HOPLITODROMOI. 205 
the contest often had a semi-comic character, the variations in running 
being used to amuse the spectators. ‘Thus the shield might be dropped 
and picked up again,! or it might be held in a peculiar manner.2. This 
comic element is brought out in the Aves of. Aristophanes, in a scene in 

Fic. 41.—Hoplitodromes. Scenes from a r.-f. Kylix. Museum of Berlin. 
1See Gardiner, p. 291 and J. H.S.,/.c., pp. 284 f. Perhaps this is the explanation of a kylix 
in Berlin (no. 4039), reproduced by Furtwaengler in Samml. Sabouroff, I, Pl. LIII. 
2F. g..onar.-f. kylixin Munich (no. 1240); J. H.S.,/.c., p. 284, fig. 11; Gardiner, p. 292, fig. 59. 
This painting represents a palestra scene, as is shown by the sponges on the wall. 
