. Greek athletic sports and festivals . consists in lunging with thearms advanced as in boxing, or in alternately bending and •^ In Oribasms, vi. 14. 34, the passages from Antyllus and Galen are chapter of Oril)asius on exercises contains a variety of interesting quotationsfrom earlier medical writers. XIV THE JUMP—HALTERES AS DUMB-BELLS 311 straightening the trunk. The former strengthens the legs chiefly,the latter the back. Oral en adrl^ a variety of the latter exercisefor strengthening the side muscles of the body. The performerplaces the halteres 6 feet apart, and standing betwe
. Greek athletic sports and festivals . consists in lunging with thearms advanced as in boxing, or in alternately bending and •^ In Oribasms, vi. 14. 34, the passages from Antyllus and Galen are chapter of Oril)asius on exercises contains a variety of interesting quotationsfrom earlier medical writers. XIV THE JUMP—HALTERES AS DUMB-BELLS 311 straightening the trunk. The former strengthens the legs chiefly,the latter the back. Oral en adrl^ a variety of the latter exercisefor strengthening the side muscles of the body. The performerplaces the halteres 6 feet apart, and standing between thempicks up first the left-hand halter with his right hand, next theright-hand halter with his left, and then replaces them, repeatingthe movement. The prominence given to exercises for develop-ing the important muscles of the trunk is interesting, becausethe careful representation of these muscles in Greek sculptureand on vases shows that they were developed to a markeddegree by the athletic exercises of the Greeks. Wrestling,. Fig. to.—R,-f. oinochoe. British Museum, E. 561. jumping, and throwing the diskos all helped to develop thesemuscles. The absence of light clothing round the waistcontributed to the same result, and, above all, the fact thatthe Greek stood and walked, but seldom sat. In the presentday these muscles are the worst developed of all muscles in theordinary man, a result due partly to the character of our games,partly to our dlothing, chiefly to our habit of sitting, and sittingin a radically wrong position. It is to these causes that wemay ascribe the general absence in the modern figure of theroll of flesh above the iliac crest which is so prominent in allancient sculpture, and the difference in the form of the iliac line.^ ^ On this subject vide Ernst Briicke, The Human Figure, translated by WilliamAnderson, pp. 115 flf. 312 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS ch. xiv When were the halteres first used as dumb-bells ? We haveno -definite evidence,
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