. Greek athletic sports and festivals . tathlon was one for distance only. On this point the evidence of the vases seems javelins are blunt, the head is turned backward just beforethe throw, and there is no sign of any target. The last point ^ Ceos, Sestos, Samos, Tralles, Larisa. Vide notes 21 and Ditt. Syll.^ ii. 670, 67L XVI THE JAVELIN IN THE PENTATHLON 355 is particularly convincing because in the competition on horse-back the target is always represented. Certain archaeologists,it is true, have discovered evidence of targets in the badly-drawn amenta held
. Greek athletic sports and festivals . tathlon was one for distance only. On this point the evidence of the vases seems javelins are blunt, the head is turned backward just beforethe throw, and there is no sign of any target. The last point ^ Ceos, Sestos, Samos, Tralles, Larisa. Vide notes 21 and Ditt. Syll.^ ii. 670, 67L XVI THE JAVELIN IN THE PENTATHLON 355 is particularly convincing because in the competition on horse-back the target is always represented. Certain archaeologists,it is true, have discovered evidence of targets in the badly-drawn amenta held in the hand of the javelin thrower onthe Panaetius kylix and other vases. These have been inter-preted as compasses for drawing circles on the ground at whichthe throwers aimed; or again as a sort of croquet-hoop stuckin the ground to serve as target! The authors of these delight-ful suggestions forget that the hunter or soldier does not aimat his opponents feet but at his body, and that if a target isused it is at a reasonable Fig. 105.— kylix. Berlin, 2728, The literary evidence agrees with that of the vases. Thepassages of Pindar referring to a mark, with the exception ofthe passage already quoted on the Olympic games, have nonecessary connexion with any competition, certainly none withthe pentathlon. They are metaphors borrowed from thepractice of everyday life. One passage in Pindar certainlyrefers to the pentathlon, two others possibly ; all three indicatea distance-throw.^ Lastly, Lucian, in a passage referring toOlympia and therefore to the pentathlon, definitely states thatin throwing the javelin athletes compete for distance.^ ^ Nem. vii. 70 ; Isthm. ii. 35 ; Pyth. i. 44.^ Lucian, Anacharsis, 27. 356 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS ch. xvi The conditions for throwing the javelin must have beensimilar to those for the diskos. The competitors threw frombehind a line which they were not allowed to overstep. Thisline was perhaps the starting-line of th
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