Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic ArtHyde, Walter Woodburn
History
Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art
Hyde, Walter Woodburn
Olympics; Sculpture, Greek; Sports -- Greece
We see them on a
marble head, formerly in the possession of Fabretti.[1243]
THE SWOLLEN EAR.
We have lastly to speak of the swollen ear, which was an attribute of
victor statues, both primary and secondary, since it characterized
victors as such, and also early differentiated victors in various
contests. Swollen ears may have played a role as a characteristic
attribute of pugilists in early times.[1244] We found them on the
Rayet head in the Jacobsen collection (Fig. 22), which belongs to the
last quarter of the sixth century B. C. and comes from the funerary
statue of an athlete, probably a boxer. In course of time, however,
they came to characterize pancratiasts, wrestlers,[1245] and athletes
in general. The assumption, then, that heads with swollen ears come
from statues of boxers,[1246] and that the boxer was known throughout
Greek history as the “man with the crushed ear” is erroneous.[1247]
The earliest literary reference to the bruised ear is in Plato.[1248]
The philosopher used the term slightingly of those who imitated
Spartan customs, especially Spartan boxing. The Lacedæmonians never
boxed scientifically, but fought with bare fists and without rules.
Literary evidence, furthermore, shows that bruised ears did not play
the part in boxing matches which other bruised features of the face
did—the eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, and chin. Vase-paintings sustain this
evidence, for we often see bloody noses and cuts on the cheeks and
chin, but no crushed ears.[1249] In short, the crushed ear was merely
a professional characteristic, a realistic detail, common to athletes
of various sorts, and, as we shall see, to warriors, gods, and heroes.
To quote Homolle: “_La bouffissure des oreilles ellemême n’est pas un
trait personnel, mais un caractère professionnel; elle ne désigne pas
Agias, mais en général le lutteur. Cette déformation peut atteindre
même un dieu, s’il a pratiqué les exercices gymnastiques et passé sa
vie dans les luttes_”.[1250] It is found constantly on athletic types
of heads in sculpture, whether these represent gods or mortals. A few
examples will make this clear. The following heads of athletes show
the swollen ears: the bronze portrait head of a boxer or pancratiast
from Olympia, dating from the end of the fourth century B. C. or the
beginning of the third (Fig. 61 A and B);[1251] the marble head from
the statue of the boxer Philandridas set up among the victor statues
at Olympia, the work of Lysippos (Frontispiece and Fig. 69);[1252]
the head of the statue of the pancratiast Agias at Delphi (Pl. 28 and
Fig. 68) ;[1253] that of the _Seated Boxer_ in the Museo delle Terme
in Rome (Pl. 16 and Fig. 27);[1254] that of the _Apoxyomenos_ of the
Uffizi in Florence (Pl. 12);[1255] the bronze head from an athlete
statue found at Tarsos and now in Constantinople, an Attic work of
the end of the fifth century B. C.;[1256] the beautiful bronze head
of a boxer in the Glyptothek (Pl. 3);[1257] the head of the so-called
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