FIG. 126. YOUNG HORSEMAN
FIG. 127. BRONZE BIT
Greek boys received lessons in riding in the course of their athletic training, which was, of course, a preliminary military training as well. In Attica a troop of ephebes, young men in military service, patrolled the borders as a mounted guard. The decoration on a krater in Case P in the Fifth Room and a relief in Case A in the Sixth Room represent members of this troop in their short cloaks fastened on the shoulder and their broad-brimmed hats. The fine relief, No. 13 in the Sculpture Gallery, also represents an ephebe ([fig. 126]) or one of the Diaskouri in this guise. Hunting deer and boars from horseback was a favorite sport which required skill in the rider, and riding-races of various types were a feature of the games. One of the Panathenaic amphorai was a prize for a horse-race at Athens, as the decoration shows.
The bronze statuette of a horse at the head of the main staircase allows us to see the type of animal bred in Greece, and is at the same time a work of the greatest spirit and delicacy.
