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_.
CHAPTER 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.
[Illustration: PLATE 1
Bull-grappling Scene. Wall-painting from Knossos. Museum of Candia.]
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]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.—So-called _Boxer Vase_, from Hagia Triada
(Cast). Museum of Candia.]
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]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Bronze Statuette of a Victor, from Olympia.
Museum of Olympia.]
The erection of a statue in the Altis at Olympia was an honor which the
Elean officers in charge of the games[252] gave to victors to glorify
their victory.[253] Pliny, in a well-known passage of the _Historia
Naturalis_,[254] says it was customary for all victors to set up
statues, while Pausanias[255] says not all athletes did this, for “some
of those who specially distinguished themselves in the games ... have
had no statues.” This apparent contradiction in the statements of the
two writers is to be explained, as Dittenberger[256] and others have
pointed out, on the ground that Pliny states the general privilege
extended to the victor, while Pausanias states its practical working
out, since the setting up of a statue was an undertaking which would
be limited by the early death, poverty, or some other disability of
the victorious athlete. The cost of making, transporting, and setting
up a statue was considerable, and very often a victor must have
been too poor to do it. In such a case he would often be contented
to set up merely a statuette or small figure in bronze or marble.
Several such bronze figures have been unearthed at Olympia,[257] one
of which we reproduce in Fig. 2, and we have many examples found
outside the Altis: _e. g._, a group of wrestlers,[258] a boxer,[259]
and the arm of a quoit-thrower[260] from the Athenian Akropolis,
an archaic girl runner from Dodona,[261] an archaic statuette from
Delphi with a loin-cloth,[262] a bronze quoit-thrower dedicated in the
Kabeirion,[263] the Tuebingen bronze hoplite runner[264] (Fig. 42),
and the statuette of a παῖς κέλης from Dodona.[265] We should also
mention the great number of statuettes of diskos-throwers in modern
museums.[266] Boy victors especially would use the less expensive
marble for such statuettes and we have the remnants of many such found
in the excavations of the Altis.[267] Pausanias mentions several
monuments which were less than life-size, _e. g._, a horse among the
offerings of Phormis, which he says was “much inferior in size and
shape to all other statues of horses in the Altis,”[268] and the
equestrian monuments already discussed. Even reliefs and paintings,
in some cases, were offered in lieu of larger monuments, not only for
reasons of economy, but also because they gave a better representation
of the contest. This custom was common at the lesser games, especially
at the _Panathenaia_.[269] Pausanias mentions painted iconic reliefs
vowed by girl runners at the games in honor of Hera at Olympia.[270] On
an Attic vase in Munich a victor is represented as holding an iconic
votive _pinax_ in his hands.[271] Pausanias speaks of a painting by
Timainetos at Athens, which represented a boy carrying hydriæ,[272]
and one of a wrestler by the same artist in the Pinakotheke on the
Akropolis. Pliny mentions paintings, the works of great masters,
representing victors: thus the _currentes quadrigae_ by the elder
Aristeides of Thebes,[273] a _victor certamine gymnico palmam tenens_
by Eupompos,[274] an athlete by Zeuxis,[275] the victor Aratos with a
trophy by Leontiskos,[276] an athlete by Protogenes,[277] two hoplite
runners by Parrhasios,[278] a _luctator tubicenque_ by Antidotos and
a warrior by the same artist, in Athens,[279] which represented a man
fighting with a shield, and a man anointing himself, the work of the
painter Theoros.[280]
Apparently the Hellanodikai allowed but one statue for each victory.
Aischines the Elean had two victories and two statues.[281] Dikon of
Kaulonia and Syracuse had three victories and three statues.[282]
The Spartan Lykinos had two victories and two statues by Myron, but
we have already said that the second statue was probably that of his
charioteer, the two forming part of an equestrian group.[283] Kapros
of Elis won two victories and had as many statues.[284] On the other
hand Troilos of Elis, who won in two events, had only one statue.[285]
Similarly Arkesilaos of Sparta had two victories in the chariot-race
and only one statue.[286] Xenombrotos of Cos, who appears to have won
once only, had, however, two monuments, one mentioned by Pausanias and
the other known to us from the recovered inscription.[287] But this
last case seems to be the only known exception.
When the victor was unable to set up his monument, whether because of
youth, poverty, early death, or other reason, sometimes the privilege
was utilized by a relative, a friend, or by his native city. In any
case it was a private affair with which the Elean officials had no
concern. We have examples, consequently, of the statue being set up
by the son,[288] father (especially in recovered inscriptions after
the time of Augustus),[289] mother,[290] and brother;[291] also
several examples of statues reared in honor of athletes by fellow
citizens.[292] There are cases in which the trainer set up the
statue.[293] Frequently the native city performed the duty, dedicating
the statue either at Olympia or in the victor’s city. Thus Oibotas,
who won the stade-race in Ol. 6 (= 756 B. C.), had a statue at Olympia
which was erected by the Achæan state out of deference to a command of
the Delphian oracle in Ol. 80 (= 460 B. C.).[294] The statue of Agenor,
by Polykleitos the Younger, a boy wrestler from Thebes, was dedicated
by the confederacy of Phokis, because his father was a public friend of
the nation.[295] The boy runner Herodotos of Klazomenai had a statue
erected by his native town at Olympia because he was the first victor
from there.[296] Philinos of Kos had a statue set up by the people of
Kos at Olympia “because of glory won,” for he was victor five times in
running at Olympia, four at Delphi, four at Nemea, and eleven at the
Isthmus.[297] Hermesianax of Kolophon had a statue at Olympia erected
by his city.[298] The pancratiast Promachos of Pellene had two statues
erected to him by his fellow citizens, one at Olympia, the other in
Pellene.[299] We know of three state dedications of statues at Olympia
from inscriptions, those of Aristophon of Athens,[300] of Epitherses of
Erythrai,[301] and of Polyxenos by the people of Zakynthos.[302] Lichas
of Sparta, at a date when the Spartans were excluded from the games,
entered his chariot in the name of the Theban people, and Pausanias
says that his victory was so entered on the Elean register.[303] We
learn from the _OxyrhynchusPapyri_ that the public horse of the Argives
won at Olympia in Ol. 75 (= 480 _B. C._) and the public chariot in
Ol. 77 (= 472 _B. C._).[304] In these latter two cases the public
was directly interested, and had there been monuments erected to
commemorate the victories they would naturally have been set up by the
state.
It has been wrongly assumed that monuments of boy victors were
dedicated in the name of their parents or relatives.[305] On the
contrary, we have examples dating back to the fifth century B. C. of
boys setting up statues at Olympia. Thus the inscription from the
base of the statue of Tellon, who won in the boys’ boxing match in
Ol. 77 (= 472 B. C.), states that he dedicated his own statue.[306]
Pausanias says that the Eleans allowed the boy wrestler Kratinos from
Aigeira to erect a statue of his trainer.[307] Of course the boy might
need assistance in the undertaking, but this again was no concern of
the Elean officials, who granted the privilege to the victor and not
to his relatives. Usually the statue of a victor was erected soon
after the victory. We have some examples of the statue being erected
immediately after the victory, especially in the case of men victors.
Thus Pausanias says that the victor Eubotas of Kyrene, in consequence
of a Libyan oracle foretelling his victory in the foot-race, had
his statue made before coming to Olympia and erected it “the very day
on which he was proclaimed victor.”[308] The famous Milo of Kroton
spectacularly carried his statue into the Altis on his back before he
entered the contest.[309] There are also examples of statues being
erected long after the victory, sometimes centuries later. We have
already mentioned that a statue was erected to Oibotas in Ol. 80,
though his victory was won in Ol. 6. Chionis, who won in running races
in Ols. 28-31 (= 668-656 B. C.) had a statue by Myron erected to his
memory Ol. 77 or 78 (= 472 or 468 B. C.).[310] Cheilon of Patrai, twice
victor in wrestling between Ols. (?) 103 and 115 (= 368 and 320 B. C.),
had his statue set up after his death.[311] Polydamas of Skotoussa won
his victory in the pankration in Ol. 93 (= 408 B. C.), but his statue
by Lysippos could not have been erected until many years later.[312]
Glaukos, who won the boys’ boxing-match in Ol. 65 (= 520 B. C.), had a
statue by the Aeginetan sculptor Glaukias much later.[313] In the case
of boy victors, the time between boyhood and coming of age was often so
short that in many cases we may assume that the statue was set up some
time after the victory.[314]
HONORS PAID TO VICTORS BY THEIR NATIVE CITIES.
Since the victor was deemed the representative of the state, he often
received a more substantial reward than a statue erected at the cost of
his fellow citizens. The herald, in proclaiming his victory, proclaimed
also the name of his town, which thus shared in his success. At Athens
it was customary for a victor at the great games to receive a reward of
money. To encourage an interest in athletics there, Solon established
money prizes for victorious athletes. We have already said that 100
drachmæ were given to a victor at the Isthmus, while 500 were allotted
to one at Olympia. Solon further ordained that victors should eat at
the Prytaneion at the public expense.[315] Probably other Greek states
followed the Athenian custom. We know from an inscription that the
Panathenaic victors in the stade-race received 50 amphoræ of oil, the
pancratiast 40, and others 30.[316] Later, in Rome, victors had special
privileges granted them, including maintenance at the public expense,
a privilege which Mæcenas advised the emperor Augustus to limit to
victors at Olympia, Delphi, and Rome.[317] Augustus in other ways
enlarged the privileges of athletes.[318] When we consider the intimate
connection between religion and athletics and the Panhellenic fame of a
victor at the great games, we can easily understand the indignation of
the native town when its athletes did anything dishonorable. Sometimes
a victor was bribed to appear as the citizen of some other state. Thus
Astylos of Kroton, who won in running races in Ols. 73-76 (= 488-476
B. C.), had himself proclaimed in his last two contests a Syracusan to
please King Hiero. The citizens of his native town burned his house and
pulled down his statue, which had been placed there in the temple of
Hera.[319] The Cretan Sotades, who won the long running race in Ol. 99
(= 384 B. C.), was bribed at the next Olympiad by the city of Ephesos
to proclaim himself an Ephesian, and was in consequence exiled.[320]
Dikon, a victor in running races at the beginning of the fourth century
B. C., proclaimed himself first a citizen of Kaulonia, but later,
“for a sum of money,” entered the men’s contest as a Syracusan.[321]
Sometimes such attempts at bribery proved unsuccessful. Thus the
father of the boy boxer Antipatros of Miletos, who won in Ol. 98 (=
388 B. C.), accepted a bribe from some Syracusans, who were bringing
an offering to Olympia from Dionysios, to let the boy be proclaimed
a Syracusan. But the boy himself refused the bribe and had inscribed
on his statue by the younger Polykleitos that he was a Milesian, the
first Ionian to dedicate a statue at Olympia.[322] The Spartan chariot
victor Lichas has already been mentioned as having entered his chariot
in the name of Thebes. The reason was that at the time the Spartans
were excluded from entering the games at Olympia. He won, and in his
excitement tied a ribbon on his charioteer with his own hands, thereby
showing that the horses belonged to him and not to Thebes. For this
infraction of the rules he, though an aged man, was punished by the
umpires by scourging.[323] A more disgraceful act was selling out, of
which we have two examples at Olympia. The Thessalian Eupolos bribed
his three adversaries in boxing to let him win. All four were fined
and from the money six bronze statues of Zeus, known as _Zanes_, were
erected at the entrance to the stadion, inscribed with elegiac verses
which warned future athletes against repeating such attempts.[324]
More than fifty years later Kallippos, a pentathlete of Athens, bribed
his opponents and, being detected, all were fined and from the money,
finally collected from the recalcitrant Athenians through the influence
of the oracle at Delphi, six more _Zanes_ were erected.[325] Straton
(or Stratonikos), of Alexandria, won in wrestling and the pankration on
the same day in Ol. 178 (= 68 B. C.). In the wrestling match he had two
adversaries, Eudelos and Philostratos of Rhodes. The latter had bribed
Eudelos to sell out and, being detected, had to pay a fine. Out of this
money another _Zan_ was set up and still another at the cost of the
Rhodians.[326] In Ol. 192 (= 12 B. C.) and in Ol. 226 (= 125 A. D.), we
hear of fines for such corruption out of which additional _Zanes_ were
erected.[327] In Ol. 201 (= 25 A. D.) Sarapion, a pancratiast from
Alexandria, became so afraid of his antagonist that he fled the day
before the contest and was fined—the only case recorded of an athlete
being fined for cowardice at Olympia.[328] In Ol. 218 (= 93 A. D.)
another Alexandrine, named Apollonios, was fined for arriving too late
for the games at Olympia. His excuse of being detained by winds was
found to be false, and it was discovered that he had been making money
on the games in Ionia.[329]
Cases of bribery were known at other games. A third-century B. C.
inscription from Epidauros records how three athletes were fined one
thousand staters each διὰ τὸ φθείρειν τοὺς ἀγῶνας.[330] The venality of
Isthmian victors is shown by the account of a competitor who promised
a rival three thousand drachmæ to let him win and then, on winning on
his merits, refused to pay, though the defeated contestant swore on
the altar of Poseidon that he had been promised the amount.[331] The
emperor Nero, in order to win in singing at the Isthmus, had to resort
to force. A certain Epeirote singer refused to withdraw unless he
received ten talents. Nero, to save himself from defeat, sent a band of
men who pummelled his antagonist so that he could not sing.[332]
Often the home-coming of a victor at one of the national games was the
occasion for a public celebration. Sometimes the whole city turned
out to meet the hero.[333] The victory was recorded on pillars, and
poets composed songs in its honor which were sung by choruses of
girls and boys. Sometimes a statue was set up in the agora or on the
Akropolis. In the cities of Magna Græcia and Sicily such adulation
of Olympic victors became at times very extravagant. Thus Exainetos
of Akragas, who won the stade-race in Ols. 91 and 92 (= 416-412 B.
C.), was brought into the city in a four-horse chariot drawn by his
fellow-citizens, and was escorted by 300 men in two-horse chariots
drawn by white horses.[334] It is also in the West that we first hear
of victors being worshipped as heroes or gods, though the custom soon
took root in Greece. It was but natural to account for the great
strength of famous athletes by assigning to them divine origin and by
worshipping them after death.[335] Philippos of Kroton, who won in an
unknown contest about Ol. 65 (= 520 B. C.), had a _heroön_ erected in
his honor by the people of Egesta in Sicily on account of his beauty,
in which he surpassed all his contemporaries, and he was worshipped
after his death as a hero.[336] The famous boxer Euthymos of Lokroi
Epizephyrioi, who won in Ols. 74, 76, 77 (= 484, 476, 472 B. C.), was
worshipped even before his death and was looked upon as the son of no
earthly father, but of the river-god Kaikinos.[337] Fabulous feats
were ascribed to him, _e. g._, the expulsion of the Black Spirit from
Temessa.[338] During and after his lifetime sacrifices were offered
in his honor.[339] The equally famed boxer and pancratiast Theagenes
of Thasos, the opponent of Euthymos, who won in Ols. 75 and 76 (=
480 and 476 B. C.), was heroized after his death.[340] The Thasians
maintained that his father was Herakles.[341] The boxer Kleomedes of
Astypalaia, who won in Ol. 71 (= 496 B. C.), was honored as a hero
after death.[342] Having killed Ikkos, his opponent, he became crazed
with grief. Pausanias recounts his curious death.[343] The worship of
such athletes was supposed to bestow physical strength on their adorers
and consequently statues were erected to them in many places and were
thought to be able to cure illnesses.[344] The life of a successful
athlete was looked upon as especially happy. In Aristophanes’ _Plutus_,
Hermes deserts the gods and serves Plutus “the presider over contests,”
thinking no service more profitable to the god of wealth than holding
contests in music and athletics.[345] Plato thought an Olympic victor’s
life was the most blessed of all from a material point of view.[346]
In the myth of Er the soul of Atalanta chooses the body of an athlete,
on seeing “the great rewards bestowed on an athlete.”[347] The great
Rhodian pancratiast Dorieus, who won in Ols. 87, 88, 89 (= 432-424
B. C.), was taken prisoner by Athens during the Peloponnesian war,
but was freed because of his exploits at Olympia.[348] The honor in
which a victor was held may also be judged by the story of the Spartan
ephor Cheilon, who died of joy while embracing his victorious son
Damagetos.[349] To quote from Ernest Gardner: “The extraordinary,
almost super-human honours paid to the victors at the great national
contests made them a theme for the sculptor hardly less noble than
gods and heroes, and more adapted for the display of his skill,
as trained by the observation of those exercises which led to the
victory.”[350] Some of the greatest artists were employed, and great
poets from Simonides of Keos down, including such names as Bacchylides
and Pindar, were employed in singing their praises. Although it must
be confessed that the majority of the artists of victor statues at
Olympia are little known or wholly unknown masters, Pausanias mentions
among them such renowned names as Hagelaïdas, Pythagoras, Kalamis,
Myron, Polykleitos, Lysippos, and possibly Pheidias. Certain other
great names, however, are absent from his lists, _e. g._, Euphranor,
Kresilas, Praxiteles, and Skopas. Such extravagant reverence of Olympic
and other victors as we have outlined met, of course, with violent
protests all through Greek history, just as the excessive popularity
of athletics has in our time. The philosopher Xenophanes of Kolophon,
who died 480 B. C., was scandalized at the offering of divine honors
to athletes.[351] While he denounced the popularity of athletics,
Euripides later denounced the professionalism which had begun to creep
in after the middle of the fifth century B. C.[352] Plato, though a
strong advocate of practical physical training for war, was opposed
to the vain spirit of competition in the athletics of his day. He
complained that professional athletes paid excessive attention to diet,
slept their lives away, and were in danger of becoming brutalized.[353]
The last attack on professional athletics in point of time was made
in the second century A. D. by Galen, in his _Exhortation to the
Arts_.[354] In this essay the eminent physician contended that the
athlete was a benefit neither to himself nor to the state. When we
study the brutal portraits of prize-fighters on the contemporary
mosaics of the Baths of Caracalla at Rome, we can see to what depths
the old athletic ideal had sunk, and the justness of his rebuke.[355]
VOTIVE CHARACTER OF VICTOR DEDICATIONS.
That chariot and hippic monuments were votive in character can
scarcely be doubted. Pausanias distinguishes between gymnic victors
and equestrian ones.[356] All authorities agree that equestrian
monuments were different in origin and character from those of other
victors.[357] Gardiner believes that if the Olympic games developed
out of a single event, it was not the stade-race, but the chariot-race
or heavy-armed-race. He shows that the custom of making the stade
runner eponymous for the Olympiad is not earlier than the third century
B. C., and did not arise from the importance of that event, but from
the accident of its coming first on the program and first on the list
of victors.[358] Equestrian monuments were dedicated at Olympia all
through antiquity, from the sixth century B. C. to the second A. D. The
oldest was that of the Spartan Euagoras already mentioned, who won in
the chariot-race three times in Ols. (?) 58-60 (= 548-540 B. C.).[359]
The latest dated example is that of L. Minicius Natalis of Rome, who
won in Ol. 227 (= 129 A .D.).[360] Some of the inscriptions pertaining
to equestrian groups are in verse,[361] while others are in prose.[362]
Most of them have the usual dedicatory word ἀνέθηκε,[363] or the
formula Διὶ Ὀλυμπίῳ,[364] while others have the word ἔστησε[365] and a
few have no dedicatory word at all.[366]
The question arises, then, whether ordinary victor monuments in the
Altis were votive in the sense that these equestrian ones were, or
merely honors granted to the victors. The crown of wild olive was
merely a temporary reward suiting the occasion of the victory. The
privilege of setting up a statue was granted in order to perpetuate
the fame of that occasion. In a well-known passage Pausanias makes a
sweeping generalization about monuments at Athens and Olympia.[367] He
says that all objects on the Akropolis—including statues—were ἀναθήματα
or votive offerings, while some of those at Olympia were dedicated to
the god, but that the statues of athletes were mere prizes of victory.
In another passage[368] also, in distinguishing the various sorts of
monuments at Olympia, he expressly says that the statues of athletes
were not devoted to Zeus, but were marks of honor (ἐν ἄθλου λόγῳ)
bestowed on the victors. These statements of the Periegete have given
rise to a good deal of fruitless discussion. Furtwaengler follows
Pausanias in saying that the right of setting up statues was _ein
wesentlicher Theil des Siegespreises_.[369] That such erections at
Olympia were considered as high honors is implied by the wording of
many of the inscriptions which have been recovered from the bases of
the statues. Thus on that of the boxer Euthymos are the words εἰκόνα
δ’ ἔστησεν τήνδε βροτοῖς ἐσορᾶν.[370] Furtwaengler, therefore, has
promulgated the theory that the victor statues at Olympia were in no
sense votive, though they were considered to be the property of the god
in whose grove they stood. He cites the fact that the inscribed bases
of such monuments down to the first century B. C., with the exception
of a few metrical epigrams, make no mention of dedications, and that in
these exceptions the word ἀνέθηκε was added for metrical reasons,[371]
while during the same centuries regular votive offerings (ἀναθῆματα)
invariably have the word ἀνέθηκε.[372] One inscription, that from the
base of the statue of Euthymos of Lokroi, is both metrical and in
prose;[373] but it seems to have been changed later in two places, the
second line originally ending in a pentameter, and the third line, with
ἀνέθηκε, being added afterwards.[374] Also the prose inscription[375]
referred by Roehl to the statue of the wrestler Milo is rejected
by Dittenberger. The oldest prose inscription which makes a votive
offering out of a victor statue at Olympia is that of Thaliarchos,
who won his second victory in boxing some time between 40 and 30 B.
C.[376] Then follow certain prose inscriptions of imperial times.[377]
Dittenberger concludes that for four hundred years there is no case
of such a dedication.[378] From the evidence of the inscriptions
from statue bases, therefore, it is clear that the distinction made
by Pausanias between honor and victor statues did not hold good
in his day, since the words ἀνάθημα and ἀνέθηκε were then used on
victor monuments at Olympia, as the inscriptions of the imperial age
just cited show, but that it did hold good for centuries before the
Roman period. Pausanias must have based his statement, therefore,
not on observation, but on the words of some earlier writer.[379]
Furtwaengler’s reasoning has been followed pretty generally by
archæologists.[380] While some, however, leave the question in
doubt,[381] others are opposed to the idea that these statues were not
votive. Thus R. Schoell believes that the victor monuments were as
truly ἀναθήματα as the olive crowns.[382] Reisch, who has discussed the
question at length,[383] believes, in opposition to the earlier view of
Furtwaengler, that everything within the Altis must always _ipso facto_
have been regarded as dedications to the god. This would explain the
frequent omission of the name of the god, which would be superfluous,
the victor being content with inscribing his own name and the contest
in which he was victorious. Even the name of the contest does not
always appear.[384] Reisch explains the omission of the formula ἀνέθηκε
in earlier inscriptions on the ground of epigrammatic brevity.[385]
The truth must lie somewhere between the extremes represented by
the views of Furtwaengler and Reisch. Some athlete statues may have
been votive, while others were not. Thus Rouse argues[386] that
originally all victor statues at Olympia were as truly votive as
equestrian groups, and as truly as those athlete statues continued to
be, which were dedicated in the victors’ native towns. Those inscribed
with ἀνέθηκε at Olympia must have been votive, for we should take
the dedicator at his word, instead of believing the formula to be
added merely to make the verse scan.[387] There is no reason why an
athlete should not dedicate a statue of himself, representing himself
as forever standing in the presence of the god, as well as a diskos
or jumping-weights; for it was customary to make votive offerings
representative of the events, and this could be done best by presenting
the athlete in a statue which showed the characteristic attitude or the
appropriate attributes. Rouse furthermore believes that a change was
slowly wrought in the course of centuries, by which the original votive
offering became a means of self-glorification. Equestrian victors owed
their victories not to themselves, but to their horses, cars, drivers,
and jockeys; in such cases the group was a thing apart from the owner.
Only seldom did such victors dedicate statues of themselves alone. Even
when the victor added a statue of himself to the group, still it was
the chariot and not the statue which was emphasized.[388] On the other
hand the ordinary gymnic victor relied on himself—on his strength,
endurance, courage, and other qualities; and in representing the
contest the victor himself had to be represented. Consequently, by the
fifth century B. C., if not earlier, the statues of athletes had become
memorials of personal glory.
MISCELLANEOUS MEMORIALS TO VICTORS.
A statue was not the only memorial erected in honor of an Olympic
victor, though it was by far the commonest. We have already mentioned
the bronze inscribed diskos dedicated by the pentathlete P. Asklepiades
in the third century A. D.[389] A green stone leaping-weight inscribed
with the name Κῳδίας appears to have been dedicated by a victor.[390]
In two cases stelæ were set up in honor of victors.[391] A curious
dedication was a bronze chapel, which the Sikyonian tyrant Myron
dedicated to Apollo at Olympia.[392] In later days it became part of
the treasury of the Sikyonians.[393] Outside Olympia various monuments
commemorating Olympic victors were set up. These will be discussed in
Chapter VIII.
HONORARY STATUES.
At Olympia, as elsewhere in Greece, statues were set up to men
_honoris causa_. Such statues would be dedicated by admirers, either
individuals or states. They were in no sense intended to honor the god,
though at Olympia they might be classed as ἀναθήματα, just as victor
statues, merely because they were erected in the sacred precinct. They
were granted to individuals not as a privilege, as victor statues
were, but as free gifts. Dio Chrysostom gives the difference between
victor statues—which he classes as ἀναθήματα—and such honor statues
in these words: ταῦτα (_i. e._, victor statues) γάρ ἐστιν ἀναθήματα·
αἱ δ’ εἰκόνες τιμαί· κἀκεῖνα (victor statues) δέδοται τοῖς θεοῖς,
ταῦτα δὲ (honor statues) τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀνδράσιν οἵπερ εἰσὶν ἔγγιστα
αὐτῶν.[394] Pliny records that the Athenians inaugurated the custom
of a state setting up statues in honor of men at the public expense
with the statues of the tyrannicides Harmodios and Aristogeiton by the
sculptor Antenor, which were erected in 509 B. C., the year in which
the tyrants were expelled.[395] He adds that a “refined ambition” led
to a universal adoption of the custom and that statues began to adorn
public places everywhere and later on even private houses. The custom
grew apace in the later history of Greece. Demetrios of Phaleron is
said to have had over three hundred statues erected in his honor during
his short régime of about a year in Athens. The Diadochoi and the Roman
emperors enthusiastically took over the custom. Pliny gives several
Roman examples of it.[396]