. Discovery. Science. 100 DISCOVERY figures and the varietj' of their attitudes show at once the vigour and the capacity for experiment which was so characteristic of the Ionian art of Attica at this period. The back view and the foreshortened drawing of the feet of the captain of the team on the right provide us with one of the earUest examples in sculpture of this artistic initiative which was so characteristic of the period. It may be objected that Pollux was hardly in a position to know anything about the games that had been played in Athens in the days of Peisistratus. But it must be reme
. Discovery. Science. 100 DISCOVERY figures and the varietj' of their attitudes show at once the vigour and the capacity for experiment which was so characteristic of the Ionian art of Attica at this period. The back view and the foreshortened drawing of the feet of the captain of the team on the right provide us with one of the earUest examples in sculpture of this artistic initiative which was so characteristic of the period. It may be objected that Pollux was hardly in a position to know anything about the games that had been played in Athens in the days of Peisistratus. But it must be remembered that games die hard : the urchins of Rome still play the games that were in vogue in Imperial times. There was, further, something in the nature of a revival of the old university life of Athens painted wand, and it is difficult to see how, if pamted, it could have been rendered, since the surface of the marble is broken by the two projecting arms of the two figures so that it would be impossible to paint a straight line upon it. The attitude in detail of the two central players is curious. Each holds his stick by a grip well up the shaft and not at the end. The player on the right holds it in his right hand and places his left hand almost, but not quite, upon the butt of the stick. The other player uses his hands in the same way, but with the right hand as the playing hand. The ball lies between the two sticks as though in position for a " ; The game, to judge from the evidence of the relief alone, is one for tv\-o players and not for a team. The. Fig. 2.—THE ANCIENT ATHENIAN EQUIV.\I,ENT of HOCKEY. at the time that Pollux was there ; even if Episkyros had not been revived as a game, there would probably have been men who knew well enough what the game was. The relief which shows the so-called " Hockey- players " involves no serious problem of interpretation beyond that of the precise name and nature of the game, if one can be found. The scene
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