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.