apparently as σύστασις, is frequently
depicted on the vases (Fig. #111:fig111#). Needless to say, this type does
not represent a preliminary “butting-match,” as a certain foreign
archaeologist seems to imagine, it is the natural position of two
wrestlers engaging. Sometimes their heads do crash together
as they meet. I read recently an account of a wrestling match
in which the heads of the two wrestlers met with a noise which
could be heard through the whole house.
.if h
.il fn=fig111.png w=60% id=fig111 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 111. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 603.\
Archonship of Polyzelus, 367 B.C.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 111. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 603.
Archonship of Polyzelus, 367 B.C.]
.if-
Sometimes instead of taking hold from the front the
wrestlers try to obtain a hold from the side as in preparing for
// File: 409.png
.pn +1
“the heave,” and in such a case the bodies are turned sideways
to one another, a position described as παράθεσις.[#] A not very
satisfactory illustration of such a position is shown on a British
Museum kylix representing Theseus and Cercyon[#] (Fig. #112:fig112#),
with which we may compare the group of Heracles and
Antaeus on the frieze of the theatre at Delphi,[#] where the
sideways position is more clearly marked. Theseus and Heracles
seem in both cases to have avoided the ponderous rush of their
foes by stepping sideways.
.if h
.il fn=fig112.png w=60% id=fig112 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 112. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 84.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 112. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 84.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig113.png w=60% id=fig113 alt="Group from British Museum amphora."
.ca Fig. 113. Group from British Museum amphora, B. 295 (Fig. 143).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 113. Group from British Museum amphora, B. 295 (Fig. 143).]
.if-
In endeavouring to obtain a hold wrestlers frequently
seize one another by the wrist. This action which is probably
denoted by δράσσειν is often a purely defensive movement to
prevent an opponent from obtaining a hold on the neck or body.
Sometimes, as on a Munich amphora (Fig. #123:fig123#), each wrestler
holds the other by the wrist. Sometimes one wrestler holds
both his opponent’s wrists. Such holds are merely momentary
and of little importance. A more effective hold was obtained
by seizing an opponent’s arm with both hands, one hand seizing
the wrist, the other gripping him at the elbow or under the
armpit (Fig. #113:fig113#). This seems to have been a very favourite
hold and led to one very effective fall of which we have many
illustrations.
It is the throw known in modern wrestling as the flying
mare and is probably what Lucian describes as εἰς ὕψος
ἀναβαστάσαι.[#] Having seized his opponent’s arm in the manner
// File: 410.png
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described the wrestler rapidly turns his back on him,[#] draws his
arm over his own shoulder, using it as a lever by which to
throw him clean over his head, at the same time he stoops forward,
sometimes sinking on one knee or both. The beginning
of the throw is seen on an Etruscan wall painting.[#] One
wrestler has swung his opponent off his feet and hoisted him
over his shoulder. His right hand still grasps his left wrist,
and his left hand has been transferred to his neck, and he leans
forward in order to complete the throw. A somewhat later
moment occurs on a British Museum kylix (Fig. #114:fig114#). The
drawing is rough and careless, and the stoop of the legs is probably
exaggerated because otherwise the group would be too high
for the vase space. Two wonderfully life-like pictures of this
throw occur on a kylix in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris
(Figs. #54:fig054#, #115:fig115#). On the interior we see the victor kneeling on
one knee; he has let go with his right hand, and his opponent,
left unsupported, is about to fall on his back. The exterior,
which is unfortunately much mutilated, shows the same fall a
moment later, the falling wrestler tries to save himself by
placing his right hand on the ground. This throw was undoubtedly
common to wrestling proper and to the pankration.
A black-figured amphora in the British Museum, B. 193,
represents Heracles employing it against the Nemean lion.
.if h
.il fn=fig114.png w=80% id=fig114 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 114. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 94.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 114. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 94.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig115.png w=80% id=fig115 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 115. R.-f. kylix. Paris. (Interior of Fig. #54:fig054#.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 115. R.-f. kylix. Paris. (Interior of Fig. 54.)]
.if-
Returning to the arm-hold which leads to this throw,
// File: 411.png
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we find several methods of meeting it represented. On the
Amphiaraus vase (Fig. #3:fig003#) Peleus has seized with both hands
the left arm of Hippaleimus. The latter with his free right
hand grips Peleus under the right arm-pit, and thus weakens
his grip and prevents him from turning round. A similar
defence is shown on the black-figured amphora in the British
Museum, B. 295, where the attack is made on the right arm.
A Berlin amphora by Andocides (Fig. #116:fig116#) shows another style
of counter. The wrestler to the left grasps his opponent’s left
wrist, but the latter, by a quick move forward, has rendered
useless the right hand which should have grasped his upper
arm, and passing his own right hand behind his back grasps his
right arm just above the elbow. In all these cases the object
is to prevent the opponent turning round or to loosen his
grip. The latter object is noticeable on the coins of Aspendus
(Fig. #109:fig109#), where the left-hand wrestler grasps with both hands
his opponent’s left, while the latter with his right hand grasps
his right wrist or left upper arm. We may remark how on
some of the coins the right-hand wrestler’s hand hangs down
helplessly as if rendered powerless by the grip.
.if h
.il fn=fig116.png w=100% id=fig116 alt="R.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 116. R.-f. amphora. Berlin, 2159.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 116. R.-f. amphora. Berlin, 2159.]
.if-
// File: 412.png
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Greek wrestling was governed, it would seem, more by a
tradition of good form than by actual rules. Thus, though it
was not regarded as good form to seize an opponent’s fingers
and break them, as Leontiscus did, such practices do not appear
to have been actually prohibited. They were well enough in
the pankration, where the object was to force an opponent,
by any means to acknowledge defeat, but they could hardly be
regarded as legitimate means for throwing an opponent, which
was the object of true wrestling.
The neck is an obvious and effective place by which to
obtain a hold, and strength of neck is essential to a wrestler.[#]
Pindar, in the seventh Nemean ode, speaks of the wrestler’s
“strength and neck invincible,” and Xenophon, describing the
training of the Spartans, says that they exercised alike legs and
arms and neck. In the Knights of Aristophanes Demos advises
the sausage-seller to grease his neck in order to escape from
Cleon’s grip. The technical word for obtaining a neck-hold is
τραχηλίζειν. Neck-holds were freely used in the pankration,
but rather for the purpose of choking an opponent than of
throwing him.
Several varieties of neck-hold are exhibited on the vases.
// File: 413.png
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On a red-figured krater in the Ashmolean (Fig. #117:fig117#) one
wrestler seizes the other’s wrist with his left hand, his neck
with his right. The wrestler so attacked defends himself by
seizing the other under the left arm-pit with his left hand.
An interesting feature of this vase is the figure of winged
Victory seated upon a pillar watching the contest. A different
defence is shown on the black-figured amphora in the British
Museum, B. 295 (Fig. #118:fig118#). Here the left-hand wrestler grasps
with his left hand his opponent’s right which is seizing his neck.
We may notice that he grasps it at one of the weakest points
just below the elbow. Yet another means of defence is to seize
the opponent’s neck.
.if h
.il fn=fig117.png w=70% id=fig117 alt="R.-f. krater."
.ca Fig. 117. R.-f. krater. Oxford, Ashmolean, 288.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 117. R.-f. krater. Oxford, Ashmolean, 288.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig118.png w=70% id=fig118 alt="Reverse of Fig. 143."
.ca Fig. 118. Reverse of Fig. #143:fig143#. British Museum, B. 295.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 118. Reverse of Fig. 143. British Museum, B. 295.]
.if-
Perhaps the best illustration of a neck-hold occurs on a
black-figured amphora in Munich, representing the wrestling
match between Peleus and Atalanta, which took place at the
funeral games of Pelias (Fig. #119:fig119#). Peleus has apparently tried
to seize Atalanta’s right arm with both hands, but Atalanta,
moving forward, seizes him by the back of the neck, very much
in the style of a modern wrestler. The picture reminds us
how in the gymnasia of Chios young men and maidens might
be seen wrestling with one another.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig119.png w=80% id=fig119 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 119. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 584.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 119. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 584.]
.if-
The neck-hold is commonly employed by Heracles in his
fight with the Nemean lion. Sometimes his left arm is round
// File: 414.png
.pn +1
the animal’s neck, while his right hand grasps its left paw,
sometimes both hands are clasped round its neck. The
interlocking of the hands is the same as that employed by
Westmorland and Cumberland wrestlers to-day, the hands
being turned so that the palms face one another and the
fingers hooked together. On an amphora in Munich Heracles
employs this same grip against Antaeus, who, sinking on one
knee, grabs characteristically but vainly at the hero’s foot.[#]
Of the actual throws to which a neck-hold led we have little
evidence in the monuments. On a psykter of Euthymides
Theseus has secured a powerful
hold on Cercyon with one arm
passed over his left shoulder, the
other under his right arm-pit
and swings him off his feet.[#]
Tripping was doubtless freely
employed with these holds, but
the only illustration of this
combination occurs in a group
of bronzes discussed below.
Similarly the movement described
as ἕδραν στρέφειν, to
turn one’s buttocks towards an
opponent was certainly combined with neck-holds. A good
illustration of this occurs on a Panathenaic vase in Boulogne
(Fig. #120:fig120#).
.if h
.il fn=fig120.png w=80% id=fig120 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 120. Panathenaic amphora. Boulogne, Musée Municipale, 441.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 120. Panathenaic amphora. Boulogne, Musée Municipale, 441.]
.if-
Passing on to body-holds we find a preliminary position
represented on a Panathenaic vase in the British Museum
(Fig. #111:fig111#). The wrestlers have each one hand round the
other’s back, and one of them with his other hand grasps the
other’s wrist.
A very effective body-hold is obtained by seizing the
opponent round the waist with both hands: he can then be
lifted off his feet and swung to the ground. The hold may be
obtained from the front, from behind, or from the side, and all
three forms are constantly represented. There are various
technical terms for such grips,[#] and the effectiveness of the
// File: 415.png
.pn +1
grip is shown by the proverbial use of the expression μέσον
ἔχειν, to hold by the waist.
The body-hold from the front is difficult to obtain, but
when obtained is extremely effective. It is the hold by which
Hackenschmidt, a few years ago, gained his sensational victory
over Madrali. But clumsiness and slowness are fatal, for, as
the wrestler stoops to obtain the under grip, his opponent can
either, by a sideways movement, obtain a hold for the heave,
or falling on him may force him to the ground. This is the
fate which continually befalls Cercyon and Antaeus as they
rush in blindly, head down, in hope of obtaining this hold.[#]
The danger of it is well illustrated by a pair of groups from a
black-figured amphora in Munich (Fig. #121:fig121#). In both cases a
bearded athlete rushes in to seize his opponent by the waist:
the upper group is merely preliminary; in the lower group his
opponent, unable to secure a hold for the heave owing to the
grip on his right hand, seems to be pressing on him with all his
weight to bear him to the ground. Perhaps a further stage
// File: 416.png
.pn +1
is represented on a red-figured kylix in the Museum at
Philadelphia (Fig. #122:fig122#). One wrestler has already lost his
balance, and is supporting himself with both hands on the
ground. The other with his left hand holds his right arm
down, and with the other prepares to take a body-hold and
roll him over. Usually then the body-hold from the front is
unsuccessful. On the Berlin amphora (Fig. #116:fig116#) we see a
youth who has successfully obtained this hold on a bearded
athlete, and lifts him off his feet in order to throw him.
.if h
.il fn=fig121.png w=100% id=fig121 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 121. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 1336.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 121. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 1336.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig122.png w=100% id=fig122 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 122. R.-f. kylix. Philadelphia.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 122. R.-f. kylix. Philadelphia.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig123.png w=100% id=fig123 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 123. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 495.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 123. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 495.]
.if-
More commonly the hold is secured from behind in the
manner represented on a black-figured amphora in Munich
(Fig. #123:fig123#). We may notice that the wrestler in mid air has,
in defence, hooked his right foot round his opponent’s leg.
The hands are interlocked in the manner already described.
But despite of these realistic touches the drawing as a whole is
stiff and lifeless, and contrasts strangely with the much more
vigorous portrayal of the same type on gems and coins. The
type is particularly connected with Heracles and Antaeus. The
lifting of Antaeus is first represented on the fourth century
coins of Tarentum. From this time it is constantly repeated
in bronzes and statues, and especially on coins and gems.[#]
Roman poets said that Antaeus being the son of earth derived
fresh force from his mother each time he touched earth, and
that Heracles therefore lifted him from earth and squeezed
him to death in mid air. This version of the story is, however,
unknown to the literature and art of Greece; and
though it may have originated in a mistaken interpretation of
// File: 417.png
.pn +1
the type which we are considering, cannot possibly be regarded
as its motive. With a few doubtful exceptions Heracles is
always represented as lifting Antaeus, not to crush him, but to
swing him to the ground, and nowhere is this motive clearer
than on some of the imperial coins, such as the coin of
Antoninus Pius shown in Fig. #109:fig109#.
For no throw have we such abundant evidence as for “the
heave,” the hold for which is obtained from the side by passing
one hand across and round the opponent’s back, and the other
underneath him. This is the hold which is being practised in
the wrestling lesson shown in Fig. #96:fig096#. It is a hold sometimes
employed by Heracles against Antaeus, but is particularly
characteristic of Theseus. Two kylikes in the British Museum
(Figs. #124:fig124#, #125:fig125#) will sufficiently illustrate it. On the one Cercyon
// File: 418.png
.pn +1
has endeavoured vainly to save himself by applying a similar
hold to Theseus, but too late; on the other vase he has already
been swung off the ground, one arm still clasps Theseus’ back,
the other hand reaches for the ground or grabs at the foot of his
adversary. The popularity of “the heave” among the Greeks
is shown by a far more important monument. A metope from
the Theseum shows Theseus in the very act of turning Cercyon
over to throw him (Fig. #126:fig126#). A yet later moment is represented
in a well-known bronze statuette now in Paris (Fig. #127:fig127#).
The victor here has turned his opponent completely over, and
standing upright prepares to drop him on the ground. On an
Attic stele already mentioned, representing Athenian sports, a
wrestler is in the act of falling headlong to the ground, and as
he slips through his opponent’s hands clasps his leg to save
himself (Fig. #36:fig036#). The heave and the holds necessary for it
are clearly described in the late epics of Quintus Smyrnaeus
and Nonnus.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig124.png w=90% id=fig124 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 124. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 48.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 124. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 48.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig125.png w=70% id=fig125 alt="B.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 125. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 36.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 125. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 36.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig126.png w=70% id=fig126 alt="Metope of Theseum. Theseus and Cercyon."
.ca Fig. 126. Metope of Theseum. Theseus and Cercyon.\
(Greek Sculpture, Fig. 66.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 126. Metope of Theseum. Theseus and Cercyon.
(Greek Sculpture, Fig. 66.)]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig127.png w=70% id=fig127 alt="Bronze wrestling group."
.ca Fig. 127. Bronze wrestling group. Paris.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 127. Bronze wrestling group. Paris.]
.if-
Some of the holds described must have been combined with
various turns of the body. Thus to obtain a hold from behind
a wrestler must either force his opponent to shift his position
(μεταβιβάζειν), or shift his own position so as to get behind him
(μεταβαίνειν), while the wrestler so attacked will naturally turn
round himself (μεταβαλέσθαι). The last two terms occur in
// File: 419.png
.pn +1
two consecutive lines of the Oxyrhynchus papyrus. One pupil
is told to get behind his fellow and grip him, the other is
ordered at once to turn round himself.[#] The use of the
preposition μετά in these compounds suggests the “afterplay”
of Cornish wrestling.
A sudden turn of the body is often used when a hold has
been already obtained, in order to twist an opponent off his
feet. The modern throws known as the “buttock” and
“cross-buttock” find their Greek equivalent in the phrase ἕδραν
στρέφειν, to turn the buttock. The cross-buttock differs chiefly
from the buttock in that the legs come more into play, and we
may therefore infer that this is the special throw whereof
Theocritus speaks when he relates how Heracles learnt from
Harpalacus “all the tricks wherewith the nimble Argive cross-buttockers
(ἀπὸ σκελέων ἑδροστρόφοι) give each other the fall.”[#]
It was evidently a favourite throw. Theophrastus, in his
character of the late learner who wishes to be thought
thoroughly accomplished and up-to-date, remarks that “in the
// File: 420.png
.pn +1
bath he is continually giving the cross-buttock as if wrestling.”[#]
Cannot we picture this athletic fraud strutting about the bath
cross-buttocking imaginary opponents, just as his modern
// File: 421.png
.pn +1
counterpart bowls imaginary balls, or with his walking-stick
wings imaginary birds?
.if h
.il fn=fig128.png w=100% id=fig128 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 128. B.-f. amphora. Vatican.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 128. B.-f. amphora. Vatican.]
.if-
These movements may be illustrated by a group on a black-figured
vase in the Museo Gregoriano (Fig. #128:fig128#). The wrestler
to the left has obtained a hold round his opponent’s waist,
either from in front or from behind. In the former case his
opponent must have immediately turned round. Anyhow, by
throwing his weight well forward, he frustrates the attempt to
lift him, and puts himself in an advantageous position for
swinging the other off his feet. Somewhat similar must have
been the motive of a much mutilated group on a metope of the
treasury of the Athenians at Delphi, representing the exploits
of Theseus, except that the figures are more upright.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig129.png w=70% id=fig129 alt="Bronze group."
.ca Fig. 129. Bronze group, in the British Museum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 129. Bronze group, in the British Museum.]
.if-
A throw somewhat resembling the cross-buttock is represented
in a recently acquired bronze of the British Museum
(Fig. #129:fig129#). As two other replicas[#] exist it seems probable
that it is a copy of some well-known Hellenistic group in
// File: 422.png
.pn +1
bronze or marble. A thick-set bearded man is wrestling with
a powerful youth, and with his back turned to him twists him
off his feet by a most curious arm-lock. With his right hand
he forces his opponent’s right arm back across his own thigh,
while he has slipped his left arm under his left armpit and
gripped his neck, thus rendering the imprisoned arm quite
useless, and obtaining a leverage similar to that of our half
Nelson. Perhaps the grip was obtained in the following way.
The man seizes the youth’s right arm, and by a quick movement
pulls him towards him and turns him round, μεταβιβάζει,
at the same time stepping himself to the left so as to be behind
him. He then slips his left hand under his left armpit so as
to grasp his neck and force it down. The grip obtained he
turns round to the right and twists him over.
We have seen that tripping (ὑποσκελίζειν) was at all times an
essential part of Greek wrestling. There are various technical
terms for the different chips, but their interpretation is very
uncertain and the monuments give little help. The words
βάλλω, βολή, and their compounds, are used to denote both arm
and leg movements. Perhaps we may recognise in ἑμβοληή the
modern “hank” and in παρεμβολή the “back heel,” the foot
// File: 423.png
.pn +1
being hooked round the opponent’s leg from the inside and
the outside respectively. The latter term occurs in an amusing
passage of Lucian’s Ocypus.[#] Ocypus, who is suffering from gout
but will not acknowledge it, alleges, among various excuses for
his lameness, that he hurt his foot in trying a back heel. By
analogy the term διαβολή, if used of a leg movement, may mean
the “outside stroke.” The chip by which Odysseus threw Ajax
is described by Eustathius as μεταπλασμός or παρακαταγωγή.
From the Homeric account these terms ought to correspond
to the “inside click” or “hank.” Some such click is perhaps
intended on the vases in Figs. #116:fig116#, #123:fig123#, where one wrestler,
lifted from the ground, clicks his foot round his opponent’s leg.
The best illustration of tripping is furnished by a group of
bronzes representing a wrestler fallen on one knee and supporting
himself on his left arm, while his opponent stands over him
with his left leg still hooked round his, and his right foot behind.
So far all the bronzes agree, but in the position of the arms there
// File: 424.png
.pn +1
are two varieties. In the St. Petersburg bronze (Fig. #130:fig130#) the
victor forces the other’s head down with his left hand, and with
his right presses his right arm back in the same way as in the
bronze in the British Museum (Fig. #129:fig129#). In the Constantinople
bronze (Fig. #131:fig131#) he holds his opponent’s neck with his right
hand, while with his left he has twisted backwards his arm and
shoulder. In both cases he makes the attack from behind. In
the first case he seizes his opponent’s right hand with his own
right, places his arm across his neck, and at the same time hooks
his left leg round the other’s left leg; then pressing his neck
forward he forces his right arm backwards, using it as a lever to
twist him off his feet. The other as he falls puts out his left
// File: 425.png
.pn +1
hand to save himself and falls with his left hand and right knee
on the ground. In the other type he seizes the other’s left hand
with his own left and pulls it across his back, at the same time
forcing his head forwards and downwards with his right hand,
and hooking his left leg. The fall is still more inevitable. All
the bronzes seem to represent the fall as completed, and the
victor has no appearance of continuing his attack. If a fall
on the knee was a fair fall no further explanation is wanted.
In any case the fallen man’s position is hopeless, and he can at
any moment be rolled over on the ground.
.if h
.il fn=fig130.png w=70% id=fig130 alt="Bronze."
.ca Fig. 130. Bronze. St. Petersburg.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 130. Bronze. St. Petersburg.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig131.png w=70% id=fig131 alt="Bronze."
.ca Fig. 131. Bronze. Constantinople.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 131. Bronze. Constantinople.]
.if-
These bronzes are probably copies of some well-known
Hellenistic group. The number of replicas which exist of it
attest the importance of the original statue and the popularity
of the throw represented. It is the sort of attack that must
naturally have commended itself to boys playing tricks on one
another, or street roughs attacking innocent passers-by from
behind. And it is, I believe, the very trick by which Aristophanes,
in the Knights, describes the way in which Cleon cheated
// File: 426.png
.pn +1
simple old country gentlemen. “Whenever you find such a one,”
say the chorus, “you fetch him home from the Chersonese, and
as the old gentleman is walking along unsuspectingly star-gazing
you suddenly throw your arm across his neck (διαβαλών), hook
his leg (ἀγκυρίσας), and, pulling his shoulder back, kick him in
the stomach (ἐνεκολήβασας).”[#] Horse-play of this character was
not unknown among the fashionable youth of Athens. Demosthenes
relates how Conon and his sons set upon Ariston, tripped
him up, threw him in the mud, and jumped upon him; and several
of the terms which the orator uses are, like those of Aristophanes,
terms familiar in the wrestling school.
In no sport is there greater variety of styles and rules than
in wrestling. Almost every country has a style of its own.
In Greece the Panhellenic festivals helped to preserve uniformity
// File: 427.png
.pn +1
of rule, but there was still room for much diversity of style.[#]
The Sicilians in particular had a style of their own, the rules
for which had been drawn up by one Oricadmus.[#] There was
also a “Thessalian chip,”[#] but in what the Sicilians or
Thessalians excelled we do not know. The Argives, who
were specially famed for their skill in wrestling, are described
by Theocritus as “cross-buttockers.” On the other hand, the
Spartans disdained the science of wrestling and the teaching of
trainers, and relied on mere strength and endurance.[#] Plutarch
ascribes the victory of the Thebans at Leuctra to their superiority
over the Spartans in wrestling.[#] Individuals, too, had their
favourite chips. It is recorded of Cleitostratus of Rhodes who
won the wrestling at Olympia in Ol. 147 that he owed his
victories to the use of the neck-hold.
.fn #
Schol. Pindar, Nem. v. 49.
.fn-
.fn #
Aelian, Var. Hist. ii. 4. Cp. J.H.S. xxv. p. 19, n. 27.
.fn-
.fn #
vi. 4, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. l.c. p. 15. Freeman, Schools of Hellas, p. 130.
.fn-
.fn #
Ox. Pap. iii. 466. For a full discussion of it vide Jüthner, Philostratus,
p. 26. With the papyrus may be compared a curious passage in Lucian’s Asinus,
c. 9, and an epigram in Anth. Pal. xii. 206. The latter, like the passage in
Lucian, is probably erotic. Such a metaphorical use of wrestling terms is common.
Cp. Aristoph. Pax 895, Av. 442, and the expressions ἀνακλινοπάλη, κλινοπάλη.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 225, 226, 54; Paus. vi. 1, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Hermotim. 40.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. viii. 68; Pyth. viii. 81.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 164, 174.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. 225, 226.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Pal. xi. 316.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 11, 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Ins. 153.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 11; vide Jüthner’s note, p. 206.
.fn-
.fn #
Aethiop. iv. 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostrat. Vit. Soph. 225, perhaps a mistake for σταδαία.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide Jüthner, Philostratus, p. 212.
.fn-
.fn #
Ib. pp. 206, 297. This place was called ἁλινδήθρα, Aristoph. Ran. 904.
Cp. Lucian, Anacharsis, 2, 28, 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Euripides, Bacchae, 455.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. p. 541, n. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxv. 21. Cp. Jüthner, Philostratus, p. 212.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Plan. iii. 25; Anth. Pal. ix. 588. Cp. Aristoph. Eq. 571; Aeschylus,
Suppl. 90.
.fn-
.fn #
Anth. Pal. xi. 316.
.fn-
.fn #
Agamemnon 63; Persae 914; Anth. Plan. iii. 24.
.fn-
.fn #
Collected in my article on the Pentathlon, J.H.S. xxiii. p. 63; cp. xxv.
p. 26. Jüthner, Philostratus, 207.
.fn-
.fn #
“Luctator ter abjectus perdidit palmam.” Cp. Sophocles, Fr. 678.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxv. 29. where I have somewhat understated the evidence for tripping.
.fn-
.fn #
796 A, B, discussed more fully op. cit. p. 27.
.fn-
.fn #
l. 26, σύ κατὰ τῶν δύο πλέον, for the interpretation of which see Jüthner,
p. 28.
.fn-
.fn #
Mus. Greg. i. 103.
.fn-
.fn #
Heliodorus, Aethiop. x. 31.
.fn-
.fn #
Homer, Il. xxiii. 712; Lucian, Anacharsis, 1; Philostrat. Vit. Soph. 225.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, Symp. ii. 4, enumerates as wrestling terms συστάσεις, παραθέσεις,
ἐμβολαί, παρεμβολαί. Jüthner in his interesting account of the Oxyrhynchus
Papyrus appears to deny this interpretation, but suggests no satisfactory alternative.
.fn-
.fn #
On the interior of this kylix the same group is repeated, but the moment is
not quite the same. Cercyon appears to be trying to draw back.
.fn-
.fn #
Homolle, Fouilles de Delphes, iv. 76.
.fn-
.fn #
Anacharsis, 24.
.fn-
.fn #
A small ivory statuette of two boys wrestling, recently acquired by the
British Museum, perhaps represents the moment of the turn.
.fn-
.fn #
Dar.-Sagl. 4624.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Gym. 35; Xen. Lac. Rep. 5, 9; Aristoph. Eq. 491.
.fn-
.fn #
Athenaeus xiii. p. 566.
.fn-
.fn #
Munich, 3; Gerh. A. V. 114. In J.H.S. xxv. I have dealt more fully with
the fights of Heracles.
.fn-
.fn #
Schreiber, Atlas, xxiv. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxv. p. 280, διαλαμβάνειν, μεσοφέρδειν, μεσοφέρδην, μέσον ἔχειν;
διαλαμβάνειν means to clasp both hands round an opponent’s waist; περιτιθέναι
means rather to put one arm round an opponent as in taking a grip for the
heave, but does not necessarily imply that the hands are clasped. Vide Jüthner,
Philostratus, p. 28.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide J. H. S. xxv. pp. 281 ff., and Figs. 18, 19, 20.
.fn-
.fn #
For references see J.H.S. p. 283, n. 76.
.fn-
.fn #
Quintus iv. 215; Nonnus xxxvii. 553-601. For a brief account of these
vide J.H.S. xxv. p. 25.
.fn-
.fn #
l. 25 σὺ αὐτον μεταβὰς πλέξον· σὺ μεταβαλοῦ.
.fn-
.fn #
xxiv. 111.
.fn-
.fn #
Char. xxvii.
.fn-
.fn #
Fouilles de Delphes, iv. 46, 47.
.fn-
.fn #
Collection Philip, Paris, 1905, No. 484; de Ridder, Collection de Clercy, Paris,
1905, iii. 253, Pl. xli. 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Ocypus, 60.
.fn-
.fn #
Equites, 261-3; Demosthenes in Cononem, 8. For a full discussion of this
passage and of the bronzes vide J.H.S. xxv. pp. 289-293.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, Gym. 428.
.fn-
.fn #
Aelian, Var. Hist. xi.
.fn-
.fn #
Eustathius, Il. ii. p. 331, 18, 39.
.fn-
.fn #
Epigram on a Spartan by Damagetus, Anth. Plan. i. 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Quaest. Symp. ii. 5, 2.
.fn-
// File: 428.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap19
CHAPTER XIX | BOXING
.sp 2
No sport was older, and none was more popular at all periods
among the Greeks than boxing. Its antiquity and its popularity
are manifest in their mythology.[#] Apollo himself is said
to have defeated Ares in boxing at Olympia, and the Delphians
sacrificed to Apollo the Boxer (πύκτης), a conclusive proof that
boxing was regarded by the Greeks as a contest of skill rather
than of brute strength. Heracles, Tydeus, and Polydeuces
were all famous boxers, and the invention of boxing is ascribed
to Theseus. Both in the Iliad and the Odyssey boxing appears
as a common accomplishment and a popular sport; it was
represented, according to Hesiod, on the shield of Heracles. The
discoveries of Cnossus have shown that boxing was known in
the Aegean centuries before the arrival of the Greeks. The
survival of the tradition in these parts may perhaps explain the
extraordinary popularity of boxing in the East, and particularly
among the Ionians. Boxing formed part of the ancient Delian
festival, and the laws of boxing in use at Olympia were ascribed
to Onomastus of Smyrna. It was also extremely popular
among the Arcadians, but found less favour with the Spartans
who, though claiming to have invented boxing at first as a
military exercise, abandoned it at an early date and took no
part in boxing competitions.[#]
The early inhabitants of Crete are thought to have worn some
kind of glove or caestus. But the boxing of historic times was
far more nearly akin to fighting with bare fists, from which, of
course, all boxing originated. The fight between Odysseus and
// File: 429.png
.pn +1
Irus in the Odyssey proves that fights with bare fists were
frequent in Homeric times. But the competitors in the funeral
games of Patroclus had their hands covered with well-cut thongs
of ox-hide, such as we find represented later on the vases. The
use of some sort of covering or protection for the hand necessarily
determines the whole system of fighting, and it will be convenient,
therefore, before we consider the style of Greek boxing, to trace
the history and development of what for convenience we may
call the Greek gloves.[#] The simplest form of glove consisted
in long, thin thongs wound round the hands. They were made
of ox-hide, raw or simply dressed with oil or fat so as to
render them supple. Later writers described them as “soft
gloves,” ἵμαντες μαλακώτεροι or μείλιχαι in contrast with the
more formidable implements in use in their own time.[#] In
reality they must have been far from soft, and like the light
gloves used sometimes in modern fights they served to protect
the knuckles from swelling, and so to increase the power
of attack rather than to deaden the force of the blow. From
the vase paintings they appear to be ten or twelve feet long,
and the number of windings represented require at least that
length.
// File: 430.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig132.png w=70% id=fig132 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 132. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 63.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 132. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 63.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig133.png w=100% id=fig133 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 133. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 39.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 133. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 39.]
.if-
These thongs are among the commonest objects on the vases.
Sometimes we see them gathered into a bundle; and carried in
the hand. A fragment of a red-figured kylix in the British
Museum, E. 63, shows a procession of youthful boxers standing
// File: 431.png
.pn +1
before an official (Fig. #132:fig132#). They appear to be competitors
taking the preliminary oath to observe all the laws of the games.
Their right hands are raised, and in their left they carry
bundles of thongs. Similarly on the interior of another British
Museum kylix, E. 39, a youthful boxer with the thongs in his
left hand stands over an altar (Fig. #133:fig133#). His attitude expresses
surprise and excitement at something which he sees upon the
altar, perhaps, as Dr. Jüthner suggests,[#] at the appearance of
the victim, from the burning of which he seeks an omen of his
success in the games (μαντεῖον δί ἐμπύρων). On the exterior of
the same kylix the artist has drawn a series of boxing scenes.
On one side two youths are preparing or waiting their turn to
box, one holds in his hands a pair of thongs, one of which he
is handing to his fellow. The latter holds a thong outstretched
with both hands. At either end the thong is gathered into a
loop. This type, which is of very frequent occurrence, is often
misinterpreted, the thong being regarded either as a jumping
rope, or as a rope used in a sort of pulling match or tug-of-war,
which was a familiar boys’ game in Plato’s time.[#] But
Dr. Jüthner has proved conclusively that the objects represented
are boxing thongs.[#]
Very frequently, as in the vase with which we are dealing,
we see one or both ends of the thong gathered into a loop.
This arrangement is clearly connected with the method of
fastening the thong. Philostratus, in describing the meilichai,
says that the four fingers were inserted into a loop in such a
way as to allow the hand to be clenched, and were held tight
by a cord fastened round the forearm.[#] Cord and loop are
merely parts of the leather thong. The act of binding the thong
is frequently pictured on the red-figured vases, but the drawing
// File: 432.png
.pn +1
of the thongs is too small and usually too sketchy to allow us
to form any conclusion as to the precise method.[#] Probably
there were various methods in use. The thumb is always free
and usually uncovered, though occasionally the thong is wound
round the thumb separately.[#] As a rule the thong is wound
several times round the four fingers and knuckles, passed
diagonally across the palm and
back of the hand, and wound
round the wrist, the binding
sometimes being carried some
distance up the forearm. The
interior of a British Museum
kylix, E. 78 (Fig. #134:fig134#), shows
a youth in the act of binding
the thong on his right arm,
pulling the end tight with his
left hand. In this case it
seems that the fingers are
bound first, and the thong is
fastened round the wrist.
On a B.M. amphora (Fig. #135:fig135#)
representing a later type of
glove the order appears to be reversed.
.if h
.il fn=fig134.png w=60% id=fig134 alt="Interior of Fig. 151."
.ca Fig. 134. Interior of Fig. #151:fig151#. British Museum, E. 78.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 134. Interior of Fig. 151. British Museum, E. 78.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig135.png w=100% id=fig135 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 135. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 607.\
Archonship of Pythodelus, B.C. 336.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 135. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 607.
Archonship of Pythodelus, B.C. 336.]
.if-
The meilichai were the only form of boxing glove used in
the sixth and fifth centuries, and they continued in use, at all
events for practice in the palaestra, during the fourth century.
Early in this century, however, they seem to have been superseded
in competition by more formidable gloves which Plato
describes as σφαῖραι, and which he recommends for use in his
ideal state as more closely reproducing the conditions of actual
warfare. These σφαῖραι or balls have been identified by
Dr. Jüthner with a type of glove represented on certain
Panathenaic vases of the fourth century, and also on some
Etruscan cistae which belong to the early part of the third
century. On the latter the ball-like appearance to which they
owed their name is clearly marked. On the well-known Ficoroni
cista[#] the hand appears to be covered by a glove which leaves
// File: 433.png
.pn +1
the fingers free but extends almost the whole length of the
forearm; and the glove is bound on by triple thongs, crossing
and recrossing each other, and finally gathered together into a
bunch, and secured by passing through a loop at the back of
the hand. Very similar is the type represented on the B.M.
amphora (Fig. #135:fig135#) which bears the name of the Archon Pythodelus,
336 B.C. The glove seems to be formed of thick bands of
some soft substance stretching along the arm, and bound round
by stout, stiff leather thongs fastened apparently between the
fingers and the thumb. The youth to the left, who is waiting
to fight the winner, is drawing the end tight with his teeth.
On the right is represented, in place of the usual judge, a draped
// File: 434.png
// File: 435.png
.pn +2
and winged figure of Victory bearing in her hand a palm. A
similar glove is represented on another Panathenaic vase, in the
Louvre, belonging to the Archonship of Hegesias in 324 B.C.
.if h
.il fn=fig136.png w=80% id=fig136 alt="Boxer."
.ca Fig. 136. Boxer. Terme Museum, Rome. (From a photograph by Anderson.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 136. Boxer. Terme Museum, Rome.
(From a photograph by Anderson.)]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig137.png w=80% id=fig137 alt="Right hand of boxer."
.ca Fig. 137. Right hand of boxer, from Sorrento. Naples.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 137. Right hand of boxer, from Sorrento. Naples.]
.if-
To bind on the hand these complicated thongs must have
been a troublesome and lengthy process. And the introduction
of the sphairai was followed almost immediately by the invention
of gloves which could be drawn on or off more readily.
These gloves, which are appropriately described as ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς,
are familiar to us from the seated boxer in the Terme at Rome
(Fig. #136:fig136#). They occur also in a marble figure of a boxer from
Sorrento which is now at Naples (Fig. #137:fig137#), on an arm also at
Naples, and on a hand found at Verona.[#] They consist of two
parts, a glove and a hard leather ring encircling the knuckles.
The glove extends half-way down the forearm and ends in a
thick strip of fleece serving doubtless to protect the arm, which
might easily be broken by a blow from so formidable a weapon;
the glove itself appears from the way in which the straps cut
into it to have been padded; the ends of the fingers are cut off
and there is an opening on the inside. On the knuckles the
glove is provided with a thick pad which prevents the ring in
which the fingers are inserted from slipping down. This ring
is formed of three to five strips of hard, stiff leather, bound
together by small straps, and held in its place by thongs bound
// File: 436.png
.pn +1
round the wrist. It is about an inch wide and half an inch
thick, and its sharp, projecting edges must have rendered it
a weapon of offence fully as effective as the modern knuckle-duster.
Under these circumstances it is amusing to learn from
Philostratus that the thumb was not allowed to take any part
in the blow for fear of causing severe and unsightly wounds
(ὑπὲρ συμμετρίας τῶν τραυμάτων) and that for the same reason
the use of pigskin was forbidden.[#] In later writers the term
“sphairai” seems to be used of these ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς, and inasmuch
as they were too dangerous for use in practice, soft, padded
gloves were used in the palaestra called ἐπίσθαιρα.[#]
These gloves continued in use with but little variation till
the second century A.D. at least. Indeed it is doubtful if any
other form was ever used in the true Greek festivals. The
latest representation of them in art is a relief now in the
Lateran supposed to represent the fight between Entellus and
Dares.[#] The influence of Roman feeling is seen in the fact
that both combatants instead of being naked wear a chiton
tucked up so as to leave the right shoulder bare.[#] The gloves
differ little from those described above, except that the thumb
is protected by leather thongs, though not bound up with the
fingers. Pausanias, Plutarch, and Philostratus know no other
form of glove, and none of these writers makes any reference
to the masses of lead and iron with which, according to Roman
poets, the caestus was loaded. The ἵμαντες ὀξεῖς were certainly
capable of inflicting all the injuries on which the writers of
epigrams in the Anthology delight to dwell.[#] The use of
metal to render the caestus heavier and more dangerous is
a purely Roman invention, utterly barbarous and entirely fatal
to all science in boxing. The Roman caestus may have
figured in some of those gladiatorial shows which found favour
in some parts of Greece under the empire, but the silence of
Philostratus and others proves that it was never used at
Olympia, or indeed at any place when any vestige of the
athletic tradition of Greece yet lingered.
The caestus has really no place in the history of Greek
// File: 437.png
.pn +1
athletics except in so far as it is a development of the ἵμαντες
ὀξεῖς or σφαῖραι of the Greeks. Completely ignorant of true
boxing, the Romans assumed that the power of attack could be
increased by additional weight. They did not understand that
in boxing a quick, sharp blow is far more dangerous and
effective than a slow, heavy blow, and that the more the hand
is weighted, the slower the blow is, and therefore the easier
to guard against or avoid. According to the poets they increased
the weight by sewing pieces of lead and iron into the
glove. In the existing representations
of the caestus the hand
seems to be encased in a hard
ball or cylinder, from the back of
which over the knuckles is a
toothed protection presumably
of metal, which sometimes takes
the form of two or three spikes.
These spikes have been sometimes
mistaken for the fingers, but their
true nature has been conclusively
shown by Dr. Jüthner. At the
same time the owner was protected by a padded sleeve
extending almost to the shoulder. This sleeve is usually made
of a skin or fleece with the rough side turned outwards and
is secured by straps. On the Lateran Mosaic the whole arm
appears to be encased in a hard sheath (Fig. #138:fig138#).[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig138.png w=70% id=fig138 alt="Caestus."
.ca Fig. 138. Caestus, from mosaic in the Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran Museum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 138. Caestus, from mosaic in the Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran Museum.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig139.png w=70% id=fig139 alt="Bronze situla."
.ca Fig. 139. Bronze situla. Watsch.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 139. Bronze situla. Watsch.]
.if-
In the preceding sketch no mention has been made of a very
curious form of caestus represented on the bronze situlae found
at Bologna and in the Tyrol, because, as Dr. Jüthner has
pointed out, this form finds no place in the development of
the Greek boxing glove.[#] So-called boxing scenes are of
common occurrence on these situlae; the form of the weapon
is most clearly shown on the well-known situla from Watsch
(Fig. #139:fig139#), on which two boxers are depicted fighting over
a helmet placed on a stand between them and holding in their
hands objects exactly resembling modern dumb-bells. In fact
one is tempted to suppose that they really are halteres shaped
like dumb-bells, and that the scene depicted is not so much
// File: 438.png
.pn +1
a boxing match as some sort of athletic dance. Certainly the
style of the performance has as little connexion with true
boxing as these objects have with boxing gloves. But the
composition of the group seems to show that it really is a crude
and barbarous representation of boxing. The helmet placed
between the two figures is, of course, the prize for which they
are fighting, and cannot possibly represent any sort of barrier
between the two combatants as a recent writer has suggested.[#]
In archaic art the tripods, cauldrons, or helmets which are the
objects of competition are frequently represented. In a race
the prize is naturally placed at the finish; in a combat it is
no less naturally placed between the combatants. The same
scheme of composition occurs on the walls of tombs at Tarquinii
and Clusium,[#] and on the fragment of a black-figured vase in the
British Museum found at Daphnae in Egypt (Fig. #140:fig140#).[#] On
the Etruscan tombs the scheme is not confined to boxers. In
the Tomba degli Auguri at Tarquinii a pair of wrestlers[#] are
wrestling over three large bowls placed between them; but no
one could suppose for a moment that the bowls were in reality
so placed. The numerous athletic scenes on those tombs bear
witness to the popularity of athletics and especially of boxing
among the Etruscans; but they do not justify us in assuming
any connexion between Etruscan art and that of the situlae, nor
// File: 439.png
.pn +1
between Etruscan athletics and the athletics of the Tyrol. The
athletic scenes on Etruscan tombs are nothing but imitations of
the athletic scenes on the Greek vases which we know were
from an early period imported into Etruria. The diskoi,
halteres, and himantes differ little from those on the vases, such
differences as do occur being possibly due to the fact that the
Etruscan artist did not quite understand what he was copying.
The scheme of composition is usually Greek; that the particular
boxing scheme which we are discussing is Greek is proved by the
vase from Daphnae. Such resemblance then as exists between
the Etruscan scheme and that on the situlae is clearly due to the
fact that both were imitated from the Greeks, unless we are to
maintain that the situlae were the original for both Etruscans
and Greeks. But if the scheme of composition on the situlae is
Greek, what shall we say of the form of caestus? It certainly
cannot have been derived from or even suggested by anything
that Greek boxers ever wore. Two explanations alone are
possible. Either we have a picture of some barbarous form of
combat belonging to the Tyrol in which such weapons were
used,[#] or the makers of the situlae, ignorant of Greek athletics,
have mistaken the halteres of the Greeks for weapons used in
boxing.
.if h
.il fn=fig140.png w=70% id=fig140 alt="Fragment of b.-f. situla."
.ca Fig. 140. Fragment of b.-f. situla, in British Museum, B. 124.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 140. Fragment of b.-f. situla, in British Museum, B. 124.]
.if-
// File: 440.png
.pn +1
The history of Greek boxing may be divided then into three
main periods. The first is the period of the soft thongs or
meilichai, and extends from Homeric times to the close of the
sixth century; the second is that of the “sharp thongs” and
sphairai, extending from the fourth century into late Roman
times; the third is that of the weighted caestus, though as
has been shown it is doubtful whether this was really Greek.
The changes in the form of the glove must have greatly
modified the style of boxing and even the scanty evidence
which we possess allows us to trace to some extent the change
in style. For the first period we have the evidence of Homer,
and of the painted vases of the sixth and fifth centuries: for
the second period we have the evidence of a few Panathenaic
vases, and of Theocritus and Apollonius Rhodius, both of
whom have left us descriptions of fights which doubtless
reflect the practice of their own day: for the last period we
have the extremely unreliable evidence of Vergil and other
Roman poets. There is also much scattered information
referring to different periods contained in the writings of
Plutarch, Pausanias, Lucian, and Philostratus. These writers
for the most part derive their information from earlier records,
and it is often difficult to estimate the value of their evidence.
It is, therefore, extremely important to consider first of all in
its proper order such evidence as can be dated with certainty.
The neglect of this precaution has led to many ill-considered
and misleading statements about the Greek boxer. Thus
in a well-known dictionary, I find a paragraph constructed with
sublime indifference to dates from some sixteen authors, Greek,
Latin, and Byzantine, from the time of Homer to that of Eustathius.
The events referred to in this miscellaneous collection
of writers cover a period of at least a thousand years, and from
this farrago of evidence the author has produced a generalised
picture of the Greek boxer equally applicable or inapplicable
to a Homeric warrior or a Roman gladiator. The result is still
worse when a writer like Professor Mahaffy[#] bases a wholesale
condemnation of Greek boxing on Vergil’s description of the
fight between Dares and Entellus and a few stories of uncertain
date. Before we consider such criticism in detail we will first see
what we can learn from a chronological study of the evidence.
// File: 441.png
.pn +1
In Homer boxing, like wrestling, is already a specialised
sport, though the pankration, which combined the two, did not
yet exist. The art of boxing was hereditary in certain families,
and custom had already evolved a body of tacitly accepted
rules for the regulation of a fight. This is evident not merely
from the description in the Iliad, but still more so in the ease
with which the suitors arrange all the preliminaries for the
impromptu fight between Odysseus and Irus. In the latter
bare fists are used; but otherwise the conditions of the two
fights are precisely similar. These conditions, which seem
never to have altered during the long history of Greek boxing,
determined the whole history of the sport, and are largely
responsible for the differences which distinguish Greek boxing
from modern.
In the first place, there was no regular ring, beyond what
was formed by the spectators. Greek boxers had ample space
and there was therefore no opportunity for cornering an
opponent. The only reference to any such thing is in
Theocritus’ account of the fight between Polydeuces and
Amycus, where the Greeks were afraid for the moment lest
“the giant’s weight might crush their champion in a narrow
place.”[#] The narrowness of the place is evidently noted here as
something unusual. The scene of the fight is the wooded dell at
the foot of a lofty cliff where Amycus makes his abode and
waits to waylay strangers. A fitting place for a robber but
very different from the open ground where sports were wont to
be held, and where brute strength could have no chance against
the trained skill of the boxer. It was only the “narrow place”
which gave the bully a momentary advantage, and the passage,
therefore, really confirms the view that the boxing ring was
wide and open. These conditions tend to discourage close
fighting and to encourage defensive and waiting tactics.
Other circumstances contributed to the same result. There
were no rounds in Greek boxing. The opponents fought to a
finish. It might happen that both were too exhausted and by
mutual consent paused to take breath; but usually the fight
went on until one of the two was incapable of fighting any
more, or acknowledged himself defeated (ἀπειπεῖν) by holding
up his hand. This signal of defeat is often depicted on vase
paintings. A good example of it occurs on the amphora in the
// File: 442.png
.pn +1
British Museum, reproduced in Fig. #141:fig141#. In such fights forcing
tactics do not pay, the boxer who makes the pace too fast
exhausts himself to no purpose; in the descriptions of fights
which we possess it is usually the clumsy, untrained boxer who
forces the pace and tries to rush his opponent, with disastrous
effects to himself. Caution was therefore the rule of the Greek
boxer; and the fighting was therefore usually slow. We shall
see to what absurd lengths this caution was carried in later
times.
.if h
.il fn=fig141.png w=100% id=fig141 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 141. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 271.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 141. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 271.]
.if-
Lastly, classification by weights was unknown to the Greeks.
Their competitions were open to all comers whatever their
weight, and under the conditions described, weight had perhaps
even greater advantage than it has to-day. Consequently
boxing became more and more the monopoly of heavy weights
and became less and less scientific.
These conditions were not unlike those existing in the early
days of the English prize-ring, except that in the latter bare
fists were used and wrestling was allowed. The use of gloves
// File: 443.png
.pn +1
or thongs renders wrestling impracticable, and it appears,
therefore, never to have been allowed in Greek boxing. But
there is an element of artificiality about all fighting with
covered hands. Modern boxers tell us that the use of gloves
has corrupted the true art of self-defence because the boxer
with gloves may expose himself to blows which would effectually
end the fight with bare fists. I doubt whether such a thing
could be said of the Greek thongs, which certainly can never
have deadened the blow in the least. Consequently boxing
remained with the Greeks essentially the art of “defence.” In
late times we hear of boxers winning competitions without
even being hit by their opponents, a feat which would be quite
impossible under modern conditions.[#] But though the true
tradition of fighting was preserved in the pankration, and
though in Homer we find the same tactics employed whether
with bare fists or with boxing thongs, it is undoubtedly true that
an artificial style was at an early date developed in Greek
boxing, and the artificiality was increased by the changes which
converted the simple boxing thongs into a formidable weapon
both for offence and defence. So the style of fighting employed
by the boxer diverged more and more from that of the
pankratiast, and whereas in the fifth century it is not infrequent
to find families like the Diagoridae distinguished in both boxing
and the pankration, this combination becomes rarer, and the
so-called successors of Heracles of a later age were those who
won the pankration and wrestling.
The two Homeric fights have been already fully described
in a previous chapter. They give us little information as to
the style of Greek boxing, except that both fights were decided
by knock-out blows on the jaw or thereabouts, delivered
presumably with the right hand much in the same way as in
modern boxing. Nor are the vase paintings as enlightening
as we should expect from the number of vases on which boxing
is indicated. The fact is that a boxing match is a supremely
difficult subject for an artist, as may be readily realised by a
glance at the illustrations in modern books on athletics. The
Greek vase painter instinctively avoided violent movement,
and often preferred to represent a sport not by the actual
performance but by some preliminary scene. Hence the
large number of vases on which he has represented boxing
// File: 444.png
.pn +1
by groups of men holding or adjusting the himantes.[#] Even
when he did depict the actual fight he confined himself to
a small number of conventional types. There is less conventionality
and more originality shown on the early black-figured
than on the red-figured vases; but the crowding of
figures on these early vases was incompatible with a true
representation of open fighting, and consequently on many of
these vases the boxing is confined to short arm punching and
chopping, the grotesque effect of which is frequently heightened
by the blood which flows copiously from the noses of the
combatants. A good example of this style is seen in Fig. #142:fig142#,
taken from a black-figured stamnos in the Bibliothèque Nationale
in Paris, where, it will be observed, the athletes all wear the
archaic loin-cloth. On the red-figured vases a more open style
of fighting prevails. We are not, however, justified thereby in
assuming any change of style in the actual fighting; the
difference is due chiefly, if not entirely, to artistic causes. In
spite, however, of this lack of variety on the vases we can, I
think, draw certain conclusions from them as to the attitude
and methods of the Greek boxer.
.if h
.il fn=fig142.png w=100% id=fig142 alt="B.-f. stamnos."
.ca Fig. 142. B.-f. stamnos. Bibliothèque Nationale, 252.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 142. B.-f. stamnos. Bibliothèque Nationale, 252.]
.if-
There can be no doubt as to the position assumed by the
Greek boxer when he first “puts up his hands.” It is the
// File: 445.png
.pn +1
moment most frequently depicted on the vases. He stands
with body upright and head erect, the feet well apart, and the
left foot advanced. The left leg is usually slightly bent, the
foot pointing straight forwards, while the right foot is sometimes
at right angles to it, pointing outwards in the correct
position for a lunge with the left. The left arm, which is used
for guarding, is extended almost straight, the hand sometimes
closed, sometimes open. The right arm is drawn back for
striking, the elbow sometimes dropped, but more usually raised
level with or even higher than the shoulder. This position is
clearly shown on a series of vases from the British Museum,
from which our illustrations are taken, extending from the sixth
century to the fourth century B.C. They are a black-figured
amphora by Nicosthenes (Fig. #143:fig143#), two red-figured kylikes
one of which is signed by Duris (Figs. #133:fig133#, #151:fig151#), and two
Panathenaic vases of the latter half of the fourth century
(Figs. #135:fig135#, #148:fig148#).
On all these vases and on most other vases containing boxing
scenes the left leg is vigorously advanced. Mr. Frost, in
his article on Greek boxing in the Journal of Hellenic Studies,
vol. xxvi., to which I am indebted for many useful hints,
maintains that this is merely a conventional rendering,
and that the Greek boxer really stood with his feet nearly
level, like the early pugilists of the English prize-ring.
Little evidence is adduced for this statement, and he seems to
me to have been misled by the analogy of the prize-ring,
forgetting that our knowledge of Greek boxing begins at the
point where the history of the prize-ring ends. In the prize-ring
bare fists were used, and clinching, wrestling, and throwing
were allowed; whereas in Greek boxing the hand always had
some form of covering, and no clinching or wrestling was
allowed. Moreover, Mr. Frost’s theory does not seem to me
to explain the facts. If both feet were approximately level we
should expect to find that in a fair proportion of cases the
right foot was advanced, especially as symmetry, which exercised
a strong influence over the Greek painter, would naturally
prompt him to represent one boxer with the right foot, the
other with the left foot in advance, an arrangement by no
means uncommon in wrestling groups. In boxing, however,
such symmetrical groups are extremely rare, and the left foot
is nearly always advanced, and in several cases is shown in the
// File: 446.png
.pn +1
very act of lunging. Indeed, so far from holding the body
square, it would appear from the vases that the Greeks
exaggerated the sideways position. For frequently the left
foot and left arm of one boxer are represented as outside or
to the right of the left foot and arm of his opponent (Fig. #143:fig143#).[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig143.png w=90% id=fig143 alt="B.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 143. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 295.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 143. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 295.]
.if-
This sideways position with the left arm extended was an
elective guard for the head and kept an opponent at a distance,
but it left the body quite unprotected, a mistake which would
be fatal in the confined space of the modern ring with a strong
// File: 447.png
.pn +1
and active opponent. This exposure of the body is, as Mr.
Frost has pointed out, characteristic of all Greek boxing as
depicted on the vases, and this peculiarity is connected with a
fact which, as far as I know, has not been observed before, that
the Greek boxer confined his attention almost exclusively to his
opponent’s head. Whether it was that he did not realise the
use of body blows, or that he considered them bad form, or
that they were prohibited, it is certain that he made little or
no use of them. There is not, as far as I know, a single
representation of a body blow; the injuries inflicted are all
injuries to the head; in the few cases where body blows are
mentioned they are delivered by unscientific fighters, such as
Irus and Amycus, and appear to be ill-aimed or short blows,
which, missing the head, have fallen on the shoulder or chest.
The only exception which I know is the fatal blow by which
Damoxenus, according to Pausanias, slew Creugas at the Nemean
games;[#] but though there was doubtless some foundation for
the story the details are so manifestly fabulous that they
are valueless as evidence. On the other hand a passage in
Philostratus affords a strong presumption that boxing was
practically, if not formally, confined to head blows. He tells
us that boxing was invented by the Spartans because they did
not wear helmets, considering the shield the only manly form
of protection.[#] They practised boxing in order to learn to
ward off blows from the head and to harden the face. Further,
in describing the physical qualities of the boxer he regards a
prominent stomach as a possible advantage, because it renders
it less easy for an opponent to reach the face! Nor does he
anywhere make any reference to body blows. Boxing like
fencing is governed by artificial laws, and it is just possible
that the laws of Greek boxing prohibited intentional blows on
the body, just as blows below the belt are prohibited to-day.
Perhaps they were forbidden by the unwritten law of tradition.
Whatever the explanation, the fact seems fairly established
that body hitting was not practised, and consequently the
body was left unguarded; and this peculiarity is perhaps the
most important difference between Greek and modern boxing,
and had important results on the history of the sport.
It would appear at first sight from the vases that the left
hand was used almost exclusively for guarding, and the right
// File: 448.png
.pn +1
for attack. Though the actual blow with the right is never
represented, the right fist is almost invariably clenched and
drawn back for the blow. But this statement requires considerable
modification. In the first place, so long as a boxer
kept his left arm extended as guard, it was only possible to
reach his head with the right hand either by stepping to the right
so as to get outside his guard, or by breaking down his guard.
In the first case it was possible to deliver a swinging blow on
the left side of the chin—the knock-out blow described in
Homer and Theocritus. But as the opponent naturally met
the movement by himself moving to the right, the result was
usually that the fighters circled round each other ineffectively.
This is perhaps the reason why the left foot and hand of
the boxer are so commonly represented to the right of his
opponent’s left foot and hand. But it can seldom have been
possible to bring off such a blow as a lead, and therefore an
opening had to be made for the use of the right hand by
sparring with the left somewhat in the style of fencers. In
this sparring which is commonly depicted on the vases, the
hands are usually open. An instance of it occurs in Fig. #151:fig151#,
where a pair of boxers are seen sparring with open hands
apparently for practice. Still better is the scene on a Panathenaic
vase in Berlin (Fig. #144:fig144#). Here the left-hand boxer
having made his opening prepares to follow up the attack
with his right, while his opponent draws back his head out of
reach and guards with both hands. Sometimes in such sparring
// File: 449.png
.pn +1
an opportunity occurred for delivering a blow with the left.
On a Panathenaic vase published by Stephani (Fig. #145:fig145#) the
right-hand boxer in pressing the attack has exposed his head,
and his opponent has shot out his left hand without even
closing it and hit him on the nose. This leads us to a second
point. Wherever the actual blow is represented, or one boxer
is represented as in the act of being knocked down, or having
been knocked down, the blow is delivered with the left hand.
We may therefore conclude that the Greek boxer used his left
hand as much as the right for attack, and that some of the
most effective blows could be delivered with the left. This
conclusion is borne out by the descriptions in Homer, Theocritus,
and other writers, who with one consent represent the Greek
as a two-handed fighter.
.if h
.il fn=fig144.png w=80% id=fig144 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 144. Panathenaic amphora. Berlin, 1831. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 144. Panathenaic amphora. Berlin, 1831. Sixth century.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig145.png w=80% id=fig145 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 145. Panathenaic amphora. Campana. Sixth century (?).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 145. Panathenaic amphora. Campana. Sixth century (?).]
.if-
The position of the right arm indicates that it was employed
chiefly for round or hook hits, upper cuts, and chopping blows,
and a consideration of the general attitude and guards of the
Greek boxer shows that only such blows were as a rule possible
with the right. Sometimes the right hand is swung back in
preparation for the knock-out blow (Fig. #133:fig133#), sometimes it
is raised slightly above the shoulder as if for a downward
chopping blow (Fig. #143:fig143#), sometimes it is held on a level with
or below the shoulder, in which case a straight hit may be
// File: 450.png
.pn +1
intended (Fig. #148:fig148#). But a straight hit was impossible unless
the opponent’s guard had been previously broken down or
knocked aside with the left. With the left hand, however,
straight hits appear to be the rule, as indeed we should expect
from the position with the left leg advanced, and, as the heel of
the right foot is usually lifted from the ground, it appears that
the force of the blow was obtained correctly from a lunge. An
excellent illustration of such a blow is found on a kylix of
Pamphaeus (Fig. #146:fig146#). The falling boxer raises his left hand
to guard his head; but it is in vain; for he lifts the forefinger
of his right hand in acknowledgment of defeat. Still better is
the scene on a Panathenaic amphora in the Louvre (Fig. #147:fig147#)
which represents a boxer knocking his opponent down with a
blow on the point of the chin. A further stage is depicted in
one of the groups on the Duris kylix (Fig. #133:fig133#) where one boxer
has already been knocked down by his opponent’s left. He
too raises his finger as a sign that he is beaten. Sometimes a
vigorous lunge with the left foot is represented.[#]
.if h
.il fn=fig146.png w=70% id=fig146 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 146. R.-f. kylix of Pamphaeus. Corneto.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 146. R.-f. kylix of Pamphaeus. Corneto.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig147.png w=50% id=fig147 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 147. Panathenaic amphora. Louvre, F. 278.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 147. Panathenaic amphora. Louvre, F. 278.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig148.png w=70% id=fig148 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 148. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 612. Fourth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 148. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 612. Fourth century.]
.if-
// File: 451.png
.pn +1
The view stated in the last paragraph is at variance with
that put forward by Professor Mahaffy and supported with
some modification by Mr. Frost. These writers maintain that
the straight hit from the shoulder was practically unknown to
the Greek boxer. They argue partly from the description of
the fights in Theocritus and Vergil, which will be discussed
later; but their main argument is that the wounds received in
Greek boxing were chiefly on the side of the head and on the
ear, and that the Greek boxer was
known throughout all Greek history
as “a man with the crushed
ear.” The latter statement is
absolutely erroneous. The earliest
reference to the crushed ear is in
Plato, who uses the term to describe
those who aped Spartan
manners and practised fighting
like the Spartans.[#] Now it is
well known that scientific boxing
was unknown at Sparta: fighting
there was in plenty with bare fists
and no regulations; but science in
boxing and also in wrestling was despised by the Spartans.
Moreover, it seems that the crushed ear was quite as much
the sign of the pankratiast or even of the wrestler;[#] it
appears to have been very similar to the swollen ear which
is so common among Rugby football players. When we
come to consider the literary evidence we shall find that the
crushed ear plays but little part; eyes, nose, mouth, teeth,
chin, come in for far more punishment than the ears, and the
vase paintings agree with the literary evidence. Bleeding at
the nose, cuts on the cheek, blows on the chin are freely depicted;
but I do not know a single vase which represents the
crushed ear. So far as the crushed ear is concerned, the
charge against the Greek boxer of neglecting straight hitting
breaks down completely.
Nor does it seem to me at all easy to substantiate the statement
also made that the Greeks had no knowledge of foot-work,
// File: 452.png
.pn +1
and that having taken up their position they stood practically
still. Naturally the vases throw little light on such a point;
but they do prove undoubtedly that the Greeks understood how
to give force to a blow by lunging, and inasmuch as the lunge
is always with the left foot, it seems probable that they understood
the importance of not changing feet. Further, in all the
descriptions of fights the value of quick foot-work is clearly
recognised. This appears even in late writers like Statius.[#]
His victor Alcidamas defeats his heavier opponent Capaneus by
his greater activity. Capaneus drives him round the ring but
Alcidamas “avoids a thousand deaths which flit around his
temples by quick movement and by the help of his feet.”
When we find the value of foot-work recognised in a writer like
Statius, whose ideas of boxing are vitiated by the brutalities of
the Roman caestus, we are surely justified in assuming that the
Greeks of a better period were at least equally skilful. Still
more convincing is the evidence of Philostratus. “I do not
approve,” he says, “of men with big calves in any branch of
athletics, and especially in boxing. They are slow in advancing,
and easily caught by an opponent’s advance.”[#] Philostratus, it
will be remembered, though writing in the time of the Empire,
aims at reviving the practice of the old Greek athletes, and
much of his material is derived from earlier treatises on
athletics. In describing the ideal boxer he lays particular stress
on activity and suppleness. So Bacchylides describes the youthful
Argeius of Ceos,[#] a victor in the boys’ boxing at the Isthmia,
as “stout of hand, with the spirit of a lion and light of foot.”
// File: 453.png
.pn +1
Such appear to be the general characteristics of the Greek
boxer as depicted on the vases. He used both hands freely,
was active on his feet, and had a considerable variety of attack.
His style resembled the freer style of American boxing which
has recently become popular rather than the somewhat conventional
almost one-handed style which so long prevailed in
England. From later literature we learn that he was an adept
at dodging, “ducking,” and “slipping.” The defect of his
style appears to me to be the stiff, high guard with the left
hand, which is best explained on the supposition that he hit
only at the head. This guard is stiffer, and the arm straighter
on the red-figured vases than on the earlier black-figured vases,
and this is still more the case on the Panathenaic vases of the
fourth century (Figs. #135:fig135#, #148:fig148#). The use of the left hand for
guarding cramped the attack and encouraged the use of downward
chopping blows, of which there are some traces on the vases.
This is probably the reason why the forearm was protected by
leather thongs. The introduction of the hard, cutting rims
round the hand at the close of the fifth century rendered the
style of fighting still more artificial, and necessitated still
// File: 454.png
.pn +1
further protection for the forearm. How difficult it must have
been to get within the guard of a big boxer with a long reach
armed with these weapons will be realised from the figure on
the Panathenaic vase in Fig. #135:fig135#. Thus a thoroughly vicious
style of boxing sprang up which accentuated the natural advantages
of the heavy-weight boxer. Instead of relying on
activity and skill he relied more and more on his stiff defence.
He even practised holding up his arm for long periods in order
to weary his opponent, and the absurdity of his style reaches
its climax in the highly rhetorical tales of Dion Chrysostom.
Describing Melancomas, the favourite of the emperor Titus, he
says that he could keep up his guard for two whole days and
so forced his opponents to yield not merely before he had been
struck himself but even before he had struck them.[#] The
story is sufficiently remarkable; but, nothing daunted, Eusebius
succeeds in improving upon it and asserts that Melancomas by
these tactics “killed all his opponents,” an illustration of the
growth of sporting stories which may well make us sceptical
of the evidence of late commentators. Dion, however, is
writing of a man who was his own contemporary, and, making
allowance for rhetorical exaggeration, we may therefore
safely accept his evidence as to the style of boxing in vogue
at his time. Such a defence explains the employment of
those slogging, downward blows which figure so largely in the
descriptions of late Greek and Latin poets. In these descriptions
we can trace the decay of Greek boxing; but the faults
which were developed in Hellenistic and Roman times should
not be ascribed to the boxers of the fifth century. The changes
in the boxing thongs altered the whole character of the boxing.
Incomparably the best description of a fight which we
possess is that between Amycus and Polydeuces in the 22nd
Idyll of Theocritus. It illustrates the changes in Greek boxing;
for it is a fight between a boxer of the old heroic school who
relies on science and activity, and the coarse braggart prize-fighter
with whom the poet was perhaps familiar in Alexandria.
We see the bully sitting in the sunshine beside the spring, the
muscles on his brawny arms standing out like rounded rocks,
just as they do in the Farnese Heracles. His ears are bruised
and crushed from many a fight. There he sits sulkily guarding
// File: 455.png
.pn +1
the spring, and when Polydeuces approaches and with courtly
grace craves hospitality he challenges him to battle. The
boxing thongs are all ready to hand, not soft thongs but hard
(στερεοῖς). “Then,” says the poet, “they made their hands
strong with cords of ox-hide, and wound long thongs about
their arms.” Here we have the σφαῖραι depicted on the
Ficoroni cista in a picture of this very fight. A keen struggle
ensued for position—which should have the sun’s rays on his
back—and the more active Polydeuces naturally outwitted his
clumsy opponent. Writers on athletics are wont to dwell on
this incident as typical of boxing at Olympia, and to expatiate
on the glare of the sun in the eyes, forgetful of the fact that at
midday, the hour at which it seems boxing took place, the rays
of the summer sun at Olympia must be too nearly vertical to
make much difference. Amycus, exasperated at the advantage
gained, made a wild rush at Polydeuces, attacking with both
hands, but was promptly stopped by a blow on the chin.
Again, he rushed in head down, and for a time the Greeks
were afraid that he would crush Polydeuces by sheer weight in
the narrow space; but each time Polydeuces stopped his
rushes with blows right and left on mouth and jaws, till his eyes
were swollen and he could hardly see, and finally knocked him
down with a blow on the bridge of the nose. He managed,
however, to pick himself up and the fight began again; but his
blows were short and wild, falling without effect on the chest,
or outside the neck, while Polydeuces kept smashing his face
with cruel blows. At last in desperation he seized Polydeuces’
left hand with his left and tried to knock him out with a
swinging right-hander, “driving a huge fist up from his right
haunch.” It is an admirable description of a knock-out blow,
but he was too slow; the very act of seizing his opponent’s
hand, an obvious illegality, spoilt his effort. Polydeuces
slipped his head aside and with his right struck him on the
temple “putting his shoulder into the blow,” and he followed
up this advantage by a left-hander on the mouth, “so that his
teeth rattled.” After this he continued to punish his face with
quickly repeated blows “till Amycus sank fainting on the
ground, and begged for mercy.”
In this masterly description Theocritus shows an intimate
knowledge of boxing. It is a fight between science and brute
strength. Amycus has the advantage of height and weight,
// File: 456.png
.pn +1
but he has no science and blunders hopelessly. He rushes in
head down, hits wildly with both hands, neglects his guard,
and finally commits a glaring breach of the rules of boxing by
seizing his opponent’s hand. Polydeuces acts on the defensive,
husbanding his strength by allowing the bully to exhaust
himself, while he avoids his rushes by dodging, or ducking, or
stops them by well-aimed blows on the face. Did he stop his
rushes by swinging hits only, or by straight hitting from the
shoulder? The description appears to me conclusive proof that
even in the third century some of the Greeks understood the
art of hitting straight. I do not dwell on the evidence of the
words ἐμέεμπεσεν ὠμῷ, though I confess that the only interpretation
which is to me intelligible, is the ordinary one “he put
his shoulder into the blow.” It is rather the whole character
of the fight which implies straight hitting. Polydeuces is the
smaller man, and time after time he stops the other’s rushes
with blows which fall on chin, mouth, nose, eyes, forehead,
in fact everywhere except on the ears or side of the heads, the
parts which should have suffered most according to the argument
of those who maintain that the Greeks did not hit from
the shoulder. As for the faults of Amycus, Theocritus is quite
aware that he is no trained boxer, and it is hardly fair to judge
the Greek boxer by him.
The account of this same fight in the Argonautica of
Apollonius Rhodius[#] is somewhat similar, and though infinitely
inferior as a whole presents certain details of interest. The
himantes are carefully described; they are manufactured by
Amycus himself; “rough and dry with hard ridges round
them” like the gloves worn by the boxer of the Terme.
Amycus makes the fighting; Polydeuces retreats and dodges
his rushes, but at last he stands his ground and a fight ensues
so fast and furious that both men, utterly exhausted, pause and
separate by mutual consent. After a moment they spring at
one another again, and Amycus, rising on tiptoe to his full
height, aims a swinging downward blow at Polydeuces “like
one that slays an ox.” Polydeuces slips aside, and, before his
opponent has time to recover his balance or his guard, steps
past him and deals him a swinging blow above the ear
which not only knocks him out but kills him. The conclusion
of the fight is an obvious imitation of Homer. But the poet
// File: 457.png
.pn +1
has introduced a feature of his own which finds no place in
Homer, when he describes Amycus as rising on tiptoe. The
detail is copied by Vergil who probably knew no better. But
Apollonius has more knowlege of athletics; it is the action
not of a boxer but of “one that slays an ox.” And yet, in
spite of this, we find it stated by modern writers, on the
authority of these two poets, that the boxer habitually rose on
tiptoe to increase the weight of his blow! If we would learn
the principles of Greek boxing it must be from the practice
not of Amycus but of Polydeuces.
The boxing match between Entellus and Dares in the fifth
Aeneid need not detain us long. Its character is obvious from
the first in the description of the caestus. Entellus throws into
the ring the caestus of the hero Eryx; they are made of seven
ox-hides stiff with iron and lead, and still stained with blood
and brains, and at their sight Dares and all the host tremble.
“What!” cries Entellus, “do these frighten you? What if you
had seen the weapons of Hercules?” Finally by the advice of
Anchises these murderous weapons are rejected, but the point
of interest in this scene is that the poet’s Roman ideas have
led him to reverse the whole history of boxing. In reality the
heavy caestus had developed slowly from the simple leather
thongs. But to the Roman murder and bloodshed were the
essence of a fight. And therefore as the heroes of the past
excelled in physique the men of the present, they must have
excelled them also in the bloodiness of their fights and the
murderous brutality of their weapons. The fight itself is in
accordance with this beginning.
Both men rise on tiptoe and hammer each other as hard as
they can. Entellus is the bigger man and for a long time acts
on the defensive, keeping his more active opponent at a distance.
At last, tired of such tactics, he makes a big effort; rising on
tiptoe to his full height he ostentatiously lifts his arm on high,
thus giving Dares full warning of what is coming. The latter
is not slow to take advantage of the warning; he dodges the
ponderous blow, and Entellus, unable to recover his balance,
falls to the ground. Exasperated by his fall, he picks himself
up and chases Dares all round the ring till Aeneas in mercy
ends the fight. Baulked of his vengeance on Dares he vents
his rage and exhibits his strength by killing with a single blow
the ox which is his prize. What a contrast to the finish in
// File: 458.png
.pn +1
the Iliad when the great-hearted Epeius picks up his fallen
opponent and gently sets him on his feet! What a contrast
even to the fight in Theocritus! There science is matched
against strength and science deservedly wins. Here both men
are as devoid of science as Vergil himself is devoid of all
knowledge of boxing; if either of the two has any claim to
skill it is the defeated Dares. Entellus owes his victory
simply to brute strength. A still more absurd result occurs
in Statius; the lighter and more skilful boxer is declared the
victor, but is only saved from the fury and vengeance of
his defeated opponent by the intervention of Adrastus, who
separates them. But the brutalities and absurdities out of
which these later fights are concocted need no discussion.
Little is known of the laws regulating Greek boxing. The
competitions were conducted in the same manner as wrestling
competitions, on the tournament system, and to obtain a bye
must have been a very great advantage. We learn from
Plutarch that no wrestling or clinching was allowed.[#] It
appears from the vases that there was no rule against hitting
a man who was down. The successful boxer is frequently
depicted as preparing to hit his fallen opponent, who under
the circumstances naturally gives in at once.[#] On the other
hand, in Theocritus and Vergil the fallen boxer certainly
manages to rise again, either by his own dexterity or his
opponent’s forbearance. It appears also from the story of
Creugas and Damoxenus[#] that when a fight had continued long
without any result, the combatants sometimes agreed to
exchange free hits without guarding. A similar practice in
wrestling was called κλῖμαξ. It is further argued from this story
that cases of fatal injury inflicted on an opponent were severely
punished; but the evidence seems insufficient to justify a
general statement. In the cases quoted in support of such a
law the offence appears to have consisted in some unlawful
and intentional act of violence.[#] Fatal accidents were certain
to occur occasionally; but there is no evidence that they were
at all frequent, nor do they seem to have been punished. It is
not clear what the offence was for which Damoxenus was dishonoured
and deprived of his victory. Pausanias seems to
imply that because he hit Creugas with his fingers extended, he
// File: 459.png
.pn +1
hit several blows at the same time. Was hitting with the hand
open prohibited? It is certainly a reasonable prohibition. Or
can it be that hitting in the stomach was prohibited? We
have no evidence for deciding.
.if h
.il fn=fig149.png w=40% id=fig149 alt="Marble head of boxer."
.ca Fig. 149. Marble head of boxer, with ear-lappets.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 149. Marble head of boxer, with ear-lappets.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig150.png w=100% id=fig150 alt="B.-f. hydria."
.ca Fig. 150. B.-f. hydria, in British Museum, B. 326.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 150. B.-f. hydria, in British Museum, B. 326.]
.if-
We are not told how the Greeks taught boxing; perhaps it
was in the same way as they taught wrestling, by a sort of
drill. Boys in the palaestra had their
ears and heads protected with ear-lappets
(ἀμφωτίδες or ἐπωτίδες)[#] or caps. The
former are represented on a marble head
formerly in possession of Fabretti (Fig.
#149:fig149#).[#] They closely resemble the ear-caps
worn by modern football players,
and were probably made of padded leather.
On the vases a close-fitting cap is often
represented (Fig. #17:fig017#). Such protection
was used both in wrestling and boxing,
but only, it seems, for practice and by
boys, never in public competitions. Boxers
kept themselves in training by light sparring with open hands,
which was therefore known as ἀκροχειρισμός.[#] An example
of such sparring may be seen on an early black-figured
hydria in the British Museum (Fig. #150:fig150#), or on the kylix in
// File: 460.png
.pn +1
Fig. #151:fig151#. In default of an opponent they practised “shadow-fighting”
(σκιαμαχία),[#] just as a modern athlete will practise
in front of a looking-glass. The statue of the famous Glaucus
represented him “shadow-fighting” because of his skill in the
use of his hands.[#] This form of practice was also known as
χειρονομία, or hand drill. Sometimes a κώρυκος or punch-ball
was employed (Fig. #179:fig179#).[#] An exercise much recommended
for boxers was digging, and the pick (σκαπάνη) was therefore
regarded as the badge of a boxer.[#]
.fn #
For mythological references vide Krause, pp. 498 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostr. Gym. 9, 12.
.fn-
.fn #
For a fuller account of this subject the reader is referred to the admirable
chapter in Dr. Jüthner’s Antike Turngeräthe, pp. 66-95, where he will find full
references both literary and monumental.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 23, 4; viii. 40, 3. Plato, Leg. viii. 830 B.
.fn-
.fn #
Ant. Turn. p. 67.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Theaet. 27. Krause, p. 323, distinguishes two games, one described
as διελκυστίνδα or διὰ γραμμῆς παίζειν, a tug-of-war between teams, the other
called σκάπερδα or ἑλκυστίνδα, a game in which two youths tried to lift one another
off the ground by means of a rope passed through a hole in a pillar. Roulez was
the first to suggest this explanation of the thongs shown on vases. His explanation
is adopted in a recent article on a fine r.-f. kylix representing wrestling and
boxing scenes, Pl. xxxv. in the Transactions of the University of Pennsylvania,
1907, p. 140.
.fn-
.fn #
Op. cit. p. 69.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 10 ὥπλιστο δὲ ἡ ἀρχαία πυγμὴ τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον· ἐς στρόφιον οἱ
τέτταρες τῶν δακτύλων ἐνεβιβάζοντο καὶ ὑπερέβαλλον τοῦ στροφίου τοσοῦτον
ὅσον, εἰ συνάγοιντο, πὺξ εἶναι, συνείχοντο δὲ ὑπὸ σειρᾶς ἣν καθάπερ ἔρεισμα
ἐβέβληντο ἐκ τοῦ πήχεος. Cp. Paus. viii. 40, 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Sometimes the thongs are drawn only on the hand, sometimes only on the
wrist, sometimes they are completely wanting. This is probably due to nothing
but carelessness, but in some cases these lines, which were usually painted in after
the rest of the figure was finished, may have simply worn off.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, Fig. 59.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, Fig. 66.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, p. 79, Figs. 62-64.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Plutarch, Mor. 825 E.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, Fig. 68. Helbig, 619.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. Inschr. v. Priene, 112, l. 91, where mention is made of boxing ἐν εἴμασι.
.fn-
.fn #
The word μύρμηκες, which is used by the epigrammatists (Anth. Pal. xi. 78),
appears to be merely a humorous designation of these weapons, but to have no
special significance.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, pp. 87 ff., Figs. 69-74; cp. Hans Lucas, Jahrbuch, 1904, pp.
127-136.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, Fig. 61, pp. 75, 76.
.fn-
.fn #
R. M. Burrows, Discoveries in Crete, p. 35. As far as the athletic argument
is concerned, the connexion which Professor Burrows suggests between Crete and
Central Europe and Etruria appears to me entirely without foundation.
.fn-
.fn #
Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, passim.
.fn-
.fn #
Tunis, ii. 30.
.fn-
.fn #
Mon. d. I. XI. Pl. 25.
.fn-
.fn #
Athenaeus quotes Poseidonius as saying that the Celts were addicted to
fights with arms, wounding and even killing one another. ἐν γὰρ τοῖς ὅπλοις
ἀγερθέντες σκιαμαχοῦσι καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀκροχειρίζονται, Athen. 154 A.
.fn-
.fn #
Rambles in Greece, 2nd Ed., p. 314. There is no foundation at all for his description
of the meilichai as weights held in the hand and fastened by thongs.
.fn-
.fn #
xxii. 93.
.fn-
.fn #
Dion Chrysostom, Orat. 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Jüthner, p. 71.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. Figs. #142:fig142#, #145:fig145#.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. viii. 40, 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 10, 23.
.fn-
.fn #
Benndorf, Gr. Sic. Vasenb. xxxi. 2; Gerhard, A.V. 177 (= Munich 584);
Le Musée, ii. p. 276, Fig. 24 (b.-f. vase at Boulogne). Other examples of a blow
with the left hand are: a Fragment in the Louvre (Hartwig, Meisterschalen,
Fig. 31); Mus. Greg. ii. 17 (very similar to B.M. B. 271); Krause, Gym.
xviii. d. 66 f.; Brussels 336. In the Benndorf vase and some others the blow
seems to be somewhat downward, which is probably due to the fact that the
opponent is in the act of falling.
.fn-
.fn #
Gorgias, 516 A; Protag. 342 B; cp. Theocritus xxii. 45. For full references
vide Krause, Gym. pp. 516, 517, and J.H.S. xxvi. p. 13.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostratus, Heroic. 180 τὰ δὰ ὧτα κατεαγὼς ἤν οὐκ ὑπὸ πάλης.
.fn-
.fn #
Theb. vi. 731-825.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 34 προσβῆναι ταῖς τῶν ἀντιπάλων κνήμαις ἄργοι καὶ εὐάλωτοι τῷ
προσβάντι. Cp. c. 11 ὁ πύκτης τρωθήσεται καὶ τρώσει καὶ προσβήσεται ταῖς
κνήμαις. To προσβῆναι I have given the somewhat wider sense of “advancing”
or “lunging” which is undoubtedly implied in the following words, ὁρμητικώτερον
τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ πυκτεύοντος ἢν μὴ συμβαίνωσιν οἱ μηροί. The addition of the words
ταῖς τῶν ἀντιπάλων κνήμαις is a difficulty. There can be no question of “kicking”
which was certainly not allowed in boxing, nor are any of the vases
quoted by Jüthner in his note on the passage appropriate. The words can only
mean “advancing against an opponent’s shins.” Shoving an opponent backwards
in this way may occur in “in-fighting,” in which case his only remedy is
“slipping.” But the tactics are not particularly effective, and shoving is not
allowed in modern boxing. I have a suspicion that Philostratus was very vague
in his ideas about boxing. As Jüthner has shown in his recent edition,
Philostratus was a rhetorician, not a practical athlete, and he owed his athletic
knowledge to some technical treatise on gymnastics, which he did not always
quite understand.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacchylides i.
.fn-
.fn #
Dion. Orat. xxix.; cp. Eustath. Il. Ψ 1322, 1324. Eusebius, Histor. Syn.
p. 350, quoted in Krause, p. 510.
.fn-
.fn #
ii. 25-97.
.fn-
.fn #
Symp. ii. 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Figs. #133:fig133#, #141:fig141#.
.fn-
.fn #
Pausanias viii. 40.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 9, 6; Pindar, Ol. v. 34 Schol.
.fn-
.fn #
Krause, p. 517.
.fn-
.fn #
Fabretti, De Columna Trajani, p. 267. The evidence for these lappets is all
late, but the caps belong to the fifth century B.C.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristotle, Nic. Eth. iii. 1; Plato, I. Alcib. 107 E. For further references
vide Krause, p. 510, and J.H.S. xxvi. p. 14.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Legg. viii. 830 C.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 10, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide infra, p. #478#.
.fn-
.fn #
Theocritus, iv. 10.
.fn-
// File: 461.png
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.sp 4
.h2 id=chap20
CHAPTER XX | THE PANKRATION[#]
.sp 2
The combination of boxing and wrestling known as the
pankration was a development of the primitive rough and
tumble. To get his opponent down, and by throttling,
pummelling, biting, and kicking, to reduce him to submission, is
the natural instinct of the savage or the child. But this rough
and tumble was too undisciplined for athletic competition.
Competitions require law, and in the growth of law the simpler
precedes the more complex. Hence it was only natural that
particular forms of fighting such as boxing and wrestling should
be systematized first, and so made suitable for competition,
before any attempt was made to reduce to law the more
complicated rough and tumble of which they both formed part.
Wrestling and boxing were known to Homer, but not the
pankration, and Greek tradition was following the natural
order of development in assigning the introduction at Olympia
of wrestling to the 18th, of boxing to the 23rd, and of the
pankration to the 33rd Olympiad. In the pankration as in
boxing the contest continued till one or other of the parties
held up his hand in sign of defeat. At Sparta, where for this
reason the laws of Lycurgus forbade citizens to compete in these
events, the primitive rough and tumble unrestricted by law
and unrefined by science was allowed and encouraged as a test
of endurance and a training for war. The pankration at the
great festivals was something quite different; it was governed
by the law of the games (νόμος ἐναγώνιος), and was, at all events
in the best period, a contest no less of skill than of strength.
.if h
.il fn=fig151.png w=100% id=fig151 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 151. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 78.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 151. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 78.]
.if-
Modern writers turn up their eyes in holy horror at the
// File: 462.png
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brutality of the pankration, and marvel that a race so refined
as the Greeks could have tolerated so brutal a sport. Undoubtedly
the pankration might degenerate into brutality, and
perhaps sometimes actually did. So may football, boxing,
wrestling, unless they are controlled by rules, and unless the
rules are enforced. But the pankration was controlled by rules,
and the rules were enforced in the wrestling school and in the
games by trainers and officials under public control, and enforced
with the rod in a practical way which the modern umpire or
referee may well envy, and the rod was certainly not spared.
Further, the rules were enforced by a public opinion and
tradition that in the best times certainly placed skill and grace
far above brute strength in all athletics. No branch of
// File: 463.png
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athletics was more popular than the pankration. Philostratus
describes it as the fairest of all contests.[#] Mythology ascribed
its invention to Heracles and Theseus,[#] the typical representatives
of science as opposed to brute strength. What the pankration
was in the fifth century we can learn from Pindar. No less
than eight of his odes are in praise of pankratiasts, and from
these odes can be illustrated every feature of the poet’s athletic
ideal. There was, of course, an element of danger, but danger
does not make a sport brutal. Serious injuries, even loss of
life, sometimes occurred, but these accidents were rare, rarer
probably than in football or in the hunting-field, and the
Greeks certainly regarded the pankration as less dangerous
than boxing.[#] Finally, the example of jiujitzu proves that
such contests may be conducted without any brutality as
contests of pure skill.
The fullest account of the pankration occurs in Philostratus’
// File: 464.png
.pn +1
description of the death of Arrhichion, a famous pankratiast
of the sixth century, who expired at the very moment when his
opponent acknowledged himself beaten.[#] After describing the
scene and the excitement of the spectators, Philostratus adds a
characteristic account of the pankration. “Pankratiasts,” he
says, “practise a hazardous style of wrestling (κεκινδυνευμένῃ τῇ
πάλη). They must employ falls backward (ὑπτιασμῶν) which
are not safe for the wrestler, and grips in which victory must
be obtained by falling (οἷον πίπτοντα). They must have skill
in various methods of strangling (ἄνχειν); they must also wrestle
with an opponent's ankle (σφυρῷ προσπαλαίουσι) and twist his
arm (στρεβλοῦσι), besides hitting and jumping on him, for all
these practices belong to the pankration, only biting and
gouging (ὀρύττειν) being excepted. The Spartans admit even
these practices, but the Eleans and the laws of the games exclude
them, though they commend strangling.”
It would be difficult to give a more concise description.
Wrestling, hitting, and kicking are employed; the style of
wrestling is hazardous; victory is usually obtained by strangling;
biting and gouging are alone prohibited. The prohibition of
gouging and biting is evidently a quotation from the actual
rules of Olympia. It is twice quoted by Aristophanes.[#] Biting
needs no comment. The meaning of the word translated
“gouging” is clear from Aristophanes. It means digging the
hand or fingers into the eyes, mouth, and other tender parts of
the body. A vivid illustration of “gouging” occurs on a British
Museum kylix (Fig. #151:fig151#). One of the pankratiasts has inserted
// File: 465.png
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his thumb and finger into his opponent’s eye as if to gouge it
out, and the official is hastening up with his rod uplifted to
interfere and punish such foul play. A somewhat similar scene
is represented on a kylix in Baltimore (Fig. #152:fig152#), where a
pankratiast inserts his thumb into the mouth of an opponent
whom he has thrown head over heels.
.if h
.il fn=fig152.png w=100% id=fig152 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 152. R.-f. kylix. Baltimore.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 152. R.-f. kylix. Baltimore.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig153.png w=90% id=fig153 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 153. R.-f. kylix. Berlin.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 153. R.-f. kylix. Berlin.]
.if-
The pankration naturally divides itself into two parts, the
standing pankration (τὸ ἄνω παγκράτιον) and the struggle on
the ground (τὸ κάτω παγκράτιον). In the former the opponents
endeavoured to throw one another heavily to the ground, by
wrestling or kicking or hitting. There was much preliminary
sparring, appropriately described as ἀκροχειρισμίς.[#] The hands
were unprotected by thongs or other covering, and, as is
natural in a combination of wrestling and boxing, the open
hand and the fist were both used. Both are represented
on the fragment of a kylix in Berlin (Fig. #153:fig153#). The fallen
youth bleeds freely from the nose, and bears on his back
the imprint of his opponent’s fingers. At the same time, his
fist is clenched ready to strike. The relative importance of
wrestling and boxing in the pankration depended much on
the individual. The man with a long reach naturally preferred
to utilize his advantage in hitting; the short, thickset boxer
// File: 466.png
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generally depended for victory on his wrestling.[#] The struggle
was usually decided on the ground. It is commonly stated
that when one or other opponent had fallen, hitting was no
longer allowed. This purely modern idea is conclusively
disproved by such vases as the one just quoted. Neither
in boxing nor in the pankration was it forbidden to strike
a man who was down. As a rule, when both men were down
hitting was of little use, and the contest was usually decided
by wrestling, especially by twisting a limb, or by strangling.
If, however, one opponent had been knocked down by a
heavy blow, he was usually at his opponent’s mercy, and he
commonly holds up his hand in sign of defeat, or else the
official is represented interfering to stop the contest.
The epithet “hazardous” by which Philostratus characterizes
the wrestling of the pankration is appropriate to such throws
as “the flying mare” and the various foot and leg holds which,
though too risky for the wrestler proper, were freely employed
in the pankration, where it was not sufficient only to throw
an opponent, but he must be thrown heavily. The use of
the flying mare is illustrated on the Baltimore kylix (Fig. #152:fig152#),
where the left-hand wrestler proceeds to pummel his fallen
// File: 467.png
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opponent. A much mutilated group on the kylix illustrated
in Fig. #54:fig054# represents a throw from a leg-hold. A wrestler
kneeling on one knee has seized his opponent between
the legs and lifts him up, bending forwards as if to
hurl him on to the ground. The scene is described by
Anacharsis in Lucian.[#] “Look,” he cries, “that fellow has
picked up the other by the legs and flung him to the ground,
and falling on him, will not suffer him to rise, but forces him
into the mud, and at last, winding his legs round his stomach,
with his arm placed under his throat, he strangles the poor
wretch.”
.if h
.il fn=fig154.png w=80% id=fig154 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 154. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I. I. xxii.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 154. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century.
(Mon. d. I. I. xxii.)]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig155.png w=80% id=fig155 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 155. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I. I. xxii.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 155. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century.
(Mon. d. I. I. xxii.)]
.if-
A favourite trick of the pankratiast was to catch his
opponent by the foot, and lifting it up, to tilt him backwards.
Antaeus is frequently depicted grabbing thus at the foot of
Heracles, but without success.[#] The manœuvre is excellently
illustrated on two Panathenaic vases (Figs. #154:fig154#, #155:fig155#), and on
the coins of Aspendus (Fig. #109:fig109#). On a gem in the British
Museum (Fig. #162:fig162#) a somewhat similar hold is adopted by way
of defence by a wrestler who has his head in chancery.
Sometimes a wrestler, having thrown his opponent, would lift
him up by the legs, and the other, to save himself from a heavy
fall, would balance himself on his hands and head. Philostratus,
speaking of the short, thickset athletes, whom he calls οἱ ἐν μικρῷ
// File: 468.png
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μεγάλοι[#]—the type of the “pocket Hercules”—says, “They
are quick and active, and able to extricate themselves from
the most hopeless grips, standing on their heads as on a
pedestal.” This manœuvre, quite familiar in modern wrestling,
is not represented in Greek art, but occurs on the wall
paintings of Beni-Hassan.
A wrestler who was thrown on his back was defeated.
But a pankratiast might intentionally throw himself on his
back in order to throw his opponent more heavily, or to
throw him in a worse position. A manœuvre of this sort
called τὸ ἀποπτερνίζειν was invented, according to Philostratus,[#]
by a Cilician pankratiast, nicknamed for the smallness of
his stature, Halter or the Dumbbell. On his way to compete at
Delphi, he stopped at the shrine of the hero Protesilaus to
ask him how he should conquer his opponents. The hero
replied, “By being trampled upon” (πατούμενος). At first he
was disconcerted by this ambiguous answer, but after a little
thought he understood that the hero’s advice meant “that
he was not to let go the foot of his opponent; for the man
who wrestles with the opponent’s foot must be constantly
trampled on and be underneath his opponent.” So he devised
// File: 469.png
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the “heel trick,” by means of which he remained undefeated
and won great renown. This is probably the same method
as that described in the passage of Philostratus already
quoted as “wrestling with the ankle.” Such a hold ensures
a heavy fall; but the peculiarity of the “Dumbbell’s” method
was, that instead of releasing the foot after throwing his
opponent, he preserved his hold, and by twisting or bending
the foot forced him to yield. This use of the ankle hold is
well known in Japanese wrestling. Arrhichion, we are told,
forced his opponent to succumb by twisting his foot out of
its socket.
Another throw in which the thrower throws himself on
his back is the “stomach throw.” A wrestler seizes his
opponent by the shoulders or arms and throws himself
backward, at the same time planting his foot in the other’s
stomach and thus throwing him heavily clean over his head,
while he himself falls lightly. This favourite throw of the
Japanese is depicted on the tombs of Beni-Hassan. It is
accurately described by Dio Cassius in his account of a fight
between the Romans and Iazyges:[#] “Whenever any of them
// File: 470.png
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fell backwards, he would drag his opponent after him, and
with his feet hurl him backwards as in wrestling.” Pindar
in his third Isthmian Ode is referring to tactics of this sort
when he says of Melissus: “In craft he is as the fox that
spreadeth out her feet and preventeth the swoop of the eagle.”
The only representation which I know of such a throw is
on a black-figured hydria in Munich (Fig. #156:fig156#), where Antaeus
lies on his back with his right hand grasping Heracles’ left
foot and his left leg kicking him in the stomach. As usual,
Antaeus has failed to execute the throw and Heracles has
regained the advantage.
.if h
.il fn=fig156.png w=80% id=fig156 alt="B.-f. hydria."
.ca Fig. 156. B.-f. hydria. Munich, 114.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 156. B.-f. hydria. Munich, 114.]
.if-
The throws described in the last two paragraphs sufficiently
illustrate those “backward falls unsafe for the wrestler, and
grips in which victory must be obtained by falling,” which
made the wrestling of the pankration particularly hazardous.
.if h
.il fn=fig157.png w=100% id=fig157 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 157. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 604. Fourth century. Signed by the artist “Kittos.”
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 157. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 604. Fourth century. Signed by the artist “Kittos.”]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig158.png w=100% id=fig158 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 158. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 610.\
Archonship of Nicetes, 332 B.C.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 158. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 610.
Archonship of Nicetes, 332 B.C.]
.if-
Wrestling and boxing combined are depicted in a highly
conventional manner on two Panathenaic vases in the British
Museum (Figs. #157:fig157#, #158:fig158#) representing respectively the contest
for youths and for men. On B 604 a pankratiast has rushed
in head down, allowing his opponent to catch his head in the
bend of his arm. It is not quite clear what the latter intends
to do, whether to complete the neck hold or to pummel him.
In B 610 there is no doubt: the left-hand wrestler lifts his
fist to pummel the other’s head, which he still holds in the
// File: 471.png
.pn +1
bend of his arm. Why he allows his head to remain unnecessarily
in such a position is not quite clear. Perhaps he
has really had his head in chancery, and unable to break the
grip, has bitten the other’s arm. A favourite Greek story told
by Plutarch of Alcibiades, and in another place of a Spartan
wrestler, illustrates this suggestion.[#] Being hard pressed and
about to be thrown, he bit his opponent’s hand. Letting go his
hold, the latter exclaimed, “You bite, Alcibiades, like a woman.”
“No,” he replied, “like a lion.” Biting, as we know, was strictly
forbidden, and some confirmation of the explanation of the
vase may be found in the attitude of the official on the right,
who seems to be awarding the palm to the other pankratiast.
Other examples of biting in the pankration, whether standing
or on the ground, will be found in our illustrations.
Kicking was also a distinctive feature of the pankration. In
Theocritus,[#] Polydeuces being challenged to fight by Amycus,
inquires if it is to be a boxing match or whether kicking too
was allowed; and Galen,[#] in his skit on the Olympic games,
// File: 472.png
.pn +1
awards the prize for the pankration to the donkey, as the best
of all animals in kicking. A combination of kicking and boxing
is represented on the two Panathenaic vases in Figs. #154:fig154#,
#155:fig155#. At least it seems to me probable that the pankratiast on
the left has caught his opponent’s foot in mid-air as he was
trying to kick him in the stomach. Kicking in the stomach
(γαστρίζειν)[#] appears to have been a favourite trick in the
pankration, as it is in the French savate. It is depicted in one
of the groups in the Tusculan mosaic (Fig. #22:fig022#), and in a relief
in the Louvre. On another Panathenaic vase (Fig. #159:fig159#) one
pankratiast appears in the act of catching the other’s leg as he
lifts it in his onset. The action of the latter rather resembles
that described as jumping on an opponent (ἐνάλλεσθαι) than of
kicking. A better illustration of this term is seen in Fig.
#153:fig153#, where one pankratiast is jumping on his fallen opponent.
.if h
.il fn=fig159.png w=100% id=fig159 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 159. Panathenaic amphora. Lamberg Coll.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 159. Panathenaic amphora. Lamberg Coll.]
.if-
Twisting an opponent’s arm or fingers (στρεβλοῦν) and
strangling him (ἄγχειν) are tricks belonging principally to the
later stage of the contest, when both opponents are on the
ground, but opportunities for them also occurred in standing
wrestling. Twisting the arm has already been illustrated in
our chapter on wrestling (Figs. #129:fig129#-#131:fig131#). Similarly in the
Uffizi group (Fig. #163:fig163#) the upper wrestler twists his opponent’s
arm across his back, and the same motive occurs in one of the
// File: 473.png
.pn +1
groups on the frieze of Lysicrates’ monument. Pausanias tells
us of one Sostratus, a pankratiast of Sicyon, who, like Leontiscus
in wrestling, forced his opponents to yield by twisting and
breaking their fingers.[#] At first sight we are apt to condemn
such practices as brutal and unsportsmanlike, but the principle
of twisting an opponent’s limb so as to incapacitate him has
been reduced to a science in Japanese wrestling. The same
may be said of “strangling,” the method of finishing a contest
of which the Eleans much approved. Almost any neck hold
can be used to throttle an opponent. Reference has already
been made to the familiar hold known as “getting the head in
chancery,” illustrated on the gems in Fig. #162:fig162#. The most
effective and favourite method of strangling an opponent
is that known as κλιμακισμός,[#] which consists in mounting
on an opponent’s back, winding the legs round his stomach,
and the arms round his neck. The klimakismos can be
employed both in the standing pankration and on the ground.
On the Tusculan mosaic both types are represented (Fig.
#22:fig022#), and we have references to both types in literature. It
is the favourite method of attack employed by Heracles in
his contests with the Triton and Achelous (Fig. #160:fig160#), and is
best known to scholars from the account of the latter contest
// File: 474.png
.pn +1
given in the chorus of the Trachiniae, 407-530. In the standing
pankration, in order to execute the klimakismos it was
necessary to get behind one’s opponent either by making him
turn round or by springing round him. This may be illustrated
from the humorous picture which Anacharsis draws of
the Greeks advancing to meet their foe like boxers with clenched
fists.[#] “And the enemy,” he says, “naturally cower before
you and take to flight for fear lest, as they stand gaping, you fill
their mouth with sand, or jumping round to get on their backs,
twist your legs round their bellies and strangle them to death,
placing your arm beneath their helmets.” A similar description
of the klimakismos on the ground has already been quoted.
.if h
.il fn=fig160.png w=100% id=fig160 alt="Heracles and Triton."
.ca Fig. 160. Heracles and Triton. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 223.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 160. Heracles and Triton. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 223.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig162.png w=100% id=fig162 alt="Graeco-Roman gems."
.ca Fig. 162. Graeco-Roman gems in British Museum.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 162. Graeco-Roman gems in British Museum.]
.if-
Ground wrestling must have been the most distinctive, as it
certainly was the most decisive, part of the pankration. It was
probably as complicated if not as long as it is at the present
day, the combatants sometimes sprawling at full length, sometimes
on their knees,[#] sometimes on the top of one another. It
is this part of the pankration to which Plato objected and
which led him to exclude it from his ideal state as useless for
military training, because it did not teach men to keep their
feet.[#] Perhaps in Plato’s time the pankratiast, like the modern
Graeco-Roman wrestler, was apt to neglect the preliminary
contest and go down on the ground at once. Such grovelling,
if it existed, was a sign of the decay of these antagonistic
sports, which, as we have seen, had set in before Plato’s time;
it was unknown to Pindar, who specially emphasizes the importance
of boxing in the pankration.[#] Ground wrestling is
seldom represented on the vases, except in the contest of
Heracles and Antaeus (Fig. #161:fig161#); but groups of the kneeling
type are frequent on later gems, being particularly suitable
for oblong or oval spaces. The examples given in Fig. #162:fig162#
from gems in the British Museum explain themselves.
.if h
.il fn=fig161.png w=100% id=fig161 alt="Heracles and Antaeus."
.ca Fig. 161. Herakles and Antaeus. R.-f. kylix. Athens.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 161. Herakles and Antaeus. R.-f. kylix. Athens.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig163.png w=100% id=fig163 alt="Group of pankratiasts."
.ca Fig. 163. Group of pankratiasts. Uffizi Palace, Florence.\
(From a photograph by Brogi.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 163. Group of pankratiasts. Uffizi Palace, Florence.
(From a photograph by Brogi.)]
.if-
The most important and interesting of all the monuments
connected with the pankration is the group of wrestlers in the
Uffizi gallery in Florence (Fig. #163:fig163#). Unfortunately, it is
considerably restored, but in spite of recent criticism there
seems to be no reason for doubting the general correctness of
// File: 475.png
.pn +1
the restoration.[#] The underneath wrestler supports himself on
his left arm, and his opponent’s immediate object is to break
down this support. This can be effected by a blow. For the
underneath wrestler’s right arm being secured, he can only
guard his head with his left. The situation can be illustrated
by the description in Heliodorus of the match between
Theagenes and the Aethiopian champion.[#] Theagenes forces
the latter on to his knees, twines his legs round him, and then
knocks away his wrists, with which he is keeping his chest
off the ground. Having broken down this support, he forces
him down on his stomach on the ground. While a wrestler
// File: 476.png
.pn +1
is supporting himself on his hands and knees, his position is
far from hopeless, and he may by a quick and vigorous
movement often overturn his adversary and reverse matters.
Such is the moment selected by the sculptor; the victory is
still undecided, the uppermost wrestler is anxious to make
sure of victory, the other is eagerly watching to take advantage
of any carelessness on his opponent’s part. How fatal any
such carelessness may be we learn from the story of Arrhichion.[#]
Arrhichion was being strangled by his opponent, who was
on the top with arms and legs entwined round him; but
even as he was expiring he took advantage of a momentary
relaxation of the grip to kick his right leg free, and rolling
over so as to crush his opponent’s left side, he seized his right
foot and twisted it out of its socket with such violence as to
force him to yield, and so even with his last breath he secured
the victory.
There are numerous technical terms of wrestling and the
pankration known to us only from scholiasts and lexicographers.
These are of very doubtful interpretation and of
no practical importance, and it is therefore unnecessary to
discuss them here.[#]
.fn #
J.H.S. xxvi. pp. 4-22.
.fn-
.fn #
Im. ii. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
Heracles, according to Bacchylides, xiii., first employed the art of the
pankration against the Nemean lion; according to another tradition, Theseus
employed it against the Minotaur.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 6, 5; 15, 5; Artemidor. Oneir. i. 64.
.fn-
.fn #
Im. ii. 6.
.fn-
.fn #
Aves, 442; Pax, 899.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxvi. p. 14.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Gym. 36. I do not agree with Jüthner’s division of the text. He
makes the account of οἱ ἐν μικρῷ μεγάλοι the beginning of the classification of
athletic types which follows. Kayser rightly connected it with the account
of wrestling and the pankration which preceded.
.fn-
.fn #
Anacharsis, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxv. pp. 283 ff., Figs. 19, 20.
.fn-
.fn #
Gym. 36.
.fn-
.fn #
Heroic. 53, 54. The word πτερνίζειν is used in the LXX. of Jacob supplanting
Esau (Gen. xxvii. 36, cp. xxv. 26). J.H.S. xxvi. 20.
.fn-
.fn #
lxxi. 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Alc. 2; Apophthegm. Lac. 234 D, 44.
.fn-
.fn #
xxii. 66.
.fn-
.fn #
Προτρεπτ. ἐπὶ τέχνας, 36.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Anachars. 9; Aristoph. Eq. 273, 454; Pollux, iii. 150.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 4, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxvi. 15.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Anachars. 31.
.fn-
.fn #
From Lucian’s Asinus we gather that knee wrestling (τὰ ἀπὸ γονάτων)
was systematically taught in the palaestra. Cp. Aristoph. Pax, 895.
.fn-
.fn #
Legg. 795, 834.
.fn-
.fn #
Nem. iii. 29; Isthm. v. 60.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xxv. 30, xxvi. 19.
.fn-
.fn #
Aeth. x. 31, 32.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Im. ii. 6; Paus. viii. 40, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Many of them are discussed in my articles in the J.H.S. xxv., xxvi. Cp.
Grasberger, 349-374; Krause, 400-438, 534-556.
.fn-
// File: 477.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap21
CHAPTER XXI | THE HIPPODROME
.sp 2
Chariot and horse races were so important a part of most
Greek festivals that, though we cannot strictly describe them
as athletics, a brief account of the hippodrome and the events
which took place there will not be out of place.
Hippodromes must have abounded in all parts of Greece
which offered any facilities for riding or driving. The fifth-century
inscription of the Spartan Damonon[#] enumerates sixty-eight
victories won by himself and his son in the chariot-race
and the horse-race at no less than eight distinct festivals,
all of them in Laconia or in the immediate neighbourhood.
The plains of Argos, Athens, Euboea, and Thessaly were
famed for their breeds of horses, while the passionate devotion
of the Sicilian and Italian Greeks to horse-racing is proved by
the constant occurrence of the racing-chariot or the race-horse
on the coins of various cities from the beginning of the fifth
century onwards.[#]
Yet of all the hippodromes which must have existed hardly
a trace is left, and we are forced to fall back on the scattered
notices of Pausanias and other writers. The fact is that the
Greek hippodrome as a rule was a very simple affair, hardly
more elaborate than the course selected on the plains of Troy
// File: 478.png
.pn +1
for the funeral games of Patroclus or the course of a local race
meeting to-day. All that was necessary was a fairly smooth
open plain, if possible, in a valley or at the foot of some hill,
the slopes of which formed a natural stand for spectators.
At either end of the track a pillar was erected to mark the place
where chariots and horses turned. These pillars are generally
represented on coins and vases as Ionic or Doric columns;
sometimes, it appears, movable pillars[#] were used, perhaps for
safety, like the posts used in modern driving competitions.
Occasionally we see a pillar which has been knocked over by
a chariot.[#] But usually the pillars were fixed, and then it
was the chariot that suffered. There is not a particle of
evidence for the existence in any Greek hippodrome of the low
wall (spina) which ran down the middle of the course between
the pillars in the Roman circus, though this wall regularly
appears in the fanciful plans of the hippodrome which adorn
our works of reference. There were no stone seats, and as a
rule no permanent structures of any kind.[#] Given the ground,
the necessary arrangements for the start or the turn could be
readily made in a few days whenever required. In the intervals
between one festival and another the ground might be let out
for pasturage, as it was at Delos.
The only hippodrome of which any remains exist, almost
the only one which can be located, is that mentioned by
Pausanias on Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia.[#] It is 240 metres
long by 105 broad. Possibly the actual course was exactly
a stade in length. It seems likely that the usual course was
two stades long, and that from this circumstance the four-stades
foot-race was called the “horse-race” (hippios).[#]
The hippodrome at Olympia was larger and more elaborate
than the ordinary hippodrome. Unfortunately, the floods of
the Alpheus and other catastrophes have removed every trace
of its remains, and we must be content with what we learn
from Pausanias and other writers.[#] The hippodrome lay
// File: 479.png
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between the stadium and the river. On its north side it was
bounded by the southern embankment of the stadium, and
farther east by a projecting spur of Mount Cronius. To the
south a long embankment protected it from the floods of the
Alpheus. The western end was formed by the portico of
Agnaptus, but we do not know whether this portico extended
along the whole end. Here presumably was the official
entrance; there was another entrance at the south-east end
of the course through the embankment.
The dimensions of the hippodrome are given in a manuscript
discovered in the old Seraglio at Constantinople.[#] The
circuit of the course was 8 stades
(1538·16 m.), or nearly a mile.
The width was 1 stade 4 plethra
(320·45 m.), and the length of
the sides was 3 stades 1 plethron
(608·85 m.). It is not clear
how the circuit is measured, but
the fact that twice the long
side + the short side gives the
desired result suggests that half
the short sides only are counted,
and that 1 stade 4 plethra is
the outside measurement, 5
plethra the inside measurement. The actual course traversed
by the horses measured from pillar to pillar and back was,
however, only 6 stades (1153·62 m.).
.if h
.il fn=fig164.png w=60% id=fig164 alt="Aphesis at Olympia."
.ca Fig. 164. Aphesis at Olympia. (After Weniger.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 164. Aphesis at Olympia. (After Weniger.)]
.if-
The elaborate starting gate (ἄφεσις), devised by Cleoetas
probably in the fifth century, and improved at a later date by
Aristides, has been described in a previous chapter (Fig. #164:fig164#).
It consisted of a triangular structure like the prow of a ship, the
apex pointing down the course.[#] The base joined the portico of
Agnaptus. Along the two sides of the triangle which pointed
down the course a number of stalls were arranged in pairs on
either side. In these stalls the chariots were placed with a rope
in front of each. At the signal the ropes in front of the pair of
// File: 480.png
.pn +1
chariots nearest the base were dropped or withdrawn; in what
way, we do not know. As these chariots drew level with the
next pair, the next pair of ropes were withdrawn, and so on till
the whole field was started. It is obvious, of course, that if the
whole number of stalls was not required, the unoccupied ones
were those nearest the base. The length of each side was
400 feet; we do not know how many stalls there were. At
Delphi, Pindar speaks of forty competitors in the chariot-race.
This must surely have been an exceptional field, and we are
not surprised to hear that of the forty the chariot of Arcesilas
alone reached the goal in safety. Still, the size of the aphesis
at Olympia implies large fields,[#] and if the base of the triangle
was 400 feet, there would have been ample room for twenty
stalls on either side.
The general arrangement of the aphesis is clear enough, but
the absence of all details renders it impossible to reconstruct
the hippodrome with any certainty. In view of its great width
we may certainly reject the old view that the base of the
aphesis extended the whole width of the course. We cannot
for a moment imagine the pair of chariots near the base
starting at a distance of some 300 or even 150 yards from one
another. But if the inside measurement of the width of the
hippodrome was 5 plethra (168 yards), the base of the aphesis
may quite well have extended over half this distance, and a
base of this width agrees well with the length of the sides. We
may assume, then, that the aphesis occupied the whole or part
of the southern half of the course. Positions were, of course,
assigned by lot, and undoubtedly the chariots on the left had a
slight advantage in point of distance, but this advantage seems
to have been greatly exaggerated, and was perhaps more than
compensated by the wider sweep which the outside chariots
could take in turning at the farther end of the course. Still,
it is possible that, as Pollack[#] suggests, the apex of the aphesis
was turned slightly to the left, so as to equalize the distance
for all. In the circus of Maxentius, where the carceres occupy
the whole breadth, they are for a similar reason inclined towards
the right. There is no proof that this arrangement was adopted
at Olympia, much less that the imaginary line joining the two
pillars was inclined like the spina at the circus, so that the
// File: 481.png
.pn +1
pillar nearest the start was farther from the south side of the
hippodrome than from the north, and thus more room was
provided at the points where the chariots were most crowded.
The width of the Olympic course made such an arrangement
quite unnecessary.
This elaborate aphesis prevented the confusion and delay
inevitable in starting a large field all together; but it is hard
to see how it secured a fairer start than the ordinary plan
of starting in a straight line.[#] Probably, as Martin suggests, its
object was chiefly spectacular. At all events, though it was
one of the wonders of Olympia, it does not seem to have been
imitated anywhere else.
Another notable feature of the hippodrome at Olympia was
the altar called Taraxippus—the terror of horses—which was
supposed to inspire horses as they passed it with a sudden
panic, and so to cause the numerous accidents for which the
chariot-race was notorious. A mass of superstition grew up
about this altar, which was held to be the home of some
unfriendly demon. The altar seems to have been near the
turn, where accidents were most frequent. Some writers
have supposed that, as the horses turned the goal, they were
frightened at the sight of their own shadows cast in front of
them by the morning sun. If so, the Greek horse must have
been a far less intelligent animal than the modern, which has
shown an extraordinary faculty of becoming accustomed rapidly
to trains, bicycles, motors,—sights far more disturbing than
a shadow! Really, there is no need for any such theory to
explain the numerous accidents which happened at the turn,
and which superstition naturally ascribed to some spirit; and we
may therefore accept the rationalistic explanation of Pausanias
that Taraxippus was merely a name of Poseidon Hippios.
There was also, he tells us, a Taraxippus at the Isthmus, the
spirit of Glaucus the son of Sisyphus who was killed by his
horses at the games of Adrastus, while at Nemea the panic of
the horses was caused by a gleam like fire reflected from a red
stone near the turn. But nowhere was there any Taraxippus
which inspired such terror as the Taraxippus at Olympia!
// File: 482.png
.pn +1
The Olympic aphesis was something exceptional. Usually
horses and chariots were started much in the same way as
runners. Lots were drawn for places, and they drew up in line.[#]
It appears that a rope (ὕσπληξ) was stretched in front of the
whole line, which was dropped, or removed at the moment of
starting. How this rope was dropped without risk of entangling
the horses’ feet, is a mystery; there is no record of any accident
caused at the start. The signal for the start was given by a
trumpet. The horse-races, being mostly of the diaulos type,
finished at the start. The only place where we hear of straight
races is at Athens. The starting-line, as in the stadium, was
probably marked by pillars at either end. The pillars represented
on coins and vases may be either these pillars or the
pillars round which the horses turned. On a fine Panathenaic
vase (Fig. #165:fig165#) recently discovered at Sparta there is a spirited
// File: 483.png
.pn +1
drawing of a four-horse chariot passing a pillar on its right.
As the turn always took place to the left, it is clear that unless
the artist has made a mistake, the pillar represents the finish.
.if h
.il fn=fig165.png w=100% id=fig165 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 165. Panathenaic amphora found at Sparta. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 165. Panathenaic amphora found at Sparta. Sixth century.]
.if-
We have seen that the fully developed programme comprised
six events, three for full-grown horses (τέλειοι), three for colts,
for each class a four-horse chariot-race (ἅρμα, τέθριππον), a horse
race (κέλης), and a pair-horse chariot-race (συνωρίς). The last
event, which was really perhaps the oldest of all, was not
revived at Olympia till Ol. 93 (408 B.C.), but we learn from
the Panathenaic vases that it existed as well as the other two
races in the sixth century; indeed the earliest of these vases
existing, the Burgon vase in the British Museum, was a prize
for this event. The three events for colts were not introduced
either at Olympia or Delphi till the fourth century. In
500 B.C. a mule chariot-race (ἀπήνη) was introduced at Olympia,
and four years later a race for mares (κάλπη), in which the rider
dismounted and finished the race on foot. Both events were
abolished in 444 B.C., perhaps from lack of competition. At
Athens we find a far more elaborate programme, including races
for war-horses and processional horses, the apobates’ race
(Fig. #34:fig034#), and a torch-race on horseback.
The four-horse chariots ran twelve times round the course,
the pair-horse chariots and colts’ four-horse chariots eight
times, the colts’ synoris three times. These are the figures
given by the Constantinople Manuscript, and they agree with
what we learn from Pindar and the scholia.[#] The four-horse
chariot-race at Olympia was therefore no less than seventy-two
stades, nearly nine miles. The length of the course, which at
first sight seems excessive, undoubtedly checked the pace, and
thereby made for safety, but it makes it extremely improbable
that heats were ever allowed in chariot-races. All equestrian
events took place on the same day, and no team could be
expected to race seventy-two stades twice on a day. The
riding races consisted of only a single lap or six stades. This
is the obvious conclusion of the story told by Pausanias of the
Corinthian mare Aura, who, having thrown her rider at the
start, continued her course, turned the pillar, and on hearing
the sound of the trumpet, spurted and came in first, and then
knowing that she had won, stopped.[#] There is of course nothing
// File: 484.png
.pn +1
remarkable in the story; indeed, I recollect seeing a very similar
incident on the Totnes racecourse, but modern racing rules do
not allow a horse thus to get rid of its rider’s weight.
From this story we learn that at some point, perhaps at the
turn of the last lap, a trumpet was blown. Perhaps the
number of laps were marked by a blast of the trumpet. Some
means must certainly have been employed for the information
of the drivers. In the Roman circus the laps were marked by
figures of dolphins and eggs set upon pillars at either end.
At each lap one of the dolphins was turned round and one of
the eggs probably removed, but we know of no such arrangement
in the hippodrome.
Two distinct types of chariot were used in Greek racing.
The four-horse chariot was a modification of the Homeric
war-chariot. This war-chariot consisted of a low car mounted
on two wheels with a high framework in front and at the sides,
iii which the chieftain and the driver stood side by side. It
was open behind, so that the chieftain could readily dismount
to fight, and remount when he found it desirable. The racing
car was very similar, but was usually drawn by four horses
instead of two, had a lighter framework, and had only room
for the charioteer. One of the earliest representations of a
racing car occurs on an eighth-century vase in the British
Museum.[#] The artist probably intended to represent a two-horse
// File: 485.png
.pn +1
car, but finding this too difficult contented himself with
one horse. The drivers are standing and wear the regulation
dress of the Greek charioteer, a long white chiton such as
is worn by the Delphi charioteer (Fig. #18:fig018#). The type of
racing car remains the same, with but little difference, on
Panathenaic vases from the sixth to the fourth century, and
on coins of Macedon and Sicily. On some of the later vases,
such as a Panathenaic vase B. 606 in the British Museum, the
car seems to be decidedly lighter, and the wheels higher than on
earlier vases. The driver has usually a whip or goad, and he
holds the reins with his left hand or with both hands. The
two middle horses (ζύγιοι) were harnessed to the yoke, which
was attached to the pole, and further supported by a strap
fastened to the front rim of the car. The other two horses
were the trace-horses (σειραφόροι). The details of the harness
and of the chariot do not concern us here.
The two-horse chariot (συνωρίς) as represented on Panathenaic
vases is not really a chariot at all, but a sort of cart, the body of
which has been reduced so that nothing is left but the driver’s
seat and a square open framework on either side. The driver
sits with his feet resting on a footboard suspended from the
pole. On the Burgon vase he wears a short, sleeveless, purple
chiton, and carries in one hand a goad, in the other a long
curved rod like a fishing-rod, to the end of which are fastened
certain pieces of metal, which we may suppose made a jingling
noise like bells.[#] On the two other Panathenaic vases in the
// File: 486.png
.pn +1
Museum connected with this race the drivers wear short, tight-fitting
drawers, which are not visible in our illustration (Fig.
#166:fig166#).
.if h
.il fn=fig166.png w=100% id=fig166 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 166. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 132. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 166. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 132. Sixth century.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig167.png w=70% id=fig167 alt="Silver tetradrachm and gold stater."
.ca Fig 167. Silver tetradrachm and gold stater of Philip II. of Macedon,\
in the British Museum (enlarged).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig 167. Silver tetradrachm and gold stater of Philip II. of Macedon,
in the British Museum (enlarged).]
.if-
This type of synoris seems to have been peculiar to Athens,
for on coins the two-horse chariot is similar to the four-horse
chariot, and the driver stands. Such a chariot appears on the
gold coins of Philip II. of Macedon (Fig. #167:fig167#). Philip won
victories at Olympia, in the riding-race and in the four-horse
chariot-race. The two-horse chariot must, therefore, refer to
some other victory, perhaps at the games of Dium, or it may be
merely an allusion to his name.
The mule car (ἀπήνη) differs little from the Athenian synoris.
It is represented on the coins of
Rhegium and Messana. Sicily
was famous for its mules; and
the introduction of this event at
Olympia was probably due to
Sicilian influence. Of the four
winners whose names we know
one was a Thessalian, three were
Sicilians. The event evidently
found no favour with the Eleans,
who abolished it at the first
opportunity, perhaps alleging
as an excuse an ancient curse
which prevented mules from
being bred in Elis.[#] The coin in our illustration (Fig. #168:fig168#)
commemorates the victory of Anaxilas of Rhegium early in
the fifth century. On it the mule-car appears as little more
than a box-seat perched above two wheels.
.if h
.il fn=fig168.png w=50% id=fig168 alt="Silver tetradrachm of Rhegium."
.ca Fig. 168. Silver tetradrachm of Rhegium,\
in British Museum (enlarged). Early\
fifth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 168. Silver tetradrachm of Rhegium,
in British Museum (enlarged). Early
fifth century.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig169.png w=100% id=fig169 alt="Panathenaic amphora."
.ca Fig. 169. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 133. Sixth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 169. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 133. Sixth century.]
.if-
In the horse-races the jockeys rode without stirrups or
saddle. On the Panathenaic vase (Fig. #169:fig169#) in the British
Museum they appear as naked youths with long hair; those
on the Amphiaraus vase (Fig. #3:fig003#) wear a short chiton girt in
closely. In a red-figured vase-painting in Munich[#] one of
the jockeys has been thrown from his horse in making the
turn, and is being dragged along still holding the rein. The
victories of Philip II. of Macedon have already been mentioned.
His victory in the horse-race at Olympia is commemorated by
// File: 487.png
.pn +1
a coin bearing on one side the figure of his victorious jockey
holding in his hand the palm (Fig. #167:fig167#).
Of the Olympic κάλπη I know no illustration, but something
very similar to it occurs on the coins of Tarentum. The
didrachms of Tarentum,[#] from the fifth century to the end of
the third century B.C., present a wonderful variety of equestrian
types which, as Dr. Evans says, “give artistic expression to
the passionate love of the turf which was so distinguishing a
feature of Tarentine public life.” The coin in our illustration
(Fig. #170:fig170#), which belongs to the beginning of the third century,
represents a common type, a naked youth armed with a small
round shield in the act of vaulting off his horse. As was
pointed out in a previous chapter, the exercises of the apobates,
whether in chariot or on horseback, are really military; and
this military character is marked on the Tarentum coins by
the addition of a shield. Another type represented on the
coins of Tarentum is the torch-race on horseback. The coin
selected (Fig. #170:fig170#) is slightly later than the last, and is ascribed
by Dr. Evans to the hegemony of Pyrrhus.
.if h
.il fn=fig170.png w=70% id=fig170 alt="Silver staters."
.ca Fig. 170. Silver staters of Tarentum, in the British Museum (enlarged).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 170. Silver staters of Tarentum, in the British Museum (enlarged).]
.if-
Horses and mares were admitted alike to all races except the
κάλπη, which was confined to mares. The distinction between
colts and horses was one of the points decided by the
// File: 488.png
.pn +1
Hellanodicae in the preliminary dokimasia before the games.
Pausanias cites the case of a Spartan Lycinus, who had
entered a team for the colts’ race, but as one of his team
was rejected by the judges, he entered them for the open
chariot-race, and won it.[#] The story is open to suspicion,
because the statue of Lycinus was made by Myron, and in
Myron’s time the colts’ race had not been introduced.
Women, even if they could not be present in person at
Olympia, were allowed to enter their horses for the races.
Cynisca, the sister of Agesilaus, won two victories in the
chariot-race about the year 380 B.C. Horse-breeding and
racing were growing very fashionable among the Spartan
nobles, and according to Plutarch, Agesilaus, wishing to read
his countrymen a lesson, persuaded his sister to try her
fortune in the chariot-race. “This he did to show the Greeks
that a victory of that kind did not depend upon any extraordinary
spirit or abilities, but only upon riches and expense.”
It is to be feared that this lesson failed of its effect, if we may
judge from the honours paid to Cynisca. A bronze representation
of her horses was dedicated in the Heraeum, and her own
statue stood in the Altis, while at Sparta she was worshipped
at a heroum built in her honour. Shortly after her another
Spartan lady, Euryleonis, was victorious with the two-horse
chariot. Belistiche, the mistress of Philadelphus, was the
first to win the two-horse chariot-race for colts in 264 B.C.
An Olympic inscription of the first century mentions, among
the victories won by Antiphanes of Elis and his family, the
victory of his daughter Theodota in the four-horse chariot-race
// File: 489.png
.pn +1
for colts. Numerous victories of women are recorded
in Athenian inscriptions.
Horses and chariots were sometimes entered not in the
name of individuals, but of states. In 480 B.C. the public
horse of the Argives (Ἀργείων δημόσιος) was successful at
Olympia, and two Olympiads later their public chariot won.[#]
An Olympic victory not only shed honour on the state, but
must have been an excellent advertisement for all who were
interested in horse-breeding.
The drivers and jockeys were usually paid servants; but
sometimes we hear of the owner himself, or one of his family
acting in this capacity. Damonon, in the inscription referred
to above, records with pride certain races where he was his
own charioteer. Pindar, in the first Isthmian Ode, congratulates
Herodotus of Thebes on not entrusting his chariot to the
hands of strangers. Thrasybulus probably drove his father’s
chariot in the victory commemorated in the sixth Pythian
ode. Carrhotus, the charioteer of Arcesilas of Cyrene, was
his brother-in-law. Next to the statue of Timon at Olympia
was the statue of his youthful son, Aepytus, who had ridden his
horse to victory.[#] Though the owner took the prize, the
victory was due in no small degree to the skill of the charioteer,
and the latter was not undeservedly sometimes associated with
his master in the hymn of victory, or represented in the
monument which commemorated the victory.
No event could compare in brilliance or in excitement
with the four-horse chariot-race, the sport of kings in the
Greek world. Each turn in the course was fraught with
danger, and there were twenty-three turns. Every reader
is familiar with the description of the chariot-race, with its
shifting fortunes, and its catastrophes, in the Electra of
Sophocles. The danger of the turn was twofold, there was
the danger of striking the pillar with the chariot wheel in
trying to turn too close, there was the danger of collision
with other chariots. Both dangers are illustrated in the
Electra. The first accident occurred at the turn between the
sixth and seventh round; “The Aenian’s hard-mouthed horses
bolt, and at the turn dash headlong into the Barcaean car.”
The Barcaean car was leading on the outside; to make the turn,
it had to sweep round in front of the Aenian car, thereby
// File: 490.png
.pn +1
forcing the latter to check its pace for fear of collision.
Unfortunately, the Aenian horses had bolted, and could
not be checked, and therefore charged into the back of the
other chariot. The accident is perfectly intelligible if we
realise that the chariots were not racing in a line, one behind
the other, but were often side by side. The chariot on the
inside would naturally make a wide sweep after the pillar;
the outside chariot would make the sweep first, and try to
turn close to the pillar on the other side.[#] One accident
leads to others. All the chariots came to grief except that
of Orestes, who drove last, keeping himself for the finish,
and the chariot of the Athenian, who cleverly pulled aside,
and checked his pace, letting the crowd of chariots rush on
to their destruction. Orestes started off in quick pursuit of
him, but in making the last turn he was too quick. The
left-hand trace-horse had been reined in to make the turn;
the horses had already turned round the pillar, but the
chariot itself was not yet clear when Orestes gave the rein
to the left-hand horse. The horses dashed off down the
straight, and the wheel of the chariot caught the pillar,
Orestes was thrown from the chariot, and dragged along
by the horses still entangled in the reins.
Accidents of a milder character are often depicted on
coins and vases. On a red-figured hydria in Würzburg, one
of the horses has broken his traces and runs away.[#] A
// File: 491.png
.pn +1
broken rein tangled round the forefoot of a horse is a
favourite motive on the fifth-century coins of Syracuse, bearing
the signature of Euaenetus.[#] It occurs also on one of the
coins of Catana shown in Fig. #171:fig171#. The other coin has in
the exergue an object which seems to represent a broken
chariot-wheel.
.if h
.il fn=fig171.png w=70% id=fig171 alt="Silver tetradrachms."
.ca Fig. 171. Silver tetradrachms of Catana, in the British Museum (enlarged). Fifth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 171. Silver tetradrachms of Catana, in the British Museum (enlarged). Fifth century.]
.if-
The chariot-race is depicted on the François vase, and
also in the Amphiaraus vase (Fig. #3:fig003#). The scene on the
latter is a particularly fine picture of the crowding and confusion
of the race. It represents the finish. Three tripods are
set for the prizes, and beyond them sit the three judges.
.if h
.il fn=fig172.png w=80% id=fig172 alt="Coins."
.ca Fig. 172. Decadrachm of Agrigentum, 413-406 B.C.\
Decadrachm of Syracuse, 400-360 B.C.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 172. Decadrachm of Agrigentum, 413-406 B.C.
Decadrachm of Syracuse, 400-360 B.C.]
.if-
The finest representations of the chariot occur on the coins of
Sicily (Fig. #172:fig172#). It is impossible to dwell on them in detail,
and interesting as they are artistically, they add little to
our knowledge of the race. Two examples must suffice; two
decadrachms of Agrigentum and Syracuse respectively. The
former shows a spirited rendering of a four-horse chariot,
as the driver reins in his horses. The driver, contrary to
usual custom, is almost naked, probably he is the personification
of the river Acragas. Above him is an eagle flying
away with a serpent in its claws; below is the city emblem,
a crab. Still more interesting is the coin of Syracuse
belonging to the series of medallions connected with the
defeat of the Athenians at the river Assinarus. This defeat
was commemorated by the festival of the Assinaria, which
was celebrated for the first time in 412. The coin in our
// File: 492.png
.pn +1
illustration is the work of an unknown artist, usually called “the
New Artist.” The chariot is represented in full career, and
above the chariot floats a figure of Victory holding a crown.
The most interesting feature of the coin is the group of
objects in the exergue. They are a shield and helmet on
either side, in the middle a cuirass flanked by a pair of
greaves. These form the panoply of a heavy-armed soldier.
Above the shield on the left is the word ἆθλα, prizes, and there
can be little doubt that these arms are the spoils taken from
the Athenian hoplites, which were offered as prizes at the
Assinarian games.
Chariot-racing was a costly amusement, and in the century
before our era it disappeared from the programme of Olympia,
doubtless because of want of competitors. It was restored
spasmodically under the Empire, but never recovered its
old position in Greece. The racing of the hippodrome had
given place to the races of the rival factions in the Roman
circus. The account of the circus and its games belongs not
to Greek history but to Roman.
.fn #
B.S.A. xiii. pp. 174 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
The four-horse chariot occurs on coins of Agrigentum, Camarina, Catana,
Eryx, Gela, Himera, Leontini, Panormus, Segesta, Syracuse; the two-horse
chariot on coins of Messana; the mule car on coins of Rhegium and Messana;
numerous riding types on coins of Tarentum. In the early coinage of Syracuse
the tetradrachm bears a four-horse chariot, the didrachm a horseman leading
another horse, the drachma a horseman, and the obol a chariot-wheel. Vide Hill,
Coins of Sicily, pp. 43-46 and passim.
.fn-
.fn #
Gerh. A.V. 267.
.fn-
.fn #
Mus. Greg. ii. xxii. 1 A.
.fn-
.fn #
In Roman times both stadium and hippodrome merge into the circus. The
hippodrome at Constantinople is a purely Roman structure and does not concern
us; so is the hippodrome at Pessinus (Texier, Asie Mineure, Pl. lxii.).
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. viii. 38, 5; Expédition en Morée, ii. p. 37, Pls. xxxiii.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 16, 4; Plut. Sol. 23; Photius, p. 296.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 20. Many of the details are much disputed. I have followed in
the main the account given by A. Martin in Dar.-Sagl. s.v. “Hippodrome.”
.fn-
.fn #
Quoted in Dar.-Sagl., s.v. “Olympia,” p. 177, n. 5; cp. Frazer, Pausanias,
v. p. 616, and Schoene in Jahrb. xii. p. 150. Schoene’s conclusions as to the
distances of the races seem to me quite impossibly long.
.fn-
.fn #
Martin’s statement that the part of the aphesis near the base was open, and
the apex covered in, is hardly warranted by the words of Pausanias, and seems
improbable.
.fn-
.fn #
Alcibiades on one occasion entered no less than seven chariots of his own.
Thuc. vi. 16, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Ervinus Pollack, Hippodromika. Leipsic, 1890.
.fn-
.fn #
It can hardly have been as fair; for the outside chariots had the enormous
advantage of a flying start. I conjecture, however, that the chariots did not really
start racing till they were all in line, and that the object of the aphesis was
partly to facilitate the getting them into line, no easy matter with a large field.
.fn-
.fn #
Sophocles, El. 709.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. ii. 50, iii. 33, vi. 75; Pyth. v. 30. The passages referring to the
measurements are collected by Pollack, op. cit. pp. 103 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 13, 9.
.fn-
.fn #
J.H.S. xix. p. 8. B.M. Guide to Greek and Roman Life, p. 200.
.fn-
.fn #
In the catalogue this instrument is described as a καλαῦροψ, but I can find
no authority for this use of the word.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 5, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Munich, 805; Schreiber, Atlas, xxiv. 9.
.fn-
.fn #
The Horsemen of Tarentum, passim.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 2, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Oxyrhynchus Papyri, ii. 222.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. vi. 2, 8.
.fn-
.fn #
M. A. Bayfield in Class. Rev. xxii. p. 45.
.fn-
.fn #
Gerh. A.V. 267.
.fn-
.fn #
Hill, Coins of Sicily, p. 63.
.fn-
// File: 493.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=chap22
CHAPTER XXII | THE GYMNASIUM AND THE PALAESTRA
.sp 2
In Homeric times the gymnasium and the palaestra did not
exist. The broad runs in Ithaca,[#] which are sometimes quoted
as the prototype of the Greek gymnasia, were not running-tracks
but cattle-runs. The need for special places for exercise
first arose with the growth of city life. At first these were no
more than open spaces in some grove or plain where the ground
had been cleared for running or for wrestling. Such were the
“runs and wrestling rings” which Cleisthenes of Sicyon prepared
for his daughter’s suitors.[#] The place where the Spartan
youth exercised retained its ancient name the “Dromos” or
run, even in the time of Pausanias. The runs developed into
the gymnasium, the wrestling-ring into the palaestra.
The word “gymnasium” means, properly, an athletic exercise.
By a natural transference it comes to be used first in the plural,
afterwards collectively in the singular for a place set apart for
such exercises. It is a general term. The gymnasium is
merely an athletic ground, or playing-field, where all sorts of
sport take place. It contains “runs and wrestling-rings.” It
may serve as a riding-school. Euripides speaks of “gymnasia
resounding with the tramp of horses.”[#] It may contain buildings
for the comfort of those who use it, but the essential part
of the gymnasium is the running-ground. On the other hand,
the palaestra is a special term for the wrestling-school. In its
simplest form it is a square enclosure, containing some provision
for undressing and washing. It is essentially a building.
The palaestra may exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium
// File: 494.png
.pn +1
can exist without a palaestra. Moreover, in a gymnasium
the necessary buildings are naturally centred round the
palaestra. Hence the palaestra being architecturally the most
important part of the gymnasium, the two terms are in practice
often used synonymously. Yet the original distinction is never
wholly obliterated; in Pausanias the gymnasium is still the
athletic ground, the palaestra the wrestling-school.[#]
Gymnasia probably existed in most Greek states in the
sixth century or even earlier. Shade and water being essential
for the comfort of those who used them, the site selected was
usually a grove beside some stream outside the city. Such
was the Platanistas at Sparta, an island formed by the windings
of the river, and taking its name from the plane trees which
surrounded it. Such were the three ancient gymnasia at
Athens: the Academea, the Lyceum, and the Cynosarges.
All three were sacred groves outside the walls of the city, the
Academea on the west side, on the banks of the Cephisus, the
other two on the east near the Eridanus and Ilissus. All
three probably existed in the sixth century. The Academea
was first enclosed with a wall by Hipparchus, and was afterwards
improved by Cimon into a well-watered grove with trim
avenues and walks. The origin of the Lyceum was variously
ascribed to Peisistratus, Pericles, and Lycurgus. As it certainly
existed in the time of Socrates, it was probably founded by
Peisistratus, if not earlier, and underwent various improvements
at the hands of Pericles and Lycurgus. The gymnasium
of Cynosarges was reserved for bastards, and those whose
parents were not both Athenian. Themistocles being the son
of a Carian mother, and resenting his exclusion from the other
gymnasia, succeeded in persuading some prominent young
Athenians to accompany him to the Cynosarges. Slaves were
not allowed to take any part in athletics, which were regarded
as the distinctive mark of freeborn Greeks. The Academea
and Lyceum were large enough to serve as riding-schools and
parade-grounds for cavalry. The Athenian gymnasia were
open to Athenians of all ages; boys were certainly not excluded,
though, as we shall see, they were usually sent to the
palaestra for education;[#] men of all ages resorted to them for
their daily exercise; competitors for the games trained in
// File: 495.png
.pn +1
them; above all, they were the training-school of the epheboi,
at all events from the fifth century onwards. “When a boy is
enrolled among the Epheboi,” says Socrates, in the Pseudo-Platonic
dialogue called Axiochus,[#] “then come the Lyceum
and the Academea, the rule of the gymnasiarchos, beatings
with rods and ills innumerable.” Consequently, the gymnasia
were the favourite resort of sophists and philosophers in search
of pupils. Some philosophers habitually frequented certain
gymnasia, which thereby became connected with particular
schools of philosophy. In course of time literary studies prevailed
over athletics, and the gymnasium developed into a sort
of university.
The existence of palaestrae at Athens in the sixth century
is attested by the speech of Aeschines against Timarchus. In
this speech the orator refers to certain laws ascribed to Solon
for the regulation of schools and palaestrae. The paidotribai
were not to open the palaestrae before sunrise, and were to close
them before sunset. There were regulations as to the class of
boys to be admitted, their numbers and age, their discipline
and the conduct of the Hermaea, a boy’s festival celebrated in
the palaestrae. The actual text of the laws is spurious, but
there is no reason for doubting the existence of the regulations
mentioned by Aeschines, and their antiquity. But we must
not confound the palaestrae referred to with those which
formed part of the gymnasia. The latter were public institutions,
mostly outside the city; the palaestrae for which Solon
laid down regulations were such of the private palaestrae as were
used for the physical education of boys. There were numerous
private palaestrae, some perhaps built by rich individuals for
their own use,[#] others kept by paidotribai[#] for profit. The
publicity of the gymnasia and their remoteness rendered them
unsuitable for the training of young boys. Parents and
teachers naturally preferred the comparative privacy of the
palaestra in the city. Some of these may have been attached
to schools, others may have been reserved for boys of certain
ages, or special times may have been reserved in them for
// File: 496.png
.pn +1
different ages. Certainly it is at these palaestrae that the
Athenian boys received their physical training. But it is no
more correct to say that the palaestrae generally were reserved
for the education of boys under the age of eighteen, than it is to
say that no boys under that age were admitted to the gymnasia.
Some of the palaestrae were certainly used by older pupils. In
Plato’s Lysis the sophist Miccus is stated to have established
himself in a newly built palaestra. Boys of different ages are
trained there at different times, but the pupils of Miccus are
not boys, but epheboi or grown-up men, and these at all events
had free entry there at certain times. The fact is that there
were palaestrae of various sorts just as there are schools and
colleges of various sorts in England to-day. To treat all the
palaestrae as similar, and to endeavour to lay down hard and
fast rules for all alike, is as ridiculous as it would be to write
a treatise on the schools of England in which no distinction was
made between primary schools and secondary schools, or
between a college which forms part of a university and a
college which is really a school.
Our knowledge of Greek gymnasia down to the fourth
century is practically confined to Athens. The earliest existing
gymnasium is that of Delphi, which belongs to the fourth
century. The gymnasium at Olympia cannot be earlier than
the third century. The only contemporary evidence for the
fifth century is derived from the vase-paintings which give
a vivid picture of the life of the gymnasium at Athens in the
first half of this century, but yield only fragmentary evidence
as to the arrangements of the gymnasium. Yet this evidence
agrees so well with the remains discovered at Olympia and Delphi,
and also with such scattered allusions as we find in literature,
especially in Plato’s dialogues, that we may feel sure that the
gymnasia and palaestrae of the fifth century throughout Greece
were substantially of the type which we find in these places.[#]
The essential parts of the gymnasium or palaestra are clearly
stated in the treatise on the Athenian Republic,[#] which if not
written by Xenophon was probably written in the second half
// File: 497.png
.pn +1
of the fifth century. The writer, speaking of the progress of
the Athenian democracy, says: “As for gymnasia and baths
and undressing-rooms some rich people have their own, but the
people have built for their own use many palaestrae, dressing-rooms,
and bath-rooms, and the mob has far more advantages in
these respects than the fortunate few.” In this passage we notice,
first, that there is no real distinction between gymnasium and
palaestra; if there is any distinction, it is merely that the
palaestra is somewhat more elaborate than the gymnasium, as
the bath-room is more than the bath. Both are merely places
for exercise. Secondly, the dressing-rooms and bath-rooms are
clearly not independent buildings, but are connected with
the gymnasia. Bath-rooms might exist separately, but what
would be the use of separate undressing-rooms? Every
gymnasium and every palaestra must contain, besides the
actual “runs and wrestling-rings,” some place where those who
use them may undress and oil themselves before exercise, and
may wash themselves afterwards. These are the three essential
parts of every such building, and all the complicated arrangements
of the gymnasia at Ephesus and Pergamum are merely
elaborations of these three requirements.
The dialogues of Plato illustrate alike the similarity and
difference in the arrangements of a gymnasium and palaestra.
The scene of the Lysis is laid in the new-built palaestra to
which reference has already been made. In general plan it
resembles an ordinary one-storied Greek house. It is surrounded
by a wall (περίβολος), the only opening in which is
a door giving access to the street. Around this wall, on the
inside, are placed the various rooms which all open out into the
central court (αὐλή) which in the palaestra is considerably
larger than in an ordinary house. On entering, the visitor
finds himself in a sort of ante-chamber, from which he passes
into a large hall called the apodyterion (ἀποδυτήριον). The
front of this hall is open, so that it commands a view of the
court, which is used for exercise. This hall, as its name
denotes, is the undressing-room. But, like the modern cricket
pavilion, it serves as a general meeting-place for all who
frequent the palaestra. There are seats around the walls for
their convenience. A group of boys are playing knuckle-bones
when Socrates enters, and Socrates retreats to the farther
corner to find a seat. Probably, if there were no other rooms,
// File: 498.png
.pn +1
it was in the apodyterion that Miccus used to hold his classes.
There may, of course, have been other rooms around the court,
certainly there must have been some accommodation for washing,
but as the bath-room is not conducive to serious conversation
it naturally plays no part in these dialogues.
Now let us pass on to the Lyceum gymnasium.[#] The
arrangement is similar, but on a larger scale. Close to the
entrance is the apodyterion where Socrates takes his seat and
watches people come and go. But besides the court, there is
a covered track (κατάστεγος δρόμος), probably a colonnade
running round one or more of the four sides of the court.
This covered dromos is the place where Athenian gentlemen
take their daily constitutional. As Socrates is waiting, two
such enter, take two or three turns in this dromos, and then
return to the apodyterion. Acumenos[#] indeed recommends
a walk in the country as less fatiguing, but the gymnasium
is a more sociable place, there is more life and amusement to
be found there, and so the Athenian prefers it. But these
covered runs are not for athletes or epheboi except in the
worst of weather. For them tracks are provided in the park
outside (ὁ ἔξω δρόμος) where, as in the Academy, they
may run races “mid a fragrance of smilax, and leisure, and
white poplar in the spring-season when the plane tree whispers
to the elm.”[#]
The pictures on the red-figured vases enable us to fill in these
outlines. These vases, manufactured mostly at Athens, between
the years 520 and 440 B.C., represent the life of the Athenian
epheboi, that is to say, life in the public gymnasia. On them
we see scenes from the gymnasia proper, where youths are
exercising, scenes from the apodyterion, and scenes from the
bath-room.
We will first take a kylix in the Munich Museum, which
gives a general picture of exercises in the gymnasium (Fig. #17:fig017#).
The scene takes place within a walled enclosure. The background
represents this wall, or perhaps the wall of the
apodyterion; for on it are hanging all the paraphernalia of
the gymnasium, diskoi in their slings, halteres fastened
together by a cord, strigils, oil-flasks, sponges. A pair of
Ionic pillars frame the picture suggesting, perhaps, a covered
// File: 499.png
.pn +1
colonnade. Sometimes these pillars are surmounted by a large
flat block, which clearly indicates a roof. The actual exercises
take place in the court in front, or the dromoi outside. In
the ground are planted poles and picks. The poles are used
as javelins for practice, and perhaps as measuring-rods; or as
posts to mark the lines from which the jump is practised, or
the diskos and javelin thrown. The two bearded men are
// File: 500.png
.pn +1
instructors—paidotribai or gymnastai. Usually these are
clothed in a long mantle; here they are naked, probably
because they are teaching by example. One of them leans on
the usual official staff and holds in his right hand a jumping-weight;
the other holds in one hand a rod or javelin, in the
other a thong for throwing the javelin, but it is not quite
clear what his attitude means. The youth who looks on, leaning
upon a pole, may be either a youthful assistant or a spectator.
// File: 501.png
.pn +1
.if h
.il fn=fig173.png w=100% id=fig173 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 173. R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 173. R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll.]
.if-
Another kylix gives a vivid picture of the discipline of the
gymnasium (Fig. #173:fig173#). On one side are a pair of wrestlers,
and looking on at them is an instructor wearing his robe, leaning
on his staff with his right hand, while in his left he holds
the forked rod with which he enforces discipline. On the other
side is an instructor in the act of using this rod on some boxers.
The youth who stands behind the first instructor with the
pick may be another boxer taking this form of exercise, but
the mantle rolled up round his waist suggests rather that he is
an assistant who is loosening the ground of the skamma used
by wrestlers and jumpers. On the interior of this vase is a
third instructor, and a youth who seems to be measuring the
ground with his feet, perhaps measuring the throw of a javelin,
for he holds in his hands a javelin and its thong. The careless
drawing of this amentum caused it to be misinterpreted
// File: 502.png
.pn +1
formerly as a pair of compasses. Another figure frequently
depicted in these scenes is the flute-player,[#] who is usually
dressed in a long, gaudy robe, and wears round his head a
curious sort of muzzle called φορβεία. These flute-players were
probably slaves attached to the gymnasium.
Many of the exercises depicted require considerable space.
The javelin and diskos could hardly be thrown with safety in
the court of an ordinary palaestra. The open dromoi were
the places for such sports. Here, too, it seems riding-lessons
were given. Sometimes a group of athletes and a riding scene
are placed on opposite sides of the same vase.[#] In these riding
scenes pillars[#] are sometimes depicted, oil-flasks and other
objects hang on the walls, and the instructors are the same as
in athletic scenes. A good example of such a scene occurs
on a kylix in Munich (Fig. #174:fig174#). There are three naked
epheboi, one already mounted, one leading a horse and holding
in his hand the familiar forked rod, the third is being instructed
in the art of vaulting on to his horse by means of
a spear or pole. An oil-flask indicates the building, while
a tree suggests the groves of the gymnasium.
.if h
.il fn=fig174.png w=100% id=fig174 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 174. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 515.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 174. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 515.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig175.png w=100% id=fig175 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 175. R.-f. kylix. Copenhagen.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 175. R.-f. kylix. Copenhagen.]
.if-
Scenes in the Apodyterion are very numerous, especially on
later vases. We will first take a kylix in the Museum at
// File: 503.png
.pn +1
Copenhagen (Fig. #175:fig175#). The broad tops of the pillars suggest
the roof of the room. Hanging or leaning against the wall are
the usual paraphernalia; one object seems curious, it is a hare.
Perhaps one of the epheboi has just caught it, or he has brought
it as a present to his trainer, or received it as a present or
prize.[#] A group of youths and trainers are standing about or
seated on stools. Some are fully dressed, others naked; one is
scraping himself with a strigil, another is just about to put
on his mantle; his walking-stick rests against the wall behind
him. Some clothes are placed on one of the stools. We can
quite understand the necessity of severe laws against theft in the
gymnasia. A law attributed to Solon imposed the penalty of
death on any one who stole from the Lyceum, or Acadamea,
or Cynosarges a himation, or an oil-flask, or any other object
worth more than ten drachmae.[#]
After divesting himself of his clothes and placing them in
as safe a place as possible, the athlete next proceeded to anoint
himself with oil and carefully rub the oil into the skin. He
might do so himself or obtain the services of an attendant,
the aleiptes. The terms aleiptes and paidotribes indicate the
importance which the Greeks attached to the oiling and massaging
of the body both before and after exercise. These processes
were afterwards developed into elaborate arts, and special
rooms were set apart for them, but in the fifth century they
were comparatively simple and took place either in the
apodyterion or else in the open air.[#] The oil was contained in
// File: 504.png
.pn +1
little narrow necked flasks of various shapes, lekythoi, aryballoi,
alabastra. Each person probably brought his own flask of oil
and his strigil. At times of festival oil was supplied free to all
competitors, and in later times gymnasiarchoi and other high
officials showed their generosity by providing at their own
expense the oil required for the epheboi using the gymnasia.
A krater in Berlin (Fig. #176:fig176#) shows a group of epheboi undressing
and preparing for exercise. One of them has just taken
off his himation and folded it up and is about to hand it to
a slave-boy, either his own slave or one attached to the
gymnasium. Another has laid his himation on a stool, and
is pouring some oil from an aryballos into his left hand. To his
left stands a third ephebos resting on his stick, with his mantle
thrown loosely across his shoulders, while a small slave removes
a thorn from his foot. The other side of the vase illustrates
the curious custom of infibulation. Massaging is, as far as I
know, not depicted on any vases; but a drawing of an aleiptes
rubbing down a boxer occurs on a bronze cist in the Vatican[#]
(Fig. #177:fig177#).
.if h
.il fn=fig176.png w=100% id=fig176 alt="R.-f. krater."
.ca Fig. 176. R.-f. krater. Berlin, 2180.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 176. R.-f. krater. Berlin, 2180.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig177.png w=100% id=fig177 alt="Bronze cista."
.ca Fig. 177. Bronze cista. Vatican.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 177. Bronze cista. Vatican.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig178.png w=90% id=fig178 alt="R.-f. amphora."
.ca Fig. 178. R.-f. amphora. St. Petersburg, Hermitage, 1611.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 178. R.-f. amphora. St. Petersburg, Hermitage, 1611.]
.if-
It may have been in the Apodyterion, or else in some other
corner of the gymnasium, that the korykos (κώρυκος) was fixed
up. In later times a special room was provided for the
korykos, but its use at this time is proved by the caricature
// File: 505.png
.pn +1
of a pankratiast using it which occurs on a vase in St. Petersburg
(Fig. #178:fig178#). The korykos was a sort of punchball, a leathern
bag or skin filled with fig grains, meal, or sand, and suspended
from the branch of a tree or a beam. It varied in size. The
larger sort which was used by pankratiasts was about the size
of a sack of coals, and was hung so that the bottom of it was on
a level with the athlete’s waist. The boxer used a smaller
korykos about the size of a punchball hung on a level with his
head, to judge from the picture of it on the Ficoroni cist, a
work of the third century B.C. (Fig. #179:fig179#).[#] In the later
gymnasia a special room was set apart for ball-play; but popular
as ball games always were they seem to have been of little
or no importance in the gymnasia of the fifth century.
.if h
.il fn=fig179.png w=90% id=fig179 alt="Ficoroni cista."
.ca Fig. 179. Ficoroni cista. Kirchner Museum, Rome. Third century B.C.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 179. Ficoroni cista. Kirchner Museum, Rome. Third century B.C.]
.if-
The bathing arrangements in the gymnasium were severely
simple. There existed, indeed, even in the time of Herodotus
and Aristophanes, separate bathing establishments (βαλανεῖα)
where hot baths and even vapour baths were to be obtained.[#]
But these balaneia had nothing to do with the gymnasia, and
are indeed sharply contrasted with them. To frequent them
was considered, at all events among old-fashioned folk, to be a
sign of effeminacy. Aristophanes bitterly complains that the
effect of the new-fashioned education was to empty the wrestling
schools and fill the balaneia, and Plato considers hot baths
// File: 506.png
.pn +1
only suitable for the old and feeble.[#] In later times elaborate
baths of this type were attached to the gymnasia, and became
so important that the athletic part of the building was little
more than an apanage of the baths. But there is no sign of such
baths in connexion with the gymnasia of the fifth century, nor
do they exist in the later gymnasia at Delphi and Olympia.
The epheboi of the fifth century washed in cold water after
exercise. The simplest form of washing is represented on a
black-figured hydria in Leyden which dates from the close of
the sixth century (Fig. #180:fig180#).[#] A group of men and boys are
washing at a fountain which stands in the grove of the
gymnasium. Their clothes hang on the branches of the trees.
The fountain itself is under a portico, and the water issues from
two panthers’ heads under which a man and a boy are taking a
douche and rubbing themselves. On either side stand others
preparing for the bath. One on the left lifts in his right hand
what is probably an oil-flask, while on the right we see a youth
engaged in powdering himself. Various powders were used, a
// File: 507.png
.pn +1
sort of lye obtained from wood ashes, an alkali called litron and
somewhat similar to nitre, and a kind of fuller’s earth.[#] After
oiling and powdering his body the bather rubbed himself till a
lather was obtained.
.if h
.il fn=fig180.png w=100% id=fig180 alt="B.-f. hydria."
.ca Fig. 180. B.-f. hydria. Leyden, 7794b.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 180. B.-f. hydria. Leyden, 7794b.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig181.png w=100% id=fig181 alt="Scene on r.-f. vase."
.ca Fig. 181. Scene on r.-f. vase. (Tischbein, i. 58).
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 181. Scene on r.-f. vase. (Tischbein, i. 58).]
.if-
On the red-figured vases the washing takes place in a bath-room
forming a part of the gymnasium and probably adjoining
the apodyterion. In the centre of this room is set a large stone
or metal basin placed on a stand. Close to it a cistern is
sometimes represented, and on one vase we see a youth pouring
water into the basin from a bucket which he has drawn up
from the cistern by means of a rope and windlass[#] (Fig. #181:fig181#).
The inscription on the basin (δημόσια) shows that it is a public
bath. One youth is splashing the water over himself, but a
more satisfactory way of washing is to get a friend or assistant
to swill a bucket of water over you in the manner represented on
a kylix in the British Museum (Fig. #182:fig182#). On the other side
of this kylix is seen a group of youths scraping themselves with
strigils (στλεγγίδες). The strigil was in constant use in the
gymnasium to remove dirt and sweat after exercise or remove
moisture and lather after the bath. It was made of iron or
bronze, sometimes of silver or even of gold; the handles are
// File: 508.png
.pn +1
sometimes highly ornamental. Many of them exist in the
British Museum and elsewhere. Their shape will be best understood
from the accompanying illustration of a fifth-century
strigil from the British Museum, on which the owner’s name is
inscribed (Fig. #183:fig183#). A youth scraping himself with a strigil
is the motive of the well-known statue, the “Apoxyomenos,”
formerly ascribed to Lysippus.
.if h
.il fn=fig182.png w=100% id=fig182 alt="R.-f. kylix."
.ca Fig. 182. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 83.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 182. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 83.]
.if-
.if h
.il fn=fig183.png w=80% id=fig183 alt="Strigil."
.ca Fig. 183. Strigil, in British Museum, inscribed κέλων. Fifth century.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 183. Strigil, in British Museum, inscribed κέλων. Fifth century.]
.if-
Plunge baths (κολυμβήθραι) certainly existed at this period.
A red-figured amphora[#] in the Louvre signed by Andocides
(c. 500 B.C.) shows a group of women bathing in a swimming
bath. One is swimming, while another is preparing to dive into
the water. We shall find plunge baths both at Delphi and
Olympia, but we have no evidence for their existence in the
gymnasia of the fifth century.
In passing on to the gymnasia at Delphi and Olympia we
must bear in mind the essential difference which distinguishes
them from the gymnasia at Athens, which we have been
considering. The latter were intended for the regular use of
a large resident population. At Delphi, and still more at
Olympia, the resident population was small and scattered; and
though they doubtless took advantage of the gymnasia, these
buildings were primarily erected, not for their use, but for the
use of the competitors in the four-yearly festivals. Hence
there was no need for the shady walks and avenues which
// File: 509.png
.pn +1
formed so prominent a feature of the early gymnasia at Athens,
nor for the lecture-rooms and libraries which were provided for
the literary training of the epheboi in the gymnasia of Ptolemaeus
Philadelphus or Hadrian. The gymnasia at Delphi and Olympia
were strictly practical and athletic.
.if h
.il fn=fig184.png w=100% id=fig184 alt="Plan of gymnasium at Delphi."
.ca Fig. 184. Plan of gymnasium at Delphi. (B.C.H.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 184. Plan of gymnasium at Delphi. (B.C.H.)]
.if-
The gymnasium at Delphi[#] is a good example of the skill with
which the Greeks adapted their buildings to the nature of the
ground (Fig. #184:fig184#). It lies a little to the south-west of the precinct
of Apollo below the road which runs from Itea to Arachova
and on the steep slopes which overhang the valley of the
Pleistus. It is built on two terraces, the upper of which forms
a rectangle some 180 metres long by 25 or 30 metres deep, and
contains the running tracks, while the lower terrace contains
the palaestra proper and the baths. The fine retaining wall
which divides the two terraces, and other architectural remains
point to the existence of the gymnasium in the early part of
the fourth century, and most of the parts which have been
excavated are mentioned in an inscription containing the official
accounts for repairing the stadium and gymnasium in the year
258 B.C.
The upper terrace was bounded above by the outer wall of
the gymnasium. It contained a covered running-track 7
metres broad, and a double uncovered track 20 metres broad.
These are the ξυστόν and παραδρομίς of the inscription. They
are divided from one another by a stone water channel which,
besides carrying off rain water, provided water for the athletes
when training. Another channel, which divided the paradromis
into two unequal parts, carried water from the Castalian stream
to the baths in the lower terrace. The Ionic pillars which
formed the colonnade (περίστυλος) of the xystos are of poor
and late workmanship, and seem to have replaced an earlier
// File: 510.png
.pn +1
Doric colonnade. Neither xystos nor paradromis was paved;
but, as we learn from the
accounts of Dion’s archonship,
they were dug up,
rolled, and covered with
fine white sand. Six picks
(ἐπισκαφεῖα) were provided
either for this work or for
the use of the athletes.[#]
The length of the xystos,
180 metres, is approximately
that of the Delphic
stadium, which was 177
metres.
The lower terrace contains
an irregular enclosure
forming the baths, and a
small palaestra 32 metres
square. The latter consists
of a small court nearly 14
metres square, surrounded
by a colonnade (περίστυλος)
on to which several rooms
open on the north and west
sides. The uses of these
rooms cannot be determined.
The inscription mentions
an apodyterion, a κόνιμα,
and two σφαιριστήρια. The
κόνιμα is probably another
name for the skamma or
wrestling ring which is also
called κονίστρα, and if so
may be identified with the
central court.[#] The wrestling
// File: 511.png
.pn +1
ring was covered with fine sand, and the contract appropriately
mentions the “sifting of the earth” in the konima
(τᾶς γᾶς τὰν σάσιν) at a cost of ten drachmae. The sphairisteria
were rooms, or perhaps open courts, for ball play.
In one of them the ground was to be dug up and rolled,
then carefully raked over and levelled, and finally covered
with black earth. A wall, too, is mentioned in the sphairisterion.
Among the various games of ball practised by the
Greeks we find mention of one which consisted in bouncing
the ball on the ground or against a wall, and striking it back
with the flat of the hand as it rebounded. The object was to
keep it up as many times as possible; the first to miss was
called the donkey, and had to submit to any penalty imposed
by the winner or “king,” as he was called.[#] The palaestra at
Delphi was not spacious enough for games in which the balls
were thrown with any violence, but the carefully prepared
floor and the wall may well have served for the games
described, which seem to have been quite familiar in Plato’s
time. As athletics became professional, ball play seems to
have become increasingly popular, and the ball alley probably
became a recognized part of the palaestra. The little private
palaestra owned by the “Man of Petty Ambitions” (μικροφιλότιμος)
in Theophrastus contains “a wrestling arena and
a sphairisterion,”[#] the two parts mentioned in the Delphic
inscription. Alexander the Great was specially fond of ball
play, and one Aristonicus of Carystus, described as his
“sphairistes,” received at the hands of the Athenians the
citizenship and an honorary statue.[#]
The baths lay in an irregular enclosure to the north of
the palaestra. The washing arrangements are particularly
interesting from their resemblance to what we have seen
pictured on the vases. The whole enclosure was uncovered.
// File: 512.png
.pn +1
The east side of it was formed by the retaining wall of the
upper terrace, and in this wall a series of fountains were
arranged precisely similar to those illustrated in Fig. #180:fig180#. The
water was supplied from the conduit in the upper terrace and
issued through eleven bronze spouts in the shape of animals’
heads, placed at such a height as to fall conveniently over the
head and shoulders of the bathers beneath. It was caught
below in eleven basins, which were used for washing in the
manner represented on the vases, and from the basins it fell
into large stone troughs by which it was carried outside the
building to fall into the Castalian ravine. In the centre of the
enclosure was a circular plunge bath (κολυμβήθρα) 10 metres
in diameter, and 1·80 metres in depth, the sides of which
sloped downwards towards the centre in a series of stone steps.
There were no warm baths in the old gymnasium, but these
seem to have been added in Roman times, and their remains
exist to the north of the older building.
.if h
.il fn=fig185.png w=80% id=fig185 alt="Plan of palaestra at Olympia."
.ca Fig. 185. Plan of palaestra at Olympia.
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 185. Plan of palaestra at Olympia.]
.if-
The gymnasium and palaestra at Olympia[#] (Fig. #185:fig185#), situated
on the left bank of the Cladeus to the north-west of the
Altis, are far more symmetrical in plan and more elaborate than
those at Delphi. The palaestra appears to be somewhat older
than the gymnasium, and was built in the third century B.C. It
is a building 66 metres square enclosing an open court 41 metres
square, surrounded by a colonnade of Doric columns on which
numerous rooms open. There are two entrances at the corners
of the southern wall, and a third door in the middle of the
northern wall gives access to the gymnasium proper. The two
chief entrances consist of pillared vestibules leading into small
anterooms which open on to the covered colonnade. In the
eastern anteroom are remains of a hearth or altar. Between
the two anterooms is a long narrow room or gallery only separated
from the colonnade by a row of pillars, in which we may
certainly recognize the apodyterion. In the north-eastern
corner is a bathroom, and in it were found remains of a
brick-lined bath of Roman date 4 metres square and 1·38 metres
deep. There is another basin in the adjacent corner of the
gymnasium at the point where the southern corridor opens on
to the street. There are no signs in the palaestra or gymnasium
of the warm baths which are so important a feature of the
gymnasium described by Vitruvius. In Roman times warm
// File: 513.png
.pn +1
baths were installed at Olympia not in the palaestra but in
a separate building to the south-west. It is impossible to
determine the uses of the various rooms surrounding the
court. Some of them are closed with doors, and doubtless
served for storing the oil, sand, and other requisites of the
palaestra. The larger rooms are open in front. In five of the
rooms there are remains of stone seats round the walls, and the
floor is paved with concrete. Such rooms must have been used
as exedrai or galleries for the spectators, but hardly, as it is
sometimes stated, as lecture rooms for philosophers and other
teachers, who would certainly have preferred the greater
publicity afforded by the opisthodome of the temple of Zeus or
by the stoai. The palaestra and gymnasium at Olympia must
have been practically confined to the use of competitors, and
the practice of these competitors naturally drew thither crowds
of friends and interested spectators. In some of the rooms there
are traces of altars and bases of statues. Such buildings were
always under the patronage of certain gods and heroes.
// File: 514.png
.pn +1
Hermes was in a special sense the patron of the palaestra, and at
Athens festivals were held there in his honour. At Elis one of
the gymnasia contained altars to Idaean Heracles, to Eros and
Anteros, to Demeter and Persephone, and the statues of the
first three were placed in the gymnasium called Maltho which
was specially reserved for wrestlers. Honorary statues were
also sometimes placed in the gymnasia, and at Olympia there
were tablets inscribed with the lists of Olympic victors.
The most curious feature in the palaestra at Olympia is a
strip of tiled pavement along the north side of the court. It
is 24 metres long by 5 metres broad, and consists of two bands
of rough ribbed tiles 1·60 metres in breadth divided by a band
of smooth tiles 1 metre broad, while a double row of these same
tiles runs along the upper edge of the pavement. The edges
of these smooth tiles are raised so as to form continuous ridges
running the whole length of the pavement. The purpose of
this curious pavement is unknown; it certainly cannot have
been intended as a wrestling ring, or as a jumping ground, as
certain learned writers have with unconscious humour suggested.
The most plausible hypothesis is that it was used for some
unknown game of ball, and this hypothesis finds some support
from the existence of a somewhat similar bowling alley in the
larger Thermae at Pompeii, on which two large heavy stone
balls were actually found.[#]
Of the gymnasium proper which lay to the north of the
palaestra nothing remains but portions of the southern and
eastern colonnades. All the western side has been destroyed
by the floods of the Cladeus. The southern colonnade consisted
of a single row of pillars parallel to the north wall of
the palaestra, with which it communicated by a door in the
centre of the wall. The eastern colonnade was not, however,
continuous with the east wall of the palaestra, but, to avoid the
slope of Mount Cronius, was diverted so as to form a slightly
acute angle with the southern colonnade. It was 210 metres
long by nearly 12 metres broad, and divided into two tracks
by a row of Doric pillars. The similar row of pillars which
formed its western front began only on a level with the third
of the central pillars from the south, and ended with the third
pillar from the north. At these two points are traces of the
attachment of stone sills such as were found in the stadium,
// File: 515.png
.pn +1
and the distance between these two points, 192·27 metres, is
exactly the distance of the Olympic stadium. This double
track was the xystos, or covered running-track, and athletes
could practise there under precisely the same conditions as in
the actual stadium. On the western side of the gymnasium
were rooms for the accommodation of competitors during the
festival, and possibly in front of them another xystos. In the
centre of the open court was constructed a sort of stone stand
for the spectators described by Pausanias as κρηπίς, the term
which he uses for the rows of stone steps below the treasury
terrace in the Altis. But of this and of the lodgings of the
athletes, and of the paradromides or uncovered tracks which
doubtless existed here, not a trace is left.
The gymnasia at Epidaurus and Delos belong apparently
to the same period, and as far as can be judged from their
scanty remains were very similar in type. They bear a much
closer resemblance to the buildings described by the Roman
architect Vitruvius, who lived in the time of Augustus, than
do the elaborate gymnasia of later times, which we find at
Ephesus and Pergamum. They differ, however, from the
Vitruvian type in the absence of hot baths. In Lucian’s time
the Lyceum at Athens certainly possessed a hot bath and a
plunge bath, and perhaps these existed in Hellenistic times.
It is probable that such gymnasia, which were the daily resort
of the inhabitants of Athens, resembled the Vitruvian type
more closely than did the gymnasia of Olympia and Delphi,
which were chiefly used at the seasons of the festivals by
competitors. Now that excavation has revealed to us the
actual plans of so many gymnasia and palaestrae, the descriptions
of Vitruvius are of only secondary importance, and it
is needless to discuss the various reconstructions of his
plans which the reader will find fully treated in all books
of reference. It will be sufficient here to discuss briefly
such of the various parts of the building mentioned by him
as have not already been noticed.
The palaestra of Vitruvius is of the same type as that
at Olympia, a square court surrounded by colonnades on to
which the various rooms enter. On three sides the colonnades
are single, and the rooms are provided with benches for the
use of philosophers, rhetoricians, and men of letters, who can
sit there and converse with one another, or lecture to their
// File: 516.png
.pn +1
pupils. The colonnade on the fourth side, which faces south
in the ideal palaestra, is double, and the rooms behind it are
devoted to the needs of those who take exercise in the
palaestra. These rooms are elaborations of the simple apodyterion
and bathroom. In the centre is a large hall provided
with seats called the ephebeion,[#] which probably served
rather as a general club-room for the epheboi than as a
dressing-room. For dressing and washing, full provision is
made in the rooms to left and right.
To the right are the elaiothesion, and a series of rooms
connected with the hot baths. The elaiothesion is the room
where the oil was stored, and perhaps also where athletes
and bathers oiled themselves. Oil was used not only before
exercise, but both before and after the bath. A large supply
was required, and, as has been already mentioned, there was
no better way in which a gymnasiarchos could show his
liberality than by providing oil for the use of the epheboi
at his own expense. We even hear of cases where a sum
of money was left to form an endowment for this purpose.[#]
The oil was kept in amphorae or tanks. A picture of such
// File: 517.png
.pn +1
a tank occurs on the funeral stele found at Prusa of one
Diodorus, a gymnasiarchos, who, we may suppose, had celebrated
his term of office by himself providing the oil (Fig. #186:fig186#). It is
a large circular tank, somewhat resembling a font, supported on
three elaborately wrought legs. On its side hang three ladles
(ἀρυτῆρες), which were used for measuring out the oil. Each
perhaps held a kyathos, a small liquid measure equal to about
1/12 of a pint. A Spartan inscription referring to some athletic
contest, perhaps the Leonidaea, directs that the gymnasiarchos
shall provide daily four kyathoi for each man, three for
each ageneios, and two for each boy.
.if h
.il fn=fig186.png w=100% id=fig186 alt="Stele of Diodorus."
.ca Fig. 186. Stele of Diodorus. Prusa. (Imperial period.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 186. Stele of Diodorus. Prusa. (Imperial period.)]
.if-
Next to the elaiothesion comes the frigidarium, a term
usually denoting the cold bath, but here apparently corresponding
to the tepidarium of the Roman baths, a room kept at a
moderate temperature, heated if necessary by a brazier, where
bathers were oiled and scraped and massaged before or
after the bath.[#] A passage separates this room from the
propnigeion, a hot-air chamber connected with the furnace,
and adjoining this is the large vaulted sweating-room
(concamerata sudatio) which contains the hot-water bath (calda
lavatio) and the hot-air bath (laconicum). It is curious
to find one of the principal parts of those luxurious hot
baths bearing a name which denotes its Spartan origin.
Perhaps the Spartans employed this means of reducing weight
in training. Exposure to the heat of the sun’s rays was a
recognized part of athletic training, and helped to give the
skin the rich brown tone which the Greeks so greatly admired.
Philostratus in the chapter in which he deals with this point
ridicules the use of the sweating-bath (πυριατήριον) and rubbing
with oil without a bath (ξηραλοιφεῖν) as parts of the unscientific
system of training adopted by the Spartans, the object of
which was merely to produce the power of endurance.[#]
// File: 518.png
.pn +1
On the other side of the ephebeion are three rooms, the
korykeion, the konisterion, and the cold bath. The korykeion
can hardly mean anything else than the room of the korykos,
or punch-ball. Some writers have objected to this interpretation
on the ground that the korykos was not of sufficient
importance to have a room especially allotted to its use,
and they have therefore suggested that the korykos referred
to in this term was not a punch-ball but a basket or string
bag, in which visitors to the palaestra brought their luncheon.
The explanation is ingenious, but hardly satisfactory. The
punch-ball, as we have seen, was known in the fifth century,
and is represented on works of art. It was used by boxers
and pankratiasts, and, as has been made clear in the first part
of this work, boxing and the pankration were by far the
most popular events, especially in Hellenistic and Roman times.
Hence it is not evident that the korykos was of secondary
importance. Moreover, it is a most significant coincidence
that the chapter in Philostratus describing the korykos follows
immediately on the chapter on the various kinds of konis,
and in Vitruvius the korykeion and konisterion are next to
one another.
If the above view is correct, the konisterion of Vitruvius is
obviously the powdering-room, where athletes powdered themselves
before exercise. This powder (κόνις) which they used
must not be confused with the lye (κονία) which was used in
washing to form a lather. Indeed, its effects were just the
opposite; instead of forming a lather with the oil it helped to
dry it, and thus counteracted the excessive slipperiness which
the oil produced. Its effects on the body were regarded as no
less beneficial than those of the oil. It closed the pores of the
skin, checked excessive perspiration, and kept the body cool,
thus protecting it from chills and rendering it less susceptible
to fatigue.[#] There were also special sorts of powder credited
with special virtues.[#] One of a clayey nature (πηλώδης) was
supposed to be particularly cleansing; another resembling brick
dust (ὀστρακώδης) produced perspiration in bodies which were
over-dry; a third of bituminous character (ἀσφαλτώδης) warmed
// File: 519.png
.pn +1
the skin. Two sorts, a black and a yellow, both of an earthy
character, were especially prized for making the body supple
and sleek, the yellow in particular imparting to the skin the
glossiness which was the sign of good training. The powder
was kept in baskets (σπυρίδες). Philostratus describes how it
should be applied, thrown on with a supple wrist and the
fingers slightly opened so as to fall like fine dust. But these
are refinements for the few. The ordinary youth contented
himself with the ordinary earth or sand. Lucian in his
Anacharsis describes the youths in the court of the gymnasium
picking up the sand and throwing it over one another. Sometimes
it seems the earth was mixed with water into a sort of
mud, and then the simplest plan was to roll in it. Under the
// File: 520.png
.pn +1
Empire a special sort of ointment (κήρωμα) was used, and the
term ceroma was applied to part of the palaestra; but the
ceroma belongs to Rome, not to Greece.
The gymnasium of Vitruvius occupies an intermediate
position between the true Greek gymnasium and the type
which was prevalent under the Empire. The prominent feature
of the latter is the elaboration of the buildings, especially of
those connected with the warm baths. Indeed, as every bath
had its court for exercise, it is sometimes difficult to decide
whether some particular building was a bathing establishment
or a gymnasium. The most familiar example of these later
gymnasia is that at Ephesus; but as the plans of it are to be
found in every text-book it is unnecessary to discuss it at
length. It consists of a rectangular block of buildings some 80
by 100 metres, standing in the centre of a large enclosed court.
Of this outer enclosure very few traces are left, and the imaginary
restoration of its courts commonly reproduced rests on no other
foundation than the desire of early archaeologists to accomplish
the absolutely impossible task of reproducing in it all the
features of the Vitruvian gymnasium. The central block of
buildings, however, which we may call the palaestra, is fairly
well preserved, although the identification of most of the rooms
is extremely doubtful. Its plan is almost exactly the reverse
of the earlier palaestra. Round three sides of the interior, if
not all four sides, there runs a vaulted colonnade (cryptoporticus),
while the great central courtyard is almost entirely
occupied by the hot baths and buildings connected with them,
the ancient wrestling ring being reduced to a narrow strip along
one side.
.if h
.il fn=fig187.png w=80% id=fig187 alt="Plan of lower gymnasium."
.ca Fig. 187. Plan of lower gymnasium, Priene. (Priene, Fig. 271.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 187. Plan of lower gymnasium, Priene.
(Priene, Fig. 271.)]
.if-
The two gymnasia excavated by the Germans at Priene[#] illustrate
the earlier and the later types. The lower gymnasium (Fig.
#187:fig187#) which adjoins the stadium near the south wall of the town
appears to have been built between the years 130 and 120 B.C.
It is very similar in plan to the Vitruvian palaestra, consisting
of a court about 35 metres square surrounded by a colonnade.
On the north side, facing south, the colonnade is double, as
recommended by Vitruvius. On this side and on the west a
number of rooms open into it; on the other two sides there are
none. The entrance is in the centre of the west side, and is
in the form of an Ionic propylaion. To the north of it is an
// File: 521.png
.pn +1
exedra fitted with stone benches, and in the north-west corner is
the Loutron or bathroom, which is in excellent preservation and
extremely interesting. Along the north side is placed a row of
stone troughs into which water flows from a row of lions’ heads
about 3 feet from the ground (Fig. #188:fig188#). On either side of the
doorway in the south wall are remains of stone benches, in front
of which are troughs in the floor, so that people could sit there
and bathe their feet. There is no trace of any hot baths in this
gymnasium. In the centre of the north wall is the ephebeion,
a large lofty room, open in front save for two massive pillars.
There are stone benches round the walls, the upper part of
which was decorated by an elaborate arrangement of half
pillars and architraves, on either side of a round arched niche
containing a large statue of a draped man. The walls and
pillars are covered with names of those who used the hall,
usually in the form ὁ τόπος Νέστορος τοῦ Νέστορος, “the place
of Nestor, the son of Nestor.” Another large hall at the north-east
corner has some traces of shelves, and may have been used
// File: 522.png
.pn +1
as a place for undressing and leaving clothes. The northern
side of the gymnasium is cut out of the slope of the hill, and
was evidently two-storied. Above the ephebeion seems to have
been a large square room cut still farther back into the hill.
Perhaps there was an entrance from the street above into this
upper story. These upper rooms may have served as class-rooms.
In Hellenistic times the gymnasium was often a school
where training was given for mind as well as body.
.if h
.il fn=fig188.png w=100% id=fig188 alt="Bathroom in gymnasium at Priene."
.ca Fig. 188. Bathroom in gymnasium at Priene. (Priene, Fig. 278.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 188. Bathroom in gymnasium at Priene.
(Priene, Fig. 278.)]
.if-
The upper gymnasium at Priene stood in the middle of
the town. It was the older of the two, for we learn from an
inscription that it already existed at the time when the lower
gymnasium was being built. In its original plan it seems to
have been very similar; but so many alterations have been
made in it, and so much subsequent building has taken place
on the site, that we cannot be certain of its details. What is
certain is that in Roman times it was provided with hot baths.
These baths are referred to in an interesting inscription detailing
the services rendered by one Zosimus, who lived perhaps in the
first century B.C. “From a desire that every young man might
attend the gymnasium for the culture of his body, he had the
furnace lighted all through the winter.”[#]
Zosimus seems to have been an enthusiastic educationalist.
Not only did he provide for the physical training and recreation
of the young “a punch-ball, and hoops, and also balls and
weapons,” he also provided for the students a teacher in
literature. He instituted competitions in all accomplishments
of mind and body, and showed the most lavish generosity in
furnishing oil and unguents in the gymnasium and in the bath,
for all visitors to the festivals of Priene. Among the competitions
which he instituted were a “squill fight” (σκιλλομαχία),
and boxing in clothes (ἐν εἵμασι). For the former he gave a
heifer as a prize, while each successful boxer received a golden
fillet. The precise meaning of the “squill fight” is uncertain;
it was perhaps some sort of ceremonial contest connected with
the worship of Pan. The wearing of clothes in boxing was
possibly a concession to the Roman prejudice against nudity.
Equally interesting are the extensive remains of the gymnasia
at Pergamum recently excavated by the German archaeologists.[#]
These remains belong mostly to the second century
// File: 523.png
.pn +1
A.D., but many traces of earlier buildings survive. Built
originally in the second century B.C., or earlier, under the early
kings of Pergamum, the gymnasia underwent various modifications
and reconstructions in the succeeding centuries, and may
be regarded as typical of the gymnasia existing in Hellenistic
and Roman times in these rich cities of the East, which, after
the loss of Greek independence, became the chief centres of
athletic activity. Like the gymnasium at Delphi, they bear
witness to the ingenuity of the Greeks in adapting their buildings
to the exigencies of the ground, while the magnitude of
the work involved is a striking proof of the wealth of the
Attalidae. They were built on a series of three terraces cut
out of the steep face of the hill above the road which led up
to the upper city. The lowest terrace at its western end is
some twelve metres above the road, and the other terraces
are about the same height above one another. The terraces
are supported by numerous retaining walls, strengthened by
buttresses and cross walls forming a series of compartments
filled up with earth and rubble. Each terrace formed a
separate gymnasium, devoted respectively to the use of boys,
epheboi, and young men. It seems that there were originally
four terraces, corresponding perhaps to the four gymnasia
mentioned in an inscription of the time of Attalus III. (146
B.C.).[#] In the time of Tiberius, Pergamum possessed five
gymnasia, and at a later period six, but the site of these
additional gymnasia is unknown at present. Elder men, and
foreigners too, had the privilege of using the gymnasia. An
inscription in honour of Metrodorus,[#] a gymnasiarchos who
lived at the close of the second century B.C., records that
besides offering prizes for boys and epheboi he spent a considerable
sum in providing “elder men” with “all things necessary
for their health.” The generosity of these gymnasiarchoi is
frequently recorded in inscriptions. The office seems to have
been held by the most distinguished citizens. The general
direction of education was in the hands of four Paidonomoi.
.if h
.il fn=fig189.png w=100% id=fig189 alt="Plan of gymnasia at Pergamun."
.ca Fig. 189. Plan of gymnasia at Pergamum. (Simplified from Ath. Mitth.)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 189. Plan of gymnasia at Pergamum.
(Simplified from Ath. Mitth.)]
.if-
The general arrangement of the buildings will be sufficiently
clear from the accompanying plan (Fig. #189:fig189#). The lowest terrace,
which was the gymnasium of the boys, consists of a narrow
triangle, about 80 metres long and 25 broad at its widest
point, divided into two parts by a wall. Its northern side
// File: 524.png
.pn +1
is formed by the retaining wall of the middle terrace, the
buttresses of which form niches containing long stone bases on
which were placed statues and stelai. One of these stelai contains
a list of boys who have passed out into the ranks of the
epheboi. The middle terrace forms the gymnasium of the
latter. It measures 150 by 36 metres, and contains at its
eastern end a small Corinthian temple, the walls of which seem
to have been covered with lists of epheboi. The northern side is
formed by a long double colonnade, and beyond it to the east
a series of rooms, one of which is an exedra open to the front.
This double colonnade, which is two metres above the level of
the court, seems to have replaced an earlier single colonnade.
The upper terrace is far the most extensive. It contains
the gymnasium of the young men, and to the east the thermae
or hot baths. This gymnasium is identified on account of its
size with what is called in an inscription “The Panegyric
Gymnasium,” where doubtless public festivals and competitions
were held. It consisted of an open court 36 by 74 metres,
surrounded by a Corinthian colonnade of the time of Hadrian,
which replaced an earlier Doric building. In front of the
pillars are bases on which statues were placed. Numerous
rooms opened on to the colonnade, those on the north being
especially spacious. One of these, a large hall with an apse at
either end, is named by the excavators the Imperial Hall, on
account of an inscription which it has on the architrave, “To
the Emperors and the Fatherland.” The floor of the court is unpaved,
but at the north-east corner is a small circular pavement
which may mark the site of a washing-fountain. Along the
south side of the gymnasium is a long corridor extending a
considerable distance beyond the gymnasium on either side to
a total length of 200 metres, which was obviously the xystos
or running track, and behind this track are some thirty or more
small rooms which may have served as lodgings for competitors.
These rooms must have been a late addition; for in the original
building there ran underneath the half-open corridor a second
vaulted corridor, the windows of which must have been blocked
by the later buildings. This covered running track (crypto-porticus)
seems originally to have looked out on a fourth
terrace dividing the upper and middle terraces, the northern
half of which was subsequently occupied by the foundations
of the rooms described, while the southern half was dug away
// File: 525.png
// File: 526.png
.pn +2
so as to form part of the new double colonnade of the middle
terrace. From this date the vaulted corridor became useless
for athletic purposes. The eastern half of the terrace is
occupied by the thermae, with the details of which we are not
concerned.
Pending the final publication of the results of the excavations,
it is useless to try to determine the uses of the various
buildings. Some of these are mentioned in inscriptions.
Diodorus, the son of Heroidas,[#] a distinguished citizen who
filled the office of gymnasiarchos about the year 127 B.C.,
restored the gymnasium of the young men, and repaired the
covered colonnade, περίπατος, surrounding the court. Further,
finding that the konisterion or dusting-room was quite
unworthy of the gymnasium, he built another at his own expense
with a marble exedra in front, and rebuilt in marble the
cold bath adjoining it. Metrodorus, whom we have already
mentioned, placed several public basins (ληνοί) in the bathroom
and improved the water-supply. He placed in the sphairisterion
two public basins described as λουτῆρας, which seem to
have been used to hold oil, and he also made suitable provision
for the safe keeping of clothes. In recognition of these gifts
his statue was erected in the paradromis of the gymnasium.
Athletics being an essential part of Greek education, the
gymnasia were naturally under the control of the various
magistrates charged with the education and discipline of the
young. The titles and functions of these magistrates and also
of the officials who formed the staff of the gymnasia varied
considerably at different times and places, and the differences
between them are therefore very ill-defined. To discuss them
fully is impossible within the limits of this book, nor would it
be profitable, most of the details which we know about them
belonging to Hellenistic and Roman periods. I shall, therefore,
confine myself to a brief general account of the most important
of these officials, referring the reader for fuller details to special
works dealing with the subject.
The gymnasiarchos[#] must have been originally the magistrate
in charge of the gymnasium, and it can only be an accident
// File: 527.png
.pn +1
that the earliest officials of this name whom we know of, the
gymnasiarchoi of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries, had
no such general control of the gymnasia and were little more
than lampadarchoi, responsible for the training of teams for
the various torch-races which were one of the favourite amusements
of the Athenian populace. Perhaps the reason for this
narrow use of the term was that from the time of Solon, the
discipline and education of the young, and consequently the
supervision of the gymnasia, was in the hands of a board of ten
called sophronistai, while at the close of the fourth century
we find a single magistrate, the kosmetes, apparently taking
over their functions and exercising supreme control over the
epheboi. Hence there was at Athens no room for a special
gymnasiarchos such as we find in many Greek states from the
third century onwards, and such as must undoubtedly have
existed at a much earlier date, if we may trust the obvious
meaning of the title.
The gymnasiarchia at Athens was one of the regular
leitourgiai or public services exacted from rich citizens for the
benefit of the sovereign people. The duty of the gymnasiarchos
in early days was to train a team of youths or of boys, or
sometimes two teams, for one of the many torch-races. These
teams represented the different tribes, each one of which
selected a certain number of names of rich tribesmen and
submitted them to the King Archon to make the final choice.
The selected gymnasiarchos had to collect and train a team,
find their instructors, provide oil and torches, and pay for all
other expenses. If his team was successful he dedicated a
memorial of the victory to the gods, and in return for all his
trouble his name figured alone or at the head of his epheboi in
the official list of victors, and in records of the victory. He
doubtless exercised some authority over the epheboi in his
tribe, or at least over those in his team, but had no general
control over the public gymnasia.
In Hellenistic and Roman times the gymnasiarchos appears
as a sort of minister of education, maintaining discipline among
the young, exercising control over the gymnasia, and generally
providing out of his own pocket many of the expenses incurred.
Sometimes the gymnasiarchia is still a voluntary service.
Such was the case at Athens, and in many other states
especially in Asia Minor under the Empire. Among the
// File: 528.png
.pn +1
distinguished men who undertook this office we find Marcus
Antonius at Athens and at Alexandria, Tiberius and
Germanicus at Salamis in Cyprus, Titus at Naples, Hadrian at
Eleusis, and, needless to say, Herodes Atticus at Athens. The
office was usually held for a year, but was sometimes voluntarily
renewed and even continued for life and handed down from
father to son. We even hear of women serving as gymnasiarchoi.
Generally in the last three centuries B.C. the gymnasiarchia
is not a leitourgia but a public magistracy. The gymnasiarchos
is appointed by the assembly and holds office for one
year. At Ceos[#] he has to be over thirty years of age. An
inscription from Phintia[#] tells us that he has charge of the
epheboi, the neoteroi, and generally of those who use the
gymnasia, and of all business connected with the gymnasia.
He is assisted by subordinates, sometimes by a hypogymnasiarchos,
sometimes by a paidonomos who looks after the younger
boys, sometimes by other gymnasiarchoi responsible for youths
of different ages. At Teos[#] he is charged with the appointment
and payment of the hoplomachos and the instructor in
the use of the bow and the javelin. He is responsible for the
discipline of the young, checks rioting or disorder among
them, supervises their education in literature as well as athletics,
above all he personally superintends the military training of
the epheboi, and organises competitions to test their efficiency,
He maintains discipline sometimes with the rod, sometimes
by means of fines.
Whether the gymnasiarchia was a leitourgia or a public
magistracy it involved considerable expense. The sums
allotted by the state for the service of the gymnasia were often
ludicrously inadequate, and the gymnasiarchos had usually to
supplement them out of his own pocket; often indeed, disdaining
to use the public money at all, he provided for all expenses
himself. The chief expense was the provision of oil. Even
in a small state like Iasos the supply of oil for a single
gymnasium cost 450 denarii a month.[#] During the Empire
the number of competitions, and consequently the expenses for
oil and other purposes, were multiplied at an extraordinary
rate. At Tauromenium the number of competitions rose from
// File: 529.png
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twenty-four a year in A.D. 69 to eighty-one in A.D. 92.[#]
Sacrifices, processions, feasts, prizes afforded ample scope to
the liberality of the gymnasiarchos, which often took a more
permanent form in costly repairs and additions to the buildings
of the gymnasia and baths.
The gymnasiarchoi described above must not be confused
with the ephebic gymnasiarchoi at Athens, officers elected by
the epheboi from their own ranks. The expenses of training
were borne to a great extent by the epheboi themselves, and
they seem, therefore, often to have elected as captains rich
youths who were willing to provide wholly or in part for the
public expenses, for any period from a month to a year.
The actual teachers were the paidotribes and the gymnastes.
The paidotribes, as his name denotes, was properly the teacher
of boys, who trained their bodies as the schoolmaster did their
minds; the gymnastes was the trainer of athletes for athletic
competitions. This is the original distinction between the
two, and though in practice their functions often overlapped,
and though in Plato the terms are practically synonymous,
the original distinction never entirely disappeared.
The paidotribes existed long before the gymnastes, for
athletic exercises formed part of the national education long
before the demand for specialised athletic training arose. From
the time of Solon education was in the hands of the paidotribes
and the schoolmaster.[#] In most states education was voluntary,
and the paidotribai were usually private teachers, who
received fees for their services. In the fourth century the
fee seems to have been a mina (about £4) for the whole course.[#]
Many of the paidotribai had palaestrae of their own; failing
that, they must have taken their pupils to the public
palaestrae and gymnasia, which they must in any case have
used for such exercises as required more space than could
be found in the ordinary palaestra.[#] Besides those private
paidotribai who took pupils from the age of seven upwards,
there were others who were paid by the state to superintend
the training of the epheboi. At Teos the paidotribes received
in the third century 500 drachmae a year.[#] The training of
the epheboi was practical and military and had no connexion
// File: 530.png
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with professional athletics, and the paidotribes regularly figures
in the ephebic inscriptions down to the latest times.
Thus the paidotribes had charge of boys from their seventh
to their twentieth year. But the training which he gave was
not of course sufficient for those who aspired to win prizes in the
great games. These required special natural abilities and
special practice for the development of their natural abilities;
and the special practice they required was supplied by the
gymnastai.[#] There was, however, nothing to prevent a
successful paidotribes if he possessed the necessary skill and
knowledge employing them in training athletes. It was not
every one who could afford the services of a champion boxer or
wrestler. Further, the paidotribes might also devote himself to
medical gymnastics.[#] Herodicus of Selymbria, the founder of
medical gymnastics, is said to be have been a paidotribes who
suffered from ill-health, and discovered from personal experience
the means of treating disease by diet and exercise. Hence
the paidotribes might be also a gymnastes. But such training
and such knowledge were really outside his sphere, which was
that of the drill sergeant, whose duty it is to teach certain definite
movements and exercises to boys of various ages. As athletics
became more and more professional, and medical gymnastics
developed, the difference between the paidotribes and the
gymnastes increased, till in Galen and Philostratus we find the
paidotribes subordinated to the gymnastes as the mere drill
sergeant to the professor of physical culture. Galen compares
them respectively to the cook and the physician.[#]
The gymnastes can hardly have come into existence much
before the beginning of the fifth century.[#] His work consisted
partly in perfecting his pupils in some particular form of
athletics, partly in developing their strength and training them
into proper condition. The earlier gymnastai, such as those
whom we read of in Pindar and Bacchylides, devoted themselves
chiefly to practical instruction. They were often themselves
successful athletes, especially boxers and wrestlers, who having
retired from competition took to teaching, and were doubtless
richly rewarded by their patrons. Such was Melesias the
// File: 531.png
.pn +1
trainer of thirty victors in wrestling and the pankration;[#]
Iccus of Tarentum, a winner in the pentathlon at Olympia in
Ol. 76, the most celebrated trainer of his day; Dromeus of
Stymphalus and Pythagoras of Samos, to whom were attributed
the introduction of a meat diet. These trainers, like other
teachers, went wherever they could find a market. Menander
of Athens trained Pytheas of Aegina to victory.[#] We cannot
for a moment suppose that men like these descended to the
work of the ordinary paidotribes, though, as I have suggested,
the reverse must often have been the case. It was an age of
science, and in the hands of gymnastai and paidotribai there
arose in the middle of the fifth century a new science of
gymnastic which aimed not at the performance of particular
exercises but at the production of certain physical conditions
(ἕξις),[#] especially the condition required for athletic success. Its
professors in the fourth century are in ordinary speech called
paidotribai, and Isocrates[#] describes it as a branch of the art
of the paidotribes, undoubtedly because so many paidotribai
professed it. The new science was closely allied to medicine.
The trainer, like the doctor, required some knowledge of diet
and the effects on the body of different kinds of food;[#] he
required, too, some knowledge of the body itself, and the effect
on it of various exercises; he required, too, to be a judge of the
human animal, and to be able to tell in what form of athletics
any individual had most chance of excelling, and what particular
form of training he required.[#] The ideal gymnastes, according
to Aristotle,[#] should know what is the ideally best condition for
the ideally best man, what is the best for the average man,
and what is the best for any particular man. Unfortunately
the art of the gymnastes was almost from the first connected
with the training of professional athletes, and the condition
which they aimed at was that artificial condition required for
success in some particular form of athletics. At the same time
medical gymnastics was corrupted by the quackery which
from the fourth century was rampant in all departments of
knowledge.[#]
// File: 532.png
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There were also other officials connected with the gymnasia.
The xystarches was the president of one of those guilds of
professional athletes which we find under the Empire. The
aleiptes was properly the person who oiled and rubbed people
who exercised in the gymnasia. This was part of the work of
the paidotribes or the gymnastes, and it is doubtful whether
there were special officials for the purpose. In Aristotle
aleiptes is merely another name for gymnastes.[#] In Roman
times we find slaves (unctores) performing this work in the
public baths, and possibly these existed in the Greek gymnasia.
Subordinate officials are also mentioned, the hypopaidotribes or
assistant, and others who had charge of the palaestra and its
contents, variously described as palaistrophylax, epimeletes,
epistates. Besides these there were in Hellenistic times special
instructors for special exercises, the sphairistes who taught
ball-play, the akontistes and toxotes who gave instruction in
the use of the javelin and the bow, and the hoplomachos who
gave lessons in the use of arms.
Of the special training prescribed for athletes little is known
beyond a few details as to diet which have been noticed in the
earlier chapters of this book, and a few other details noticed
under the special exercises with which they are connected.
There were manuals of athletic training, but all are lost except
the late treatise by Philostratus to which we have so often
referred. With regard to athletics as a branch of education
we are somewhat better informed, and it is instructive to
compare the physical training given in the fifth and fourth
centuries B.C. with the system described by Galen in the second
century A.D.
The training given in the earlier period was based on those
athletic exercises which at all times formed the programme
of Greek athletic meetings. To these we may add ball-play,
which is enumerated by Plautus among the exercises which
formed a young Greek’s training till the age of twenty.[#] These
exercises were taught progressively, at first the simple movements
// File: 533.png
.pn +1
or positions (σχήματα) separately, then combinations
of these movements which involved more exertion.[#] Many of
these movements admitted of being taught to classes as drill to
the accompaniment of music. Such drill, especially with halteres,
is sometimes represented on vases.[#] The various holds and
throws of wrestling were taught in this way, and we possess
on the Oxyrhynchus papyrus, to which we have already
referred, a portion of such a wrestling lesson.[#] Dances
could be utilised in the same way: the movements of wrestling
were imitated in a dance performed by Spartan boys
called the gymnopaidike[#] just as the movements of war were
imitated in the Pyrrhic and other war dances. In the fourth
century particular attention was given to exercises of a military
character, the use of weapons of all sorts, and riding, but these
exercises must have been confined chiefly to older pupils of the
age of the epheboi. Proficiency in all the various exercises
taught was encouraged by numerous festivals and local competitions
where prizes were offered for boys of various ages.
The training of teams for the torch-races and choirs for dancing
competitions, though not formally a part of the education given
by the paidotribes, must have afforded those who took part in
them a considerable amount of healthy and agreeable exercise.
Life in this period was spent mostly in the open air, and the
formal training of the palaestra was supplemented by hunting,
swimming, rowing, and other forms of exercise. Cities in
Greece were small, and hunting was as a rule easily obtainable.
In Attica, owing to the increase of population and the spread
of cultivation, game was scarce, and sport had therefore declined
in Xenophon’s time; but the red-figured vases prove its
popularity in the fifth century. Swimming and diving were
common recreations. Every Greek could swim, and not to know
how to swim was as much a sign of an uneducated person as
ignorance of letters.[#] Rowing must also have been a universal
accomplishment, at least among the Greeks who lived near the
sea; but we know nothing of the teaching of rowing or
swimming. Probably the Greek boy taught himself to swim
and row or picked it up from his fellows.
Here too the element of competition came in. At Hermione
we hear of a competition in diving (or perhaps swimming[#]),
// File: 534.png
.pn +1
and also boat-races.[#] We have seen that boat-racing took place
at the Isthmia and at various Athenian festivals. There was
also a boat-race at the Actian festival in the time of Augustus;
and Professor Percy Gardner has shown that there is a possible
reference to this contest on the coins of Corcyra and Nicopolis,
on which a victorious galley is sometimes represented. The
coins suggest a race between galleys such as that described
in the Aeneid, but the boats used in the Athenian races were
probably not triremes, but small boats with a single bank of
oars, tender-boats (ὑπηρετικά) such as always accompanied a
fleet. A boat of this description is depicted on a stele in the
Museum of Athens of Hellenistic or Roman period (Fig. #190:fig190#).
It is a long narrow boat with a pointed beak in front, and a curved
aplustre at the stern, and in it there sit eight oarsmen. There
is no sign of the oars. The men are naked and are sitting at
ease, and bow, who is the smallest of the crew, holds a palm-branch.
The number eight is of course a pure accident.
There is no cox in the boat, but on the upper part of the
stele are three figures standing, a draped figure in the centre,
probably the gymnasiarchos who fitted out and trained the
crew, on his left a naked youth bearing a palm, on his right
a youth in a chlamys crowning the man in the centre. These
two Professor Gardner identifies with the stroke and cox of
the victorious crew.
.if h
.il fn=fig190.png w=100% id=fig190 alt="Stele representing vistorious crew."
.ca Fig. 190. Stele representing victorious crew. Athens. (Hellenistic period?)
.if-
.if t
[Illustration: Fig. 190. Stele representing victorious crew. Athens. (Hellenistic period?)]
.if-
// File: 535.png
.pn +1
When we come to Galen, we seem to pass from the free and
open atmosphere of the playing-field and the country into the
artificial air of the town gymnasium. The simple exercises of
the earlier period, so inseparably bound up with the lives and
habits of the people, have given place to a scientific system
of physical training based on the teaching of generations of
gymnastai. In his treatise on Health[#] he describes at length the
exercises suited for youths between the ages of fourteen and
twenty-one. He distinguishes exercises for the legs, the arms,
and the trunk. He further classifies exercises into those which
exert the muscles and give them tone without violent movement
(τὰ εὔτονα), quick movements which promote activity (τὰ τάχεα),
and violent exercises (τὰ σφόδρα). As examples of the first
class he mentions digging, driving, carrying heavy weights,
rope-climbing, and exercises of resistance such as holding the
arms extended while another person tries to pull them down.
Among quick exercises he enumerates running, sparring, the
use of the korykos or punch-ball, ball-play, rolling on the
ground “either alone or with others,” an exercise which seems
to resemble “tackling” at football, and a variety of leg and
arm movements. Many of these movements are well known
in our modern physical drill. That known as ἐκπλεθρίζειν is
the familiar running figure in which the runner runs in an
ever-decreasing circle till he comes to the centre. Another
exercise (πιτυλίζειν) consisted in marching on the toes, and at
the same time swinging the arms. The leg exercises include
jumping up and down, and raising the legs alternately backwards
and forwards. The arm exercises are the usual dumb-bell
movements performed rapidly without dumb-bells, with
the hands either open or clenched. Finally, any of the exercises
of the first class may become violent if practised rapidly and
without interruption, and quick exercises become so if practised
with weights or in heavy armour. Besides prescribing exercises
Galen lays down elaborate rules for the time of exercise, and
for massage both before and after exercise. The actual teaching
of these exercises must have been in the hands of paidotribai,
but the direction of the training and the arrangement of the
exercises is, according to Galen, the work of the gymnastes, who
alone has a scientific knowledge of physical training.
The details of this training are full of interest to the student
// File: 536.png
.pn +1
of education and hygiene. There is, indeed, little in our modern
systems of physical education which he will not find anticipated
in Greek medical writings. We do not know how far Galen’s
principles were ever carried into practice, though we may
suspect that it was only in the case of individuals, and that
they had little influence on the nation. But of this we may
be certain, that physical training did not, and could not, do
for Galen’s contemporaries what athletics had done for their
ancestors. Nor can physical training ever take the place of
our own games. For it lacks the element of competition and
cannot inspire. There is no antagonism between the two.
Both are valuable, but their spheres are different. Physical
training is a branch of education—a most important branch,
and one hitherto shamefully neglected in England—and it
must therefore be carried out under discipline: it is a matter
of compulsion. Athletics and games are, or ought to be, a
matter of free choice, and compulsion tends to kill the spirit
of joy which is their essence. Physical training develops the
body and imparts habits of discipline, but it cannot impart
those still higher qualities, courage, endurance, self-control,
courtesy, qualities which are developed by our own games, or
by such manly sports as boxing and wrestling when conducted
in the true spirit of friendly rivalry: it cannot teach boys “to
play the game” in the battle of life; it could never have
inspired the poetry of Pindar, or the art of Myron.
.fn #
Od. iv. 605.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. vi. 126. Cp. Eur. Andromache, 599.
.fn-
.fn #
Eur. Hipp. 229; Hec. 207.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. v. 15, 8; vi. 21, 2.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristoph. Av. 141; Antiphon, Tetr. ii.
.fn-
.fn #
Axioch. 366 C, 367 A.
.fn-
.fn #
Xen. Rep. Ath. 2, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
E.g. Taureas (Plato, Charm. 153), Timagetus (Theocrit. ii. 8), Sibyrtius
(Plut. Alcib. 3), Hippocrates (Plut. Vit. dec. or. 837), Timeas and Antigonus in
second century (I.G. ii. 444, 445, 446). Cp. Staseas at Delos (B.C.H., 1891,
p. 255).
.fn-
.fn #
M. Fougères (Dar.-Sagl., s.v. “Gymnasium”) considers the earliest gymnasium
to be that of Messene, which he identifies with the colonnade surrounding the
sphendone of what is usually considered to be the stadium. The identification
and the date of the building must be regarded as very doubtful in the absence of
more systematic excavation.
.fn-
.fn #
ii. 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Euthydemus.
.fn-
.fn #
Phaedr. 227 A.
.fn-
.fn #
Theaetet. 144 C; Aristoph. Nub. 1005.
.fn-
.fn #
Gerh. A. V. 272, and supra, Figs. #63:fig063#, #64:fig064#.
.fn-
.fn #
Gerh. A. V. 272, 294.
.fn-
.fn #
Hartwig, Meisterschal. liii.; Freeman, Schools of Hellas, Pl. x.
.fn-
.fn #
The hare was frequently offered as a present. Gerh. A. V. 275, 276, 280,
290.
.fn-
.fn #
Demosth. in Timocr. 114.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Theaet. 144 C.
.fn-
.fn #
Mus. Greg. i. 37: Schreiber, Atlas, xxiii. 9.
.fn-
.fn #
Helbig, Führer, p. 388.
.fn-
.fn #
Hdt. iv. 75; Aristoph. Eq. 1060; Nub. 835, 991, 1045.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Legg. vi. 761.
.fn-
.fn #
Roulez, Vases peints du Musée de Leyde, Pl. 19. A similar scene in a
woman’s bath occurs on a b.-f. amphora in Berlin 1843. Vide Schreiber, Atlas,
xxi. 9, lvii. 4.
.fn-
.fn #
Aristoph. Ran. 710.
.fn-
.fn #
Tischbein, i. 58; Schreiber, Atlas, xxiii. 3.
.fn-
.fn #
Dar.-Sagl., Fig. 747; Schreiber, Atlas, lvii. 5.
.fn-
.fn #
Homolle, B.C.H., 1899, pp. 560 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
The purchase of a pick (σκαφεῖον)
and rollers (τροχιλείαι) for
the palaestra is mentioned in
the Delian accounts for 279 B.C.,
B.C.H., 1890, p. 397, ll. 98, 99;
cp. p. #488# note 2, for similar purchases in other years.
.fn-
.fn #
Similarly in Ath. Mitth. v. 232 τὸ πυριατήριον καὶ τὸ κόνισμα; Lebas
Waddington, Inscr. As. Min. 1112 λουτρῶνα καί κόνισμα. The open court for
exercise was an essential part of every bath. The κόνισμα must not be confused
with the konisterion or powdering-room of Vitruvius.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Theaet. 146 A, and Schol. on the same. The game of bouncing the
ball on the ground was called ἀπόρραξις.
.fn-
.fn #
Char. xxi. αὐλίδιον παλαιστριαῖον κόνιν ἔχον καὶ σφαιριστήριον. This
palaestra he lends to philosophers, sophists, fencing-masters (ὁπλόμαχοι) and
musicians for their displays, at which he will himself appear on the scene rather
late in order that the spectators may say one to another, “This is the owner of
the palaestra.”
.fn-
.fn #
Athen. i. 34, p. 19 A.
.fn-
.fn #
Ol. Text. ii. pp. 113, 127.
.fn-
.fn #
Overbeck, Pompeii, 4th Ed., p. 219.
.fn-
.fn #
For the sake of uniformity I have kept the Greek spelling of the names of
different rooms instead of the Latin forms actually used in Vitruvius.
.fn-
.fn #
For references to the numerous inscriptions connected with the provision of
oil vide Dar.-Sagl., s.vv. “Gymnasiarchia,” p. 1682, “Gymnasium,” p. 1689.
.fn-
.fn #
In inscriptions we find mention of a special room called ἀλειπτήριον, which
is sometimes used as synonymous with palaestra or gymnasium, just as οἱ
ἀλειφόμεινοι is equivalent to οἱ γυμναζόμενοι. Vide Hermes, vii. 42; C.I.G. 2782,
l. 25; B.C.H. xii. p. 326.
.fn-
.fn #
Phil. Gym. 58. I am pleased to find the explanation of ξηραλοιφεῖν given
above, which had occurred to me independently, anticipated and confirmed by
Jüthner in his recent edition of Philostratus. The word occurs in a decree of
Solon quoted by Aeschines. Galen defines it as rubbing with pure oil as opposed
to χυτλοῦσθαι, rubbing with oil mixed with water. But this distinction can
hardly be ascribed to Solon or to the Spartans. The latter appear to have used
a primitive kind of sweating-bath in the open air (Strabo, iii. 3, 6), and the
rubbing connected with such a bath might well be described as ξηραλοιφεῖν in
contrast with the rubbing usual in other parts of Greece, which was associated
with bathing or washing in water. Jüthner, pp. 181, 182.
.fn-
.fn #
Lucian, Anachars. 2, 29.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostr. Gym. 56.
.fn-
.fn #
Priene, pp. 265 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Priene Inschriften, 112. The authors date the inscription after 84 B.C.
.fn-
.fn #
Ath. Mitth. xxix. pp. 121 ff., xxxii. pp. 190 ff., xxxiii. pp. 327 ff.
.fn-
.fn #
Op. cit. xxix. p. 158.
.fn-
.fn #
Op. cit. xxxii. p. 273, 10.
.fn-
.fn #
Op. cit. xxxii. p. 257, 8.
.fn-
.fn #
For the Gymnasiarchia vide the article by G. Glotz in Dar.-Sagl., where a full
bibliography of the subject and copious references to inscriptions are given. For
the Gymnasiarchia at Athens vide also Freeman’s Schools of Hellas, p. 155.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 522.
.fn-
.fn #
I. G. xiv. 256.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 523.
.fn-
.fn #
Th. Reinach, Rec. des études gr. vi. p. 164, n.
.fn-
.fn #
I. G. xiv. 422?
.fn-
.fn #
Aeschines in Timarch. 10; Aristoph. Nub. 973; Eq. 1238.
.fn-
.fn #
Athen. 584 C.
.fn-
.fn #
Antiphon. Tetr. ii.
.fn-
.fn #
Ditt. Syll. 2nd Ed., 523.
.fn-
.fn #
Isocr. Περὶ ἀντιδόσεως, 181-185.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Rep. 406.
.fn-
.fn #
Philostr. Gym. 14; Galen, De San. ii. 86, 90.
.fn-
.fn #
The word first occurs in Xenophon, Mem. ii. 1, 20. But the fact that it
does not occur in literature earlier is no proof that it was not in use; for the
cognate words γυμνάζομαι and γυμνάσιον were in use at a much earlier date.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Ol. viii.; Nem. iv., vi.
.fn-
.fn #
Pindar, Nem. v.
.fn-
.fn #
Xenophon, Mem. l.c.; Aristotle, Pol. 1338 b.
.fn-
.fn #
l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Protag. 313 E.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, De virtute, 378 E.; Amator. 134 E.
.fn-
.fn #
Pol. 1288 b.
.fn-
.fn #
The account of the paidotribes and gymnastes was written before I had read
Jüthner’s learned discussion of the subject in the introduction to his Philostratus,
but I see no reason to alter my views. Jüthner regards the gymnastes as from
the first “the professor of physical culture,” but himself inadvertently applies
the term to Pindar’s Melesias (p. 22), who was merely a teacher of boxing.
Further Jüthner seems to me vastly to overrate the value of the medical
gymnastics and the science of health based on the teaching of Herodicus of
Selymbria.
.fn-
.fn #
Nic. Eth. ii. 6, 7.
.fn-
.fn #
Bacch. iii. 3, 24.
.fn-
.fn #
Isocrates, l.c.
.fn-
.fn #
Cp. Fig. #65:fig065#.
.fn-
.fn #
Supra, p. #374#.
.fn-
.fn #
Athen. 631 B.
.fn-
.fn #
Plato, Legg. 689 D.
.fn-
.fn #
Paus. ii. 35, 1.
.fn-
.fn #
Vide three papers in the J.H.S. by Prof. Percy Gardner, vol. ii. p. 90 and
p. 315, vol. xi. p. 146.
.fn-
.fn #
De San. Tu. ii. 8-11. Oribasius, vi. 14.
.fn-
// File: 537.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2 id=biblio
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.sp 2
N.B.—No references are given to articles or sections on athletics or athletic
festivals in the following books of reference:—
Baumeister, A. Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums.
Daremberg et Saglio. Dictionnaire des antiquités.
Frazer, J. G. Pausanias.
Iwan von Müller. Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft.
Pauly-Wissowa. Real-Encyclopädie.
Schreiber-Anderson. Atlas of Classical Antiquities.
Smith, W. Dictionary of Antiquities.
etc. etc.
.sp 2
A. ATHLETIC FESTIVALS
.sp 2
1. Olympia.—(a) General
.sp 2
Olympia. Die Ergebnisse der von dem deutschen Reich veranstalteten
Ausgrabung. Edd. E. Curtius and F. Adler. Berlin, 1892-1897.
Bötticher, A. Olympia: das Fest und seine Stätte. 2nd edition.
Berlin, 1866.
Flash, A. Olympia, in Baumeister’s Denkmäler, ii. p. 1053. Munich and
Leipsic, 1887.
Gardner, P. Olympia, in New Chapters in Greek History. London,
1892. On the Ancient Olympic Games, in the Official Handbook of
the Olympic Games. London, 1908.
Hachtmann, K. Olympia u. seine Festspiele. Gütersloh, 1899.
Krause, J. H. Olympia. Vienna, 1838.
S. P. Lambros and N. G. Politis. Οἱ Ὀλυμπιακοὶ ἀγῶνες. Athens, 1896.
Leonardos, B. Ὀλυμπία. Athens, 1901.
West, G. A Dissertation on the Olympick Games, in his translation of The
Odes of Pindar. London, 1753.
// File: 538.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
(b) Chronology and Lists of Victors
.sp 2
S. Julii Africani Ὀλυμπιάδων ἀναγραφή (Eusebii Chronic. (Schoene), i. 193)
rec. J. Rutgers. Leyden, 1862.
Diehl, C. Olympische Sieger. Hermes, xxxvi. p. 71.
Förster, H. Sieger in den olympischen Spielen. 2 parts. Zwickau,
1891, 1892.
Guttmann, W. De Olympionicis apud Minae Philostratum. Breslau, 1865.
Hyde, W. De Olympionicarum statuis a Pausania commemoratis. Halle,
1903.
Körte, A. Die Entstehung der Olympionikenliste. Hermes, xxxix. p. 224.
Mahaffy, J. P. On the Authenticity of the Olympic Register. J.H.S.
ii. 164.
Robert, C. Die Ordnung der olympischen Spiele und die Sieger der 75-83
Olympiade. Hermes, xxxv., 1900. p. 141.
.sp 2
(c) Miscellaneous
.sp 2
Dissen, L. De ordine certaminum Olympicorum. Göttingen, 1841.
Dörfeld, W. Alter des Heiligtums von Olympia. Ath. Mitth. xxxi. p.
205. Tiryns, Olympia, Pylos. Ib. xxxii. p. 1. Pisa bei Olympia. Ib.
xxxiii. p. 318. Olympia in prähistorischer Zeit. Ib. p. 185.
Dyer, L. Olympian Treasuries and Treasuries in General. J.H.S. xxv.
p. 294. Details of Olympian Treasuries. Ib. xxvi. p. 46. The Olympian
Theatron and the Battle of Olympia. Ib. xxviii. p. 250. The Olympian
Council-House and Council. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology,
xix. p. 1.
Förster, H. De Hellanodicis Olympicis. Leipsic, 1879.
Hermann, G. De Hippodromo Olympico. Leipsic, 1839.
Holwerda, J. Olympische Studien. Arch. Zeit., 1880, pp. 169-172.
(1) Die Folgenreihe der Festspiele. (2) Ἔφεδρος and ἐφεδρεία.
Mie, F. Quaestiones agonisticae, imprimis ad Olympia pertinentes.
Rostock, 1888.
Mommsen, A. Über die Zeit der Olympien. Leipsic, 1891.
Puchstein, O. Altar des olympischen Zeus. Jahrb., 1896, p. 53.
Robert, C. Sosipolis in Olympia. Ath. Mitth., xviii. p. 37.
Scherer, C. De Olympionicarum statuis. Göttingen, 1885.
Schöne, H. Neue Angaben über den Hippodrom zu Olympia. Jahrb.,
1897, p. 150.
Weniger, L. Das Hoch Fest des Zeus in Olympia. Klio, 1904, p. 125;
1905, pp. 1, 184. Olympische Forschungen. Ib., 1906, pp. 1, 259;
1907, p. 145; 1909, p. 291.
Wernicke, K. Olympische Beiträge. Jahrb., 1894, pp. 88, 127, 191;
1897, p. 169. (1) Altäre, (2) Heraion, (3) Proedria u. Hellanodikeon,
(4) Gymnasien, (5) Hippodrom, (6) Ostgiebel des Zeustempels.
// File: 539.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
II. The Panhellenic Festivals
.sp 2
Corsini, E. Dissertationes IV. agonisticae quibus Olympiorum, Pythiorum,
Nemeorum atque Isthmiorum tempus inquiritur ac demonstratur.
Florence, 1747.
Krause, J. H. Die Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmien. Leipsic, 1841.
Homolle, T. Les Fouilles de Delphes. Paris, in progress.
Droysen, J. G. Die Festzeit der Nemeen. Hermes, xiv., 1879, p. 1.
Bury, J. B. Pindar. Nemean Odes. (Vide Appendix.) London, 1890.
Jebb, Sir Richard C. Bacchylides. (Vide Introduction.) Cambridge, 1905.
Monceaux, P. Fouilles et recherches archéologiques au sanctuaire des
jeux isthmiques. Gazette archéologique, 1884, ix. pp. 273-285, 352-365;
1885, x. pp. 205-214, 402-412.
Pomtow. Studien zu den Weihgeschenken und der Topographie von
Delphi. Ath. Mitth. xxxi. p. 437.
Unger, G. T. Die Zeit der nemeischen Spiele. Philologus, xxxiv., 1874,
pp. 50-64. Die Winter Nemeen. Ib. xxxvii., 1877, pp. 524-566. Die
Isthmien und Hyacinthien. Ib. xxxvii., 1877, p. 1.
Villoison. Recherches historiques sur les jeux néméens. (Hist. de l’Acad.
des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, xxxviii. p. 29.)
.sp 2
III. The Panathenaea
.sp 2
Böckh, A. De ludis Panathenaicis. Berlin, 1832.
Michaelis, A. Der Parthenon. Leipsic, 1871.
Mommsen, A. Feste der Stadt Athen. Leipsic, 1898.
Smith, A. H. Sculptures of the Parthenon (Part of British Museum
Catalogue of Sculpture).
.sp 2
B. GREEK ATHLETICS
.sp 2
(a) General
.sp 2
Krause, J. H. Die Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen. Leipsic, 1841.
Fabri, P. Agonisticon. Lugduni, 1592.
Grasberger, L. Erziehung und Unterricht im klassischen Altertum.
Würzburg, 1864.
Jaeger, O. Die Gymnastik der Hellenen. Stuttgart, 1878.
Mercurialis. De arte gymnastica. Venetiis, 1573.
Meursii, J. De ludis Graecorum. Elzevir, 1662.
Paciaudi, P. M. De athletarum κυβιστήσει in palaestra Graecorum. Rome,
1756.
Philostratus. For full Bibliography of the Gymnastike, vide Jüthner’s
edition, p. 84.
Daremberg, Ch. Philostrate. Traité sur la gynmastique. Paris, 1858.
// File: 540.png
.pn +1
Kayser, G. L. Philostratei libri de Gymnastica quae supersunt. Heidelberg,
1840. Flavii Philostrati opera. Leipsic, 1870.
Jüthner, Julius. Philostratos über Gymnastik. Leipsic and Berlin,
1909.
.sp 2
(b) Special
.sp 2
Burette, M. In Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres,
1736. Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire de la sphéristique ou de la
paume des anciens, i. p. 153. Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des
athlètes, i. pp. 211, 237, 258. Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire de la
lutte des anciens, iii. p. 228. Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire du
pugilat des anciens, iii. p. 255. Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire de la
course, iii. p. 280. Dissertation sur ce qu’on appelle pentathle, iii. p.
318. Dissertation sur l’exercice du disque ou palet, iii. p. 330.
Gardiner, E. N. The Method of deciding the Pentathlon. J.H.S. xxiii.
p. 54. Notes on the Greek Foot-race. Ib. xxiii. p. 261. Phayllus and
his Record Jump. Ib. xxiv. p. 70. Further Notes on the Greek Jump.
Ib. xxiv. p. 179. Wrestling, I., II. Ib. xxv. pp. 14, 263. The Pankration
and Wrestling. Ib. xxvi. p. 4. Throwing the Diskos. Ib.
xxvii. p. 1. Throwing the Javelin. Ib. xxvii. p. 249.
Jüthner, Julius. Antike Turngeräthe. (Halteres, Diskos, Akontion,
Himantes.) Vienna, 1896. Also in Pauly-Wissowa, passim.
.sp 2
Boxing
.sp 2
Fabretti. Columna Trajani, p. 260. Rome, 1683.
Frost, K. T. Greek Boxing. J.H.S. xxvi. p. 213.
Hülsen. Il Cesto dei pugili antiqui. Röm. Mitth. iv. 175.
.sp 2
The Diskos
.sp 2
Chryssaphis, J. E. Ἡ Ἐλληνικὴ δισκοβολία in “Bulletin du comité des jeux
olympiques,” No. 3, p. 59. Athens, 1906.
Kietz, G. Der Diskoswurf bei der Griechen. Agonistische Studien, i.
Munich, 1892.
Pernice, E. Zum Diskoswurf. Jahrb., 1908, p. 95.
E. R. The Diskos Thrower. Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, 1908, iii. 2, p. 31.
Robertson, G. S. On Throwing the Discus, in the “Official Handbook of
the Olympic Games.” London, 1908.
Six. Vases polychromes sur fond noir. Appendice au sujet du discobole.
Gaz. Arch., 1888, 291.
.sp 2
The Hippodrome, etc.
.sp 2
Helbig, W. Les Hippeis athéniens. Paris, 1902.
Martin, A. Les Cavaliers athéniens. Paris, 1886. Also in Dar.-Sagl.,
s.v. Hippodrome.
Pollack, E. Hippodromica. Leipsic, 1890.
// File: 541.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
The Javelin and the Amentum
.sp 2
Bertrand, A. L’Amentum et la cateia sur line plaque de ceinture en bronze.
Revue arch., 1884, 104 f.
Köchly. Opuscula, ii. 351 ff.
Krause, F. Schleudervorrichtungen für Wurfwaffen. Internationales
Archiv. Leyden, 1902, pp. 121 ff.
Mérimée, P. Revue arch., 1860, 2nd Ed., 210 f.
.sp 2
The Jump
.sp 2
Küppers. Arch. Anz., 1900, 104 ff.
Pinder, E. Arch. Anz., 1864, 230 f.
Roulez, M. Mémoire sur une coupe de Vulci. Brussels, 1842.
.sp 2
The Race in Armour
.sp 2
Hauser. Zur Tübinger Bronze, i., ii. Jahrb. 2, 1887, p. 95; 1895, p. 182.
De Ridder, A. L’Hoplitodrome de Tübingen. B.C.H., 1897, p. 211.
.sp 2
Wrestling Groups
.sp 2
Förster. Jahrb., 1898, p. 178; 1901, pp. 49-51.
Perclüzet. Rev. arch., 1903, sér. 1, pp. 396-397.
.sp 2
The Pentathlon
.sp 2
Blümner. In Baumeister’s Denkmäler, i. p. 1592.
Böckh, A. Adnotationes criticae, in his edition of Pindar, 1811. Über
die kritische Behandlung der pindarischen Gedichte. Abhandlungen d.
Berl. Akad., 1822-1823, p. 391.
Faber, Martin. Zum Fünfkampf der Hellenen. Philologus, 1891 (L),
p. 469.
Fedde, F. Der Fünfkampf der Hellenen. Breslau, 1888. Über den
Fünfkampf d. Hell. Leipsic, 1889.
Fennell, C. A. M. The Pentathlon, in his edition of Pindar’s Nemean and
Isthmian Odes. Cambridge Press, 1883.
Gardner, P. The Pentathlon. J.H.S. i. p. 210.
Haggenmüller. Die Aufeinanderfolge der Kämpfe im Pentathlon.
Berlin, 1892.
Heinrich, K. E. Über das Pentathlon der Griechen. Würzburg, 1892.
Hermann, G. Commentationes de metris Pindari. Ed. Heyne, iii. 225.
De Sogenis Aeginetae victoria quinquertii. Lips., 1822.
Holwerda. Zum Pentathlon. Arch. Zeit., 1881, pp. 205-216.
Legrand, Ph. E. In Dar.-Sagl., s.v. Quinquertium. 1907.
Marquardt, H. Zum Pentathlon der Griechen. Güstrow, 1886.
Myers, E. The Pentathlon. J.H.S. ii. p. 217.
Philipp, G. F. De Pentathlo. Berlin, 1827.
Pinder, E. Über den Fünfkampf der Hellenen. Berlin, 1867.
// File: 542.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
(c) Miscellaneous
.sp 2
Basiades, C. De vet. Graecorum gymnastice. Berlin, 1858.
Becker, W. A. Charikles. Leipsic, 1840.
Bintz, J. Die Gymnastike d. Hellenen. Gütersloh, 1878.
Egger, J. B. Begriff der Gymnastik bei den alten Philosophen und
Medizinern. Freiburg (Switz.), 1903.
Freeman, K. J. Schools of Hellas. Macmillan & Co., 1907.
Gardner, P. Boat-races among the Greeks. J.H.S., ii. p. 90. Boat-races
at Athens. Ib. p. 315. A Stele commemorating a Victory in a Boat-race.
Ib. xi. p. 146.
Girard, P. L’Éducation athénienne. Paris, 1889.
Gutch, C. The Greek Games. Cambridge, 1900.
Joubert, L. De gymnasiis et generibus exercitationum apud antiquos.
Sallengre Thes., i.
Jüthner, J. Gymnastisches in Philostrat’s Eikones. Eranos Vindob. p. 310.
Vienna, 1893.
Lindemann, F. De utilitate artis gymnasticae apud Graecos. Zitt., 1841.
Mie, F. Über die διὰ πάντων καὶ ὁ ἐπινίκιος in agonistischen Inschriften.
Ath. Mitth. xxxiv. p. 1.
Petersen, Chr. Das Gymnasium der Griechen. Hamburg, 1858.
Polke. Artis gymnasticae apud Graecos origo atque indoles. Gleiw., 1851.
Richter, W. Die Spiele der Griechen und Römer. Leipsic, 1840.
Stallbaum, G. De vet. gymnasiorum disciplina et institutione. Leipsic,
1856, 1858.
Tarbell, F. B. The Palm of Victory. Classical Philology, iii. p. 264.
Wilkins, A. S. Roman Education. Cambridge Press, 1905.
P. Wolters. Zu griechischen Agonen. Würzburg, 1901.
.sp 2
C. ATHLETIC ART
.sp 2
N.B.—The following section lays no claim to completeness. The references
are as a rule too scattered and fragmentary to be included in a bibliography.
Much information will be found in all histories and handbooks
of athletic art.
.sp 2
Coins (for equestrian types)
.sp 2
Hill, G. F. Historical Greek Coins. London, 1906.
Evans, A. The Horsemen of Tarentum. London, 1889.
.sp 2
Mosaics
.sp 2
Lucas, Hans. Athleten-Typen. Jahrb. xix., 1904, pp. 127-136.
Secchi, P. Musaico antoniniano.
// File: 543.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
Sculpture
.sp 2
Furtwängler, A. Die Bedeutung der Gymnastik in der griechischen
Kunst. Leipsic, 1905.
Gardner, P. The Apoxyomenos of Lysippus. J.H.S. xxv. p. 234.
Kalkmann, A. Die Statue von Subiaco. Jahrb., 1895, p. 46.
Pater, Walter. The Age of Athletic Prizemen, in Greek Studies.
London, 1895.
Waldstein, C. Pythagoras of Rhegium and the Early Athletic Statues.
J.H.S. i. p. 168; ii. p. 332.
.sp 2
Vases
.sp 2
References to the most important Athletic vases will be found in our list
of illustrations. The following list is confined to Panathenaic vases.
.sp 2
Böckh, A. De vasorum Panathenaicorum generibus. Berlin, 1831.
Dickins, G. Panathenaic Amphorae found at Sparta. B.S.A. xiii. p. 150.
Heermance, T. W. Fragment of dated Panathenaic Amphora. Amer.
Journ. Archaeology, 1896, p. 331.
Heinze, F. Eine panathenäische Amphore des akademischen Kunstmuseums
zu Bonn. Bonner Studien R. Kekulé gewidmet. Berlin,
1890, p. 240.
Hoppin, J. C. A Panathenaic Amphora. Amer. Journ. Archaeology, 1906,
p. 385.
Pottier, E. Amphora panathénaïque. B.C.H. vi. p. 168.
Robinson, D. M. Fragment of Panathenaic Amphora. Amer. Journ. of
Philology, 1908, p. 47.
Smith, Sir C. Panathenaic Amphorae. B.S.A. iii. p. 182.
Stephani. Compte rendu, 1876, p. 18.
Tarbell, F. B. Fragment of a dated Panathenaic Amphora. Cl. Review,
1900, p. 474.
Walters, H. B. History of Ancient Pottery, ii. p. 388.
Witte, J. de. Annali dell’ Instituto, 1877, p. 294; 1878, p. 276.
// File: 544.png
// File: 545.png
.sp 4
.h2 id=index
INDEX
.sp 2
.ix
Academea at Athens, #468#
Achaeans, athletic character of, #8#, #11#
Acrobats, in Homer, #25#;
on Panathenaic vase, #243#
Aeginetan pediments, physical type of, #92#
Aeginetan successes, #92#, #216#, #226#
Aepytus of Elis, rides his father’s horse, #463#
Aezani, stadium, #266#
Africanus compiles Olympic register, #50#, #192#
Age, classification by, #271#
Agesidamus of Locri Epizephyrii, boxer, #110#
Ageus of Argos, dolichodromos, #201#, #285#
Agias, pankratiast, statue of, at Delphi, #124#, #212#
Aglaus of Athens, runner, #273#
Agonothetes, #150#
Akontistes, #150#, #506#
Alcibiades, victories at Olympia, #132#;
at Isthmia, #225#;
his feast at Olympia, #207#;
wrestling, #445#
Alcimedon of Aegina, wrestler, #375#
Alcimidas of Aegina, wrestler, #375#
Alcmaeon of Athens, #60#
Aleiptes, #477#, #506#
Alexander, son of Amyntas, at Olympia, #47#, #80#
Alexander the Great, his contempt for athletics, #127#, #154#;
respect for Olympia, #154#
Alexandria, victories at Olympia, #155#
Alexandrini, guild of, #175#
Amentum, #339# ff.
Amphiaraus vase, #29#, #385#, #463#
Amphictionies, in Peloponnese, #41#
// File: 546.png
Anaxilas of Rhegium, #71#, #207#
Anaximenes, statue of, at Olympia, #140#
Anolympiads, #45#
Antiochus, pankratiast, Arcadian ambassador to Persia, #143#
Antipater of Miletus, boxer, refuses bribe, #134#
Antiphon, #339#, #354#
Anystis, courier, #181#
Aphesis, of stadium, #253#, #259#, #265#, #273#;
of hippodrome, #453#
Aphetes, or katapaltaphetes, #150#
Aphrodisias, stadium, #260#
Apobates, #71#, #237#, #461#
Apollo, statues of, #84#, #88# ff.
Apollonius, boxer, disqualified at Olympia, #201#
Apollonius Rhodius, description of boxing, #430#
Apoxyomenos, #124#, #482#
Aratus of Sicyon, #157#, #160#
Arcesilas of Cyrene, #210#
Archelaus of Macedon, founds Olympia at Dium, #152#
Archilochus of Paros, hymn of, #56#, #207#
Argeius of Ceos, boxer, #216#, #225#, #426#
Argive wrestlers, #393#, #401#
Argos, and Olympia, #55#;
and Nemean games, #224#
Aristomenes of Aegina, wrestler, #375#
Ariston, P. Cornelius, pankratiast, #178#, #375#
Aristonicus of Carystus, Alexander’s sphairistes, #485#
Aristophanes, on decline of athletics, #131#
Aristotle, his opinion on athletics, #127#;
on the pentathlon, #136#;
edits list of Olympionicae, #50#,
// File: 547.png
and Pythionicae, #213#;
statue of, at Olympia, #140#
Armed combat. Vide #Hoplomachia:idx-hoplomachia#
Armed race. Vide #Foot-race:idx-foot-race#
Arrhichion of Phigalia, pankratiast, #70#, #201#, #438#, #443#, #450#
Asclepiades, Publius, inscribed diskos of, #183#, #316#
Asinius Quadratus, C., Olympic chronology, #182#
Aspendus, coins of, #103#, #373#, #385#, #441#
Astylus of Croton, runner, proclaimed as a Syracusan, #76#, #82#, #134#
Atarbus, monument of, #240#
Athenian festivals, #227# ff.;
Panathenaea, #227#;
Heraclea, #228#;
Eleusinia, #228#;
Oschophoria, #228#;
Thesea, #228#, #247#;
Epitaphia, #228#;
Dionysia, #229#;
Aiantea, #229#;
Olympia, #229#;
Bendidea, #229#;
Diisoteria, #229#
Athens, successes at Olympia, #73#;
athletic training at, #108#;
decline of athletics, #131#;
training of epheboi, #149#;
gladiatorial shows at, #172#;
Panathenaic stadium, #263#;
popularity of foot-race and pankration, #272#;
gymnasia and palaestrae, #149#, #468# ff.
Athletes, honours and rewards of, #77#;
profits of, #129#;
transfer of, #134#
Athletic art, #84#, #86# ff., #103#.
Vide #Coins:idx-coins#, #Gems:idx-gems#, #Sculpture:idx-sculpture#
Athletics, difference between Greek and modern, #3#, #5#;
distinguish Greek from barbarian, #47#, #107#
Athletics and athletic games, #3#;
and physical training, #186#, #510#
Athletics, Greek, practical character of, #1#;
part of education, #2#;
absence of records, #2#;
connexion with religion, #3#;
political importance of, #4#;
danger of excess in, #4#;
vitality of, #5#;
importance attached to style, #2#, #114#;
influence of, upon art, #86#;
influence of art upon, #114#
Athletics, history of Greek—
Northern origin of athletics, #8#;
pre-Achaeans unathletic, #9#;
sport in Homer, #11# ff.;
sport aristocratic, #14#, #25#
Rise of athletic festival, #26# ff.;
early records of Olympia, #54#;
// File: 548.png
superiority of Sparta, seventh century, #56#;
athletics in Sicily and Italy, #58#;
sport national and democratic, #60#
Organization of athletics, sixth century, #61#;
profits and rewards of, #76#;
protest of Xenophanes against over-athleticism, #78#;
growth of competition, #79#;
athletic training, #81#;
decline of Sparta, #81#;
age of strong men, #82#
Athletic ideal of fifth century, #86# ff.;
influence of Persian wars, #107#;
influence of art on athletics, #114#
Growth of specialization 440-338 B.C., #124# ff.;
athletic diet, #125#;
artificial training, #126#;
rise of medical gymnastics, #129#;
lucrativeness of athletics, #129#;
professionalism, #131#;
corruption, #134#;
brutalization of sport, #135#
The professional strong man, #146#;
age of athletic buildings, #148#;
military training of epheboi, #149#;
athletic revival in Asia and Egypt, #155#;
decline of Italy and Sicily, #160#
Roman prejudice against athletics, #163#;
brutalizing influence of Rome, #172#;
increase of corruption, #174#;
athletic guilds, #174#;
artificial revival of athletics under Empire, #178#;
age of records, #181#;
sports of Sparta, #183#;
Galen condemns athletics, #188#;
Philostratus on the decline of athletics, #190#;
artificiality of training, #191#
Aurelius Asclepiades, M., periodoneikes, #178#
Automedes of Phlius, pentathlete, #368#
Bacchylides, #105#, #109#, #195#, #200#, #272#
Balbis, #252#, #318# ff.
Ball-play in Homer, #24#;
at Sparta, #185#;
Galen’s treatise on, #187#;
Alexander fond of, #485#;
rooms for, #485#
Bater, #252#, #297#
Bathing arrangements in gymnasium, #479# ff.
Bathroom at Delphi, #486#;
at Priene, #495#
Beauty, Greek love of, #88#
Belistiche, #159#, #462#
Beni-Hassan, wrestling scenes at, #9#, #372#
Boat-races, #221#, #229#, #240#, #508#
// File: 549.png
Bolas, #314#
Boxing—
In Crete, #9#, #10#, #403#;
in Homer, #17#, #417#;
in Eastern Aegean, #33#;
at Priene (ἐν εἵμασι), #496#;
popularity of, #131#, #402#
Himantes, #402#;
sphairai, #406#, #136#;
himantes oxeis, #409#;
caestus, #411#;
represented on bronze situlae, #412#
History of, in Greece, #414#;
conditions of, #415#;
position of boxer, #419#
Use of left hand, #422#;
use of right hand, #423#;
the crushed ear, #425#;
foot-work, #425#;
defect of style, #427#
Amycus and Polydeuces in Theocritus, #428#;
in Apollonius Rhodius, #430#;
Dares and Entellus in Vergil, #431#, #172#;
laws of, #432#
Practice for, #433#
Boys, competitions for, #80#;
pankration for, #161#;
Claudian, Augustan, #175#;
Isthmian, Pythian, #271#
Bull-baiting at Cnossus, #10#
Burgon vase, #242#, #457#
Bybon, inscription of, on weight, #83#
Bye, importance of, #370#, #374#
Caestus, #136#, #172#.
Vide #Boxing:idx-boxing#
Callippus of Athens, pentathlete, bribes opponents, #134#, #136#
Caprus of Elis, pankratiast, #146#
Carrhotus, charioteer of Arcesilas, #463#
Ceos, athletic successes of, #107#, #216#, #226#;
list of victors, #216#;
ephebic inscription, #151#, #502#
Chariot, four-horse and two-horse, #457#
Charioteer, #111#, #463#;
dress of, #459#, #460#
Chariot-race, in Homer, #15#;
in funeral games, #31#, #32#;
antiquity of, at Olympia, #40#, #56#;
tyrants compete in, #59#;
popularity of, in Sicily, #132#, #451#;
in Sparta, #133#;
in Macedon, #161#;
discontinuance of, at Olympia, #165#;
at Pythia, #211#;
at Isthmia, #221#;
at Nemea, #225#;
at Athens, #235# ff.;
women compete in, #462#;
states compete in, #463#;
danger of, #463#.
Vide also #Hippodrome:idx-hippodrome#
Chilon, death of, at Olympia, #73#
Chionis of Sparta, runner, #58#, #70#
Chios, girls and men wrestle, #387#
// File: 550.png
Chromius of Aetna, chariot, #114#, #225#
Cimon of Athens, #73#, #468#
Cirrus, #377#
Claudius Rufus, T., pankratiast, decree in honour of, #115#
Cleisthenes of Sicyon, #60#, #63#, #66#, #210#
Cleitomachus of Thebes, boxer, wrestler, pankratiast, #146#, #199#;
epigram on, #377#
Cleitostratus of Rhodes, wrestler, #401#
Clothes, penalty for stealing, in gymnasium, #477#;
provision for care of, #500#
Cnossus, bull-baiting at, #9#;
dancing and boxing, #10#
Coins—
Athletic types on, #103#;
diskobolos (Cos), #330#;
wrestlers (Aspendus, Alexandria, Heraclea, Syracuse, Tarentum), #372#, #373#, #385#, #390#
Equestrian types on coins of Italy and Sicily, #451#;
mule car (Rhegium, Messana), #460#;
torch-race, apobates (Tarentum), #461#;
chariot (Catana), #465#;
(Syracuse, Agrigentum), #465#;
chariot and horse on coins of Macedon, #459#
The Zeus of Pheidias (Elis), #178#;
nymph Olympia and Victory (Elis), #194#;
prize table (Delphi), #214#;
crown (Delphi), #214#;
(Corinth), #222#;
(Argos), #224#
Colotes, prize-table of, #121#
Colts, races for, #161#;
judging, #204#, #461#
Competition, Greek love of, #3#
Coroebus of Elis, first Olympic victor, #50#, #54#
Corruption in athletics, #134#, #148#, #174#, #218#
Cretans excel as runners, #284#
Creugas and Damoxenus at Nemea, #421#, #432#
Croton, victories of, #58#, #82#, #284#;
tries to rival Olympia, #82#
Cryptoporticus, #494#, #498#
Cylon of Athens, #71#, #73#
Cynisca, #133#, #462#
Cynosarges, #149#, #468#
Cypselus, chest of, #30#, #60#
Damagetus of Sparta, boxer, #73#
Damaretus of Heraea, hoplitodromos, statue of, #70#
Damaretus, king of Sparta, chariot-race, #133#
// File: 551.png
Damiscus of Messene, boy runner, #271#
Damonon, inscription, #133#, #284#, #151#, #463#
Damostratus, wrestler, epigram on, #377#
Dead heats, #206#
Deinosthenes of Sparta, courier, #155# n. 2
Delos, festival at, #33#;
gymnasium, #489#
Delphi, charioteer, #111#;
inscription, περὶ οἴνου, #126#;
stadium, #257#;
gymnasium, #483#
Democrates of Tenedos, decree in honour of, #156#
Diadumenos of Polycleitus, #96#
Diagoras of Rhodes, #180#
Diagoridae of Rhodes, #47#, #130#, #179#
Diaulos, #51#, #280#, #283#
Diet of athletes, #124#, #126#, #191#
Dikon of Syracuse, runner, #137#
Diodorus, gymnasiarchos, stele of, #491#
Diodorus of Pergamum, gymnasiarchos, restores gymnasium, #500#
Dion, accounts of archonship of, at Delphi, #261#, #483#
Dion of Prusa (Chrysostom) at the Isthmia, #173#, #214#
Dionysodorus of Thebes and Alexander, #154#
Diophon, pentathlete, epigram on, #359#, #368#
Discipline enforced by the rod, #142#, #274#, #436#, #469#, #475#
Diskobolos, of Myron, #95#, #319#, #322#, #330#;
the standing (Vatican), #327#.
Vide #Coins:idx-coins#, #Sculpture:idx-sculpture#
Diskoi, of stone, #315#;
of metal, #316#;
existing specimens, #316#;
weight and size of, #317#
Diskoi, inscribed, Iphitus, #43#;
Publius Asclepiades, #183#;
Exoïdas, #316#
Diskos and solos in Homer, #22#, #313#
Diskos, throwing the, distance thrown, #318#;
balbis, #318#;
marking the throw, #320#;
principle of the throw, #322#;
typical positions, #323#;
stance, #327#;
backward swing, #330#;
the forward swing and throw, #331#;
modern styles, #333#;
competitions in, #337#
Dolichos, #51#, #270#, #279#, #281#, #284#
Domitius Tutus, Q., votive offering of, #222#
Dorian invasion, #42#
Dorieus of Rhodes, boxer, #130#, #375#
// File: 552.png
Doryphoros of Polycleitus, #95#
Drachma, value of, #262#
Drill, textbooks of, #374#
Dromeus of Mantinea, pankratiast, #375#
Dromeus of Stymphalus, dolichodromos and trainer, introduces meat diet, #126#, #505#
Dromos, at Sparta, #467#
Drumos of Epidaurus, inscription of, #285#
Dumb-bells, halteres used as, #310#
Elaiothesion, #490#
Elean embassy to Egypt, #68#
Eleans and Pisatans, #43#, #142#
Eleans, Ϝρατραι of, #51#
Elis, synoecism of, #115#;
the new city, #117#;
treaty with Heraea, #46#
Empedocles of Aetna, #207#
Epaenetus, inscribed halter of, #298#
Epaminondas and athletics, #127#
Epharmostus of Opous, #180#, #228#
Ephebeion, #490#, #495#
Epheboi, #99#;
reorganized by Lycurgus, #148#;
training of,, #149# ff.
Ephesus, stadium, #266#;
gymnasium, #494#
Epicharinus, hoplitodromos, statue of, #94#
Epidaurus, athletes fined for bribery, #148# n.;
stadium, #254#
Epigrams, athletic, #172#;
their veracity, #310#
Epinikia, #78#, #105# ff.
Etruscan wall-paintings, funeral games, #27#;
wrestling, #384#;
boxing, #412#
Euagoras of Sparta, chariot-race, #133#
Eumastas, inscription on weight, #83#
Eumelus, #34#
Eupolemus of Elis, runner, #135#
Eupolus of Thessaly, boxer, bribes opponents, #134#
Euripides, epinikion on Alcibiades, #105#;
on professional athletes, #131#
Euryleonis of Sparta, #462#
Eutelidas of Sparta, pentathlete and wrestler, #57#, #70#
Euthymus of Locri Epizephyrii, boxer, worshipped as a hero, #77#
Exaenetus of Agrigentum, runner, triumphal entry of, #77#
Exercises, classification of, heavy and light, #364#;
according to Galen, #509#
Exoïdas, inscribed diskos of, #316#
// File: 553.png
Festivals—
Actia, reorganized by Augustus, #168#
Adriania, #180#
Antinoea, #176#
Asclepiea at Epidaurus, #180#, #254#
Assinaria, commemorated on coins of Syracuse, #465#
Augustalia at Neapolis, regulations for, #169#, #175#, #271#
Augustea, #180#
Azan in Arcadia, #31#
Balbillea, #180#
Capitolia at Rome, #170#
Carnea, #72#
Chrysanthina at Sardis, #180#
Delia, #33#
Dioclea at Megara, #3#
Eleutheria at Plataea, #31#, #108#, #286#
Erotidia, #372#
Eusebea at Puteoli, #180#
Euryclea at Sparta, #184# n. 2
Haliea at Rhodes, #31#
Heraclea at Sparta, #180#
Heraea at Olympia, #47#, #272#
Heraea at Argos, #180#
Hermaea in palaestra, #469#
Leonidaea at Sparta, #176#, #184#, #491#
Olympia at Aegae, #154#;
Alexandria, #181#;
Antioch, #170#;
Dium, #152#;
Athens, Smyrna, Ephesus, #180#
Petraea, #211#
Ptolemaea, #150#
Soteria, #158#
Vide #Olympia:idx-olympia#, #Isthmia:idx-isthmia#, #Nemea:idx-nemea#, #Athenian festivals:idx-athenian-festivals#
Flamininus at the Isthmia, #162#
Flavius Archibius, T., of Alexandria, pankratiast, inscription, #181#
Flavius Artemidorus, T., pankratiast, inscription, #179#
Flute-player accompanies athletics, #302#, #476#