Part 7

Two archaic statuettes from the Akropolis, now in the National Museum in Athens, and recently published, should be mentioned in this connection.[1583] The more archaic of these represents a youth in an attitude which has been misunderstood. De Ridder interpreted it as a dancing man, while Staïs thought it represented a youth walking along with his left hand raised as if to ward off a blow. White, however, showed that it (like another less perfect example from the Akropolis, no. 6594) represents a diskobolos standing with the right foot advanced and holding the diskos in front of the body with the right hand, resting it against the flat of the forearm, while the left arm is raised above the head. Thus it is another example illustrating the initial stage of Gardiner’s third position. The other statuette, wrongly mounted, should, according to White, be made to lean further forward; the knees are bent, the body swung forward from the hips, the head thrown back and upward, the right arm stretched forth with the flat of the forearm uppermost and the left similarly placed. Gardiner and Staïs interpreted this figure as a charioteer, and de Ridder as either a jumper, who has raised his _halteres_ preparatory to the leap, or a diskobolos. White has shown that the position of the right arm proves it to be a diskobolos, represented in a movement between Gardiner’s third and fourth positions, just prior to that of Myron’s statue. De Ridder believed both statues to be Aeginetan, but no. 6614, when compared with Myron’s statue, is certainly Attic, and resemblances in the treatment of the hair, eyes, and mouth show that both statuettes are of the same school. It has often been said that Myron’s great statue had no predecessor, as it certainly had no successor. Its fame was enhanced by the assumption that Myron passed at one stride from such statues as the _Tyrannicides_ to that complex work. Such works, however, as these statuettes—especially no. 6614—show that the preliminary problems had been solved on a humble scale before Myron undertook his consummate work. Here, then, we have works by artists who belonged to the very movement which produced Myron.

For the last three positions analyzed by Gardiner (nos. 5, 6, 7) our only illustrations appear to be vase-paintings.

AKONTISTAI.

Javelin-throwing (ἀκοντίζειν, ἀκοντισμός) was very old and was universal in Greece, its origin being traced back to mythology.[1584] Stassoff tried to trace it to Oriental sources,[1585] but inasmuch as no such contest is shown on the monuments of Egypt or Assyria, Juethner is probably right in assuming that it was Greek in origin. In Homer it was a separate contest at the games of Patroklos.[1586] Juethner has distinguished two types of javelin-throwing in the historical period: one in which the spear or akontion was pointed more or less upwards,[1587] the other in which it was held horizontally.[1588] Only the former type is represented in illustrations of purely athletic competitions, the latter type referring to illustrations of the practical use of javelin-throwing, _i. e._, in war or in the chase. Vase-paintings of palæstra scenes almost invariably show javelins with blunt points; the throwers’ heads are frequently turned back before the throw, and there is no sign of any target. On vase-paintings, however, which represent practical javelin-throwing from horseback, the javelins are pointed. This proves that in athletic contests the throw was for distance and not at a mark.[1589] The javelin used in Greek games had several names, ἄκων, ἀκόντιον, etc.[1590] It was about the height of a man, as we know from its appearance on a Spartan relief,[1591] and from many vase-paintings representing palæstra scenes (Fig. 44). It was thrown by means of a thong (ἀγκύλη, Lat. _amentum_), which was fastened near the centre and consisted of a detachable leathern strip from 12 to 18 inches long. This was bound tight, with a loop left, into which the thrower inserted his first and middle fingers.[1592] The method of casting is seen on many vases.[1593] Gardiner has analyzed three different positions from vase-paintings. Usually the throw was made with a short run, though standing throws are also pictured.[1594] First the thrower extends the right arm back to its full length and, with the left hand opposite the right breast, holds the end of the spear and pushes it back, holding it downwards or horizontally.[1595] Next he starts to run, turning his body sidewise and extending his left arm to the front. On a r.-f. Munich kylix[1596] we see the first and second positions. The youth on the left is steadying the javelin with the left hand, while the one on the right has just let it go. A further turn of the body to the right takes place and the right knee is bent, while the right shoulder is dropped and the hand is turned outwards.[1597] The actual cast is very uncommon on vase-paintings, because of difficulty in representing it.[1598]

Because of the assumed lack of sculptural monuments, Reisch[1599] and others have wrongly doubted whether javelin-throwers were represented in sculpture as victors. There certainly is no a priori reason why athletic sculptors might not have made statues in any one of the three poses which Gardiner has distinguished on vase-paintings, even if this contest, like jumping, was better adapted to the painter than to the sculptor. Furthermore, we shall attempt to show that such monuments actually did exist.

[Illustration: FIG. 47.—Bust of the _Doryphoros_, after Polykleitos, by Apollonios. Museum of Naples.]

[Illustration: FIG. 48.—Statue of the _Doryphoros_, after Polykleitos. Vatican Museum, Rome.]

The best example of such a javelin-thrower seems to be the _Doryphoros_, the most famous statue of Polykleitos, in which he illustrated his canon of athletic forms. The _Doryphoros_ exists in many copies, all of which agree fairly well in style and proportions. K. Friedrichs, in his monograph _Der Doryphoros des Polyklets_, which appeared in 1863,[1600] was the first to show that the statue found in 1797 in the Palaistra at Pompeii, and now in the Naples Museum (Pl. 4), was a copy of the original bronze, as it shows all the peculiarities of the master’s style known to us from tradition.[1601] Mahler enumerates 7 statues, 17 torsos, and 36 heads copied from the original, and the fine, but expressionless, Augustan bronze bust from the villa of the Pisos, Herculaneum, inscribed as the work of the sculptor Apollonios, son of Archios, of Athens, which is now in Naples (Fig. 47).[1602] The best-preserved copy of the statue, the one in Naples, is surpassed in workmanship by the green basalt torso in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence[1603] and by the marble one formerly in the possession of Count Pourtalès in Berlin.[1604] A poorer copy is to be found in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican (Fig. 48).[1605] In these copies we see a thick-set youth standing with the weight of the body on the right leg, the left one thrown back and touching the ground only with the toes, seemingly ready to advance, though the shoulders do not partake of the walking action. He is represented, therefore, at the moment of transition from walking to a rest position—in other words in a purely theoretical pose—at rest, indeed, but just ready again to advance.[1606] His left hand held a short _akontion_ over the shoulder and not the long spear (δόρυ), whence the name _Doryphoros_ or spear-bearer is derived.[1607] The head is turned to the same side as the advanced foot, which perhaps is an example of the monotony in the work of the master complained of by ancient critics; variety would have been attained by turning it in the opposite direction. In the carefully worked bronze original, which, however, must have had an insignificant intellectual aspect, the apparently simple problem—hitherto vainly attempted in Greek art—of representing a man standing almost motionless, but full of life, was for the first time solved. It is a long way from the motionless figures known as “Apollos,” with their arms glued to the sides and their legs close together, to this vigorous athlete. As we have already indicated, Greek art developed the first step beyond the “Apollos” by further advancing one leg of a statue and, it may be, extending one forearm horizontally. The next step was to place one foot slightly sidewise and thus relieve it of the weight of the body—the well-known scheme of the “free” and “rest” leg. At first the relaxation was slight, the “free” leg not being intended to move forward, nor the parts of the body to be much shifted. Polykleitos’ innovation consisted in having the legs so placed, one behind the other, that the figure, while apparently resting on one,[1608] seemed to be advancing. On the ground of the familiar passage in Pliny cited, it has been generally assumed that Polykleitos introduced the walking motive into sculpture. However, this motive was probably the invention of the earlier Argive school, borrowed by Polykleitos for his canon, as seen in the statue of the so-called _Munich King_ (_Zeus_?), of the Glyptothek, which Furtwaengler has shown to be a work of about 460 B. C.[1609]

Does the _Doryphoros_ represent a pentathlete victor? Since Quintilian says that it appears ready for war or for the exercises of the palæstra,[1610] Helbig and others have classed it as a warrior, perhaps one of the _Achilleae_ mentioned by Pliny[1611] as set up in the Greek gymnasia. Furtwaengler stressed the incorrectness of calling an athlete a _Doryphoros_[1612]—a name originally given to an attendant bearing a lance (δόρυ), and so inapplicable to the statue of Polykleitos, which represented not a server, but an athlete carrying an akontion (witness the Berlin gem already mentioned)—but later[1613] concluded that an athlete statue with the akontion might have been vaguely described in late art jargon as a spear-bearer. Consequently he found probable the interpretation of the various _doryphoroi_ mentioned by Pliny[1614] as victor statues, and thought that the original of the _Doryphoros_ of Polykleitos might very well have represented an Olympic pentathlete, which was originally set up at Argos, where it was also adopted for a figure on the heroic grave-relief already mentioned, which represented the youth with a spear over his shoulder standing beside a horse. Bulle also thinks that the statue represented a victor athlete set up in some sacred spot.

For its interpretation as the statue of a pentathlete victor, an added proof is furnished by the discovery of a late Roman copy of it at Olympia.[1615] This may very well have been the dedication of an athlete of late date—of the first century B. C. or of the first A. D.—who preferred to be represented by a copy of the famous work of Polykleitos rather than by a new statue. Treu’s contention that the torso is too large for a victor statue,[1616] because Lucian says that the Hellanodikai did not allow statues of victors to be over life-size,[1617] falls to the ground, since we know that exceptions to the rule existed at Olympia.[1618] He agrees with Collignon[1619] in interpreting it as a decorative statue, which surely involves an anachronism in the middle of the fifth century B. C.; and his argument that its good preservation shows it to have been set up in an interior room, perhaps of the Bouleuterion, in whose ruins it was found, adducing this as additional evidence of its decorative character, is no proof, since victor statues at Olympia seem sometimes to have been housed.[1620] Thus the theory that the _Doryphoros_ represents a pentathlete victor is well within the range of possibilities.

Two bronze statuettes in the Metropolitan Museum,[1621] New York, belonging to the second half of the fifth century B. C., may be representations on a small scale of pentathletes with the _akontion_. The first shows a youth standing with the weight of the body on the left foot, the right drawn slightly back. The left hand, held close to the side, may have carried an akontion, the right arm being extended. The other, more carelessly executed, represents a youth standing similarly with his weight on the left foot, the right being drawn back. Here again the left arm is hanging by the side, and probably held the same attribute as the first statuette. The right arm is also bent at the elbow. A patera may have been held in the outstretched hand of each. The square build, short thighs, flat abdomen, long skull, and oval face are all Polykleitan characteristics, and remind us of the series of kindred works already discussed, which, as Furtwaengler believed, went back to the original statue of the boy wrestler Xenokles at Olympia, the work of the younger Polykleitos.[1622]

WRESTLERS.

Wrestling (πάλη) is perhaps the oldest, and in any case is the most universal, of athletic sports. Wall-paintings at Beni-Hasan on the Nile, dating from about 2000 B. C., show nearly all the grips and throws now known.[1623] Plato says that this sport was instituted in mythical times.[1624] In Greece its origin is lost in mythology.[1625] The very name _palaistra_, “wrestling school,” indicates the early importance of the contest. It was one of the most popular of Greek sports from the time of Homer down.[1626] This popularity is shown by the frequency with which it appears in mythology and art. Early b.-f. vases picture Herakles wrestling with giants and monsters. Here we see the same holds and throws as in the palæstra scenes on later r.-f. vases. The whole history of coins down to imperial days shows such scenes. No other exercise required so much strength and agility, and consequently wrestling matches early became a part of the great games. At Olympia wrestling was introduced in Ol. 18 (= 708 B. C.), the same year in which the pentathlon was instituted.[1627] The boys’ match appeared there less than a century later in Ol. 37 (= 632 B. C.).[1628] Pausanias mentions statues erected to 36 victors (for 45 victories), which makes this contest second only in importance to boxing there.

There were two sorts of wrestling in Greece, wrestling in the proper sense (ὀρθὴ πάλη), where each tried to throw his antagonist to the ground, making his shoulders touch three times, and ground wrestling (κύλισις, ἁλίνδησις), where the fight was continued on the ground by using every means, except biting and gouging, till one was exhausted. The first kind was the only one used in the event called πάλη at Olympia, as well as in the pentathlon; the other was used only in the pankration. In this section we shall discuss only the first.[1629] A recently discovered papyrus of the second century A. D., containing brief instructions for wrestling lessons intended to help the παιδοτρίβης, indicates that every movement in the contest was systematically taught.[1630] The various positions used—grips and throws—are shown by many monuments, vase-paintings, gems, coins,[1631] statuettes, and statues. The vases[1632] especially illustrate the various holds assumed by wrestlers during a bout—front (σύστασις), side (παράθεσις), wrist, arm, neck (τραχηλίζειν), and body holds. Still others illustrate the various throws—flying mare,[1633] heave,[1634] buttocks and cross-buttocks (ἕδραν στρέφειν), and tripping (ὑποσκελίζειν). We here reproduce two such paintings. The first, the obverse of a r.-f. amphora from Vulci, signed by Andokides and now in Berlin (Fig. 49),[1635] shows two positions. In the central group the wrestler on the left side has grasped his opponent’s left wrist with his right hand. The latter, however, has rendered the grip useless by passing his own right hand behind his opponent’s back and grasping his right arm just below the elbow. In this way he keeps his opponent from turning round, which movement would not have been possible if the latter had grasped him by the upper arm. In the group of wrestlers to the right we see an illustration of a body hold. Here a youthful athlete has lifted his bearded antagonist clear off his feet preliminary to throwing him. However, the one lifted from the ground has caught his foot around his opponent’s leg, which is an illustration of tripping. On a r.-f. kylix in the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia (Fig. 50a),[1636] we see a body hold preparatory to the heave; here to the right are two youths wrestling, and to the left stands a bearded trainer with his rod. One wrestler has already lost his balance and is supporting himself with both hands on the ground, while the other with his left hand holds the other’s right arm down, and with his right prepares to throw him over his head.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.—Wrestling Scenes. From Obverse of an Amphora, by Andokides. Museum of Berlin.]

[Illustration: FIG. 5O.—Wrestling and Boxing Scenes. From a r.-f. Kylix. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia.]

[Illustration: FIG. 51.—Bronze Statues of Wrestlers. Museum of Naples.]

From vase-paintings, then, we can see what positions the sculptor might have used in representing groups of wrestlers. For the positions of individual figures of wrestlers, we are guided by several statues and small bronzes. The preliminary position (σύστασις) seems to be best represented by the bronze statues of wrestling boys discovered at Herculaneum in 1754, and now in the Museum of Naples (Fig. 51).[1637] These figures have been variously interpreted as runners,[1638] diskoboloi,[1639] and wrestlers. Their attitude, bent forward with outstretched hands, implies the utmost expectancy. If they were runners, they would lean further forward; as they are standing, they could not begin to run without loss of time in raising the heels of the forward feet. If, on the other hand, they represented diskos-throwers at the moment just subsequent to the throw, their right feet would be advanced and not their left, in order to recover their balance, as we have seen above in considering Gardiner’s seventh position. The position of their arms, however, and the expression of their faces make it almost certain that they are wrestlers eagerly watching for an opening. The two statues certainly belong together, and may have been set up as antagonists in the villa in whose ruins they were found. F. Hauser was the first to show that the form of body and head in both was the same.[1640] While most critics believe that they are Hellenistic in origin, Bulle is certainly right in showing that the body ideal expressed is Lysippan—_i. e._, long legs and slender trunk—even if he goes too far in ascribing them to the master himself, basing his conclusion chiefly on the similarity of their ears with those of the _Apoxyomenos_ (Pl. 29). A good illustration of a hand or wrist grip is afforded by a small wrestler group, which decorates the rim of a bronze bowl from Borsdorf.[1641] This is a poorly wrought Etruscan work of fifth-century B. C. Greek origin. The two wrestlers have already gripped and their heads are close together, though the lunge in each case is much exaggerated. Similar are the two groups on the rim of a bronze bowl in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[1642] A third-century B. C. Etruscan cista in the Metropolitan Museum,[1643] has a handle on the lid in the form of two nude wrestlers, whose bodies are inclined toward one another, their heads in contact, and their arms locked behind their heads. Groups of wrestlers in similar attitudes commonly appear as cista handles.[1644] A portion of a bronze group of wrestlers was dredged from the sea near Kythera and is now in Athens.[1645] The heave is represented by a metope from the Theseion representing the wrestling bout between Theseus and Kerkyon.[1646] A later moment is seen in a bronze wrestling-group in Paris.[1647] The cross-buttocks is illustrated by a small Hellenistic bronze group in the collection of James Loeb in Munich, of which five other copies are known.[1648] Here two athletes, one bearded and the other beardless, are just ending the bout. The youth is in the power of the man, who stands behind him and presses him down by holding his arms backward. All the other replicas differ from the Loeb example in that the victor has both legs and not one in front of the right leg of the vanquished wrestler. A good illustration of tripping is seen in another related series of groups known to us in five bronze copies. These represent a wrestler on the ground supporting himself on his left arm, while over him stands the victor, whose left foot is twisted around the other’s right. These groups are, like the preceding, also Roman provincial copies of a Hellenistic original.[1649] The two groups are very similar, the only real difference being that the vanquished wrestler in the second series still has his left arm free and holds himself up on his right knee. Both series seem to have been influenced by the marble pancratiast group in the Uffizi (Pl. 25).[1650] The head of an athlete in the Museo delle Terme, Rome,[1651] shows by its strongly projecting neck that it comes from the statue either of a runner ready to start or of a wrestler about to grip his adversary. The face is fourth-century B. C. Attic in character and the head may, therefore, come from Euphranor’s circle. Pliny speaks of a panting wrestler (_luctator anhelans_) by the statuary Naukeros, which must have exhibited the contestant in intense movement.[1652] It might have represented him after victory, as in the painting of Parrhasios discussed above, which pictured a hoplitodrome after the race, breathing hard.[1653] Pliny also mentions a painting of a wrestler by Antidotos without describing it.[1654] As we have already remarked, doubtless some of the _apoxyomenoi_ and _perixyomenoi_ mentioned by Pliny were also wrestlers.

Whether wrestling-groups were set up at Olympia is doubtful. Chariot-groups were indeed common, but there is no reason why the victorious wrestler should have had himself coupled with his defeated opponent. Pausanias, moreover, mentions no such groups. We are therefore safe in inferring that in most, if not in all, cases the wrestler would content himself with a single statue, and this might represent him in any position in which he was not actually interlocked with his adversary. That such statues represented him both in repose and in motion is attested by recovered bases. The footprints on the base of the statue of the Elean wrestler Paianios, a victor of the early third century B. C.,[1655] shows us that he was represented as standing in repose, the weight of the body resting on the right leg, the left being drawn back and touching the ground with the toes only. A hole in the base may have been for a spear on which the victor’s hand rested, though the statue is not that of a pentathlete. The perfectly preserved footprints on the base of the statue of the boy wrestler Xenokles by Polykleitos the Younger show that he was represented as standing with his weight on the right leg, the left being slightly advanced and to one side, though resting flat on the ground. The head was probably turned a little to the right. Thus the wrestler was poised ready to grip his adversary.[1656] This statue must have been a favorite among athlete monuments, since the same motive appears in various Roman copies, which Furtwaengler assigns to the immediate circle of the pupils of Polykleitos. The statue of the Argive wrestler Cheimon by Naukydes may have represented him in motion, since Pausanias, in mentioning two statues of the victor, one in Olympia and the other in the temple of Concord at Rome, says that they were among the most famous works of that sculptor. From this encomium Reisch has assumed that the one at Olympia was represented in lively motion.[1657]

BOXERS.

Boxing, like wrestling, was one of the oldest sports in Greece, as it has been everywhere else. The fist is the simplest and most natural of all weapons.[1658] Boxing was popular already in Homer, matches being described both in the Iliad and the Odyssey.[1659] Homer speaks of it as πυγμαχίη ἀλεγεινή,[1660] and this “painful” character is also mentioned by Xenophanes.[1661] However, boxing was far older than epic poetry. We have already seen that it was the only form of real athletics in Aegean Crete. One of the oldest representations of a boxing match is seen on the fragments of a bronze shield discovered there in the grotto of Zeus on Mount Ida. Here on a single concentric ring are seen two warriors, armed like Assyrians with corslets, shields, and helmets, fighting with doubled fists.[1662] The high antiquity of boxing in Greece is also shown by myths.[1663] At Olympia Apollo is said to have beaten Ares,[1664] and Polydeukes won a victory there.[1665] Apollo appears as the god of boxing in the Iliad,[1666] and the Delphians sacrificed to Apollo Πύκτης.[1667] Herakles, Polydeukes, Tydeus, and Theseus were all famed boxers; the latter was said to have invented the art.[1668] The historical boxing match was introduced at Olympia in Ol. 23 (= 688 B. C.), and Onomastos of Smyrna, the first victor, instituted the rules of the contest.[1669] The boys’ contest was instituted in Ol. 41 (= 616 B. C.).[1670] It was by far the most popular contest there. Of the 192 monuments erected to 187 victors mentioned by Pausanias, 56, or nearly one-third, were erected to men and boy boxers for 63 victories.

Greek boxing[1671] is conveniently divided into two periods by the kind of glove used in the matches. From Homer down to the end of the fifth century B. C., soft gloves (ἱμάντες, ἱμάντες λεπτοί or μειλίχαι) were used; from then to late Roman days the heavy gloves (σφαῖραι or ἱμάντες ὀξεῖς) were the fashion. The weighted Roman cestus was not used in the Greek contest. Before discussing representations of boxers in art, we shall devote a few words to these two kinds of boxing-gloves, which frequently give us the date of a given monument.[1672] The Cretans are thought to have worn boxing-gloves, as they seem to be visible on the so-called _Boxer Vase_ from Hagia Triada (Fig. 1). Here, on the top and lower two rows, a leather gauntlet appears to cover the arm to beyond the elbow, being padded over the fist and confined at the wrist by a strap. Mosso derives the later Greek glove, which appears on athlete statues, from this primitive thong.[1673] In any case the antiquity of the glove in Greece is attested by its origin being ascribed to the myth of Amykos, king of the Bebrykes.[1674] Gloves were already known to Homer, who speaks of “well-cut thongs of ox-hide.”[1675] They are not mentioned in any detail before the time of Pausanias and Philostratos, so that we are mostly dependent for our knowledge of them on the monuments. The simplest form consisted of long, thin ox-hide thongs, which were wound round the hands, the soft gloves (ἱμάντες μαλακώτεροι or μειλίχαι) of later writers.[1676] They were used, not to deaden the blow, but to increase its force. Vase-paintings show that the thongs were about 10 or 12 feet long before being wound.[1677] On the exterior of a r.-f. kylix from Vulci by Douris, in the British Museum, showing chiefly boxing scenes, we see two youths standing before a _paidotribes_ preparing to put on the thongs (Fig. 54).[1678] One of them is holding the unwound thong in his outstretched hands. A similar figure appears on the r.-f. vase in Philadelphia already discussed (Fig. 50b), which represents a palæstra scene.[1679] This scene has been wrongly interpreted as an illustration of the game of σκαπέρδη described by Pollux[1680] as a sort of tug-of-war, the unwound thong being explained as the rope used in this game,[1681] and the hurling-sticks stuck in the ground at either end as goals instead of akontia. A wound thong is seen hanging on the wall to the left. Philostratos describes how the boxing thongs were put on,[1682] and vase-paintings illustrate the method.[1683] The best example of the thongs on statuary is afforded by the bronze arm found in the sea off Antikythera (Cerigotto) (Fig. 52), which Svoronos[1684] believes to be a remnant of the statue of the Nemean victor Kreugas of Epidamnos, which stood in the temple of Apollo Lykios in Argos.[1685] Pausanias says that Kreugas was crowned notwithstanding that he was killed by his adversary Damoxenos, and his description of the soft glove corresponds so closely with the one on the recovered arm that it seems as if it had been written in the presence of the statue: “In those days boxers did not yet wear the sharp thong (ἱμὰς ὀξύς) on each wrist, but boxed with the soft straps (μειλίχαις), which they fastened under the hollow of the hand in order that the fingers might be left bare; these soft straps were thin thongs (ἱμάντες λεπτοί) of raw cowhide, plaited together in an ancient fashion.”[1686] The strap allowed the ends of the fingers to project, and was held together by a cord wound around the forearm, just as Philostratos says. These μειλίχαι were used at the great games through the fifth century B. C., and were continued in the palæstra in the fourth. Early in the latter century the σφαῖραι mentioned by Plato[1687] and other writers appeared. We see them on Panathenaic vases of that century and on Etruscan cistæ of the following one.[1688] About the same time the regular ἱμάντες ὀξεῖς came in,[1689] but the old μειλίχαι or something similar were still used in the exercises of the palæstra.[1690]

[Illustration: FIG. 52.—Bronze Arm of Statue of a Boxer, found in the Sea off Antikythera. National Museum, Athens.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53.—Forearm with Glove. From the Statue of the _Seated Boxer_ (Pl. 16). Museo delle Terme, Rome.]

Our best illustration of these more formidable gloves on statuary is the gauntlet clearly represented on the forearms of the _Seated Boxer_ of the Museo delle Terme (Fig. 53). Here a close-fitting glove covers each forearm, leaving the upper joints of the fingers free and the palm open. It extends to above the wrist and ends in a rim of fur. Over it are drawn three thick bands of leather, which cover the first joints of the fingers and are fastened together on the outside of the hands with metal clasps. A soft pad keeps these bands from chafing the fingers. They are kept in place and the wrists are strengthened by two narrow straps which are interlaced several times around hand and wrist. Similar gloves appear on the Sorrento boxer in Naples (Fig. 57),[1691] on the bronze forearm of a statue from Herculaneum in Naples,[1692] on a left fist found in 1887 in the arena at Verona,[1693] and on many other statues and fragments. The last representation in art of this sort of glove appears on the Roman relief in the Lateran, which dates from the time of Trajan, and represents a fight between two pugilists.[1694] The metal cestus was a Roman invention. None of the late Greek writers—neither Plutarch, nor Pausanias, nor Philostratos—makes any mention of this loaded glove. The “sharp thongs” were enough to cause all the injuries mentioned by the writers of the _Greek Anthology_.[1695] The cestus, perhaps used in the later gladiatorial shows in Greece, but never in the great games there, gave the death blow to real boxing. Virgil describes it and the vicious results of its use.[1696]

There are fewer representations of boxing matches on vases than of almost any other Greek sport, despite its great popularity. Gardiner has collected a number of vase-paintings dating from the sixth to the fourth centuries B. C., which illustrate the different positions assumed by boxers in action—attack, slipping, ducking, and leg and arm movements. We reproduce two from r.-f. kylikes in the British Museum. In one by Douris (Fig. 54)[1697] we have, besides the group already mentioned of two athletes preparing to put on thongs, three pairs of boxers engaged in a bout. In two groups one of the contestants is seen from behind; in all three the boxers extend their left arms for guarding and draw the right back for hitting—the fists being level with the shoulders. In one group we see the beginning of the fight, in the other two the middle, perhaps, and the end of it, respectively. In the last scene one contestant has fallen to the ground on his knee, and his conqueror has swung his right hand far back for a final blow, only to be stopped by the other, who raises his finger in token of defeat. On the other vase we see, besides a scene from the pankration, two pairs of boxers sparring (Fig. 55).[1698] Here in one group the contestants do not have their fists doubled, but keep their fingers opened. On an Attic b.-f. Panathenaic panel-amphora in the University Museum in Philadelphia (Fig. 56),[1699] we see bearded boxers sparring, while a boxer with thongs in his right hand stands to the right, and a trainer with his rod at the left. Statues of victorious boxers at Olympia were represented either in motion, _i. e._, probably in the position of sparring, or in repose, like that of the boy boxer Kyniskos by the elder Polykleitos discussed in the preceding chapter. The same foot position visible on the _Kyniskos_ base[1700] occurs on two other Olympia bases, which, therefore, must have supported Polykleitan statues represented in repose. One of these, in the form of an _astragalos_, will be discussed further on in our treatment of pancratiast statues; the other supported the statue of the boy boxer Hellanikos of Lepreon, who won a victory in Ol. 89 (= 424 B. C.).[1701] In this case the statue was also life-size, the left foot was firmly placed, and the right was set back resting on the ball, the stride being a little longer than in the case of the _Kyniskos_. Three other Olympia bases supported statues of boxers represented in repose, those of the boy Tellon from the Arkadian town Oresthasion,[1702] of the Epidaurian Aristion by the elder Polykleitos,[1703] and of the Rhodian Eukles by Naukydes of the Polykleitan circle.[1704] Furtwaengler believed that a number of existing statues of the Hermes type reproduced the statue of Aristion, because of a similar foot position. Among them the Pentelic marble one in Lansdowne House, London, is the best preserved, and most faithfully reproduces the Polykleitan style.[1705]

[Illustration: FIG. 54.—Boxing Scenes. From a r.-f. Kylix by Douris. British Museum, London.]

[Illustration: FIG. 55.—Boxing and Pankration Scenes. From a r.-f. Kylix. British Museum, London.]

[Illustration: FIG. 56.—Boxing Scene. From a b.-f. Panathenaic Panel-Amphora. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia.]

[Illustration: FIG. 57.—Statue of a Boxer, from Sorrento. By Koblanos of Aphrodisias. Museum of Naples.]

We may infer how a Polykleitan statue of a boxer at rest looked, from the Roman copy of one in Kassel.[1706] Here a youth just out of boyhood is represented as standing with the weight of the body resting upon the right leg and the head turned to the right. The forearms are covered with gloves, the right fist being raised for attack and the left for defense. Another marble statue, representing a boxer in repose, was found in a fragmentary condition in Sorrento in 1888, and is now in the National Museum at Naples (Fig. 57).[1707] It is inscribed as the work of Koblanos of Aphrodisias in Karia, whom we know as a copyist of the first century A. D., and who was active in reproducing Greek works for the Roman market.[1708] The body forms are too badly injured for us accurately to date the original from which this copy was made, but the head gives us the clue, as its style appears to be a connecting link between that of the seated statue of _Herakles_, in the Palazzo Altemps in Rome[1709] and the Munich _Oil-pourer_ (Pl. 11),[1710] as it shows affinity to both. Though Sogliano referred it to the school of Lysippos and Juethner to the beginning of the fourth century B. C., it shows indubitable Myronian characteristics and may have been the work of Myron’s pupil Lykios, who is known to us as an athlete sculptor.[1711] In this statue the youth is resting his weight on his right leg, the left, with full sole on the ground, being turned to one side. The left forearm is extended outwards and to the side, the head leaning toward the right leg—in other words, the athlete is represented in an attitude similar to that of the _Idolino_ (Pl. 14). As there is an olive crown in the hair, it seems reasonable to conclude that the original statue was that of an Olympic victor.

By the beginning of the fifth century B. C., if not earlier, boxers were represented in violent motion, as we saw in the case of the statue of the boy boxer Glaukos, by the Aeginetan sculptor Glaukias,[1712] represented in the act of sparring (σκιαμαχῶν). Whether he was represented as facing an imaginary antagonist or as merely punching a bag we can not say, though the latter seems the more probable. The motive is depicted in many art works, notably in the figure of a youth punching a bag which hangs from a tree on the Ficoroni cista in the Museo Kircheriano, Rome,[1713] and in that of another represented on the so-called Peter cista in the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco of the Vatican, whose engraved scenes show exercises of the palæstra.[1714] The same motive is seen also in a statuette in the Museo Chiaramonti of the Vatican, which is proved to be that of a boy boxer by the glove on the right hand.[1715] Here the boy is represented with the right foot far advanced and rising on the toes of both feet, the right shoulder being drawn back, the right forearm raised, and the left extended forwards. The marble torso of a copy of the same original on a large scale is in Berlin.[1716] While Amelung believes that the original of both statuette and torso was a bronze of the second half of the fourth century B. C., Furtwaengler thought that the torso went back to the severe style of the fifth century, and that this original once stood in Olympia, where it might have served as the inspiration for a carelessly worked bronze statuette of a boxer found there, which repeats the motive of the torso and similarly belongs to the fifth century B. C. (Fig. 2).[1717] The Olympia statuette also has the right foot advanced, the upper part of the body leans backward, and the left arm with open palm is outstretched for defense, while the right with balled fist is held up ready to strike. It certainly is a votive offering of an Olympic victor—doubtless one of the small reductions, which were not uncommonly erected for economy’s sake.[1718] Whether the Aeginetan Glaukias also made victor statues in repose is doubtful.

Waldstein, on insufficient grounds, has argued that the so-called _Strangford Apollo_ in the British Museum (Fig. 14)[1719] is a copy of the statue at Olympia of the famous Thasian boxer and pancratiast Theagenes by Glaukias. Its close observation of nature finds its analogy in the statues of the Aeginetan pediment groups (see Figs. 20, 21). The statue of the boy boxer Athenaios of Ephesos, by an unknown sculptor, was represented as lunging at his adversary, as we see from the footmarks on the recovered base. The left foot was advanced and turned outwards, while the right one touched the ground only with the toes.[1720] Similarly the statue of the boxer Damoxenidas by Nikodamos of Arkadia was represented as about to strike. On its recovered base the left foot stood solidly upon the ground, while the right foot was drawn back and touched the ground only with the toes—if we judge rightly from the size of the missing part of the stone.[1721] The statue of the Ionian boxer Epitherses by Pythokritos of Rhodes seems to have had but one foot flat upon the ground, and consequently must have been represented in motion, though we are not sure of the position of the other, since one stone of the base is missing.[1722]

[Illustration: FIG. 58.—Statue known as _Pollux_. Louvre, Paris.]

The bronze plate from the base of the statue of the boy boxer Philippos, an Azanian of Pellene, was found at Olympia and has been referred to the end of the fourth or beginning of the third century B. C.[1723] However, since Pausanias says that Myron made the statue,[1724] various attempts have been made to reconcile the discrepancy in dates. Our own solution is that the statue seen by Pausanias did not represent Philippos at all, but some earlier unnamed Arkadian boxer, who was contemporary with Myron.[1725] Years later the Azanian boy Philippos won a victory at Olympia and attached the recovered epigram to the old base, in which he implored Zeus to let the ancient glory of Arkadia be revived in him, and also a newer one in which he said that he had restored the statue of Myron.[1726] Pausanias saw the newer one, but omitted to mention the older, which was probably illegible from weathering. He therefore thought that the original Myronian statue used by Philippos represented the latter victor.[1727] The words on the affixed plate beginning ὧδε στὰς ὁ Πελασγὸς ἐπ’ Ἀλφειῷ ποκα πύκτας κ. τ. λ., may refer to the position of the boxer rather than to a portrait of the victor.[1728] We have long ago hazarded the suggestion[1729] that the so-called _Pollux_ of the Louvre (Fig. 58),[1730] whose body forms recall the _Marsyas_ and whose head recalls the _Diskobolos_, may go back to the statue of the unnamed Arkadian by Myron.[1731] But the uncertainty which we have found in a former section[1732] in assigning this and kindred works to Myron or to Pythagoras leaves it only a suggestion.

PANCRATIASTS.

The pankration (παγκράτιον)[1733] was a combination of boxing and wrestling, in which the contestants fought either standing, or prone on the ground. While the wrestler merely tried to throw his opponent in a series of bouts, the pancratiast continued the fight on the ground until one or the other acknowledged defeat. The etymology of the word shows that it was a contest in which every power of the contestants was exerted to the utmost.[1734] Strangling, pummeling, kicking, and, in fact, everything but biting and gouging were allowed. Both Lucian[1735] and Philostratos[1736] speak of the prohibition against biting and gouging, which statements Gardiner thinks are quotations from the rules governing the contest at Olympia, as they are twice quoted by Aristophanes.[1737] Philostratos, however, says that the Spartans allowed both biting and gouging, but that the Eleans allowed only strangling. A case of gouging the eye of an opponent with the thumb is seen on the r.-f. kylix in the British Museum, already mentioned (Fig. 55).[1738] Here the official is rushing up with his rod to punish such a breach of the rules. Philostratos calls the men’s pankration the “fairest” of contests at Olympia, probably in reference to the impression made on the spectators by the various positions of the contestants, who had to rely quite as much on skill as on strength. Pindar wrote eight odes in praise of this contest.[1739] However, even though it was carefully regulated at Olympia by rules, it was a dangerous sport—τὸ δεινὸν ἄεθλον ὅ παγκράτιον καλέουσιν, in the words of the protesting philosopher Xenophanes.[1740] But it was never the brutal sport which some modern writers have pictured it.[1741] Plato, to be sure, kept it out of his ideal State,[1742] not, however, because of its brutality, but merely because its distinctive feature, the struggle on the ground, was of no service in training a soldier. The Greeks themselves considered the boxing match far more dangerous. Inasmuch as gloves were not used in the pankration, this seems reasonable.[1743] We have in the preceding section mentioned the epithets applied to boxing. Pausanias, in speaking of the boxing match between Theagenes and Euthymos, says that the former was too much wearied by that contest to enter the pankration, and was in consequence compelled to pay a talent to the god and another to Euthymos.[1744] In speaking of another contest, between Kapros and Kleitomachos, he records that the latter told the umpires that the pankration should be brought on before he had received hurts from boxing.[1745] Artemidoros states that no wounds resulted from the pankration.[1746] However, death by strangulation was often the result of the bout. Thus the pancratiast Arrhachion was crowned after he had been throttled by his adversary, for just before expiring he was able to put one of the toes of his opponent out of joint and the pain caused the latter to let go his grip.[1747] Pausanias tells also how the boxer Kreugas was slain by Damoxenos in the pankration at Nemea, but adds that the body of the former was proclaimed victor.[1748]

The pankration was not known to Homer, though later writers ascribed its invention either to Theseus or Herakles, the typical mythical examples of skill as opposed to brute force.[1749] It was introduced at Olympia in Ol. 33 (= 648 B. C.),[1750] long after the separate events, wrestling and boxing, had appeared there. The boys’ contest was instituted at Olympia in Ol. 145 (= 200 B. C.),[1751] though it had appeared elsewhere much earlier.[1752] It must have been a popular sport at Olympia, since Pausanias records statues erected to twenty victors for thirty victories in this contest.

Vase-paintings[1753] show many grips and throws of the pankration—the flying mare, leg hold,[1754] tilting backwards by holding the antagonist’s foot, “chancery” (_i. e._ catching the adversary around the neck with one arm and hitting his face with the other fist), stomach throw (_i. e._, seizing the adversary by the arms or shoulders and at the same time planting one’s foot in the other’s stomach, and then throwing him over one’s head),[1755] jumping on the back of one’s opponent,[1756] strangling, wrestling and boxing combined, and kicking and boxing combined. Ground wrestling is very commonly depicted on vases and especially on gems, since such groups were adapted to oblong or oval spaces.[1757] We reproduce a pancratiast scene from a Panathenaic amphora of Kittos, dating from the fourth century B. C., in the British Museum (Fig. 59).[1758] This is a conventional representation of wrestling and boxing combined. The pancratiast at the right of the group has rushed in with his head down and has been caught around the neck by his adversary’s arm, a hopeless position, from which he can not escape. The latter is either about to complete the neck hold (if it be an actual case of “chancery”), or perhaps to hit him with his right hand. A third pancratiast is looking on from the extreme right, while a _paidotribes_, switch in hand, appears at the left. The fight on the ground is well depicted on the r.-f. kylix of the British Museum already discussed as showing boxing scenes (Fig. 55).[1759]

[Illustration: FIG. 59.—Pankration Scene. From a Panathenaic Amphora by Kittos. British Museum, London.]

We have but few representations of pancratiasts in sculpture. The preliminary sparring—known as ἀκροχειρισμός[1760]—must have characterized the statue of the Sikyonian pancratiast Sostratos at Olympia by an unknown sculptor, since Pausanias says that this victor was known as ὁ ἀκροχερσίτης, explaining the epithet as that of one who gained his victories by seizing and bending his adversaries’ fingers, holding them fast till he yielded.[1761] Since a Delphian inscribed base[1762] gives the same number of victories as Pausanias, we infer that they were given also on the Olympia base, the source of Pausanias’ information. Since nothing is said, however, of Sostratos’ mode of fighting in the Delphi inscription, Pausanias must have argued it from the pose of the statue. The Sicilian wrestler Leontiskos of a century earlier, whose statue was by Pythagoras, had, according to Pausanias, used similar tactics, for “he vanquished his adversaries by bending back their fingers.”[1763] These cases show that statues of pancratiasts and wrestlers were frequently represented in vigorous lunging attitudes as well as in groups. The epigram on the base of the monument of the pancratiast Teisikrates at Delphi shows that the statue was represented in a similar way.[1764] The same lunging attitude is also shown on the Halimous grave-relief.[1765] Sometimes the contest ended with the preliminary sparring, though usually it developed into wrestling and boxing.

[Illustration: FIG. 60.—Bronze Statuette of a Pancratiast (?), from Autun, France. Louvre, Paris.]

A good representation of a pancratiast trying to kick his antagonist seems to be furnished by the small bronze statuette from Autun, South France, now in the Louvre (Fig. 60).[1766] This statuette is of mediocre workmanship, its hard muscles, imperfect proportions, and realism showing that it comes from the Hellenistic period of Greek art. It represents a bearded athlete, who holds his hands ready to strike and his left foot raised apparently to kick his adversary’s leg. The foot is just ready to return to its original position, so that the motive of this poor little statuette discloses a transient period of time between two movements, just as the _Diskobolos_ and _Marsyas_ of Myron did. We have already noted[1767] that on the head is a cap with a ring in the top, by which it could be suspended as a decorative piece, or perhaps as part of a steelyard. Hauser believes that this motive was known to the elder Polykleitos and that this is the interpretation of that sculptor’s statue of a _nudus talo incessens_ mentioned by Pliny, a statue which has formed the basis for much discussion among archæologists.[1768] The Plinian passage, therefore, is to be translated as “the nude man attacking with his heel (_talo_)”—in other words, it describes a statue represented as kicking, which was allowable in the pankration. The manuscripts of Pliny all read _talo_, which Benndorf[1769] thought could be retained only by assuming that the naturalist mistranslated his Greek source γυμνὸς ἀστραγάλῳ ἐπικείμενος, translating the word ἐπικείμενος “standing upon,” as _incessens_ “pursuing.” He therefore assumed that Polykleitos’ statue stood upon an astragalos (_talus_) basis, which he believed was the forerunner of the statue of _Opportunity_ (Καιρός) by Lysippos,[1770] and he referred it to the knuckle-bone basis found at Olympia.[1771] Woelfflin,[1772] however, has shown that _talo incessens_ can only mean “_mit einem Knochel nach Jemand einwerfen_.” Following this, Furtwaengler showed[1773] how impossible on grammatical and other grounds it was to read _talo_ in Benndorf’s sense, since the passage then would mean “advancing towards” or “pursuing,” by means of a knuckle-bone, which is manifestly nonsense. The word could be only instrumental in use, as Woefflin said, _i. e._, the weapon by means of which the man was attacking. Furtwaengler, therefore, followed Benndorf’s earlier alternative reading _telo_, assuming that Pliny mistakenly wrote _talo_ because he was influenced by the presence of the same word in the passage immediately following: _duosque pueros item nudos talis ludentes qui vocantur astragalizontes_.[1774] But Hauser’s interpretation of _talo_ meets all the conditions better, since it keeps the manuscript readings, makes grammatical Latin, and seems to be illustrated by the statuette in question.

Sometimes the statues of Olympic pancratiasts were represented at rest with the weight of the body equally on both legs, as we see from the recovered basis of the statue of the Athenian Kallias by the Athenian sculptor Mikon.[1775] Furtwaengler has identified a statue in the Somzée Collection as a copy of this work.[1776] The footprints on the recovered base of the statue of the Rhodian Dorieus show that it was represented at rest with one leg slightly advanced.[1777] We have actual remnants of statues of Olympic pancratiasts in the marble head found at Olympia, which we are to assign to the statue of the Akarnanian Philandridas by Lysippos, mentioned by Pausanias (Frontispiece and Fig. 69),[1778] and the beautiful statue of Agias discovered by the French at Delphi in 1894, a work by the same sculptor (Pl. 28 and Fig. 68).[1779]

The struggle on the ground implies groups and not single statues. Our best representation of such a group is furnished by the famous marble one in the Uffizi, Florence (Pl. 25).[1780] Though having no pretensions to be a victor monument, this group is the most important monument extant connected with the pankration, a fine anatomical study from Hellenistic times, evincing the direct influence of Lysippos in its proportions.[1781] It shows affinity of design to certain sculptures from the frieze of the Great Altar at Pergamon.[1782] Pliny speaks of a _symplegma_ by Kephisodotos, the son of Praxiteles, at Pergamon, but that group was of an erotic character and can not have had anything to do with the Florentine one.[1783] Unfortunately the group in question has been much restored, though the restoration in the main is right. The heads, though probably antique, do not seem to belong to the statues, but both appear to be copies of the head of one of the Niobids, with which group the pancratiasts were discovered in 1583. The right arm of the uppermost athlete seems to have been wrongly restored; in any case this athlete is not strangling his opponent. One youth has thrown the other down on to his knee, and his left leg is intertwined with the left leg of the other, and he is drawing back his arm to aim a blow. The wrestler underneath supports himself upon his left arm, and the intention of his opponent is to destroy this support by a blow of the fist, which would bring the contest to a sudden conclusion, since the right arm of the under youth is fast and he must defend himself with the left. As Gardiner points out, such a situation is illustrated by Heliodoros’ description of the match between Theagenes and an Aethiopian champion.[1784] The under man’s position, however, may suddenly change and the issue yet be in his favor. Many writers have explained the group as ordinary wrestlers,[1785] but Gardiner has conclusively shown that it belongs to the pankration, since in wrestling the contest is ended when one of the contestants has been thrown, while here the struggle is continuing on the ground.[1786]

[Illustration: PLATE 25

Marble Group of Pancratiasts. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.]

Kapros of Elis was the first of seven Olympic victors to emulate the fabled feat of Herakles by winning the pankration and wrestling matches on the same day—that is, he was the first professional strong man.[1787] The other six all came from the East. It has been suggested[1788] that the colossal _Farnese Herakles_ found in Rome in the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla in 1540 and now in Naples, inscribed as the work of the Athenian Glykon, which represents the hero leaning wearily on his club against a rock,[1789] may represent the type of these professional strong men, who called themselves the successors of Herakles. But such a suggestion is as unfounded as the one already examined, which identifies the original of the _Seated Boxer_ of the Museo delle Terme (Pl. 16 and Fig. 27) with Kleitomachos of Thebes, the redoubtable opponent of Kapros, since the dates in both cases are against such identifications. The Farnese statue and other replicas of the same original[1790] obviously revert to a Lysippan original, though they are considerably metamorphosed by the taste of a later age. Such big swollen muscles at first sight appear to be alien to the sculptor of the graceful _Agias_, but that the Naples copy by Glykon—who, from the inscription on the base, must be referred to the first century B. C.[1791]—really represents the work of Lysippos seems well established by the fact that a smaller copy, though still over life-size, of poorer workmanship, in the Pitti Gallery in Florence, is inscribed as Λυσίππου ἔργον.[1792] This type of weary hero appears in the _Telephos_ group on the small Pergamene frieze, but is even earlier, since the latter seems to have been borrowed from a statue which is reproduced on a coin of Alexander, which was struck at least as early as 300 B. C.[1793] The type of Herakles wearied by his superhuman labors was inaugurated still earlier by Lysippos, who was fond of representing the hero in many poses, seated and standing, resting and laboring. We might mention his colossal bronze statue of Herakles, which was set up in Tarentum and then carried to Rome and placed on the Capitol by Q. Fabius Maximus, when Tarentum was captured in 209 B. C., and was later transferred to the Hippodrome at Constantinople, where it remained until the sack of that city by the Franks in 1204.[1794] It is hazardous, therefore, to reject the evidence, and it will be best to see in the original a genuine Lysippan work, as do Bulle, Overbeck, von Mach, Schnaase,[1795] and others, and so to make Glykon responsible only for the exaggerations of his own copy. Thus we have to face the fact of divergent styles in the great bronze founder of the fourth century B. C., even if we admit with Richardson that “for our peace of mind this statue might well have been sunk in the sea.”[1796]

[Illustration: A B FIG. 61.—Bronze Head of Boxer (?), from Olympia. National Museum, Athens.]

Long ago, I referred the life-size bronze portrait-like head of a boxer or pancratiast found at Olympia, now in the Athens Museum (Figs. 61A and B),[1797] to one of two statues of the pancratiast Kapros mentioned by Pausanias.[1798] The remnant of a wild-olive crown in the hair proves that it comes from the statue of an Olympic victor. Its bruised appearance may, however, betoken the punishment administered by the gloves of a boxer rather than by the bare fists of a pancratiast. That Greek sculpture was not always ideal we have seen from the description of the _Seated Boxer_ of the Museo delle Terme (Pl. 16 and Fig. 27). This peculiarly life-like head is another example of the same realism; it would be hard to name a more brutal and repellent piece from the whole range of Greek sculpture. The profession of this bruiser is evident in every feature, for the sculptor has betrayed it by the swollen ears, flat nose, thick neck, swollen cheeks, projecting under lip, frowning brows, and unkempt hair and beard. All these traits—especially the treatment of the eyes—give to it the sullen gloomy look so characteristic of boxers and pancratiasts.[1799] The man appears to be awaiting the attack, his contracted brows showing alert expectation, and his closed lips great determination. Furtwaengler, Bulle, Flasch, and others have dated it in the fourth century B. C., and are fain to see in it the work of an artist of the immediate circle of Lysippos or Lysistratos;[1800] but its exaggerated realism seems rather to point to a later period, not earlier than the third century B. C.[1801] The bronze foot of a victor statue also found at Olympia (Fig. 62)[1802] has been assigned by Furtwaengler to one of the statues of Kapros, an ascription which we also have followed.[1803] The position of this foot shows—as an experiment with a living model has disclosed—great movement, which makes it obvious that it comes from a statue in lively motion, probably of a boxer or pancratiast. It belongs to the statue of a strong man of coarse build; there is not the slightest trace of unnecessary flesh on it, but the whole is vigorous muscle, even the swollen veins being clearly visible in the photograph. While Furtwaengler finds its stylistic parallels in the copies of the Pergamene works of the third century B. C., _e. g._, the _Dying Gaul_ statues, the material and form of the base fitting that period, Wolters emphasizes its stylistic analogy to the bronze head just discussed.

[Illustration: FIG. 62.—Bronze Foot of a Victor Statue, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia.]

The monuments which represent equestrian victors will be left for another chapter.

CHAPTER V.

MONUMENTS OF HIPPODROME AND MUSICAL VICTORS.

PLATES 26-27 AND FIGURES 63-67.

In the preceding chapters we have considered the monuments of victors in various gymnic contests, in which the victor won by his own strength and skill. In the present chapter we shall be concerned chiefly with the monuments set up by victors at Olympia in chariot- and horse-races, in which the victory did not depend upon the athletic prowess of the victor, but upon the skill of his charioteer or jockey and the endurance of his horses.[1804] Though such events were not in the strict sense a part of Greek athletics, they formed a very important feature of the festival at Olympia as elsewhere.[1805] Indeed the four-horse chariot-race was the most spectacular and brilliant event at Olympia. Chariot-races, and to a less extent horse-races, were the sport only of the rich—kings, princes, and nobles.[1806] Thus victories were won in these events at Olympia in the fifth century B. C. by Hiero and Gelo, kings of Syracuse, and Arkesilas IV of Kyrene; in the fourth, by Philip II of Macedonia, and in Roman days by Tiberius, Germanicus, Nero, and many others. Alkibiades in Ol. 91 (= 416 B. C.), _i. e._, in the midst of the great Peloponnesian war, entered seven chariots at Olympia and won three prizes.[1807] Sometimes a city entered a chariot or horse. Thus in Ol. 77 (= 472 _B. C._) the public chariot of Argos, and in Ol. 75 (= 480 B. C.) the public horse of the same city, won at Olympia.[1808] Such entries show not only the expense attending these contests, but also their importance in the eyes of the Greeks.

Hippodromes, chariot-races, and horse-races were very common in Greece. A votive inscription in the museum at Sparta, dating from near the middle of the fifth century B. C., enumerates sixty victories by Damonon and his son Enymakratidas in both chariot- and horse-races at eight different meets in or near Lakonia, and Damonon was merely a local victor, unknown at Olympia.[1809] Greeks of Sicily and Magna Græcia were especially fond of such contests, as we see these constantly represented on coins of different cities there from the beginning of the fifth century B. C. on.[1810] However, only a few of the sites of these many hippodromes are now known, and only one can be positively identified, that mentioned by Pausanias on Mount Lykaios in Arkadia.[1811] The others are known from literary sources.[1812] The one at Olympia was destroyed in the course of centuries by the floods of the Alpheios, and its exact location can not be determined, though we know in general that it lay somewhere southeast of the Altis, between the river and the Stadion, and surmise that it ran somewhat parallel to the latter.[1813]

Its measurements, however, are known to us from a Greek metrological parchment manuscript in the old Seraglio, Constantinople, which dates from the eleventh century A. D.[1814] According to it the length of the course, _i. e._, from the starting-point to turning-post and return, was about 8 stades (1538 meters, 16 centimeters) or nearly 1 mile. One of the two sides—which Pausanias says were of unequal length[1815]—was 3 stades and 1 plethron long. The breadth of the course at the starting-point was 1 stade and 4 plethra. We are told, however, that only a portion of the entire course, six stades, or about two-thirds of a mile, was traversed in the various races.

The oldest literary account of a Greek chariot-race is found in Homer in the description of the games of Patroklos—the longest and finest episode there described.[1816] But the first trace of such a contest goes back to mythology, to the story of Pelops and Oinomaos contending for the hand of the latter’s daughter Hippodameia.[1817] This mythical race began at the village of Pisa in Elis and ended at the altar of Poseidon on the Isthmus of Corinth.[1818] The chariot-race was the chief if not the only event at the oldest funeral games in Greece, those mentioned by Pausanias as held in honor of Azan, the son of Arkas, in Arkadia.[1819] It figured largely in mythology[1820] and was represented in many works of art.[1821] At Olympia it was one of the earliest, and perhaps the earliest, of the events. Pausanias says that the four-horse chariot-race was introduced there in Ol. 25 (= 680 B. C.),[1822] but this may merely mean, as Gardiner points out, the date of exchanging the older prehistoric two-horse chariot for the one drawn by four horses. In any case the antiquity of the race at Olympia is shown by the great number of early votive offerings in the form of models of chariots and horses, which have been found there in a stratum extending below the foundations of the Heraion.

PROGRAMME OF HIPPODROME EVENTS.

By the middle of the third century B. C. the fully developed programme of equestrian events at Olympia and elsewhere consisted of six races, three for full-grown horses (τέλειοι), and three for colts (πῶλοι); for each of these two classes there were a four-horse chariot-race (ἅρμα, τέθριππον), a two-horse chariot-race (συνωρίς), and a horse-race (κέλης), thus:

ἅρματι τελείῳ, συνωρίδι τελείᾳ, κέλητι τελείῳ. ἅρματι πωλικῷ, συνωρίδι πωλικῇ, κέλητι πωλικῷ.

These six events comprised the ἀγὼν ἱππικός at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, Corinth, Athens, and elsewhere, as opposed to the ἀγὼν γυμνικός.[1823] The distinction between horses and colts was apparently a matter which was decided by the Hellanodikai at Olympia. Thus, Pausanias recounts how the Spartan victor Lykidas entered a pair of colts for the chariot-race, and that one of them was rejected by the judges; he thereupon entered both for the race with full-grown horses and won it.[1824] Though such a story does not fit the date of Lykidas, who won before the colt-race was introduced at Olympia, it shows the method of selection.[1825] The race in which the chariot was drawn by four full-grown horses (ἵππων τελείων δρόμος) was introduced, as we have seen, in Ol. 25. The contestants drove twelve times round the course, a distance of seventy-two stades or over eight miles.[1826] Pausanias mentions the monuments of eighteen such victors at Olympia for nineteen victories. The race in which the chariot was drawn by four colts (πώλων ἅρμα) was introduced in Ol. 99 (= 384 B. C.),[1827] and extended eight times round the course, or about 5.5 miles.[1828] Pausanias mentions the monuments of only two such victors at Olympia.[1829] The race in which the chariot was drawn by pairs of full-grown horses (συνωρίς) was introduced in Ol. 93 (408 B. C.) and extended eight times round the course.[1830] Pausanias mentions but one victor in this event at Olympia[1831] and an Olympic victress who had a statue erected to her in Sparta for such a victory.[1832] This was probably the original chariot-race at Olympia revived in Ol. 93, since the two-horse chariot was the historical descendant of the Homeric war-chariot.[1833] Panathenaic vases show that this race existed at Athens in the sixth century B. C., side by side with the four-horse chariot-race and horseback-race. The earliest of these vases, the so-called Burgon vase in the British Museum,[1834] was a prize there for this event. The race in which the chariot was drawn by a pair of colts (συνωρὶς πώλων) was introduced at Olympia in the third century B. C., in Ol. 129 (= 264 B. C.),[1835] and extended three times around the course. Pausanias mentions no monument erected to a victor in this race. The horse-race (ἵππος κέλης) was instituted in Ol. 33 (= 648 B. C.)[1836], and the foal-race (πῶλος κέλης) nearly four centuries later, in Ol. 131 (256 B. C.).[1837] Neither of these races was known to Homer, for κελετίζειν in the Iliad,[1838] as we saw in Chapter I, refers only to the acrobatic feat of vaulting from the back of one horse to that of another. Pausanias mentions monuments erected to eight victors (for nine victories) in the regular horse-race at Olympia. We conclude from a passage of his work[1839] that the riding-race consisted of one lap only or six stades, about two-thirds of a mile. A mule chariot-race (ἀπήνη) was introduced in Ol. 70 (= 500 B. C.), and a trotting-race with mares (κάλπη) in Ol. 71 (= 496 B. C.), but both were abolished in Ol. 84 (= 444 B. C.).[1840] Pausanias mentions one monument erected to an anonymous victor in κάλπη, who won some time between Ols. 72 and 84 (= 492 and 444 B. C.).[1841] He mentions the first victor in the mule-race, Thersias of Thessaly, but this does not occur in his _periegesis_ of the Altis.[1842] Only three other victors in this event are known to us, and they came from Sicilian towns.[1843]

Equestrian events were discontinued at Olympia in the first century B. C., owing to the waning of interest in athletics in consequence of the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 B. C. They were revived thereafter under the Empire only spasmodically and were destined finally to be replaced by the amusements of the Roman circus. Thus we learn from the Armenian version of Africanus that the chariot-race ceased at Olympia in Ol. 178 (= 68 B. C.). It must, however, have been reinstated toward the end of the century, since Tiberius Claudius Nero—afterwards the Emperor Tiberius—won in Ol. 194 (= 4 B. C.).[1844] It again went into disuse, since Africanus says that it, πάλαι κωλυθείς, was reintroduced in Ol. 199 (= 17 A. D.), when Germanicus, the adopted son of Tiberius, won.[1845] Once more it was discontinued, and again renewed in Ol. 222 (= 109 A. D.), according to the same authority, who, however, does not name any victor for that date. Just when this discontinuance took place, we can not say, but it was certainly after Ol. 211 (= 65 A. D.), when the emperor Nero is known to have won victories in various kinds of chariot-races.[1846] Three Olympiads before, an Elean, Tiberios Klaudios Aphrodeisios, had also won the horse-race.[1847]

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CHARIOT-RACE.

[Illustration: PLATE 26

Racing Chariot and Horses. From an archaic b.-f. Hydria. Museum of Berlin.]

Representations of the various chariot-races are commoner than those of any other Olympic contest, appearing on vases, reliefs, coins, and gems.[1848] There seem to have been two distinct types of racing-chariot in Greece.[1849] The four-horse chariot was a modification of the heroic two-horse war-chariot, which was a low car on two wheels, surmounted by a box consisting of a high framework, open only at the rear, and large enough to contain the chieftain and the charioteer. The war-chariot was known to both Mycenæan Greece and Crete. There is a relief of uncertain date in the Museum of Candia, which represents a chariot and charioteer.[1850] It is far superior to the type of chariots appearing in relief on the gravestones found at Mycenæ,[1851] though the type on both is of the same general pattern, having the same box and four-spoked wheels. On the Mycenæan reliefs the box seems to rest directly upon the rim of the wheel, and the portrayal of a single horse is very inartistic. On the Candia relief, however, there are at least two horses discernible, and both the horses and the warrior, who is about to mount the car, are lifelike. The Greek racing-car was much lighter than the Homeric and Mycenæan war-chariot, and the box had room only for the charioteer. It was drawn usually by four horses. The Athenian type appears on Panathenaic vases throughout the whole history of the manufacture of these vases,[1852] and also on Macedonian and Sicilian coins. On certain vases of later date the car is still lighter and has larger wheels. One of the earliest racing-cars is seen on a vase in the British Museum,[1853] dating from the eighth century B. C. It seems to be a two-horse car, as we should expect at this early date, though the artist has drawn but one horse. The charioteer is clothed in a long chiton, a custom which was generally kept throughout the history of the chariot-race. The regular two-horse type of chariot appears on vases as a cart, the body of the old war-chariot being so diminished that nothing is left but the driver’s seat with a square open framework on the sides. The driver rests his feet on a footboard suspended from the pole.[1854] Perhaps this represents a peculiarly Athenian type of chariot, since the two-horse chariot on coins of Philip II, son of Amyntas and father of Alexander the Great, a victor at Olympia in both horse-racing and charioteering, resembles the ordinary four-horse car, and the driver stands instead of sits.[1855] The mule-car was like the two-horse chariot, as we see in representations of it on coins of Rhegion and Messana.[1856] The best illustrations of racing with four-horse cars are afforded by coins of Sicilian cities.[1857] We see an excellent representation of such a race on a sixth-century B. C. Panathenaic vase recently found at Sparta, on which a chariot driven by a standing charioteer is represented as passing a pillar on the right, and therefore perhaps near the end of the race.[1858] The harnessing of two horses to a racing-car is seen on an archaic b.-f. hydria in Berlin (Pl. 26).[1859] Here a third horse appears, led by a nude youth, who is crowned, and who therefore probably represents a victorious horse-racer. Several other b.-f. vase-paintings showing four-horse chariots have been collected by Gerhard.[1860] However, we are not dependent upon vase-paintings and coins to judge of the magnificence of Greek chariots of the historical period, for we have actual remains of them—war-chariots, to be sure, but not very unlike the ones used at the corresponding dates in Olympia. Among these is the fine bronze _biga_ found in the grave of an Italian prince at Monteleone, Etruria, in 1902, and now one of the chief treasures of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.[1861] This is a war-chariot of the beginning of the sixth century B. C., the only complete ancient bronze chariot now known. The restored frame of wood is sheathed with thin bronze plates richly ornamented with reliefs in repoussé. Because of its form and its relationship to chariots appearing on archaic Ionic monuments of Asia Minor, for example, on the reliefs of sarcophagi from Klazomenai, and because of the strong resemblance between its decorative designs and those of archaic Italian monuments of Ionicizing style, Furtwaengler has classed it as the product of Ionic Greek art. Professor Chase, on the other hand, finds these decorations pure Etruscan in character, comparing them with the reliefs on three bronze tripods in the possession of Mr. James Loeb, which are dated some half a century later.[1862] In any case this chariot is “_das glaenzendste, vollstaendigste_” archaic metal work yet recovered. In the British Museum there are considerable remnants of the chariot-group of King Mausolos and his wife Artemisia, which once stood on the apex of the Mausoleion at Halikarnassos, the work, according to Pliny,[1863] of Pythis (or Pytheos), the architect and historian of the tomb.[1864] Besides the figures of the royal pair, we have the head of one horse, the hinder half of another, fragments of still others, and one wheel of the chariot.[1865]

CHARIOT-GROUPS AT OLYMPIA.

Great artists were engaged to set up chariot-groups at Olympia and elsewhere. Many of the _quadrigae_ and _bigae_ mentioned by Pliny as the works of sculptors and painters must have been agonistic offerings.[1866] Aeginetan sculptors were especially in favor at Olympia. Thus Onatas, in conjunction with the Athenian Kalamis, made a group for King Hiero,[1867] and Glaukias made another for Hiero’s brother Gelo;[1868] Simon made an equestrian group for Phormis,[1869] and Philotimos made a statue for the horse-racer Xenombrotos of Kos.[1870] The oldest dedication by a chariot victor at Olympia was the votive offering of Miltiades, the son of Kypselos, of Athens, which consisted of an ivory horn of Amaltheia, inscribed with archaic letters and set up in the treasury of the Sikyonians. Miltiades won his victory in Ol. (?) 54 (= 564 B. C.).[1871] The next oldest dedication at Olympia was that of a chariot, without any human figure, by the Spartan Euagoras, who won three victories in Ols. (?) 58-60 (= 548-540 B. C.).[1872] This custom of dedicating merely the model of a chariot continued sporadically into the third century B. C. Thus Polypeithes of Sparta, who won a victory near the end of the sixth century B. C.,[1873] dedicated a chariot, while a figure of his father, the wrestler Kalliteles, stood beside it.[1874] A Pythian victor, Arkesilas IV, son of Battos IV, king of Kyrene, who won a victory in the 31st Pythiad (= 462 B. C.), dedicated a chariot at Delphi.[1875] At the beginning of the fourth century B. C. the Spartan princess Kyniska set up “bronze horses less than life-size” in the pronaos of the temple of Zeus at Olympia. The recovered base shows that Pausanias was right about the size of this votive offering.[1876] Theochrestos of Kyrene, who won some time between Ols. (?) 100 and 122 (= 380 and 292 B. C.),[1877] and Glaukon of Athens, who won in the third century B. C.,[1878] also set up votive chariots. The recovered base of Glaukon’s chariot shows that it was small. Sometimes a chariot victor, for economy’s sake, contented himself with dedicating merely a statue of himself in honor of his victory—a custom which continued from the sixth to the third centuries B. C. Perhaps one of the oldest examples of such a dedication of which we have record is that of the Elean Archidamas, who won a victory at an unknown date, but certainly some time after Ol. 66 (= 515 B. C.).[1879] In the fifth century B. C., the Spartans Anaxandros[1880] and Lykinos[1881] dedicated merely statues of themselves. In the fourth century B. C. the Elean victors Timon,[1882] whose monument was by Daidalos, Troilos, whose monument was by Lysippos,[1883] and Telemachos, whose statue was by Philonides,[1884] set up statues in honor of their victories. The footprints on the inscribed base of the statue of Telemachos show that he was represented standing at rest with both feet flat on the ground. This was probably the position of the statues of the other two victors mentioned. The statue of the Spartan victor Polykles, surnamed _Polychalkos_, stood in a singular group. He was represented as being greeted on his return home by his children, one of whom held a small grace-hoop in his hand, while the other was trying to snatch the victor ribbon from his father’s hand.[1885] We learn from Diogenes Laertios that the tyrant Periandros of Corinth vowed to set up a golden statue of himself if he won the chariot-race.[1886]