Fig. 122.
The torch-race (λαμπαδοδρομία) was more a matter of skill than of speed or bodily strength. This was especially popular at Athens, and there constituted an important part of certain festivals, especially the Panathenaea, and the festivals of Hephaestus and Prometheus, but had nothing to do with the gymnastic contests at the great national games. The youths who took part in the torch-race, lighted their torches at an altar in the Academy, and ran together from there, with burning torches to some appointed place in the town. In this race the victor was not he who ran fastest, but he who first arrived at the goal with a burning torch. It was important, therefore, to run quickly, and at the same time cautiously, so that the torch might not be put out. The expenses of the arrangements, which, however, cannot have been very considerable, belonged to the so-called Liturgies, the charges voluntarily undertaken by certain wealthy citizens. They also had to superintend the practising, or, at any rate, to see to its being done. If we may judge from ancient representations of the torch-race, the runners sometimes, besides the torch, bore a shield on their left arm, and also some head-covering, and, since it was not really a question of great speed, some light article of clothing.
In the third place, we must consider quoit-throwing. This exercise, in which the object was to throw a heavy disc as far as possible, is also mentioned in the Odyssey. The youth of Phaeacia played it, but Odysseus excels them all, and sends the disc hurled by him beyond all the marks of the other players. Quoits are also mentioned as an amusement of the suitors, and among the funeral games in honour of Patroclus. Homer mentions stone and iron quoits; in later times metal, chiefly iron or bronze, was the commonest material. They were round and flat in shape, somewhat raised on each side, with a diameter of about a foot, and were, therefore, very heavy, and not easy to grasp on account of their smoothness. The descriptions of ancient writers and monuments give us a very clear idea of the manner in which these
Fig. 123.
discs were thrown. The quoit-player, first of all, took a firm stand, and while he measured the space over which he had to throw his disc, he held it in his left hand in order not to tire the right too soon; this is the position in which we see the standing “Discobolus” in the Vatican, represented in Fig. [123]. The attitude adopted when actually throwing is best given by the Discobolus of Myron, which has come down to us in several copies, and which is thus described by Lucian: “He is stooping down to take aim, (his body) turned in the direction of the hand which holds the quoit, one knee slightly bent, as though he meant to vary his posture and rise with the throw.” The thrower, therefore, bent his whole body somewhat in the moment when he threw back the right hand with the disc, in order to give it the necessary impulse, pressing his left leg firmly on the ground, and digging his toes into the sand, at the same time bending the right knee in order to give the disc increased power by springing up from his bent position at the moment of throwing. In this attitude the position of the head followed the whole direction of the body with a slight inclination to the right (the left of the spectator), as we may learn from the best copies preserved to us of Myron’s Discobolus, a statue in the Palazzo Massimi, at Rome, and a bronze statuette at Munich; the downward bending of the head, in the Vatican copy, represented in Fig. [124], and on the other replicas of the statue, is due to a mistake in restoration. We may also assume with some certainty that they did not remain on the same spot at the moment of throwing, but had space enough to run a little way forward, as is done even now in playing skittles—a game which differs but little from quoit-playing—for the force of the throw would be checked by remaining in one place. Thus the bronze statue, Fig. [125] (though this is sometimes interpreted as a wrestler running to the attack), shows the disc thrower running forward a few steps, the upper part of his body bent forwards, and trying to follow the result of his throw. Probably the little elevation from which, according to the ancient writers, the thrower hurled the quoit, supplied the necessary space for this forward movement, and the extreme edge of this elevation (βαλβίς) was also the limit which, in case of a contest prevented any from running further than others, or throwing their discus from a nearer point, so that the conditions of the contest might be alike for all. The umpires, or superintendents, carefully marked, by lines or some other means, the place to which each combatant threw his disc, and he whose quoit flew the farthest was the victor.
Quoit-throwing, as well as running and jumping, was taught even to boys, but undoubtedly they used smaller and lighter discs than men. The disc from Aegina, now in the Berlin Museum, one side of which is represented above in Fig. [119], was only eight inches in diameter, and about four pounds weight, but was probably never used as an actual implement of the school.
Throwing the javelin was also taught in the boys’ gymnastic schools. This was originally a military exercise; we find it mentioned in heroic times, not only as a mode of fighting, but also as a game. In the gymnastic schools of the boys and youths they often used, as we may tell from the pictures, instead of a real spear, a blunt stick of about the same length, but they must sometimes have made use of real spears with sharp points for their exercises, since the orator Antiphon tells us that one of the older boys at the