FIG. 119. YOUTH BINDING ON A FILLET
Throwing the javelin also had a practical value as preparation for warfare and was one of the commonest sports of the palaistra. In the pentathlon it was thrown for distance only, but there were competitions in throwing at a target at the Panathenaea and, no doubt, on other occasions. A thong, fastened near the center of gravity, and twisted around the hardwood shaft, acted like the rifling of a gun in insuring greater accuracy. One of the figures on the black-figured lekythos is preparing to throw a javelin, and the artist has represented the thong in such a way that the method of using it can easily be understood. The thrower holds the shaft in his hand with the first and second fingers inserted into loops in the end of the thong. As he throws, the thong unwinds, giving the missile a whirling motion ([fig. 115]).
The use of the bow and the sling, as has been said in the section on Armor, was also taught in the palaistra at Athens.
The pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, was one of the most popular Greek sports. In it ground-wrestling and hitting were allowed. Two scenes from the pankration are represented on a skyphos in Case 4. On one side the winner has thrown his opponent backward and is about to strike him, while the other holds up his hand, probably as a signal of defeat ([fig. 116]). On the other side the combatants have their hands covered with the thongs which served as boxing-gloves. The man on the ground has thrown the other by a neck-hold (see [head-band, p. 89]). There are two boxers in the group of athletes on a krater on the top shelf of Case Q in the Fifth Room, and a boxing scene is represented on one of the Panathenaic amphorai.
The value of the prizes given for athletic skill varied greatly, from the wreath of olive at Olympia and the parsley leaves of Nemea to articles of considerable value and, in a few cases, even money. At the Panathenaea the prizes were jars of oil in greater or less numbers, and the painted vases known as Panathenaic amphorai. Probably only one of these was given to a victor. They bear on one side a picture of the contest in which the vase was won, and on the other, the figure of Athena with an inscription, “From the games at Athens” ([fig. 118]). When the prize took the form of a wreath, the victor first bound a fillet or band of wool around his head and upon this the official in charge of the games placed the wreath. The act of tying the fillet was often represented by Greek sculptors; the most famous example is, of course, the Polykleitan statue known as the Diadoumenos, of which a cast stands in Gallery 22. The beautiful bronze statuette in Case D in the Sixth Room has the same motive ([fig. 119]), and on the psykter in Case 4 a boy who holds in his hands the palms signifying victory is being crowned by an official.
