Enkidoodle

Funeral games were held in honor of departed warriors and eminent men all over the Greek world and at all periods, from the legendary games of Patroklos and Pelias and others to those celebrated at Thessalonika in Valerian’s time.[55] Thus Miltiades was honored by games on the Thracian Chersonesus,[56] Leonidas and Pausanias at Sparta,[57] Brasidas at Amphipolis,[58] Timoleon at Syracuse,[59] and Mausolos at Halikarnassos.[60] Alexander instituted games in honor of the dead Hephaistion[61] and the conqueror himself was honored in a similar way.[62] The _Eleutheria_ were celebrated at Platæa at stated times in honor of the soldiers who fell there against the Medes in 479 B. C.,[63] and in the Academy a festival was held under the direction of the polemarch in honor of the Athenian soldiers who had died for their country and were buried in the Kerameikos.[64] Funeral games were also common in Italy. We find athletic scenes decorating Etruscan tombs—including boxing, wrestling, horse-racing, and chariot-racing.[65] The Romans borrowed their funeral games from Etruria as well as their gladiatorial shows, which were doubtless also funerary in origin.[66] Frazer cites examples of the custom of instituting games in honor of dead warriors among many modern peoples, Circassians, Chewsurs of the Caucasus, Siamese, Kirghiz, in India, and among the North American Indian tribes. Gardiner notes the Irish fairs in honor of a departed chief, which existed from pagan days down to the last century.[67]

The testimony of early Greek athletic art also points to the same funerary origin of the games. The funeral games of Pelias and those held by Akastos in honor of his father were depicted respectively on the two most famous monuments of early Greek decorative art, on the chest of Kypselos dedicated in the Heraion at Olympia and on the throne of Apollo at Amyklai in Lakonia, the latter being the work of the Ionian sculptor Bathykles. Though both these works are lost, the description of one of them at least, that of the chest, by Pausanias,[68] is so detailed and precise that the scenes represented upon it have been paralleled figure for figure on early Ionian (especially Chalkidian) and Corinthian vases, contemporary or later, and on Corinthian and Argive decorative bronze reliefs. Many attempts have been made, therefore, to restore the chest, and as more monuments become known, which throw light on the composition and types, these attempts are constantly growing in certainty, even though conjecture may continue to enter in.[69]

The figures were wrought in relief, partly in ivory and gold and partly in the cedar wood itself, deployed on its surface in a series of bands, such as we commonly see on early vases. This use of gold and ivory is the first example in Greek art of the custom employed by Pheidias and other sculptors of the great age of Greek sculpture. We have already noted its use in the ivory acrobats from Crete, which were made, perhaps, a thousand years before the chest.[70] Out of the thirty-three scenes depicted on its surface all but two or three were mythological, and among these were scenes from the funeral games of Pelias, including a two-horse chariot-race (P., §9), a boxing and wrestling match (§10), a foot-race, quoit-throwing, and a victor represented as being crowned (§10), and prize tripods (§11).

The most valuable parallel to some of the scenes described by Pausanias is found on the Amphiaraos vase in Berlin,[71] dating from the sixth century B. C., on which the wrestling match and chariot-race correspond surprisingly well with the descriptions of Pausanias, despite certain differences in detail. Another archaic vase depicts a two-horse chariot-race and the parting of Amphiaraos and Eriphyle.[72] The scenes on this latter vase appear to have been copied from those on the chest, and it is possible that the scenes on the Berlin vase had the same origin.

Funeral games are commonly pictured on early vases. Thus on a proto-Attic amphora, discovered by the British School of Athens in excavating the Gymnasion of Kynosarges, there are groups of wrestlers and chariot-racers. The wrestling bout here, however, seems to be to the death, as the victor has his adversary by the throat with both hands. It may be a mythological scene, perhaps representing the bout between Herakles and Antaios. A still earlier representation of funeral games is shown by a Dipylon geometric vase from the Akropolis now in Copenhagen, dating back possibly to the eighth century B. C.[73] On one side two nude men, who have grasped each other by the arms, are ready to stab one another with swords. This may represent, however, as Gardiner suggests, only a mimic contest. On the other side are two boxers standing between groups of warriors and dancers. A similar scene in repoussé appears on a Cypriote silver vase from Etruria now in the Uffizi in Florence.[74] We should also, in this connection, note again the reliefs representing funeral games, which appear on the sixth-century sarcophagus from Klazomenai already mentioned.[75] Here is represented a combat of armed men; amid chariots stand groups of men armed with helmets, shields, and spears, while flute-players stand between them; at either end is a pillar with a prize vase upon it; against one leans a naked man with a staff, doubtless intended to represent the spirit of the deceased in whose honor the games are being held.

Games in honor of the dead tended to become periodic. The tomb of the honored warriors became a rallying-point for neighboring people, who would convene to see the games. While some of these games were destined never to transcend local importance, others developed into the Panhellenic festivals. As the worship of ancestors became metamorphosed into that of heroes, the games became part of hero cults, which antedated those of the Olympian gods. But as the gods gradually superseded the heroes in the popular religion, they usurped the sanctuaries and the games held there, which had long been a part of the earlier worship. We are not here concerned, however, with the difficult question of the origin of funeral games. They may have taken the place of earlier human sacrifices, which would explain the armed fight at the games of Patroklos and its appearance on archaic vases and sarcophagi; or they may have commemorated early contests of succession, which would explain many mythical contests like the chariot-race between Pelops and Oinomaos for Hippodameia, or the wrestling match between Zeus and Kronos. In any case such games would never have attained the importance which they did attain in Greece, if it had not been for the athletic spirit and love of competition so characteristic of the Hellenic race. Whatever their origin, therefore, there is little doubt that out of them developed the great games of historic Greece. The constant relationship between Greek religion and Greek athletics can be explained in no other way.[76]

EARLY HISTORY OF THE FOUR NATIONAL GAMES.

By the beginning of the sixth century B. C. the athletic spirit displayed in the Homeric poems had given rise to the four national festivals—at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and on the Isthmus. On these four, many lesser games were modeled.[77] The origin of all these, as we have already remarked, is lost in a mass of legend. The myths of the origin of Olympia are particularly conflicting. We are practically certain, however, that Olympia as a sanctuary preceded the advent of the Achæans into the Peloponnesus, and that the foundation of the games preceded the coming of the Dorians, but was probably later than that of the Achæans. The importance of the games dates from the time after the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus, when the warring peoples finally became pacified.[78] For centuries Olympia was overshadowed by Delphi and the Ionian festival on Delos. The importance of the latter festival in the eighth and seventh centuries B. C. is shown by the Homeric Hymn to the Delian Apollo. Only by the beginning of the seventh century had Olympia begun to gain its prestige. The pre-Dorian Pisatai, in whose territory the sanctuary was situated, probably controlled it early. The Dorian allies, the Eleans, whom legend had King Oxylos lead into the Peloponnesus from Aitolia,[79] tried to wrest this control from the Pisatai, who, however, aided by religious reverence for the sanctuary, were able to maintain their rights. On account of the conflict the games languished, until finally a truce was made by the two factions and the games were re-established under their common management. This work was ascribed to Iphitos and Kleosthenes, kings respectively of Elis and Pisa, and to Lykourgos of Sparta.[80] The dual control was not successful, as the jealous Pisatai constantly tried to regain their old honor; but the Eleans, supported by the Spartans, prevailed and finally, after the Persian wars, destroyed Pisa and the other revolting cities of Triphylia and henceforth remained in sole control. The restoration of the games under Iphitos and his colleagues took place in 776 B. C., from which date the festival was celebrated every fourth year, until it was finally abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius at the end of the fourth century A. D. In 776 Koroibos of Elis won the foot-race and this was the first dated Olympiad in the Olympian register,[81] and from it, as Pausanias says,[82] the unbroken tradition of the Olympiads began. This history of Olympia is very different from the orthodox mythical story told by Pausanias and Strabo and based on the “ancient writings of the Eleans.”[83] According to it the games were originally instituted by the Eleans under Oxylos and refounded by Iphitos, his descendant, together with Lykourgos, still under the management of the Eleans. In Ol. 8 the Pisatans invoked the aid of the Argive king Pheidon and dispossessed the Eleans, but they lost the control of Olympia in the next Olympiad. In Ol. 28 Elis, during a war with Dyme, allowed the Pisatans to celebrate the games. Six Olympiads later the king of Pisa came to Olympia with an army and took charge. The story leaves the Pisatans in control from about Olympiads 30 to 51, but some time between Ols. 48 and 52 the Eleans defeated Pisa and destroyed it, and henceforth controlled the games. Such a story was manifestly a contrivance by the later priests of Elis to justify their control of the games through a prior claim. It is contradicted by all the evidence.[84] The antiquity of Olympia is known to us from the results of excavations and from its religious history. The latest excavations on the site have disclosed the remains of six prehistoric buildings with apsidal endings, below the geometric stratum, upon the site of what used to be considered the remnants of the great altar of Zeus.[85] Such an inference is borne out by many primitive features in the religious history of the sanctuary. The altar of Kronos on the hill to the north of the Altis was earlier than that of Zeus; an earth altar antedated that of Zeus, while a survival of the earlier worship of the powers of the underworld is seen in the custom, lasting through later centuries, of allowing only one woman, the priestess of Demeter Chamyne, to witness the games. We also know that the worship of the Pelasgian Hera antedated that of the Hellenic Zeus; her temple, the Heraion, is the most ancient of which the foundations still stand, a temple built of stone, wood, and sun-dried bricks, whose origin is to be referred to the tenth, if not to the eleventh, century B. C.[86] We have already remarked that the worship of the hero Pelops preceded that of the god Zeus.[87] All such indications attest the high antiquity of Olympia. That it is not mentioned in Homer, while Delphi and Dodona are, only proves that in the poet’s time it was still merely a local shrine. Not until the beginning of the sixth century B. C. did it attain the distinction, which it retained ever afterwards, of being the foremost national festival of Hellas.[88]

The periodical celebration of the three other national festivals was not dated—except in legend—before the early years of the sixth century B. C., though local festivals must have existed also on these sites long before.[89] The old music festival at Delphi, which finally was held every eight years,[90] was changed in 586 B. C., in consequence of the Sacred War,[91] into a Panhellenic festival celebrated thereafter every four years (_pentaëteris_). It was under the presidency of the Amphiktyonic League, which introduced athletic and equestrian events copied from those at Olympia[92] and replaced the older money prizes with the simple bay wreath. About the same time the Nemean and Isthmian games were instituted. The local games at Nemea, said to have been founded by Adrastos in honor of a child, were reorganized some time before 573 B. C., the first Nemead.[93] Thereafter they were celebrated every two years, in the second and fourth of the corresponding Olympiads.[94] They were administered in honor of Zeus by the small town of Kleonai under Argive influence. The games were transferred to Argos some time between 460 B. C. and the close of the third century B. C. Centuries later, Hadrian revived the prestige of the games at Argos. The games held on the Isthmus also originated as an old local festival, which was revived in 586 or 582 B. C. We are not sure whether they were refounded in Poseidon’s honor by Periandros or after the death of Psammetichos in commemoration of the ending of the tyranny at Corinth. The geographical location of Corinth, the meeting-place of East and West, involved it in many wars, and therefore the Isthmian games never attained the prestige of the other national festivals; they were held every two years in the spring of the second and fourth years of the corresponding Olympiads and were administered by Corinth.[95]

Besides the four national games, many Greek cities had purely local ones, some of which originated in prehistoric days in honor of hero cults, while others were founded at historical dates. Athens was particularly favored in having many such local festivals. The most important of these were the _Panathenaic_ games in honor of Athena, which developed from earlier annual _Athenaia_ or _Panathenaia_. The festival was remodeled, or perhaps founded, just before Peisistratos seized the tyranny (561-560 B. C.), possibly by Solon, who died 560-559 B. C. The name certainly points to the unity of Athens promoted by Solon, if not to the earlier unification of the village communities of Attika ascribed to Theseus. In any case, under Peisistratos it became something more than a local festival, as the recitation of Homer became a feature of it. Following the games at Delphi and Olympia, the _Great Panathenaia_ were held every four years (the third year of each Olympiad) in the month of Hekatombaion (July), while the more ancient annual festival continued yearly under the name of the _Little Panathenaia_. There were musical, literary, and athletic contests. The central feature of the festival was the procession which ascended from the lower city to the Parthenon on the Akropolis to offer the goddess a robe woven by noble Athenian maidens and matrons.[96] This procession is known to us in detail from the great Parthenon frieze. The _Theseia_ exemplify a festival whose origin can be definitely dated. Kimon, the son of the hero of Marathon, in 469 B. C., discovered the supposed bones of the national hero Theseus on the island of Skyros. The Delphic oracle counseled the Athenians to place them in an honorable resting-place. Perhaps there was a legend that the hero was buried on Skyros; in any case a grave was found there which contained the corpse of a warrior of great size, and this was brought back to Athens as the actual remains of Theseus. Thereafter an annual festival was celebrated by the Athenian _epheboi_, comprising military contests and athletic events—stade, dolichos, and diaulos running races, wrestling, boxing, pankration, hoplite running, etc. It began on the sixth of Pyanepsion (October), and was followed by the _Epitaphia_, a funeral festival in honor of national heroes and youths who had fallen fighting for Athens.[97] Athletic games were held at the _Herakleia_ in honor of Herakles at Marathon in the month of Metageitnion, and had attained great popularity by the time of Pindar.[98] The _Eleusinia_, in honor of Demeter, took place annually in Athens in the month of Boëdromion, when horse-races and musical and other contests were held. This Attic festival claimed a greater antiquity even than Olympia. The great national festivals encouraged these smaller local ones, so that they attracted competitors from the whole Greek world.

EARLY PRIZES FOR ATHLETES.

The prizes which were offered at the early games in Greece were uniformly articles of value. Their value, however, was regarded not so much in the light of rewards to the victors as proofs of the generous spirit of the holders of the games, who thereby celebrated the dead in whose honor the contest was held. In Homer’s account of the funeral games of Patroklos, each contestant, whether victorious or not, received a prize. In one case a prize was given where the contest was not held. In the chariot-race five prizes were offered: for the winner a slave girl and a tripod; for the second best a six-year-old mare in foal; for the third a cauldron; for the fourth two talents of gold; and for the last a two-handled cup.[99] For the wrestling match the winner received a tripod worth twelve oxen, while the vanquished received a skilled slave woman worth four oxen.[100] For the boxing match a mule was the first prize and a two-handled cup the second.[101] For the foot-race a silver bowl of Sidonian make, an ox, and half a talent of gold were the prizes.[102]

Hesiod records his winning a tripod for a victory gained in singing at the games of Amphidamas at Chalkis.[103] Tripods were the commonest prizes at all early games and it was not till later that they became connected especially with Apollo’s worship. They were presented for all sorts of contests, for chariot-racing,[104] horse-racing,[105] the foot-race,[106] boxing,[107] and wrestling.[108] They were presented at various games in honor of different gods and heroes: _e. g._, those in honor of Apollo at the _Triopia_[109] and _Panionia_ of Mykale;[110] of Dionysos at Athens and Rhodes;[111] of Herakles at the _Herakleia_ of Thebes and elsewhere;[112] of Pelias;[113] of Patroklos.[114] They were kept in temples dedicated to various gods: _e. g._, in those of Apollo at Delphi, at Amyklai,[115] and on Delos,[116] at the Ptoian sanctuary[117] and in the Ismenion at Thebes;[118] in the temples of Zeus at Olympia and Dodona;[119] of Herakles at Thebes;[120] at the Hierothesion in Messene,[121] etc. Later, because it served the Pythian priestess, the tripod became a part of the Apolline cult and the special attribute of that god.[122] Gold and silver vessels and articles of bronze were everywhere used as prizes. In early days bronze was very valuable. Pindar proves this for games held in Achaia and Arkadia;[123] and it continued to be used in later times, as, _e. g._, at the _Panathenaia_, where a hydria of bronze was a prize in the torch-race.[124] At the lesser games all sorts of articles were offered, merely for their value. Thus a shield was offered at the Argive _Heraia_,[125] a bowl at the games in honor of Aiakos on Aegina,[126] silver cups at the Marathonian _Herakleia_[127] and at the Sikyonian _Pythia_,[128] a cloak at Pellene,[129] apparently a cuirass at Argos,[130] and jars of oil from sacred trees at the _Panathenaia_.[131] A kettle is mentioned in the Anthology;[132] an inscribed cauldron from Cumae, which was a prize at the games there in honor of Onomastos, is in the British Museum,[133] while measures of barley and corn were prizes at the _Eleusinia_.[134] While presents of value continued to be given at the local games,[135] a simple wreath of leaves gradually came to be the prize offered the victor at the great national festivals. Pausanias[136] says that this was composed of wild olive (κότινος) at Olympia, of laurel (δάφνη) at Delphi, of pine (πίτυς) at the Isthmus, and of celery (σέλινον) at Nemea. Phlegon says that the olive wreath was first used by Iphitos in Ol. 7 (= 752 B. C.), when it was given to the Messenian runner Daïkles,[137] and that for the preceding Olympiads there was no crown.[138] Probably before that date tripods and other articles of value were the prizes at Olympia, as we know they were elsewhere. Pausanias says that the wild olive came from the land of the Hyperboreans.[139] Pindar calls it merely olive (ἐλαία), and not wild olive.[140] The Athenian tradition was that the olive which Herakles planted at Olympia was a shoot of a sacred tree which grew on the banks of the Ilissos in Attica.[141] Phlegon also says that the first crown came from Attika. In later days the Olympic wreaths were cut from the “Olive of the Faircrown”;[142] its branches were cut with a golden sickle by a boy whose parents must be living;[143] it grew at Olympia in a spot near the so-called Pantheion,[144] which was probably a grove behind the temple of Zeus.[145] The laurel prize at the Pythian games replaced the older articles of value or money in 582 B. C.[146] It came from Tempe and was plucked by a boy whose parents must be living.[147] The wreath is seen on late Delphian coins of the imperial age.[148] Lucian also states that apples were given as prizes at Delphi.[149] Wild celery was the prize at the Isthmus in the time of Pindar.[150] It was dried or withered to differentiate it from the fresh celery used at Nemea.[151] Later writers say that the wreath was of the leaves of the pine,[152] which was the tree sacred to Poseidon. Probably pine leaves composed the older wreath, a practice certainly revived again in later Roman imperial days;[153] for while on coins of Augustus and Nero celery is represented, those of Antoninus Pius and Lucius Verus show pine.[154] A row of pine trees lined the approach to Poseidon’s sanctuary.[155] The prize at Nemea was celery and not parsley, as many wrongly interpret the wreath appearing on Selinuntian coins.[156] Pausanias also states that at most Greek games a palm wreath was placed in the victor’s right hand.[157] The palm as a symbol of victory occurs first toward the end of the fifth century B. C.[158]

DEDICATION OF ATHLETE PRIZES.

Just as soldiers on returning from successful campaigns might dedicate their spoils of victory, victors in athletic contests might consecrate to the gods their prizes. In the Homeric poems we have no certain evidence of such a custom. A Delphic tripod was ascribed to Diomedes and possibly this was a prize won at the funeral games in honor of Patroklos.[159] The first literary example of such a dedication of which we are certain is the prize tripod dedicated to the Helikonian Muses by Hesiod.[160] Frequently such dedications were tripods; thus a Pythian tripod was dedicated to Herakles at Thebes by the Arkadian musician Echembrotos in 586 B. C.;[161] a tripod was dedicated in the sixth century B. C. or perhaps earlier at Athens for some acrobatic or juggling trick;[162] a victorious boxer dedicated one at Thebes.[163] It became customary by the fifth century B. C. for victors at the _Triopia_ to offer prize tripods to Apollo.[164] Tripods or fragments of them have been found at Olympia[165] and elsewhere. Many other objects were also offered.[166] Sometimes a victor would dedicate the object by which he won his victory instead of his prize, just as a soldier might dedicate his arms instead of his spoils of war. Certain types of victors, _e. g._, those especially in running, the race in armor, singing, etc., would be excluded from making such dedications owing to the nature of the contest. Pausanias[167] tells us, for instance, that twenty-five bronze shields were kept in the temple of Zeus at Olympia for the use of hoplite runners, which shows that these runners did not use all at least of their own armor. In some cases diskoi were lent to pentathletes. Pausanias[168] says that three quoits were kept in the treasury of the Sikyonians at Olympia for use in the pentathlon. There are, however, as we shall see, instances of quoits being dedicated by victors. The pentathlete might consecrate either his diskos, javelin, or jumping-weights.[169] Perhaps the huge red-sandstone block of the sixth century B. C., weighing 315 pounds and inscribed with the name and feat of Bybon, may have been such an _ex voto_,[170] since Pausanias says the contestants at Olympia originally used stones for quoits.[171] A stone, weighing 480 kilograms (about 1,056 pounds), was found on Thera, inscribed “Eumastos raised me from the ground.”[172] Poplios (Publius) Asklepiades, who won the pentathlon at Olympia in the third century A. D.,[173] dedicated a bronze diskos to Zeus, showing the old custom was kept up till late. Many bronze diskoi have been found in the excavations of the Altis.[174] We have instances of the dedication of jumping-weights (ἁλτῆρες).[175] Examples of dedicated strigils have been found at Olympia.[176] Torches were dedicated at Athens.[177] Actors dedicated their masks,[178] while some of the ivory lyres and plectra conserved in the Parthenon were probably offerings of musical victors at the Panathenaic games.[179] Equestrian victors dedicated their chariots, or models of them, and their horses. These models might be large or small. We have notices of large chariot-groups at Olympia of Kleosthenes,[180] Gelo,[181] and Hiero of Syracuse;[182] of small ones of Euagoras,[183] Glaukon,[184] Kyniska,[185] and Polypeithes.[186] A large number of miniature models of chariots and horses in bronze and terra cotta have been found at Olympia,[187] some of which have no wheels. Many very thin foil wheels have also been found.[188] Furtwaengler[189] believes that these wheels are conventional reductions of whole chariots. Some of them are cast[190] and they are generally four-spoked, but two mule-car wheels are five-spoked.[191] These various models are so common and of so little value, however, that they may have had nothing to do with chariot-races.[192]

Many great artists, _e. g._, Kalamis,[193] Euphranor,[194] and Lysippos,[195] are known to have made chariot-groups and it is reasonable to assume that some of these were votive in character. Besides dedications of chariot victors, we find at Olympia also those of horse-racers. These were similarly both large and small, with and without jockeys. Thus jockeys on horseback by Kalamis stood on either side of Hiero’s chariot.[196] Krokon of Eretria, who won the horse-race at the end of the sixth century B. C.,[197] dedicated a small bronze horse at Olympia.[198] The monument of the sons of Pheidolas of Corinth,[199] representing a horse on the top of a column, must have been small. Pausanias, in mentioning the two statues of the Spartan chariot victor Lykinos by Myron,[200] says that one of the horses which the victor brought to Olympia was not allowed to enter the foal-race, and therefore was entered in the horse-race. This story was probably told Pausanias by the Olympia guides and may have arisen from the smallness of one of the horses in the monument.[201] The sculptors Kalamis,[202] Kanachos,[203] and Hegias[204] are known to have made groups representing horse-victors, and Pliny derives the whole _genre_ of equestrian monuments from the Greeks.[205] Great numbers of small figures of horses and riders have been excavated at Olympia[206] and elsewhere.[207] Equestrian groups of various kinds were also known outside Olympia. Thus Arkesilas IV of Kyrene offered a chariot model at Delphi for a victory in 466 B. C;[208] the base found on the Akropolis of Athens and inscribed with the name Onatas probably upheld such a group;[209] the equestrian statue of Isokrates on the Akropolis was also probably a dedication for a victory in horse-racing.[210]

DEDICATION OF STATUES AT OLYMPIA AND ELSEWHERE.

Not only did equestrian contests and the pentathlon give the victor an opportunity to represent the means by which he gained his prize, but any victorious athlete could set up a statue of himself in his own honor, which might either represent him in the characteristic attitude of his contest (perhaps with its distinguishing attributes) or might be a simple monument showing neither action nor attribute. This brings us to the main subject of the present work—the discussion of the different types of victor statues at Olympia.

Of all the national games of Hellas, our knowledge of Olympia is fullest, both because of the detailed account of its monuments by Pausanias, who visited Elis in 173 or 174 A. D., and because of the systematic excavation of the Altis by the German government in the seventies of the last century. We shall not be concerned, except incidentally, with monuments set up at the other national games, which are known to us in no such degree as those of Olympia. The interest of Pausanias in Delphi was almost entirely of a religious nature, and the lesser renown of both Nemea and the Isthmus caused him to treat their topography and monuments in a most summary manner. Though the _Pythia_ as a festival were second only to the _Olympia_, as an athletic meet they scarcely equalled the _Nemea_ or the _Isthmia_. From the earliest days music was the chief competition at Delphi; the oldest and most important event in the musical programme there all through Greek history was the Hymn to Apollo, sung with the accompaniment of the lyre, in which was celebrated the victory of the god over the Python. By 582 B. C. singing to the flute (αὐλῳδία) was also added, but was almost immediately discontinued. In the same year a flute solo was also inaugurated.[211] In 558 B. C. lyre-playing was introduced. Under the Roman Empire poetic and dramatic competitions were prominent, but the date of their introduction is not known. Pliny mentions contests in painting.[212] After music the equestrian contests were the most important, even rivalling those of Olympia. By 586 B. C., as we have seen, athletic events were inaugurated. The athletic importance of the games on the Isthmus was inferior to that of Olympia and its religious character to that of Delphi, though these games were the most frequented of all the great national ones, because of the accessibility of the place and its nearness to Corinth.[213] The inferiority of the athletics here may be judged by the fact that Solon assigned only 100 drachmæ to an Isthmian victor, while 500 were given to one from Olympia.[214] We have little knowledge of these games through the great period of Greek history, only a reference here and there to a victor.[215] We know much more of them under the Romans, when the prosperity of Corinth was revived; at that time, however, there was little true interest in athletics. Corinth then spent great sums in procuring wild animals for the arena.[216] Excavations have added little to our knowledge of these games.[217] The interest at Nemea in athletics was second only to that of Olympia.[218] While music was the most important feature at Delphi, and the Isthmian games were attended chiefly for the attractions of the neighboring Corinth, there was nothing but the games themselves to attract people to the retired valley of Nemea. Athletic contests were the only feature here until late times and great attention was paid to those of boys.[219] The records of the victors at these games are very scanty.[220]

At all these three games victor monuments were set up, though in no such profusion as at Olympia.

Of those set up at Delphi, Pausanias shows his disdain by these words: “As to the athletes and musical competitors who have attracted no notice from the majority of mankind, I hold them hardly worthy of attention; and the athletes who have made themselves a name have already been set forth by me in my account of Elis.”[221] He mentions the statue of only one victor, that of Phaÿllos, who won at Delphi twice in the pentathlon and once in running. A score or more of inscriptions in honor of these men whom Pausanias treats so contemptuously have been recovered. Some of them record offerings dedicated for victories, though most of them record decrees passed by the Delphians, who voted the victors not only wreaths of laurel, but seats of honor at the games and other privileges.[222] Victor statues seem to have stood outside the sacred precinct at Delphi and not within it, as at Olympia, since Pausanias mentions the sanctuary after mentioning the statue of Phaÿllos.[223] Other Greek and Roman writers give us stray hints of these statues. Thus, Pliny mentions a statue at Delphi of a _pancratiastes_ by Pythagoras of Rhegion[224] and says that Myron made _Delphicos pentathlos, pancratiastas_.[225] A scholion on Pindar[226] mentions the helmeted statue of the hoplite runner Telisikrates as standing in the precinct. Justin, in speaking of the Gallic invasion of Delphi, mentions _statuasque cum quadrigis, quarum ingens copia procul visebatur_, thus referring to large chariot-groups, which would be very sightly on the slope of the precinct.[227] An idea of the beauty of such groups may be gathered from the remnant of one, the bronze _Charioteer_ discovered by the French excavators, which is one of the most important archaic sculptures from antiquity (Fig. 66).[228]

We know from the words of Pausanias[229] that victor statues also stood on the Isthmus, and we should assume the same for Nemea, though in both places they must have been few in number. At the various local games it was customary for victors to erect statues of themselves. Thus we know of such dedications at the Bœotian games in Thebes,[230] at the Didymaion,[231] and at the _Lykaia_ in Arkadia.[232] Many such victor statues decorated different localities of Athens. Thus, on the Akropolis, we know of the statues of the hoplite runner Epicharinos,[233] of the pancratiast Hermolykos,[234] of a helmeted man by the sculptor Kleoitas,[235] of a παῖς κελητίζων representing Isokrates;[236] in the Prytaneion, of the statue of the pancratiast Autolykos.[237] Lykourgos, the rhetor, mentions victor statues in the agora of Athens.[238] Some of these Athenian statues may have been those of Olympic victors;[239] and of victors certainly Olympic we know of the statues of Kallias the pancratiast,[240] of the charioteer Hermokrates,[241] and of the bronze mares of Kimon.[242] Of the statues of Nemean victors at Athens we know of that of Hegestratos, victor in an unknown contest.[243] Of Isthmian victors there we know of that of the pancratiast Diophanes,[244] and of other examples.[245] We have inscriptional record of the statues at Athens of a boy victor at the _Panathenaia_ and the _Thargelia_ in chariot-racing,[246] of a victor at the _Pythia_, _Isthmia_, _Nemea_, and the _Panathenaia_,[247] of one at the _Nemea_ and _Herakleia_ at Thebes,[248] of one at the _Eleusinia_,[249] of one at the _Panathenaia_ and _Dionysia_,[250] and of others at several games.[251]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Bronze Statuette of a Victor, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia.]

The erection of a statue in the Altis at Olympia was an honor which the Elean officers in charge of the games[252] gave to victors to glorify their victory.[253] Pliny, in a well-known passage of the _Historia Naturalis_,[254] says it was customary for all victors to set up statues, while Pausanias[255] says not all athletes did this, for “some of those who specially distinguished themselves in the games ... have had no statues.” This apparent contradiction in the statements of the two writers is to be explained, as Dittenberger[256] and others have pointed out, on the ground that Pliny states the general privilege extended to the victor, while Pausanias states its practical working out, since the setting up of a statue was an undertaking which would be limited by the early death, poverty, or some other disability of the victorious athlete. The cost of making, transporting, and setting up a statue was considerable, and very often a victor must have been too poor to do it. In such a case he would often be contented to set up merely a statuette or small figure in bronze or marble. Several such bronze figures have been unearthed at Olympia,[257] one of which we reproduce in Fig. 2, and we have many examples found outside the Altis: _e. g._, a group of wrestlers,[258] a boxer,[259] and the arm of a quoit-thrower[260] from the Athenian Akropolis, an archaic girl runner from Dodona,[261] an archaic statuette from Delphi with a loin-cloth,[262] a bronze quoit-thrower dedicated in the Kabeirion,[263] the Tuebingen bronze hoplite runner[264] (Fig. 42), and the statuette of a παῖς κέλης from Dodona.[265] We should also mention the great number of statuettes of diskos-throwers in modern museums.[266] Boy victors especially would use the less expensive marble for such statuettes and we have the remnants of many such found in the excavations of the Altis.[267] Pausanias mentions several monuments which were less than life-size, _e. g._, a horse among the offerings of Phormis, which he says was “much inferior in size and shape to all other statues of horses in the Altis,”[268] and the equestrian monuments already discussed. Even reliefs and paintings, in some cases, were offered in lieu of larger monuments, not only for reasons of economy, but also because they gave a better representation of the contest. This custom was common at the lesser games, especially at the _Panathenaia_.[269] Pausanias mentions painted iconic reliefs vowed by girl runners at the games in honor of Hera at Olympia.[270] On an Attic vase in Munich a victor is represented as holding an iconic votive _pinax_ in his hands.[271] Pausanias speaks of a painting by Timainetos at Athens, which represented a boy carrying hydriæ,[272] and one of a wrestler by the same artist in the Pinakotheke on the Akropolis. Pliny mentions paintings, the works of great masters, representing victors: thus the _currentes quadrigae_ by the elder Aristeides of Thebes,[273] a _victor certamine gymnico palmam tenens_ by Eupompos,[274] an athlete by Zeuxis,[275] the victor Aratos with a trophy by Leontiskos,[276] an athlete by Protogenes,[277] two hoplite runners by Parrhasios,[278] a _luctator tubicenque_ by Antidotos and a warrior by the same artist, in Athens,[279] which represented a man fighting with a shield, and a man anointing himself, the work of the painter Theoros.[280]

Apparently the Hellanodikai allowed but one statue for each victory. Aischines the Elean had two victories and two statues.[281] Dikon of Kaulonia and Syracuse had three victories and three statues.[282] The Spartan Lykinos had two victories and two statues by Myron, but we have already said that the second statue was probably that of his charioteer, the two forming part of an equestrian group.[283] Kapros of Elis won two victories and had as many statues.[284] On the other hand Troilos of Elis, who won in two events, had only one statue.[285] Similarly Arkesilaos of Sparta had two victories in the chariot-race and only one statue.[286] Xenombrotos of Cos, who appears to have won once only, had, however, two monuments, one mentioned by Pausanias and the other known to us from the recovered inscription.[287] But this last case seems to be the only known exception.

When the victor was unable to set up his monument, whether because of youth, poverty, early death, or other reason, sometimes the privilege was utilized by a relative, a friend, or by his native city. In any case it was a private affair with which the Elean officials had no concern. We have examples, consequently, of the statue being set up by the son,[288] father (especially in recovered inscriptions after the time of Augustus),[289] mother,[290] and brother;[291] also several examples of statues reared in honor of athletes by fellow citizens.[292] There are cases in which the trainer set up the statue.[293] Frequently the native city performed the duty, dedicating the statue either at Olympia or in the victor’s city. Thus Oibotas, who won the stade-race in Ol. 6 (= 756 B. C.), had a statue at Olympia which was erected by the Achæan state out of deference to a command of the Delphian oracle in Ol. 80 (= 460 B. C.).[294] The statue of Agenor, by Polykleitos the Younger, a boy wrestler from Thebes, was dedicated by the confederacy of Phokis, because his father was a public friend of the nation.[295] The boy runner Herodotos of Klazomenai had a statue erected by his native town at Olympia because he was the first victor from there.[296] Philinos of Kos had a statue set up by the people of Kos at Olympia “because of glory won,” for he was victor five times in running at Olympia, four at Delphi, four at Nemea, and eleven at the Isthmus.[297] Hermesianax of Kolophon had a statue at Olympia erected by his city.[298] The pancratiast Promachos of Pellene had two statues erected to him by his fellow citizens, one at Olympia, the other in Pellene.[299] We know of three state dedications of statues at Olympia from inscriptions, those of Aristophon of Athens,[300] of Epitherses of Erythrai,[301] and of Polyxenos by the people of Zakynthos.[302] Lichas of Sparta, at a date when the Spartans were excluded from the games, entered his chariot in the name of the Theban people, and Pausanias says that his victory was so entered on the Elean register.[303] We learn from the _OxyrhynchusPapyri_ that the public horse of the Argives won at Olympia in Ol. 75 (= 480 _B. C._) and the public chariot in Ol. 77 (= 472 _B. C._).[304] In these latter two cases the public was directly interested, and had there been monuments erected to commemorate the victories they would naturally have been set up by the state.

It has been wrongly assumed that monuments of boy victors were dedicated in the name of their parents or relatives.[305] On the contrary, we have examples dating back to the fifth century B. C. of boys setting up statues at Olympia. Thus the inscription from the base of the statue of Tellon, who won in the boys’ boxing match in Ol. 77 (= 472 B. C.), states that he dedicated his own statue.[306] Pausanias says that the Eleans allowed the boy wrestler Kratinos from Aigeira to erect a statue of his trainer.[307] Of course the boy might need assistance in the undertaking, but this again was no concern of the Elean officials, who granted the privilege to the victor and not to his relatives. Usually the statue of a victor was erected soon after the victory. We have some examples of the statue being erected immediately after the victory, especially in the case of men victors. Thus Pausanias says that the victor Eubotas of Kyrene, in consequence of a Libyan oracle foretelling his victory in the foot-race, had his statue made before coming to Olympia and erected it “the very day on which he was proclaimed victor.”[308] The famous Milo of Kroton spectacularly carried his statue into the Altis on his back before he entered the contest.[309] There are also examples of statues being erected long after the victory, sometimes centuries later. We have already mentioned that a statue was erected to Oibotas in Ol. 80, though his victory was won in Ol. 6. Chionis, who won in running races in Ols. 28-31 (= 668-656 B. C.) had a statue by Myron erected to his memory Ol. 77 or 78 (= 472 or 468 B. C.).[310] Cheilon of Patrai, twice victor in wrestling between Ols. (?) 103 and 115 (= 368 and 320 B. C.), had his statue set up after his death.[311] Polydamas of Skotoussa won his victory in the pankration in Ol. 93 (= 408 B. C.), but his statue by Lysippos could not have been erected until many years later.[312] Glaukos, who won the boys’ boxing-match in Ol. 65 (= 520 B. C.), had a statue by the Aeginetan sculptor Glaukias much later.[313] In the case of boy victors, the time between boyhood and coming of age was often so short that in many cases we may assume that the statue was set up some time after the victory.[314]

HONORS PAID TO VICTORS BY THEIR NATIVE CITIES.

Since the victor was deemed the representative of the state, he often received a more substantial reward than a statue erected at the cost of his fellow citizens. The herald, in proclaiming his victory, proclaimed also the name of his town, which thus shared in his success. At Athens it was customary for a victor at the great games to receive a reward of money. To encourage an interest in athletics there, Solon established money prizes for victorious athletes. We have already said that 100 drachmæ were given to a victor at the Isthmus, while 500 were allotted to one at Olympia. Solon further ordained that victors should eat at the Prytaneion at the public expense.[315] Probably other Greek states followed the Athenian custom. We know from an inscription that the Panathenaic victors in the stade-race received 50 amphoræ of oil, the pancratiast 40, and others 30.[316] Later, in Rome, victors had special privileges granted them, including maintenance at the public expense, a privilege which Mæcenas advised the emperor Augustus to limit to victors at Olympia, Delphi, and Rome.[317] Augustus in other ways enlarged the privileges of athletes.[318] When we consider the intimate connection between religion and athletics and the Panhellenic fame of a victor at the great games, we can easily understand the indignation of the native town when its athletes did anything dishonorable. Sometimes a victor was bribed to appear as the citizen of some other state. Thus Astylos of Kroton, who won in running races in Ols. 73-76 (= 488-476 B. C.), had himself proclaimed in his last two contests a Syracusan to please King Hiero. The citizens of his native town burned his house and pulled down his statue, which had been placed there in the temple of Hera.[319] The Cretan Sotades, who won the long running race in Ol. 99 (= 384 B. C.), was bribed at the next Olympiad by the city of Ephesos to proclaim himself an Ephesian, and was in consequence exiled.[320] Dikon, a victor in running races at the beginning of the fourth century B. C., proclaimed himself first a citizen of Kaulonia, but later, “for a sum of money,” entered the men’s contest as a Syracusan.[321] Sometimes such attempts at bribery proved unsuccessful. Thus the father of the boy boxer Antipatros of Miletos, who won in Ol. 98 (= 388 B. C.), accepted a bribe from some Syracusans, who were bringing an offering to Olympia from Dionysios, to let the boy be proclaimed a Syracusan. But the boy himself refused the bribe and had inscribed on his statue by the younger Polykleitos that he was a Milesian, the first Ionian to dedicate a statue at Olympia.[322] The Spartan chariot victor Lichas has already been mentioned as having entered his chariot in the name of Thebes. The reason was that at the time the Spartans were excluded from entering the games at Olympia. He won, and in his excitement tied a ribbon on his charioteer with his own hands, thereby showing that the horses belonged to him and not to Thebes. For this infraction of the rules he, though an aged man, was punished by the umpires by scourging.[323] A more disgraceful act was selling out, of which we have two examples at Olympia. The Thessalian Eupolos bribed his three adversaries in boxing to let him win. All four were fined and from the money six bronze statues of Zeus, known as _Zanes_, were erected at the entrance to the stadion, inscribed with elegiac verses which warned future athletes against repeating such attempts.[324] More than fifty years later Kallippos, a pentathlete of Athens, bribed his opponents and, being detected, all were fined and from the money, finally collected from the recalcitrant Athenians through the influence of the oracle at Delphi, six more _Zanes_ were erected.[325] Straton (or Stratonikos), of Alexandria, won in wrestling and the pankration on the same day in Ol. 178 (= 68 B. C.). In the wrestling match he had two adversaries, Eudelos and Philostratos of Rhodes. The latter had bribed Eudelos to sell out and, being detected, had to pay a fine. Out of this money another _Zan_ was set up and still another at the cost of the Rhodians.[326] In Ol. 192 (= 12 B. C.) and in Ol. 226 (= 125 A. D.), we hear of fines for such corruption out of which additional _Zanes_ were erected.[327] In Ol. 201 (= 25 A. D.) Sarapion, a pancratiast from Alexandria, became so afraid of his antagonist that he fled the day before the contest and was fined—the only case recorded of an athlete being fined for cowardice at Olympia.[328] In Ol. 218 (= 93 A. D.) another Alexandrine, named Apollonios, was fined for arriving too late for the games at Olympia. His excuse of being detained by winds was found to be false, and it was discovered that he had been making money on the games in Ionia.[329]

Cases of bribery were known at other games. A third-century B. C. inscription from Epidauros records how three athletes were fined one thousand staters each διὰ τὸ φθείρειν τοὺς ἀγῶνας.[330] The venality of Isthmian victors is shown by the account of a competitor who promised a rival three thousand drachmæ to let him win and then, on winning on his merits, refused to pay, though the defeated contestant swore on the altar of Poseidon that he had been promised the amount.[331] The emperor Nero, in order to win in singing at the Isthmus, had to resort to force. A certain Epeirote singer refused to withdraw unless he received ten talents. Nero, to save himself from defeat, sent a band of men who pummelled his antagonist so that he could not sing.[332]

Often the home-coming of a victor at one of the national games was the occasion for a public celebration. Sometimes the whole city turned out to meet the hero.[333] The victory was recorded on pillars, and poets composed songs in its honor which were sung by choruses of girls and boys. Sometimes a statue was set up in the agora or on the Akropolis. In the cities of Magna Græcia and Sicily such adulation of Olympic victors became at times very extravagant. Thus Exainetos of Akragas, who won the stade-race in Ols. 91 and 92 (= 416-412 B. C.), was brought into the city in a four-horse chariot drawn by his fellow-citizens, and was escorted by 300 men in two-horse chariots drawn by white horses.[334] It is also in the West that we first hear of victors being worshipped as heroes or gods, though the custom soon took root in Greece. It was but natural to account for the great strength of famous athletes by assigning to them divine origin and by worshipping them after death.[335] Philippos of Kroton, who won in an unknown contest about Ol. 65 (= 520 B. C.), had a _heroön_ erected in his honor by the people of Egesta in Sicily on account of his beauty, in which he surpassed all his contemporaries, and he was worshipped after his death as a hero.[336] The famous boxer Euthymos of Lokroi Epizephyrioi, who won in Ols. 74, 76, 77 (= 484, 476, 472 B. C.), was worshipped even before his death and was looked upon as the son of no earthly father, but of the river-god Kaikinos.[337] Fabulous feats were ascribed to him, _e. g._, the expulsion of the Black Spirit from Temessa.[338] During and after his lifetime sacrifices were offered in his honor.[339] The equally famed boxer and pancratiast Theagenes of Thasos, the opponent of Euthymos, who won in Ols. 75 and 76 (= 480 and 476 B. C.), was heroized after his death.[340] The Thasians maintained that his father was Herakles.[341] The boxer Kleomedes of Astypalaia, who won in Ol. 71 (= 496 B. C.), was honored as a hero after death.[342] Having killed Ikkos, his opponent, he became crazed with grief. Pausanias recounts his curious death.[343] The worship of such athletes was supposed to bestow physical strength on their adorers and consequently statues were erected to them in many places and were thought to be able to cure illnesses.[344] The life of a successful athlete was looked upon as especially happy. In Aristophanes’ _Plutus_, Hermes deserts the gods and serves Plutus “the presider over contests,” thinking no service more profitable to the god of wealth than holding contests in music and athletics.[345] Plato thought an Olympic victor’s life was the most blessed of all from a material point of view.[346] In the myth of Er the soul of Atalanta chooses the body of an athlete, on seeing “the great rewards bestowed on an athlete.”[347] The great Rhodian pancratiast Dorieus, who won in Ols. 87, 88, 89 (= 432-424 B. C.), was taken prisoner by Athens during the Peloponnesian war, but was freed because of his exploits at Olympia.[348] The honor in which a victor was held may also be judged by the story of the Spartan ephor Cheilon, who died of joy while embracing his victorious son Damagetos.[349] To quote from Ernest Gardner: “The extraordinary, almost super-human honours paid to the victors at the great national contests made them a theme for the sculptor hardly less noble than gods and heroes, and more adapted for the display of his skill, as trained by the observation of those exercises which led to the victory.”[350] Some of the greatest artists were employed, and great poets from Simonides of Keos down, including such names as Bacchylides and Pindar, were employed in singing their praises. Although it must be confessed that the majority of the artists of victor statues at Olympia are little known or wholly unknown masters, Pausanias mentions among them such renowned names as Hagelaïdas, Pythagoras, Kalamis, Myron, Polykleitos, Lysippos, and possibly Pheidias. Certain other great names, however, are absent from his lists, _e. g._, Euphranor, Kresilas, Praxiteles, and Skopas. Such extravagant reverence of Olympic and other victors as we have outlined met, of course, with violent protests all through Greek history, just as the excessive popularity of athletics has in our time. The philosopher Xenophanes of Kolophon, who died 480 B. C., was scandalized at the offering of divine honors to athletes.[351] While he denounced the popularity of athletics, Euripides later denounced the professionalism which had begun to creep in after the middle of the fifth century B. C.[352] Plato, though a strong advocate of practical physical training for war, was opposed to the vain spirit of competition in the athletics of his day. He complained that professional athletes paid excessive attention to diet, slept their lives away, and were in danger of becoming brutalized.[353] The last attack on professional athletics in point of time was made in the second century A. D. by Galen, in his _Exhortation to the Arts_.[354] In this essay the eminent physician contended that the athlete was a benefit neither to himself nor to the state. When we study the brutal portraits of prize-fighters on the contemporary mosaics of the Baths of Caracalla at Rome, we can see to what depths the old athletic ideal had sunk, and the justness of his rebuke.[355]

VOTIVE CHARACTER OF VICTOR DEDICATIONS.

That chariot and hippic monuments were votive in character can scarcely be doubted. Pausanias distinguishes between gymnic victors and equestrian ones.[356] All authorities agree that equestrian monuments were different in origin and character from those of other victors.[357] Gardiner believes that if the Olympic games developed out of a single event, it was not the stade-race, but the chariot-race or heavy-armed-race. He shows that the custom of making the stade runner eponymous for the Olympiad is not earlier than the third century B. C., and did not arise from the importance of that event, but from the accident of its coming first on the program and first on the list of victors.[358] Equestrian monuments were dedicated at Olympia all through antiquity, from the sixth century B. C. to the second A. D. The oldest was that of the Spartan Euagoras already mentioned, who won in the chariot-race three times in Ols. (?) 58-60 (= 548-540 B. C.).[359] The latest dated example is that of L. Minicius Natalis of Rome, who won in Ol. 227 (= 129 A .D.).[360] Some of the inscriptions pertaining to equestrian groups are in verse,[361] while others are in prose.[362] Most of them have the usual dedicatory word ἀνέθηκε,[363] or the formula Διὶ Ὀλυμπίῳ,[364] while others have the word ἔστησε[365] and a few have no dedicatory word at all.[366]

The question arises, then, whether ordinary victor monuments in the Altis were votive in the sense that these equestrian ones were, or merely honors granted to the victors. The crown of wild olive was merely a temporary reward suiting the occasion of the victory. The privilege of setting up a statue was granted in order to perpetuate the fame of that occasion. In a well-known passage Pausanias makes a sweeping generalization about monuments at Athens and Olympia.[367] He says that all objects on the Akropolis—including statues—were ἀναθήματα or votive offerings, while some of those at Olympia were dedicated to the god, but that the statues of athletes were mere prizes of victory. In another passage[368] also, in distinguishing the various sorts of monuments at Olympia, he expressly says that the statues of athletes were not devoted to Zeus, but were marks of honor (ἐν ἄθλου λόγῳ) bestowed on the victors. These statements of the Periegete have given rise to a good deal of fruitless discussion. Furtwaengler follows Pausanias in saying that the right of setting up statues was _ein wesentlicher Theil des Siegespreises_.[369] That such erections at Olympia were considered as high honors is implied by the wording of many of the inscriptions which have been recovered from the bases of the statues. Thus on that of the boxer Euthymos are the words εἰκόνα δ’ ἔστησεν τήνδε βροτοῖς ἐσορᾶν.[370] Furtwaengler, therefore, has promulgated the theory that the victor statues at Olympia were in no sense votive, though they were considered to be the property of the god in whose grove they stood. He cites the fact that the inscribed bases of such monuments down to the first century B. C., with the exception of a few metrical epigrams, make no mention of dedications, and that in these exceptions the word ἀνέθηκε was added for metrical reasons,[371] while during the same centuries regular votive offerings (ἀναθῆματα) invariably have the word ἀνέθηκε.[372] One inscription, that from the base of the statue of Euthymos of Lokroi, is both metrical and in prose;[373] but it seems to have been changed later in two places, the second line originally ending in a pentameter, and the third line, with ἀνέθηκε, being added afterwards.[374] Also the prose inscription[375] referred by Roehl to the statue of the wrestler Milo is rejected by Dittenberger. The oldest prose inscription which makes a votive offering out of a victor statue at Olympia is that of Thaliarchos, who won his second victory in boxing some time between 40 and 30 B. C.[376] Then follow certain prose inscriptions of imperial times.[377] Dittenberger concludes that for four hundred years there is no case of such a dedication.[378] From the evidence of the inscriptions from statue bases, therefore, it is clear that the distinction made by Pausanias between honor and victor statues did not hold good in his day, since the words ἀνάθημα and ἀνέθηκε were then used on victor monuments at Olympia, as the inscriptions of the imperial age just cited show, but that it did hold good for centuries before the Roman period. Pausanias must have based his statement, therefore, not on observation, but on the words of some earlier writer.[379] Furtwaengler’s reasoning has been followed pretty generally by archæologists.[380] While some, however, leave the question in doubt,[381] others are opposed to the idea that these statues were not votive. Thus R. Schoell believes that the victor monuments were as truly ἀναθήματα as the olive crowns.[382] Reisch, who has discussed the question at length,[383] believes, in opposition to the earlier view of Furtwaengler, that everything within the Altis must always _ipso facto_ have been regarded as dedications to the god. This would explain the frequent omission of the name of the god, which would be superfluous, the victor being content with inscribing his own name and the contest in which he was victorious. Even the name of the contest does not always appear.[384] Reisch explains the omission of the formula ἀνέθηκε in earlier inscriptions on the ground of epigrammatic brevity.[385]

The truth must lie somewhere between the extremes represented by the views of Furtwaengler and Reisch. Some athlete statues may have been votive, while others were not. Thus Rouse argues[386] that originally all victor statues at Olympia were as truly votive as equestrian groups, and as truly as those athlete statues continued to be, which were dedicated in the victors’ native towns. Those inscribed with ἀνέθηκε at Olympia must have been votive, for we should take the dedicator at his word, instead of believing the formula to be added merely to make the verse scan.[387] There is no reason why an athlete should not dedicate a statue of himself, representing himself as forever standing in the presence of the god, as well as a diskos or jumping-weights; for it was customary to make votive offerings representative of the events, and this could be done best by presenting the athlete in a statue which showed the characteristic attitude or the appropriate attributes. Rouse furthermore believes that a change was slowly wrought in the course of centuries, by which the original votive offering became a means of self-glorification. Equestrian victors owed their victories not to themselves, but to their horses, cars, drivers, and jockeys; in such cases the group was a thing apart from the owner. Only seldom did such victors dedicate statues of themselves alone. Even when the victor added a statue of himself to the group, still it was the chariot and not the statue which was emphasized.[388] On the other hand the ordinary gymnic victor relied on himself—on his strength, endurance, courage, and other qualities; and in representing the contest the victor himself had to be represented. Consequently, by the fifth century B. C., if not earlier, the statues of athletes had become memorials of personal glory.

MISCELLANEOUS MEMORIALS TO VICTORS.

A statue was not the only memorial erected in honor of an Olympic victor, though it was by far the commonest. We have already mentioned the bronze inscribed diskos dedicated by the pentathlete P. Asklepiades in the third century A. D.[389] A green stone leaping-weight inscribed with the name Κῳδίας appears to have been dedicated by a victor.[390] In two cases stelæ were set up in honor of victors.[391] A curious dedication was a bronze chapel, which the Sikyonian tyrant Myron dedicated to Apollo at Olympia.[392] In later days it became part of the treasury of the Sikyonians.[393] Outside Olympia various monuments commemorating Olympic victors were set up. These will be discussed in Chapter VIII.

HONORARY STATUES.

At Olympia, as elsewhere in Greece, statues were set up to men _honoris causa_. Such statues would be dedicated by admirers, either individuals or states. They were in no sense intended to honor the god, though at Olympia they might be classed as ἀναθήματα, just as victor statues, merely because they were erected in the sacred precinct. They were granted to individuals not as a privilege, as victor statues were, but as free gifts. Dio Chrysostom gives the difference between victor statues—which he classes as ἀναθήματα—and such honor statues in these words: ταῦτα (_i. e._, victor statues) γάρ ἐστιν ἀναθήματα· αἱ δ’ εἰκόνες τιμαί· κἀκεῖνα (victor statues) δέδοται τοῖς θεοῖς, ταῦτα δὲ (honor statues) τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀνδράσιν οἵπερ εἰσὶν ἔγγιστα αὐτῶν.[394] Pliny records that the Athenians inaugurated the custom of a state setting up statues in honor of men at the public expense with the statues of the tyrannicides Harmodios and Aristogeiton by the sculptor Antenor, which were erected in 509 B. C., the year in which the tyrants were expelled.[395] He adds that a “refined ambition” led to a universal adoption of the custom and that statues began to adorn public places everywhere and later on even private houses. The custom grew apace in the later history of Greece. Demetrios of Phaleron is said to have had over three hundred statues erected in his honor during his short régime of about a year in Athens. The Diadochoi and the Roman emperors enthusiastically took over the custom. Pliny gives several Roman examples of it.[396]

At Olympia Pausanias mentions honorary statues erected to thirty-five men for various reasons.[397] To several of these men more than one statue was erected.[398] The greater number of these statues were erected to kings and princes, to those of Sparta,[399] Athens,[400] Epeiros,[401] Sicily,[402] Macedonia, and Alexander’s Empire.[403] One was erected in honor of the philosopher Aristotle,[404] one in honor of the rhetorician Gorgias of Leontini,[405] one in honor of a hunter,[406] another in honor of a flute-player,[407] and many others in honor of public and private men. These statues were set up for various reasons. Archidamas III of Sparta had his statues erected to his memory because he was the only Spartan king who died abroad and did not receive a formal burial. Kylon had a statue erected by the Aitolians because he freed the Eleans from the tyranny of Aristotimos.[408] Pythes of Abdera was thus honored by his soldiers because of his military prowess.[409] Philonides of Crete was, as we learn from the recovered inscription on his statue base, the courier of Alexander the Great.[410] Pythokritos was honored for his flute-playing, though he does not appear to have been a victor.[411] The Palaians of Kephallenia honored Timoptolis of Elis,[412] and the Aitolians honored the Elean Olaidas[413] for unknown reasons. At least seven, if not eight, of those thus honored with statues were Eleans. Some of the men who had honor statues were also victors at Olympia, a fact which would appear on the inscribed base. Thus Aratos, the son of Kleinias of Sikyon, the statesman, had a statue erected to him by the Corinthians. This was doubtless an honor statue, though Pausanias also says he was a chariot-victor.[414] On the other hand, the statue erected in honor of the pentathlete Stomios was probably a victor monument, though Pausanias says that its inscription records that he was an Elean cavalry general who challenged the enemy to a duel, in which he was slain.[415] In some cases it is hard to decide whether the statue is honorary or victor in character. In the course of time honor statues multiplied, while those of athletes decreased. The recovered inscriptions on the latter decrease steadily in the fourth and third centuries B. C., revive again in the second and first, and decrease in the first Christian century. They cease almost entirely after the middle of the second century A. D.

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VICTOR STATUES AT OLYMPIA.

PLATES 2-7 AND FIGURES 3-8.

Only a few insignificant remnants of the forest of victor statues which once stood in the Altis at Olympia were unearthed by the German excavators. Most of these statues already in antiquity had been carried off to Italy,[416] while those which escaped the spoliation of the Roman masters of Greece were destroyed at the hands of the invading hordes of barbarians in the early Dark Ages. Consequently only here and there in modern museums can isolated fragments of these originals be discovered, which have accidentally survived the ravages of time and man.

In the almost complete absence of originals, therefore, we depend for our knowledge of them on a variety of sources. In attempting to reconstruct them we have two main sources of information to aid us, the literary and the archæological. To the former belong the many inscriptions found on the statue bases recovered at Olympia, which contain the name and native city of the victor, the athletic contest in which his victory was won, and frequently some account of his former athletic history; epigrams preserved in the Greek anthologies and elsewhere, some of which agree with those inscribed on the statue bases; more or less definite statements of scholiasts and the classical writers in general, especially the detailed account of the monuments of Olympia contained in the fifth and sixth books of the Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις of Pausanias, who visited the Altis during the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,[417] and also the somewhat systematic treatment of Greek sculptors and their works in the elder Pliny’s chapters on the History of Art.[418] To the latter source belong the remnants of statues in bronze and marble found at Olympia, as well as the recovered bases, on many of which the extant footmarks enable us to recover the pose of the statues which formerly stood upon them. Finally, in reconstructing these athlete statues, an intimate knowledge of Greek sculpture in all its phases and periods is essential. Here, as in the general study of Greek sculpture, where the destruction of originals has been almost complete, we are largely dependent on Roman copies which were executed by more or less skilled workmen, chiefly for wealthy Roman patrons of art who wished to use them to decorate the public buildings, baths, palaces, and villas of Rome and other Italian cities. A careful study of these copies has evolved a series of groups, which have been assigned with more or less probability to this or that artist.[419] Representations of the various poses of the athlete statues of Olympia and elsewhere are found also on every sort of sculptured and painted works—reliefs, vases, coins, gems—which are, therefore, valuable in any attempt to reconstruct the attitude of a given statue.

Taking into account all these sources of knowledge, it has been possible to reach tolerable certainty in reconstructing the main types of these victor monuments, and in identifying schools, masters, and individual works. This identification of athlete statues, especially those belonging to the fifth and fourth centuries B. C., among the countless Roman works which people modern museums, has already been achieved in many cases by archælogical investigations. The work of many masters of the archaic period and of the most important bronze sculptors of the great period of Greek art has been illustrated by such ascriptions; especially that of Myron, who represented figures in rhythmic action full of life and vigor; of the elder Polykleitos, who was a master in representing standing figures at rest fashioned according to a mathematical system of proportions; of Lysippos, who introduced a new canon of proportions in opposition to that of his predecessor Polykleitos, and who inaugurated the naturalistic tendency in Greek art, which was destined to he carried to such unbecoming lengths in succeeding centuries. The further identification of such statues, as our knowledge of the tendencies and traditions of the schools of Greek sculpture and our sources of information about athletic art become more and more extended, will be one of the most important tasks of the archæologist in the future.

Before discussing the appearance of individual types of these monuments, we shall consider certain general characteristics common to all of them. Long ago K. O. Mueller[420] summed up the common features of victor statues in these words: _Kurzgelocktes Haar, tuechtige Glieder, eine kraeftige Ausbildung der Gestalt und verhaeltnissmaessig kleine Koepfe characterisiren die ganze Gattung von Figuren; die zerschlagenen Ohren und die hervorgetriebenen Muskeln insbesondere die Faustkaempfer und Pankratiasten._ Though in the main this excellent summary still holds good, we are now in a position to correct it in part and to add other equally characteristic features to it. We shall briefly discuss, therefore, in the light of recent investigations, certain of the characteristics common to this _genre_ of sculpture—the material and size of these statues, their nudity and fashion of wearing the hair, their twofold division into iconic and aniconic, their proportions, and, lastly, the assimilation of their appearance to well-known types of hero or god.

SIZE OF VICTOR STATUES.

In another section[421] we show that the overwhelming majority of the statues in the Altis were of bronze, though other materials, stone and wood, were also used in some cases. As to the size of these statues, no hard and fast rule seems to have been followed, but we may assume from the evidence at hand that they were in general life-size.[422] Lucian would have us believe that the Hellanodikai did not allow victors to set up statues larger than life.[423] We know, however, that there were exceptions to such a rule. In all probability the statue of Polydamas of Skotoussa by Lysippos, which Pausanias says stood on a high pedestal, was larger than life-size, if we may conjecture from its elevated position and the probable source of Pausanias’ remark that he “was the tallest of men, if we except the so-called heroes and the mortal race which preceded the heroes.”[424] The traces of footprints on the recovered pedestal of the statue of the Athenian pancratiast Kallias by the sculptor Mikon show that the statue was larger than life-size.[425] The footprints on the base of the statue of the Rhodian boxer Eukles by the Argive Naukydes are about 33 cm. long, and so the statue was slightly over life-size.[426] We know the actual size of at least two of these Olympic statues. The scholiast on Pindar, _Ol._ VII, Argum., on the basis of a fragment from Aristotle’s lost work on the Olympic victors and one from the little-known writer Apollas Ponticus,[427] says that the statue of the Rhodian boxer Diagoras was 4 cubits and 5 fingers tall,[428] _i. e._, about 6 feet 4.5 inches, somewhat over life-size.[429] From the same scholiast we learn that the statue of the son of Diagoras, the pancratiast Damagetos, was 4 cubits high, or less than that of the father by 5 fingers, and consequently just under 6 feet.[430] The footprints on the base of the statue of the boxer Aristion by the elder Polykleitos are 29 cm. long, and so the statue was just life-size.[431] There are several examples of such life-size statues,[432] while others are slightly below life-size.[433] The Polykleitan statue of a boxer in Kassel is under life-size.[434] The marble head of a statue found at Olympia, which we ascribe to Philandridas, the Akarnanian pancratiast, by Lysippos, (Frontispiece and Fig. 69) is also under life-size,[435] as is also that of the pancratiast Agias found at Delphi (Pl. 27 and Fig. 68). These two are in harmony with Pliny’s statement that Lysippos made the heads of his statues relatively small.[436] Perhaps this statement of Pliny was the basis of the opinion of Mueller recorded above that “comparatively small heads” characterize the whole _genre_ of victor statues. We have in the preceding chapter mentioned the marble fragments of the statues of boy victors, two-fifths to two-thirds life-size, found at Olympia.[437] The two marble helmeted heads of the archaic period found there, which we shall later ascribe to hoplite victors (Fig. 30), are exactly life-size.[438] Of the bronze fragments recovered at Olympia,[439] the head of a boxer of the fourth century B. C. (Fig. 61, A and B) is life-size,[440] while the extraordinarily beautifully sculptured right arm ascribed to a boy victor by Furtwaengler[441] is a little under life-size.

NUDITY OF VICTOR STATUES.

Most of the victor statues at Olympia were nude.[442] In the early period all athletes wore the loin-cloth. Cretan frescoes show it was the custom in the early Mediterranean world. The athletes of Homer girded themselves on entering the games of Patroklos,[443] and the girdle appears in the earliest athletic scenes on vases.[444] Throughout the historic period, however, the Greeks entered their contests in complete nudity, and this nudity naturally was carried over into athletic sculpture. Pliny’s[445] statement, _Graeca res nihil velare_, is, therefore, correct, despite another of Philostratos to the effect that at Delphi, at the Isthmus, and everywhere except at Olympia, the athlete wore the coarse mantle.[446] The beginning of the change from wearing the loin-cloth to complete nudity was ascribed to an accident. The Megarian runner Orsippos in the 15th Ol. (= 720 B. C.) dropped his loin-cloth while running, either accidentally or because it impeded him.[447] The story was commemorated by an epigram, perhaps by Simonides, which was inscribed on his tomb at Megara.[448] A copy of this epigram in the Megarian dialect, executed in late Roman or Byzantine times, when the original had become illegible, was discovered at Megara in 1769 and shows that its original was the source of Pausanias’ remarks.[449] Philostratos says that athletes contended nude at Olympia, either because of the summer heat or a mishap which befell the woman Pherenike of Rhodes. She accompanied her son, the boy boxer Peisirhodos, to Olympia disguised as a trainer, and in her joy at his victory she leaped over the barrier and disclosed her sex.[450] The practice does not appear to have become universal with all athletes in all the competitions at Olympia until some time after Orsippos’ day, since Thukydides says the abandonment of the girdle took place shortly before his time and that in his day it was still retained by certain foreigners, notably Asiatics, in boxing and wrestling matches.[451] The change is not illustrated in sculpture. The earliest victor statues, _i. e._, those of the “Apollo” type, are all nude. The nudity of this type shows an essential difference between Greek and foreigner and also between the later Greek and his rude ancestor. Plato gives the use of the loin-cloth as an example of convention, by which what seems peculiar to one generation becomes usual to another.[452] We see the change, however, in vase-paintings. The loin-cloth is common on seventh-century vases, but is gradually left off in later ones.