The third event of the pentathlon was spear-throwing. In the athletic training of an Hellenic youth, spear-throwing came after the hand and arm had been strengthened by ball-playing and diskos-throwing.
Spear-throwing, as has been shown, growing out of the very early necessity of war-training, was a primitive mode of exercise. The spear (δόρυ, λόγχη) used by the Homeric heroes was very large, and as heavy as they could handle effectively. None but that warrior himself could wield the spear of Achilles. Hector’s spear was 16 feet long; the shaft was made of ash. A socket was fitted to the upper end of the spear, in which was inserted a bronze spear point. But that used at the pentathlon, and denoted by the term ἄκων, was smaller and lighter.
The attitude of the body, the movement of the arms and shoulders, and the carriage of the head were very different in spear-throwing from those in diskos-hurling. The athlete stood erect, and raised his right arm upward and slightly backward; his right foot was generally placed backward, while his left was advanced; his eye was fixed on a goal straight ahead. He grasped the spear in the middle and held it in a horizontal position on a level with his right ear; sometimes he moved it backward and forward before throwing, but as often omitted such preliminary exercise. Sometimes it was thrown by means of a strap attached to it, as is still the custom in many countries.
In the pentathlon, spear-throwing was a test rather of skill than of strength; an athlete who could win the victory with the diskos might suffer defeat with the spear, although diskos-throwing required more strength than spear-throwing. Spear-throwing trained the eye and made the arm deft in executing the eye’s direction.
It conferred upon the body other peculiar benefits; the organs of respiration were stimulated; the chest was strengthened and enlarged; the right arm was strengthened; in order to throw the spear effectively the athlete must maintain a graceful poise and have command of his entire body; to do so with a weight held aloft, strengthened the lower limbs, made their muscles more facile, and the step more sure.
By inserting this particular exercise into the pentathlon the early Olympians not only recognized the foregoing advantages, but they also honored the characteristic exercise of their ancestors, and subsequent Olympians followed their example. For the spear was the traditional sign of the freeman; as far back as myth and memory could go, it had been carried, even in peace, as an honorable and distinguishing token.
Plato, in his scheme of the ideal state, prescribed spear-throwing as a training for war, and directed that it should be practiced by women as well as by men.
At Rome, during the time of the emperors, spear-throwing was included among the gymnastic exercises of that city. Instruction in this art was received from the Mauritanians. But it is said that the Emperor Commodus surpassed even the skill of his instructors; in the amphitheatre he killed, according to the story, a hundred lions with as many spears; at another time he astonished the spectators by the dexterity with which he hurled his spear at the Mauritanian ostriches, as they ran by the amphitheatre at full speed; with every throw he severed a bird’s head from its body.
We have no accounts to show as to how far a Greek athlete could hurl a spear, but we know that savages of today can hurl it to a great distance. It is said by travellers that a Kaffir who suddenly comes upon game will hit an antelope ten or fifteen yards away without raising his arm.
The three events that have been described, leaping, diskos-throwing and spear-throwing, were probably the essential features of the pentathlon; that is to say, an athlete who won in all three events was probably crowned victor. If, however, the victories in the three events were not secured by the same man, the competition was decided by additional contests in running and wrestling. But as at other stages of the festival these two exercises were distinct events, a description of their technique may be omitted in this place. Among those who distinguished themselves in the pentathlon, were included some of the most illustrious men of Greece.