Opening…

Preface

The purpose of the present work is to study what is known of one of the most important genres of Greek sculpture—the monuments erected at Olympia and elsewhere in the Greek world in honor of victorious athletes at the Olympic games. Since only meagre remnants of these monuments have survived, the work is in the main concerned with the attempt to reconstruct their various types and poses.

The source-material on which the attempt is based has been indicated fully in the text; it is of two kinds, literary and archæological. To the former belong the explanatory inscriptions on the bases of victor statues found at Olympia and elsewhere, many of which agree verbally with epigrams preserved in the Greek Anthologies; the incidental statements of various kinds and value found in the classical writers and their scholiasts; and, above all, the detailed works of the two imperial writers, the elder Pliny and Pausanias. Pliny’s account of the Greek artists, which is inserted into his Historia Naturalis as a digression (Books XXXIV-XXXVI)—being artificially joined to the history of mineralogy on the pretext of the materials used—is, despite its uncritical and often untrustworthy character, one of our chief mines of information about Greek sculptors and painters. The portions of Pausanias’ Description of Greece which deal with Elis and the monuments of Olympia (Books V-VI), although they also evince little real understanding of art, are of far more direct importance to our subject, since they include a descriptive catalogue, doubtless based upon personal observation, of the greater part of the athlete monuments set up in the Altis at Olympia, the reconstruction of which is the chief purpose of the present work.

To the archæological sources, on the other hand, belong, first and foremost, the remnants of victor statues in stone and metal which have long been garnered in modern museums or have come to light during the excavation of the Altis. To this small number I hope I have added at least one marble fragment found at Olympia, the head of a statue by Lysippos, the last great sculptor of Greece (Frontispiece and Fig. 69). To this second kind of sources belong also the statue bases just mentioned, on many of which the extant footmarks enable us to determine the poses of the statues themselves which once stood upon them. Furthermore, an intimate knowledge of Greek athletic sculpture in all its periods and phases is, of course, essential in treating a problem of this nature. Here, as in the study of Greek sculpture in general, where the destruction of original masterpieces, apart from the few well-known but splendid exceptions, has been complete, we are almost entirely dependent upon second-hand evidence furnished by the numerous existing antique copies and adaptations of lost originals executed in marble and bronze by more or less skilled workmen for the Roman market.

Finally, not only are the innumerable statuettes and small bronzes surviving from antiquity of great value in any attempt to reconstruct the pose of a given athlete statue, but also the representations of various athlete figures on every sort of sculptured and painted work—vase-paintings, wall-paintings, reliefs, gems, coins, etc.

By using all such sources of information, it is possible to attain tolerable certainty in reconstructing the various types and poses of these lost monuments, and in identifying schools of athletic sculpture, masters, and even individual statues. But it must be stated at the outset that such identifications, from the very nature of the problem, are at best tentative in character. The attempt to see in Roman copies certain statues of athletes has often been made by archæologists. However probable such identifications may seem, we must not forget the simple fact that up to the present time not a single Roman copy has been conclusively proved to be that of an Olympic victor statue. Only as our knowledge of Greek sculpture is gradually extended by discoveries of additional works of art, and by future researches, will it be possible to attain an ever greater degree of probability. The further identification of these important monuments, as that of masterpieces of Greek sculpture generally, will thus remain one of the chief problems for the future archæologist. In the present book, where the body of material drawn upon is so immense and the scientific writings involved are so voluminous, manifestly the author can lay no claim to an exhaustive treatment. With due consciousness of the defects and shortcomings of the work, he can claim only to have made a small selection of such works of art as will best illustrate the various types of monuments under discussion.

The plan of the book is easily seen by a glance at the table of contents. After a preliminary chapter on the origin and development of Greek athletic games in general and on the custom of conferring athletic prizes on victors, the more specific subject of the work is introduced in Chapter II by brief discussions of the more general characteristics common to Olympic victor statues—their size, nudity, and hair-fashion, their portrait or non-portrait features, and the standard of beauty reached by some of them at least, as shown by the æsthetic judgments of certain ancient writers and by the fragmentary originals which have survived. The enumeration of these characteristics is followed by a brief account of the various canons of proportion assumed to have been used and taught by different schools of sculptors. The chapter ends with a more extended account of the little-known but important subject of the assimilation of this class of monuments to athlete types of gods and heroes.

In Chapters III and IV, which are the most important in developing the problem of reconstruction, a division has been made into two great statuary groups: those in which the victor was represented at rest, where the particular contest was indicated, if indicated at all, by very general motives or by particular athletic attributes; and those in which the victor was represented in movement, i. e., in the characteristic pose of the contest in which he won his victory.

Chapter V relates chiefly to the monuments of hippodrome victors, those in the various chariot-races and horse-races, and ends with a very brief notice of non-athlete victor dedications—those of musicians.

Chapter VI gives a stylistic analysis of what are conceived to be two original marble heads from lost victor statues, one of which is ascribed to Lysippos, the great bronze-founder and art-reformer of the fourth century B. C., while the other is regarded as an early Hellenistic work of eclectic tendencies. The publication of these marble heads and of the oldest-dated victor statue, which is also of marble and which is discussed in Chapter VII, reinforced by other evidence adduced in the latter chapter, overthrows the belief that all victor statues were uniformly made of bronze. The publication of the Olympia head also controverts the usual assumption of archæologists that Lysippos worked only in metal. The last chapter is concerned with a topographical study of the original positions in the Altis of the various athlete monuments discussed, and with a list of all the victor monuments known to have been erected outside Olympia in various cities of the ancient world. These last three chapters are based on papers which have already appeared in the American Journal of Archæology (Chapters VI, VII, and the first half of VIII) and in the Transactions of the American Philological Association (the last half of Chapter VIII). Permission to use them in the present book has been kindly granted to the author by Dr. James A. Paton, former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archæology, and by Professor Clarence P. Bill, the secretary of the American Philological Association.

Although it has been my aim throughout to present my own views in regard to the various works of art under discussion, I must, of course, acknowledge that the book is largely based upon the work and conclusions of preceding scholars who have treated various phases of the same subject. It would, however, be unnecessary and even impossible here to acknowledge all the works laid directly or indirectly under contribution in the composition of the book. Most of these have been recorded in the footnotes.

But I wish here to express, in a more general way, my indebtedness to the standard histories of Greek sculpture, by Brunn, Collignon, Gardiner, Lechat, Murray, Overbeck, Richardson, and others, which must form the foundation of the knowledge of any one who writes on any phase of the subject. Among these, two have been found especially valuable: Bulle’s Der schoene Mensch im Altertum, which is justly noted for its comprehensive views and sound judgments; and Furtwaengler’s Die Meisterwerke der griechischen Plastik, which, although it has been known to English readers in its enlarged edition by Miss Eugénie Sellers for over a quarter of a century, is still prized for its extensive firsthand knowledge of the monuments and for its brilliant inductions, even if the latter at times are carried too far.

Perhaps my greatest debt has been to the excellent volume entitled Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, by E. Norman Gardiner, M. A., a scholar whose practical knowledge of modern athletic sports and wide familiarity with the ancient source material, both literary and monumental, has well fitted him to deal afresh with the subject treated so learnedly over three quarters of a century ago in Krause’s Die Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen. I have also constantly drawn upon Gardiner’s collection of vase-paintings which illustrate athletic scenes.

I should also note here several other works which have been of great assistance in writing this book, such as Juethner’s Ueber antike Turngeraethe and edition of Philostratos’ de Arte gymnastica, Reisch’s Griechische Weihgeschenke, Rouse’s Greek Votive Offerings, and Foerster’s Die Sieger in den Olympischen Spielen. The chronological list of victors in the latter compilation was, in large part, the foundation of my earlier work de olympionicarum Statuis.

I have also received most valuable help from the standard catalogues of modern museums, e. g., those by Amelung, Dickins, Helbig, Kabbadias, Lechat, Richter, de Ridder, Staïs, Svoronos, and especially the admirable ones of the classical collections in the British Museum. I regret that, owing to the recent war, some of the latest catalogues, those especially of the smaller foreign museums, have not been available.

For illustrative matter, I have made no effort to reproduce merely striking works of art, but have, for the most part, presented well-known works which readily illustrate the problems treated in the text. I have availed myself of collections of photographs kindly placed at my disposal by Professors Herbert E. Everett of the School of Fine Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, D. M. Robinson of the Johns Hopkins University, A. S. Cooley of the Moravian College at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Dr. Mary H. Swindler of Bryn Mawr College. The various collections of plates and the books and journals from which I have taken illustrations are duly noted in the List of Illustrations.

In addition, I wish to thank the following corporations and individuals for permission to reproduce plates and text-cuts from the works cited: the Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, of London, for the use of four plates appearing in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (Figs. 44, 54, 55, and 59); the Trustees of the British Museum in London for seven plates from Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum (Pls. 7A, 17, 19; Figs. 14, 28, 31, and 35); Professor E. A. Gardiner and his publishers, Duckworth and Co., of London, for two plates from Six Greek Sculptors (Pl. 30; Fig. 71); Mr. H. R. Hall, of the British Museum, and his publisher, Philip Lee Warner, of London, for one from Aegean Archæology (Fig. 1); Professor Allan Marquand, of Princeton University, for one text-cut from the American Journal of Archæology (Fig. 49), and Dr. J. M. Paton, former editor-in-chief, for three other text-cuts from the same journal (Figs. 70, 72, 79).

To the following I am also indebted for individual photographs: Dr. J. N. Svoronos, Director of the Numismatic Museum, Athens, Greece, for one of the oldest-dated statues of an Olympic victor (Fig. 79), which has already appeared in the American Journal of Archæology; Dr. A. Fairbanks, of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for those of the statue of a Charioteer (?) and of the fragmentary head of the Oil-pourer (Pl. 27; Fig. 23); Dr. Edward Robinson, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for those of the fine Kresilæan and Praxitelian heads (Pls. 15, 20), and of the bronze statuette of a diskobolos (Fig. 46); Prof. Alice Walton, of Wellesley College, for one of the Polykleitan athlete (Pl. 13); the Director of the Fogg Art Museum of Cambridge, Mass., for that of the so-called Meleager (Fig. 77); Dr. S. B. Luce, recently of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, for photographs of two vase-paintings showing athletic scenes (Figs. 50, 56), and Dr. Eleanor F. Rambo, formerly of the same Museum, for a copy of the Knossos wall-painting (Pl. 1).

A word might be added as to the spelling of Greek proper names. Since consistency in this matter seems unattainable, I have adopted the method outlined in the British School Annual (XV, 1908-09, p. 402), whereby the names of persons, places, buildings, festivals, etc., are transliterated from the Greek forms, except those which have become a part of the English language. But even here I have sometimes deviated from the practice of using familiar English forms.

In abbreviations of the names of journals (see pages XVI-XIX) I have largely conformed with the usage long recommended by the American Journal of Archæology.

For convenience in identifying the many works of art, discussed or mentioned in the text and foot-notes, I have constantly referred to well-known collections of plates, such as those of Brunn-Bruckmann, Bulle, Rayet, and von Mach. For further convenience, I have also in most cases referred to the outline drawings of statues in Reinach’s Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, and in some cases to the older ones found in Clarac’s Musée de sculpture antique et moderne, and in Mueller and Wieseler’s Denkmaeler der alten Kunst.

In closing, I have the pleasant duty of thanking generally the many friends who have given me valuable suggestions and assistance, especially Professor Lane Cooper, of Cornell University, for reading the proof-sheets of the entire work, and Professor Alfred Emerson, now of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my former teacher, for revising the list of Corrigenda.

WALTER WOODBURN HYDE.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Philadelphia, October, 1921.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

I. PAGE

EARLY GREEK GAMES AND PRIZES 1-42

Sports in Crete 1

Athletics in Homer 7

Origin of Greek Games in the Cult of the Dead 9

Early History of the Four National Games 14

Early Prizes for Athletes 18

Dedication of Athlete Prizes 21

Dedication of Statues at Olympia and Elsewhere 24

Honors Paid to Victors by their Native Cities 32

Votive Character of Victor Dedications 37

Miscellaneous Memorials to Victors 40

Honorary Statues 41

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

II. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VICTOR STATUES AT OLYMPIA 43-98

Size of Victor Statues 45

Nudity of Victor Statues 47

The Athletic Hair-fashion 50

Iconic and Aniconic Statues 54

Portrait Statues 55

Aniconic Statues 58

Aesthetic Judgments of Classical Writers 58

Greek Originals of Victor Statues 62

Canons of Proportion 65

Assimilation of Olympic Victor Statues to Types of Gods and Heroes 71

Athlete Statues Assimilated to Types of Hermes 75

Athlete Statues Assimilated to Types of Apollo 88

Athlete Statues Assimilated to Types of Herakles 93

Athletes Represented as the Dioskouroi 96

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

III. VICTOR STATUES REPRESENTED AT REST 99-172

The Apollo Type 100

The Affiliated Schools of Argos and Sikyon 109

The School of Argos 109

The School of Sikyon 118

Aeginetan Sculptors 122

Attic Sculptors 126

General Motives of Statues at Rest 130

Adoration and Prayer 130

Anointing 133

Oil-scraping 135

Libation-pouring 138

Resting after the Contest 144

Attributes of Victor Statues 147

Primary Attributes of Victor Statues 148

The Victor Fillet 148

Fillet-binders 150

The Crown of Wild Olive 155

The Palm-branch 160

Secondary Attributes of Victor Statues 161

Hoplitodromoi 161

Pentathletes 164

Boxers 165

Wrestlers 165

Caps for Boxers, Pancratiasts, and Wrestlers 165

The Swollen Ear 167

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

IV. VICTOR STATUES REPRESENTED IN MOTION 173-256

The Tyrannicides 173

Antiquity of Motion Statues in Greece 176

Pythagoras and Myron 178

Motion Statues representing Victors in Various Contests 188

Runners: Stadiodromoi, Diaulodromoi, Dolichodromoi 190

The Statue of the Runner Ladas 196

Statues of Boy Runners 200

Hoplitodromoi 203

Pentathletes 210

Jumpers 214

Diskoboloi 218

Akontistai 222

Wrestlers 228

Boxers 234

Pancratiasts 246

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

V. MONUMENTS OF HIPPODROME AND MUSICAL VICTORS 257-285

Programme of Hippodrome Events 259

Representations of the Chariot-race 262

Chariot-groups at Olympia 264

Remains of Chariot-groups 269

The Apobates Chariot-race 272

Statues of Charioteers 274

Dedications of Victors in the Horse-race at Olympia and Elsewhere 278

Monuments Illustrating the Horse-race 280

The Apobates Horse-race 282

Dedications of Musical Victors at Olympia and Elsewhere 283

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

VI. TWO MARBLE HEADS FROM VICTOR STATUES 286-320

The Group of Daochos at Delphi, and Lysippos 286

The Apoxyomenos of the Vatican, and Lysippos 288

The Agios and the Apoxyomenos compared, and the Style of Lysippos 289

The Head from Olympia 293

The Olympia Head and that of the Agias 294

Identification of the Olympia Head 298

The Dates of Philandridas and Lysippos 300

Lysippos as a Worker in Marble, and Statue “Doubles” 302

The Head of a Statue of a Boy from Sparta, and the Art of Skopas 303

Comparison of the Tegea Heads and the Head from Sparta 308

The Styles of Skopas and Lysippos Compared 311

The Sparta Head Compared with that of the Philandridas 316

The Sparta Head an Eclectic Work and an Example of Assimilation 318

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter VII

THE MATERIALS OF OLYMPIC VICTOR MONUMENTS, AND THE OLDEST-DATED VICTOR STATUE 321-338

The Case for Bronze 321

The Case for Stone 323

The Statue of Arrhachion at Phigalia 326

Egyptian Influence on Early Greek Sculpture 328

Early Victor Statues and the “Apollo” Type 334

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter VIII

POSITIONS OF VICTOR STATUES IN THE ALTIS; OLYMPIC VICTOR MONUMENTS ERECTED OUTSIDE OLYMPIA; STATISTICS OF OLYMPIC VICTOR STATUARIES 339-375

Statues Mentioned by Pausanias 339

The First Ephodos of Pausanias 341

The Second Ephodos of Pausanias 348

Summary of Results 352

Statues not Mentioned by Pausanias, but known from Recovered Bases 353

Olympic Victor Monuments Erected Outside Olympia 361

Summary of Results 374

Statistics of Olympic Victor Statuaries 375

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES. FACING PAGE

Marble Head, from Olympia. Front view. Museum of Olympia. After Bildw. v. Ol., Tafelbd., Pl. LIV, 3 Frontispiece.

1. Bull-grappling Scene. Wall-painting, from Knossos. Museum of Candia. After Photograph from copy in watercolor by Gilliéron in the Museum of Liverpool 2

2. Marble Statue of a Girl Runner. Vatican Museum, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 50

3. Bronze Head of an Olympic Victor. Glyptothek, Munich. After B. B., No. 8 62

4. Statue of the Doryphoros, from Pompeii, after Polykleitos. Museum of Naples. After Photograph by Alinari 70

5. Statue of Hermes, from Andros. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph by Rhomaïdes 72

6. Statue of the Standing Diskobolos, after Naukydes (?). Vatican Museum, Rome. After Photograph 76

7 A and B. Statues of so-called Apollos. A. The _Apollo Choiseul-Gouffier_. British Museum, London. After _Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum_, Pl. III B. The Apollo-on-the-Omphalos. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph by Merlin 90

8 A and B. Statues of so-called Apollos. A. The _Apollo of Tenea_. Glyptothek, Munich. After Photograph by Bruckmann. B. Argive Apollo, from Delphi. Museum of Delphi. After Fouilles de Delphes, IV, 1904, Pl. I 102

9. Statue of an Athlete, by Stephanos. Villa Albani, Rome. After Photograph 114

10. Bronze statue of the Praying Boy. Museum of Berlin. After Photograph 132

11. Statue of so-called Oil-pourer. Glyptothek, Munich. After Photograph by Bruckmann 134

12. Statue of an Apoxyomenos. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. After B. B., No. 523 136

13. Statue of an Athlete, after Polykleitos. Farnsworth Museum, Wellesley College, U. S. A. After Photograph 138

14. Bronze Statue known as the Idolino. Museo Archeologico, Florence. After B. B., No. 274 142

15. Marble Head of an Athlete, after Kresilas (?). Metropolitan Museum, New York. After Photograph 144

16. Bronze Statue of the Seated Boxer. Museo delle Terme, Rome. After Ant. Denkm., I, <f>1</f>, 1886, Pl. IV 146

17. Statue known as the Farnese Diadoumenos. British Museum, London. After Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum, Pl. VI 150

18. Statue of the Diadoumenos, from Delos. After Polykleitos. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph by Alinari 152

19. Statue known as the Westmacott Athlete. British Museum, London. After Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum, Pl. XXII 156

20. Head of an Athlete, School of Praxiteles. Metropolitan Museum, New York. After Photograph 168

21. Statue of Diomedes with the Palladion. Glyptothek, Munich. After Photograph 170

22. Statue of the Diskobolos, from Castel Porziano, after Myron. Museo delle Terme, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 184

23. Statue of the Diskobolos, after Myron. A bronzed Cast from the Statue in the Vatican and Head from the Statue in the Palazzo Lancellotti, Rome. After B. B., No. 566 186

24. Statue of a Kneeling Youth, from Subiaco. Museo delle Terme, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 196

25. Marble Group of Pancratiasts. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. After Photo, by Alinari 252

26. Racing Chariot and Horses. From an archaic b.-f. Hydria. Museum of Berlin. After Gerhard, IV, Pls. CCXLIX-CCL 262

27. Statue of a Charioteer (?). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After Photo. by Coolidge 276

28. Statue of the Pancratiast Agias, from Delphi. Museum of Delphi. After Fouilles de Delphes, IV, Pl. LXIII 286

29. Statue of the Apoxyomenos. After Lysippos or his School. Vatican Museum, Rome. After B. B., No. 381 288

30. Statue of Herakles. Lansdowne House, London. After Gardner, Sculpt., Pl. LVI 298

PLANS.

FACING PAGE

A. The Altis at Olympia in the Greek Period (Third Century B. C.). After Doerpfeld, in _Ergebnisse von Olympia, Karten und Plaene_, No. III 376

B. The Altis at Olympia in the Roman Period (Second Century A. D.). After Doerpfeld, in _Ergebnisse von Olympia, Karten und Plaene_, No. IV 376

TEXT-FIGURES. PAGE

1. So-called Boxer Vase, from Hagia Triada. From a Cast (with handle restored) in the Museum of Candia. After H. R. Hall, Aegean Archæology, Pl. XVI 6

2. Bronze Statuette of a Victor, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia. After Bronz. v. Ol., Tafelbd., Pl. VIII, No. 57 28

3. Bronze Head of an Olympic Victor, from Beneventum. Louvre, Paris. After Photograph 64

4. Bronze Head of an Olympic Victor, from Herculaneum. Museum of Naples. After B. B., No. 323 (Right) 65

5. Bronze Portrait-statue of a Hellenistic Prince. Museo delle Terme, Rome. After Photograph by Alinari 73

6. Bronze Statuette of Hermes-Diskobolos, found in the Sea off Antikythera. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph by Rhomaïdes 79

7. Bronze Statue of a Youth, found in the Sea off Antikythera. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph by Rhomaïdes 80

8. Statue of the so-called Jason (Sandal-binder). Louvre, Paris. After Photograph by Giraudon 86

9. Statue of so-called Apollo of Thera. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph 101

10. Statue of so-called Apollo of Orchomenos. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph 102

11. Statue of so-called Apollo, from Mount Ptoion, Bœotia. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph 102

12. Statue of so-called Apollo of Melos. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph 103

13. Statues of so-called Apollos, from Mount Ptoion. National Museum, Athens. After Photograph 104

14. Statue known as the Strangford Apollo. British Museum, London. After Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum, Pl. II 105

15. Bronze Statuette of a Palæstra Victor, from the Akropolis. Akropolis Museum, Athens. After Photograph 108

16. Bronze Statuette, from Ligourió. Museum of Berlin. After 50stes Berliner Winckelmannsprogramm, 1890, Pl. I (Center and Left) 112

17. Statue of an Ephebe, from the Akropolis. Akropolis Museum, Athens. After Photograph 115

18. Head of an Ephebe, from the Akropolis. Akropolis Museum, Athens. After Photograph by Rhomaïdes 116

19. Bronze Statuette of Apollo, found in the Sea off Piombino. Louvre, Paris. After Photograph by Giraudon 119

20. Figure, from the East Pediment of the Temple on Aegina. Glypothek, Munich. After Photograph by Bruckmann 124

21. Two Figures, from the West Pediment of the Temple on Aegina. Glyptothek, Munich. After Photograph by Bruckmann 125

22. Archaic Marble Head of a Youth. Jacobsen Collection, Ny-Carlsberg Museum, Copenhagen. After Arndt, La Glyplothèque Ny-Carlsberg, 1896, Pl. I 128

23. Head of so-called Oil-pourer. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After Photograph 134

24. Bronze Statuette of an Athlete. Louvre, Paris. After Furtwaengler, Masterpieces, Pl. XIII 139

25. Bronze Head of an Athlete, from Herculaneum. Museum of Naples. After B. B., No. 339 (Left) 140

26. Marble Statue of an Athlete (?). National Museum, Athens. After Photograph 143

27. Head from Statue of the Seated Boxer (Pl. 16). Museo delle Terme, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 146

28. Statue of the Diadoumenos, from Vaison, after Polykleitos. British Museum, London. After Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum, Pl. IV 153

29. Head of the Diadoumenos, after Polykleitos. Albertinum, Dresden. After Furtwaengler, Masterpieces, Pl. X 154

30. Marble Heads of two Hoplitodromoi, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia. After Bildw. v. Ol., Tafelbd., Pl. VI, 1-2 and 9-10 162

31. Head of Herakles, from Genzano. British Museum, London. After Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum, Pl. XXI 170

32. Statue of Harmodios. Museum of Naples. After B. B., No. 327 174

33. Head of an Athlete, from Perinthos. Albertinum, Dresden. After B. B., No. 542 (Right) 180

34. Statue of the Diskobolos, after Myron. Vatican Museum, Rome. After Photograph 185

35. Statue of the Diskobolos, after Myron. British Museum, London. After Marbles and Bronzes in the British Museum, Pl. XLVII 186

36. A and B. Athletic Scenes from a Bacchic Amphora in Rome. A. Stadiodromoi and Leaper. B. Diskobolos and Akontistai. After Gerhard, IV, Pl. CCLIX 192

37. Athletic Scenes from a Sixth-century B. C. Panathenaic Amphora. Stadiodromoi (Left) and Dolichodromoi (Right). After Mon. d. I., I, 1829-33, Pl. XXII, 6 b, 7 b 193

38. Statue of a Runner. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 198

39. Statue of a Runner. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 198

40. Statue of the so-called Thorn-puller (the Spinario). Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. After B. B., No. 321 200

41. Hoplitodromes. Scenes from a r.-f. Kylix. Museum of Berlin. After Gerhard, IV, Pl. CCLXI 205

42. Bronze Statuette of a Hoplitodrome (?). University Museum, Tuebingen. After Jb., I, 1886, Pl. IX (Right) 206

43. Statue of the so-called Borghese Warrior. Louvre, Paris. After Photograph 208

44. Pentathletes. Scene from a Panathenaic Amphora in the British Museum, London. After J. H. S., XXVII, 1907, Pl. XVIII 211

45. Statue of a Boy Victor (the Dresden Boy). Albertinum, Dresden. After Furtwaengler, Masterpieces, Pl. XII 213

46. Bronze Statuette of a Diskobolos. Metropolitan Museum, New York. After Photograph 220

47. Bust of the Doryphoros, after Polykleitos, by Apollonios. Museum of Naples. After Photograph by Alinari 224

48. Statue of the Doryphoros, after Polykleitos. Vatican Museum, Rome. After Photograph by Anderson 225

49. Wrestling Scenes. From Obverse of an Amphora, by Andokides. Museum of Berlin. After A. J. A., XI, 1896, P. 11, Fig. 9 230

50. Wrestling and Boxing Scenes. From a r.-f. Kylix. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia. After Photograph 231

51. Bronze Statues of Wrestlers. Museum of Naples. After B. B., No. 354 232

52. Bronze Arm of Statue of a Boxer, found in the Sea off Antikythera. National Museum, Athens. After Svoronos, Pl. V, No. 4 237

53. Forearm with Glove. From the Statue of the Seated Boxer (Pl. 16). Museo delle Terme, Rome. After Juethner, Fig. 62 238

54. Boxing Scenes. From a r.-f. Kylix by Douris. British Museum, London. After J. H. S., XXVI, 1906, Pl. XII 240

55. Boxing and Pankration Scenes. From a r.-f. Kylix. British Museum, London. After J. H. S., XXVI, Pl. XIII 241

56. Boxing Scene. From a b.-f. Panathenaic Panel-amphora. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia. After Photograph 242

57. Statue of a Boxer, from Sorrento. By Koblanos of Aphrodisias. Museum of Naples. After B. B., No. 614 242

58. Statue known as Pollux. Louvre, Paris. After Photograph by Giraudon 245

59. Pankration Scene. From a Panathenaic Amphora by Kittos. British Museum, London. After J. H. S., XXVI, 1906, Pl. III 248

60. Bronze Statuette of a Pancratiast (?), from Autun, France. Louvre, Paris. After Bulle, Pl. 96 (Right) 250

61. Bronze Head of a Boxer(?), from Olympia. A (Profile); B (Front). National Museum, Athens. After Bronz. v. Ol., Tafelbd., Pl. II, 2a and 2 254

62. Bronze Foot of a Victor Statue, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia. After Bronz. v. Ol., Tafelbd., Pl. III, 3 253

63. Charioteer Mounting a Chariot. Bas-relief from the Akropolis. Akropolis Museum, Athens. After Photograph 270

64. Apobates and Chariot. Relief from the North Frieze of the Parthenon, Athens. After Photograph 273

65. Charioteer. Relief from the small Frieze of the Mausoleion, Halikarnassos. British Museum, London. After Photograph 274

66. Bronze Statue of the Delphi Charioteer. Museum of Delphi. After Fouilles de Delphes, IV, Pl. L 277

67. Horse-racer. From a Sixth-century B. C. b.-f. Panathenaic Vase. British Museum, London. After Gerhard, IV, Pl. CCLVII (Bottom). 280

68. Head from the Statue of Agias (Pl. 28). Museum of Delphi. After Fouilles de Delphes, IV, Pl. LXIV 287

69. Marble Head, from Olympia. Three-quarters Front View (Cf. Frontispiece). Museum of Olympia. After _Bildw. v. Ol._, Tafelbd., Pl. LIV, 4 293

70. Profile Drawings of the Heads of the Agias and the Philandridas. After A. J. A., XI, 1907, p. 403, Fig. 6 295

71. Head of the Statue of Herakles (Pl. 30). Lansdowne House, London. After Gardner, Sculpt., Pl. LVII 298

72. Marble Head of a Boy, found near the Akropolis, Sparta. In Private Possession in Philadelphia, U. S. A. After Photograph 305

73. So-called Head of Herakles from Tegea, by Skopas. National Museum, Athens. After B. C. H., XXV, 1901, Pl. VII 307

74. Attic Grave-relief, found in the Bed of the Ilissos, Athens. National Museum, Athens. After A. Conze, _Attische Grabreliefs_, Pl. CCXI 312

75. Statue of the so-called Meleager. Vatican Museum, Rome. After Photograph 313

76. Head of the so-called Meleager. Villa Medici, Rome. After Ant. Denkm., I, Pl. XI, 2a 314

77. Torso of the so-called Meleager. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass. After Photograph 315

78. Small Marble Torso of a Boy Victor, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia. After Bildw. v. Ol., Tafelbd., Pl. LVI, 2 325

79. Stone Statue of the Olympic Victor, Arrhachion, from Phigalia. In the Guards’ House at Bassai (Phigalia). After Photograph 327

80. Statues of Ra-nefer and Tepemankh, from Sakkarah. Museum of Cairo. After Bulle, Pl. 5 331

THE MOST COMMON ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES.

A. A.

Archaeologischer Anzeiger, Beiblatt zum Jahrbuch, 1889-.

Afr.

S. Iulii Africani Ὀλυμπιάδων ἀναγραφή, apud Euseb., Chron., ed. A. Schoene, I, pp. 194-220. Berlin, 1875. See also Rutgers.

A. G.

Anthologia Graeca, cur. F. Jacobs, I-III. Leipsic, 1813-1817.

A. Pl.

Anthologia Planudea, in A. G., II, 1814.

A. J. A.

American Journal of Archæology, 1st series, 1885-1896; 2d series, 1897-.

A. M.

Mitteilungen des kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung. Athens, 1876-.

Amelung, Fuehrer

W. Amelung, Fuehrer durch die Antiken in Florenz. Munich, 1897.

Amelung, Vat.

W. Amelung, Die Skulpturen des Vatikanischen Museums, Textbd., I-II: Tafelbd., I-II. Berlin, 1903, 1908.

Annali

Annali dell’ Instituto di Corrispondenza archeologica. Rome, 1829-1885.

Ant. Denkm.

Antike Denkmaeler, herausgegeben vom kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Institut. Berlin, 1886-.

Arch. Eph.

Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Ἐφημερίς. Athens, 3d Per., 1883-. (The title before 1910 was Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική.)

Arndt-Amelung

Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Skulpturen (with text). Munich, 1893-1902. Cited in German publications as Einzelverkauf.

A. Z.

Archaeologische Zeitung. Berlin, 1843-1885.

Baum.

A. Baumeister, Denkmaeler des klassischen Altertums, I-III. Munich and Leipsic, 1889.

B. B.

Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmaeler griechischer und roemischer Skulptur. Munich, 1888. Text from No. 500 (1897-) by F. Arndt. (Plates cited by number).

B. C. H.

Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique. Paris, 1877-.

Bildw. v. Ol.

Olympia, Die Ergebnisse, Text- und Tafelbd., III, _Die Bildwerke von Olympia in Stein und Thon_. By G. Treu. Berlin, 1897.

B. M. Bronz.

Catalogue of the Bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan, in the British Museum. By H. B. Walters. London, 1899.

B. M. Sculpt.

Catalogue of Sculpture in the British Museum, I-III. By A. H. Smith. London, 1892-1904.

B. M. Vases

Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum. I, 2, II, IV, by H. B. Walters; III, by C. H. Smith. London, 1893-1912.

Boeckh

A. Boeckh, Pindari Opera, II, Scholia. Leipsic, 1819.

Bronz. v. Ol.

Olympia, Die Ergebnisse, Text- und Tafelbd., IV, _Die Bronzen und die uebrigen kleineren Funde von Olympia_. By A. Furtwaengler. Berlin, 1890.

Brunn

H. Brunn, Geschichte der griechischen Kuenstler, I (Bildhauer). Brunswick, 1853. (Reprinted, Stuttgart, 1889).

B. S. A.

Annual of the British School at Athens. London, 1894-1895-.

Bulle

H. Bulle, Der schoene Mensch im Altertum. Second edition, Munich and Leipsic, 1912. (= Vol. I of G. Hirth’s Der Stil.)

B. Com. Rom.

Bulletino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Rome, 1872-.

Bull. d. Inst.

Bulletino dell’ Instituto di Corrispondenza archeologica. Rome, 1829-1885.

C. I. A.

Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum, I-IV. Berlin, 1873-1897. (I, ed. A. Kirchhoff; II, Pts. 1-4, and IV, Pts. 1-2, ed. U. Koehler; III, Pts. 1-2, ed. W. Dittenberger).

C. I. G.

Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, I-IV. Berlin, 1828-1877. (I-II, ed. A. Boeckh; III, ed. J. Franz: IV, ed. E. Curtius and A. Kirchhoff.)

Clarac

F. de Clarac, Musée de sculpture antique et moderne. Text, I-VI: Plates, I-VI. Paris, 1826-1853. See also Reinach, Rép.

Collignon

M. Collignon, Histoire de la sculpture grecque, I-II. Paris, 1892, 1897.

C. R. Acad. Inscr.

Comptes-Rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Paris, 1857-.

Dar.-Sagl.

C. Daremberg, E. Saglio, et E. Pottier, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines. Paris, 1877-1918.

Dickins

G. Dickins, Catalogue of the Akropolis Museum, I (Archaic Sculpture). Cambridge, 1912.

Duetschke

H. Duetschke, Antike Bildwerke in Oberitalien, I-IV. Leipsic, 1874-1880. (Works of art cited by number.)

F. H. G.

Fragmenta historiorum Graecorum, coll. C. Muellerus, I-IV. Paris, 1841-1851.

Foerster

H. Foerster, Die Sieger in den Olympischen Spielen. Wissenschaftliche Beilage zum Programm des Gymnasiums zu Zwickau, 1891, 1892. (The numbers refer to victors in chronological order.)

Frazer

Sir J. G. Frazer, Pausanias’s Description of Greece, I-VI. London, 1898.

Froehner, Notice

W. Froehner, Notice de la sculpture ant. du musée impérial du Louvre. Paris, 1869.

Furtw., Mp.

A. Furtwaengler, Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture. Translated and enlarged from the following work, by Miss Eugénie Sellers (now Mrs. Strong). London, 1895.

Furtw., Mw.

A. Furtwaengler, Meisterwerke der griechischen Plastik. Leipsic and Berlin, 1893.

F. W.

C. Friederichs, Bausteine zur Geschichte d. griech.-roem. Plastik, 1868. Revised edition, entitled Die Gipsabguesse antiker Bildwerke, by P. Wolters. Berlin, 1885.

Gardiner

E. Norman Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals. London, 1910.

Gardner, Hbk.

E. A. Gardner, A Handbook of Greek Sculpture. Second edition revised. London, 1915.

Gardner, Sculpt.

E. A. Gardner, Six Greek Sculptors. London, 1910.

Gaz. arch.

Gazette archéologique. Paris, 1875—.

Gaz. B.-A.

Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Paris, Pér. I, 1859-1868; II, 1869-1888; III, 1889—.

Gerhard

E. Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Vol. IV (Alltagsleben). Berlin, 1840.

Helbig, Fuehrer

W. Helbig, and others, Fuehrer durch die oeffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertuemer in Rom. Third edition, I-II. Leipsic, 1912, 1913.

Helbig, Guide

Guide to the Public Collections of Classical Antiquities in Rome. Translation from the preceding work (1st ed.) by J. F. and F. Muirhead, I-II. Leipsic, 1895, 1896.

Hitz.-Bluemn.

H. Hitzig et H. Bluemner, Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio. I-III (Each in 2 Parts). Leipsic, 1896-1907.

Hyde

Gualterus (= Walter Woodburn) Hyde, de olympionicarum Statuis a Pausania commemoratis. Halle, 1902; enlarged, 1903. Numbers cited refer to victors in the order given by Pausanias.

I. G.

Inscriptiones Graecae (for contents and numbering of volumes, see A. J. A., IX, 1905, pp. 96-97).

I. G. A.

Inscriptiones Graecae antiquissimae praeter Atticas in Attica repertas. Ed. H. Roehl. Berlin, 1882.

I. G. B.

Inschriften griechischer Bildhauer. Ed. E. Loewy. Leipsic, 1885.

Inschr. v. Ol.

Olympia, Die Ergebnisse, Textbd., V, Die Inschriften von Olympia. By W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold. Berlin, 1896.

Jb.

Jahrbuch des kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Instituts. Berlin, 1886—.

Jex-Blake

K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers, _The Elder Pliny’s Chapters on the History of Art_ (chiefly Bks. XXXIV-XXXVI of the _Historia Naturalis_, cited as H. N.). London and New York, 1896.

Jh. oest. arch. Inst.

Jahreshefte des oesterreichischen archaeologischen Institutes in Wien. Vienna, 1898—.

J. H. S.

Journal of Hellenic Studies. London, 1880—.

Joubin

A. Joubin, La Sculpture grecque entre les Guerres Médiques et l’Époque de Périclès. Paris, 1901.

Juethner

J. Juethner, Ueber antike Turngeraethe. Vienna, 1896.

Juethner, Ph.

J. Juethner, Philostratos ueber Gymnastik. Leipsic and Berlin, 1909.

Kabbadias

P. Kabbadias, Γλυπτὰ τοῦ Ἐθνικοῦ Μουσείου. Athens, 1890-1892.

Klein

W. Klein, Geschichte der griechischen Kunst, I-III. Leipsic, 1904-1907.

Krause

J. H. Krause, Die Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen, I-II. Leipsic, 1841.

Lechat

H. Lechat, La Sculpture attique avant Phidias. Paris, 1904.

Lechat, Au Musée

H. Lechat, Au Musée de l’Acropole d’Athènes. Lyon, 1903.

Mach, von

E. von Mach, A Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, I-II (Text and University Prints). Boston, 1914.

M. D.

F. Matz and F. von Duhn, Antike Bildwerke in Rom., I-III. Leipsic, 1881-1882.

Michaelis

A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. Translated from the German by C. A. M. Fennell. Cambridge, 1882.

Mon. d. I.

Monumenti inediti dell’ Instituto di Corrispondenza archeologica. Rome, 1829-1885.

Mon. ant.

Monumenti antichi publicati per cura della Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Rome, 1889—.

Mon. gr.

Monuments grecs publiés par l’Association pour l’Encouragement des Études grecques en France, 1872—. (Vol. I, containing reprints of articles from 1872, appeared in 1881).

Mon. Piot.

Monuments et Mémoires publiés par l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Fondation Eugène Piot. Paris, 1894—.

Murray

A. S. Murray, A History of Greek Sculpture. Second edition, I-II. London, 1890.

Museum Marbles

A Description of the Ancient Marbles in the British Museum, Pts. I-XI. London, 1812-1861.

M. W.

K. O. Mueller and F. Wieseler, Denkmaeler der alten Kunst. Goettingen, 1854-1877.

Not. Scav.

Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità comunicate alla Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Rome, 1876—.

Overbeck

J. Overbeck, Geschichte der griech. Plastik. Fourth edition, I-II. Leipsic, 1893-1898.

Oxy. Pap.

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, ed. by B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, II, pp. 22 f. London, 1899.

P.

Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, rec. F. Spiro, I-III. Leipsic, 1903.

Pauly-Wissowa

G. Wissowa and W. Kroll, Pauly’s Real-encyclopaedie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stuttgart, 1894—.

Perrot-Chipiez

G. Perrot and Ch. Chipiez, Histoire de l’art dans l’antiquité: VI (La Grèce primitive); VIII, La Grèce archaïque. Paris, 1894, 1903.

Ph.

Philostratos, de Arte gymnastica, ed. Juethner, 1909 (see Juethner, Ph.).

Pliny, H. N.

See Jex-Blake.

P. l. G.

Poetae lyrici Graeci, rec. Th. Bergk. Fourth edition, I-III. Leipsic, 1878-1882. I, Pt. 1 = ed. 5, rec. O. Schroeder, 1900.

Rayet

O. Rayet, ed. Monuments de l’Art antique, I-II. Paris, 1884.

Reinach, Rép.

S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, I, second edition; II, Pts. 1, 2, second edition; 111-IV, first edition. Paris 1904-1910. I = Reprint of Clarac = Clarac de poche.

Reinach, Têtes

S. Reinach, Recueil de têtes antiques ideales et idealisées. Paris, 1903.

Reisch

E. Reisch, Griechische Weihgeschenke. Vienna, 1890.

R. Arch.

Revue Archéologique. Paris, Sér. 1, 1844-1860; II, 1860-1882; III, 1883-1902; IV, 1903—.

R. Ét. Gr.

Revue des Études grecques. Paris, 1888—.

Richardson

R. B. Richardson, A History of Greek Sculpture. New York, 1911.

Ridder, de

A. de Ridder, Catalogue des bronzes trouves sur l’acropole d’Athenes. Paris, 1896.

R. M.

Mitteilungen des kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung. Rome, 1886—.

Robert, O. S.

C. Robert, Die Ordnung der Olympischen Spiele und die Sieger der 75.-83. Olympiade: Hermes, XXXV, 1900, pp. 141 f.

Roscher, Lex.

W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der griechischen und roemischen Mythologie. Leipsic, 1884—.

Rouse

W. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings. Cambridge, 1902.

Rutgers

J. R. Rutgers, S. Julii Africani Ὀλυμπιάδων ἀναγραφή. Leyden, 1862.

Scherer

Chr. Scherer, de olympionicarum Statuis, Diss. inaug., Goettingen, 1885.

Sitzb. Muen. Akad.

Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen und der historischen Klasse der koeniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Muenchen. Munich, 1871—.

Specimens

Specimens of Ancient Sculpture ... Selected from different Collections in Great Britain by the Society of Dilettanti, I-III. London, 1809-1835.

Springer-Michaelis

A. Springer and A. Michaelis, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, I. Das Altertum. Ninth edition. Leipsic, 1911.

S. Q.

Die Antiken Schriftquellen zur Geschichte der bildenden Kuenste bei den Griechen, ed. J. Overbeck. Leipsic, 1868.

Staïs, Marbres et Bronzes

V. Staïs, Marbres et Bronzes du Musée National d’Athènes. Second edition. Athens, 1910.

Svoronos

J. N. Svoronos, Das Athener National Museum. Text and Plates, I-III. Athens, 1908-1911.

Other abbreviations will be readily understood.

CORRIGENDA.

Besides the following, there are a few other corrections which are so obvious that they scarcely need to be listed.

Page 2, note 1, for ragmentary read fragmentary.

10, line 2, (and Index), for Archermoros read Archemoros.

14, note 2, after 202f. add Dar.-Sagl., IV, i, pp. 194 f., list 34 local Olympia.

15, line 6, for Dorian Eleans read Dorian allies, the Eleans.

24, line 27, for 173 A. D. read 173 or 174 A. D. 26, line 27, for archaistic read archaic.

31, lines 8-9, for Papyrus read Papyri; line 20, for Aigira read Aigeira.

46, note 1, line 2, add The Solonian cubit of 444 mm. gives 17.53 inches, the finger .73 inch, which makes Diagoros’ statue 6 feet 1.75 inches tall.

58, note 2, for statues of all read statues by all.

60, note 1, for Vespes read Vespae; note 5, for Koponios read Coponius.

77, line 18, for staute read statue; note 3, line 11, for Encrinomenos read Encrinomenus.

82, lines 14-15, for in and not outside read outside and not inside.

83, line 15, for Svonoros read Svoronos.

84, line 2 (and Index, s. v. Ball-playing), for φανίνδα read φαινίνδα.

96, note 1, line 6, for Hermes read Herakles.

110, line 20, and note 1, line 9 (and Index), for Argeidas read Argeiadas.

128, note 4, for Glyptothek read Glyptothèque.

131, line 12 (and Index, s. v. Praxiteles), for ψελιομένη read ψελιουμένη.

149, note 2, for ξωστήρ read ζωστήρ.

153, line 3, for arms read hands.

166, line 17, for Stronganoff read Stroganoff.

185, lines 4 and 8, and 186, line 3, for Lancelotti read Lancellotti.

188, note 8, line 3, for Perseus read Akrisios.

189, note 1, for Papyrus read Papyri; for Beilage read Beilag.

191, line 21, for eponymous read eponymus.

196, line 25, and 197, note 2, for Θῦμον read Θυμόν.

210, line 5, for αλμα read ἅλμα.

235, note 1, line 2, omit as.

253, line 27, for 1202 read 1204.

265, line 14, for Paunasias read Pausanias.

268, line 26 (and Index, s. v. Nikomachos and Victoria), for sublimine read sublime.

288, line 10 (and Index), for Tenerari read Tenerani.

321, line 29, for inventors read so-called inventors.

327, line 3, for stautes read statues.

341, line 33, last word of line should be δεξιᾷ.

348, line 28, for prothusis read prothysis.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

I. EARLY GREEK GAMES AND PRIZES

PLATE 1 AND FIGURES 1 AND 2.

Before attempting to trace historically the development of monuments of victors in the gymnic and hippic contests at Olympia, and before attempting to reconstruct their different types, it will be useful to devote a preliminary chapter to the early history of Greek athletics and victor prizes in general.

It is a truism that the origin of Greek athletics is not to be found in the recently discovered Aegean civilization of Crete, nor in the latest phase of the same culture on Mycenæan sites of the mainland of Greece. Their origin is not to be sought in the indigenous Mediterranean stock which produced that culture, but rather among the northern invaders of Greece, the fair-haired Achæans of the Homeric poems, and especially among the later Dorians in the Peloponnesus. It was to the physical vigor of these strangers rather than to the more artistic nature of the Mediterraneans that the later Greeks owed their interest in sports. As these invaders settled themselves most firmly in the Peloponnesus, Greek athletics may be said to be chiefly the product of South Greece. It was here that three of the four national festivals grew up—at Olympia, Nemea, and on the Corinthian Isthmus. It was in the schools of Argos and Sikyon that athletic sculpture flourished best and in later Greek history physical exercise was most fully developed among the Dorian Spartans.[1]

SPORTS IN CRETE.

Centuries before the Achæan civilization of Greece had bloomed, there developed among the Minoans of Crete a passion for certain acrobatic performances and for gymnastics. These Cretans, though strongly influenced by Egypt and the East, did not borrow their love of sport from outside any more than did the later Achæans. On the walls of the tombs of Beni-Hasan on the Nile are pictured many athletic sports, including a series of several hundred wrestling groups,[2] but these sports did not influence, so far as we know, Cretan athletics. At Knossos bull-grappling seems to have been the national sport, as we see from the frescoes on the palace walls. In the absence of the horse, which did not appear in early Aegean times in Crete, it is not difficult to understand the development of gymnastic sports with bulls. At Knossos a seal has been found which shows the rude drawing of a vessel with rowers seated under a canopy, superimposed on which is drawn the greater portion of a huge horse. In this design, dating from about 1600 B. C. and synchronizing with the earlier part of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, we doubtless see a graphic way of indicating the cargo, and consequently a contemporary record, it may be, of the first importation of horses from Libya into Crete.[3]

The Cretan bull seems to have been a much larger animal than the species found upon the island to-day.[4] Bull-grappling at Knossos was the sport of female as well as male toreadors. A fragmentary rectangular fresco, dating from about 1500 B. C. (Pl. 1), was discovered there by Sir Arthur Evans in 1901 and is now in the Candia museum. It is executed with extraordinary spirit and shows a huge bull rushing forward with lowered head and tail straight out. A man is in the act of turning a somersault on its back, his legs in the air, his arms grasping the bull’s body and his head raised, looking back to the rear of the animal, where a cowgirl is standing, holding out her arms to catch his flying figure as soon as his feat is concluded. Another cowgirl, at the extreme left, seems to be suspended from the bull’s horns, which pass under her armpits, while she catches hold further up. However, she is not being tossed, but is taking position preliminary to leaping over the bull’s back. Both the man and the women wear striped boots and bracelets; the women are apparently distinguished by their white skin, short drawers, yellow sashes embroidered with red, and the red-and-blue diadems around their brows.[5] On the opposite wall a similar scene was pictured; among its stucco fragments was found the representation of the arm and shoulder of a woman grasping a bull by the horns. The fragmentary representation of another woman and man was also found.

A very similar scene has long been known from a fresco painting from Tiryns, now in Athens.[6] A bull is represented galloping to the left, while a man[7] clings to its horns with his right hand and is swept along with one foot lightly touching the bull’s back and the other swung aloft. Most early writers interpreted this scene as a bull-hunt, the artist having drawn the hunter above the bull through ignorance of perspective. The execution is very inferior, three attempts of the bungling painter being visible in the painting of the tail and the front legs. Others saw in it the representation of an acrobat showing his dexterity by leaping upon the back of an animal in full career, recalling the description of such a trick in the Iliad, where Ajax is represented as rushing over the plain like a man who, while driving four horses, leaps from horse to horse.[8] But this figure must take its place side by side with the one from Knossos just described as another bull-grappling scene. That such sports were not held in the open air, but in an enclosed courtyard, is shown by the seal from Praisos now in the Candia Museum, which depicts a man vaulting on the back of a gigantic ox within a paved enclosure.[9] Doubtless the theatral areas discovered at Phaistos by the Italian Archæological Mission[10] and at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans in 1903[11] were not large enough for bull scenes and were used merely for ceremonial dancing and perhaps for the boxing matches to be described.[12] Similar acrobats are doubtless to be recognized in the two beautiful ivory statuettes, only 11.5 inches in height, of so-called leapers, found by Dr. Evans at Knossos in 1901.[13] These masterpieces of the late Minoan II period represent acrobats (one is probably a woman) darting through the air. “The life, the freedom, the élan of these figures is nothing short of marvellous,” writes Dr. Evans, who calls attention to the careful physical training shown in their slender legs and in the muscles, even the veins on the back of the hands and the finger-nails being plainly indicated as well as the details of the skinfolds at the joints. They doubtless formed a part of an ivory model of the bull-ring and are meant for miniature toreadors, who were hung in the air by fine gold wires[14] over the backs of ivory bulls who stood on the solid ground. The heads of the figures are thrown backwards, a posture suitable for such vaulters, but not for leapers or divers. Minoan art culminated in these statuettes and in certain stucco figures in half relief found also at Knossos. Only a few fragments of these reliefs have survived, most of which were decorative or architectonic in character, though among them were also found human disjecta membra in high relief, such as the fragment of a left forearm holding a horn, and not a pointed vase, as Dr. Evans thought. Here the muscles are well indicated, though the veins are exaggerated.[15] This fragment may well be a part of the same bull-grappling scenes as those in the frescoes, as also the life-like image of a bull, the details of whose head, mouth, eyes, and nostrils are full of expression, and whose muscles are perfectly indicated.

When compared with the monuments described, the similarity of details on the design of the Vapheio cups ornamented in repoussé, the “most splendid specimens known of the work of the Minoan goldsmith,”[16] never again equalled until the Italian Renaissance, makes it more than possible that here again we have scenes of bull-grappling rather than of bull-hunting. On one cup is represented a quiet pastoral scene—a man tying the legs of a bull with a rope, while two other bulls stand near, amicably licking one another, and a third is quietly grazing. On the other, however, are represented scenes of a very different character. In the centre is a furious bull entangled in a net, which is fastened to a tree; to the left a figure, doubtless a woman, is holding on to a bull’s head, while a man has fallen on his head beside the animal, both man and woman being dressed in the Cretan fashion. A third bull rushes furiously by to the right. Most commentators have seen bull-hunting scenes on both these cups. Thus, on the first cup were represented three scenes in the drama of trapping a bull by means of a tame decoy cow; to the right the bull is starting to go to the rendezvous, while in the center the bull stands by the cow’s side and to the left he is finally trapped and tied.[17] On the other cup the furious animal at the left was supposed to have thrown one hunter and to have caught another on its horns. But Mosso’s interpretation of this design seems to be the right one.[18] The two persons struggling with the bull have no lasso and so can hardly be hunters; besides, if the bull had impaled a hunter with its horns, the hunter would have been represented with his head up and not down. The figure is, however, uninjured and holds on with its knee bent over one horn and its shoulder against the other; it is merely, therefore, intended for a woman acrobat. The net shown in the centre was never used for hunting wild bulls; more probably it was intended as an obstacle in racing. The fallen man has been standing on the netted bull, which, with the gymnast on its back, was expected to have leaped over the net, but has not succeeded; consequently, the acrobat has been tumbled over the bull’s head.

This ancient Cretan sport seems to have been similar to that known in Thessaly and elsewhere in historical days as τὰ ταυροκαθάψια.[19] A survival of it still persists to our day in certain parts of Italy, as, e. g., in the province of Viterbo.[20]

Acrobatic feats of various sorts were attractive to the later Greeks from the time of Homer down. We have already mentioned one passage from the Iliad in which a driver of four horses leaps from horse to horse in motion. On the shield of Achilles tumblers appeared among the dancers on the dancing-place.[21] Patroklos ironically remarks over the body of Kebriones, as the charioteer falls headlong like a diver from his chariot when hit by a missile, that there are tumblers also among the Trojans.[22] In later centuries the Athenians evinced a great attraction to acrobatic feats. The story told of Hippokleides[23] reveals that high-born Athenians did not disdain to practice them. They appear to have formed a sort of side-show attraction at the Panathenaic festival, as such scenes occur frequently on Attic vases. Thus on an early (imitation?) Panathenaic vase from Kameiros in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris,[24] there is represented behind the driver a man standing on the back of a horse, armed with a helmet and two shields, while in front another appears to be balancing himself on a pole.

But such acrobatic scenes as those of Crete and later Greece can not properly be classed as athletic. They betoken more the love of excitement than of true sport. The only form of real athletics represented on Minoan monuments, one which was classed in later Greece as one of the national sports, was that of boxing, which seems to have been the favorite gymnastic contest of the Cretans, as it always was of the later Greeks. Boxing scenes appear on seals,[25] on a steatite fragment of a pyxis found in 1901 at Knossos and, in conjunction with a bull-grappling scene, on the so-called Boxer Vase found by the Italians at Hagia Triada (Fig. 1). The vase is a cone-shaped rhyton of steatite, 18 inches high, originally overlaid with gold foil. It belongs to the best period of Cretan art, late Minoan I.[26] This vase alone, if no other monumental evidence were at hand, would suffice to show the physical prowess and love of sport of the Minoans. Because of its scenes of boxing and bull-grappling Mosso calls it “the most complete monument that we have of gymnastic exercise in the Mediterranean civilization.”[27] The later Greek tradition of the high degree of physical development attained by the Cretans is proved by this monument.[28]

The reliefs are arranged in four horizontal zones.[29] One of these, the second from the top, represents a bull-grappling scene, showing two racing bulls, upon the head and horns of one of which a gymnast has vaulted (not being tossed and helpless, as most interpreters think).[30] The other three represent boxers in all attitudes of the prize-ring, hitting, guarding, falling, and even kicking, as in the later Greek pankration. Some are victorious, the left arm being extended on guard and the right drawn back to strike; one (in the top zone) is ready to spring, just as Hector was ready to spring on Achilles;[31] others are prostrate on the ground with their feet in the air. The violence of the action recalls the boast of Epeios in the famous match in the Iliad that he will break his adversary’s bones.[32]

The method of attack by the right arm and defense by the left is the same as that formerly used by English pugilists. In the topmost zone the combatants wear helmets with visors, cheek-pieces, and horse-hair plumes, and also shoes; in the third zone down the pugilists also wear helmets, though of a different pattern, while the bottom zone shows figures, perhaps youths, with bare heads. Some of the boxers appear to wear boxing-gloves. In the lowest zone we see the well-known feat of swinging the antagonist up by the legs and throwing him—if we may so conclude from the contorted position of the vanquished, whose legs are in the air.

A similar figure appears in relief on the fragment of a pyxis found at Knossos.[33] A youth with clenched fists stands with left arm extended as if to ward off a blow, while his right arm is drawn back and rests on his hip; below we see the bent knee of a prostrate figure, evidently that of his vanquished opponent. The boxer has a wasp-like waist and wears a metal girdle. His left leg is well modeled, the muscles not being exaggerated.

ATHLETICS IN HOMER.

We have evidence, therefore, that the love of sport existed in Crete as it has existed in all countries since. But the comparatively unathletic character of the Aegean culture is shown by the complete absence of athletic representations—apart from bull-grappling scenes—in the art of its last phase at Mycenæ and Tiryns on the mainland. This is an independent argument for the view that the civilization of the mainland was chiefly the product of the old Mediterranean stock, which was finally conquered by the invading Achæans, who are represented in Homer as skilled gymnasts. In Homer we are immediately conscious of being in another world, for here we are in an atmosphere of true athletics, which are fully developed and quite secular in character.[34] They are, however, wholly spontaneous, for there are as yet neither meets nor organized training, neither stadia, gymnasia, nor palæstræ; for such an organization of athletics did not exist until the sixth century B. C. But Homer’s account of the funeral games of Patroklos is pervaded by a spirit of true athletics and has a perennial attraction for every lover of sport. Walter Leaf says of the chariot-race, which is the culminating feature of the description, that it is “a piece of narrative as truthful in its characters as it is dramatic and masterly in description.”[35] Such a description could have been composed only by a poet who belonged to a people long acquainted with athletics and intensely interested in them. Nestor often speaks of a remoter past, when the gods and heroes contended. Odysseus says he could not have fought with Herakles nor Eurytos, heroes of the olden time, “who contended with the immortal gods.” The Homeric warrior was distinguished from the merchant by his knowledge of sport. Thus Euryalos of the Phaiakians says in no complimentary tone to Odysseus: “No truly, stranger, nor do I think thee at all like one that is skilled in games ... rather art thou such an one as comes and goes in a benched ship, a master of sailors that are merchantmen, one with a memory for his freight, or that hath charge of a cargo homeward bound, and of greedily gotten gains.”[36] It is beside the point whether the chief passages in the poems which relate to sports are late in origin or not, even if they are later than 776 B. C., the traditional first Olympiad. In any case the later poet merely followed an older tradition. At the funeral games of Patroklos all the events are practical in character, the natural amusements of men chiefly interested in war. They are, however, not merely military, but are truly athletic. The oldest and most aristocratic of all the events described is the chariot-race—in which the war-chariot is used—the monopoly of the nobles then, as it was always later the sport of kings and the rich.[37] Boxing and wrestling come next in importance, already occupying the position of preëminence which they hold in the poems of Pindar. The foot-race between Ajax, the son of Oileus, and Odysseus follows. Of the last four events, three—the single combat between Ajax and Diomedes, the throwing of the solos, and the contest in archery—are admitted to be late additions. The last event of all, the casting of the spear, may be earlier, but we know little about it, as the contest did not take place, Achilles yielding the first prize to Agamemnon. Most of these later events are described in a lifeless manner and have not the vim and compelling interest of the earlier ones. Indeed the contest in archery seems to be treated with a certain amount of ridicule, which shows the contempt of the great nobles for so plebeian a sport. The armed contest, though it is pictured in art certainly as early as the sixth century B. C.,[38] never had a place in the later Greek games.[39] Jumping, an important part of the later pentathlon, is mentioned but once in the poems, as a feature of the sports of the Phaiakians. But the later pentathlon, as Gardiner says, is certainly not suggested in Homer’s account, though many have assumed it,[40] merely because Nestor mentions his former contests at Bouprasion in boxing, in running, in hurling the spear, and in the chariot-race.[41] This, however, is not the combination of contests known much later as the pentathlon, in which the same contestants had to compete in the series of events—running, jumping, wrestling, diskos-throwing, and javelin-throwing.

ORIGIN OF GREEK GAMES IN THE CULT OF THE DEAD.

In these games described in the Iliad we see an example of the origin of the later athletic festivals in the cult of the dead. Homer knows only of funeral games[42] and there is no trace in the poems of the later athletic meetings held in honor of a god.[43] However, the association of the later games with religious festivals held at stated times can be traced to the games with which the funeral of the Homeric chief was celebrated. The oldest example of periodic funeral games in Greece of which we have knowledge were those held in Arkadia in honor of the dead Azan, the father of Kleitor and son of Arkas, at which prizes were offered at least for horse-racing.[44]

Though the origin of the four national religious festivals in Greece—at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and on the Isthmus—is buried in a mass of conflicting legend, certain writers agree in saying that all of them were founded on funeral games, though they were later dedicated to gods.[45] Thus the Isthmian were instituted in honor of the dead Melikertes,[46] the Nemean in honor of Opheltes or Archemoros,[47] the Pythian in honor of the slain Python,[48] the Olympian in honor of the hero Pelops.[49] To both Pindar and Bacchylides the Olympian games were associated with the tomb of Pelops; Pausanias, on the other hand, records that the ancient Elean writers ascribed their origin to the Idæan Herakles of Crete.[50] It was a common tradition that Herakles founded the games, some writers saying that it was the Cretan, others that it was the Greek hero, the son of Zeus and Alkmena.[51]

Despite the variation in legends relative to the institution of the four national games, we should not doubt the universal tradition that all were funerary in origin. The tradition is confirmed by many lines of argument: by the survival of funeral customs in their later rituals, by the later custom of instituting funeral games in honor of dead warriors both in antiquity and in modern times, and by the testimony of early athletic art in Greece.[52] We shall now briefly consider these arguments.

As an example of the survival of funeral customs in later ritual, Pausanias says that the annual officers at Olympia, even in his day, sacrificed a black ram to Pelops.[53] The fact that a black victim was offered over a trench instead of on an altar proves that Pelops was still worshipped as a hero and not as a god. The scholiast on Pindar, Ol., I, 146, says that all Peloponnesian lads each year lashed themselves on the grave of Pelops until the blood ran down their backs as a libation to the hero. Furthermore, all the contestants at Olympia sacrificed first to Pelops and then to Zeus.[54]

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]

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.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us