68 ATHLETIC EXERCISES. \ 



The gymnastic exercises, so termed from their being ge- 



Gymnaftic ex ^ '^^'■^^^y P^^^'^' "^^^ in a state of nudity, constituted among 

 crcife*. that people an important pan of liberal education, and we're 



regularly taught by masters in schools instituted for that 

 FootRacei* express purpose. Pupils were exercised in the foot race » 

 and in the art of leaping, and of throwing the discus or 

 quoit, and the javelin. These were considered as. the 

 slighter species of exercise. The more serious consisted of 

 the art of wrestling and of boxing The combination of 

 Pancratium or *^®^® ^^'^ ^'^^ termed pancratmnif and seems to have been 

 Boxing, nearly equivalent to the modern English practice of box- 



ing. When it is considered that the man who obtained a 

 prize at the Olympic, the Pythian, or any of the public 

 games, where candidates resorted from all the different st&tes 

 of Greece to contend in these exercises, riot only acquired 

 a distinction highly gratifying to himself, but which reflected 

 honor on his family, and even on his country ; it may be 

 fairly inferred that every attention was paid to the previous 



Th« Candidates g^y^^jj^jj of the individuals, destined to excel in these ex- 

 " were previously 

 educated, exer- crtions of muscular strength. Of the particular diet, and 



cisedandtained kinds of exercise in use among the Greeks previous to the 

 solemn contest at the public games, I have not been fortu- 

 nate enough to find any detailed account. Pausanias men- 

 tions that ten months previous to the solemn combat, the" 

 candidates took an oath in the temple of Jupiter, faithfully 

 to comply with all the antient laws and usages of the cham- 

 pions, and from that time till the period of the solemnity 

 they were daily and diligently exercised in whatever was 

 requisite ta produce excellence in the profession to which 

 they had devoted themselves. A proof that the means they 

 employed were admirably calculated to develope and im* 

 prove all the corporeal powers of the human animal, is af- 

 forded by the statues of antiquity. The superiority of the 

 Grecian sculpture, which the world has ever since attempted 

 in vain to rival, was doubtless in great measure owing to 

 the frequent opportunities the artists of those times enjoyed 

 of beholding the human body brought to the highest pitch 

 of perfection, which constant exercise in the open air, com-- 

 bined with appropriate regimen under a genial climate, had 

 ^ f natural tendency to produce. To 



