SPORTS IN CRETE. 3 
along with one foot lightly touching the bull’s back and the other 
swung aloft. Most early writers interpreted this scene as a bull-hunt, 
the artist having drawn the hunter above the bull through igno- 
rance of perspective. ‘lhe execution is very inferior, three attempts 
of the bungling painter being visible in the painting of the tail and 
the front legs. Others saw in it the representation of an acrobat 
showing his dexterity by leaping upon the back of an animal in full 
career, recalling the jescription of such a trick mm the iad where Ajax 
is represented as rushing over the plain like a man who, while driving 
four horses, leaps from horse to horse.’ But this figure must take its 
place side by side with the one from Knossos just described as another 
fe eeePP INE scene. That such sports were not held in the open air, 
but in an enclosed courtyard, is shown by the seal from Praisos now in 
the Candia Museum, which depicts a man vaulting on the back of a 
gigantic ox within a paved enclosure.” Doubtless the theatral areas 
discovered at Phaistos by the Italian Archeological Mission? and at 
Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans in 1903* were not large enough for bull 
scenes and were used merely for ceremonial dancing and perhaps for 
the boxing matches to be described.® Similar acrobats are doubtless 
to be recognized in the two beautiful ivory statuettes, only 11.5 
inches in height, of so-called leapers, found by Dr. Evans at Knossos 
in 1901.° ~ These masterpieces of the late Minoan II period represent 
acrobats (one is probably a woman) darting through the air. “The 
life, the freedom, the élan of these figures is nothing short of marvel- 
lous,’ writes Dr. Evans, who calls attention to the careful physical 
training shown in their slender legs and in the muscles, even the veins 
on the back of the hands and the finger-nails being plainly indicated 
as well as the details of the skinfolds at the joints. They doubtless 
formed a part of an ivory model of the bull-ring and are meant for 
miniature toreadors, who were hung in the air by fine gold wires’ over 
the backs of ivory bulls who stood on the solid ground. ‘The heads of 
the figures are thrown backwards, a posture suitable for such vaulters, 
but not for leapers or divers. Minoan art culminated in these statu- 
ettes and in certain stucco figures in half relief found also at Knossos. 
Only a few fragments of these reliefs have survived, most of which were 
decorative or architectonic in character, though among them were also 

1XV, 679 f. F. Marx, Jb., IV, 1889, pp. 119 f., on the analogy to certain coin types, saw 
in this fresco a representation of river divinities. 
2Mosso, op. cit., p. 298, fig. 98. 3See Mosso, p. 311, fig. 153. 
4Here the paved space measures only about 30 by 40 feet and the two tiers of seats would seat 
only 400 to 500 spectators: B. S. 4., 1X, 1902-03, p. 105, fig. 69; see Mosso, p. 315,, fig. 154, - 
and Baikie, The Sea Kings of Crete, 1913, Pls. XXI (before restoration), XXII (restored). 
5See Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete, 1907, p.5. The one at Knossos may be the ““choros” 
wrought by Daidalos for Ariadne: Iliad, XVIII, 590-2. 
6B. S. A., VIII, 1901-2, pp. 72-4, fig. 39 (arm); Pls. H, HI; Baikie, op. cit., Piiek loys. biwice 
Hall, Aegean Archeology, Pl. XXX, 2; Mosso, op. cit., p. 222, fig. 102; cf. Burrows, op. cit., p. 21; 
Bulle, p. 49, fig. 7; Springer-Michaelis, p. 103, fig. 228. 
7Remains of copper wire with gold foil twisted around it still adhere to the head of one statuette. 
4” 
