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
In a previous section we discussed the _apobates_ chariot-race run at
the Panathenaic games in Athens, in which the _apobates_ leaped down
and ran to the goal abreast of the chariot. We shall now briefly speak
of a similar race at Olympia (the κάλπη) in which the rider leaped
from his mare in the last lap and ran with her to the goal.[1991]
There is no certain illustration in sculpture or on vase-paintings of
this race, but Gardiner believes that something like it appears on
coins of Tarentum, on which a nude youth, armed with a small round
shield, is represented in the act of jumping from his horse.[1992]
The military character of this race, like that of the _apobates_
chariot-race discussed, is shown by the shield held in the left hand of
the dismounting horseman. Helbig has shown that the Greek knight of the
sixth century B. C. was merely a mounted infantryman, the successor of
the Homeric warrior who used his chariot merely for pursuit or flight,
while actually fighting from the ground.[1993] Just so the knight rode
to battle on his horse, but dismounted when near the enemy, leaving
the horse in charge of his squire, as the Homeric chieftain left his
chariot in charge of his charioteer. This old custom of the heroic age
survived not only in the Panathenaic chariot-race, but also, for a few
years in the fifth century B. C., in the Olympic mare-race known as
the κάλπη. It seems to have been instituted there for military reasons
in order to revive the old form of fighting that had gone out of use
just at the close of the sixth century B. C., but it endured for only a
half century, from Ols. 71 to 84 (= 496 to 444 B. C.). The corresponding
chariot-race at Athens and elsewhere continued at least to the end of
the fourth century B. C.
DEDICATIONS OF MUSICAL VICTORS AT OLYMPIA AND ELSEWHERE.
In closing this chapter we shall say a few words about monuments
erected to trumpeters, heralds, and musical victors at Olympia, though
such contests had nothing to do with athletics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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