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
When we turn to the monuments which illustrate the horse-race, we find
as varied a number—vase-paintings, reliefs, coins, statuary, etc.—as in
the case of chariot victors.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.—Horse-Racer. From a Sixth-Century B. C. b.-f.
Panathenaic Vase. British Museum, London.]
Vase-paintings show that the jockey was generally nude and rode without
stirrups or saddle. We see nude long-haired jockeys on horseback with
whips pictured on a sixth-century B. C. Panathenaic amphora in the
British Museum.[1973] One also appears on a silver tetradrachm in
the same museum, which commemorates the Olympic victory of Philip II
of Macedonia.[1974] Here the victorious mounted jockey has a palm in
his hand, the symbol of his victory. On the other hand, the jockey is
sometimes represented as wearing a close-fitting short-sleeved chiton.
We see such a one on an archaic b.-f. Panathenaic vase of the sixth
century B. C. in the British Museum (Fig. 67).[1975] In front of the
mounted youth on this vase stands a herald in official robes, from
whose mouth issue the words “the horse of Dyneiketos is victorious.”
Behind the jockey is an attendant bearing a wreath in his left hand and
holding a prize tripod over his head. The short chiton also appears on
a horse-racer on the Amphiaraos vase.[1976] We see racing boys on a
proto-Corinthian lekythos in the museum at Taranto, with tripods as
prizes.[1977] A fine example of five nude horse-racers also appears on
a vase pictured in the Daremberg-Saglio Dictionary.[1978] Here one has
fallen from his horse and is being dragged by the bridle.
A boy on a galloping horse is shown on a terra-cotta relief from
Thera.[1979] On a funerary marble relief from Sicily, now in the Museo
Gregoriano, Rome, a rider is represented urging his horse on with
a whip.[1980] An Athenian relief shows victorious ephebes leading
horses,[1981] while another from Athens shows a mounted boy.[1982]
Horsemen representing Athenian knights appear on many slabs of the
Parthenon frieze,[1983] either mounted or standing by their horses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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