6 EARLY GREEK GAMES AND PRIZES. 
the favorite gymnastic contest of the Cretans, as it always was of the 
later Greeks. Boxing scenes appear on seals,' on a steatite fragment 
of a pyxis found in 1901 at Knossos and, in conjunction with a bull- 
grappling scene, on the so-called Boxer 
Vase found by the Italians at Hagia Tri- 
ada (Fig. 1). ‘The vase is a cone-shaped 
rhyton of steatite, 18 inches high, origi- 
nally overlaid with gold foil. It belongs 
to the best period of Cretan art, late 
Minoan I.2. This vase alone, if no other 
monumental evidence were at hand, would 
suffice to show the physical prowess and 
love of sport of the Minoans. Because 
of its scenes of boxing and bull-grappling 
Mosso calls it “‘ the most complete monu- 
ment that we have of gymnastic exercise 
in the Mediterranean civilization.”? ‘The 
later Greek tradition of the high degree 
of physical development attained by the 
Cretans is proved by this monument.* 
The reliefs are arranged in four horizon- 
tal zones.» One of these, the second from 
the top, represents a bull- grappling scene, 
showing two racing bulls, upon the head 
and horns of one of which a gymnast has_ Fic. 1.—So-called Boxer Bie 
vaulted (not being tossed and helpless, fen Hagia I'riada (Cast). 
as most interpreters think).® The other useum of Cae: 

1F. g., on one found at Knossos in 1903: B. S. 4., 1X, 1902-3, p. 57, and fig. 35 on p. 56. Here 
the attitude of the boxer is almost identical with that on the pyxis to be described below. A fuller 
design of the same sort may be seen ona seal from Hagia Triada mentioned in B. S. 4., |X, p. 57, n. 2. 
2Hall, 4egean Archeology, p. 33 (c. 1600 B. C.); for description, zbid., pp. 61-2. 
30. cit. p. 211. In this respect it should be compared with the relief on the archaic (sixth- 
century B.C.) Attic tripod vase from Tanagra, now in Berlin, which shows scenes of boxing, 
wrestling, and running: 4. Z., III, 1881, pp. 30 f. and Pls. III, IV. . 
4P., V, 8. 1, says Klymenos came from Crete fifty years after Deukalion’s flood and held games 
at Olympia! cf. VI, 21.6. Aristotle assigns the whole political and educational Be of 
Sparta toa Cretan origin: Politics, II, 10f., 1271b., f. 
5See R. Paribeni, Rendiconti della R. Add. det Lineal: XII, 1903, Fai 70; p. 1729 Fe Hattie; 
tbid., XIV, 1905, pp. 365 f., fig. 1; Burrows, op. cit., Pl. 1; Aissee: op. cit., p. 212, fig. 93; Hall, 
Bete Archaeology, P\. XVI ane cast in Museum of Cana whence our plate); cf. ide Anc. 
Hist. Near East, Pl. 1V., 5. A copy is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York: see Hbk. of 
Classical Collection, p. 16, fig. 8. 
6Detail of zone, Mosso, p. 213, fig.94. The acrobat wears just such striped hanes and peeked 
as the man and women on the fresco from Knossos. The man binding the legs of the bull on the 
Vapheio cup wears similar apparel. Similar scenes of gymnasts vaulting over a bull’s back are 
seen on the seal of a bracelet found at Knossos in 1902: B. S. 4., VIII, 1901-2, p. 18, fig. 43; 
Mosso, p. 214, fig. 95a; also on the intaglio of a ring in Athens: Mosso, p. 215, fig. 95b. Scenes of 
gymnasts with bulls at rest are common on seal impressions: ¢. g., on one from Mycenz in Athens, 
Mosso, p. 217, fig. 97; on the one in Candia already mentioned, ibid., fig. 98; cf. Bosanquet, Exca- 
vations at Praisos, B. S. 4., VIII, p. 252, who believes the bull has been surprised by a hunter. 
