ATHLETICS IN HOMER. 7 
three represent boxers in all attitudes of the prize-ring, hitting, 
guarding, falling, and even kicking, as in the later Greek pankration. 
Some are victorious, the left arm being extended on guard and the 
right drawn back to strike; one (in the top zone) is ready to spring, 
just as Hector was ready to spring on Achilles;! others are prostrate 
on the ground with their feet in the air. The violence of the action 
recalls the boast of Epeios in the famous match in the Iliad that he 
will break his adversary’s bones.? 
The method of attack by the right arm and defense by the left is 
the same as that formerly used by English pugilists. In the topmost 
zone the combatants wear helmets with visors, cheek-pieces, and horse- 
hair plumes, and also shoes; in the third zone down the pugilists also 
wear helmets, though of a different pattern, while the bottom zone 
shows figures, perhaps youths, with bare heads. Some of the boxers 
appear to wear boxing-gloves. In the lowest zone we see the well-known 
feat of swinging the antagonist up by the legs and throwing him—if 
we may so conclude from the contorted position of the vanquished, 
whose legs are in the air. 
A similar figure appears in relief on the fragment of a pyxis found at 
Knossos. A youth with clenched fists stands with left arm extended 
_as if to ward off a blow, while his right arm is drawn back and rests on 
his hip; below we see the bent knee of a prostrate figure, evidently that 
of his vanquished opponent. The boxer has a_wasp-like waist and 
wears a metal girdle. His left leg is well modeled, the muscles not 
being exaggerated. Pere en ce ee 
ATHLETICS IN HOMER. 
We have evidence, therefore, that the love of sport existed in Crete as 
it has existed in all countries since. . But the comparatively unathletic 
character of the Aegean culture is shown by the complete absence of 
athletic representations—apart from bull-grappling scenes—in the art 
of its last phase at Mycenz and Tiryns on the mainland. ‘This is an 
independent argument for the view that the civilization of the main- 
land was chiefly the product of the old Mediterranean stock, which 
was finally conquered by the invading Achzans, who are represented 
in Homer as skilled gymnasts. In Homer we are immediately con- 
scious of being in another world, for here we are in an atmosphere of 
true athletics, which are fully developed and quite secular in char- — 
acter. They are, however, wholly spontaneous, for there are as yet 
neither meets nor organized training, neither stadia, gymnasia, nor 
palestra; for such an organization of athletics did not exist until the 
sixth century B. C. But Homer’s account of the funeral games of 


liad, XXII, 308 f. XXIII, 673. | 
3B. S. A., VII, 1900-1, fig. 31, pp. 95 and 96; copied by Gardiner, p. 10, fig. 1. 
4We should bear in mind that the civilization pictured in the Homeric poems antedates 1000 B.C. 
