Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art — John Shaqi
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
The foot-race between Ajax, the son of Oileus, and Odysseus
follows. Of the last four events, three—the single combat between
Ajax and Diomedes, the throwing of the _solos_, and the contest in
archery—are admitted to be late additions. The last event of all, the
casting of the spear, may be earlier, but we know little about it,
as the contest did not take place, Achilles yielding the first prize
to Agamemnon. Most of these later events are described in a lifeless
manner and have not the vim and compelling interest of the earlier
ones. Indeed the contest in archery seems to be treated with a certain
amount of ridicule, which shows the contempt of the great nobles for
so plebeian a sport. The armed contest, though it is pictured in
art certainly as early as the sixth century B. C.,[38] never had a
place in the later Greek games.[39] Jumping, an important part of the
later pentathlon, is mentioned but once in the poems, as a feature of
the sports of the Phaiakians. But the later pentathlon, as Gardiner
says, is certainly not suggested in Homer’s account, though many have
assumed it,[40] merely because Nestor mentions his former contests at
Bouprasion in boxing, in running, in hurling the spear, and in the
chariot-race.[41] This, however, is not the combination of contests
known much later as the pentathlon, in which the same contestants
had to compete in the series of events—running, jumping, wrestling,
diskos-throwing, and javelin-throwing.
ORIGIN OF GREEK GAMES IN THE CULT OF THE DEAD.
In these games described in the Iliad we see an example of the origin
of the later athletic festivals in the cult of the dead. Homer knows
only of funeral games[42] and there is no trace in the poems of the
later athletic meetings held in honor of a god.[43] However, the
association of the later games with religious festivals held at stated
times can be traced to the games with which the funeral of the Homeric
chief was celebrated. The oldest example of periodic funeral games in
Greece of which we have knowledge were those held in Arkadia in honor
of the dead Azan, the father of Kleitor and son of Arkas, at which
prizes were offered at least for horse-racing.[44]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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