Of the Discus, or Quoit.
The Discus was a kind of quoit of a round form, made sometimes of wood, but more frequently of stone, lead, or other metal; as iron or brass. Those who used this exercise were called Discoboli, that is, flingers of the Discus. The epithet κατωμάδιος, which signifies “borne upon the shoulders,” given to this instrument by Homer, sufficiently shows, that it was of too great a weight to be carried from place to place in the hands only, and that the shoulders were necessary for the support of such a burden for any length of time.
The intent of this exercise, as of almost all the others, was to invigorate the body, and to make men more capable of supporting the weight and use of arms. In war they were often obliged to carry such loads, as appear excessive in these days, either of provisions, fascines, palisades; or in scaling of walls, when, to equal the height of them, several of the besiegers mounted upon the shoulders of each other.
The Athletæ, in hurling the Discus, put themselves into [pg lxi] the posture best adapted to add force to their cast; that is, they advanced one foot, upon which they leaned the whole weight of their bodies. They then poised the Discus in their hands, and whirling it round several times almost horizontally, to add force to its motion, they threw it off with the joint strength of hands, arms, and body, which had all a share in the vigour of the discharge. He that flung the Discus farthest was the victor.
The most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity, in their endeavours to represent naturally the attitudes of the Discoboli, have left to posterity many masterpieces in their several arts. Quintilian exceedingly extols a statue of that kind, which had been finished with infinite care and application by the celebrated Myron: “What can be more finished,” says he, “or express more happily the muscular distortions of the body in the exercise of the Discus, than the Discobolus of Myron?”[131]
Of the Pentathlum.
The Greeks gave this name to an exercise composed of five others. It is the common opinion, that those five exercises were wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the dart, and the Discus. It is believed that this sort of combat was decided in one day, and sometimes the same morning: and that to obtain the prize, which was single, it was required that a combatant should be the victor in all those exercises.
The exercise of leaping, and throwing the javelin, of which the first consisted in leaping a certain length, and the other in hitting a mark with a javelin at a certain distance, contributed to the forming of a soldier, by making him nimble and active in battle, and expert in flinging the spear and dart.
Of Races.
Of all the exercises which the Athletæ cultivated with so much pains and industry to enable them to appear in the public games, running held the foremost rank. The Olympic games generally opened with races, and were solemnized at first with no other exercise.