An important part of the Greek system of education was the training of
the body in physical exercise. For this purpose there were gymnasia in
every city, where the youth were trained in running, leaping, wrestling,
throwing the javelin, and casting the discus. Great spaces were occupied
by these gymnasia, which included buildings for dressing-rooms and
baths, porticoes and halls used as assembly-rooms, walks, gardens, and
the pal[ae]stra, or wrestling-field.
Every four years a great national festival was held at Olympia,
consisting of games or contests in the various athletic sports. Every
freeman of Hellenic blood had a birthright to take part in them. The
contestants were required to undergo a preparatory training, often
lasting months, in the gymnasium of Elis, the province in which Olympia
was situated.
During the progress of the games a universal truce was proclaimed
throughout Greece. All hostilities ceased for the time, and the Greeks
as a united people assembled at Olympia for the joyous celebration in
honor of Zeus. So important were these Olympic games that they were used
as a standard for reckoning time. In assigning a date to an event, the
Greeks used to say that it took place in this or that Olympiad, an
Olympiad being the period of four years between two successive
festivals.
We may well believe that the Olympic festivals, as well as the ordinary
daily exercise in the city gymnasia, had great attractions for
sculptors. The pal[ae]stra must have been a favorite resort of artists.
What a sight it was when the young men came out of the dressing-rooms
stripped for running, their bodies shining with oil,--what a play of
muscles in the lithe young limbs as the runners "pressed toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling!" The course was usually of deep sand,
and was about three miles in length. The runners trained for special
emergencies attained extraordinary speed and endurance. The race over,
each youth returned to the dressing-rooms of the gymnasium and, taking a
small instrument called the _strigil_, made of metal, ivory, or horn,
scraped the oil from his body.
It is in this cleansing process that the young man of our illustration
is engaged. The statue on this account is called the Apoxyomenos, which
is a Greek word meaning "scraping himself." It represents a typical
incident of the life of the gymnasium, such as might be seen any day of
the year.
Tall and graceful, with slender flexible limbs, the youth stands in an
attitude of rest, scraping his right arm. In his fingers is the die
which marks his number in the race. His body rests upon one leg, but so
light is his poise that he is ready to change his position momentarily.
Neither attitude nor countenance shows any sense of exhaustion, only
that delicious fatigue which makes rest so enjoyable.
[Illustration: D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.