THE JUMP AND HALTERES
Jumping is not a military exercise but an amusement of peace. It is
useful, of course, at times for a soldier to be able to leap over any
obstacle in his way. But the Homeric chieftain was not suitably dressed
for such feats of agility, whether he went to war in Mycenaean style
with his long-shadowing spear and towerlike shield reaching down to his
feet, or like the later hoplite arrayed in panoply of bronze. For flight
or pursuit he trusted in his chariot and horses. Hence jumping was no
part of his training, and it is mentioned in Homer only as an
accomplishment of the peaceful Phaeacian traders. Pindar, true to
Homeric tradition, does not include it among the sports introduced by
Heracles in the first Olympic games, and Plato has no use for it in the
training of his soldier-citizens. In athletic festivals the jump was one
of the events of the pentathlon, but never existed as an independent
competition. Yet it must have been always a popular exercise and
amusement, and its popularity during the sixth and fifth centuries is
shown by the frequency with which it is depicted on vases. Pentathletes
were sometimes represented with jumping weights in their hands, and the
jump seems to have been regarded as the typical event of the
pentathlon.[531] Perhaps it owed its importance to the part which the
jumping weights played in physical training, at least in later times.
They were used much in the same way as the modern dumb-bells, and many
of the modern dumb-bell exercises were known to the Greeks and freely
practised, especially in medical gymnastics.
The only form of jumping that had any place in athletic competitions was
the long jump. The explanation of this is obvious. Greece was not a land
of fences or hedges, and the only natural obstacles which it afforded
were streams and ditches. There is no ground for the statement
frequently made that the Greeks practised also the high jump, and the
deep jump, much less that they practised the pole jump. They certainly
used a spear or a pole in vaulting on horseback (Fig. 174), but the
so-called jumping poles are now universally recognized as either
javelins or measuring rods. A certain number of vase paintings may
possibly represent the high jump, but they may just as well represent a
standing long jump; none represent jumping from a height, or the deep
jump.
It would be rash to say that such exercises were never practised; but
certainly they were unknown in athletic competitions. In the daily life
of the palaestra and gymnasium there must have been countless exercises
and feats practised, of which no record survives. Lucian describes the
athletes in the gymnasium jumping up and down like runners, but without
moving from their places, and kicking the air.[532] The exercise is that
known in the modern gymnasium as “knees up,” and is apparently the same
as that described by Seneca as “the fuller’s jump,”[533] from its
resemblance to the action of a fuller jumping up and down on the clothes
in his tub. The Spartan Lampito in the _Lysistrata_ of Aristophanes
ascribes her complexion and figure to her athletic training, and
mentions an exercise, not unknown in foreign gymnasia and
dancing-schools, of jumping up and down and kicking the buttocks with
alternate feet.[534] Another Spartan lady claims to have made a record
by repeating this feat a thousand times. But these tricks belong rather
to the sphere of dancing than to that of athletics, though we must
remember that dancing was an important part of Greek physical training.
Its value consisted chiefly in graceful and rhythmic movement; but its
practice also involved a variety of jumps, hops, flings, and kicks.
Hopping (ἀσκωλιασμός)[535] was a favourite amusement, but can hardly
claim to be classed under athletics, unless we suppose that the Greek
jump was a hop, skip, and jump.[536] At the Dionysia there was a popular
competition in which the competitors had to hop on to a greased
wine-skin full of wine. He who succeeded in hopping on to it and staying
there took it as a prize, while the falls of the unsuccessful were a
source of boundless amusement to the populace. Mr. Henry Balfour informs
me that the game still exists in Northern Greece.
The Greeks jumped into a pit (σκάμμα)[537] the ground of which had been
carefully dug up and levelled. The same term skamma is also used of the
wrestling ring. The picks (σκαπάναι) used for loosening the ground are
frequently represented on athletic scenes on the vases, and the exercise
of digging with them was regarded as a valuable means of training,
especially for wrestlers and boxers.[538] The ground of the skamma was
soft, so as to take the impress of the jumper’s feet. No jump was
allowed to be measured unless the impress of the feet was regular, says
Philostratus, meaning thereby that if the jumper fell or stumbled or
landed with one foot in advance of the other, the jump was not
counted.[539] In all athletics the Greeks attached great importance to
style. If we are to believe the legends recorded by scholiasts and
lexicographers about Phaÿllus, the length of the skamma was 50 feet. One
version of this story is that Phaÿllus having jumped 5 feet beyond the
skamma, on to the hard ground, broke his leg—a contingency by no means
unlikely if such a jump were possible.[540]
The take-off (βατήρ) was at one end of the skamma. It is marked in vase
paintings, sometimes by spears or poles placed in the ground, sometimes
by pillars similar to those that mark the start of the running
track.[541] Possibly the stone starting-lines of the stadium may have
served as the bater. The word merely denotes a stepping-place or
threshold. We know that the bater must have been hard and firm,[542] but
whether it was made of wood or stone we cannot say. There is no evidence
for the use of any kind of spring-board in athletics.[543]
The jumps were measured by rods (κανόνες),[544] and the individual jumps
were marked either by pegs or by lines drawn in the sand. On a vase in
the British Museum (Fig. 67) three vertical lines are drawn beneath the
figure of a jumper in mid-air, and three similar lines occur under a
jumper depicted on an Etruscan carnelian. They mark the jumps of
previous competitors, but may equally well be interpreted as pegs or as
lines in the sand. Certainly they are not, as has been sometimes
suggested, spikes or arrows set there to give zest and danger to the
sport. The acrobat might turn somersaults over swords and spikes, but
the acrobat was a slave-girl usually, not a free citizen, and the Greeks
fully appreciated the difference between acrobatics and athletics.
[Illustration: Fig. 60. Leaden halter found at Eleusis. Athens, National
Museum, 9075.]
The Greek jumper generally used jumping weights (ἁλτῆρες). These
halteres were of stone or metal, and differed considerably in shape and
weight. We cannot say when their use came in. Homer does not mention
them, but we find them already in existence at the very beginning of the
sixth century, if not earlier. To this period belongs an inscribed
halter of lead found at Eleusis, perhaps one of a pair, dedicated by a
certain Epaenetus to commemorate his victory in the jump (Fig. 60).[545]
It is merely an oblong piece of lead about 4-1/2 inches long, 1-1/2
broad, and with the sides slightly concave, varying in depth from 1-1/4
inch at either end to less than an inch in the centre. It weighs 4 lbs.
2 oz. (1·888 kg.).
[Illustration: Fig. 61. Halteres in the British Museum. (_a_) Cast of
halter found at Olympia, L. 11-1/2 in. (_b_) Limestone halter found at
Camirus, L. 7-1/2 in. (_c_) Leaden halter, L. 8 in.]
The vase paintings show that a large variety of shapes existed during
the sixth and fifth centuries. There are two main types. On the earliest
black-figured vases the halter appears as a nearly semicircular piece of
metal or stone with a deep recess on the straight or lower side, which
affords a convenient grip. The two club-like ends are equal, and the
effect is that of a curved flattened dumb-bell. This type does not occur
after the sixth century, towards the close of which the halter is
improved by an increase in the size of the end projecting to the front,
and a decrease in the hinder part. Numerous modifications of this type
appear on the vases, differing mainly in the size and shape of the
club-like ends. The British Museum possesses a pair of these halteres
(Fig. 61). They are of lead about 8 inches long, affording a comfortable
grip for the hand in the centre. One of the pair is damaged, the other
weighs about 2 lbs. 5 oz. (1·072 kg.). A similar pair found at Athens
are in the Museum at Copenhagen. They are somewhat shorter and heavier
(1·610 and 1·480 kg. respectively), and the recess is so narrow that
they can only have been held by the smaller end, and not in the centre.
Side by side with this club-like type we find in the fifth century
another type consisting of an elongated, roughly semispherical block of
metal or stone, thickest in the middle, with the ends pointed or
rounded, the upper side being pierced or cut away, so as to furnish a
grip for the thumb and fingers. These are the “old-fashioned” dumb-bells
which Pausanias describes as held by a statue of Agon, which was
dedicated by Micythus in the second half of the fifth century. Of this
type we possess two interesting examples both of stone, a pair of
halteres found at Corinth, and now in the Museum at Athens, and a single
halter found at Olympia, and now at Berlin, a cast of which may be seen
in the British Museum. Those from Corinth (Fig. 62) are nearly 10-1/4
inches long, and 4 inches deep by 3 broad. A little distance behind the
centre they are cut through, the depression on one side affording a hold
for the thumb, that on the other side for the four fingers. The Olympic
halter (Fig. 61) is larger and more primitive. It is a right-handed
halter 11-1/2 inches long, and weighs over 10 lbs., or four times as
much as the leaden halteres in the British Museum. The surface of the
stone is left rough, and the grip is formed by cutting away the stone on
either side, so as to enable the hand to grasp it.
[Illustration: Fig. 62. Stone halter found at Corinth (10 inches).]
After the fifth century there is no evidence as to the form of the
halteres until Roman times. On Roman copies of athletic statues a new
cylindrical type of halter is represented, and the same appears on
mosaics and wall paintings.[546] It is merely a cylinder slightly
narrower at the centre than at the ends, like a dice-box, and though
very useful for dumb-bell exercises, can hardly have been as handy for
jumping as the earlier types. We do not know when this type came in. The
British Museum possesses a curious example of it, found at Camirus in
Rhodes (Fig. 61). It is made of limestone, 7-1/2 inches long, and
carefully grooved, so as to afford grips for the thumb and each of the
fingers. References in late authors indicate that the halteres were
usually not of stone, but of lead.
Philostratus distinguishes two kinds of halteres: “the long,” which
“exercise shoulders and hands”; the spherical, which “also exercise the
fingers.”[547] It is clear that these cannot correspond to the two types
which we found prevalent in the fifth century. For Pausanias regards one
at least of these types as “old-fashioned,” and Philostratus is speaking
of the halteres in use in his own day. Though he describes the halteres
as an “invention of the pentathlon, and invented, as its name denotes,
for the jump,” his ideas of their use for this purpose are of the
vaguest,[548] and he regards them principally as a means of training,
employed, he says, by all athletes alike, “whether heavy or light.” It
seems, therefore, that his “long halteres” are those used by the heavy
athletes, the boxer or the wrestler, while the spherical ones are those
used by light athletes, the runner or the spear-thrower. The former may
be identified with the cylindrical halteres; the latter are perhaps
little more than balls of wood or lead, such as are recommended by a
medical writer in the early fifth century A.D., for the use of those
suffering from gout in their hands.[549]
The manner of using the halteres is clearly shown on the vases. The
principle is the same as that of a standing jump, the utilization of the
swing of the arms to assist the spring of the legs. The jumper swings
the halteres forwards and upwards till they are level with, or higher
than, his head, and then swings them vigorously downwards, at the same
time bending his body till his hands are just below his knees. The
actual jump takes place on the return swing. As the hands swing to the
front, and the centre of gravity is shifted forward, the knees, which
have been bent on the back swing, are vigorously straightened, and the
swing of the halteres combines with the push of the legs to propel the
body forwards. In the case of a standing jump the preliminary swing may
be repeated two or three times.
[Illustration: Fig. 63. R.-f. pelike, in British Museum, E. 427.]
It is this preliminary swing which is most frequently depicted on vases.
On a red-figured pelike in the British Museum (Fig. 63) we see a youth
preparing to jump. The right leg, which is advanced, is straight, and he
is just in the act of swinging the halteres to the front. Opposite him
stands a flute-player in a long striped and spotted robe, playing the
double flute. The jump was always accompanied by music. But why the
jumper especially required this assistance is not clear. Philostratus
gives as the reason that the Greeks regarded the jump as the most
strenuous of all exercises. But this is hardly satisfactory. It seems
probable that in early days flute-playing was a common accompaniment of
all athletic exercises. The Argives wrestled to the accompaniment of the
flute. On the chest of Cypselus, Admetus, and Mopsus were represented
boxing to music, on vases the flute-player accompanies the
diskos-thrower in his exercise, and less frequently the
spear-thrower.[550] Possibly the rhythmical swing of the diskos and the
halteres may have been assisted by the strains of music. But I suspect
that the special connexion between the jump and the flute dates from the
time when the halteres had already begun to be used as dumb-bells, and
it was found that music was of great assistance as an accompaniment of
physical drill for large classes.
The two typical moments in the swing, and those therefore which the
artist usually selects, are the top of the upward swing and the bottom
of the downward swing, though the two types are connected by a closely
graduated series of intermediate types.[551]
[Illustration: Fig. 64. R.-f. krater. Copenhagen (?). (_Annali_, 1846,
M.)]
A good example of the upward swing occurs on a red-figured krater
presented by Campana to the King of Denmark (Fig. 64). It is a scene
from the life of the gymnasium, and represents youths practising the
exercises of the pentathlon. A diskos in its case hangs on the wall. In
the centre stands a flute-player. To the left a youth has swung the
halteres vigorously upward; his body is thrown well back, and its weight
rests on the right leg, which is behind, the left foot being lifted off
the ground by the swing. Next to him stands a javelin-thrower, who has
just adjusted the thong of his javelin, and is drawing back his arm to
throw. Beyond the flute-player a diskos-thrower prepares to throw the
diskos. All three are depicted at similar stages in their respective
exercises. They seem to be moving in time to the music. The fourth
figure is also that of a jumper: he is in the attitude of a runner
suddenly checking his pace; perhaps he is practising a long jump, and
after a short run checks himself in order to swing the halteres before
the spring. The upward swing is also represented on black-figured vases,
but less vigorously, and with the arms raised slightly higher and
somewhat bent.
[Illustration: Fig. 65. R.-f. kylix. Bologna. (Jüthner, _Ant. Turn._
16.)]
The downward swing is represented on a red-figured kylix found at
Bologna (Fig. 65). The same motive is repeated in a number of
red-figured vases, though it does not occur on earlier vases. The scene
takes place in a gymnasium, as the strigils and other objects hanging on
the walls show. A robed trainer in the centre is resting on his staff
and directing the practice of two jumpers. The pillar and javelins on
either side mark the bater from which the jumpers take off. The
impression produced is of an exercise performed in time to music, or by
word of command. Perhaps the Greek trainer taught his pupils jumping “by
numbers” as the modern instructor teaches vaulting. At all events, the
position shown is one essential to a jumper swinging the halteres before
his spring, and is not a mere gymnastic exercise. Nor does the scene
represent jumpers jumping from a height, as one writer has suggested. A
jumper doing so in this position with weights would probably perform a
somersault or land on his head.
[Illustration: Fig. 66. R.-f. kylix. Bourguignon Coll. (_Arch. Zeit._,
1884, xvi.)]
On another red-figured kylix we see an excellent picture of a jumper in
mid-air (Fig. 66). The style is perfect: he has jumped high, and arms
and legs are extended to the front and almost parallel. This vase also
represents a practice-scene from the gymnasium. To the right stands a
trainer ready to correct any mistake with his rod, and to the left
another jumper is swinging his halteres in a somewhat curious style, to
which we shall refer again. On the other side of the kylix we see
another trainer, a diskobolos, and another jumper, while a pick lies on
the ground.
Immediately before alighting the jumper quickly forces his arms
backwards, a movement which increases the length of the jump and enables
him to land firmly and securely. This moment is admirably represented on
a black-figured imitation Corinthian amphora in the British Museum (Fig.
67). The three lines underneath the jumper represent the jumps of other
competitors, as has been already explained. A somewhat later moment is
shown in an Etruscan wall-painting in a tomb at Chiusi.[552] The jumper
is in the very act of alighting and his body is almost straight.
[Illustration: Fig. 67. B.-f. amphora. British Museum, B. 48.]
The method of swinging the halteres and the positions depicted on the
vases seem at first sight more suitable for a standing jump than a
running jump, and the Greek jump has therefore been described usually as
a standing jump. A representation of a jumper running with halteres
occurs, however, on a number of vases both black-figured and
red-figured.[553] The realism of the earlier vases despite their
grotesqueness makes their evidence very valuable. The run as represented
on these vases is by no means incompatible with the use of the halteres.
It is not like the run of the modern long-jumper who uses his pace to
increase his spring, but like that of the high-jumper, consisting of a
few short, springy steps, intended to prepare the limbs and muscles for
the final spring. A somewhat exaggerated picture of such a run is seen
on a Panathenaic amphora at Leyden,[554] representing the pentathlon
(Fig. 108), and a later picture of it occurs on the interior of a
red-figured kylix by Euphronius (Fig. 68). A jumper running appears as
the device of a shield on a kylix in the British Museum, representing a
hoplitodromos arming for the race.[555] The run in all these cases is
similar, and is quite reconcilable with the upward and downward swings
of the halteres. The jumper starts with arms close to the side and takes
a short run, holding the halteres to the front. As he nears the bater he
checks himself in the manner represented in Fig. 64. As he does so he
swings the halteres upwards, and then with a slow stride forwards swings
them down again, and on the return swing takes off. Such a run is in
accordance with the practice of modern professionals who use jumping
weights.[556]
[Illustration: Fig. 68. R.-f. kylix. (Klein, _Euphronius_, p. 306.)]
It seems, then, that the Greeks certainly practised the running jump,
and probably also the standing jump. In the pentathlon the somewhat
doubtful evidence of the Panathenaic amphorae is in favour of a running
jump.
The pentathlete in competition seems always to have used the halteres,
but in the gymnasia jumping was also practised without weights.
Sometimes the jumper is represented swinging his arms in the same way as
he does with the halteres, but on several vases a totally distinct type
occurs.[557] The jumper stands with both feet together, knees well bent,
and arms stretched to the front. On one vase he seems to be standing on
a low bema or platform, and opposite him is a short pillar, over which
Krause supposes he is preparing to jump. The attitude is, however, quite
as appropriate to the long jump as to the high jump, and on the interior
of a red-figured kylix in Munich we see an almost identical figure, but
with the pillar behind and not in front of him. The best example of this
attitude is found on a red-figured pelike belonging to Dr. Hauser (Fig.
69). Opposite to the jumper stands a robed trainer, stretching out his
hand with a familiar gesture of command. There can be no doubt that
these figures represent jumpers, but whether long jumpers or high
jumpers we cannot say for certain. What is certain is that the jump is a
standing jump.
[Illustration: Fig. 69. R.-f. pelike, belonging to Dr. Hauser. (_J.H.S._
xxiii. p. 272.)]
The use of jumping weights adds considerably to the length of jump
possible. The present record for the long jump without weights is 24
feet 11-3/4 inches, whereas with jumping weights and off a board 29 feet
7 inches has been cleared by a jumper, who unassisted could probably not
have jumped more than 21 feet. But neither weights nor spring-board can
explain the discrepancy between these figures and the feats ascribed to
the Greeks. Till recently it was commonly stated, and perhaps believed,
that the Greeks jumped 50 feet or more. Even if we make the fullest
allowance for the fact that jumping was a national exercise of the
Greeks, a single jump of 50 feet is a physical impossibility. Two
explanations are possible. Either the Greek jump was not a single jump
or the record is pure fiction.
It has been suggested that the Greek jump was a hop, step, and jump, in
which case the jump of 55 feet ascribed to Phaÿllus would be a very fine
performance, but not perhaps impossible. Unfortunately there is
absolutely no evidence in support of this suggestion. For the suggestion
that the jump was a triple jump some evidence may be found in the fact
that a triple jump is known in the present day in parts of Northern
Greece. By itself this fact can hardly be regarded as adequate proof,
and there is, I believe, good reason for discrediting all the evidence
on which the supposed record rests. The evidence consists in (1) the
well-known epigram on Phaÿllus, which states that he jumped 55
feet;[558] (2) various statements of scholiasts and lexicographers of
late and mostly uncertain date; (3) a passage in Africanus, who states
that one Chionis, an Olympic victor in Ol. 29 (_i.e._ seven or eight
hundred years before the time of Africanus), jumped 52 feet.
The 52 feet of Africanus is probably a simple mistake for 22 feet, which
is the reading of the Armenian Latin text. The various statements of
scholiasts and others can all be traced back to the epigram on Phaÿllus,
and to an explanation given by some collector of proverbs on the use of
the phrase “to jump beyond the pit,”[559] to denote something
extraordinary or excessive, and they have no independent value apart
from the epigram.
The Phaÿllus of the epigram is identified by the scholiasts with
Phaÿllus of Croton, who in the first half of the fifth century won two
victories in the pentathlon and one in the foot-race at Delphi, but won
no victory at Olympia. He fought at Salamis in a ship equipped at his
own expense. Aristophanes alludes to one Phaÿllus, probably the same
man, as a noted runner. He had a statue at Delphi which Pausanias saw,
and Alexander the Great is said to have honoured his memory by sending a
portion of his Asiatic spoils to Croton. He was evidently a popular
hero, just the sort of man about whose exploits all sorts of tales
arise. But though Herodotus, Aristophanes, Plutarch, and Pausanias all
mention him, they know nothing of the epigram or of the jump. Moreover,
according to one statement the epigram was inscribed on the basis of his
statue. Parts of this basis and of the inscription have been recently
found at Delphi, but, needless to say, there is no trace of the epigram.
When the epigram was written we cannot say. Certainly it is not a
contemporary commemorative epigram. We meet with it first in Zenobius, a
collector of proverbs who lived in the time of Hadrian, and the
artificiality of its style is characteristic of the epigrams of this
period. But whatever its date it can hardly be regarded as serious
evidence. The sporting story is notorious, and the sporting epigram is
even less trustworthy than the sporting story. The pages of the
_Anthology_ abound in epigrams on famous athletes such as Milo and
Ladas, some of them no less incredible. Milo, we are told in one
epigram, picked up a four-year-old heifer at Olympia, and after carrying
it round the Altis in triumph, killed it and ate it all in a single day.
Nobody has yet elaborated a theory to account for this extraordinary
gastronomic feat, and yet it rests upon just as good evidence as
Phaÿllus’ jump. The mere fact that the numbers five and ten were used by
the Greeks proverbially, just as we use the terms “half a dozen” or “a
dozen,” sufficiently explains why an epigrammatist wishing to describe a
prodigious jump should select such a number as fifty-five.
In Roman times the halteres were used as dumb-bells. The details of such
exercises preserved in medical writings prove that they were very
similar to those in use at the present day.[560] Antyllus describes
three kinds of this “halter-throwing” (ἁλτηροβολία). The first consists
in bending and straightening the arms, an exercise which strengthens the
arms and shoulders. In the other two exercises the arms are extended and
take little part in the movement, which consists in lunging with the
arms advanced as in boxing, or in alternately bending and straightening
the trunk. The former strengthens the legs chiefly, the latter the back.
Galen adds a variety of the latter exercise for strengthening the side
muscles of the body. The performer places the halteres 6 feet apart, and
standing between them picks up first the left-hand halter with his right
hand, next the right-hand halter with his left, and then replaces them,
repeating the movement. The prominence given to exercises for developing
the important muscles of the trunk is interesting, because the careful
representation of these muscles in Greek sculpture and on vases shows
that they were developed to a marked degree by the athletic exercises of
the Greeks. Wrestling, jumping, and throwing the diskos all helped to
develop these muscles. The absence of light clothing round the waist
contributed to the same result, and, above all, the fact that the Greek
stood and walked, but seldom sat. In the present day these muscles are
the worst developed of all muscles in the ordinary man, a result due
partly to the character of our games, partly to our clothing, chiefly to
our habit of sitting, and sitting in a radically wrong position. It is
to these causes that we may ascribe the general absence in the modern
figure of the roll of flesh above the iliac crest which is so prominent
in all ancient sculpture, and the difference in the form of the iliac
line.[561]
[Illustration: Fig. 70. R.-f. oinochoe. British Museum, E. 561.]
When were the halteres first used as dumb-bells? We have no definite
evidence, but I venture to suggest as probable that the practice began
about the time of the Persian wars, when the Greeks first consciously
realized the national importance of athletic training. The first signs
of such a use of the halteres occur on the red-figured vases. It began,
I conjecture, in connexion with the jump. We have seen how certain vase
paintings suggest that the various movements of the jump and the
swinging of the halteres were practised in classes and in rhythmical
time. Take the swing of the halteres and make of it a separate exercise,
and you have at once a familiar and valuable dumb-bell exercise. Not
that this exercise was practised by the Greeks at this period
consciously as a physical exercise; it was an exercise for jumpers, and
practised for the sake of the jump. It was soon found that the swinging
of halteres was useful for other exercises. In Fig. 66 we see to the
left a youth swinging the halteres sideways, his head is turned towards
his extended left arm, and his right arm is bent, the hand being level
with the breast. The type occurs on several vases, sometimes the left,
sometimes the right arm being extended, but the head is always turned
towards the extended hand. Now, if we compare this type with the type of
the javelin-thrower drawing back his javelin to throw, we shall find
that the position of body, arms, legs, and head is identical in the two
types. Does it not seem, then, that we have here a halter exercise
suggested by javelin-throwing, perhaps invented by the javelin-thrower
to develop the special muscles and practise the special positions
required for the throw? Perhaps we may recognize an intermediate
position of this swing on a red-figured oinochoe in the British Museum
(Fig. 70). In this sideways swing of the halteres we have another
familiar exercise of the modern gymnasium. Such exercises intended
originally for the jumper or javelin-thrower were subsequently adopted
by trainers and medical men, and were incorporated by them in their
systems of physical training. This conjectural history of the use of the
halteres is confirmed by the fact that on later vases, when athletic
scenes have given place to groups of idle epheboi, the halteres are
still frequently seen hanging on the wall as the symbol of athletic
training.
Footnote 531:
_J.H.S._ xxiii. p. 60; Paus. v. 27, 8; vi. 3, 10.
Footnote 532:
_Anacharsis_, 4.
Footnote 533:
_Ep._ xv.
Footnote 534:
_Lysistrata_, 82; cp. Krause, _Gym._ p. 398, n. 11.
Footnote 535:
Aristoph. _Plut._ 1129; Plato, _Symp._ 190 D; cp. Krause, _Gym._ p.
399.
Footnote 536:
_Vide_ _J.H.S._ xxiv. pp. 74 ff.
Footnote 537:
_J.H.S._ xxiv. pp. 70 ff., where I have shown that there is no
distinction between σκάμμα and τὰ ἐσκαμμένα.
Footnote 538:
Theocrit. iv. 10.
Footnote 539:
_Gym._ 55 οὐ γὰρ συγχωροῦσι διαμετρεῖν τὸ πήδημα ἢν μὴ ἀρτίως ἔχῃ τοῦ
ἔχνους.
Footnote 540:
All the evidence about Phaÿllus is collected and discussed in _J.H.S._
xxiv. _l.c._
Footnote 541:
Fig. 65; cp. _J.H.S._ xxiv. p. 186.
Footnote 542:
This is clear from the proverb κέκρουκα τὸν βατῆρα.
Footnote 543:
The bater is perhaps represented on a vase reproduced by Krause,
_Gym._ ix. 23, as a small raised platform. We may remark that in this
case the jump is a standing one and without halteres.
Footnote 544:
Pollux, iii. 151. The so-called measuring ropes and compasses have
been shown by Jüthner to be merely boxing thongs and amenta.
Footnote 545:
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1883, 190. Roberts and Gardner, ii. 391, give the
inscription Ἁλ(λ)όμενος νίκησεν Ἐπαίνετος οὕνεκα τοῦδε ἁ.
Footnote 546:
e.g. _supra_, Fig. 22; cp. Jüthner, _Antike Turngeräthe_, pp. 10, 11.
Footnote 547:
_Gym._ 55. Dr. Jüthner in his _Antike Turngeräthe_, p. 11, identifies
them, wrongly as I think, with the two early types. It is hard to see
how either of these types could exercise the fingers.
Footnote 548:
“They lighten the jump, serving as a guide to the hands, and enabling
the jumper to land firmly and evenly.”
Footnote 549:
Caelius Aurelianus, _De morb. acut. et chron._ v. 2, 38. Such
sufferers are to be given “wax to mould, or _manipuli_, which athletes
call halteres, to hold, and to move, either of wax or of wood, at
first with only a little lead, afterwards gradually increased in
weight.”
Footnote 550:
Plutarch, _De musica_, 1140; Paus. v. 17, 10.
Footnote 551:
For vase paintings representing jumpers in various positions _vide_
_J.H.S._ xxiv. pp. 184 ff.
Footnote 552:
Inghirami, _Mus. Chius._ cxxv.; Krause, ix. c. 25.
Footnote 553:
_J.H.S._ xxiv. p. 187.
Footnote 554:
_J.H.S._ xxvii. p. 260.
Footnote 555:
_J.H.S._ xxiii. p. 288, Fig. 15.
Footnote 556:
Mr. George Rowdon, who formerly held the championship for the high
jump, once gave me the following description of the method of using
weights in the high jump: “The jumper starts about 14 yards from the
posts, taking two-thirds of the distance with short, quick steps,
scarcely swinging the weights at all, after which he takes one or two
comparatively long, slow strides, swinging the bells together twice,
and on the second swing taking off from the ground as the bells come
to the front.” The weights used are usually 5 lb. dumb-bells or even
heavier. The run for the long jump with such weights would be very
similar, the chief difference being that while in the high jump the
weights are thrown away at the moment of jumping, in the long jump
they are retained.
Footnote 557:
_J.H.S._ xxiv. pp. 193, 194.
Footnote 558:
_Anth. Pal._ App. 297—
πέντ’ ἐπὶ πεντήκοντα πόδας πήδησε Φάϋλλος
δίσκευσεν δ’ ἑκατὸν πέντ’ ἀπολειπομένων.
The argument in the following passage is stated more fully in _J.H.S._
xxiv. pp. 77 ff., where the reader will find full references.
Footnote 559:
ἄλλεσθαι ὑπὲρ τὸ σκάμμα. _J.H.S._ _l.c._ p. 71.
Footnote 560:
In Oribasius, vi. 14. 34, the passages from Antyllus and Galen are
quoted. The chapter of Oribasius on exercises contains a variety of
interesting quotations from earlier medical writers.
Footnote 561:
On this subject _vide_ Ernst Brücke, _The Human Figure_, translated by
William Anderson, pp. 115 ff.