(3) The Nemea

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.[[371]] 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.

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.[[372]] 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[[373]] 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—

The palm of liberty for Greece I won—

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.[[374]] 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.[[375]] The Argive coins of Antoninus Pius bear the inscription Νέμεια, surrounded by a celery wreath (Fig. [31]), 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, 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.[[376]]

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.[[377]] 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.[[378]]

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 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.[[379]]

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.[[380]] 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.

CHAPTER XI
THE ATHLETIC FESTIVALS OF ATHENS

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[[381]] 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 to have been much frequented in Pindar’s time.[[382]] 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.[[383]] 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]).

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.[[384]] 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,[[385]] which correspond to such sports as climbing the greasy pole and other Mayday festivities.

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.[[386]] At a later date these were replaced by a mimic naval battle, for which prizes were also given.[[387]] 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.”[[388]] 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,[[389]] 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 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.[[390]] 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.[[391]] There seem also to have been competitions in lyric and elegiac poetry.

According to Plutarch[[392]] 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.[[393]] The existence of musical competitions at a yet earlier date is proved by two small sixth-century Panathenaic amphorae in the British Museum.[[394]] 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]). 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.

Fig. 32. Small Panathenaic(?) amphora, in British Museum, B. 188. Sixth century.

An early black-figured kylix in the British Museum points to the existence of choral and dramatic competitions at the Panathenaea (Fig. [33]). The central group represents a sacrifice to Athene, who stands beside her altar armed with shield and 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[[395]] states that dramatic competitions existed at the Panathenaea, but we have no further information concerning them.

Fig. 33. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, B. 80.

The musical programme for the fourth century is partly known to us from an inscription, which is unfortunately much mutilated.[[396]] 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.[[397]] Another competition mentioned in connection with the Panathenaea was called συναυλία,[[398]] 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.[[399]] 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 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.[[400]] There were five events for boys and youths respectively, the stade-race, the pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, and the pankration. There were two prizes 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:—

Boys (παῖδες). Youths (ἀγένειοι).
1st Prize.2nd Prize.1st Prize.2nd Prize.
Stadion50106012
Pentathlon306408
Pale306408
Pygme306408
Pankration4085010

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,[[401]] 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 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.[[402]] 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.[[403]] 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.[[404]] 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:—

1st Prize.2nd Prize.
Chariot-race for colts (ἵππων ζεύγει πωλικῷ)408
Chariot-race for full-grown horses (ἵππων ζεύγει ἀδηφάγῳ)[[405]]14040
War (πολεμιστηρίοις), horse-race (ἵππῳ κέλητι νικώντι)164
War (πολεμιστηρίοις), chariot-race (ἵππων ζεύγει νικῶντι)306
Processional chariot-race (ζεύγει πομπικῷ νικῶντι)41
Javelin throwing on horseback (ἀφ’ ἵππου ἀκοντίζοντι)51

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.[[406]] 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 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”[[407]] 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[[408]] 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.

Fig. 34. Votive Relief. Acropolis Museum. Hellenistic period.

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.[[409]] Dionysius of Halicarnassus[[410]] 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]. In those on the south side he is standing in the chariot or by its side.[[411]] 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 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[[412]] 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.[[413]] 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.[[414]] On one side is represented the Pyrrhic chorus (Fig. [35]): 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.”[[415]] 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.

Fig. 35. Relief on monument of Atarbus. Acropolis Museum. Fourth century.

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 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]). It forms part of an ephebic inscription of Roman times in the archonship of C. Helvidius.[[416]]

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.[[417]]

Fig. 36. Relief on Stele. Athens, National Museum, 3300. Imperial period.

Besides this the victor received as a memento “a richly painted amphora.”[[418]] 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 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[[419]] 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.[[420]] Two fragmentary inscriptions suggest that sometimes the name of the Kosmetes, or Agonothetes, was substituted for that of the archon.[[421]] 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.[[422]]

Fig. 37. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 144. Sixth century.

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]). 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]) 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.[[423]] Two naked youths have just received palm branches from an 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[[424]] (Fig. [39]). The Athenians were intensely fond of acrobatic performances, and, as we know from the story of Hippocleides,[[425]] 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.[[426]] 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.

Fig. 38. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 138. Sixth century.

The painted vases come to a sudden close at the end of the fourth century.[[427]] 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.[[428]] 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 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[[429]] (Fig. [40]). 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.

Fig. 39. Panathenaic (?) amphora from Camirus. Bibliothèque Nationale, 243.

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[[430]] 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 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.

Fig. 40. Marble chair of judge at Panathenaea. Imperial period.

Our knowledge of the programme of the Thesea is derived from inscriptions of the second century B.C.,[[431]] with regard to 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, 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;[[432]] 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.

PART II
THE ATHLETIC EXERCISES OF THE GREEKS WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR STADIA AND GYMNASIA

CHAPTER XII
THE STADIUM

The stadium[[433]] 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 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;[[434]] 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.[[435]] 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 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.[[436]] The spectators found their way into the stadium over the embankments or along the slopes of Mount Cronius.

Fig. 41. Portion of starting lines at Olympia.

The most interesting discovery at Olympia was that of the actual lines which marked the start and finish of the races (Fig. [41]). 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 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.[[437]]

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,[[438]] 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, 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.[[439]] 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]). On each side 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.[[440]] 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.

Fig. 42. The Stadium of Epidaurus, S.E. corner, showing the starting lines and rectangular end. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.)

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, 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.

Fig. 43. Stadium of Epidaurus.

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.[[441]] In Pindar’s time the athletic competitions took place in the plain below, where, for want of sufficient room at Delphi itself, the hippodrome must have continued to exist.[[442]] 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.[[443]]

Fig. 44. Stadium of Delphi.

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.[[444]] 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 the north. Flights of steps at the east end gave access to two 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.

Fig. 45. The starting lines at Delphi. (From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker.)

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.[[445]]

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 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.

Fig. 46. The Stadium of Delphi.

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 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[[446]] 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.[[447]] 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 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.[[448]] 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 colonnade which crowned the hills above the upper seats of the sphendone.

The stadium at Priene[[449]] 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 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.[[450]] 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,[[451]] 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.[[452]] 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.[[453]]

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 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.[[454]] 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 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.[[455]] 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 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.

CHAPTER XIII
THE FOOT-RACE

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.[[456]] 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.[[457]] 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.[[458]] 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.[[459]] Besides these purely athletic events, there were races in armour, introduced for military purposes towards the 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.[[460]] 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.[[461]] 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.[[462]] 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![[463]]

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.[[464]] Approximately it seems likely that the boys were those between the ages of twelve and sixteen, the beardless those between sixteen and twenty.[[465]] 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.”[[466]] In Chios we find five classes—boys, younger epheboi, middle epheboi, older epheboi, men.[[467]] 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.[[468]] Similarly, in the girls’ foot-races at the Olympic Heraea the girls are divided into three ages.[[469]]

There is a general but mistaken idea that the stade-race was honoured above all other events among the Greeks.[[470]] 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.[[471]] 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.[[472]] 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 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.[[473]] 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.[[474]] 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.[[475]] 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.[[476]] The signal to start was given by the herald calling “Go” (ἄπιτε),[[477]] or perhaps as in the chariot-race, by a blast of the trumpet.[[478]] 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.[[479]]

Fig. 47. R.-f. Amphora. Louvre.

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.[[480]] The lines seem only to have been intended to 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.[[481]] 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]).[[482]] 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])[[483]] 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 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]). 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], 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.

Fig. 48. R.-f. kylix. Formerly at Naples.

Fig. 49. R.-f. kylix. Chiusi.

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.[[484]] Ropes, as we know, were used in the chariot-race, a separate rope being stretched in front of each chariot. Aristophanes uses the phrase “from a single rope” (ὥσπερ ἀπὸ μιᾶς ὑσπλάγιδος) to denote a simultaneous movement “of one accord.”[[485]] 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,[[486]] and an undoubted allusion to it in the poet Lycophron, who speaks of a “winged runner bursting through the balbis rope.”[[487]] 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.[[488]] 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.[[489]] 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.[[490]] 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 (τάξεις), which were drawn by putting into a helmet lots marked with the different letters of the alphabet.[[491]] 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.[[492]] 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.[[493]] 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.[[494]] 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.[[495]] Such foul practices 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.

Fig. 50. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I. I. xxii. 7 b.)

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 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.[[496]]

Fig. 51. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 609. Archonship of Niceratus, 333 B.C.

The difference in style between the sprinter and the long-distance runner is clearly marked on Panathenaic vases. The 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]). At the finish he, too, like the sprinter, swung his arms violently in making his spurt, using them as wings, says Philostratus.[[497]] 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]).

Fig. 52. Panathenaic amphora. Munich, 498. Sixth century.

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 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.”[[498]] 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]), and occasionally even on sixth-century vases, as in the leading runner of Fig. [52].[[499]] 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 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.[[500]] 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.[[501]]

Fig. 53. Panathenaic amphora. Fourth century. (Stephani, C. R. Atlas, 1876, Pl. i.)

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 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,[[502]] 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,[[503]] 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.[[504]] 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.[[505]] 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 the statue of the runner made by Myron.[[506]] 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,[[507]] of another runner who raced a horse from Coronea to Thebes and beat it.[[508]] 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.[[509]] 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.[[510]] 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 close to the athletic programme,[[511]] marking as it did the connexion between athletic training and real life.

Fig. 54. R.-f. kylix ascribed to Euphronius. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 523.

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 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.[[512]] At Nemea the race was over the hippios course of four stades, at Olympia and at Athens it was a diaulos of two stades.[[513]] 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.[[514]] The vase paintings, 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.[[515]] 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 often described as races.[[516]] 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.

Fig. 55. R.-f. kylix. Formerly in Berlin. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 278.)

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]). 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.[[517]] 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]). 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 complete picture of the race is represented on a red-figured kylix in Berlin (Fig. [56]). 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?

Fig. 56. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2307.

Fig. 57. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 818.

Finally, on a red-figured vase in the British Museum, we see the finish of the race (Fig. [57]). 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 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]). 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.

Fig. 58. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum, B. 608. Archonship of Pythodelus, 336 B.C.

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,[[518]] 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.[[519]] 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]). 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.[[520]]

Fig. 59. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 1240.

The comic element is still more apparent in the Lampadadromia and in the Oschophoria described above.[[521]] 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 dwellers in the potters’ quarter sped them on their way with loud resounding slaps.[[522]] 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.[[523]] 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.[[524]] 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.[[525]] 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.”[[526]]

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![[527]] At a later date we learn from Epictetus that the training for the long-distance runner was different from that of the sprinter in its regulations for diet, massage, and food; but he gives us no details.[[528]] 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.[[529]] 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.[[530]]

CHAPTER XIV
THE JUMP AND HALTERES

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.[[531]] 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.

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]), 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.[[532]] 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,”[[533]] 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.[[534]] 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)[[535]] was a favourite amusement, but can hardly claim to be classed under athletics, unless we suppose that the Greek jump was a hop, skip, and jump.[[536]] 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)[[537]] 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.[[538]] 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.[[539]] 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.[[540]]

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.[[541]] 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,[[542]] but whether 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.[[543]]

The jumps were measured by rods (κανόνες),[[544]] 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]) 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.

Fig. 60. Leaden halter found at Eleusis. Athens, National Museum, 9075.

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]).[[545]] It is merely an oblong piece of lead about 4-1/2 inches 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.).

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.

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]). 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 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]) 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]) 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.

Fig. 62. Stone halter found at Corinth (10 inches).

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.[[546]] It is merely a cylinder slightly narrower at the centre than at 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]). 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.”[[547]] 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,[[548]] 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.[[549]]

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 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.

Fig. 63. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 427.

It is this preliminary swing which is most frequently depicted on vases. On a red-figured pelike in the British Museum (Fig. [63]) 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.[[550]] 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 swing and the bottom of the downward swing, though the two types are connected by a closely graduated series of intermediate types.[[551]]

Fig. 64. R.-f. krater. Copenhagen (?). (Annali, 1846, M.)

A good example of the upward swing occurs on a red-figured krater presented by Campana to the King of Denmark (Fig. [64]). 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.

Fig. 65. R.-f. kylix. Bologna. (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. 16.)

The downward swing is represented on a red-figured kylix found at Bologna (Fig. [65]). The same motive is repeated in a number of red-figured vases, though it does not occur on earlier 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.

Fig. 66. R.-f. kylix. Bourguignon Coll. (Arch. Zeit., 1884, xvi.)

On another red-figured kylix we see an excellent picture of a jumper in mid-air (Fig. [66]). 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 moment is admirably represented on a black-figured imitation Corinthian amphora in the British Museum (Fig. [67]). 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.[[552]] The jumper is in the very act of alighting and his body is almost straight.

Fig. 67. B.-f. amphora. British Museum, B. 48.

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 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.[[553]] 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,[[554]] representing the pentathlon (Fig. [108]), 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.[[555]] 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 Fig. [64]. 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.[[556]]

Fig. 68. R.-f. kylix. (Klein, Euphronius, p. 306.)

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 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.[[557]] 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]). 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.

Fig. 69. R.-f. pelike, belonging to Dr. Hauser. (J.H.S. xxiii. p. 272.)

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 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;[[558]] (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,”[[559]] 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 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.[[560]] 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 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.[[561]]

Fig. 70. R.-f. oinochoe. British Museum, E. 561.

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] 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]). 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.

CHAPTER XV
THROWING THE DISKOS

It will be remembered that while frequent reference is made in the Homeric poems to throwing the diskos,[[562]] 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.[[563]] 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 of this sort called “ruzzola” is still played in parts of Italy on the roads, much to the danger of pedestrians.[[564]] 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 from the diskos. The popular translation of diskos as “quoit” is erroneous and most misleading.

Fig. 71. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 271.

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.[[565]] The stone diskos is clearly represented on the black-figured vases of the sixth century as a thick white object (Fig. [71]), 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]).

Fig. 72. Bronze diskos found at Aegina. Berlin.

There exist in our museums various inscribed and carved marble diskoi.[[566]] 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:—

Finding-place.Museum.Weight in kilos.Diameter in cms.Thickness in mms.
1. OlympiaOlympia, Inv. 75675·707345-13
2. CorfuB.M. 26913·992236-13
3. GelaVienna3·800287
4. AmyclaeAthens, De Ridder, Cat. 5303·34919
5. OlympiaOlympia, Inv. 42572·945 (?)226-12
6. OlympiaOlympia, Inv. 12,8922·7751811-12
7. OlympiaRome, Museo Kircheriano2·37821, 21·5
8. OlympiaOlympia, Inv. 28592·08319, 22·53 at edge
9. SicilyB.M. 2482·075215
10. OlympiaBerlin2·02317·59-10
11. AeginaBerlin1·98421
12. OlympiaBerlin1·721207
13. OlympiaBerlin, Inv. 22861·353 (?)20·54
14. OlympiaOlympia, Inv. 12,8911·268174-12
15. CephalleniaB.M. 32071·24516·55

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.[[567]] 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]). 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]). It bears the following inscription in archaic letters of the sixth century:[[568]] “Exoïdas dedicated me to the twin sons of Great Zeus, the bronze diskos wherewith he conquered the high-souled Cephallenians.”

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.[[569]]

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]).

Fig. 73. Diskos of Exoïdas. British Museum, 3207.

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 used a smaller and lighter diskos than men.[[570]] No doubt the standard varied greatly at different times and places. At Olympia three bronze diskoi were kept in the treasury of the Sicyonians[[571]] for the use of competitors in the pentathlon, and it seems probable that the diskos used there was heavier than that in use elsewhere.[[572]] 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.[[573]] Statius, again, describes Phlegyas as hurling a diskos across the Alpheus at its widest.[[574]] 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,[[575]] describing the death of Hyacinthus who was accidentally killed by Apollo with a diskos. “The balbis,” he says, “is small and 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.”[[576]] 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,[[577]] we find mention of “the arrangements 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.[[578]] 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.[[579]] The place where the diskos fell was marked by a peg or arrow as described by Statius,[[580]] and on several vases we see a diskobolos in the act of putting down or taking up such a mark (Fig. [74]).

Fig. 74. (a) R.-f. kylix. Chiusi. (b) R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 357, A.

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 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.[[581]] 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]). 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. 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.

Fig. 76. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 6.

1. The diskobolos holds the diskos in front of him in both hands (Fig. [76]).

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.[[582]]

Fig. 77. B.-f. kelebe. British Museum, B. 361.

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]). This circumstance can hardly be due to accident, or carelessness, 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 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], the latter by Fig. [78].

Fig. 78. R.-f. krater of Amasis. Corneto.

Fig. 79. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 395.

Fig. 80. Interior of Fig. 66.

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]). 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 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]). 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.[[583]] 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 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.

Fig. 81. Fifth-century bronze. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 18.)

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.

Fig. 75. The Standing Diskobolos. Vatican. Copy of fifth-century original. (From a photograph by Anderson.)

(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]). 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]). The left leg is advanced and straight, the 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]) and of certain other vases.

Fig. 82. B.-f. lekythos, in British Museum, B. 576.

Fig. 83. Bronze statuette. New York.

A totally distinct stance is represented by a fine bronze in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Fig. [83]). 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.[[584]] 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.[[585]] 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 no doubt that we have here a totally distinct style. A British Museum bronze (Fig. [84]) 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.

Fig. 84. Bronze diskobolos, in British Museum, 675.

(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]), and a fragment of an alabastron at Würzburg shows an interesting back view of the same movement.

Fig. 85. R.-f. kylix. Louvre.

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]). 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 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.

Fig. 86. Coins of Cos, in British Museum (enlarged).

(c) The Throw.—“The diskobolos,” says Lucian, speaking of Myron’s statue, “seems as if he would straighten himself up at the throw.”[[586]] 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], [88]).[[587]] 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.

Fig. 87. Panathenaic amphora. Naples, Racc. Cum. 184.

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]) shows the early part of the movement, and the continuation is seen on a black-figured hydria in Vienna (Fig. [90]). 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 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], but it is impossible with certainty to identify such figures with diskos throwers.

Fig. 88. B.-f. hydria. British Museum, E. 164.

Fig. 89. R.-f. kylix. Boulogne.

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 watching the thrower’s right foot.[[588]] 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—

1. The stance.

(a) Position of standing diskobolos (Fig. [75]), or

(b) Diskos held in both hands level with the waist (Fig. [82]), or

(c) Diskos raised in left hand level with the head (Fig. [83]).

From these positions, with or without a change of foot, the diskos is raised to

2. Position with left foot forward (usually) and diskos in both hands,

(a) Extended horizontally to the front (Fig. [76], etc.), or

(b) Raised above the head.

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,

(a) The left foot is drawn back (Fig. [78]), or

(b) The right foot is advanced (Fig. [79]), so that we reach

4. The position of Myron’s diskobolos (Fig. [13]).

5. At the beginning of the swing forward the body is straightened (Figs. [87], [88]).

6. And as the diskos swings down, the left foot is vigorously advanced (Figs. [89], [90]).

7. Finally after the diskos has left the hand, the right foot is again advanced.

Fig. 90. B.-f. hydria. Vienna, 318.

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 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]. The only separate competition with the diskos was at Olbia, a Milesian colony in Scythia, at the festival of Achilles Pontarches.[[589]] 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.[[590]] As a physical exercise it was certainly valuable. According to Lucian it strengthened the shoulders and gave tone to the extremities.[[591]] Doctors approved of it, and Aretaeus recommends it as a cure for chronic headache and dizziness.[[592]]

CHAPTER XVI
THROWING THE JAVELIN

The javelin used in Greek sports is called variously ἄκων, ἀκόντιον, μεσάγκυλον, ἀποτομάς.[[593]] 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]).

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) like the button on the modern foil or bayonet.[[594]] 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.[[595]] 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.[[596]] 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.[[597]] 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.[[598]] 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 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] a youth is seated on the ground in the act of attaching the amentum. On a red-figured kylix at Würzburg (Fig. [91]) 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]e). In every case it is only the actual loop which is left free.

Fig. 91. R.-f. kylix. Würzburg, 432.

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[[599]] 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 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]). The more usual overhand throw is employed by some of the warriors on the François vase (Fig. [94]), who advance to the attack with arms drawn back and fingers inserted in the thong in the manner which Xenophon recommends to his peltasts.[[600]] 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.

Fig 92. Various methods of attaching the amentum. (J.H.S. xxvii. p. 250.)

Fig. 94. François vase. Florence.

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 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.[[601]]

Fig. 93. B.-f. kylix. British Museum, B. 380.

The distribution of the amentum[[602]] is a point of some interest 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 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.

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.

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 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]). 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 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,[[603]] 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.[[604]]

Fig. 96. R.-f. psykter. Bourguignon Coll.

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]) 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 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], 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 British Museum, the other in Leyden (Figs. [107], [108]). 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]).

Fig. 97. B.-f. stamnos. Vatican.

From the carry the arm is drawn back to its full extent, as shown on the François vase (Fig. [94]). 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]).

Fig. 98. B.-f. vase. Acropolis, Athens, 606.

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]). On 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.

Fig. 99. R.-f. amphora, in British Museum, E. 256.

Fig. 100. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 562 A.

Fig. 101. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 3139 inv.

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]) 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]). 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]).

Fig. 102. R.-f. kylix. Torlonia, 270 (148).

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]) 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 thrower on the Panaetius kylix (Fig. [17]). Here, as in a red-figured amphora in Munich (Fig. [103]), 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.

Fig. 103. R.-f. amphora. Munich, 408.

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]), the attitude being evidently borrowed from that of the diskobolos. Possibly the Torlonia kylix may also represent a standing throw.

Fig. 104. R.-f. kylix. Rome(?) (Jüthner, Ant. Turn. Fig. 43.)

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.[[605]] 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.

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.”[[606]] 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.[[607]]

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 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.[[608]] 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.[[609]]

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 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.[[610]] Lastly, Lucian, in a passage referring to Olympia and therefore to the pentathlon, definitely states that in throwing the javelin athletes compete for distance.[[611]]

Fig. 105. R.-f. kylix. Berlin, 2728.

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]). 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.[[612]] Xenophon,[[613]] 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 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.

Fig. 106. Panathenaic amphora. British Museum.

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,[[614]] and a Panathenaic amphora in the British Museum (Fig. [106]), 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.

CHAPTER XVII
THE PENTATHLON

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.[[615]] 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. The introduction of boxing into the pentathlon is due to the mischievous habit of using such inaccurate expressions as “the Homeric pentathlon.”[[616]] In heroic days, as Pindar tells us, there was no pentathlon, “but for each several feat there was a prize.”[[617]]

Fig. 107. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 134. Sixth century.

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[[618]] (Figs. [107], [108]). 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 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.[[619]]

Fig. 108. Panathenaic amphora. Leyden. Sixth century.

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.[[620]]

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 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.”[[621]]

The order of the events and the method of deciding the pentathlon have given rise to a literature equally extensive and inconclusive.[[622]] 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 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.[[623]] 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.[[624]] 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 spite of metre and carelessness reflect more or less the actual order.[[625]] 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.[[626]] On the two 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[[627]] 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 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![[628]] 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.[[629]] It has been further inferred that victory in three events was not only 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 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.[[630]] 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.” 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.[[631]] 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:[[632]] “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 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” 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.

CHAPTER XVIII
WRESTLING

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]).

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.)

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 from Athena herself.[[633]] 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.[[634]] 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.[[635]] 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 importance of wrestling in Greek education, an importance which it maintained even during the Empire. The method of instruction was strictly progressive.[[636]] 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] 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.[[637]] 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 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.[[638]] 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,[[639]] and this statement agrees generally with our other evidence. Pindar’s heroes, the Aeginetan wrestlers Alcimedon and Aristomenes,[[640]] 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.[[641]] Four rounds imply nine to sixteen competitors. A long epigram on Ariston,[[642]] 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.[[643]] The first victory of this sort recorded at Olympia is that of Dromeus in the pankration of Ol. 75.[[644]] 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.[[645]] These instances, which could be multiplied, are sufficient to prove that Philostratus is mistaken when he asserts that no crown was awarded at Olympia without competition (ἀκονιτεί).[[646]] The case of Dorieus disproves the similar statement made by Heliodorus with regard to the Pythia.[[647]] 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,[[648]] 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.[[649]]

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.[[650]] 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 (περίζωμα), such as is occasionally depicted on black-figured vases (Fig. [128]), but this loin-cloth seems to have been usually discarded even in the sixth century. Wrestlers, especially boys, sometimes wore ear-caps (Fig. [17]), but there is no evidence of their use in competitions. For obvious reasons they always wore their hair short.[[651]] Professional athletes under the Empire wore the little hair that was left uncut, tied up in an unsightly little topknot called the “cirrus.”[[652]]

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.[[653]] An epigram on one Damostratus is conclusive evidence for the back, an epigram on Cleitomachus for the shoulders.[[654]] Another epigram relates how Milo, advancing to receive his crown after 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.[[655]] 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.[[656]] 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], [131]). 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], [115]). 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.[[657]] The technical word for winning a victory in wrestling was τριάσσειν, “to treble,” and the victor was called 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.[[658]]

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.[[659]] 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,[[660]] 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 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.[[661]] 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.[[662]] 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:—

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.

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.[[663]] 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]).

Fig. 110. One of a pair of bronze wrestling boys, generally known as Diskoboloi. Naples. (Photograph by Brogi.)

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.”[[664]] This position, known apparently as σύστασις, is frequently depicted on the vases (Fig. [111]). 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.

Fig. 111. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 603. Archonship of Polyzelus, 367 B.C.

Sometimes instead of taking hold from the front the wrestlers try to obtain a hold from the side as in preparing for “the heave,” and in such a case the bodies are turned sideways to one another, a position described as παράθεσις.[[665]] A not very satisfactory illustration of such a position is shown on a British Museum kylix representing Theseus and Cercyon[[666]] (Fig. [112]), with which we may compare the group of Heracles and Antaeus on the frieze of the theatre at Delphi,[[667]] 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.

Fig. 112. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 84.

Fig. 113. Group from British Museum amphora, B. 295 (Fig. 143).

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]), 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]). 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.[[668]] Having seized his opponent’s arm in the manner described the wrestler rapidly turns his back on him,[[669]] 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.[[670]] 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]). 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], [115]). 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.

Fig. 114. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 94.

Fig. 115. R.-f. kylix. Paris. (Interior of Fig. [54].)

Returning to the arm-hold which leads to this throw, we find several methods of meeting it represented. On the Amphiaraus vase (Fig. [3]) 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]) 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]), 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.

Fig. 116. R.-f. amphora. Berlin, 2159.

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.[[671]] 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. On a red-figured krater in the Ashmolean (Fig. [117]) 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]). 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.

Fig. 117. R.-f. krater. Oxford, Ashmolean, 288.

Fig. 118. Reverse of Fig. [143]. British Museum, B. 295.

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]). 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.[[672]]

Fig. 119. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 584.

The neck-hold is commonly employed by Heracles in his fight with the Nemean lion. Sometimes his left arm is round 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.[[673]]

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.[[674]] 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]).

Fig. 120. Panathenaic amphora. Boulogne, Musée Municipale, 441.

Passing on to body-holds we find a preliminary position represented on a Panathenaic vase in the British Museum (Fig. [111]). 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,[[675]] and the effectiveness of the 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.[[676]] The danger of it is well illustrated by a pair of groups from a black-figured amphora in Munich (Fig. [121]). 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 is represented on a red-figured kylix in the Museum at Philadelphia (Fig. [122]). 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]) 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.

Fig. 121. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 1336.

Fig. 122. R.-f. kylix. Philadelphia.

Fig. 123. B.-f. amphora. Munich, 495.

More commonly the hold is secured from behind in the manner represented on a black-figured amphora in Munich (Fig. [123]). 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.[[677]] 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 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].

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]. It is a hold sometimes employed by Heracles against Antaeus, but is particularly characteristic of Theseus. Two kylikes in the British Museum (Figs. [124], [125]) will sufficiently illustrate it. On the one Cercyon 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]). A yet later moment is represented in a well-known bronze statuette now in Paris (Fig. [127]). 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]). The heave and the holds necessary for it are clearly described in the late epics of Quintus Smyrnaeus and Nonnus.[[678]]

Fig. 124. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 48.

Fig. 125. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 36.

Fig. 126. Metope of Theseum. Theseus and Cercyon. (Greek Sculpture, Fig. 66.)

Fig. 127. Bronze wrestling group. Paris.

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 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.[[679]] 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.”[[680]] 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 bath he is continually giving the cross-buttock as if wrestling.”[[681]] Cannot we picture this athletic fraud strutting about the bath cross-buttocking imaginary opponents, just as his modern counterpart bowls imaginary balls, or with his walking-stick wings imaginary birds?

Fig. 128. B.-f. amphora. Vatican.

These movements may be illustrated by a group on a black-figured vase in the Museo Gregoriano (Fig. [128]). 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.[[682]]

Fig. 129. Bronze group, in the British Museum.

A throw somewhat resembling the cross-buttock is represented in a recently acquired bronze of the British Museum (Fig. [129]). As two other replicas[[683]] exist it seems probable that it is a copy of some well-known Hellenistic group in 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 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.[[684]] 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], [123], 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 are two varieties. In the St. Petersburg bronze (Fig. [130]) 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]). In the Constantinople bronze (Fig. [131]) 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 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.

Fig. 130. Bronze. St. Petersburg.

Fig. 131. Bronze. Constantinople.

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 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).”[[685]] 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 of rule, but there was still room for much diversity of style.[[686]] The Sicilians in particular had a style of their own, the rules for which had been drawn up by one Oricadmus.[[687]] There was also a “Thessalian chip,”[[688]] 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.[[689]] Plutarch ascribes the victory of the Thebans at Leuctra to their superiority over the Spartans in wrestling.[[690]] 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.

CHAPTER XIX
BOXING

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.[[691]] 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.[[692]]

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 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.[[693]] 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.[[694]] 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.

Fig. 132. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 63.

Fig. 133. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 39.

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 before an official (Fig. [132]). 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]). His attitude expresses surprise and excitement at something which he sees upon the altar, perhaps, as Dr. Jüthner suggests,[[695]] 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.[[696]] But Dr. Jüthner has proved conclusively that the objects represented are boxing thongs.[[697]]

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.[[698]] 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 of the thongs is too small and usually too sketchy to allow us to form any conclusion as to the precise method.[[699]] 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.[[700]] 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]), 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]) representing a later type of glove the order appears to be reversed.

Fig. 134. Interior of Fig. [151]. British Museum, E. 78.

Fig. 135. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 607. Archonship of Pythodelus, B.C. 336.

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[[701]] the hand appears to be covered by a glove which leaves 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]) 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 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.

Fig. 136. Boxer. Terme Museum, Rome. (From a photograph by Anderson.)

Fig. 137. Right hand of boxer, from Sorrento. Naples.

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]). They occur also in a marble figure of a boxer from Sorrento which is now at Naples (Fig. [137]), on an arm also at Naples, and on a hand found at Verona.[[702]] 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 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.[[703]] 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.[[704]]

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.[[705]] 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.[[706]] 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.[[707]] 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 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]).[[708]]

Fig. 138. Caestus, from mosaic in the Thermae of Caracalla. Lateran Museum.

Fig. 139. Bronze situla. Watsch.

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.[[709]] 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]), 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 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.[[710]] 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,[[711]] and on the fragment of a black-figured vase in the British Museum found at Daphnae in Egypt (Fig. [140]).[[712]] On the Etruscan tombs the scheme is not confined to boxers. In the Tomba degli Auguri at Tarquinii a pair of wrestlers[[713]] 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 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,[[714]] or the makers of the situlae, ignorant of Greek athletics, have mistaken the halteres of the Greeks for weapons used in boxing.

Fig. 140. Fragment of b.-f. situla, in British Museum, B. 124.

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[[715]] 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.

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.”[[716]] 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 British Museum, reproduced in Fig. [141]. 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.

Fig. 141. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 271.

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 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.[[717]] 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 by groups of men holding or adjusting the himantes.[[718]] 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], 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.

Fig. 142. B.-f. stamnos. Bibliothèque Nationale, 252.

There can be no doubt as to the position assumed by the Greek boxer when he first “puts up his hands.” It is the 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]), two red-figured kylikes one of which is signed by Duris (Figs. [133], [151]), and two Panathenaic vases of the latter half of the fourth century (Figs. [135], [148]).

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 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]).[[719]]

Fig. 143. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 295.

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 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;[[720]] 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.[[721]] 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 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], 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]). 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 an opportunity occurred for delivering a blow with the left. On a Panathenaic vase published by Stephani (Fig. [145]) 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.

Fig. 144. Panathenaic amphora. Berlin, 1831. Sixth century.

Fig. 145. Panathenaic amphora. Campana. Sixth century (?).

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]), sometimes it is raised slightly above the shoulder as if for a downward chopping blow (Fig. [143]), sometimes it is held on a level with or below the shoulder, in which case a straight hit may be intended (Fig. [148]). 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]). 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]) 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]) 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.[[722]]

Fig. 146. R.-f. kylix of Pamphaeus. Corneto.

Fig. 147. Panathenaic amphora. Louvre, F. 278.

Fig. 148. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 612. Fourth century.

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.[[723]] 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;[[724]] 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, 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.[[725]] 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.”[[726]] 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,[[727]] a victor in the boys’ boxing at the Isthmia, as “stout of hand, with the spirit of a lion and light of foot.”

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], [148]). 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 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]. 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.[[728]] 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 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, 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[[729]] 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 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 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.[[730]] 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.[[731]] 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[[732]] 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.[[733]] 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 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.

Fig. 149. Marble head of boxer, with ear-lappets.

Fig. 150. B.-f. hydria, in British Museum, B. 326.

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)[[734]] or caps. The former are represented on a marble head formerly in possession of Fabretti (Fig. [149]).[[735]] 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]). 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.[[736]] An example of such sparring may be seen on an early black-figured hydria in the British Museum (Fig. [150]), or on the kylix in Fig. [151]. In default of an opponent they practised “shadow-fighting” (σκιαμαχία),[[737]] 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.[[738]] This form of practice was also known as χειρονομία, or hand drill. Sometimes a κώρυκος or punch-ball was employed (Fig. [179]).[[739]] An exercise much recommended for boxers was digging, and the pick (σκαπάνη) was therefore regarded as the badge of a boxer.[[740]]

CHAPTER XX
THE PANKRATION[[741]]

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.

Fig. 151. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 78.

Modern writers turn up their eyes in holy horror at the 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 athletics was more popular than the pankration. Philostratus describes it as the fairest of all contests.[[742]] Mythology ascribed its invention to Heracles and Theseus,[[743]] 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.[[744]] 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’ 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.[[745]] 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.[[746]] 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]). One of the pankratiasts has inserted 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]), where a pankratiast inserts his thumb into the mouth of an opponent whom he has thrown head over heels.

Fig. 152. R.-f. kylix. Baltimore.

Fig. 153. R.-f. kylix. Berlin.

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.[[747]] 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]). 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 generally depended for victory on his wrestling.[[748]] 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]), where the left-hand wrestler proceeds to pummel his fallen opponent. A much mutilated group on the kylix illustrated in Fig. [54] 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.[[749]] “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.”

Fig. 154. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I. I. xxii.)

Fig. 155. Panathenaic amphora. Sixth century. (Mon. d. I. I. xxii.)

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.[[750]] The manœuvre is excellently illustrated on two Panathenaic vases (Figs. [154], [155]), and on the coins of Aspendus (Fig. [109]). On a gem in the British Museum (Fig. [162]) 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 μεγάλοι[[751]]—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,[[752]] 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 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:[[753]] “Whenever any of them 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]), 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.

Fig. 156. B.-f. hydria. Munich, 114.

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.

Fig. 157. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 604. Fourth century. Signed by the artist “Kittos.”

Fig. 158. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 610. Archonship of Nicetes, 332 B.C.

Wrestling and boxing combined are depicted in a highly conventional manner on two Panathenaic vases in the British Museum (Figs. [157], [158]) 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 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.[[754]] 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,[[755]] Polydeuces being challenged to fight by Amycus, inquires if it is to be a boxing match or whether kicking too was allowed; and Galen,[[756]] in his skit on the Olympic games, 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], [155]. 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)[[757]] 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]), and in a relief in the Louvre. On another Panathenaic vase (Fig. [159]) 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], where one pankratiast is jumping on his fallen opponent.

Fig. 159. Panathenaic amphora. Lamberg Coll.

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]-[131]). Similarly in the Uffizi group (Fig. [163]) the upper wrestler twists his opponent’s arm across his back, and the same motive occurs in one of the 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.[[758]] 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]. The most effective and favourite method of strangling an opponent is that known as κλιμακισμός,[[759]] 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]), 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]), and is best known to scholars from the account of the latter contest 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.[[760]] “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.

Fig. 160. Heracles and Triton. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 223.

Fig. 162. Graeco-Roman gems in British Museum.

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,[[761]] 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.[[762]] 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.[[763]] Ground wrestling is seldom represented on the vases, except in the contest of Heracles and Antaeus (Fig. [161]); 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] from gems in the British Museum explain themselves.

Fig. 161. Herakles and Antaeus. R.-f. kylix. Athens.

Fig. 163. Group of pankratiasts. Uffizi Palace, Florence. (From a photograph by Brogi.)

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]). Unfortunately, it is considerably restored, but in spite of recent criticism there seems to be no reason for doubting the general correctness of the restoration.[[764]] 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.[[765]] 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 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.[[766]] 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.[[767]]

CHAPTER XXI
THE HIPPODROME

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[[768]] 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.[[769]]

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 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[[770]] 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.[[771]] 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.[[772]] 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.[[773]] 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).[[774]]

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.[[775]] The hippodrome lay 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.[[776]] 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.).

Fig. 164. Aphesis at Olympia. (After Weniger.)

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]). It consisted of a triangular structure like the prow of a ship, the apex pointing down the course.[[777]] 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 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,[[778]] 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[[779]] 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 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.[[780]] 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!

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.[[781]] 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]) recently discovered at Sparta there is a spirited 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.

Fig. 165. Panathenaic amphora found at Sparta. Sixth century.

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]), 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.[[782]] 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.[[783]] There is of course nothing 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.[[784]] The artist probably intended to represent a two-horse 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]). 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.[[785]] On the two other Panathenaic vases in the Museum connected with this race the drivers wear short, tight-fitting drawers, which are not visible in our illustration (Fig. [166]).

Fig. 166. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 132. Sixth century.

Fig 167. Silver tetradrachm and gold stater of Philip II. of Macedon, in the British Museum (enlarged).

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]). 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.[[786]] The coin in our illustration (Fig. [168]) 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.

Fig. 168. Silver tetradrachm of Rhegium, in British Museum (enlarged). Early fifth century.

Fig. 169. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 133. Sixth century.

In the horse-races the jockeys rode without stirrups or saddle. On the Panathenaic vase (Fig. [169]) in the British Museum they appear as naked youths with long hair; those on the Amphiaraus vase (Fig. [3]) wear a short chiton girt in closely. In a red-figured vase-painting in Munich[[787]] 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 a coin bearing on one side the figure of his victorious jockey holding in his hand the palm (Fig. [167]).

Of the Olympic κάλπη I know no illustration, but something very similar to it occurs on the coins of Tarentum. The didrachms of Tarentum,[[788]] 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]), 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]) is slightly later than the last, and is ascribed by Dr. Evans to the hegemony of Pyrrhus.

Fig. 170. Silver staters of Tarentum, in the British Museum (enlarged).

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 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.[[789]] 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 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.[[790]] 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.[[791]] 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 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.[[792]] 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.[[793]] A 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.[[794]] It occurs also on one of the coins of Catana shown in Fig. [171]. The other coin has in the exergue an object which seems to represent a broken chariot-wheel.

Fig. 171. Silver tetradrachms of Catana, in the British Museum (enlarged). Fifth century.

The chariot-race is depicted on the François vase, and also in the Amphiaraus vase (Fig. [3]). 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.

Fig. 172. Decadrachm of Agrigentum, 413-406 B.C. Decadrachm of Syracuse, 400-360 B.C.

The finest representations of the chariot occur on the coins of Sicily (Fig. [172]). 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 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.

CHAPTER XXII
THE GYMNASIUM AND THE PALAESTRA

In Homeric times the gymnasium and the palaestra did not exist. The broad runs in Ithaca,[[795]] 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.[[796]] 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.”[[797]] 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 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.[[798]]

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;[[799]] men of all ages resorted to them for their daily exercise; competitors for the games trained in 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,[[800]] “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,[[801]] others kept by paidotribai[[802]] 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 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.[[803]]

The essential parts of the gymnasium or palaestra are clearly stated in the treatise on the Athenian Republic,[[804]] which if not written by Xenophon was probably written in the second half 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, 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.[[805]] 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[[806]] 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.”[[807]]

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]). 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 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 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.

Fig. 173. R.-f. kylix. Canino Coll.

Another kylix gives a vivid picture of the discipline of the gymnasium (Fig. [173]). 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 formerly as a pair of compasses. Another figure frequently depicted in these scenes is the flute-player,[[808]] 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.[[809]] In these riding scenes pillars[[810]] 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]). 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.

Fig. 174. R.-f. kylix. Munich, 515.

Fig. 175. R.-f. kylix. Copenhagen.

Scenes in the Apodyterion are very numerous, especially on later vases. We will first take a kylix in the Museum at Copenhagen (Fig. [175]). 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.[[811]] 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.[[812]]

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.[[813]] The oil was contained in 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]) 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[[814]] (Fig. [177]).

Fig. 176. R.-f. krater. Berlin, 2180.

Fig. 177. Bronze cista. Vatican.

Fig. 178. R.-f. amphora. St. Petersburg, Hermitage, 1611.

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 of a pankratiast using it which occurs on a vase in St. Petersburg (Fig. [178]). 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]).[[815]] 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.

Fig. 179. Ficoroni cista. Kirchner Museum, Rome. Third century B.C.

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.[[816]] 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 only suitable for the old and feeble.[[817]] 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]).[[818]] 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 sort of lye obtained from wood ashes, an alkali called litron and somewhat similar to nitre, and a kind of fuller’s earth.[[819]] After oiling and powdering his body the bather rubbed himself till a lather was obtained.

Fig. 180. B.-f. hydria. Leyden, 7794b.

Fig. 181. Scene on r.-f. vase. (Tischbein, i. 58).

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[[820]] (Fig. [181]). 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]). 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 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]). A youth scraping himself with a strigil is the motive of the well-known statue, the “Apoxyomenos,” formerly ascribed to Lysippus.

Fig. 182. R.-f. kylix. British Museum, E. 83.

Fig. 183. Strigil, in British Museum, inscribed κέλων. Fifth century.

Plunge baths (κολυμβήθραι) certainly existed at this period. A red-figured amphora[[821]] 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 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.

Fig. 184. Plan of gymnasium at Delphi. (B.C.H.)

The gymnasium at Delphi[[822]] is a good example of the skill with which the Greeks adapted their buildings to the nature of the ground (Fig. [184]). 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 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.[[823]] 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.[[824]] The wrestling 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.[[825]] 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,”[[826]] 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.[[827]]

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. 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]. 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.

Fig. 185. Plan of palaestra at Olympia.

The gymnasium and palaestra at Olympia[[828]] (Fig. [185]), 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 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. 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.[[829]]

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, 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 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,[[830]] 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.[[831]] The oil was kept in amphorae or tanks. A picture of such 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]). 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.

Fig. 186. Stele of Diodorus. Prusa. (Imperial period.)

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.[[832]] 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.[[833]]

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.[[834]] There were also special sorts of powder credited with special virtues.[[835]] 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 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 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.

Fig. 187. Plan of lower gymnasium, Priene. (Priene, Fig. 271.)

The two gymnasia excavated by the Germans at Priene[[836]] illustrate the earlier and the later types. The lower gymnasium (Fig. [187]) 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 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]). 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 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.

Fig. 188. Bathroom in gymnasium at Priene. (Priene, Fig. 278.)

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.”[[837]]

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.[[838]] These remains belong mostly to the second century 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.).[[839]] 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,[[840]] 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.

Fig. 189. Plan of gymnasia at Pergamum. (Simplified from Ath. Mitth.)

The general arrangement of the buildings will be sufficiently clear from the accompanying plan (Fig. [189]). 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 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 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,[[841]] 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[[842]] must have been originally the magistrate in charge of the gymnasium, and it can only be an accident 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 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[[843]] he has to be over thirty years of age. An inscription from Phintia[[844]] 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[[845]] 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.[[846]] 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 twenty-four a year in A.D. 69 to eighty-one in A.D. 92.[[847]] 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.[[848]] 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.[[849]] 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.[[850]] 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.[[851]] The training of the epheboi was practical and military and had no connexion 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.[[852]] 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.[[853]] 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.[[854]]

The gymnastes can hardly have come into existence much before the beginning of the fifth century.[[855]] 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 trainer of thirty victors in wrestling and the pankration;[[856]] 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.[[857]] 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),[[858]] especially the condition required for athletic success. Its professors in the fourth century are in ordinary speech called paidotribai, and Isocrates[[859]] 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;[[860]] 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.[[861]] The ideal gymnastes, according to Aristotle,[[862]] 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.[[863]]

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.[[864]] 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.[[865]] These exercises were taught progressively, at first the simple movements or positions (σχήματα) separately, then combinations of these movements which involved more exertion.[[866]] 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.[[867]] 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.[[868]] Dances could be utilised in the same way: the movements of wrestling were imitated in a dance performed by Spartan boys called the gymnopaidike[[869]] 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.[[870]] 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[[871]]), and also boat-races.[[872]] 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]). 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.

Fig. 190. Stele representing victorious crew. Athens. (Hellenistic period?)

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[[873]] 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 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.