discs were thrown. The quoit-player, first of all, took a firm stand, and while he measured the space over which he had to throw his disc, he held it in his left hand in order not to tire the right too soon; this is the position in which we see the standing “Discobolus” in the Vatican, represented in Fig. 123. The attitude adopted when actually throwing is best given by the Discobolus of Myron, which has come down to us in several copies, and which is thus described by Lucian: “He is stooping down to take aim, (his body) turned in the direction of the hand which holds the quoit, one knee slightly bent, as though he meant to vary his posture and rise with the throw.” The thrower, therefore, bent his whole body somewhat in the moment when he threw back the right hand with the disc, in order to give it the necessary impulse, pressing his left leg firmly on the ground, and digging his toes into the sand, at the same time bending the right knee in order to give the disc increased power by springing up from his bent position at the moment of throwing. In this attitude the position of the head followed the whole direction of the body with a slight inclination to the right (the left of the spectator), as we may learn from the best copies preserved to us of Myron’s Discobolus, a statue in the Palazzo Massimi, at Rome, and a bronze statuette at Munich; the downward bending of the head, in the Vatican copy, represented in Fig. 124, and on the other replicas of the statue, is due to a mistake in restoration. We may also assume with some certainty that they did not remain on the same spot at the moment of throwing, but had space enough to run a little way forward, as is done even now in playing skittles--a game which differs but little from quoit-playing--for the force of the throw would be checked by remaining in one place. Thus the bronze statue, Fig. 125 (though this is sometimes interpreted as a wrestler running to the attack), shows the disc thrower running forward a few steps, the upper part of his body bent forwards, and trying to follow the result of his throw. Probably the little elevation from which, according to the ancient writers, the thrower hurled the quoit, supplied the necessary space for this forward movement, and the extreme edge of this elevation (βαλβίς) was also the limit which, in case of a contest prevented any from running further than others, or throwing their discus from a nearer point, so that the conditions of the contest might be alike for all. The umpires, or superintendents, carefully marked, by lines or some other means, the place to which each combatant threw his disc, and he whose quoit flew the farthest was the victor.