[Illustration: Fig. 83. Bronze statuette. New York.] A totally distinct stance is represented by a fine bronze in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Fig. 83). The thrower stands with the right foot forward and the diskos raised in the left hand level with the head. A similar type occurs on several vases, the best of which is a red-figured krater in the Ashmolean at Oxford.[584] From this position the diskos is raised above the head in both hands. This moment is represented in a bronze in the National Museum at Athens.[585] The thumb of the left hand is turned inwards on the inside of the diskos, whereas on the vases it is usually on the outside. The thumb could not be on the inside if the diskos was swung upwards in the manner first described. There can therefore be no doubt that we have here a totally distinct style. A British Museum bronze (Fig. 84) carries the movement a little further and shows the moment of transition to the downward swing. The diskos, instead of being upright, lies flat on the palm of the right hand, while the left hand only touches it lightly and is on the point of letting go. Here, too, the thumb is on the inside. In all these bronzes the right leg is advanced, and it seems probable, therefore, that there has been no movement of the feet. [Illustration: Fig. 84. Bronze diskobolos, in British Museum, 675.] (_b_) _The Backward Swing._—At this point the left hand releases its hold and the diskos is swung back in the right hand. If the right foot is in front, no change of feet is necessary; if the left is in front, either the left must be drawn back or the right foot advanced. The body, which at the end of the swing forward was upright or inclined backwards, is bent first forwards and then sideways, the head following the movements of the body. The diskos is held flat in the hand and the hand turned outwards till it passes the body. We have already seen several representations of the early part of the swing. The later part is finely represented on a red-figured kylix in the Louvre (Fig. 85), and a fragment of an alabastron at Würzburg shows an interesting back view of the same movement. [Illustration: Fig. 85. R.-f. kylix. Louvre.]