[Illustration: THE AGIAS OF LYSIPPUS (Delphi)] Greek Athletics _by_ F. A. Wright London Jonathan Cape Ltd FIRST PUBLISHED IN MCMXXV MADE & PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BUTLER & TANNER LTD FROME AND LONDON CONTENTS PREFACE 9 1. ATHLETICS AND ATHLETIC FESTIVALS 13 2. GYMNASTICS AND MILITARY TRAINING 28 3. PHYSICAL EDUCATION 61 4. HEALTH AND BODILY EXERCISE 83 5. GALEN’S TREATISE ON THE SMALL BALL 108 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 123 ILLUSTRATIONS THE AGIAS OF LYSIPPUS (_Delphi_) _Frontispiece_ THE WRESTLERS (_Uffizi Gallery, Florence_) 30 A WRESTLING CONTEST (_Athens_) 36 THE DISKOBOLOS OF MYRON 40 INDOOR SPORTS (_Athens_) 76 THE VICTORY OF PAIONIOS (_Olympia_) 104 THE THROW-IN AT THE SMALL BALL GAME (_Athens_) 110 A HOCKEY MATCH (_Statue base discovered at Athens_, 1922) 116 PREFACE In a previous volume[A] an attempt was made to set out the principles followed by the Greeks in the three sister arts of acting, music, and painting; and to show how in some respects we have failed to improve upon their practice. It is perhaps doubtful whether the mass of our countrymen will ever take a very deep interest in the laws that govern the right use of colour, sound, and gesture; and even if our inferiority in art were proved, it is probable that the position would be regarded with equanimity. But as regards athletics the case is different; and it is with some hesitation that in this book, after giving a brief account of Greek gymnastics and physical training, I have ventured to raise the question whether Greek systems of bodily culture were not in some ways superior to ours, and whether on the whole the Athenians of the fifth century B.C. were not a finer and a healthier people than are the Englishmen of to-day.