84 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VICTOR STATUES AT OLYMPIA. 
Its origin is ascribed to the Spartans and to others.!_ A special sort of 
ball-playing was known as ¢avivéa,” and this is described in a treatise 
by the physician Galen, of the second century A. D., in which he recom- 
mended ball-playing as one of the best exercises. Because of his 
ability in the art of ball-playing, Aristonikos of Karystos, the ball- 
player of Alexander the Great, received Athenian citizenship and was 
honored with a statue.4 The philosopher Ktesibios of Chalkis was 
fond of the game.° A special room, called the og@atprorhpiov, was a 
part of the later gymnasium.’ The game was specially indulged in 
at Sparta. Several inscriptions, mostly from the age of the Antonines, 
commemorate victories by teams of ball-players there.’ The name 
gpalpets was given to Spartan youths in the first year of manhood. 
These competitions took place in the Apduos at Sparta.’ ‘Though, 
then, we should naturally expect statues of ball-players, like the one in 
Athens of Aristonikos already mentioned, the calm mien of the Cerigotto 
bronze and the direction of the gaze are certainly, as Th. Reinach said 
earlier, against interpreting it as the statue of one engaged in so active 
a sport. Von Mach, because of its voluptuous appearance, thought it 
might represent merely a bon vivant. While Lechat interpreted it as 
possibly an athlete receiving a crown from Nike,*® Arvanitopoulos would 
have the right hand either hold a lekythion or be quite empty, and the 
left a strigil, thus restoring the statue as anapoxyomenos. S. Reinach 
would regard it merely as a funerary monument. 
In all this discrepancy of opinion it is not difficult to recognize 
elements of both god and mortal blended. ‘The resemblance in the 
expression and features of the face to those of the Praxitelean Hermes, 
even though superficial, as well as the pose of the right arm recall the 
god; the muscular build of the figure fits either the god Hermes, in 
his character of overseer of the sports of the palzstra, or an athlete. 
It therefore seems reasonable to see in this Hellenistic statue of varied 
artistic tendencies merely the representation of an athlete, perhaps of a 
pentathlete, who is holding a crown or possibly an apple as a prize of 
victory in the right hand, whose form and features have been assimi- 
lated to those of Hermes. 
How the statue of an indisputable Hermes Logios, on the other hand, 
appears, may be seenin the Hermes Ludovisi of the Museo delle ‘Terme, 
1Athen.5.1,25 (p. 141d; e). 2Athen., I, 25-26 (pp. 14 f, 15 a). 
3In his wept Tob dud opixpas ogaipas youvaciov. Cf. Sidon. Apoll., V, 17; Martial, IV, 19; etc. 
4Athen., I, 34 (p. 19 a). 
*Athen ,I, 26 (p.15); cf., Eustath., on Od., VI, 115, p. 1553; only the Milesians were opposed 
to it: id., on Od., VIII, 372, p. 1601. 
®Theophr., Char., V, 9; Pliny, Ep., II, 17.12 and V, 6.27; Suetonius, Vit. Vespas., 20; etc. 
7B.S. A., X, 1903-4, pp.'63 f ef: X11, 190526, pe 387: 
SThe ogacpets are mentioned in C.1.G.,1, 4, 1386, 1432; P., III, 14.6, mentions a statue of Hera- 
kles there, to which these youths sacrificed. Mueller, Die Dorier, 4, 5, § 2, classed these compe- 
titions as a sort of football. 
°Rev. des Et. gr., XIV, 1901, pp. 445-8. 
